Going On A Bear Hunt

 

No Mischief Monday - Return to The Lake - A Photo Essay - By Phod

I can't believe I get to finally go to the lake!

Hurry up Lady - you are missing the fun. 

Lake, how I missed you!

Hailey, enjoying the dock the mean neighbours are trying to force us to remove.

At sunset, I am a glow in gold. 

It is better with my bumper, but this is better than nothing. 

Phody shark - do do do do do do

Come in Lee, it is nice.

This is deep for Lee/

She seemed to like my lake too!

Us together in the lake - a rare site

Hey, there are 2 Phods in the lake!

I am so happy, I don't think it can get better. 

But then it does, my boy D came!

Callie, I will show you the ropes. 

I am so happy to be able to swim again! 

 

Nature Friday and the Phod Update

 First, the Phod update.

Yesterday I had to go to my new vet and get my canal out. I was a super good boy and it came out easy. Sadly, I still have some ear infection, so I will need to have ear drops 2x a week for 2 weeks. Then I will go back for a follow up. 

As soon as we went in, I wanted to go.

In the most exciting news, I can go swimming in 2-3 days. I just need to let my ear heal a bit. Chantal the vet tech gets some big points for telling my Lady that!

In other news, I am trying a new shot for arthritis. I am getting to be an old stiff man.  I got my first shot of Librela. It can take 2 months to work. I will get a second when I go from my check up later in August (I am due as is Hailey).  Lady has a friend whose dog has responded so well to this. In not as good news, I am not allowed to play fetch anymore, even if I want to. Sigh!

Patiently waiting

I did get to meet a friend at the vet. I didn't get her name, but she seemed nice. I didn't get to interact with all the other dogs there. One went to the bridge while I was there. So let's send some cosmic love to her poor Lady. Lady later saw them carrying the body bag. That was very sad. We are extra glad we had this puppy to make us smile.

Now onto the Nature part. Lady has mentioned she is not a natural gardener, but she has some interest in this so is working on creating some easy to maintain ones. She and Callie's Man were talking about creating more garden space for next year. It started because Lady asked him to provide gravel for a new front walk (one of his many businesses is he owns a gravel pit and if she needs to buy it, she wants to buy it from someone she knows and trusts) and this turned into needing to extend the front garden so Man doesn't have to whipper snip the one side, and then having Callie's Man dig out the grass at the well as Lady is over it and if he is coming with a digger, it will save her a lot of work. He is also going to fix our front step. So this little thing has become a whole big thing. Man just shook his head and walked away as Lady and Callie's Man planned. This is expected to be a fall project.

At any rate, her focus this year has been on the side garden. Her sunflowers didn't do as well this year, so while she has left room for them in the future, she added these two plants. 

Once she is satisfied with this, she is going to create some sort of edge and get some mulch to keep the weeds down.  She needs to clean up the far end that has her bulbs and has been researching summer bulbs to plant around it. She is fortunate that Callie's grandmother is a gardener (so Callie' gardens are beautiful) and she can take some inspiration from her.

Big Day! by Phod

 Dear pals,

Today is the day I go to the vet to get this canal out of my ear. I will report back tomorrow.

I will leave you with this cartoon from Lady's day calendar that made her laugh.

Wordless Wednesday - What?

 

Trouble on a Tuesday - Emma Edition

Lady had a completely different post prepared about how, overall, Emma was a very good guest. Lady had even rated the whole week with Emma a B+.

Points had been taken off for needing to go out in the night one night, being very scared in storm, and for making her usual mess of toys. 

Coming out from under Lady's desk after hiding from a storm

This rating was revoked Sunday morning. Emma, had a bit of an upset stomach for a couple days (typical for her), however, Sunday morning at approximately 10:20, it took a turn for the worst. Emma had diarrhoea that can be best described as raspberry jam like. 

The first bout occurred in the bedroom as Lady was walking out of the closet with the laundry basket and poor Emma (who is very good at asking) squatting on the floor. Lady took a look, asked the Man to bring her some paper towel and said, Emma needs to go to the vet. In the 20 minutes that followed, as Lady was trying to eat, and get dressed and get ready for the vet, there were 2 more bouts. 

Emma was silent in the car, and thanks to construction, Sunday fun days and other events that closed roads, it took them about 1.25 hours to reach the clinic. The arrived just as Uncle Chris landed in Ottawa. His flight had been delayed 3 hours, so he was behind. Between seeing the vet tech and the vet, Uncle Chris was able to get to the clinic to join them. 

After an exam, the vet gave lots of scientific names that meant 'bloody diarrhoea' (Lady almost wanted to say, one didn't need to be a doctor to see that but she didn't).  He said we would probably never know what upset Emma's stomach so badly but clearly the bacteria in the gut were off (again Lady thought this was rather obvious). He said the normal course of treatment is hospitalization and IV fluid and treatment, but given that Emma was not dehydrated and not lethargic and not vomiting, he suggested some medicine to take home (Lady can't remember the name but it had charcoal and a probiotic), special food and monitoring. He expected improvement within 5 days.

Lady and Uncle Chris were both relieved it was not more serious and know that Lady did the right thing about taking her in when she did. After about 2 hours there, everyone was heading home. 

In the end, Emma's visit was given a C-. Lady told Uncle Chris, that it was amazing the lengths Emma would go to, to not be left behind again!

Mischief Monday - Building - by Lee

 Hi pals,

As we mentioned last week, we have a nest (last Lady checked momma bird was still around, she hasn't peaked in the nest recently) and this is changing deck construction. However, our builder has decided to start at the opposite side he was going to, so last week he was here for a day and should be back at it this week (if the composite has arrived). 

The builder clearly needed a lot of support. I did a good job at barking at him, for several hours (which Lady and Man loved because they were both working from home that day).

When it was meeting time, I got locked in Lady's office with her. I didn't bark, but I was NOT happy. 

This is what all the fuss has been over.

Lady and I are at a disagreement over what is the actual mischief - me barking and carrying on all day or me being forced into the office so I couldn't do my job at protecting my family. 

I will let you my dear readers decide. 

Nature Friday - Scenes of Summer - by Lee

Thanks Rosy and Sunny for organizing this. Today I will be your host for scenes of summer.

Me walking leash free down the road because I am finally trustworthy!

The field in the evening

More field

A wild rose

Wild flowers

Evening lake

Phod checking out one of the neighbour's beautiful flower beds

A Phod Update - by Phod

 Hi pals,

Well, I think all your POTP is helping because I am not having any problems with my ear. I still have the canal (it gets taken out in a week). I still can't go swimming (but apparently the lake has high E. Coli readings so that is ok, and this was found out after Lady went swimming every night for a week). I don't have to wear the cone at all now (which is good because it is hot).

I have been extra slow these past few weeks. Lady wonders if it is a combination of age, heat, meds. I am happy enough,  I am just going at my own pace. 

Right now things are pretty ok and on behalf of my pack, I thank you all for the good vibes you have sent my way. 

Your pal, flopped ear Phody

Wordless Wednesday - Evening Field Walk with Friends