Mutt Update

This is an update on our mutt. As you may remember a cat had scratched his eye on August 29th. Well, he had his original vet appointment that I described in the original post which was on August 30th. Then six days later, which was September 5th, we had to take him in for a follow-up. At that point they told us that he no longer needed to wear the "cone of shame" but we had to continue to give him the eye ointment until his next follow-up visit which was ten days later. That vet visit was yesterday.

Since we moved the vet is now a little under a hour away. But that is with good traffic. Otherwise it would be a lot longer. We didn't put his eye ointment in yesterday because we didn't want it to interfere with them checking his eye.

We got there early so they put us in one of the rooms and we waited for the vet to come in. She was on her lunch break but surprisingly walked into the room about ten minutes later, which was still before our actual scheduled appointment time.

As usual they had to bring in another vet because our dog is so happy, hyper, and strong that it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to do what the vet needs to do. I wasn't of much use. But literally one vet was helping Master hold him down while the other vet one checked his eye. The cataract is still there but we already knew that wasn't going away. However, all of the cloudiness is gone from his eye. There is no longer a risk of the eye rupturing or the eye getting infected thank gods.

His vision is a tad bit better. His pupil is dilating as it should be and he is moving his eye in order to follow movement. He is seeing a touch more than shadows and movement. There is really no real way of telling exactly how much he is seeing but at least we know that he is seeing enough. I think that has more to do with the cloudiness being completely gone from his eye honestly. Well that and the additional ten days of healing time.

They did a tear test to make sure that his eye is hydrating itself enough as the eye ointment can cause it to dry out sometimes. That test turned out fine. They told us that we no longer have to do the eye ointment but that now we have to give him eye drops 3 times a day for the next ten days. (There are a lot of tens going on here...)

The eye drops are basically to wash out any eye ointment that may be lingering in there as well as an anti-inflammatory to help with the last stage of the healing process. I do have to say that the eye drops are so much easier than the eye ointment. With the eye ointment you had to hold his eye open long enough to squeeze this gel like substance across his eye. With the eye drops we only have to keep his eye open long enough to put one drop in. It's a much quicker and easier process, which makes everybody happy. That includes the mutt.

The vet did say that we did not have to bring him in for another follow-up. Hooray!

Good News & Bad News

Well, today was our dog's follow-up visit. They stained his eye again and said that it looked better than it was when we first brought him in, which is a good thing. He gets to keep his eye, which was basically my biggest fear. He still has vision in that eye in so far as he sees movement and shadows. His pupil is responding to movement and light which is also good. The vet said that this may get better once the cloudiness is gone and even some of that has improved since the original visit which is another good thing. However, the cat scratch has basically cause a cataract in his eye. As a result his vision will never be 100% again. The vet assured me that the cloudiness will go away except for where the cataract is. He no longer needs his anti-inflammatory medication but has to continue with the antibiotic cream for another 10 days. In 10 days we have to bring him in again for another follow-up. The vet did say that the cataract will bother us more, cosmetically, than it will our dog. So where as this is a good news/bad news type situation we are still both highly upset as none of this would have been a factor if the damn cat hadn't done this to begin with. They also said that he no longer needs to wear the cone of shame if he isn't trying to scratch or paw at it anymore, but I am more comfortable with him still wearing it at night as he did try a couple of days ago to scratch at it. So... in 10 days we'll have another update. I made the appointment before we left.

This is our second to last night in this place. Then we will be moving. Sunday is going to be a very long day. We have to get the u-haul, drive that here with our car and my mother's car in tow to transport the more sensitive/fragile things that we don't want in the u-haul. Then we'll all go back to where we are moving in, dropping off everything, and then dropping off the u-haul again. Once that is done we'll have to figure out how to position things and hook everything up which will obviously not all be done in a day.

This has just a shitty situation all the way around. However, due to the move and having to set up everything I don't know when I'll be able to do my next post. I'm not closing the blog or anything. It may just be a while before I can post again due to the move.

