{27dec2010: ATB}

Our neighborhood pet store, All the Best (ATB) Pet Care, gave out Christmas goody bags.  We walked up there the other weekend to pick up Darwin's.
I tried to get her to take a picture by herself in front of the inflatable Santa and snowman, but it was drizzling and she wanted to get home and to her dry comfy couch.

So we quickly ended our photoshoot and speed walked home so we could see what goodies she got.  

I was surprised at how generous they were!  I thought we'd get a small cookie and maybe a ball, but there were a lot of good things in the bag.

Toys, raw food sample, canned food, treats, poop bags!



Us being the genius (and somewhat cheap) parents that we are, gave her a few of the treats, then wrapped up the toys and giant bone cookie and put them in Darwin's Christmas stocking.  hehehe.  Thanks All the Best!
What kind of goodies did you all get for Christmas?

{25dec2010: Merry Christmas}

{24dec2010: Bffs at the Park}

After Saturday's walk the girls were pretty mellow the rest of the day.  Sunday being Darwin's most favorite day of the week, the girls were eager to get out of the house and go to the park for the weekly Great Dane "convention".  

We ran into this big guy who was quick to check out both Darwin and Friday.

Then another blue girl showed up and a booty sniffing train formed.

We found the rest of the group and Friday introduced herself to the other Danes.

Darwin's Irish Wolfhound friend, Tessa, showed up and the two of them had a blast chasing eachother in the fields.

Winston showed up and wanted in on the Darwin play time action.

Meanwhile Friday was off to the side waiting patiently.

Darwin even got herded by a little Shepherd dog.

After we left the park we stopped at Target  real quick.  Darwin was in the back of the car, Friday was in the back seat. We ran in real quick, and I came back out while Jason paid and where did I find Friday?  In the front seat just hanging out.

When we got home both girls passed out and soon it was time for Friday to get picked up. It was cute and sad, once Friday left Darwin seemed so depressed that her bff was gone.  She was restless and kept going to the door.  We even heard that once Friday got home she wasn't acting like herself and seemed sad to not have Darwin around.  Poor girls.  

{22dec2010: wordless Wednesday}

Scenes and creatures from Hawaii edition.
{Kona coastline}

{Kona sunset}

{another Kona sunset}

***

***

{view from Diamond Head, Oahu}

{surfer at Ehukai beach, North Shore, Oahu}

***By these pictures you'd never guess how freaked out I am by geckos/lizards.  It took much control not to scream out as we were eating lunch as the geckos would climb on the windowsill to eat the honey.  Ugh.  I'm trying to work on my irrational fear of them as to not embarrass Jason like I did when I screamed bloody murder at Machu Picchu  when  a lizard crossed my path.

{21dec2010: Bffs}

The other week we had Friday stay with us again.  It was a beautiful Saturday morning so we thought we'd start the day with a walk around the neighborhood and a stop to get breakfast and coffee.

While Jason was inside the bakery checking out the goods, Friday was making friends with dogs in the neighborhood.

{Hi my bff.}

Even though Jason was dying to get home to watch one of the last weekends of college football, I made us take a detour to this look out to get a picture.

We also stopped at a park to let the dogs get some zoomies out for a little bit.

Even though we've done this walk a ton of times, this time I realized how much I like the fact that we can see the Space Needle while we're out walking.

Happy Holidays from Darwin and Friday!

{20dec2010: update}

We woke up Saturday to no power and pouring down rain.  Since I needed a clean pee sample for Darwin we thought we'd take her down to the garage to find a covered spot to do our collecting.  Darwin was so confused as to why we would take her to the garage to use the bathroom.  Even though she hates the rain she found the one uncovered area to walk out to do her business. I quickly slid a tupperware container under her to get our sample.  Of course I read online not to get the first drops, so I waited til she went a little then slid the container under using a rubber glove covered hand, but since she had already gone a little the container slid in pee and I didn't think about it til I touched the bottom of the container with the non gloved hand and got pee on me anyway.  hahaha.  
It took a while to figure out how to get the garage door open since the power was out (thank goodness for Facebook friends who are smarter than we are) but once we did we dropped off her sample for testing.  We had a bunch of errands to run and so Darwin came with us and we walked around the neighborhood by the vet and ran into this cute little Golden puppy tied outside one of the stores.  She REALLY wanted to play with Dar.




I don't think Darwin was quite sure what to make of this hyper leash biting puppy and though they had a small round of bitey face, she was quickly over it and we moved on. We did see another dog tied up outside another store and he was not as friendly.  As we approached him he quickly jumped up and arched his back and showed teeth. Not a friendly puppy.  We crossed the street and avoided him (I was kind of annoyed because I did want to look at the store he was in front of but was unsure of him after that).  I don't understand how people can tie their dogs up outside a public area if their dog is that angry.  It's happened before in our neighborhood when we tried to walk to the store a dog went crazy barking and snarling at Darwin as we tried to walk by.  If your dog is slightly aggressive or scared of other dogs don't leave him where he could cause harm to someone else. 
Anyway it was a good weekend and Darwin had a blast at the park yesterday, then last night she started whining/yelping again.  We were worried about it because she was more vocal than last time so I called the vet first thing in the morning and the vet tech said it could be bladder stones, but no crystals were found in her sample but it could be that they had just turned to stones already, so we made an appointment and I took her in.  The vet said her urine test from Saturday came back totally clean and with normal gravity levels and no crystals or blood so while it was possible stones could have formed it seemed unlikely.  She stretched out Darwin's back legs and checked her spine and Darwin showed signs of pain when she did that.  The vet thinks Dar just strained some muscles from running hard at the park yesterday and said to restrict her off leash play and do hot and cold compresses and massages and gave us some Tramadol to ease the pain.  It has been a few weeks since our last acupuncture appointment so we may need to book another one soon.  Let's hope this resolves the random whining and we can stop worrying about it!

