Interesting Article

If you have access to the March/April Christian Woman magazine, look on page 17. Read the large type sentence in the middle of the page. Report your reactions back in the comments section.

Petey's Potty Rules

Several months ago John got tired of getting up every morning and cleaning up pee from the hardwood floor in the living room. He told Petey that he'd much rather get up in the night and let him out rather than clean up puddles every morning. Petey understood.

Petey began getting John up at night when he needed to use the bathroom. He keeps on getting John up and not me. Not once, has Petey ever come to me to let him out at night - not even when John has been out of town. It is always John, and he'll find John wherever he is in the house. We have marveled as to how Petey really does seem to understand us at times. This time, though, Petey has taken it to another level.

He only asks me to let him out during the day. It is as if in his little mind when he got the idea that John was the night time potty patrol, I must by default be the day time potty patrol. Petey will find me, wherever I am in the house if he wants to go out in the normal waking hours. We have actually walked by John on the way to the back door to go out. In fact, we walk by John most of the time on the way to the back door to go out. I'm not complaining by any means, I'd much rather be the one to let him out when I'm already awake as opposed to getting up at night with him. Now if you'll excuse me, I think Petey wants out...

Petey's Bloody Paws

I got Petey some new treats by Beneful recently. Petey likes the Beneful brand dog food, so I thought he'd like the treats. He does, but probably not as much as the bacon treats.

The Beneful treats are shaped like vegetables. I suppose this is to trick the pet owner into thinking that they are feeding their dog something healthy. One is somewhat tomato shaped and red, another is green, made to look like peas in a pod; and there is one that is orange and shaped something like a carrot. I think they all taste the same because Petey does not seem to prefer one shape over another.

Petey had been outside and I gave him one of the Beneful treats, which is a very common occurrence in our house. I'd gone about my business and in a few minutes Petey came up to me with blood all over his paws, and a little on his snout from where he'd been licking his paws. I tried to control my panic but there was a lot of blood on his paws. He didn't seem very distressed so I got him to take a few steps to see which paw he favored. I couldn't really tell.

I didn't want him tracking blood all over the house so I picked him up and took him to the kitchen where John was. John immediately saw that he'd just about severed one of his toes. I couldn't see for all of the blood. John needed to finish what he was doing before he could address the situation. I put Petey down in the kitchen since the floor is tile and the blood wouldn't be so hard to clean up. I was still trying to figure out exactly where the problem was.

Then I began to notice that all of the blood was bright red. There was no dark red, where it was beginning to dry. I also noticed there was no blood in the floor. Petey didn't seem to be in any distress, especially since I put him down. (He really doesn't like his paws to be bothered.)

It hit me then. I'd given Petey a tomato shaped Beneful treat. He'd held it between his paws as he ate it, making both paws red and also a little around his snout!! I really don't know how he got the dye so far up each leg, but he did. It rinsed right off and didn't even leave a pink tint to his fur.

I didn't think to take a picture, so the reader will have to just imagine a little white dog with bright red food coloring half way up both legs, a sight to behold indeed!!

Petey's Very Good Trip

We took a quick trip to Tuscaloosa this weekend for John to attend an all class reunion at his high school. If you've read this blog for any amount of time at all, you know that Petey is not good in the car, so we drug him. He fights the effects of the doggie downer with every thing he's got. He's, once again, like a toddler that is sleepy. As soon as he is just about out, he has to move. We prepared ourselves once again for this situation. Then it didn't happen, or at least not to the general extreme.

We gave Petey his pill about 30 minutes before we left Saturday morning. He was too worried about leaving (or being left) to even notice. He insisted on waiting in the car, even though it was still quite chilly out. He did his usual back & forth between the front & back seats for a while, but settled much more quickly than he has in the past. I was even beginning to worry that maybe we'd given him too much. He is older now, and just might not need enough.

We we got to T-town, he got out of the car and could hardly walk. He staggered around outside for a while, but perked up pretty quickly. He recognized the place where we were, and was glad to be there in spite of the cats. He raised the alert level quickly and protected us from the cats the whole time we were there.

We only gave him half a pill on the way home. He was a little more fidgety and really didn't settle in to one place until we were in Franklin! He's on the couch now sleeping it off.

For Petey, however this was a very good trip.

Pete's Back!!

Petey happily ran up & down the hall in greeting as I got home. He's holding his head up and prancing around like nothing was ever wrong.

Another Update

Petey seems to be better. He's running around a little more, but he still doesn't want to shake is head. He'll start and apparently it starts to hurt, so he stops. John estimates that he's at about 75% capacity.

As I was logging on to do this update, Pete came over to check out the situation and walked right in to the corner of the computer table. He bonked his head a good one!! We may have a new issue to deal with now!