Too Much

Today is my grandfather's 75th birthday. The birthday that the doctors have been saying he wouldn't reach. They have been saying that for four months. Well, as of 3:43am he is still alive. Honestly everyone is confused as to how the hell he is still here. Apparently even the doctors don't understand. And if doctors don't understand how, there is no way we'll be able to.

Aside from that this week has been extremely stressful. Master and I are of course worried about our mutt. We won't have any sort of update until Friday. It's now Tuesday. I wish we could have answers now, but if we took him in before Friday we wouldn't be able to receive a full update as he wouldn't have had enough time on the medication. If it was possible and made sense I would move the appointment up, but it doesn't so we wait.

We have been giving him his medication as directed. The antibiotics are are real big pain to get done since it has to go in his eye and is an ointment rather than eye drops. But we do the best we can and honestly the dog is getting a little better about it. I can't blame him for being a pain when it's time to do it though. I can barely handle putting eye drops in my own eyes on the few occasions when I've had to. I know I'd be much worse about an ointment.

He is still eating, drinking, and using the bathroom normally. He still wants pets and cuddle time. He is still sleeping quite a bit but that is to be expected. His eye is still cloudy but at this point I don't know if it's 100% because of the scratch, if it's part of the healing process, or if it's because of the ointment as it is rather thick. Like I said, we won't have any answers until Friday.

He was really, really good about me putting on the new "cone of shame" last night. He still bumps into things and what not but that's to be expected. I can't say I would be too graceful with a cone around my head. But it is necessary. Thankfully he only needs it when he is left alone, which means while we are sleeping. He hasn't been left alone as in both of us left the apartment at the same time. We don't feel comfortable with that. So it only goes on at night while we are both sleeping. However, I have still been sleeping in the living room rather than in bed with Master. It's not because I don't want to be in bed with my Master. I obviously do. I love sleeping next to Him. However, right now I think it is best if I sleep in the living room where the dog is so I can hear what he is doing... just in case. Yes, I am a huge worrier. But I always have been.

Also, the move is this week. We'll be moving either Saturday or Sunday. We haven't completely figured that out because we don't know which day we can get help. Master and I can do a lot of it on our own but there are some key items that He will need help moving. It's not that I won't help Him with them it's just the pure and simple fact that they are too heavy for me to handle. Our original plan was Sunday but today Master said that if we can get the help we need on Saturday He would prefer that day. I'll find out tomorrow whether or not that is feasible.

We are starting to pack a bit more. I got enough boxes and we have two suitcases and three totes. Two of the totes don't have lids but that's not a big deal. We just won't put anything breakable in them. However today (Tuesday) I won't be home most of the day due to my having to handle some things where we will be moving to. Then on Wednesday my father needs Master's help with finally clearing out Grandpa's house. This honestly should have been done months and months ago but hey... There is nothing I could have done to speed it up.

Since I won't be home tomorrow Master will be here with the mutt and on Wednesday He'll be gone and I'll be with the mutt.

*sigh* Isn't this week done yet? 

Gentle Giant *Small Update*

Friday started off so well. It really did. We had plans to meet up with my father, finally. But since we were already going to be in town and we weren't going to see my dad until the mid to late afternoon we decided to stop at my mom's house first and visit for a while. We brought our dog with us. He had a great time running around and playing. Master and I had a good time as well.

When it came time to go to my dad's house we headed out and when we showed up we kept our dog on his leash for a while so that he would calm down. My dad has a cat and they had never met before. Honestly, we were worried about our dog hurting the cat. Not because our dog is aggressive, but because he's a hound and well... sometimes ya worry about the dog looking at a cat or other small animal as prey and going after it.

After a while the cat was up on the kitchen counter relaxing and stared at our dog. No big deal. Our dog pretty much completely ignored the cat. But since everyone was calm we asked Dad if it would be okay to let our dog off the leash. He said fine.

So our mutt starts walking around my dad's place smelling absolutely everything because, like I said, he is a hound mix.

I stood in the kitchen just to make sure that our mutt didn't try jumping up on it. He's very tall. Since that is where the cat was I didn't want the mutt popping up onto the counter.

