When I first got my Lina she was so afraid that she would pee at the drop of a pin, or a gust of wind, or a leaf or a blade of grass.  She was so afraid.  She’s much better now four years later.  So on Thursday night when she came running out of my office leaving a trickle behind her I thought “what spooked you honey”.  We went for our evening walk and she kept trying to pee.  Not until she came into the kitchen with me and peed right in front of me did I really get it.  I’ve been known to give people/dogs the benefit of the doubt.  I gotta work on that a bit.

Somehow she made it through the night without peeing.  I was vigilant in my awareness of where she was and what she was, or hopefully wasn’t, doing.  First thing in the morning I call the Vet and they can get me in at 11:45.

Could you bring a urine sample?

A what?

A urine sample just put it in the refrigerator until you bring her over.

You know she’s a Pit Mix right?

Yes we know.

Seriously, how does one try and get a urine sample from a scaredy Mary Pit.  Aggghhh.  Well first you need something to put the damn pee in.  So I guess a jelly jar might work, its glass, just came out of the dishwasher so it’s sanitized (you know I hear Muriel in my head laughing about the fact that I have a jelly jar ready for action).  Definitely can’t have both dogs together or there will be pee all over everybody if I can even get close to….well you know.

So Toto goes into the office.  Lina and I go out, on a short leash, with the jelly jar.  So she makes a move and I’m right there except she stops and looks at me like “what the hell are you doing”.  I know Lina; there is no dignity in this for either one of us.  Ten drops at a time for the next three outings.  What we do for our dogs.

We arrive at the Vet, they take the jar, and we wait.  I didn’t realize that they were doing the urine testing right then and there.  I’m sitting and Lina is lodged firmly behind my knees between the bench and me.  Several dogs come and go and she makes it perfectly clear she wants none of it.  With every bark a little pee must fall.  You can’t make this up.

Finally, they are ready for us.  They want her weight.  All I can think of are the grooves in the mat that protects the scale.  One good pee and that thing is going in the can…thankfully, mercifully she didn’t let go of a drop.

Urinary tract infection. No shit.  And of course there are two ways we can go, first to get her through the two weeks of Clavamox (if I had a dollar for every Clavamox tablet I handed out I’d be rich, to say I should own stock in the company is an understatement) then retest for infection.  But you know, sometimes a urinary tract infection can be a symptom of an underlying issue.  Is this woman trying to upsell me?  Wait just a minute.  She relents quickly when she sees that are-you-kidding-me look on my face.  She’s a better Vet than salesperson.  So ok we’ll retest after the two weeks of Clavamox and they hand me a tray.  Designed specifically for “catching a specimen”.  It’s about an inch tall with a pour spout.  Are you kidding me?  Then they give me advice on how to go about “capturing a specimen” because sometimes the dog can be spooked by the height of the tray.  I fell out.  The jelly jar is about three inches tall.  When they realized I “captured the specimen” directly into the jelly jar my street cred went through the roof.  I’m just saying.  They could not stop a) laughing and b) applauding my style. That’s right.

When we got home we issued the first pill with a peanut butter chaser.  I was not going to get into a pissing match (pardon the pun) with this little one over eating a pill. Then we cleaned everything within an inch of its life and sequestered the girls behind bars in the foyer and kitchen which could easily be cleaned and re-cleaned if need be.

The office rug went to the dry cleaner with the pronouncement of “no judgment please”.  I went and bought a new rug pad because well you know.  And then collapsed.

By that evening, after only two pills my little girl was no longer trying to pee when she had just peed.  Her sense of urgency had abated.  She stopped panting. Her tail was wagging and she was happy and running the length of the apartment once again with no drips.

And they were let out of the red zone.  They both slept through the night, me not so much, one jump off the bed and they were getting whisked out the door.  But no incidents, thankfully, mercifully…we’ve made it through our first UTI with flying colors.  Whew.

Sugarland is the mini dachshund. Emma is the weimaraner, who is clearly enjoying the relaxed rules of hospice.

Every once in a while I have an email conversation with someone that just makes me laugh out loud.  It occurs to me that many of them are dog/pet related so it seems about time to do another Ordinary Pet Legacy post on another one of them.  Following is an email conversation with a dear friend and gardener that I’ve known for many years, it’s bitter sweet and laugh out loud funny at the same time but aren’t all dog stories?  The subject: “more direction needed” is work related and I’m sure of no interest to you.  Suffice to say I was lurking while on vacation and this is one of the few I found worth popping in about…

Email From: Mitchell, Lance
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Subject: Re: more direction needed.

