Sleeping pretty

Update on Kate

Sorry about the lack of blog posts over the last week.

I had to go to Gannett headquarters in Virginia for a couple days for training, and, let's face it, it's been a week. And not in a good way.

A week ago Saturday, Kate woke up around 4 a.m. and was stumbling around the house. I have wood floors and practically no floor coverings, and if she ended up on the floor she couldn't get up.

And when she did get up she would walk to the left. At times, in the kitchen, she would just go in circles to her left or she would walk through the house always turning left. Oh, and it was raining. Kate hates when it rains. And there were some pretty big thunder claps. Kate hates when it thunders.

I had to go away Monday and Tuesday for the training and I was panicking about leaving her. My neighbor was going to come in three times a day to let her out and feed her, but she couldn't have managed Kate if anything happened.

I called the vet, and when he finally returned the call, it was a half hour from closing. He said to bring her right over. He said he didn't think it was a complication of the renal failure. He said it seemed more like a neurological deterioration of some sort.

He suggested, since I was going away, to board Kate at the vet's so they could monitor her and run some tests. That took a load off my mind.

They only did a blood test, and it showed the kidney damage is progressing. That was expected.

I called while I was gone and the vet said she was doing well, was able to stand on non-textured surfaces and was eating.

When I went to pick her up Wednesday, it was raining again. Kate wasn't doing well. The vet said possibly the damp conditions were aggravating her arthritis, and he gave her an nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory.

Getting her home wasn't easy. She was yowling most of the way, something Kate never does. Fortunately, I asked a neighbor to sit in the backseat with her and keep her calm. She wrapped a towel around Kate and that helped a lot.

Finally, we got home and Kate's back legs really weren't functioning all that well. They were crossing at times, and occasionally the top of the paw would end up on the ground. I had to use the towel (it's red and, by the end of the exercise, it was quite hairy) to lift up her hindquarters.

She was better Wednesday evening.

Since then she's been OK. It rained a little Friday morning but it didn't seem to bother her. She actually came to the door when I came home from grocery shopping.

I put a large rug down on the floor next to her so she has some traction. A neighbor gave me a comfy dog bed her poodle wouldn't go hear, so Kate has a choice.

Actually I found that she had even another choice, much to my surprise.

I got home Thursday and opened the patio door. Usually I can see Kate on one of her beds from the door, but she wasn't there. I had blocked off part of the kitchen and living room so she couldn't go too far afield.

My heart skipped a beat until I got in the living room and turned on the lights. There was Kate, on the couch, as nice as you could please. (Photographic evidence above.)

Frankly, I didn't think she could still get up on the couch, but I was wrong. My real concern was whether she could get off the couch.

And she could.

So that's why I haven't been blogging. I've had my mind elsewhere, and on top of that, Wednesday and Thursday were crazy busy in the newsroom.

I'll keep you updated on Kate.

Photo: Michael Woyton/Poughkeepsie Journal.

1,000th blog entry

Believe it or not, this is my 1,000th blog posting.

My first post was March 19, 2007. How time flies.

What have I learned in the 3+ years?

I dunno.

I know that people are crazy about their pets.

I know that people spend money on their pets, more than ever before.

I know that I love my Kate, more than I did before I started this blog. If that's possible.

I know that Kate will not be here forever. And that is something I have to deal with.

I know that on Friday, Kate, who was diagnosed with renal failure in October, became disoriented, for lack of a better word, stumbling and flailing, and, if I hadn't been there, would have fallen to the floor. But I was there and was able to cushion her fall.

She recovered, only to relapse later in the evening. Same scenario.

On Saturday, I stayed close to her. She slept, drank water, didn't eat, but seemed to rally.

By the evening, she was her own self. Her own older self. She is, after all, 15 year old.

Yes, she sleeps. Yes, she has slowed down.

Yes, she is still the dog I love so much, who has given me 15 years of happiness.

She is looking at me now, as I type this. She stares at me with those big black eyes, with the touch of blue obvious at her age. Not to mention snoring.

I want her to live forever. I want her to always be there when I come home from work.

I know that isn't possible.

But I can hope, can't I?

Animals = personality?

Following up on my entry the other day of the complexity of animals (read it here), a friend sent me a link to a New York Times article that poses the question, Do animals have personality?

Duh. Just look at Kate.

The piece, written by Natalie Angier, talks about "the burgeoning field of animal personality research.

