Friday, December 19, 2008

5 Month Update

Well, it as been just over 5 months and Addie is still doing amazingly well. She still has energy and playfulness. Her Kong Wooba is her newest and greatest toy. She loves that thing! I had to go to PetsMart the other day and buy a few more "non-destructible" squeak toys for Christmas for her, just because.

Her cousins Mazie and Lucy are coming tonight and staying with us through Christmas. The puppy is growing up quickly and knows not to irritate Addie too much. She still jumps all over Shep, but knows not to do that to Addie. Addie lost patience for puppies a few years ago :-)

Wishing everyone a wonderful, healthy Holiday Season!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Post Thansgiving Update

Addie, Shep and I went to my sister's place in Buena Vista for Thanksgiving while Rob traveled back to Indiana to visit relatives (including his 102 year old aunt). Addie and Shep got to visit, yet again, with Mazie and Lucy.

It is snowing here in the mountains of Colorado and it has been pretty cold as well. Addie just doesn't like to be outside much when it's like this so she has been spending most of her days lounging inside and playing with what is left of her Kong Wubba (the interior rubber squeaker).

We have some new neighbors below us and they have a Lab mix named Jack. He seems to be Addie and Shep's new best buddy. They have been running up and down the mountain together with tails-a-waggin...good to see them having fun.

There have been no major issues with Addie's health over the past few weeks. She did have one day with a bout of cold paws and pale gums but a couple Yunan pills seemed to have solved that problem. We also discovered some new fatty deposit lumps under her skin near the base of her rib cage. No cause for alarm at this point but we will continue to monitor just to be sure they don't get bigger. Another interesting issue is that about 2 weeks ago, her tongue went back to a darker red like it was prior to the surgery.Perhaps she is not so anemic, but perhaps this is unrelated.

We have also started to mix some Orijen kibble into her food to cut down on the amount of work related to cooking, chopping, and storing the meat we feed her. Now she gets 1/2 cup each of Orijen, meat, and veggies at each meal. The Orijen costs just as much as the meat per pound but saves us quite a bit of work.

Orijen is a Canadian dog food that has only meat, vegetables, and fruit as ingredients. Perfect for keeping wheat and by-products out of her system. We have also started feeding it to Shep in hopes that he won't develop cancer or have other such problems in the future.