Birthday boy

Hello everyone
I am Vincent Van Gogh and am told that I am now a year older. I am however not sure what all this birthday hoo rah is about. all I know is that last week I got a bath and my weekly grooming and a few days later i had to visit the vet. So Happy Birthday to me.
Christopher Robin tells me that I should have received cake. Odd I did not even receive home made treats on the date in question.
I shall have to discuss this with my staff.
I will say that I got extra play time outside on Monday and Tuesday an that was very nice but I thought that was just because my mom was home. I wonder if you get ice cream when you get cake??? I do so love ice cream and yogurt.
Well I hope everyone who reads this has a very pleasant day.
Vincent Van Gogh

Cake

GUESS WHAT? MY MOM BAKED THREE LITTLE CAKES FOR ME YESTERDAY. BLUEBERRY APPLESAUCE. THEY WERE BAKED LAST NIGHT AND ONE WILL BE FROSTED FOR US TO SHARE. I CAN NOT WAIT. I COULD SMELL THEM BAKING YESTERDAY AND MY MOUTH WAS WATERING. HOW NIC E TO HAVE A BIRTHDAY REMEMBERED. YOU HUMANS CAN BE VERY NICE.

VINCENT

Cake is good

Well I just had two bites of my birthday cake. I was nice enough to share with the rest of my pack but I have to tell you I would have eaten the entire cake if I had been permitted. It is delicious. Blueberries and apples and cranberries and applesauce oh my. I also got to play outside despite the mud for several hours twice today. Hurry Spring.

If I am a good boy all day I wonder if I will get more cake after dinner????

ADOPT 2010 CONTEST

What can I say about Vincent? I can say that he is wonderful, highly intelligent, loyal, fearless, gentle yet strong, stubborn, loving etc. etc. etc. He is one of my very best friends and I love to tell him that he is a wonderful dog. My life with Vincent began because I am a failed foster mom (five times over). When one of Sheltie Rescues other volunteers transported him to me he smelled absolutely horrendous. She was very apologetic and explained that she had in fact bathed him before his trip to me. Yikes we had to transport him in our cars and he wreaked of some odor the likes of which I hope to never encounter again. When I got him home I gave him another bath and discovered that the source was actually his ears so I cleaned those and what a difference. I have no idea how long this boy was out wandering the streets nor do I have an idea what he experienced while he wondered but my goodness what an odor. Vinny as he is commonly referred, is quite the handsome lad. He is a Shetland sheepdog/blue heeler mix. Having shared my life with Shetland sheepdogs for the fifteen or so years prior to Vincent coming into my life, I realized that there were major personality differences between Vinny and the shelties. For example most shelties do not hunt. While Vinny does not hunt catching a wild blue jay and consuming it whole is great sport for that boy. Yesterday he almost had a morning dove and a couple of years ago he took out a whole bunny family despite my trying to save the little ones. To cope with those differences I began reading up on Australian Cattle Dogs. Oh yea Vinny definitely fits the definition of that breed although there are times when the sheltie in him shines through. He is a 35 pound lap dog. When Vinny came into the rescue he was a wild boy only about 6 months old. I got him because he was "too hard for most people to handle". He jumped and pulled but never tried to bite anyone. Three weeks later when I took him to an adoption day everyone wanted to know what drugs I had him on. No drugs just structure that's all it took to make Vinny a changed pup. I have to tell you Vinny came from a place in Ohio where he would have been euthanized with a bullet. That would have been such a shame because he is a wonderful dog. I have four shelties that weigh 15 pounds or less and Vinny takes extreme care not to trample them as he flies through the air to retrieve his toys. He has visited nursing homes and we found him to be a natural with their clients. I knew he would be the day we visited a pet store for an adoption day and he walked over to a gentleman that was in a motorized wheel chair and sat beside him so that the man could pet him with little prompt from me. He is a very special boy and my life has been enriched because I get to share time with him. His smile is contagious and oh that tail of his, curled when he is just enjoying life, straight when he is running gorgeous to say the least. Can you imagine this beautiful dog almost received a bullet to the head for no apparent reason. Vincent is not a vicious dog. In fact he loves people. He is healthy, wise and cute as a button. I am forever grateful to the person who pulled him from the shelter. He is a joy to have around. My world was meant for one as beautiful as he. Yep I love this pretty boy.

The terrible C word

Last fall my beautiful Vincent was diagnosed with bone cancer. He had to have one of his front legs removed completely. That part was not a difficult decision. His prognosis however still brings me to tears as the vet only gives him 2 years. I plan to make them fantastic years and have given up my volunteer work for a while to spend more time with him and my pack. He is amazing and could care less about his missing leg. I have know a lot of dogs including many brilliant shelties but Vincent is the smartes dog I have ever had the priviledge to share my life with. He has been running and jumping and enjoying life since December (before that his mum was to terrified to let him get away with that stuff) Now that he has healed, he is back to chasing away the birds and squirrels and bunnies in our yard and fetching his favorite footballs and soccer balls which is unfortunate for the balls sinced he tends to rip them apart. He is such a brave hunter after all. I love this boy and will miss him dearly when he is gone but for now I am thankful to the vets at OSU for giving me more time with him.

"I could have told you Vincent this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."

I'm doin fine mom.

It has been a little more than a year since Vincent was diagnosed with cancer and lost his leg. He is officially a tripod as he has since the surgery placed his front leg in the middle of his body for balance. Vin does not even notice the leg is gone. He runs, jumps, jumps into the car, much to his mom's dismay, tears up the stairs on a regular basis. His last oncologist visit was very good. Now instead of visiting her every three months we will be going back every six. During the visit prior to that Vincent gave hope to someone else who had come to the clinic and had to hear the "C" word. Such an amazing boy that Vinny. If only he would stop giving his mom palpitations each time he jumps into the car or over one of his brother shelties. His oncologist told us, Vinny and me that is, that she would say he was in such good shape because of the chemotherapy except that I opted not to do chemo so she says it must be the love that has kept him looking so good. I told her it was the TOFU. Vin gets TOFU an immune booster CQ10, Salmon, Salmon oil, Flax oil and cottage cheese, lots of fruits and vegetables and low carb food. Mostly though he gets lots of hugs and gets to sit on my lap like a 35 pound lap puppy.

Birthday 2012 yes!!!!!

Wow I am a special boy. My Human mom actually took a vacation day from her job, you know that place that takes her away from me every day so I can have kibble and treats. Anyway I woke up to a massage on Friday, then for breakfast I had scrambled eggs with salmon and cottage cheese over kibble. I had to share but that's ok. I chased two trains then we went to the park with one of my pack brothers. We walked around at the park and then I got to watch the water in the pond swirl around. I love that. The bluebirds were dive bombing in the pond. Then we went home and we each got a yogurt ice cube yummy. After that we were back outside chasing balls and birds and planes and hunting in the yard. So much fun to chase that hawk away from my brothers. That's my job you know, to make the Hawk go away. I played fetch with my shredded basketball for a while. Later we had dinner, chicken, tofu, green beans and kibble. The pack took a short nap cuz we are not allowed to run for an hour after dinner. Then we went back outside and each of us got our teeth brushed, nails clipped and we were groomed. Love the brushing part. We each got a treat for being good groomies. Such a wonderful day I could not be happier but then it happened my human mom brought out my birthday cake. She sang me happy birthday and then we each had a little piece of Home made doggy cake. I could have eaten all of it easy. Mom said she was just glad I got to have another birthday. What a wonderful day. Thanks mom.

Christopher's Birthday 2012

Just a note. I love Birthdays at my house. We all get to share the birthday boys cake. yum yum can not wait.