Possumworld

Unbelievably, it has now been almost eight months since our little Miz Peaches LaRoo waltzed into our lives. The time has really zipped by and she has made wonderful progress integrating into our little family unit.

I need another treat!

She is Border Collie through and through, so there are quirks aplenty, of course. She learns everything (whether we want her to or not) with lightning speed. She goes towards every action with joy and enthusiasm, consequences be damned. No one will EVER sneak up on us, as unlike her placid brother Shmoo, Peaches is protective of her family and will bark at the slightest noise. This is good if a burglar wants to get in; this is bad if we are trying to sleep with the windows open on a warm summer’s night.

New things in the home are greeted with a certain modicum of suspicion and must prove themselves to be not a threat. It took several days for the new fan we purchased for the television room to be accepted as a “good” thing and not a “bad” one. It was a bit touch and go for a while though, but we are now all able to enjoy a cool breeze while watching TV of an evening.

I was quite concerned about thunderstorms, as our darling Diva Maggie was completely terrorized by them and only managed to get through them with a dose of Xanax. In fact, that didn’t even totally calm her down, just made it so that she was a quaking puddle of terror. I was very pleased to note that Miz Peaches doesn’t seem to mind thunder in the least; following the lead of big brother Shmoo and snoozing peacefully right through even the loudest booms without the slightest twitch of an ear.

We still have to get through the 14th of July next week, of course, so fingers remain crossed for that. I am not expecting miracles, but luckily, as long as she is safely inside our house, she seems to feel secure no matter what is going on outside, and I’m hoping this will hold true for firecrackers and fireworks as well.

I am also very pleased that the Peach is totally reliable off-leash as long as her big brother is not free to roam. I’m afraid that Shmoo-Alexander’s roaming days are over now that he’s shown his true  colors and Husky spirit. Even an obedient Miss like Peaches can’t be expected to obey when her beloved brother is out in the fields having fun and chasing voles!

She has, however, developed a very strange habit. It started slowly. When I would go out she would take one of my bedroom slippers and put it on her cushion downstairs. Then, she would take both of my slippers. Soon, she started taking them and putting them up on the couch in my office, which has become “her” place. I began to put my slippers out of her reach after she couldn’t control herself one day and instead of just taking my slippers took a little nibble.

She graduated to JM’s slippers, then to his sports shoes, which she chewed to pieces. So he had to start putting those out of her reach as well. We thought the problem was resolved. But lately, while I am taking my shower, she has started to remove JM’s socks from the bedroom. Now, we don’t have a chest of drawers, he just keeps them on a piece of furniture with shelves, so it’s hard to have them totally hidden away.

At first, I guess she was running a test, because I would come out and find one sock on the floor. Then a couple of socks on the floor. Then I would find one sock in my office, but this morning there were about half-a-dozen of them in my office! Clearly, the OCD is kicking in! I’m sure that it means something to her, because she looks very irritated when I pick them up and put them back.

Border Collies; you’ve gotta love ‘em!

Ciao for now and don’t chase too many voles!

Randy

I wanted to write about how beautiful things are here right now. The greens seem greener than ever following all the snow of this winter. The sky is a gorgeous blue (possible aided by volcano ash!) that makes you wish you could keep the color in your heart forever.

But evil lurks in that luxuriant grass.

My Shmoo is a big, powerful, healthy boy who learned all he knows from the BCs in his life (the late Diva Maggie McMiggins and his new girl, Miz Peaches LaRoo). In the almost four years that he’s been a part of our family, the only time he was really ill was when he ate Maggie’s leather collar!

So, on Friday when he wasn’t acting himself, I knew something was wrong. Yesterday it was clear he wasn’t feeling well. He wouldn’t play with Peaches and he turned down his favorite dried chicken treats. Then, last night he felt warm to me and was panting a lot.

This morning I checked the color of his urine and it seemed dark to me, although not brown. But I still thought that there was a good chance that he had picked up canine piroplasmosis (canine babesiosis) so I called our vet who is a good man and will see you at ANY time there is an emergency.

Shmoo definitely had a fever and a blood smear showed that my suspicion was correct; it was definitely the dreaded piro.

I’m lucky I got him to the vet’s in time, as three injections later we were out the door and on the way to recovery. He still needs to take a diuretic for the next five days to protect his kidneys from damage, but the chances are strong that he’ll make a complete recovery.

