A SHORT VISIT FROM DARBY

You remember our friend, Darby the Havanese?  He’s doing really well after his dog hospital visit and surgery a while back.  His Guardian, D2, doesn’t like having him on the medicine that has something called “steroids” in it.  She’s slowly cutting back on it to see what the smallest amount is that he can take and still not lose his cookies.

Anyway, he seems to have his bounce back.  He really tries to drag D2 into our house when we walk by it while we are out and about, and one day Guardian said to D2, " Let him come in and inspect our toy box."

Now, our Guardian doesn’t have a fancy picture shooter, and she’s not really too good with getting pictures without blurriness.  So, I’ve picked out the best from her lame attempts (and you can see how awful the rejects were by what I finally said OK to!) to capture Darby’s excitement.

Darby was wearing one of my Fido Fleece coats that was too tight for me (Gus and I both need the “BC” Big Chest size the Fido Fleece coats have—Guardian sometimes calls me “Mae West.”  I don’t know who or what that is, but she said it was someone with a BC, too. I wonder what breed she was?). We think it looks really classy on him.

Anyway, Guardian scattered the toys around our toy box and here’s Darby trying to decide which one he wants to attack.

 

I asked Guardian to throw some back in the box, since Darby couldn’t really decide.

  So after that, Darby was better able to choose.

 

Darby here—I’m telling Gus which ones I like best.

Jazz here…Well, I never….he’s havin’ WAY too much fun, and why am I just standing here not having fun yet?

That blurry object in the upper L corner is Darby...playing with MY toys.

 

“Oh no, says Darby.  I just got here and now I have to leave???!"

 

So here we all are, posing for that shooter.  Well, it sorta came out OK.  But one day we hope Guardian really finishes those online My Creative Classroom Photoshop Elements courses.  I think then we’ll all look much, much better—with a few Photoshopping tweaks!   A new picture shooter wouldn’t hurt, either. Hint, hint....

(Guardian here..hey Jazz, that last photo IS Photoshopped--a little.  Here's the before:)

 

 Jazz here...well, anybody out there with a Guardian who is a really good picture shooter??? What else could our Guardian have done?  I mean, what's that yellow thing in the background? 

OK, OK, Guardian, you can stop Photoshopping now..sheesh!

GOOPY EYES

Gus has allergies.  Guardian had him both food tested and “other” tested.  Three of his biggest food allergy problems were FISH, RICE AND BEETS.  Now, we can live without beets, but it’s pretty hard to find doggie eats that don’t have rice or fish.  Guardian has found a bunch of them, though, so he doesn’t feel left out.  Me, I’m OK—I can eat just about anything but dead bugs.  Just allergic to hard floors, coldness, loud noises, and being ignored.

Now, with the “other.”  Gus’s body doesn’t like certain trees, grasses, molds and something Guardian said were “mites.”  She can’t even pronounce the names of some of these things.

Gus also has sick eyes.  Guardian said it’s something that makes his eyes all goopy.  She sometimes calls the goopy stuff  “Goobers.”  If you look at our eyes side by side, Gus’s eyes look like something from Stephen King.  All dark.  My eyes are brown with a dark circle in the middle.  Gus doesn’t have that dark circle.  

They’re all dark. They’re weird and spooky.

See the Goober in his left eye?

She also said he sees things like he’s looking through a really dirty, muddy window.  [Guardian here: Gus has Pigmentary Keratitis.  The top layer of the cornea turns all brown. Any of you pugs out there have that, too??]  He seems to see fine, so far as I’m concerned.  He doesn’t bump into things usually unless he’s after a bit of something he thinks is food and an open door gets in his way.  Then, that’s his fault for not looking, I bet, not because his eyes can’t see.

Anyway, all this means Guardian has to keep his things clean—him AND his bedding.   She’s always washing things from his Man Dog Cave because she noticed his eyes were not as goopy each time she did that.  She squeegees this stuff in his eyes every day.  She’s sneaky.  She waits until he’s all sleepy and almost comatose on the sofa while the TV is on.  Before he knows what’s happened, his eyes have medicine gunk in them.

And now, she has to “shoot” him.  That sounds deadly!  She explained that she wasn't using a gun.  She has to shoot him with a needle (UGH!) to make his body not hate those things that that the test said his body didn’t like.  Whatever.

Gus also has problems with something called “yeast.”   When he came to live with us it was EVERYWHERE on his body—but the worst were his ears and feet.  Guardian gave him special medicine and changed his food and was very careful about what he ate and tried to dry off his feet in inside his ears all the time.  But Gus HATES to have his feet touched.  If you had swollen areas around your toenails and sore areas in-between your toes, you’d hate to have your feet touched, too.

The skin around his dewclaw is puffy and red and itches.

 

I’m lucky.  Guardian knows where I came from.  She visited where I was born and saw my Mommie, Sadie, and knew that I came from a place that was not a puppy mill.  But we think rescued Gus came from a place that only wanted to make money from puppies.  They didn’t care about who his parents were or what sort of place he grew up in.  So, he probably had a bad start in life.  But when he came to us, his luck changed. Guardian says we can’t change his jeans (she changes hers!) but we can change lots of other things to help him be healthier.  So, I’ll tell Gus to be happy he’s gonna be shot.  It’s not every day, so that’s good. He won’t be so itchy and maybe all that other stuff that makes him feel bad will get all better.   Honestly, though, he really doesn’t seem unhappy.

So, how many of you pugs out there are itchy or have an eye problem or this yeasty stuff?  What do your Guardians do to help you???