Hi,

Hope all is well with you and yours. Other than the 2 boys having left the manse to go to college, leaving me with 2 female dogs Sugar, the mini dachshund, and Emma ” the devil dog” weimaraner who is on hospice due to bladder cancer at age 12 and enjoying every minute of it due to unlimited food and attention, my lovely bride and my 15 year old daughter Brynn who is turning 25 tomorrow, all is well.

To: Mitchell, Lance
Subject: Re: more direction needed.

Never in my life have I laughed about a dog in hospice, God love you, you crack me up. Will be online Friday (no wireless where I’m staying) if it can wait we can chat then. Best from the Cape, slc
Forgive the brevity, sent via Blackberry

Email From: Mitchell, Lance

Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Subject: Re: more direction needed.

Hi,

Too make it even more funny and tragic…

Josie “the outlaw Josie Wales” mini dachshund went missing in late fall of 2010. My second son is convinced that she went feral. My heart broken daughter said she is on an extended walk about. My thought is that the resident fisher cat or coyotes have “adopted” her. So bottom line Josie is MIA. Open to discussion if she was KIA.

Emma, 80 lbs. well-conditioned dog, went MIA in February 2011. She went out at noon and never came back. She had never strayed for more than an hour or so. Very dog friendly area – a five house loop off a cul de sac, state forest in the back yard etc. Three or four of her buds and her would go house to house looking for treats in the am and pm. It had snowed the day before, very easy to track foot prints, spent days in the woods tracking. Conclusion that she went down the road and somebody picked her up.

In late March 2011, Sugar showed up when I was away skiing. Nice little replacement mini dachshund. Thinks she is a big dog. She roughhouses with the neighborhood dog pack daily. She is on an electronic radius fence. Her buds like to play you can’t catch me by crossing the DMZ where she gets a reminder that she is too far from the electronic box.

Late April 2011 get a call from a town 25 miles away. We have Emma. Their story is that she was 5 miles away in a neighboring town the day she went missing and they picked her up. Failed to understand that she had on the dog collar when I picked her up with three forms of ID with phone numbers etc. We are results oriented- we have our dog back. We refer to that period as when she went on vacation. When exasperated we threaten her with being sent back to Framingham. We think they called us because after 7 weeks they realized she is way too needy.

Now Emma has bladder cancer ergo the hospice. They gave her 60 days last Thanksgiving. She has lost a few pounds and doesn’t run quite as well but other than that seems fine. She eats as much as she wants to all day. Has an unlimited supply of self-serve treats whenever she wants. There are no longer limits to jumping on beds and couches. Life is great for her other than she can’t abide Sugar. Teach her to go on vacation….

Aren’t you sorry that you responded?

regards,

Lance Mitchell

And there you have it, I know like I know that you are laughing and thinking God aren’t dogs and their people the best. I’ll be looking for more of these so stay tuned.

Today was a banner day for the Jersey Girls.  WE WON!  We have been raising money for Companion Animal Advocates for the last month and were able to raise over $5000.00 to retain our crowns as Queens of the Carnivale 2012.

We arrived a bit late to the event for several reasons but suffice to say we made it.  We are always greeted so warmly by the volunteers from CAA, makes us feel right at home.  Each year gets a little easier for the girls to navigate.  This year there was much butt sniffing and only one tiny little scuffle with a pit puppy who didn’t know his own clumsiness.  Lina was all about “don’t mess with my sistah…”

Had our picture taken by a man from mybergen.com who was pretty happy to find out from Patricia that he was amongst royalty first picture of the day.  Patricia tells me I don’t brag enough.  Yeah it’s not my style, doesn’t sit well with me to brag, however, it doesn’t mean I’m not proud of our accomplishments.  And if there’s anything I am it’s grateful, that I can talk a blue streak on.

One of my dear friends sent me a quote from a board she follows that went like this, “I would rather live in my car with my dogs than in a castle without them.”  Oh how I know like I know.  There are no words to describe the bond between woman and her dogs.   They know everything there is to know about me, have heard me laugh and cry more than any other breathing being.  They are grateful every day to have been rescued by me but the truth is I was rescued by them.

That quote represents one of the reasons I feel so strongly about raising money for CAA.  The thought of having to give up the girls because I was unable to feed them just doesn’t have a place in my head.  The fact that we are able to help prevent that from happening to others makes me proud.  The gratitude I have for the wonderful people in my life that give each year so generously runs deep.

It’s not as easy for the Jersey Girls to be in and among the dozens of dogs at the event like other dogs.  Whatever their life was before left its mark on them.  We’ve all worked very hard to grow and trust again and with the help of some very good friends (thank you Shawn) we make progress each day.  We are all grateful to be together, we take care of each other and we are proud to do what we can to take care of others; makes for a great life.