Scientists studying animals from virtually every niche of the bestial kingdom have found evidence of distinctive personalities — bundled sets of behaviors, quirks, preferences and pet peeves that remain stable over time and across settings. They have found stylistic diversity in chimpanzees, monkeys, barnacle geese, farm minks, blue tits and great tits, bighorn sheep, dumpling squid, pumpkinseed sunfish, zebra finches, spotted hyenas, even spiders and water striders, to name but a few.

Researchers ask which geese are leaders and whether sensitive people have anything in common with squealing pigs.

Some critics complain that the term “animal personality” is a bit too slick, while others worry that the entire enterprise smacks of that dread golem of biology, anthropomorphism — assigning human traits to nonhuman beings. Researchers in the field, however, defend their lingo and tactics. “Some of the behavior patterns we’re talking about are similar to what we call personality in human psychology literature,” said Max Wolf of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. “So why not call it personality in other animals?”

So what do you think? Does your dog or cat have a personality?

Kate update

For all those who have asked how Kate is doing she has many more good days than bad. She gets a sour stomach from the kidney failure on average every other week. Other than that she iseating well and her water consumption isn't too out of hand.

Seems to be more seasonal shedding this year. Kate is keeping the vacuum busy.

Kate & the snow

Here's my Kate on the walk in front of my place. I think over the last couple of days we've had about 8 to 9 inches. (Some was melted by "warm" temps.)

In the City of Poughkeepsie, we had no where near the amount southern Dutchess had. Two feet of snow and massive power outages down there.

I hope everyone stays safe and warm.

Whajja bring me?

I know I've shown a similar video, but I just get a kick out of Kate nosing through the groceries when I come back from the store.

I realize I'm taking a risk, because there's chicken (both roasted and raw) in the bag.

Kate's a good girl, though. She may drool a little, but she won't tear into them.

Now, pound cake is another matter.

Cats who don't do much

The hilarious comedienne Paula Poundstone has 12 cats. She has made a few videos that feature her felines.

This one is called "My Cats Don't Do Anything."



I should make one about Kate, called "My Kate Doesn't Do Anything."

Oh wait, I just did.



Check out Poundstone's tour schedule on her Web site, and be sure and listen to her when she's on NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!

Happy New Year, New Decade, Birthday

I sure am glad to see 2009 go. To say there was turmoil in the newspaper business would be an understatement.

We can hope for better times in 2010.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

I got Kate from the shelter on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in May 1995.

They estimated her age at 4-5 months, so I randomly picked Jan. 1 as Kate's birthday.

Happy 15th Birthday to the best dog in the whole world.

Here's what I said in my first blog entry March 19, 2007. Three changes: Kate is older (so am I), I've had her for over 14-1/2 years and I now cover southern Dutchess County.

I have a dog. Dogs are the superior pet. I’m sure others might take issue with that statement. But it’s a fact.

At least to me it is.

That said, this blog is here for you and me to talk about all kinds of pets: cats, ferrets, rabbits, fish, turtles, gerbils, you name it. Even dogs.

Let’s get the formalities out of the way. I’m a reporter for the Poughkeepsie Journal. My beat is covering the eastern part of Dutchess County. But enough about me. Let’s get to what’s important – and what brings us here.

My dog is named Kate. After Kate Hepburn. It’s the cheekbones. Kate is a (best guess) 12-year-old (even more of a guess) boxer/shepherd mix, who is (absolute certainty!) a sweetheart and the best dog in the whole wide world.

I know people have had pets as a part of their lives probably since the first time a caveman dropped a bit of roast mastodon on the ground and a wild four-footed furry creature snapped it up and wagged its tail in thanks.

But even after over 11 years of coexistence under a number of different roofs, I still look at my dog and marvel at the fact that I’m sharing my home with another species.

And another species that is entirely dependent on me. Some have said it’s like having a 2-year-old child who never grows up. I say it’s more like having a 2-year-old who never stops shedding.

How about putting the slip cover on the dog?

Thinking of ways to change your decor in the New Year?

Well, the San Jose Mercury News has an article about coordinating your pet's needs with your household's.

"Most dogs like to stretch out on rectangular beds that keep their shape, with defined edges for hanging one's head over," says Julia Szabo, author of "Pretty Pet-Friendly: Easy Ways to Keep Spot's Digs Stylish and Spotless" (Howell, 2009).

