haiKupiec

Brin is in the shower—again. It’s 3:30am.
Brin is my dog. Of course it would be my dog that gets into trouble—not Hopi, Robert’s angel dog.
There are many life lessons that have been learned this morning by (wo)man and beast.

• If you take your dogs out at 2:30 am, it’s better to take them on a leash and stay in open, lit areas of your yard.
• Get a sprayer for your bathtub, the kind that makes it convenient to rinse your child’s hair or a reluctant 65 lb. dog who is slippery when wet.
• There are advantages to being a shy dog. Those days are over.
• There are advantages to being a follower (ask Hopi).
• It’s better to have experience bathing your dog BEFORE you really need it. (I usually let the good people at Dogz Inc. take care of the dog bathing.)
• Know the recipe for getting the skunk smell out of your dog BEFORE you need it and have the ingredients together under the sink.
• Skunks can climb six-foot fences. Or maybe they can fly.

Believe it or not, I was chuckling during the first round in the shower. Brin has a Pepé Le Pew-type obsession with cats. She loves them. She lives with two of them so you would think they would be mundane at this point but, no—they fascinate her. Well, skunks look like cats—especially in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, Brin realized the mistake a little too late and got sprayed in the face.
I never need to experience this smell again. I hope Brin feels the same way.
So here’s the link to the recipe: http://dogs.about.com/cs/generalcare/p/skunk.htm. We used #3 because we had these ingredients, on hand (after some scrambling), in the correct proportions. One bath was obviously not enough. I think a third bath at Dogz Inc. is in Brin’s immediate future assuming she is odor free enough for an outing.

It looks like I will have the chance to explore the wonderful world of odor-removal products today.

My consolation is that even the stars have to deal with this problem. And at least I don’t have to kiss Matthew McConaughey today.

Some things in life remind me that imperfection is part of the human experience.

Exhibit A: String Algae — I have fished so much out of my pond it’s a wonder that ANY thing else is thriving in there. In spite of my efforts (more plants, algae consuming monster snails, Biolift) I still battle the stringy green stuff.

Exhibit B: a cushion that tastes like chicken? — My dogs became very interested in the ottoman cushion from the patio set. Somehow I should have realized that the first bite marks were a sign of the destruction to come and tied the darn thing down with a bungee cord. Did I? No. Foolish? Yes.

Today was a big day: Hopi went to doggy daycare for the first time. She did great–she and Brin came home exhausted and happy after a day of playng with their pups. AND–she jumped into the car without being coaxed. Usually one of us has to climb in the back seat before she will jump in. It was a big day.

If you haven’t seen Hopi with 4 good legs, here she is:

Her fur is growing back and she’s acting like the puppy she never really was…and our low key dog has been replaced by a pistol of a dog. It’s pretty great.

Oh, yeah. One more thing. Hopi snores. It’s hilarious.

Sweetie Pi decided that she would help me organize the office.
The category she selected for herself was pretty amusing.

Maybe she wants me to make a donation to R.E.S.C.U.E.

Or perhaps, she would like to help do some shredding.

This week, Hopi the 6 million dollar dog went back to the surgeon to have the rod in her leg removed. Her physical therapist thought it was causing her discomfort. Good news is that her leg is healed and the bone is smooth and strong.

The rod came out and we got it as a souvenir (I guess). I’ll take a picture of it for a later post. Hopi has a couple rows of new staples but seems to be doing well. (She had a cyst removed below her knee at the same time, poor girl.)

AND–she is walking on four paws again!!! Woo hoooo!!!! The day we have been waiting for actually came the day before the rod came out and she’s been improving steadily since then.

Her fur is growing back. The scars are fading into black (fur). The swelling is gone and she can hop along on 3 legs at almost top speed. She still isn’t putting her foot down much but we keep reminding ourselves that it hasn’t been very long.  She is still going to physical therapy but she’s stubborn about it at times. (I don’t know *where* she gets that from.) She’s a smiley, tail-wagging dog again and that’s good for the heart.

She is also the shiniest, softest dog ever. A couple new pics on flickr.

No family member of mine can escape a nickname or two. Hopi, the dog, is no exception.

Surgery sucks. Poor Hopi is feeling poorly having had an old break in her hind leg fixed and bolted together.

She has enough staples to make a punk rocker drool.

She starts physical therapy tomorrow and hopefully it will help her get some range of motion and use of her leg. I also hope it will help reduce the swelling and reduce her discomfort.

Hopi has a bad leg. We knew that before we adopted her but we didn’t know how bad until we took her in this week to the vet for a check-up.

Hopi’s story is that she was kicked by a horse as a puppy. Her left hind leg is smaller than the other and she walks without using it much of the time.

Well, we found out her leg is basically still broken. It either was never repaired or didn’t heal properly. So yesterday she met a vet surgeon who will try to repair her bad leg and match it up to the good one.

Both her vets were amazed that she gets around so well and that she has such a good disposition. We are, too.

Her sugery is next week. Fingers crossed.

There’s a new dog in my world. Her name is Hopi and she’s a black English lab. She’s about one-year-old and a rescue dog. She is a sweetheart of a dog and Brin is beside herself with joy to have a dog companion.

This isn’t the greatest pic but she really is that shiny. And sweet.

You might remember a previous post about my big dog folding herself up in the cat bed. Well, Sweetie Pi has taken to sleeping on Brin’s dog bed. Pretty darn funny.