Well, apparently it wasn't the dog we had to worry about. My dad's cat is not declawed. We knew this and we also knew that his cat had lived with dogs before. Granted they were smaller dogs but we had seen the cat running around and playing with the dogs that were living there until my dad's girlfriend at the time moved out.

Our mutt started sniffing along the bottom of the counter, right under the lip of it that protrudes from the cabinets. The cat was pretty far back on the counter so I didn't think anything of it. Then as quick as fucking lightning the cat moved forward and swatted at the dog. He was like a fucking cobra. That's how fast it happened. Our mutt barked and then tucked his tail and ran into the other room. I was honestly very surprised by this and so was everyone else. Normally when an animal attacks another animal they react in kind. But not our mutt. Nope. He ran.

I honestly thought at first that the cat had clawed our mutt's muzzle like a warning shot. Like I said the hit was so fast that it didn't even really register until after the fact. After a few minutes though we all noticed that our dog wasn't opening his eye. Guess where the cat got him? Yep. The fucking eye. This fact only surprises me more in so far as our dog not trying to hurt the cat afterward.

But nope. We all gave him pets and cuddles telling him it would be okay. We left shortly there after. I called our vet about it. He was still keeping his eye closed most of the time but was trying to open it now and again. I've scratched my own eye and I know how much it hurts and burns so I figured that was why he was keeping it closed. Our vet clinic was already closed but I got a hold of the on call vet and he said to take our dog in as soon as the clinic opened in the morning. He said to just occasionally put a damp washcloth over his eye very, very gently every now and then. 

The vet clinic opened yesterday at 9am. Because I thought traffic was going to be worse we actually ended up getting there at 8:30am. So we just sat in the car. I kept the windows open and all that to make sure we were cool.

About two minutes before they opened we were waiting at the door and as soon as it was unlocked we walked in. Apparently the on call vet from the night before had called and let the vet on duty yesterday morning know that we were coming in and why.

They had to put drops in his eye to stain it so they could see it better. The cat had scratched the lens of his eye. There is an opaque spot right where the scratch is. She told me that she was prescribing him with an anti-inflammatory/pain killer that he can take orally, half of a pill twice a day. She also prescribed an antibiotic ointment that we have to put directly on his eye three times a day.

She checked and he still has partial vision in that eye even with the swelling that was occurring. She did tell me that she wants us back there in a week. I immediately made the follow-up appointment for this upcoming Friday. That's technically a day before a full week since the appointment has passed but she said that would be fine. She told me to continue to use the pill and the ointment everyday until the appointment.

She did tell me that there is a possibility that he either may only have partial vision in that eye after it heals or no vision at all after it heals. She also stated that if his eye ruptures he would have to have the eye removed. That is the absolute worst case scenario although she assured me that if that should have to happen, gods forbid, that the quality of his life would not go down at all.

However, she did say since that since he still has partial vision in that eye currently it is a good sign.

Our mutt has been eating and drinking and using the bathroom normally. He is sleeping a lot but the vet said that the pill and ointment may make him tired. Needless to say we are letting him sleep as much as he wants. Sleep promotes healing after all. I just pray that there are no complications and that he gets a clean bill of health next Friday.

Both Master and I are very upset. The more we thought about it the more upset we got. Of course we are upset about our pup and hoping that everything turns out okay but we are also upset about it happening at all.

We understand that the dog was just being a dog and the cat was just being a cat however... it's really, really hard to not be pissed off about it. I mean he is our kid. Plain and simple. And our kid is hurt and we can only do what the vet prescribes and hope for the best. That is a horrible feeling. And it's not even like it was an accident. I mean I know none of us thought that this would happen, obviously. Because if any of us did we never would have brought our dog down there with us to visit. This is a fact where basically someone's kid injured ours. And while that saying of kids will be kids, just like dogs and cats will be dogs and cats, it doesn't stop you from being pissed off about it.