She recommends a polar-fleece, futon-style bed by Bowser "that's tufted, so the insides don't shift. Burrowing dogs, such as dachshunds, should have a small blanket they can snuggle under. Cats prefer a round concave nest."

How exciting it is to know that William Wegman of the Weimaraner portraits has also designed illustrated fabrics for pet beds. Click here.

I particularly like the article's advice to color coordinate with your pets.

The apartment I rented in Connecticut had beige carpet in the living room and office. I religiously vacuumed once a week, but didn't realize how much Kate really shed until I moved to Poughkeepsie and had hardwood floors.

So if I truly embraced the color coordinating suggesting my life would only be beige.

Happy Halloween, all you lil' devils

To get you in the Halloween mood:

Evil Chipmunk set to music.

Evil Chipmunk devil.

Evil Chipmunk zombie.

Evil Chihuahua?

It's all in the diet

Kate has had a problem with commercial dog foods for a while now.

I fed her premium food from the beginning (ProPlan dry puppy food, then Iams Turkey and Rice dry food).

About five or six years ago, my vet in Shekomeko said I should change Kate to a senior food.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

The adult food I had Kate on was primarily what the name said: turkey and rice. There was very little cornmeal or corn product in it.

Not so with Iams senior food. The first ingredient was cornmeal, which was something Kate did not eat a lot of. There was a scant amount in one dog biscuit recipe I would make, but that was about it.

She broke out with bumps all over her body. And believe me, bumps was not the worst part of it.

The "end" result, if you catch my drift, was either trips outside twice an hour (I'm not kidding) or a real mess to clean up (I'm really not kidding).

I took Kate to the vet, who determined it was a food allergy and put her on a prescription food which was just potato and venison.

Flash Forward (which isn't a bad show, BTW) to a few months ago, when my new vet in Pleasant Valley told me they were no longer carrying the brand of potato and venison Kate had been on. So we switched to another (more expensive) prescription brand.

Not halfway through the second bag of the new brand, Kate developed diarrhea. At that point I went into the "white diet" mode — poached chicken, rice and fat-free cottage cheese. There was also a prescription powder — Tylan — a pinch of which is sprinkled on the food to help quell the runs.

Within days, Kate would be fine. So usually after a week of her system being OK, I would start reintroducing the dry food — slowly. It would go fine until I was up to 1/2 cup of dry, then, bam, the runs would start again.

Back to the white diet. Then reintroducing the dry. Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat.

I even decided to dump the prescription and go back to a natural/organic food like Blue Buffalo. I made sure there was no corn in it, but unfortunately the results were eventually the same.

One thing I noticed while Kate was purely on the white diet was 1) how much she seemed to enjoy it and 2) how well she did on it.

I had nothing to lose — except my throw rugs — so I decided to see what would happen if I kept her on the homemade diet. I added boiled hamburger to the mix, along with pasta such as ditalini or small elbows and mashed sweet potatoes.

Kate loved it, and frankly, it seemed to love her. She was even going to the bathroom less, which at first, freaked me out, because we are a nation that loves regularity and schedules. Once I figured out that she would go when she needed to go, I felt much better and didn't worry. As long as I was still providing her the opportunities to do so. (You have to wonder what goes into the dry concoctions that make the animal produce such quantities of waste.)

Here's a video of Kate enjoying a homemade meal. I add a couple of tablespoons of a canned, organic dog food to the food.



Since that video was made, I've been putting cooked green beans in her meal. And she's really scarfed them up. Oddly though, I offered her one as a snack and she spit it out.

As a precaution I give her a multiple vitamin, along with her glucosamine tablet. And I noticed her hair was getting a bit dry looking, but a touch of olive oil seemed to fix that.

It's a work in progress, one that seems to be doing the trick.

Is it more expensive than the dry food? The last bag of prescription, most of which is still sitting in my cupboard, was $65 for a month.

I think what I'm doing — buying hamburger and chicken on sale — is probably a little less than that.

And the relief factor? Priceless.

Hurrah!

The stitches came out today and the e-collar came off.

Before.

After.

All's well.

Cone of silence?

I'm not saying Kate wasn't getting used to the plastic Elizabethan collar the vet's office supplied us, but I was having a hard time dealing with it.

It seemed heavy.


And it seemed way too long for a dog Kate's size. A colleague of mine at work said her husband cut their collar shorter, but I was afraid of razor-sharp plastic edges.

