Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Since Henry had not been getting up on the sofa in the last year, Cupid was back to commandeering that space. Well, now that Henry has again been interested in being on the sofa, where has that left Cupid? Well, some days she is ok to share with Henry and other days not so much. Cupid does recognize that Henry has not been the pug antagonizing her over the last decade or so. That pug (Benjamin) is no longer with us. And the seriously cat tormenting pug (Solsey) has been dearly departed for years now. But Cupid knows that Henry has not meant any harm over the years. That does NOT mean, however, that Cupid doesn't bust Henry's chops every once and again. I will elaborate on how Cupid picks on Henry in another episode. But for now, let's just enjoy the unity on the sofa.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Henry had a bad night a few days ago. He had completely fallen back in his anxiety ritual. The whole stand by the door, go potty or go fake potty, come back in, get a treat, pace the house, go back to the front door and repeat. We were shocked. We have no idea where this came from or why out of the blue he just suddenly reverted back to this anxiety soothing behavior. The routine was in place and nothing out of the ordinary (that we could tell) had happened to cause this.
Oh the worry of this, though! Was this a sign that all of our progress was going to be undone? Was he just going to revert back and we were going to have to start all over with baby stepping into things again?! That night he was amped up at bed time instead of being a sleepy head. He demanded a bonus bowl of food. He was all over the place. We started to panic. But we went to our tool box. We whipped out the lavender oil and slathered it all over him (like we do each morning before we are off to work), gave him a rub down, turned out the lights and hoped for the best. And it worked! He was able to get settled into bed for the evening and while the next morning was not 100% ideal, he was able to work his way back into his new good boy routine. A day or 2 after later he was getting back to normal (but who the heck knows what normal is these days?).
I'm telling you, I think he just does stuff to toy with us! Is it possible that he does this just to get a rise from us and good blind dog laugh on the inside? This might be an avoidance method for us to handle that because the real reason is too scary. The reality is that he is living in a house of cards right now more than we'd like to admit. If he could have regressed that much at something completely unnoticeable to us, then it's just going to show that we still have a lot of work to do and we have started to count our chickens before they have indeed hatched. C'mon, H! You've got this. You are a big brave dog. #HenryStrong
Monday, August 17, 2015
Welcome to ask OBP! I am pleased to say that we had a couple of questions last week! The first one came from Christine. She asked if our pugs liked milk. This is not something that we have really ever tried. And not with any type of milk. When we had our boys as puppies they had a lot of tummy trouble and it was recommended to limit their dairy intake (they would have a little bit of yogurt or cottage cheese in their bowls but that would be all the dairy they would be able to withstand). We also have never tried milk with Cupid since our vet said that it was a myth that milk is good for cats. Christine, it is very interesting that your pugs not only enjoy the milk but can also withstand it! Kudos to you and your puggies for having an iron like tummy. Thanks for asking, Christine!
Martha also asked a question. This one was about Henry's weight. Henry weighs 26 pounds. This probably sounds huge to a lot of people. Our vet thinks he is a pretty healthy weight but would not be upset if he shed a pound or 2. Benny, at his heaviest was about 24 pounds (and that was indeed a couple of pounds heavier than he could comfortably carry, but Benny spent the bulk of his adulthood at 21-22 pounds) and Luna was about 16 pounds (and only towards the end did she start to have a hard time keeping her girlish figure). Henry, while weighing the most, has still been the healthiest of them all. And when they were lined up altogether, they would look like little stair steps. Henry is the one of the tallest pugs we have ever seen. At any meet up or any pug event, he has easily been one of the top 3 tallest pugs there. He has long legs and a longish body. So, he carries his weight a little better than most, probably. As he has slowed down with age we are having to be more diligent with his "extras" so as to manage his weight effectively. We do hear a lot that Henry is "so big" and we are never exactly sure if they are nicely saying he is fat or that they actually recognize that he is much taller than "pug standard" and is also not thin. He is a solid, strong dog. And especially when standing next to Luna he would tower over her petite frame. Martha, if you or anyone is concerned about your pup's weight, the best thing to do would be to consult your veterinarian. He/she would likely recommend reducing calories and introducing more exercise. All within safe limits as your pug can withstand. In asking OBP, we always want to clarify that we are just here to make suggestions and share history, but we are not vets and we always make the disclaimer to be sure to talk to your vet when you have concerns with your pet's health. Thank you for your question, Martha!
