March 13th: First walk with our booties!
Dealing with the aftereffects of yet another snow storm....yuppie! Tons of snow on the ground. -15 wind chill. My initial idea of heading to the dog park was simply not going to work today. Was woken up early this morning by my mother as she was trying to catch a bus out of here to return home. She volunteered to let Rocky out as I was asleep seeing as were still in recovery from our diarrhea episodes. He happily followed her out of my room and downstairs yet he immediately trotted back into my room after 5 minutes. Apparently he had no interest in going out.
He came into my room and hopped up on my bed, which he hasn't done in a few days. He came right over next to me, sat down and stared for awhile. He then laid down and stuck his head as close to mine on the pillow as possible and his paws were essentially extended out towards my arms (he was laying horizontally on the bed. If I shifted he would re-adjust and when I turned on my side he politely rested his head on my hip bone, as a sort of cushion. Early morning puppy snuggles with this beast are my favorite thing in the world. He's just so endearing and I feel so close to him in those moments.
Then time to get up. Let him outside, he had no intention of going into the yard, just stood on my deck for a bit until I let him inside. Breakfast time! More of the white rice/brown rice/grass fed ground beef mixture, with some canned 100% organic pumpkin, cottage cheese, supplements and antibiotics mixed in. Then time for a walk!
He always gets so darn excited when I start putting on my jacket. Whining and running and bouncing in place. No pirouetting today though when I go to put his harness on. I think he was just too excited to get out. Only went out once yesterday due to the blizzard :/
And off we went, strolling through the 8 to 11 inches of fresh snow, very few of the sidewalks were shoveled and we were the first foot and dog prints of the day. He kept bouncing in and out of snow banks and strutting his stuff and walking ahead of me and his little trot/jog/prance pace that he always does. So many smells today! Must be the fresh snow fall, nose to the ground all the way.
After school I came home to an incredibly eager dog, bouncing and running and whining and shaking his whole body to get my attention. After he was done greeting me he pounced on his "Can I get A woof woof" toy, which is his favorite toy -- tied with the Kong Moose. We played fetch for a little until I was too hungry to avoid making lunch.
Chilled on the couch for a bit until he stared sitting in front of me and whining, something he does rarely, so he convinced to yet again brave the cold and nasty weather and go for a walk. But first, booties!!! This morning as we passed the few sidewalks that were salted he immediately began to limp and waited for me to wipe down his front paw until he could continue. So boots it is to protect his little feet.
He is not a fan of me putting those things on, let me tell you. He kept backing away and withdrawing his paws slowly and politely like he always does. Finally was able to get all four on and here comes the comedy. He was walking around my house like he was stepping on hot coals! Kept lifting each leg super high and in a circular motion, so of course I had to stop and record it and take some pictures. Obviously though, once I picked up his harness he immediately forgot about the boots and off for our 2nd walk we go.
He immediately shot out the door and headed straight for the car, standing there and looking at me and then the car and then me again signaling he wanted to go for a ride, and to the dog park. But too cold and the roads are still not great so I just told him were going for a walk and he immediately loped along the sidewalk. Swear to god the dog speaks english.
Boy, does he have his energy back. Could barely keep up with him the whole time, so determined to march ahead in the snow. He kept strutting right along and loping here and there when there was enough slack in the leash or when he wound adventure into deep enough snow. So nice to see him enjoy his walks like this. Although after galloping through the snow, one of his back boots started coming off so I had to kneel down and try putting it back on in on the sidewalk....not the easiest feat while its freezing out and he doesn't like me putting those things on, but he cooperated and was a good boy about it! Once it was back in place and all velcroed up he sprinted off again and jumped a snow bank...safe to say he forgets about the boots very quickly.
Sadly, after about 15 minutes I could no longer take the cold so I turned us around to return home. He then proceeded to have a very nice bowel movement which I am very pleased with! First one since re starting the antibiotics. He strutted his stuff all the way home.
Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling on the couch, seems a little bored and I don't blame him, but with this weather and him not feeling great I didn't want to have him be outside too long. let him out in the yard and he immediately starting eating something so I rushed to put on my rain boots and sprinted outside to stop him. He then sprinted away from me and ran around in circles in the adorable way that he does when he has excess energy. I just stood and watched until he decided to loop around and sprint upstairs and go on in.
Dinner time: decided to meal prep a little and cook 4 of the burgers by simmering them on the stove and in the meantime separate out the rice mixture into meal Tupperware's to make feeding easier. Started diminishing the rice as the meals progressed to try to ease him back off of grains. I am waiting to finish the antibiotics and for the meal plan to be finished by the nutrition vet before I phase him off the bland diet. In the meantime, organic arborio white rice cooked with water, organic brown rice, grass fed ground beef, a spoonful of cottage cheese, 2 spoonfuls of organic pumpkin and his supplements will have to do.
He of course was highly interested in me cooking the meat and sat in the middle of the kitchen watching my every move until I put his bowl down, which he immediately pounced on and devoured in 2 minutes. He loves this concoction. Hoping his diarrhea stays away for good this time. I think another day of good bowel movements and I'll start the de-wormer and then hopefully get him back on the prescription drugs to fight cancer and the other sups I had him on as well.
Ordered artiminism and butyrex today. Received the Immunity 4 Pets but have been hesitant to add it into his diet seeing as he still is having issues. Game plan is to finish antibiotics, add the prescription Prio-something, start using the recipes created by the nutritional vet (fingers crossed he gets them to me tomorrow), then start adding Immunity 4 pets for a few days, if not upset continue and then add the artminism and butyrex once I receive it. I'm just anxious to start adding the more "heavy hitters" in alternative medicine and conventional (the prescription drugs) into his system ASAP. Number 1 priority of course though is to make sure his system re-adjusts and re-balances correctly!
All in all a very good day for him filled with laughter from him figuring out his booties and running circles in my yard.
As I write this he is curled up on his bed next to me, fast asleep, looking as adorable as ever. He's tucked into a little ball this time, not sprawled out like usual. God he's so darn cute. I'm starting to hear a little snore kicking in....
