Animal Issues

It’s in the 30s(f) here today. Ice fog and just fog, awaiting the rain forecast for a bit later today. I’m much happier because of it but not nearly as happy as the happy showgirl.

Lola Belle is the puppy who likes being outside as much as possible. And even if she isn’t outside, she likes to sit at the back door and watch for squirrels through the window. With the super-cold the last week/ten days, she’s been unable to be outside and I will not allow her to stay in the cold room for very long because IT IS TOO COLD in the office for me to have the door propped open for her to go in and out.

So today, Lola is one helluva happy showgirl. She’s so happy that she she has spent quite a lot of time teaching Buster butt to play properly. Normally she just kind of ignores him out there or puts him in his place for being stupid. Today though, she tried to teach him to play chase — which is the game that she and Skeeter like the best. The game that Buster butt does not know how to play.

She managed to get him to play properly for all of five minutes and then he went back to being stupid and just trying to pounce her every ten seconds. So, she sent him in the house to be stupid on his own and went about her business of guarding the yard and just being her happy outdoorsy showgirl face-licking self.

A couple of days ago, whatever day it was that the snow started to really, really fall — the puppies had been outside playing while TW cleared the driveway and when they came running in, Lola slid on the top step and just sat there panting. If another dog got near her, she growled. I thought for sure she’d broken her leg…

I got the other two dogs inside and locked in the kitchen and by the time I got back to the cold room to help her, she was walking around, slowly, in the office.

I sat down with her and looked at her legs and feet and everything seemed fine. She’s a tough little showgirl (obviously, since she survived a skewer through the belly while pregnant) and we all went on about our business.

Today, the dogs were outside playing when Lola suddenly started shaking and walking like something hurt… duh. It’s her feet, not her legs. Her feet are getting so cold that she can’t walk and they hurt. I’ve never seen that happen to a dog before.

None of the dogs have exhibited this problem, while we’ve lived here. When I lived in NJ, I never saw a dog have that problem either, (and lord I saw a lot of dogs when I lived in Jersey, since I worked at an animal kennel… but that could be that they only spent about five minutes, twice a day, out in the snow — the rest of the time they were in their indoor runs?)

We always joke about Skeeter being the delicate flower but it turns out the tough showgirl has delicate paws.

We have a barking problem. It got worse when the neighbors got a golden doodle who they don’t do a very good job of trying to teach not to bark. Even without that darn dog (and the #asshat neighbors), we’ve got Lola who does not like squirrels or birds and will bark at them non-stop if we don’t bring her in.

So, TW threw the Bark Off thing (she’s a sucker for “As Seen on TV” stuff) into the cart when we were at Petsmart last week and I didn’t growl at her loudly enough to prevent that from happening so… here we are with a $6 gadget that I was pretty sure was not going to work.

Turns out it works really well on Skeeter… too well. She’s terrified to go into the backyard now. I’m not exaggerating.

She goes into the cold room, which leads to the backyard, and stops right inside the door and shakes until we all come back inside. She won’t go any further than just inside the door unless she’s dragged out.

Lola, on the other hand, just keeps on barking at the squirrels and trying to climb the trees.

I made TW turn it off and hide it.

Poor poodle, she’s just so sensitive.

UPDATE: 24 hours later, Skeeter is no longer afraid of the backyard and was happily chasing Lola around and barking at squirrels alongside her.