Sascha (German Shepherd) is also getting older (8 years old), but she has turned into a wonderful house dog.  In her younger years she had so much drive it was hard for her to sit still for any length of time.  She still has lots of energy, but she appears calmer.  She is the typical German Shepherd, she’s extremely loyal to me and wants to be where ever I am.  Leecy tells me she sits by the front door until I get home.

Sascha And Maggie Laying Together By Pond

Sure enough, I took her into the vet and he said the tooth would have to be removed.  Maggie already hates the vet (she starts shaking as soon as we walk in the door) and this just gave her another reason to dread going to the vet.

I feel sorry for her.  Losing one of her canines has to hurt.  Here she is in Leecy’s car coming home from the vet.  She’s obviously still pretty drugged up, and that is a little blood on her tongue.

Maggie coming home from vet

When you look at the size of the tooth they extracted you’ll understand why she’s probably going to be sore for a while.  I haven’t had the courage to open her mouth and look inside.  Maybe I’ll try tomorrow if she lets me.

Maggie's extracted tooth

Back in December we took Maggie to the vet because it appeared to me she was losing just a little bit of fur and was looking a little thin.  Since she is considered an elderly dog in dog years, I wanted to just be safe and have her checked out.  Maggie hates the vet (unlike Sascha the German Shepherd who loves the vet) and turns into a nervous wreck during each visit.  Whereas Maggie was completely healthy in terms of blood work and body, she did have a small bump on her lower jaw that I never noticed.  The vet was concerned enough that he wanted to remove it immediately.

Two days later Maggie is off to the vet to have this bump removed (no wonder she hates the vet).  When I heard from the vet later in the afternoon, he didn’t “think” the whatever it was he removed was cancerous, but wanted to send it off to pathology just to be sure.

In the meantime, Maggie didn’t seem to care that she had stitches in her jaw and wanted to continue to chew on her toys and bones even if they rubbed against her jaw and stitches.  Sure enough, I wake up early Saturday morning and noticed all this blood and fluid in her bedding and saw this hold in her jaw.  Either the stitches got stuck in her bedding and she yanked them out, or she just scratched them out.  Off to the vet we go again.

Fast forward a week and Maggie is fine.  The stitches didn’t need to be replaced.  Her wound has completely healed.  Now she’s back to being the same silly Golden Retriever whose favorite activity besides chewing marrow bones is rolling in the grass (or dirt) first thing in the morning:-).

Maggie The Golden Retriever Rolling In The Grass

Maggie The Golden Retriever Striking A Pose

First a few distance shots.  Here’s Sascha the German Shepherd trying out her new Ruffwear Doggie Life Jacket.  The reason I got Sascha a Life Jacket is because at the recent trip to the vet he said she’s starting to develop a little arthritis.  On top of that, Sascha swims like a crazy person.

Sascha Trying On Her New Ruffwear Doggie Life Jacket

Then it was time to bring the camera a little closer to the pool.

Here’s Maggie getting her closeup shot

Maggie Out Of The Pool Face Closeup

Then Sascha needs her turn.

Sascha Out Of The Pool Face Closeup With Toy

So far so good for a little hand held camera.  Now the real test.  Underwater.  I combined a few video clips taken from this camera.

Notice how Maggie swims, all relaxed, calm, like she’s just floating on the water.  On the other hand, Sascha doesn’t know how to do anything slow and relaxed.

Overall, I think Leecy will have fun with her camera when she takes her trip to the Galapagos.

Maggie is now 9 years old and is somewhat showing her age.  Her muzzle has definitely turned gray, she has some light cataracts, and she tends to lay down rather than standing.  Other times, she thinks she’s a puppy and starts running sprints around the yard.

She loves the weather like today where it was in the low 60′s and is supposed to be in the mid to upper 70′s all this week (yea, we’re really freezing down here:-).

After taking pictures of the Butterflies, I decided to take a few of the dogs since the light was really nice.

Maggie Yawning

Maggie Looking Directly At Camera

Maggie Looking At Camera With Face On Ground

Maggie Smiling At Macro Lens

Then there’s Sascha.  She is 7 years old and always has energy.  Whereas Maggie loves to be petted by anyone, Sascha is loyal beyond belief and loves to be near me no matter where I am.  She’s not one who needs constant petting, but she must be able to have a clear view of whatever I’m doing.  She also loves to be in the backyard no matter how hot or cold.

