Toby, in trouble again

023 Dec 2006 001
Originally uploaded by soukii.

Well, not really in trouble– just creating drama, I guess.

He had to get a couple shots today in order for him to be boarded while we are out of town. Well he had a reaction to one or more of them. We come home tonight and notice his snout is HUGE (these pictures are taken after some medical intervention- geesh, I of course got him help before I took pictures!). So at 10:45 pm, I drive him to the vet for a shot of benydryl (sp?) and prednosone (sp?). He looks a little better already.

Clicking the picture will take you to the flickr page where you can see a "before" picture for comparison, plus a couple other swollen pictures.

Good night.

 

Quick, I need to buy a lottery ticket before I run out of luck

I don’t consider myself a lucky person. I don’t consider myself unlucky either. I just have no luck. Until today.

I procrastinated until the last minute to secure boarding for Rosie and Toby while we are in SoCal. I’m new at this boarding thing because my dad always watched them before. So, what I have learned is that I need to book dog boarding when I book my plane tickets.

We are leaving next Thursday. I started calling on Tuesday. I got laughed at by one place. Another put me on a waiting list. I was screwed. I called all places nearby. I expanded my search radius. I was beginning to worry that I was going to have to ask my new friend to take the dogs. This would have been horrible. She has 2 big dogs already, plus she is having her in-laws staying for the holiday. I think Toby would have wrecked our friendship. He’s a little shit. I wouldn’t wish him upon my worst enemy, let alone my new BFF.

So today I started calling places that are on the way to the airport. I came across an internet ad reminding me that PetsMart had boarding. There is a PetsHotel at the store by the mall, not our PetsMart in town. I called. The man I spoke to was so pleasant and funny. Turns out, he had just gotten off the phone with a cancellation for the EXACT days I wanted! He couldn’t believe my luck. (I couldn’t believe my luck!) They’ve been booked for Christmas week for 6 weeks. He said they don’t have a wait list because they don’t want people to have false hope because cancellations so rarely happen. Rosie and Toby will have to share a kennel, which will drive Rosie crazy, but I signed Toby up for "play time" twice a day to give him stimulation and Rosie a break.

Thank God I can cross that off my list.

 

Toby’s ear, as promised

Gosh, I can’t believe it took me so long to post a picture. Probably  because Toby does not know how, nor does he want to sit still for pictures. Anyways, I got one of his ear today… total fluke. But lucky, because I forgot I didn’t take one yet, and the staples are coming out tomorrow.

Click on the pic to see them better. Now that it is totally healed, it looks even more like he has piercings! Pretty funny.

FYI, that is snow on his nose from him playing with the kids today. They all had a ball. It is perfect, the kids like throwing snow on him and he loves it being thrown on him. Much better than throwing it at each other or at mom and dad, wouldn’t ya say?

 

Toby, part 2

Poor Toby. I think I need to come up with a new name for him, maybe "Unlucky". Tonight we went to our weekly dog training class at Petsmart. We were waiting with the other dogs in class for the class before to finish. Toby was sniffing a terrier-mix. The dog freaked out and snapped at Toby. Toby cried and yelped. I checked him out and he looked fine. The other dog owner felt horrible.

Anyways, half way through class, I’m petting Toby’s head and get blood on my hand. On the inside of his cute, floppy ear, he had this deep cut. It was really gross. You could just open it up and see veins. Gross. Luckily there is a vet inside Petsmart. Ended up needing 11 staples! I’ll take a picture tomorrow. Looks like a punker’s ear piercing. They had to sedate him. He’s all drugged up right now. Thankfully, Petsmart picked up the bill.

What would have happened anywhere else? I don’t know if I would have asked the lady to pay for it. But, she should have offered. She didn’t offer in this instance. This is not the first time her dog has been aggressive. Hmm. She brought him to class to help him not be so aggressive.  He’d been doing better. I shouldn’t have let Toby get so close. She shouldn’t have let Toby get so close. Who is to blame? Who should be responsible? Good questions. No right answers. I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay.

 

Update:

Toby is fine. In fact, he is better than fine. A week after his surgery he was fine. Unfortunately that means he is up to his old tricks. Damn dog. Maybe that’s why we love dogs so much, because they are stupid. He has no clue that eating– rather, swallowing– the corn dog stick is what made him so sick. And because of this lack of knowledge, he is still eating everything he can get to. We’ve been UBER vigilant about keeping stuff off of the ground now. So, what does he do? Jumps up on the table, couch, chairs, etc. to reach something he shouldn’t. His current favorite object, anything wood, especially pencils. And if they are colored pencils…. EVEN BETTER. He’s getting to the point that he hangs out under the table when Macy is doing homework or coloring, because she will invariable leave the table unattended for a minute so he can snatch the pencil. It also means that when he can’t get his wood fix in the house, he’s chewing on the bark outside and HUGE pieces of branches and stuff. Oh yeah, he also likes to chew on rocks. Big ones– bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball– are the best because he can carry those in his mouth.

UGH, it has been very frustrating. In fact, every time I’m getting something from his grasp I get more frustrated and mad at him. Scott attitude was, “Don’t get mad at him, it is our fault for leaving stuff around.” But now that we are being better about not leaving anything out and he is being more sneaky in his ways of getting said things, I’m irritated.

I even said the other day, after I could only find the chewed cap of a pen and no sign of the pen itself, “If he eats something else that he can’t pass, I’m not going to go through another surgery.”

Scott didn’t believe me, “You’d let him die?”

“I don’t like hearing it put that way, but yes. I’m not going to shell out another $2000 for a surgery he’s already had and could require again and again. Especially after you’ve been bitching at me for not sticking to a budget.” (More to come later about the budgeting.)

After a few minutes pause, “Well, I don’t think I could let him die. He frustrates me, but I love him.”

Great. Scott is such an animal lover, but I thought he hated Toby. After everything naughty thing Toby does, Scott makes a huge deal about how dumb this dog is, about how he is MY dog, about how he didn’t want another dog, etc, etc. What a softy. He can’t not love an animal under his charge! HA. Unfortunately, now we have 3 animals that he loves, 2 are getting very old, that means we could have some HUGE vet bills in our future. But I will not have the “Budgeting” talks if he wants to spend thousands on geriatric pets. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

 

When the going gets tough….

the tough, evidently, get a puppy. Well, at least that’s what I do. I mean, afterall, won’t a puppy make everything better?

Meet Toby. 9 week old male Puggle (pug/beagle mix).