Our next question comes from Victoria. She asked if we could share her pug Poe's story in hopes that there are OBPers out there that may be able to share some knowledge of PDE (Pug Dog Encephalitis). Below is little Poe's story:
My name is Victoria and I have two beautiful baby boy pugs named Ollie and Poe. Ollie is 10 months old and we have 5 month old Poe. We took Poe home the Sunday before last. He's a happy, crazy, silly, smart, sweet little man. He was diagnosed with an entropian and corneal ulcer (no big deal once corrected surgically and we were prescribed eye medicine to give him twice a day ). He received his Lyme booster and kennel cough booster, his heart guard, a flagyl prescription( high dosage at 125 mg), panacur and frontline that Monday. He had an adverse reaction to the Lyme shot (vomiting over 5 times) and needed a shot of Benadryl and cortisone. This was the same reaction Ollie had when he received this vaccine. The vet wanted to see Poe again that Saturday to check his corneal ulcer with receiving the medication. We took him to the vet that morning and upon bringing him home he hid under our bed. My boyfriend got him and put him on the couch where he started convulsing and foaming at the mouth.... He was unresponsive, sitting up and seizing. This happened 4 times and was sedated at the emergency vet with some Valium. We drove him to another emergency vet that night whose facility had a neurologist. Within an hour of his episodes he was panting, smiling, kissing and running around. He stayed overnight and was monitored for two days. All blood work came back normal; no liver shunt or hyperglycemia. His neurological exam was normal. He was given anti seizure medication while there but amongst conversations with our vet, the neurologist and my partner we felt the best measure with him ONLY being 5 months old was to take him of the medication and see what happens. It has been 5 days with no seizure activity. He's acting as if nothing has happened; active, alert and affectionate. The neurologist said honestly the presentation of epilepsy and PDE is very uncommon at 5 months and his cluster could have been caused by a multitude of reasons. We we're instructed to monitor him and if another episode occurs and MRI & spinal tap must be done. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar story? I've been researching PDE like crazy. I love my sweet boy so much. I'm hoping the seizure was ideopathic.
Any input for Victoria? We feel for poor Poe!
In order to keep Ask OBP going, we need your questions! So, jot down your question in the comment section and we will do our best to answer. And I know we are dragging our feet on the recipe response. We promise that it is not off our radar!
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Our closest pet store is Pet Supermarket (PS). This is a small chain here in Florida. I am not sure if they are anywhere else. Do you have them where you are? We did not know of any before moving to Florida. We like this pet store more than Petco or PetSmart. It is smaller but seems to have what we need most of the time. Henry does pretty well navigating in this store, too. Also, the staff are usually pretty friendly and they seem to have a stable core of staff that recognize us even though we don't shop there as much as we used to. (Cupid being on special food now and only having one dog means a lot less to shop for these days.)
Two little things of note at our last trip to PS. First, we ran into an old neighbor. We remembered him but he did not remember us (so we didn't say anything). He has not lived in our neighborhood for probably 6 years or so now. But the biggest reason I even remembered him was that he commented on how impressed he was with the pugs. At the time we had 4 dogs. All walking on long leashes. To many this would create a vision of chaos (dogs getting tangled in leashes, each dog going in a different direction, perhaps). I say that this is the vision that may be conjured up since it the vision that pops to my own mind. (This is mostly because I see this many days on my way to work. A lady with 4 dogs and she is trying diligently to manage them all on leash but she looks like a hot mess while trying to walk them and pick up poop and make sure the one doesn't run in the street.) I know that we have likely looked the same way. But on this day, the pugs were in order! They had on their listening ears and remembered some of their training. On this day, they all paused at the corner when I said "wait" and when it was clear to go and I said "free" they all marched in unison across the street. So, that is what surprised this gentleman. He shared his positive impression of them with us and we were beaming with pride after having heard such a nice compliment. He left quite a warm fuzzy feeling with us. And thus, we have not forgotten him even though he obviously did not remember us. (Plus, being owned by a mere one pug is not how he last remembered us!) But it was nice to see this fella at the PS.