You may notice Sascha has that nasty looking skin irritation on her neck.  I’m guessing it started when her collar started rubbing against her neck a couple of weeks ago.  I took her to the vet on Friday and they gave her some antibiotics and some ointment to put on her neck.

Sascha Looking At Camera

Sascha Backlit Laying In Yard

We have.  Why?  Honestly, Leecy started the whole thing when I went on vacation.  You may recall that I went to the Texas Hill Country and took Sascha (German Shepherd) with me.  At the time I forgot to bring Sascha’s crate with me.

Well guess what?  When I returned Leecy had converted Sascha’s crate to Delilah’s crate.  Now why this kitten needed the largest crate in the house I have no idea.

So anyway, since Delilah seemed to be enjoying the new crate so much, I went out and bought Sascha a new crate.

There’s another reason why this crate training a cat thing isn’t such a bad idea.  You see, Delilah is very much a mixed breed kitten, compared to Chloe who is also a mixed breed (both are rescues) but likely has some Birman in her.  Delilah loves to run around the house, jump all over things, and chase the dogs and Chloe.  She also tends to stare at Coco (our African Grey Parrot) in a way that makes me a little insecure about leaving them alone.

Thus, during the day we put the dogs and Delilah in their crates.  Our cats tend to just sleep in the afternoon anyway, so I don’t Delilah cares in the least.  I also have a feeling (though I can’t prove it) that Delilah feels like Sascha and Maggie are part of her clan or pack (or maybe it’s the other way around).

Oh, Chloe seems to appreciate it during the night as she gets to continue to sleep on our bed and not worry about harassment from Delilah.

Chloe On Bed

Obviously Chloe is quite content at night (although Leecy may not be once she finds out that I took this picture while she was sleeping).

Sascha, Maggie, and Delilah In Crates

Here’s the rest of the pack.  Maggie (Golden Retriever) appears quite content (sleeping upside down), Sascha is happy to pose for me (although she’s so black you can’t really see her in the picture), and Delilah is on her little cat bed, completely relaxed.

All in all, everyone appears to be quite happy.

One more thing if you’re interested.  Sascha and Delilah tend to be best buddies (Sascha is very gentle with her and Delilah loves to play with Sascha’s tail), Maggie just wants attention from Leecy or myself, and Chloe tends to just not care who’s around as long as it’s relatively calm.

Delilah, our adopted rescue kitty really seems to like Sascha, my German Shepherd.  In truth, Sascha seems to like the kitty as well.

However, I wonder what Sascha must be thinking?  “Why’s this kitten playing with my ear?”  Why am I in the crate when the kitten is attacking me?”

Kitten Playing With Dog's Ear

Once playing with Sascha’s ear got boring, Delilah just decided to lay down on top of Sascha’s crate.

Kitten Watching German Shepherd

Sascha seems to be the most bonded with Delilah as she follows her everywhere and licks her at every opportunity.

On the other hand, Maggie, being true to her character, doesn’t seem to care one way or another about another animal.  It’s people she’s most interested in.

That is, until Delilah decides to go in between the dog’s crates!  That’s when Maggie starts whining, probably asking why she has to be in a crate when the kitten doesn’t:-).

Kitten Bonding With Dogs

She and Chloe get along great, as well as her and the dogs.  In fact, her favorite playmate (other than Chloe) seems to be Sascha, my German Shepherd.

We also got her a new toy today.  I think she likes it.  She carries it around the house.

Delilah Jumping After Toy

Delilah Jumping But Misses Toy

Today was a perfect example.  Maggie slowly waddles over to the edge of the pool and gently glides in the water.

Maggie Goes For A Slow Swim With Her Toy

That’s not Maggie’s favorite pool activity however.  What she really likes to do is to see how far she can jump. Here she tucks back all 4 legs and just jumps.

Maggie Goes For A Giant Leap In The Pool

Whereas in this next shot, she seems to be trying to determine how far she can walk on water.

