Dog Park in Winter

We've had a fair amount of snow and cold weather here in Wichita over the past few weeks and several times have taken the dogs to the snow-covered dog park near our house.  Almost nobody else is willing to go out in the cold to play but our dogs don't seem to mind.  Basil in particular loves rolling in the snow.

Basil's Treasure

During the daily walk this morning, Basil made the sidewalk-find of his life:

The package of pork sausage must have been sealed because he didn't try to eat it.  I don't think it was until after we had taken it from him that he realized the value of what he had just moments before been holding in his mouth; he began to whine and jump up to peer over the counter ledge in hopes of locating his treasure.  This was much more valuable than the socks and Kleenexes he more frequently hunts.

If there was ever a moment for "finders, keepers", this was it.

Summer is Nigh

The weather is changing.  This week the overnight lows have been right around 70'F and the highs have been in the mid 80's.  We've been using our whole-house fan all week and its been keeping us cool enough but the first day for the air conditioner is just around the corner.

We had our second major thunderstorm of the season on Monday, one of the few rainy days we've had this spring.  I was able to get a few lighting pictures out of it; something I've wanted to do for a while.

On an unrelated note, I caught Ansie doing her confused head-cock on the porch yesterday afternoon.

Dogs and the Frog

A frog happened to wander its way into our backyard. Our dogs found it. The poor frog will remember this day for a while (assuming he makes it out alive).

UPDATE: NPR has a great little story about one dog and her dealings with the frogs (or rather, toads) in her life.

Infant Rabbit Update

After about 24-hours of peace and quiet away from Anise, our little guys seemed to be doing fine (psychological damage aside) and so we decided to release him back into the wilds of our backyard. He spent the first hour or so just huddled in the grass. By the time I was leaving for work he was starting to be a bit mobile and explore around. When I came back from work, he was gone. Here's hoping he survived.

Anise did find a sibling of our friend (also under the deck) and after using it as a toy for a few minutes, managed to kill it. I buried it in the side yard out of Anise's prying nose and paws.

Hopefully this is the last of our infant-rabbit woes. Anise is still carefully exploring the deck for opportunities though she hasn't been barking like she did before. The family may have moved on.

Half-Way

For several days now whenever we have let Anise outside to run around and get out some of the crazies she has been trying to get under our deck and, failing, barking animatedly. This is the same thing she does when there is a rabbit out of reach (in the neighbors yard, across the street) and she is excited by the possibility but frustrated by the circumstances. This morning she found a way under the deck and shortly thereafter a rabbit did emerge. A very small rabbit.

I have no idea what transpired under our deck this morning. The rabbit that emerged had a small amount of blood around its mouth and one eye appeared to have been permanently damaged. It was making small, pathetic squeaking sounds and was laid out on its back, chest heaving but otherwise unmoving.

What do you do with a half-way dead infant wild rabbit?

We couldn't leave it laying there but we had and have no interest in a baby rabbit for another pet. We choose to give it shelter for the morning, to try to make it as comfortable as possible. We fully expected it to be dead within the hour and made a home that would be easy to bury when the time came. I found a spot in our basement that they dogs can't get to and where its nice and cool. I left two ice cubes in the improvised water tray we were using along with a portion of a leaf of lettuce and small strawberry before I went to school that morning.

This evening when I returned it was still alive. It seemed to be resting and though not moving around in traditional rabbit style, it was clearly still able to move. We're going to try to assess the situation more clearly this evening.

The end game isn't very clear to me. Do we hope to nurse it back to health and set it free? Where is its mother? What if it has been permanently injured in a way that will make it impossible to survive on its own?

Its hard to say what were going to do with this little fur-ball our dog thrust into our lives.

Its not clear from the photo but the little guy is only a few inches long, more like a mouse than a rabbit.

Basil Goes to the Barber

We've got two outdoor-oriented trips in the near future that our dogs will be joining us on and to cut down on the amount of bramble that Basil collects in his fur, we took him and for a haircut (and bath, ear-cleaning, and nail trimming). We hope this well also help him be more comfortable in the coming hot summer months. Take a look at these very professionally done before-and-after photos.