A blessing from Rev. Celine Penti and the girls can go home to their respective comfy chairs and sleep the rest of the afternoon away….acting royal can be exhausting.

The girls now have yellow ribbons on their leashes.  Although the number of times they crank up gets fewer and fewer I want to keep them safe.  It’s a small gesture for two very good little girls who will eventually outgrow their fears and relax.  For those of you who know and love the girls you know they are trying hard everyday to live up to their potential.  In the scheme of where they started to where they are now, I can only hope to accomplish such strides in my own life.

Pass this along so that we can all relax.  Thanks to Shawn Stewart (www.dogsareeasy.com) and The German Shepard Dog Community (http://www.facebook.com/TheGSDC?ref=stream) for starting it on its rounds.

Sunday mornings always seem to hold something special for me.  Today we got out on our walk only to meet up with the Boxer.  It’s not unusual, we always seem to meet up with the Boxer but it hasn’t always been pleasant.

By now you should all know that Lina and Toto are my two rescue dogs originally from Little Rock Arkansas.  We had a rough start but thanks to our dear Uncle Shawn (www.dogsareeasy.com) we have a pretty nice life.  Except for a few minor, occasional, OK maybe more than occasional, run-ins with another dog we’re pretty well adjusted.  Don’t get me wrong it’s mostly a lot of noise but we seldom get close enough to find out what really might happen…Until now.

We see the Boxer and her owner almost every morning.  If I say good morning, in that singing kind of way that annoys the entire world, we usually don’t even hear a peep out of my girls and all is well.  Shawn made it perfectly clear that every time I say “Oh shit” in my head it goes right down the leash and everybody’s on alert. It’s true, I know it’s me.

So sometime last week we gave it a try.  I put the girls behind me and said hello to the Boxer.  She is a sweet thing and pretty skittish too having been bitten by a few dogs herself.  Ok, who’s tail is wagging the hardest, of course Toto.  She is the more social of my two, the more trusting, the least afraid.  Lina’s just hangin behind Mama doing the big shake.  Ok honey you stay there.  So Toto says hello to the Boxer’s owner.  At this point I still don’t know anyone’s name.  She does her best aren’t-I-the-cutest-thing-you’ve-ever-seen and all is good.  Now for the Boxer introduction; I let the leash slack just a bit and they were nose to nose tails wagging furiously and Lina stayed right behind me doing the big shake.  I move to the side and Lina tries to lunge.  No chance of that happening, I have some of the strongest arms and shoulders you will ever meet.  I can’t thank the Boxer and her owner enough for their patience and for being kind enough to try.

The days pass, there are no further meet ups but there are also no further incidents from opposite sides of the street.  I’m calling this a true win.  I’m thrilled.  Then several days later we’re coming down the street and out of the side street come the Boxer and her owner and another person with a Pit puppy.  Now you know I said “Oh shit” in my head but the funniest thing happened.  Toto, Lina and the Boxer did the lunge.  Oh no, we’ve corrupted the Boxer.  The Pit gets dragged around the corner (I remember full well what that is like) and calm comes over the block.

Now it’s Sunday morning and we’re on our way to do the loop.  Here come the Boxer and her owner towards us.  Ok this is new (I did not say Oh shit in my head, I know you were thinking it) so let’s see how we do.  We both come to a stop with our dogs behind us.  Toto does the first peek around (I know you’re shocked by that) and goes right up to the Boxer’s owner, tail wagging, sitting waiting to be petted.  Lina is still behind me doing the big shake.  The Boxer makes her way around her owner and here we are again, nose to nose and my Toto starts crying she’s so damn happy.  It’s what she does, just a bit embarrassing but ok it’s better than the lunge.  Lina, she’s still behind me doing the big shake.  Now we’re actually having a conversation right on the corner of Stowe Lane, I can’t contain myself I’m so damn happy.  Let’s try bringing Lina into the mix, Toto is calm and playing, she takes her cues from Toto so what’s the worst that can happen.  She wants to lunge, put her in sit.  Talk some more, try it again, she tries to lunge.  Her tail is wagging a million miles an hour but all I can hear in my head this time is Shawn telling me not to be fooled.  She may be wagging her tail but she might just be happy because she wants to bite someone.  I never mess with Shawn’s words of wisdom so back in sit, behind me she goes.  Thankfully she’s no longer doing the big shake, I’m calling that progress. We talk a bit more and Steve (finally introduced ourselves) is a really patient guy and I am so grateful that he’s willing to help me get these girls over their last hump.  He assures me that they will be fine and before he goes on his way I ask him what his Boxer’s name his.

Her name is Karma.  Of course it is.