The other thing that happened at the PS was that Henry, per usual, sniffed his way around the counter and found the treats that the cashiers give out to good pups. And not only did he milk the girl for a small handful, but he charmed her into giving him a doggie bag to go! That Henry! Now that Benny is no longer here to outshine him, he is using this opportunity to get some back pay for days when he was overshadowed.
#HenryPlaysItUp #HenryGetsTheGoodies #HankLaysOnTheHandsome
Thursday, August 13, 2015
In talking recently, we realized that we have fallen into quite a routine with Henry. Here's how a typical week plays out for us:
- Each weekday morning is at City Center (different area of the park each day)
- Monday nights=Memorial Park
- Tuesday nights=Reed Canal Park
- Wednesday nights=This is the Wild Card! It's either our neighborhood or the people beach (or an off night when I get to work from home on Thursdays)
- Thursday nights=The Pavillion Path
- Friday nights=Pet store (Petco or Pet Supermarket)
- Saturday night=Ponce Inlet dog beach
- Sunday nights=Doris Leeper Park
We never set out to create such stringent routine, but that was just how things worked out. Young Henry was an adventurer. He hated going for the same walk every night. He want to go someplace new every night. His personal motto was, No repeats!
Blind Henry, while still an adventurer at heart, does better when he visits places he is more familiar with. The parks he goes to on a regular basis he can navigate extremely well. New parks take some time for him to figure out.
Knowing that Henry loves to change things up, but that he needs to go someplace familiar is how we fell into our routine. Except for morning walks, there are no repeat during the week. So each night is a fresh new adventure. However, we just keep repeating the same parks week after week, so that blind Henry has a clue of where he is walking.
It seems to be a good routine that accommodates both Henry the adventurer and Henry the blind pug.
Given our routine, if we have any stalkers out there you are pretty much all set now. 
#HenryIsRainmanWithoutTheMathematicalAbilities #WapnerAt11
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Some of the flowers by our front door have seen better days (they get so much afternoon sun that they just fry right up). Knowing it was time to replace them and knowing that Henry likes to get help us pick them out, we brought him with us. As you can see, he is getting kind of used to riding in a buggy! This might be the first time we have brought Henry to the home improvement store when it was not pouring down rain! I actually think he enjoys it better in the rain, but he does better in the cart when the cart is dry! 
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
The end of July offered the world a BLUE MOON! What that means is that it was a second full moon within the same month. Although very overcast, we trekked to the beach to see if we could see Luna shining brightly. We got to the beach early and took our usual spot (the landing at the top of the steps leading to the no dogs allowed beach). It is a good thing we got there early. As we waited for Luna's arrival MANY more people also showed up. Several of them had super powered cameras and were hoping to capture a magnificent photo. But it was not to be had. The clouds merely thickened throughout the night and we were left alone with no glow to warm our hearts.
However, with each trip to this special spot overlooking the beach, you can see Henry getting more and more comfortable sitting on the railing. (Almost too comfortable if you ask me, though.) Henry waited patiently and in full relaxed mode as the other moon gazers arrived. He only started to fidget well after dark and only because he needed a potty break. Since it was after dark and the beach po po did not seem to be near, we took a short walk on the beach and Henry was able to relieve his bladder in the tall grasses at that edge of the beach and the concrete (not where a sunbather would lay).
No Luna that night but the next morning she shined like the Sun right before the Sun actually rose! So, it was not until the next morning when the opening lyrics to Blue Moon actually were true...Blue Moon. You saw me standing alone. ( I mean, it was just me taking Henry out to go potty but technically no other "people").
#HenryIsABenchWarmer #LunaStoodUsUp
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