One of the things that pisses us off is the fact that if this had been the other way around and our dog hurt the cat, our dog would most likely have been put down.

But not our gentle giant. Not our hound dog. Nope. Rather than retaliate, when he had absolutely every reason and right to, he ran and found his dad, Master, to seek comfort. And even though it hurt he has been the same sweet and loving dog he always is. When the vet was checking him he obviously didn't like it and kept trying to move away, but he didn't growl or even raise his lip at any point and he doesn't know her.  I mean this is the same vet clinic we go to all the time but he has only ever had to go in for his yearly checkup. The only other time he had to was shortly after we got him because we discovered he had a wheat allergy and a tape worm. So we had to go to an appointment for that as well as a follow-up. But that was four years ago.

The vet did send us home with a "cone of shame", which is actually called an Elizabeth collar. She said that he doesn't have to wear it as long as someone is able to keep a close eye on him because he cannot be allowed to paw at his eye at all as he could easily damage it further without meaning too. This means he has to wear it at night because we'll both be sleeping. Neither of us are crazy about that idea as he has never worn one before, at least not while he has been with us.

So, I took a nap earlier this evening. Now Master is in bed sleeping and I am staying up late so our pup doesn't have to wear it any longer than he has to. I'll put it on him right before I go to bed and I'll be sleeping out here, in the living room, with the dog just to make sure I can hear him if he tries to take it off or anything along those lines. I don't want to make him have to wear it but I am also not going to go against the vet's advice. I want to give him the absolute best chance possible of having his vision go back to normal. We've already had to stop him from doing it while we're in the same room so I can't imagine how much he'll try to do it when we're sleeping. And sure as hell I just had to stop doing my post to tell him to leave his eye alone. He literally woke up just to try and paw at it. Yep. No way we can sleep without him wearing it. I don't want him to injure himself further. I mean, he obviously wouldn't be trying to but that's because he doesn't know better.

Master and I are both very emotional and will be quite some time. The emotions range from worry to being utterly pissed off.

I will say that we are spoiling the hell out of our mutt. The vet said that was just fine, especially since he should get his rest and have food in his stomach through out the day so he doesn't have an empty stomach with the meds in his system. We can't allow the pup to eat his actual food whenever he wants, he has a very specific feeding schedule, but instead we give him treats.

I will also say that putting that ointment on his eye is a huge pain in the ass. I don't get mad at him for it or anything. I just try and make sure that I get enough on there without over doing it. The vet told me how much to put on but she also told me that because no dog wants their eye to be messed with, it would be difficult and to just do the best we could. Trust me, we are.

I just want to say this one more time... That cat is damn lucky that our dog didn't retaliate. 

**UPDATE**

It's honestly not much of an update. Last night I stayed up until about 5:30am to keep an eye on the mutt. Right before I wanted to go to sleep I put the "cone of shame" on him. However, it is the kind where you have to slide it over his head so I didn't really feel that comfortable once I saw how close it got to his eye when I was putting it on him. And of course as usual when you put one of those on a pet they bang into shit. I took it off as he couldn't lay down comfortably with it. As a result I set four alarms on my cell phone. I set each a hour apart. I slept on Master's recliner so that the dog could have full use of the couch if he wanted to sleep there. Each time my alarm went off I checked on the mutt to make sure he wasn't pawing at it. I caught him doing it once. I immediately got him to stop. I stayed up for about 20 minutes after that to make sure he wouldn't try to do it again but he just fell right back to sleep.

After the last alarm I just stayed up. I gave him his pain pill/anti-inflammatory. After that I somehow managed to put the ointment in his eye by myself. Admittedly it is a lot easier when Master is helping but it needed to be done.

After Master got up I gave Him the update on how the night went and that I already already given him the meds. I then I ran to the pet store. I had bought him a fleece bed for his crate but it was too small. So I exchanged that for the correct size. I also bought a nylon "cone of shame". I don't have to slide it over his head so I don't have to worry about it coming too close to his eye when I put it on and it'll do the same job the plastic one would do. Also it'll conform so that when he lays down he will be more comfortable. And since it is nylon and not hard plastic he shouldn't bang into things and have a hard time backing up or anything.  

