May 29, 2012

White Dog leaped to her feet on the bed at the first sounds of Quinn in distress. Slower to awaken, Steve and I sat up to see YoYoMa cowering in the corner by the foot of the bed and Quinn yipping and woofing in fear a few feet away. White Dog hopped down and stood between the two boys while we tried to assess the situation.

Steve, arms around his boy, TOWD, guessed that Quinn must have stumbled on his way to the dog door in the middle of the night darkness and either stepped on or somehow startled YoYoMa. Yo, under my calming strokes was trying to make it VERY clear that he had not done anything wrong and had not hurt his brother. We believe he was being truthful and that this was a case of both dogs frightening each other accidentally. Steve saw TOWD outside and YAWD came to lie next to me by the bed. It took awhile for the White Ones to resettle and return to sleep mode...and even longer for Steve and I to be confident that all was fine...and this morning's alarm seemed to squawk extra early.

YoYoMa is proving to be diligent as an early morning power walker with Steve. In his harness and out in the neighborhood, he will steadily walk without sniffing or distractions at a healthy exercise rate of 4.3 mph. Today, they walked a mile and a half. The hard part, both boys admit, is not having a celebratory pre-breakfast snack when they return.

Puff's follow up with Dr. Julia went well this afternoon. After a rough weekend due to the wildfire smoke, Still Another White Dog sounds less congested. We are able to reduce her Lasix back to once a day but the vet wants to continue the antibiotics for her pneumonia for at least another week. With her health issues, Dr. Julia wants to make sure Puff's lungs are clear and the pneumonia gone.

The White Dog Army realized when Steve walked in from work mid-afternoon that they had dodged the Mopey Late Night Monday of Steve's usual late night teaching. "Yet ANOTHER reason to love long holiday weekends," White Dog opined. There was much rejoicing at White Dog Ranch as dad got to help brush out floof and install the new brush roller in the vacuum cleaner (which has been out of commission nearly a week)! AND salmon salad for dinner! Could a Tuesday get any better?