Golden Love

I was going through my old pictures recently and came across some pictures of my previous dog, Monty. Monty was a purebred golden retriever, one of my favourite kinds of dogs. He was smart, loyal, excitable and a great family pet.
As with pretty much every dog, there are some issues. With him it was hot spots. This time of the year, about 11 years ago, we were pulling our hair out, dealing with this.
Hots spots are areas where it gets very itchy and the dog has a mad compulsion to lick and chew it until it is bald, raw and icky. I'm not sure why our dog had them. He was groomed properly, and we were careful not to dry his skin out. We tried changing his diet because too much grain, corn or soy (in so much dog food) can affect some dogs with allergies...it didn't really help. We were told that he was probably sensitive to flea bites....but he was on flea control pills and he didn't have fleas. We tried some creams, and some thing that tasted nasty, supposedly that would prevent any unsavoury behavior involving his mouth and his rear end.(the area where he usually chewed) but once a spot was started, it was almost impossible to stop.
We tried bandaging up the sore areas, but would always find them in a pile when we got home from work, as well as a grumpy and kind of gooey dog. Occasionally we would put the cone of dread on him, when we went out.
It was a little late in the game when he had his first cortisone shot. I think there may have also been a little sorcery involved. That pretty much put a halt to it. I don't know why we were not told about it by our vet at the beginning, but it worked. Having that break in the itching gave the wounds time to heal, and we made sure to keep his diet and flea control on track. Once summer was over, it seemed to go away until the battle began the next summer.

In conclusion, Goldens are almost perfect, except for hot spots....
and the lawn sausages (but all dogs leave those).

Dog Quirks

Beep...beep....beep.......

This is the sound of my dog backing out of the kitchen.
The lure of any kind of food will bring my dog into the kitchen like a lightening bolt. Once she has managed to puppy-dog-eye her way into getting a little piece of whatever I am making, she leaves the room. Backwards. She will not walk right through, but willl turn around and go butt first out the door. She will not walk out face first and starts to panic if you try to make her. I think it's because the floor is tile. Maybe she had a Bambi-on-ice moment when she was a pup.

Possibly related, is her longish toenails. You see, she is a rotti cross, and rotti's are know to have issues with people touching their feet. Sure when she was a pup, we used to purposely touch her feet and trim her nails, in an effort to get her used to it, but one day (no she wasn't hurt) she just decided not to allow it anymore. She pulls her paws away, snarls, cowers, and gives us the evil eye, and I think she also uses the ultimate weapon, passing gas to keep us away. We can try by holding her, or nicely coax her with lots of treats, but no go.



The last time she had them trimmed well, was when she was knocked out getting x rays, after getting her knee surgery last fall. Otherwise, it is just the ends of the longest nails that get trimmed, usually a couple at a time. Our middle daughter has the most success with her.
If you have a rotti, be aware that this is one of their little quirks, they often hate having their feet touched, but if you do it gently and often when they are young, you may have a chance at having less problems when they are older. Didn't work for us, but that's kind of the norm around here.

Happy Birthday Martha

Just saying happy birthday because Martha is an Etsy lover ...yay!!!!! Not going to say how old she is. She's older than me and that's all I care about.
I am going to reprise an earlier post about her, that I wrote.

How Martha Makes a Peanut Butter Sandwich:

1. Grind wheat, make bread dough and bake bread.
2. Get top quality, hard to find, no preservative, hand made by nuns or monks using peanuts too good even for squirrels, peanut buerre.
3. Get jar of last summer's home made strawberry preserves that you slaved over and gave to all your friends instead of gifts at last Christmas.
4. Cut cooled bread into nice thick slices.
5. Generously spread peanut buerre on one piece of bread. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
6. Spread jam on the other slice of bread. Top with fresh strawberries cut into rose florettes.
7. Arrange bread on an attractive plate, side by side. Top with melted Ghirardeli chocolate and add a sprig of mint on the side of the plate.
8. Enjoy with a friend.

...and a couple of new ones

If Martha Stewart was a zombie:

The Martha Stewart zombie would remove her victims brains (going after only the best quality brains) with her well oiled garden shears, and transport the aquired brains in a hande made brain carrying tote (from Etsy)to her well appointed, beautiful kitchen, and eat them out of custom earthenware brain bowls (from Etsy). They would be delicately seasoned with nutmeg and a touch of lemon for a little extra tang.


The Martha Stewart Computer Virus:

A self made virus, and entrepeneur of a virus. Very curious, and inquisitive. Seeks out files and finds ways to make them more efficient and appealing. Co-ordinates colors of the fonts and images on your screen so that it matches your decor. If found by your anti virus program and put into the vault, it only stays there a short time, and comes back stronger than ever.