I had a good Furever Home day!  
I found a soccer ball and 2 baseballs on my morning walk.  
I went to the rehab vet to have work done.  The woman turned me into a pin cushion!!!!  I brought attitude with me so I wasn't all that cooperative for her this time.  I also snarked on her dog when she followed her into the room to say hi and got too close to my cheese stick!!!   At least I didn't poop all over her lobby like last time!  I had even managed to tighten a muscle that really doesn't exist in dogs.  She told her college observer that I look normal on the outside but I'm not normal if you see me on the inside!  
I had homemade pizza for dinner!!!!
I got to go for a ride in the Jeep and to fill it up with gas!

My big news: I spent almost 3 weeks in Montana!  I swam a bunch, watched gophers and a long-tailed weasel and badgers in the yard, barked at a lot of cows and motorcycles, and went for rides in the Jeep on days I didn't swim.  

Montana 2017 - Preview Pictures!

Today is my Furever Home Day!  I went for a long walk, go to see the rehab vet, and I also get to go for a ride in the Jeep!

I have a new thing I do in the pool.  I swim up to my woman, bite at the water as she splashes me, then I slap her silly as I turn around to head back.  When I swim up to my man, I bite the water he splashes at me, then I turn nicely and head back for the ramp.
I also decided I wanted to play with the ball I found on the pool platform instead of my dummy.  I was going to take it home with me then decided to leave it at the pool for other doggies to play with as I was walking out the door.  
I've decided I like the post-swim, freezer-dried raw heart my woman makes for me not soaked in water.  I always had commercial freeze-dried raw hearts that got rehydrated in water, then I decided I liked the homemade freezer-dried raw hearts rehydrated, then the last 2 swims I wouldn't eat them.  My woman is going to make me 2 more trays of raw heart to let dry in my chest freezer!

I have added the following balls to my ball collection since last time: 2 baseballs, 1 soccer ball, 2 footballs.

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I've been really busy lately.  I keep finding all kinds of balls that have been left behind that need to be killed or brought home.  I have a nice collection of lacrosse balls, t-balls, softballs, and baseballs now.  We keep making new trails to places.  I have to lick cat faces at the vet clinic by my house and get treats at a couple of businesses.   
And something big is happening soon that I've been busy getting ready for.  I'll fill you in later!!

I'm now swimming for 45 minutes with my people every other week.  I had been swimming with them for 30 minutes but, a few swims ago, I got back into the pool after I got toweled off.  My woman was able to get me into the "new" pool, same people but different location, for 45 minutes for the next swim.  It's a smaller pool but the water is a little cooler which I like.  I swam almost the entire 45 minutes with few breaks.  
We liked it so much, we are going to be going there instead from now on.  It's on our side of the river so we don't have to worry about trying to make it across and we don't have to drive through Portland.  It's also only 30 minutes away instead of 45-55 minutes.  
My people even cleaned up my man's old diving gear bag and that has our towels, my dummy, and my life jacket in it.  I haven't worn it at all the last few swims but we bring it because the pool's life jackets choke me due to my mega-esophagus.

I had my annual check-up last week.  The vet comes to my house so I don't get stressed by the waiting.  She told my people not to let me lose too much more weight and said she wouldn't have guessed I have Discoid Lupus by looking at my nose!  Everything was great but my people still have to try to get a pee sample (weirdos).  The vet said good luck.  As soon as I hear a change in the sound for getting a sample, I stop peeing and will hold it for hours.  If they don't get a pee sample (not as weird as when they put my poop in a bag and drive it places), the vet will stab me in the belly with a needle!!!!!

I've also have been visiting friends and getting to know Freddy, the puppy that lives across the street.  I'm teaching him good doggy manners.

It's a hard life I lead!  
I have to take my man for a walk every morning or else he'd get lost and wander off.  
I spend my days helping my woman study for her smelly stuff classes.  
I have to keep things like cats and squirrels and UPS trucks from stealing the house.  
I have to blaze trails and play with friends.  
I have to go swimming every other week.  
I have to turn people who don't like dogs into lovers of the Puppy Butt.  
I have to stop at the vet office and the training place by my house ​so the people can give me treats.