Going For Walks

This post will probably show up as late since I'm starting it just before midnight. This is supposed to be my 06/13/14 post. I was sitting there watching TV with Master when suddenly my blog ran through my mind and I wasn't sure if a post was due on the 13th of the 14th. I looked and it was in fact due for the 13th. My days are running together. I've also been sleeping more during the day. I think it's stress and emotions. I took a nap for no reason yesterday and another unnecessary nap today. I wasn't even tired. I just drifted off for some reason. I hate that. I'm chalking it up to stress and high emotions. *shrugs* Not sure what else it could be.

I wanted to do a post about our pup today. Why? Because today something amazing happened! Okay, maybe it's not amazing but it's still pretty awesome. *laughs*

About two days ago we took him into the vet clinic to get his rabies shot and to test for heart worms. Thankfully he only needs to get his rabies shot once every three years. He is always such a sweet but hyper mutt and going to the vet clinic is no different. Our vet really likes him and treats him very well. As usual the shot and the blood test went smoothly. The results came back that he was heart worm free so we could proceed with giving him his monthly dose of heart worm prevention pills.

Like I said our dog can be very hyper. He's a good dog but when it comes to talking him for walks he pulls like there is no tomorrow. We had purchased a training collar, other wise known as a choke chain, and his pulling went down a little bit but not much. (To clarify I do not mean the pinch collar. I hate those and refuse to use them. However, the "choke chain" is something all of Master's dogs have had and He feels they are more reliable, as far as not breaking, rather than a typical collar. Our dog still wears a typical collar which his tags are attached to.)

As a result, Master had to take him out to the car while I paid the bill so he wouldn't be trying to drag Master all over the office. Our dog is almost as tall as me when he's standing on his hind legs and weighs about 67lbs. He is very strong.

As I was paying the bill and waiting for the receptionist to give me the new rabies tag and certificate the vet himself was standing there finishing up our dog's paperwork. The receptionist and I were joking around a bit about how our dog is so happy and hyper all the time. That's when the vet popped in and suggested a head collar. He said that our mutt should be a lot easier to handle during walks and better behaved when we take him to the vet or to a store.

Aside from pulling our dog is very well behaved. But he's 5 years old and has always pulled. Always.

After we got home from the vet visit I talked to Master about it a little bit and He told me to look into it. I did some research on it and found that the best place to go would be to Petco.

Anyway, today we decided that since he just had his rabies shot booster done we could take him to the store and look for a head collar. The most talked about one one the internet was the Halti head collar. As a result that is what I looked for first. I found it but Master pointed out the Gentle Leader head collar. It stuck out more because rather than just a size, it came with a weight recommendation. Since he is a bigger dog we feel better whenever we see a weight recommendation on the package. We also didn't have to try it on the mutt since it was fully adjustable. Awesome.

We went home and I was a little surprised at the instruction booklet that came with it. At first I was thinking that this was going to be way too complicated just because of how many steps were listed. But once I read through them all it was actually pretty simple once I got it fitted properly. From now on putting it on him will be easier.

As soon as we were sure that it was on and sized correctly we took him for a walk. Of course at first all our dog wanted to do was wipe his face with his paws to try and get it off. It didn't hurt him or anything, he just didn't like the way it felt. It allows his mouth to open and close all the way. It isn't a muzzle. But once we got on with the walk it was amazing how well behaved he was. Rather than trying to pull ahead he walked at our sides.

It has been a long time since I've actually been able to walk our dog. He weighs about half as much as I do and he's muscular. I could take him out to use the bathroom and take him in and out of the car with no problem but during an actual walk I wasn't able to comfortably control him.

But this time once our dog got a little more use to the head collar I was able to take the leash and walk him with absolutely no problem. It was awesome! I am very glad that we took the vet's advice!