This proves that not even careful tick protection can keep the little nasties totally at bay. There is a vaccine available. It has had mixed results, but I’m thinking that if I use that and continue the tick protection we’re upping our odds of keeping the dogs from getting this again. I know we can’t wrap them in a cocoon of protection, but sort of wish that I could!

My boy is resting comfortably now, and we are all grateful to modern medicine at the moment.

Ciao for now.

Randy

That’s really the only reason I can think of that the dogs are trying to kill us.

It has been truly beautiful here today, so we went on our usual late morning walk to the gardens. We get to about the halfway point and unleash the hounds. The two of them just adore racing as fast as they can to the end of the “official” gardens and into the big open field at the end. Then, they start hunting for voles.

When we first got Peaches, she would come running back to wait for JM and me to get there and play frisbee with her. But she has since learned the joys of hole digging and is now as obsessed as big brother Shmoo.

They go way out into the middle of the field for their little excavating project, which we wouldn’t mind if they would come back to us. But they won’t. Peaches, who also had an amazing recall at first, now ignores us as much as Shmoo. Sure, they look up from “the operation” every now and again, but that’s it.

So, we have to go out and get them. Now that the weeds are growing, that is less easy than it was, because not only is the stuff up to our knees, but it hides the previously dug holes, so we have to be extraordinarily careful not to fall and break various body parts.

Still, we are usually able to get to them, give them treats and hook up their leashes so we can finish our walk. Not today though. No, today opened a whole new chapter in the experience.

I waded out to get them and they headed past me at high speed so Shmoo could go into the river. Nothing unusual in that as he loves a little wade before coming home. However, what was different was that instead of us being able to catch them afterward, they took off to an even farther field to boldly go where no dog had gone before.

JM refused to go out there after them, because it was getting pretty far away. He hoped they would realize we were gone and come back on their own. But they were clearly not interested in that, so I headed out to get them.

This other field is not only farther away, but it is twice the size of the usual field. Every time I would get close to them, they would run even farther! I did not find it at all amusing and would have just left them if it wasn’t that they were getting dangerously near to the road. If something had happened to them, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself, so after them I went.

I was lucky that they clearly found a particularly exciting spot and got so caught up in their destruction that they stayed there and let me catch them. To be honest, I only caught Shmoo, because I knew Peaches would follow along, which he would not do if I dragged only her away.

By the time I got them, I had been chasing after them for at least 20 minutes and I was damned tired of the game. My legs feel like lead from walking in a way I don’t usually walk and I am tired and still a lot irritated. Of course, I can’t take the irritation out on them, because they won’t understand it, so I just have to stay irritated for a while longer.

When I got back to JM we were both not happy. The dogs have now lost their running privileges for the foreseeable future. I feel bad, because they really love to run, but I can’t go through this anxiety again. I can let them loose in a friend’s garden, but that really isn’t the same thing for them because there’s not enough room to really run. But, so be it. If they won’t listen, they can’t be trusted.

Ciao for now,

Randy

I guess it was spring fever or something. Yesterday was simply gorgeous; temps were in the 70s and all was well with the world.

Because we were waiting for some artisans at the normal dog-walking time, JM had to stay home and wait and I took each dog out separately for a walk. Everything went well, both were well-behaved and we all were happy.

About 20 minutes after getting back, our plumber, Christian came over to look at a problem Mom was having with her sink. I opened the door to have him come in. Both dogs are supposed to sit and wait when I open the door. Peaches did; Shmoo didn’t. He took advantage of a second of confusion and made a break for it. He’s so fast, you just can’t stop him when he’s in that mood.

The problem is that it was rush hour and he runs straight down the middle of the street. Also, I was in my bathrobe and slippers! I went after him, but he just ignores me. One of the neighbor kids went to the other side of the Bastide to see if she could head him off. By the time I got to the end of the street though, he had already decided to come back and ran right back to me.

In fact, it’s not that I’m worried he’ll run off; I’m worried he’ll be hit by a car. A friend’s dog was killed that way during the last snow storm. It only takes a second, as we all know.

All is well that ends well, but it was really stressful!

Ciao for now.

Randy

It definitely has that feeling in the air. I know, it’s still the end of February and we’ve got another 3 weeks to go before the official beginning of spring, but you can feel it coming.

The real signs of a new season are there not in the daffodils that have poked their heads up into the air, even if they haven’t yet blossomed, but in the gardeners who are all out getting their plots ready for planting. You can see it in their eyes; that kind of hungry look that the avid enthusiast has when they’re about to embark on their passion.

