R's Chi Diary

Whoops! Last night wasn't particularly successful for Puck. He didn't act as if he had a problem with our guests, but he peed on my bed twice---TWICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He hasn't peed on the bed since he was 5 months old, and he only did it a few times before that. He KNOWS better than that, we sleep in the bed. And he has no excuse, as I had cleaned up the whole house and he had a nice, new pee pad down.

I took him outside for a while and he knew he was in trouble. He was upset about it and wouldn't play, and wrapped his lead around several objects until I had to come untangle him.

One of our guests brought their son, who hit Puck with the easter toy my Mom bought him. It was a stuffed chick that makes a chirping noise, not a dog toy. Puck pulled all the stuffing out on Easter day. I actually meant to throw it away, but I guess Puck found it somewhere. Since there's no stuffing, there's the silver-dollar-sized noisemaker just in there. The little brat smacked Puck with the toy and you could hear the *CRACK* when the noisemaker came into contact with Puck's head. Puck did it to himself when he played with it every few minutes, but I still wanted to turn around and hit the little monster right back.

Yesterday we went to work again, but only in the afternoon. I've started going home at lunch to walk Puck. I think it will help him. Now all I have to do is start training myself to walk him in the morning and before bed. Unfortunately, I only have half an hour, and even though my house is about 5-7 minutes away, it's barely enough time.

Puck thinks that the office is a playpen just for puppies. He wiggles like crazy when we walk in and immediately grabs his toy and dances around as if the office=playtime. I'm not entirely sure why he has that idea. I mean, we do play, but mostly I work.

Yesterday I had to do a bunch of taxes at the last minute (I tried to do them last week, but my boss said, "We don't have to do them until the 30th". Since I just started there recently, I've never done these forms before and he has to explain it to me first). Puck was acting like a lunatic, until I had to put him into his portable kennel. I felt mean and my boss even said, "Oh, poor Puck." (And I know he hates it when Puck attacks his loafer laces).

This morning we lazed around in bed. Puck went back and forth from me to my boyfriend to get the maximum amount of belly scratching. Then when my boyfriend got up to go make coffee, it was PLAYTIME. Attack Mom's face time. Attack Dad's foot and robe and be dragged around while Dad is talking on the phone. Bring all the toys into the kitchen and drop them at Mom's feet while she's making breakfast. Sheesh.

It's cute, but I honestly really can't wait until Puck grows up a little and (hopefully) calms down. I thought Chihuahuas were only supposed to be medium-energy dogs. I guess I lucked out and got one with a high-energy personality.

Got Puck a "shedding blade." I need a way to get the fur off of him outside so he won't shed as much inside. I've put off buying the blade because they look like torture instruments to me, but they were the only thing I saw that claimed to "remove excess hair." So we tried it. Puck hates being brushed at the best of times (which confuses me, isn't it like petting?), but he was fairly good while I used it. And it works--great.

I also got some Mane & Tail extra moisture conditioner to bathe him with. It does seem moisturizing, but I should have checked the ingredients first. I don't want to use anything with alcohol in it on him, because as often as I want to bathe him, I don't want to use anything that might dry his skin out. Oh well.

Today we got locked out of the house, even though we had a key. Puck was mad because he wanted to stay outside all day, and I was mad because it was too hot to be locked out so I decided to sit in the car with the air conditioner running. Time to call the landlord and demand that he change our locks, because it's ridiculous to be locked out of your own house when you have a key in your hand, but the lock won't turn.

I vacuumed the house and Puck refused to come downstairs for an hour after I was done. Now he's dragging trash from somewhere. He's so funny, he knows he's not supposed to be doing it, because I hear a rustle and I turn around, and he drops the trash and runs, jumps into my lap, and starts apologizing. Perhaps I'm attributing him too much cleverness, but I believe he wants attention.

Chihuahuas are so easily spoiled. Last night, Puck was sleeping on top of us while we were watching a movie. I decided to go to bed, because it was almost over and it was a stupid movie anyway. He followed me to the foot of the stairs and then stood there looking upset, so I had to go down and carry him up. I put him on the bed while I was getting ready for bed and he PEED ON THE BED AGAIN. YOU JERK!!!!!! I put him down on his paper, then my boyfriend came upstairs as I was inspecting the blanket he'd peed on. My boyfriend laid down after checking the matress for pee, and Puck tried to jump up on the bed and failed. What, you were just to tired to climb the stairs, pee on your paper, and jump into bed? You brat. It wasn't even late.

This morning he is very very sad, because I've been busy at work until now and he has only had 1 walk and one 15-minute fetch session.

I think we need more obedience training. They always say you can start at 6 months, but Puck just pays no attention--except that a treat in the hand means to alternate sitting and laying down until he gets it. I have never had trouble training a dog to do tricks before.

The potty training, well, I've never had to do that, my parents always took care of it. But SIT is so basic. *sigh* Listen to my voice, Puck!

Not exactly Chihuahua-related...

Not exactly Chihuahua-related...

Today I had Puck at work, we played a lot of fetch..........as usual. And chase-the-Puck-with-the-stuffed-duck too.

One of my boss's subcontractors came by to get a check. He has Jack Russels and we talked about dogs for a while.

He left, and called a few minutes later. He said, "There's what looks like a falcon or maybe a young gold eagle on the side of the road just down from the house." I was thinking, "Err...why are you telling me?" and I said, "Is there a wildlife conservation society or something here that I could call?" (I live in the middle of nothing *sigh* ).