Maggie Attempts To Walk On Water

She didn’t actually tear the stitches, but she did appear to scratch herself up pretty good.  I cleaned her wound, put on some medicine, and then worst of all for Maggie, put a t-shirt on her.  Of course Leecy had to choose a Country shirt for Maggie to wear.

Maggie Wearing Big Dogs Country Shirt

Is this not the face of a sad dog?

Maggie Looking Sad

I guess after a while, Maggie just resigned herself to just trying to ignore the t-shirt intrusion.

Maggie Laying Down Wearing Shirt

Today, Maggie is still a bit “slow” but she’s not as loopy.  Leecy gave her a pain pill this morning so Maggie just seems a little tired.  She is tempted to try and scratch the place on her back, so I’ll have to watch that.

Here’s some pictures of Maggie on the day after her surgery.

Maggie Scratching Face After Surgery

Below are closeup shots of the two incisions.

Maggie Fatty Deposit Removed On Back

Maggie Tumor Removal On Shoulder Blade

I didn’t mention it before, but Leecy and I took Chloe and Maggie to the vet the same day Madison was put down just to make sure everything was okay.  As it turned out, Maggie had two lumps on her back, one was a fatty deposit, the other was unknown.  So Maggie went in for surgery today.   The big lump was just cut out, whereas the smaller lump has to be sent to pathology.  I’m trying to stay mentally neutral about what this may indicate.

Tonight Maggie is very groggy and has two large holes on the side of her body.  The good news is that she doesn’t seem to be experiencing significant pain.  I’ll try and take some pictures tomorrow of her war wounds.

Not an inexpensive week in terms of pet care.  I think were shooting right 800+ for this week alone.

Although we aren’t actively looking for another cat just yet, we previously talked about a Birman or a Ragdoll.  If anyone knows any reputable breeders in Houston, let us know.

Leecy would like to type her own words about Madison.

Hi. Madison & I were buddies…it only took about a year for her to get use to me being here, but she did finally come around once she realized I was the one feeding her.   I would sit upstairs on my computer & she would come around and stand on her back legs and tap me so daintily with her front paw “meow” wanting to come up on my lap. Once on my lap she would come up, I would hold her paw, which wasn’t any bigger than my fingerprint, and she would bend her toes around my finger–like we were holding hands…  She would come sit on my lap while I would be at my craft table. I could still do alot with a 4lb cat on my lap, poor Chloe won’t be able to do that with me.

In Madison’s ‘bedroom’, my daybed is in there, and she would lay on that to look outside into the backyard rose garden, pool, bird feeders. One time I noticed when I changed the sheets there was a ‘pee-spot’…uh oh…kitty has a bladder problem..getting old… so I put a vinyl table cloth on the mattress to protect it and put her blankets over it so it was still snuggly for her.  On that bed is a mountain of pillows. I threw a blanket over them & she just seemed to love the height & comfy-ness of her ‘mountain’. We’d always find her up there so cozy.

Chloe went upstairs with me today and I showed her the window sill Madison would sit on to soak up the sunshine or watch the neighbor’s dogs. She was instantly spread out & purring on the sill. I noticed her front paw kneading on the sill. I have NEVER seen her do that, so I wonder if she knew this was Madison’s special place.    Chloe has claimed Madison’s tree also, which is coated in her smell & fur still. Maybe its a sense of her mother figure is still around.

Maggie, Our Golden Retriever, Smiling

By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the diet that both Maggie and Sascha eat.  Both of them are on the RAW diet.  Sascha has been on this diet since I got her, whereas I started Maggie when she was about a year old.  Neither of them have ever had their teeth cleaned and the vet always compliments them on how white their teeth are.

Here’s the diet for both dogs.

• Ground Turkey Meat (same stuff you and I eat)
• Fresh Salmon Oil
• Beef Organs
• Ground Vegetables (carrots, green beans, parsley, zucchini)
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Berte’s Green Blend (dried sea vegetation, alfalfa meal, blue green algae, spirilina powder, iris moss powder, foenugreek seed, anethol-fennel, lemon peel powder, garlic, dulse powder)

On the opposite days of the above, the dogs are fed just raw chicken backs with some salmon oil on top.

We get all of these products (minus the ground turkey, which we get at HEB) from Bones2Go.  If you decide to visit Tracey at Bones2Go, tell her I said hello.