Has Cassie lost weight? I hope so!

I just made an appointment for Cassie's yearly checkup at the vet. And I'm really looking forward to it. It's been four months since her last visit, and her last weigh-in. I can't wait to find out if all the running we've been doing has paid off and she's lost a few more pounds. (She's also eating 'weight control' dog food.

Here's a recap of Cassie's weight struggles, in case you've missed it:

Our dog is fat - repost from MySpace blog

Mmmmm....green beans

Tough morning

Good news at the vet

I think Greta has a cold....

Sheesh. This dog. Is constantly sick, or hurt. Can dogs even have colds, or sinus problems? I guess I've heard that dogs have allergies. Here's the deal. Recently she's been sounding like she needs to sneeze, but can't. Or like she needs to cough, but can't. Like she's got some goop backed up in her sinuses and can't get it out. It seems like she's choking on gunk or something, but can't get it up. But it sounds more like it's in her nose. I really don't know, but I'm all worried everytime it happens to her cause it sounds terrible.

Greta is our sickly dog. In the almost three years we've had her, here's her medical history:

- After her very first vet visit, the vet asked me if she had any discharge from her private area. I said actually yes, I had noticed that. They said that might be from her spaying surgery. Apply some ointment to the area for a week and monitor it. Lovely. To this day, she still has discharge. I choose to ignore it. She's not dead yet.

- A mysterious growth appeared on her lip. We didn't know what it was. Was it a tumor? Was it a doggie zit? Who the heck knows. So off the vet we go. Some labs were taken. They had no idea what it was. We got some ointment to put on it for awhile. Eventually it went away. Weird.

- She woke up one morning with an unusual amount of gunk in one of her eyes. There's the normal sleepies. Then there was this gunk. I would wipe it off. And then it would just keep on coming all day long. Off to the vet. Another tube of ointment. She hated this stuff being applied to her eyes, but it worked after about a week.

- This past winter, she started peeing in the house. Weird, she never does that. She always goes to the door to let us know when she has to go. She was also drinking an obscene amount of water. Off to the vet. Labs were taken. Bladder infection. A pill in her food cleared it up.

And I think that's it. But now she's got sinus problems? What is this? Cassie on the other hand, has only gone to the vet for her required visits. Other than being fat, she's perfectly healthy. :)

Animal kingdom

Our walks/jogs in the morning typically take place between 7:30 and 8 a.m. It's a pretty quiet time in our newly developed cookie-cutter house neighborhood. We rarely pass other dogs being walked. And only a few other dogs are awake and in their yards. I would say it's peaceful most days.

This morning though, someone unleashed the wildlife. Dogs, dogs everywhere. Luckily no strays. But every dog was in their yard this morning, yapping away at us. Birds all over the place. There was a nice steady chorus of crickets to provide some tunes for the jog. Who needs an iPod?

My favorite though: the cows. Yes, the cows. There's a small farm just behind our neighborhood with cows. And every once and awhile you'll hear them mooooo at us. I'd never heard a cow moo before until a couple weeks ago. It doesn't sound like what my 2-year-old nephew says it sounds like. Cow moos sound like a person being tortured in a horror flick. And they freak me out every time I hear them.

This morning, the cows were especially vocal. So vocal that Cassie seemed a little freaked out too. I'd like to get Cassie over there with the tortured cows sometime to see what she'd do with them. She is a herding dog after all.

The power of loooove.....

Yesterday morning it was flea medicine time. Those yucky green tubes of liquid that have to go on the dog's backs. Greta is pretty good about it. If she jumps up on her crate, she'll submit to just about anything.

Cassie on the other hand, is a whole other story. Unless I'm able to grab hold of her the second I walk out the back door with those tubes, I'm out of luck. And this time, I failed. She knew what I had in my hand and wanted no part in it. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to coax her over to me. No dice. I sat down and tried to wait it out. She layed down a couple feet away from me, and tried to wait me out.

I even went inside to grab the brush, thinking she loves to get brushed. Nope...she knew it was a trick. She wouldn't come near me. Greta got brushed though.

I was running VERY late to work, even had to call in that I would be late. So I just gave up.

When I got home from work, I asked my husband to give it a try with Cassie and told him about the hard time I'd had with her. He grabbed the plastic tube of medicine, walked out the back door and closed it. He came back inside in less than 10 seconds for a treat for her, went back outside, I heard him say "Good girl", then he came back inside. I was astonished. "You did it?" I asked.

He said that he went outside, told her to sit. She did. She stayed and he just squirted it on her back without any problems. He took the opportunity to say that Cassie loves him more than she loves me.