Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all!

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions. They are hard to stick with, especially those related to deep seated behaviors like “exercise more”, “eat less juk food”, “save more for retirement”, etc. New Year’s celebration strikes me as being arbitary, but I happily accept a paid day off!!

Last night we heard some fireworks at midnight. They woke us up, otherwise we would have happily slept through New Year’s Eve midnight. The dogs did not like the noise one bit! Our lab (75 pounds of dog) insisted on squeezing her way between us on the bed for protection from the fireworks noise. I’m happy to report that she survived.

On the subject of  New Year’s Eve I think a lot of people see sleeping though midnight and not partying as a marker of middle age. When people ask what Gary and I were doing New Year’s Eve and I said “staying home and going to bed around 9″, the middle aged and older folks smiled knowingly.

Dogs with Bones

A friend told me how much her dogs like stew bones. She gave me 2, I boiled them and the dogs love them.

Police Dog Biting Demonstration

A few weeks ago in Prescott, AZ we had a dogtoberfest at the courthouse square. There were rescue groups with dogs to adopt, dog related businesses had booths, contests, speakers, even a Catholic priest who blessed all the dogs. Many people attended and brought their dogs with them. We left our 2 dogs home because Suzie likes to fight with other dogs.

A highlight of the day was a demonstration by the Prescott Police Department K9 squad. They explained how the dogs are trained to bite on command. They start by having the dog play fetch with the training sleeve and build on that. When the dog is commanded to bite the dog is “playing fetch”, not acting aggressively.

I took the following sequence of photos of the dog charging and biting the training sleeve.

Woman Saves Dog From 14 Foot Long Snake

In Hong Kong, a woman fought off a 14 foot long python that was trying to eat her dog. Good for her! She may not have known she was a warrior until she was called upon to defend her dog. The article said she fought it with her hands and feet. Too bad she did not have a handgun or even a good knife.

Doggie Surgery (updated)

Updated 9/7/2007    Annie’s stitches were removed today. Both wounds healed well. Her eyelid looks normal, and her side will look OK after her coat grows back.

My dog Anne had surgery yesterday at the Prescott Animal Hospital. She had a fatty tumor (not unusual in older dogs) removed from her side and a growth removed from her eyelid.The eyelid growth was a big concern, we could see it getting larger over time. Our vet, Dr. Amy Dow, told us it’s possible for a dog to develop a melanoma there. So we decided to have both these removed.The growth on her eyelid turned out to be a gland that the eyelash grows from that developed some kind of problem. No melanoma, no cancer!

Annie is doing a lot of sleeping today. Gary and I are very relieved.