Basil's new trick

We've been working with Basil to train him to go and get the paper in the morning; we anticipate this trick being very handy for the coming winter months. Here's a demonstration from this morning:

Puppy Surgery

What you see above is a bit of grass seed that has been aggravating one of our dogs, Basil, for the past few weeks. When we first noticed the problem, the only symptom was Basil licking between his toes on one paw. We investigated and found that a knot of fur and grass seed had formed there and with a quick flick of the scissors, thought we had solved the problem.

A few days later we noticed he was still licking and further investigation revealed a tumor-like enlargement between those same two toes. It didn't look like a blister and early attempts to lance and drain it produced no fluid; it seemed to be more like a callous than an abscess.

But it kept growing, slowly. We called Katie's mother, a small animal vet, and her over-the-phone diagnosis was that it was an abscess where something had gotten embedded in his skin and was festering away, motivating Basil to try to fix the problem through licking. We speculated that probably some grass seed was the culprit. Our problem: the wound didn't act like an abscess that could be drained and the offending particle removed, it was just too solid.

Last night I looked at it again and saw a long dark spot near the surface of the enlargement and the "tumor" did appear to be more fluid than before. I soaked Basil's foot in epson salt while Katie rounded up the alcohol, swabs, and sterilized a sewing needle. We dried off the foot and I poked the blister. Some blood came out but very little (if any) of the expected pus which would have indicated an infection by a foreign body and confirmed Katie's mom's theory.

We gently squeezed the sore and tried to explore and coax anything out of it but we got nothing but more blood. I talked with my co-surgeon and we decided we needed to cut it open and go after it while we could. Katie sterilized a razor blade, I cleaned the area with alcohol. She handed me the blade and while distracting Basil with puppy treats, I gently cut across the surface of the sore.

A little more blood but no obvious culprit. Another deeper cut and still no sign of anything wrong other than the obvious damage I was doing myself. Basil is a laid back dog and he normally doesn't object to our ministrations, even when we are doing things he doesn't care for, such as cleaning his ears or trimming his nails. He wasn't fighting us yet and I didn't want to make things worse but I was convinced that cutting just a bit deeper would yield results.

I did; it did. The point of the seed popped up through the blood and I grabbed it out with tweezers. We cleaned the area with alcohol, applied a topical anti-biotic, and bandaged the wound. Basil got more puppy treats and a chance to sleep in our room as both a reward for being a good patient and a half-hearted attempt to make sure he didn't lick the surgery site. This morning we redressed his foot and things appeared to be healing well. With the antagonist gone, Basil seems to be feeling much better and isn't lick his paw any more. As of right now the pocket in his skin is closing up nicely and the "tumor" is receding.

Katie's mom was impressed with our work and I'm glad we were able to get it out so easily. I bet Basil would enjoy a local anesthetic next time, though. Any ideas on how to get something like that?

Water Dogs

Both our dogs are English Springer Spaniels, a breed whose original purpose was to help in hunting water fowl. Its not surprising then, that they love water and the only things that make baths unpleasant is all that soap and shampoo. Last year we purchased a large inflatable pool for them to play in and that lasted a week or two until they popped it. It also took much more water to fill than I expected.

This year we went with the cheaper, smaller pool and bring it out on hot summer days to help cool them off when outside. Our dogs are very different in temperament and I think the following two movie clips will make this clear.

Anise:

Basil:

Escape!

Last night Anise had a brief night on the town. I had left the door between our garage and the backyard open as well as the garage door to help cool off our garage. I forgot to close them, Katie let Anise out into the backyard, and she took advantage of the opportunity to explore the neighborhood. Thankfully somebody managed to grab her long enough to read her collar and give us a call. By the time I headed out on my bike, I could see her up the street, playing with the dogs of some of our friends. As best we can tell, she just kind of took herself for a walk along the route we normally go. She came right away when I called and raced me back home, enjoying her freedom and crazily zig-zagging down the street in front of me. When we got her inside she just kept running around the house; she was completely wired and it took half an hour for her to calm down enough to put her to bed.

She appeared to have a lot of fun and if it weren't for the fact that she lacks complete common sense when it comes to cars (and many other things) then I don't think we would have been very worried. Owning pets is like being parents in many small ways and we had a small parenting scare last night.

Camping and Botanica

More photos are now up on my Flickr stream from a camping trip in Colorado with Katie's parents and a trip I made to Wichita's Botanica Garden. Enjoy!