That and the fact that I wasn't getting any sleep, because every couple of hours Kate would get up, walk around the living room and kitchen and try to paw the plastic collar off her head.

So on Friday, I stopped by Petco in Poughkeepsie and saw they had Comfy Cones. What the heck; I bought one.


They are padded, lighter weight and shorter than the plastic one. Kate seemed to take to it immediately. There's even a reflective strip around the edge of the cone, for night walking.



However, I do think she looks like a member of Mummenschanz.


The cone is flexible as well, and one can even fold it back to enable the dog to eat or drink. The instructions do warn that it shouldn't be left folded back, because that could defeat the purpose of the device.

It was even flexible enough to allow Kate to retrieve some p-mail messages at a neighborhood sign post.


All in all, since we still have a week to go to protect the stitches, I think the Comfy Cone is going to help me feel better.

Kate's nice short nails

They were clipped while she was under anesthesia.

No more dew claws of death.

Cue Abe Simpson

There's a line in the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?: Part 1" episode from the "The Simpsons" when Santa's Little Helper has to wear an Elizabethan collar.

Grandpa sees the dog walking by and says, "Hey, the lamp's running away."

Well, my little lamp didn't run away, but Kate has to wear an e-collar for the next two weeks.

Yesterday morning, I took her — after all these years — to have her teeth cleaned. And while she was under anesthesia, the veterinarian also removed a small growth on her eyelid that was making her eye produce some gunk.

Kate came through the procedures fine, though she was a little unsteady from the sleeping gas when I picked her up around 5 p.m. Her back legs really didn't start holding up their part of the bargain until around 7:30 p.m. or so.


I read — on the Enterwebs, of course — that dogs get used to having the cumbersome looking devices around their necks and can even eat, drink and sleep in them.

So I elevated her water bowl by using a coffee mug. To prevent the bowl from sliding around, I used some double-sided sticky carpet backing I had saved from when I had my stair treads installed.

Kate was able to drink her water easily, and I rigged her food bowl the same way.

I was going to title this entry "1 down and 13 to go," based on last night's experience. While Kate kept the collar on all night, it was not without a lot of effort on her part.

After a couple hours of sleep in a comfy bed, I went downstairs (the vets recommended Kate stay on one level and avoid stairs for a while) at 3:30 a.m. to check on her. She was sleeping peacefully.


That is, until I laid down on the couch, figuring I just sleep there for the rest of the "night," better to keep an eye on her.

Just as I was drifting off to sleep, Kate got up and tried to get the collar off herself. She walked around the living room and into the kitchen, stopping to successfully drink some water several times.

Finally after about 10 minutes, she laid back down and went to sleep.


About an hour later, she was up again, but only briefly as she tried a couple more times to shed her "collar of shame," as my friend Alice calls it.

Then she slept until well after I got up to start my day. She did manage somehow to get the collar off her head while I was in the shower. I reattached it and she went back to sleep.

Two weeks, huh?

And no, Kate, it doesn't matter which direction you point the collar. It doesn't help the reception on the TV.

Back to work — finally

Kate is pouring over the newspapers, wondering when she's going to see my byline again.

That look means she is wishing I would go back to work already. Being on vacation and constantly around seriously cut into her nap time.

Well, I'm back after more than a week off, so sleep well, Kate. I'll see you at lunchtime.

Kate eats well

I made Kate some dog food yesterday. Pretty simple recipe. On sale ground beef, boiled. Added to a drained can of sweet potatoes and some rice.

You can tell from the video that she really enjoys it.

That was just a snack. I usually use it to supplement her dry food.

Either way, it's a hit.

And she kept licking the bowl for another 45 seconds after I stopped videotaping. I figured you didn't need to see all that.

UPDATE: Youtube seems to be hinky today. The video will play but you just don't see a preview of it and I'm too busy working to figure out why.

UPDATE 2: I guess the Youtube gurus heard me. The preview now displays.

Kate & frozen yogurt for dogs

Sunday was another hot spring day in Pok City, so I gave Kate some Yoghund to enjoy.

More pictures from Beacon Barks

Thanks to everyone who was in Beacon on Main Street for the 3rd annual Beacon Barks.

Here are additional pictures I took. Embiggen for more detail and enjoy.

























And here's the best for last. Kate was a real trooper yesterday, in spite of the heat. She took every opportunity to get out of the sun. Hey, it's tough wearing fur when it's hot.