Now, to get our dog use to the head collar, Master wants it put on every time we take him outside. There is the hope that we won't have to put it on him after quite some time (Master said about a year) of having it on but I have a feeling that once the dog knows it's not on he'll go right back to pulling. Only time will tell. For right now it was worth every penny and we've only had it one day.

I'm only raving about it because it was so nice to be able to walk our dog myself rather than just walking beside Master while He held the leash.

Big Heart

I have a big heart when it comes to animals. I feel bad every time I see one without a home. This is why we adopt our animals. I prefer to save one basically. Yes, dogs born from breeders need homes too. But there are a lot of people who want pure bred dogs and are willing to pay for it. Not everyone wants a mutt. Me? I love mutts. As does Master.

This is why I cannot go into an animal shelter unless I'm there looking to adopt an animal. I would walk out with one or at the very least feel horrible leaving without one.

The other day my cousin contacted me via text. I haven't talked to this girl in years. Anyway, her and her husband are looking to re-home one of their dogs. What amazes me is they literally got her five months ago. I told her that unfortunately we don't have the room or finances for another dog right now, other wise I would love to. It was hard saying no, but I know we have limitations and if you cannot care for the animal properly, you don't get the animal. That's all there is to it.

Although, since they had the dog such a short period of time I did ask why they were looking for a new home for her. Apparently she is currently pregnant with child number three. They didn't know this when they adopted this dog. This dog isn't even a year yet. She won't be a year old until October. So, since she still has a lot of puppy in her and she is a high energy dog, they know that they can't take care of her and a newborn at the same time.

I'm glad that they are being responsible about it though. I wished her luck in finding a good home for the pup, but that was all I could do.

We have been watching that Dog Whisperer show again. I love that show. But I get a little jealous whenever you see his pack of about 30 dogs or so. I would love to be able to have a large pack of dogs like that. Don't get me wrong, I love our dog very, very much. But it would be nice to have more dogs for us to love and care for and for him to be friends with.

Radar Day

Today was one of what we call "Radar Days". Radar is our 18 month old Blue Tick Coonhound/Australian Cattle Dog mix. And at least once a month we decide (out of no where usually) that it's a Radar Day. It's a day where we focus pretty much the entire day around the pup.

Master and I are huge animal advocates and so when we have the opportunity to spoil our pup just a little bit more, we do. Today we took him to two different pet stores, so he got some car rides out of the mix as well. At one store he got a new chew bone. He had pretty much chewed the other one down to half it's size already, so it was starting to become unsafe. Time to replace it. We normally have to buy him a new bone about once every few months. Thankfully they are rather inexpensive, and for how much he enjoys them we can't really complain.

He got to meet a few dogs, and did a lot of barking. He's normally a very quiet dog, but when he sees other dogs he gets so excited and wants to play, so he barks his fool head off. We're still working on his manners, but he's come a long way. He had no training when we first got him except he knew "sit", kind of.

So he's doing quite well, and we're both very proud of him. Right now Master is teaching him "paw". It's "shake" just with a different trigger word. We want to teach him this because it'll give him something to do when he meets new people rather than just jumping on them. Yeah. He's a jumper. But we've been doing everything we can to make him sit before we allow other people to pet him. He's going with that pretty well, but I think learning "paw" will help him even more to learn that jumping on people is not acceptable behavior unless they ask for a hug.

When we got home he took a nap, and then he watched Rescue Ink on Netflix with us. We all love the show, including Radar. Then Master worked with him a bit on his training, and now he's back to napping.

I think he's a very happy boy.

Bumming Around Kind Of Day

I got up a little before 10 am today, which kind of surprised me since I had my alarm set for 10am. It's rare for me to get up before the alarm goes off to be perfectly honest.

So I got up, got dressed, took the dog out and then headed to the gas station. I figured Master would be awake before I got back so I got Him a pack of cigarettes and a sandwich, came back to the apartment, dropped those off, left Him a note and then headed back out.

