Mummy's friend's doggie girl, Freya

Dear pals, you'll remember just before Christmas I posted about Freya, the beautiful German Shepherd girl who had just been diagnosed with cancer of the spine.

Over night Freya's condition deteriorated badly and this morning she could barely walk, so she is making her journey to the Bridge today. Please remember Freya and her family in your thoughts and prayers - especially Freya's litter brother Brin, who has never known life without his sister. He's going to be so upset and confused and will need all the support and love he can receive.

Thank you dear pals xoxoxo

Update on Freya

Dear pals, we received this update from Freya's mum today. It's just heartbreaking.

"Freya had her MRI this morning. It's about as bad as it could be. The growth is larger than they thought and is in her spine. They can't operate and apparently chemo is not an option either. She's been given weeks or months, and the best we can do is manage the symptoms with pain killers and other stuff until we have to make a decision for her. The vet thinks it could've been there for years and only just now started putting pressure on her.

My uncle recovered from bowel cancer recently which he puts down to some things he took on the recommendation of a cancer specialist in the States. He also met a woman here who took the same things and made a full recovery - more importantly, she gave it to her dog when it got cancer and it also fully recovered. Worth a shot."

Please, if anyone has any suggestions on how to make what time Freya has left good, or suggestions of anything that might physically help her, let me know and I'll pass it along. Freya's mum is as of now taking a month's leave to be with her girl. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and please send all the positive energy you can spare, both for Freya, and for her family?

Mummy's friend's fur child

Hi everyone,

Mummy has a friend with whom she bonded over their mutual love of dogs. Her friend has two beautiful brother and sister German Shepherds, Freya and Brin. Freya has been whining and being very sooky for several days, so she went to the vet yesterday. They found a large mass and several smaller ones on her shoulder/verterbrae. They've been told that whatever it is, they shouldn't expect a recovery. Freya is having an MRI today, and they'll have a better idea then what is going on and what lies ahead. Please keep Freya and her family (and her brother Brin, who adores her) in your thoughts and prayers. They could do with all the good energy you can spare right now. Thank you xoxoxo

In the blink of an eye...

Dear pals, I'm late, as usual lately, but I so wanted to thank everyone for the kind words, wishes and pretties for my page on my Fifth Gotcha Day on September 9. It meant the world to me, and I'm so very sorry I'm late in acknowledging that.

Now, Mummy is elbowing me aside cos she says she has something she wants to say. Sigh...

Mummy says:

My dearest, precious little Poggles, five years ago we met each other and it was mutual love at first sight. It was very obvious that we were meant to be together. I want you to know, my precious little girl, that these past five years have been the happiest of my life. I may have to go out into the "other" world to earn a living for us both, but then I come home to the real world, the world where you're waiting for me and you give me a welcome fit for royalty; full of joy, excitement and above all love. My darling little comedian, bossy boots, wannabe strumpet (with the boy doggies at the lake), Miss Impatience, Joy Giver and world champion tug of war player, you mean the world to me and always will. I wish I could tell you in words you might understand the words and feelings that are in my heart - feelings of immense gratitude and overwhelming love and protection for you. You are beautiful my Pogo, treasure of my heart, and I love you with everything in me.

Um...don't you want my renewal Dogster? Because I'm trying- to pay

...and you've completely ignored the two emails I've sent over the past couple of days telling you there was a problem for whatever reason with the automatic Paypal subscription payment, and you have yet to respond. I WANT to renew, so could you please contact me and let me know if I can just pay it myself without the automatic renewal thing. Just give me the details and I'll do it

It's been a while - so...an update!

Dear pals, I owe a LOT of apologies for not responding sooner for all the lovely pressies and pretties and kind words for my birthday in March. We have an awfully hard time getting to Dogster these days, due to the Dogster server, for whatever reason, so unfortunately we're not here as often as we would like.

ANYway, thank you all so very much for your kindness to little me. It made my birthday all the more special. I have the BEST pals!

Life has been really fun over the past several months. Mummy and I and my BFF Bella and her mum have been going to our local lake for walkies after work most evenings and I've been having a BLAST! Meeting lots and lots of new doggies, and getting on better and better with most of them! Mummy has been so proud of me!

The past few weeks my allergies have been playing up badly, and I ended up with an infected ear and a trip to the vet. We came away with atopic skin spray, more prednisolone (I'd run out) and (ugh) ear drops. I HATE those, and start shaking every time Mummy goes to put them in even though she's very gentle and it's over fast (I gets a treat for being a good girl after though :D ) They're working though, cos my ears aren't that angry red any more.

It's getting cooler here now, and it's getting harder for me to get out of bed in the morning. In the middle of the night I've started snuggling up against Mummy under the covers. Woke her up the other night, I was snuggling up so hard against her. She reckoned I'd attached myself to her spleen, bol!!!

Lots of love to you all dear pals xoxoxoxo

Instant bath!

Well!!! So tonight, even though it was hot, I was zooming around the garden in a VERY excited frame of mine, which had Mummy wondering a bit while she weeded and did Poop Patrol. She came around the corner to find me rolling in the dirt.