Sometimes a girl just has to curl up with her leopard skin rug and take a nap.

Tomorrow is swim Sunday!  I'm supposed to swim every other Sunday but my people were sick for the last one.  My people say I'm supposed to rest up today so I'll be all ready for tomorrow!!!!!!  Every time I open my eyes after I nap, my people have to tell me it's not tomorrow yet!

I went to the rehab vet yesterday for my regular check up.  
It was a good thing because my woman and I had an "incident" Thursday.  We were going to go out front through the garage and she decided to grab some stuff off the kitchen counter to take to the garage to throw away.  She thought I was behind her but I was in front of her.  She kneed me in the side hard enough for me to slip sideways then she started to fall.  I thought I was going to die but she managed to leap over me as she was falling.  By the time she got up off the tile, I was on my bed where it was safe!  She made sure I was OK then we went out.
My rehab vet said I had some issues that were "consistent" with what happened the day before.  One of the things that happened was a "right translation of the occiput."  My woman knows what the "occiput" is but didn't know what the rest meant.  It means my head slid from the impact!  
See - she tried to kill me!!!!
Other than that, I had very few issues.  I got all fixed up and am ready to swim!!!!

I've been exploring the dried up wetlands/duck pond.  Someone (we're pretty sure we know who) took out the beaver dam (which is illegal).  I've also been finding new trails in the area.  My boy even found a way to go from 1 trail to a big open spot I can explore!

My woman completed the 1st level of animal aromatherapy training so she's been staying busy.  There's 5 or 6 more levels to complete and the 1st one looks like it's the shortest one.  She's already used what she learned to help me when I was having leg spasms due to tweaking my pelvis romping in our big snow in January.

I just lost my bestest friend.  He had something called Lymphoma.  We'd known each other my whole life.  He wasn't much older than me.

Our first meeting, he bit me and made me go "yipe."  I looked at his man, his man looked at me and said "You bite him girl" so I pinned my ears back, put my snark face on, jumped up and bit him with my puppy teeth.  He went "YIPE!" and we were best friends after that.

We liked to run around in the park and our yards, wrestle, and pull on each other's lips to say "Hey, let's play."

He liked to drink out of my canteen even when I tried to swallow his head.
 
He was afraid of my stairs for years then he decided they weren't so scary so he'd come in and play with me.  Then he realized he could open my front door so he'd let himself in.

He was the only dog I would share my food with.  
But I wouldn't share my spiral tendon. He found that out the hard way when I tried to turn him into a CPR dummy.  He got up and decided the direct approach didn't work so maybe a side approach would.  He would walk toward me sideways a few steps, stop, walk towards me, stop.  That didn't work either.

I'll miss laying on my bed, looking out my window, and seeing him laying on his bed and looking at me out his window.

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a great howloday season.  I did.  

I chased after some mail thieves and would have caught them if I was allowed to run in the street.  The police caught them though.

We got snow, lots and lots of it.  And it stuck around for a long time but not long enough.  The last snow we had was over 2 weeks ago and all of it just melted from our yard.  They said a trace to 4" and we got about 12"!!!!

I showed my woman where the beavers live, played with friends, made new friends and blazed trails.

My rehab vet said I could go swimming again so I went last weekend!  I was so excited I shook like a paint shaker and started barking and yipping when I realized we weren't going to the rehab vet.  There was a woman in the pool to make sure I didn't jump or overdo it.  It's been over 16 months.  

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Dogmas 2016​

Happy belated turkey day to everyone in the USA!  My man had 4 whole days off!!  I barely survived.  

I helped do a project in the house, raked up more leaves from the back yard, went for lots of long walks, went shopping at Home Depot for the 1st time, hung up some holiday lights and put up our Yule tree!
I don't understand why so many people like Home Depot.  There are no trees and shrubs to sniff.  No balls and toys to look at.  No treats to sniff.  No critters to watch or Barneys (garter snakes) to track.