I had to renew my vehicle registration, and of course those bastards only take cash or check, so first I had to stop at the ATM. Due to construction what should have been a 15 minute drive turned into a half hour to get to the emission test station. Thankfully I got there early enough that the line wasn't that bad, and within five minutes my car was being tested. It passed, and I pulled around to the office so I could go inside and get my stupid $75 sticker that goes on the back license plate. Well it was supposed to be $75. But apparently they charge a $10 over the counter fee. *grumbles* So I paid $85, and just can't wait to do it all over again next year. *rolls eyes*

I got back home around 11:30am and Master was amazingly still sleep. Honestly I was a bit shocked by that. Unless we're both sleeping in really late, He's normally up at a rather early hour, even on the weekends. That is, unless He's sick.

So I got undressed, climbed into bed next to Him and nuzzled and kissed Him awake. He was surprised by the hour at well, and seems to be feeling fine.

He took His shower and then gathered His clothes up so I could do His laundry. I talked to my mother for a little while, and I told her I was proud of her since she laid into my 25 yo baby brother because he's acting like a complete asshole while she's supporting his ass. I wanted to applaud her. She doesn't want me or my Husband to lay into him because she thinks it'll just cause more problems for her, although we have both been chomping at the bit for that.

So I was glad that she finally did it.

Then Master and I decided to alleviate our boredom by turning today into a Radar day! Radar is our dog. Here are some pictures of him, because I'm not sure if I ever posted one on here or not:

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He's our pup, and we love him.

So we took him to two different pet stores so he could socialize for a while. He got to meet two different dogs. One he seemed to really like, it was a very young.. I'd say about three months old... Great Dane puppy. Absolutely fucking adorable!

While at that pet store we got him some wheat free treats, and a new water bowl. He had two medium size ones in the kitchen, but he only ever drank out of the one (I have no idea why) and lately we've been filling the other one about three or four times a day. So instead of two, one of which he wouldn't drink out of, we decided to get him a huge one. Seriously. It's enormous.

He will only eat if he can see us, so we have a food bowl attached to his crate, which we keep in the living room. That way (since we're almost always in the living room if we're awake) he can see us and feel comfortable enough to eat. That bowl was a good size, and didn't need to be replaced.

Then we went to the second pet store, and he got more treats and a treat dispensing toy. He met a very large 9 month mastiff mix. This dog is going to grow up to be a horse.

Radar wasn't too sure about this dog, but they played for a little bit (while on leashes, obviously) and when Master said it was time to go Radar started barking at the mastiff mix, as if to say, "Come over here and play more! My Dad is dragging me away from my fun!"

We all headed home shortly after that. Master and I went out to dinner, and when we came back we gave Radar his new treat dispensing toy. Guess how long it lasted before he tore a piece off? Yeah. 10 minutes, if that.

So I threw it out. He enjoyed it for a little while and looked at me as I threw it away like, "But Mom! That's my toy!" Poor pup.

Thankfully he likes his new water bowl. His old ones were thrown out.

Master and I have been enjoying our evening together, and I'm so glad that we got out the house with the puppy. I think it helped Master too, since He's been feeling cooped up lately.

Relaxation

Today my total of four hours of work went by rather quickly, which was nice. So before I knew it I was home. Shortly after I walked in the door Master and I headed back out to go to the local treasurer's office. We shelled out the $12 and got Radar his dog license. So we can finally send in that pet agreement to our landlord. The only concern I had was that since Master was the one to take Radar to the vet to get his rabies shot, His name was the only one on the rabies vaccination certificate. And due to that, His name is the only one on the dog license. But Master reminded me that since we are married, and there is an emergency, there shouldn't be a problem if I'm the only one who can respond.

After that we came back home and played with Radar for a while. Due to the ups and downs of the weather neither Master, myself, or Radar is feeling 100% right now. So we're trying to "make" Radar rest. It's not easy.

Master and I went out to dinner and are relaxing currently. As I stated before neither of us are feeling 100%.

Now we're looking into flea and tick preventive medications. I'm trying to find the best deal for Radar. The vet suggest Frontline plus, but I want to make sure that's not just a promotion they get paid to push. So I'm shopping around. Any suggestions?