{18dec2010: not a UTI}

We got a call from the vet last night with the results of Darwin's urine sample.  It turns out that there doesn't seem to be a UTI, but they watch the culture for a few days in case something changes, but for now things seem normal.  The not so good news is her "specific gravity" was low.  They aren't sure if it's low because she's drinking a lot of water or if it's something more serious such as renal failure.  Our vet tech Ashley said she highly doubt it's renal failure as it's very rare in a dog so young so we shouldn't start getting too worried about it.  They want us to do a first morning catch of urine from Dar and bring it in for testing.  The first morning sample would be a more accurate reading as it should be more concentrated after a night of letting her kidneys do their thing.  Any advice from anyone on how to catch her pee?
I asked about what happens next if this next round of tests show a low gravity and she said it's unlikely, but if it happens we would do blood work on Darwin and go from there.
All this talk about kidney problems makes me wonder if Darwin's three month stint on Prednisone could have affected her.  Seems unrealistic as she was only on it for such a short time, but I guess you never know.... let's just hope her first test was a fluke and this next test comes back clean and normal.  


Onto more entertaining news... After watching Kasha's video of her new trick, I was motivated to try it with Darwin.  I've tried before to balance treats on her head and she never lets me.  Last night was no different.  But last night as she was avoiding me she was very pawy, and jabbed me in the face.  Here's a quick video of our attempt.  You can see in the beginning her paw jab.

I gave up after that.  Later in the night we were playing and she head butted me and gave me a cut above my lip.  hahahaha.  I look like I was in a fight (sorry no pictures of the battle wounds).  As much as it hurt it was pretty entertaining.  Jason said I need to work on my reflexes so I'm more cat like and can avoid getting beat up.  This coming from the guy who got a black eye from Dar.  Hahaha.  
Have a good weekend everyone!

{16dec2010: UTI}

Last post I mentioned Darwin was acting funny.  She was restless and drinking a lot of water and would yelp or cry out as she was laying down.  I mentioned we Googled bloat, which she didn't seem to match the symptoms of.  I also Googled swallowing bones.  We had given her a knuckle bone on Monday night and she started acting funny Monday around midnight.  Tuesday was a very worrisome day, and Tuesday night she was still acting funny.  It didn't seem serious enough to rush to the emergency vet, so we waited till the morning to call our regular vet.  Sleeping Tuesday night wasn't the best sleep as I was listening to Darwin's every move, and heard her cry out at least twice.  By the time we had to get up I was already thinking should we have taken her to the ER, what if I go out there and she's not breathing, what if, what if... of course when I went out to check on her she was fine and annoyed I was making such a fuss over her so early in the morning.

When  I called the vet they were fully booked but managed to squeeze us in for an afternoon appointment.  We went in and I told them her symptoms and what we were worried about and the vet said she wanted to test Darwin's urine because it sounded like a Urinary Tract Infection.  Of course Darwin had peed right before we left the house so her bladder was empty.  They kept her for a few hours to get a sample and then we picked her up.  They'll call later today with the results of the test, but for now Darwin's on a round of Amoxicillin.  I asked if it could be a piece of bone stuck in her stomach, but the vet said because she's not throwing up and she's eating normally it doesn't sound like its a GI issue... WHEW.
When we got home Darwin was worn out after Tuesday at day care then a few hours at the vet so I took advantage of that and painted one of her nails!

hehehehe.  She was so tired she didn't even budge or try to see what I was doing to her.  Now we both have a matching single sparkley holiday nail.  hehe.

{14dec2010: FINALLY!!!}

I caught Darwin playing at daycare!!!! For real this time!
It's been raining like crazy here in the PNW and the last few days Darwin has been cooped up inside since she hates the rain.  We decided last night we'd take her to daycare today since she's been a couch potato since Friday.  
She was acting funny over the night/early this morning and we weren't sure if she was restless because of the weather, or because she was bored, or if it was something more serious.  We quickly Googled the symptoms of bloat just in case, but didn't think she had the symptoms of bloat.  We took a chance and took her to daycare and asked them to keep an extra close eye on her because we weren't sure if something was wrong.  
So I was watching the webcam like a hawk in case I could spot my doggy in distress and had to rush over.  As I was watching I noticed her tail was up and higher than it had been during previous daycare visits and then I noticed a brown dog go over to her, sniff her and then... THEY PLAYED.  Nothing big, just a few play bows and a couple of swats by Darwin and I think even a little bitey face!
Here's some still shots I took... you can be the judge.

{14dec2010: Swiss Miss}

Last week I received a box and immediately knew it was Swiss chocolates from Juno and Mrs Wild Dingo.
Don't you just love Swiss packaging?!

(Seeing "chocolate" spelled out like "chocolat" makes me think of the movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241303/" target=_Blank>Chocolat... I mean how hot was Johnny Depp in that movie?!  :) )

Look at these goodies:

I'm not big on chocolates so I shared them with my coworkers and I have to say, they only lasted about two days before they were eaten up!  Thanks  Juno and Mrs Wild Dingo!  Good luck on the  rest of the bet!