I asked one of them yesterday if he wasn’t worried about us still having frost. He explained how it would be good, now that he’d turned the soil, because it would help to break things up even more. He was walking up and down his plot, looking like a racer waiting to begin a sprint.

I’m not sure if this is a sign of spring, but this morning when I took Shmoo for a walk (I had to walk the dogs separately for logistics reasons) there was a loose chicken in the gardens! His eyes lit up when he realized it was snack-on-the-hoof time, but he was clearly frustrated that I wouldn’t just let him go after it. I don’t know who had more spring fever: Shmoo or that chicken.

The chicken, by the way, was moving pretty fast for a creature with wings who instead chose to go by land. I didn’t know they could run that quickly. Of course, nothing outruns Shmoo in full out Shmoo-mode, so if I’d let him go, there would be one less feathery resident in Chalabre!

Ciao for now,

Randy

I have never seen anything like the ticks around here. We’re in the middle of winter; we’ve had several good dousings of snow; the temperatures have been well below freezing on and off for weeks; but the damned ticks seem to LOVE it!

We never had a problem with Maggie getting ticks, and Shmoo has been pretty well protected with a Scalibor collar and Stronghold (Revolution in the U.S.), but Peaches is another story! I’ve found several ticks on her despite that. Our vet thinks she’s more “fragile” and that’s why she attracts them.  I think she has a much finer coat than either Maggie or Shmoo and the ticks find it more appealing and easier to crawl on.  Whatever the reason, ticks are not a risk we can take here. 15% of them carry an illness that is deadly if not caught quickly.

Yesterday I decided to switch back to K9 Advantix. I had used that for Shmoo until our neighbor’s dog, Roxie, developed sarcoptic mange. I did NOT want to take any chances of that, so put him on something that protected against that as well as other things. Unfortunately, it does not seem to do as good a job against ticks as I’d hoped. And, the Scalibor collar protects against the mosquitoes that cause Leishmania and is supposed to protect against ticks as well, but clearly not so much.

Frontline Plus no longer seems to be as effective around here. Advantix protects against fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, so it’s worth trying. Unfortunately, Peaches had diarrhea this morning, which I understand can be a reaction to the Advantix. She hasn’t had more than the one attack, she hasn’t vomited or seemed lethargic, so our vet said to just keep an eye on her.

Aye Caramba!  It’s always something.

Ciao for now.

Randy

Hi Everyone.

I was wondering if I could ask a favor of all my loyal readers: I entered a photo of Miz Peaches LaRoo and Shmoo Alexander in an online pet photo contest. If you click on this link you can vote for us. You don’t have to give them your email or sign up for anything. There’s actually a prize of CASH for this one, so we would be very grateful to have your votes, since 2010 is shaping up to be a not great financial year. This could buy us a lot of dogfood!

Thanks for your help and time.

Ciao for now,

Randy

Most of France (and most of Europe!) is under a big blanket of snow today. Those of you reading from the UK don’t need me to tell you about the severe winter weather, of course. But it has finally made it’s way down to the Possum Kingdom and beyond.

We had lunch out yesterday with friends from the States who have spent the holidays at a gite near Castlenaudry. They drove over and we had a delicious meal at the Hotel de France. At lunch, you eat in the bar and they have the TV on in the corner. The weather came on and there was great talk of snow, cold temps and high winds. In fact, while we were there, the school texted the parents to tell them that school was called off for today in prevision of the weather.

Well, we’ve all been there before: dire predictions of terrible weather then nothing happens. Not this time. It started to snow yesterday afternoon and has mostly been snowing since. Granted, it’s nothing like what some places have; we’ve probably received about 10 or 12 centimeters here, but for us that’s a lot.

We took the dogs out at about a quarter to 7 this morning and it felt like we were walking through the set of Narnia. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and the trees were just heavy with it.

Shmoo has seen snow before, but not this much and Peaches only got to see the light dusting we had right after she was spayed. Both of them went totally crazy with this and just wanted to run and play. In fact, I was taking Peaches out for a quick potty break, when Shmoo realized that HE wasn’t getting to go out. He waited for me to get the door open and then took off in a wild dash around the village.  He circled twice at top speed before coming back home. I wouldn’t really have minded if I wasn’t worried about the few cars that were out being unable to stop in time to avoid him.

After lunch we went out again and more running and playing were enjoyed by the four-footed amongst us. When we got inside, Shmoo took possession of the cushion directly in front of the fire and steam dried. Now, both of them are sacked out on the couch in my office; I think I may join them in a nap.

Ciao for now.

Randy