He suggested calling the county's humane society--except that there isn't one, yet. They've just formed and are building a shelter now. I looked up animal shelters in the phone book, there was one listed--but the number was out of service! I tried looking up wildlife, and, not to my surprise, there wasn't anything.

So I was flipping through the yellow pages, thinking, and my eyes landed on the number for the vet I used to nueter Puck. So I called them to ask them if they knew of anyone who dealt with wildlife rescue and rehabilitation around here. They said, "hold on" then someone else came on the line. She asked me what she could do for me, so I went through the story again. She asked me how to get to the road, so I was like, "Am I still talking to All Animals?" She said, yes, and she deals with wildlife. So I had to ask my boyfriend the best way to get from the vet to the house (I still don't know any of the roads around here). She said she'd be on her way and asked if I could tell the subcontractor to try to wait on her, so she could spot the place.

Luckily, he was still there and said he'd wait. I heard a scream and then he was saying, "calm down, calm down." I thought he was crazy, I don't know much about raptors, but you don't get near an injured wild animal without knowing exactly what you're doing. I guess it must have been the bird that screamed. Then he said that he hoped that she brought equipment to transport the bird with--I said I figured that if she dealt with wildlife, she would. He mentioned that he'd recently taken a bird in a dog carrier to Murrayville, since that was the nearest place with a wildlife shelter. It's a good thing that there are people, even in the middle of nowhere (especially in the middle of nowhere) that try to take care of wildlife.

Anyway, I was already at work an extra hour, so I left after I finished faxing a customer. The subcontractor said that the bird's back definately looked broken. I guess they might put it down, then, since there probably isn't a rehabilitation center here. I'm not sure what will happen.

I wish that the bird would be ok, though.

Still no update on the bird. I forgot to call again this evening, though I left a message with the vet for the woman to call me about it when she came in. Maybe she was too busy with the bird to call, maybe he will survive.

Today I noticed something troubling. One of Puck's hind legs seems to be wobbling strangely. I've always thought his back legs looked kinda funny and that he might have that laxating pellula (or however you spell it)...but with this wobbling, now I'm really worried.

So, since I want the vet to check that out, and also test him for mange, I made an appointment for next week.

I'm giving my first vet another chance. Really, everyone there is very friendly and very helpful--EXCEPT for the DVM's assistant. She always acts like she has much better things to do than talk to me about my dog. Unfortunately, she has been the one to see Puck every time except once. They asked me why I'd had him neutered at the other vet, and I told her 'because they were going to let me take Puck home if everything went fine (which it did)' and because I was becoming frustrated with the DVM's assistant. She told me that I could request Dr. Landry from now on and she hoped I'd come back.

Pretty funny too. I called my old vet, "new" vet, and Banfield to get a price on the mange test. Each one evened out to $52. Banfield was $30 for the visit, $22 for the scrape, my old vet was $37 for the visit and $15 for the scrape, and my "new" vet was $35 for the visit and $17 for the scrape.

Well, the vet looked at the bird and determined that it's tail was broken irreparably (as far as what he could do). So they turned it over to some wildlife rehabilitation place they knew of. The girl I talked to said that they were going to decide what would happen to him from there.

I said, "Hopefully they will save him."

She said, kinda sharply, "His tail is completely broken and he will never be able to return to the wild."

I said, "Yes, but those rehabilitation people will usually keep a bird even if it won't fly again."

She said, "He can't even stand."

I said, "Oh...that's so sad. Maybe they will have to put him down..."

She said, "He was just a baby and a sweet bird. He'd let you pet him and just handle him as much as you wanted."

That's really crappy. We think he was hit by a car. I hope the wildlife people do keep him anyway. They have all kinds of ways to help a bird permenantly injured--they don't HAVE to kill him...though the bird might be just as happy either way. I guess it's just me feeling like it's awful to kill a defenseless animal.

Puck pooped in my boss's office today and he noticed it before I did. :shock: Bad Puck...you're going to get banned from work.

Puck won't ever let me help him up into my chair and he's always hurting himself. He'll come up to me and I'll hold out my arms and say, "Want up?" And he'll skitter back. So I'll turn back to what I'm doing and then he'll decide he's going to make a jump for it. Today he fell heavily onto his back and ALSO later bumped his head really hard against the bottom of the desk (he does that constantly). I don't think it hurts him, at least, he doesn't act like it, but *I* do. And it worries me.

Puck got another bath today. Since I only rub conditioner over him and rinse him off (and I use baking-soda and aloe conditioner with no alcohol in it), will it dry him out too bad? I try not to bathe him every week, but sometimes (especially right now, with him shedding so much) I can't help it.

I try to cuddle him and I start sneezing, so in the tub he goes.

I used the shedding blade before I bathed him and I couldn't stand it anymore, SO MUCH hair was coming off of him. I wish Andrew would help with it.

It seems like most of the hair comes off around his neck area. I wonder if it's because mange is making him lose hair around his ears (I am still worrying about it even though I will know for sure on Wednesday), or simply because his hair is thicker there because of his ruff.

Can a dog be one color and have an undercoat of a different color? Because most of the hair that comes off of his neck is light-colored. And the thinner his hair looks up there, the more tan shows around his ears.