I've made a few new friends since I last let you know what I've been up to.  My woman had a birfday and I helped make her dinner and a cake.  She also started classes to learn how to use essential oils, infused oils, hydrosols and stuff like that with animals.
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Hi everyone.  My people say I'm back!!!  My woman finished up her massage stuff and can do things like Manual Lymphatic Drainage and circulatory massage and massage to relieve inflammation.

A quick catch-up.

I changed vet clinics.  They took my blood but didn't run the senior wellness panel bloodwork.  And we have found out that the blood pressure they took on me wasn't able to be used for anything because it wasn't a true blood pressure.
My new vet clinic sent people to my home to do my blood draw and do another exam.  I liked that!  They even have a vet that is trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine and they can get all my special supplements I take for my Lupus.

I've still been seeing my rehab vet about every 3 weeks.  She's done some acupuncture on me a few times.  Starting last Friday, I'm going every week for TENS treatments because I hurt myself and was having muscle spasms in my rear legs.  I usually have muscle spasms in my right thigh when I move it a certain way and those stayed away for 4 whole days after the TENS treatment!

I have a new immune-mediated eye disease called Episcleritis.  I could either get eye drops or an injection into the eye to treat it.  My people chose the eye drops so I had to get eye drops in my right eye 4 times a day for 7 days, then 3 times a day for 7 days, and now it's 2 times a day until the redness goes all the way away.

I've been getting to play more as my knee continues to stay stable.  My people have been playing chase games with me and letting me play "police dog" where I attack my woman's sleeve.  I have also been playing with some of my friends.  I've even been able to tree some squirrels!
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I've been to lots of vets lately!

I see my rehab vet every 3 weeks.
She kept reviewing my x-rays from the e-vet because my heart looked weird to her.  She is pretty sure that I have something called a Persistent Right Aortic Arch.  This is something that should have gone away before I was born but didn't. 

My esophagus goes through that arch so it has kind of strangled it which means my esophageal stricture is actually something called Megaesophagus.  This means the part of my esophagus in front of that part looks like a saggy balloon and makes it hard for food and water to get down to my stomach.  So far, water isn't a problem and I can eat still eat my raw food like normal but I'll probably have to change how I get fed my raw food.  When it comes up, it can go down the wrong tube and end up in my lungs and cause pneumonia.
My certified small animal massage practitioner woman is supposed to massage my diaphragm when I get neck burbles to relax that and stop it from irritation the nerves on my esophagus.

She's still happy with my CCL progress and my woman is making sure to get all the massage pointers she can for all my issues.  I still get my daily hind quarter and spine/rib cage massage plus patellar massage, pin and stretch of the sartorius muscle, compression of the lower limb, patellar tendon stretching, hip leans, incline stands, 3 legged stand bounces, tail traction, spine "wiggle", circle walking, humeral glides, and front limb figure 8's.

My last appointment she said she thinks my Long Digital Extensor Tendon came loose on my left rear leg.  My woman says there's a fancy word for it and uses really strange words to describe where it came loose from.  The rehab vet said it's not something they worry about doing surgery for but, if I had surgery of the left knee, the surgeon would reattach it.

And, that's the latest from my rehab vet!
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I had my yearly eye doctor exam.  My Lipid Keratopathy and Non-Ulcerated Ocular Lesions looked good.  But she said I have:

1. Pannus (an auto-immune disease) and had my people do my eye drops lesions eye drops twice a day and told them what to watch for.
2. Cataracts - she saw some tiny cataract spots but said I'm already getting the supplements she would put me on.
3. Possible Vascular Disease - she said something about cholesterol which indicates leaky blood vessels and she wanted my blood pressure checked.

My next eye exam is next year unless I have problems.
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I had my senior wellness exam Friday and had my blood pressure taken.  That wasn't fun and took about 30 or 40 minutes!  The vet said it looked good though.  My heart worm test came back negative and we are waiting on my blood work to see what next to figure out the vascular thing.  
The vet probably has the results but she doesn't work today to review it.
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I'll talk more about my non-vet adventures next time!