First Snow in Wichita

Well, at least the first snow that has accumulated.  (We were gone over Thanksgiving and we heard it snowed then.)

Basil and Anise are having a lot of fun with the snow, the first time they have experienced it.  Both seem to enjoy eating and frolicking in it.  Here's the proof:

Basil

Basil woke up on Monday morning with the sniffles.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me that dogs can catch something like a cold but the truth of the matter is obvious.  In honor of his first illness, here are a few pictures to remind us all of the good old days.

One of his first days at home, laying claim to his spot on the couch.

First bath, back when he was much smaller.  Today, he can rest his chin on the edge of the tub rather than having to stand on his hind legs to see over it.

The blue tongue was a good indication that Basil was into something he shouldn't have been. It ended up being blue tissue paper.

According to our instructor, that certificate of completion was the first she had ever given to a spaniel of any type on his/her first attempt at basic obedience. Trust me, we earned it.

Two Weeks of Basil

A  few reflections on being a new dog owner:

• I'm guessing, and have had it confirmed by people who would know, that getting a new puppy is like being a new parent in many ways just less so.  Less responsibility, less expense, less emotion, less excitement, etc.  Though we haven't been waken up at night by Basil, we have had to re-organize our schedules a bit (mornings in particular) and when planning our days, we have to think about more than ourselves.  Granted, if we want to go out, we don't have to hire a sitter; we just put Basil in his kennel. Our lives, though, have had to change in a multitude of small ways to accommodate him and I expect our first child will have a similar impact, just more so.
• Basil definitely prefers Katie.  Basil definitely is more obedient towards me.  Good cop, bad cop.
• I find myself wishing that there was something I could do so that Basil liked me more.  I want him to be excited when I get home and snuggle up with me on the couch and rest his droopy chin and ears on my lap when he's tired.  Right now, I get overflow from his loving of Katie and I guess that will have to do.  I can't make Basil love me (in the small way is able to) and that's the way it is.  Again, this seems highly analogous to having children and only time will tell how our relationship will end up.
• Basil can get very bad gas.  We're going to try changing his food to see if that will help.
• Basil always smells like a dog and unless we do something aggressive, our house probably will too.  Hopefully once he's older we'll be able to leave him outside more and that will help.
• Basil is a social dog and despite his puppy tendencies, will still snuggle up with you to watch a movie.  He has his spot on the couch and he enjoys being there.  That cushion is his happy place and if he's scared or needs reassurance, he parks there.  He also tends to be lazy enough that he won't always fully jump up on his own (even though he is perfectly capable of doing so) or even just lay on the floor instead.

We have been blessed with a wonderful dog.  More pictures to come.

Meet Basil

Our dog-hunt has ended and we are now the proud owners of a five month old English Springer Spaniel we've named Basil C Terwilliger ("Basil" or "Mr. T" for short). I've posted a few pictures to the old, rusting Flickr stream (link on your right, my left) and that's all I've got time to say.

We'll almost.  

Basil is pretty laid back, quiet, and easy to get along with.  We got him from a family where the dad was looking for a driving buddy.  Basil wasn't it, apparently, so we were able to adopt him.  He's been a joy to have all of six hours and we're looking for many more.  Katie is going to be training him and we've got a stack of treats that I expect we're going to work through pretty quick.

Time to first indoor accident as measured from when he entered the house: less than two minutes.  

Puppy Love

Its hard to explain but the pebble that started the avalanche that is buying a house was a desire to have a dog.  Or, more specifically, Katie's desire for a cute puppy.  (I'm not anti-dog at all Katie just loves 'em more).   A few months later we are finally embarking (ha, pun!) on that adventure. We've been spending time reading up on breeds, trying to find one that will fit our lifestyle right now.  Our two top choices are a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and a Brittany Spaniel. We've been watching Petfinder.com, watching the Kansas Humane Society website and working through organizations that rescue specific breeds.

Today, for example, we are being visited/inspected by a representative for the American Brittany Rescue.  Both Katie and I are a little nervous; we don't know what it would mean if they found us unworthy to own one of their abandoned dogs.  I guess we'll just have to get a dog elsewhere; thankfully there will be many options in a few months as spring rolls around.  We just need to be patient and wait for the dog that is right for us.