Color me red....

It all started so innocently. A friend at work mentioned how dry her skin was and I pulled out my Bag Balm from Sheepman Supply. (Yep, I keep it in my purse!) It works wonders on dry, cracked winter skin, if you can get past the antiseptic smell. I mentioned that I bought a tin of it for Andre at the local feed store because his hands were cracked, but had also seen it in a catalog that we recently got in the mail – The Vermont Country Store. She giggled a bit when I said that and said “You can get A LOT of interesting things in that catalog”. I pressed further and she said “Ummm…..well……you know……for a woman’s or a couple’s…..needs….”. I could not remember seeing anything like what I thought she was referring to in the catalog, but she assured me she had the catalog at home and was quite surprised also. I said “That’s the magazine with the guy’s grandmother on the cover”!!!
I still didn’t believe her so I found the store online. Searched around a bit and sure nuf….. Look for yourself. http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/Shop
It was also strange that the same afternoon we had that conversation, there was a headline on AOL.com about the very same thing! Apparently they have added a line of “toys” to their otherwise wholesome and down home type of items and their loyal customers are quite upset. Time will tell if it’s a good marketing ploy. I guess if you’re going to order those things in the mail, you’d want your local mailman to think you were just getting some Vermont cheese in the mail.
The raciest thing they used to sell was Bag Balm!

Isn't it ironic.

We’re getting back about $1500 from our Federal and State tax returns.
Guess how much we spent this week on a cat emergency?
Yep – approximately $1500.

The cat is fine. He had been wheezing and making gurgling noises in his throat for about a week so I brought him to the vet on Monday. They did x-rays and found something that looked like a foreign object in his trachea. It’s highly unusual for a cat to suck something into it’s windpipe they tell me. Since my vet didn’t have an endoscope small enough to go down a cat’s airway, we were referred to the big fancy veterinary hospital in Leesburg (where they serve Starbucks coffee for dog’s sake). By the time they did the procedure, they couldn’t find anything. Guess the little bugger finally coughed it up or something. Sheesh.

I feel that every time we get a little extra money, something comes along to deplete it.

I feel bad....

So all that puppy peeing drama turned out to be a UTI after all. About a month ago I brought in a urine sample because I KNEW that Belle was peeing too much. When they didn’t find anything, I told myself to be patient and maybe her little bladder was growing….
Well it started getting worse and last week after getting up every 2 hours to let her out at night I decided there HAD to be a problem. So I got the soup ladle out (it is THE BEST way to capture urine as long as it’s right out of the dishwasher and doesn’t have nasties on it to start with! Guess no one will be coming to my house now for chili…..) and captured her urine and drove it to the vet’s office on my way to work. I was all ready to tell them to give me drugs for her NO MATTER WHAT OR I WILL GO ELSEWHERE AND TAKE MY MULTITUDE OF DOGS AND CATS WITH ME ALONG WITH ALL THAT MONEY THAT IS KEEPING YOU IN BUSINESS. When I got to work there was a call from the vet telling me that yes, Belle had an infection. So she had gone a whole month with this thing progressively getting worse and me believing that it was a behavioral issue as they suggested.
Poor Puppy. She was probably in pain and not able to tell us beyond peeing every 15 minutes and soiling her crate every day and night. At least we hadn’t been punishing her for her accidents because we knew there had to be a reason that she couldn’t control it…..
She’s now on Clovomax(?) for 14 days and we have to capture that urine again tomorrow to make sure it’s working. The good news is that she is now staying dry in her crate all night and seems to be on the road to recovery. I just hope she’s not one of those girls who has continuous UTIs.
She and Blue are now on a RAW diet. It was pretty scary for me at first and when I started with Blue - I was cooking everything. But then I started to worry about him not getting enough calcium, so after reading all I could, buying 3 books on the subject and sweating a lot about it, I dove in. Both are doing great on the diet and so far have had chicken parts and turkey necks along with some organ meats. I also give oatmeal and some veggies to supplement. (Andre was a little embarrassed at Martins the day I found Turkey Necks and shouted “Turkey Necks for 39 cents a pound!” I think he wanted to slink out of the store….)Anyway, I still sit with Belle while she eats to make sure she crunches her bones up and she seems to be doing fine with it.
At some point we’ll probably switch all the dogs over to raw, but I think Andre still needs to be convinced. In the meantime, we have switched from Pedigree(!) to Kirklands Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice which I’ve read is a pretty good choice as far as kibble goes.

Oh what a beautiful day....

Yesterday turned out to be so nice (low 60s!). Andre took the dogs out to exercise. A couple of them have put on some pounds over the winter because of lack of activity (not unlike their humans…). Plus they were stir crazy because we had so much ice on the ground this past week, making it impossible to do anything outdoors. He takes out the tennis balls and tosses them with a ball flinger (?) and they run and run and run. Good for conditioning. I wish I was ball motivated. (Your minds are in the gutter, don't go there!)
Some of the dogs actually retrieve the balls, some just run and others (BAD SHANE!) take the balls and run off and hide them.
Belle is just learning the Border Collie games. So here are the pics I’ve been promising.
Belle! 5 months old.





She loves her big brother Blue.


The main guy. The one who controls the madness.


Figuring it all out.


Time out for necessary "doodies".


Blue Cool down - good thing there was still some ice.


Watcha doin?


Hmmm....what are these?


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