Then she stopped and looked twice.

I was actually blissfully rolling on another dead rattie.

Rats - 0
Me - 5!!!!

After expressing her disgust, and told in no uncertain terms I wouldn't be sharing a bed with Mummy any time soon, I was summarily picked up and carted into the laundry where I had an instant bath!

Now much to my disgust I smell, coughcough PRETTY coughcough!!! I HATE it, and I'm looking for any excuse to head back outside again, although Mummy has now removed the offending object, pout.

I ask you, WHY do pawrents want to take away all our fun? Huh? Riddle me THAT!

But on the up side, Mummy told me I can share the bed tonight now I smell (blech) nice again.

In four years in this house...

...as of last night the score is:

Rats - 0
Me - 4

I'm just sayin' :D

Not such a great day

So I had a bad day while Mummy was at work yesterday. When she got home and opened the laundry door, it was to be greeted by a sight that told her I had had major diahorrea through the day. I of course, raced out of the laundry and through it, with Big Teddy, dragging it through the carpet and mats in the dining area. It was also on my paws. I was in such a rush to get outside. Mummy immediately opened the door, and I went out. She followed and it was clear I still had some left in me, and I was weeing up a storm too - actually I did that for much of the evening.

We didn't go walkies, although Mummy put my harness on to go out and tell Aunty Tracy we weren't going (it had taken her so long to clean up everything, then wash the laundry floor, wash my paws and bottom and then put teddy and Puppy in for a wash). Mummy forgot something in the meantime and went back to the kitchen. While she was gone, I chewed my way through a bit of my harness. THAT annoyed Mummy.

Anyways, Aunty Tracy dropped by some chicken breast. So what she did was boil a little rice and cut up a little chicken and put it in with the rice towards the end, and gave me a little dinner hoping to bind me. It seems to have worked, because we had a quiet night.

Mummy was telling my Uncle about it last night and he mentioned worms. Mummy said I get wormed regularly, but he said (he sometimes trains dogs) that regardless they still can get them. Does anyone know if that happens a fair bit?

Mummy made sure I had lots of water to drink last night and kept me quiet. She thinks perhaps the ongoing high heat may have had something to do with it perhaps? I haven't eaten anything different lately, at least in Mummy's sight.

A big shout out to Bo Hoefinger's brother Kensy. Poor Kensy has a similar problem at the moment, and is staying at the vet for the day. He has a swollen tummy and whip worm, and needs some fluids, so much love to Kensy, and hugs to his mum and dad - I know they must be worried xoxoxoxo

Something wonderful!

Four years ago when Mummy adopted me at 7 months of age or thereabouts, it soon became very clear that I was what people call a reactive doggie. Almost anytime when we went walkies and I would see another dog approaching, I would become tense and hunker my head down and stare. Then once they were close enough I would start screaming at them in a scream so loud it was deafening and start lunging at them. People soon went from "Oh what an adorable little dog!" to hurrying by with their dogs as soon as they spotted me. It made our walkies anything but enjoyable for Mummy, and really, not so relaxing or much fun for me either. I was great with puppies for some reason, and some dogs, although there was really no way to predict on what dogs my wrath would fall.

Mummy thinks, and probably rightly, that I was the product of a BYB. It was already very clear I was taken from my doggie mummy way too soon, because I'm always suckling on my big teddy. I even knead the way puppies do on a teat to get the milk to flow. It seemed reasonable to think that one of the reasons I'm so reactive was that I was taken from my doggie mummy and brothers and sisters far too soon, before I could learn any socialising skills. It was also clear it was a fear reactive behaviour, so it may be that I was attacked at some time before I came to Mummy.

Two-three weeks back one of our neighbours down the street, and her little papillon, Bella (my BFF! I LOVE Bella and she loves me, and we hit it off right away years ago) were driving by on their way to a local lake for walkies. They invited us along. First week was a bit of a nightmare, and almost every dog I met (but not quite all) I went into my "lemme at 'em!" routine. It was embarrassing and tiring for Mummy, an eye-opener for Aunty Tracy, and exhausting for me. There was one young cream labby boy that I just took a hatred too, and no matter how patient his dad was, or how friendly Jason was, I was always roaring and lunging at him, every single time.

One week ago something magical happened. Mummy had been researching reactive dogs intensively, and she came away with something she decided to try. So she started carefully watching my body language on the path around the lake (which really is beautiful). As soon as my head went down, I started staring at an approaching dog and got all tensed up, we would walk off the path to a short distance away. I could still see the dog, but it was at enough of a distance that I didn't seen him/her as a threat. It started working. No roaring/screaming when we did that. If by chance my body language gave nothing away until a dog was next to us and I'd had a sniff and decided I really didn't like him/her, Mummy would immediately start walking again. That was our plan, and we stuck to it.

It started to work.

One night when Jason was approaching, we stepped off the path. I watched while he and Bella (who is 10 and very laid back), schmoozed and got on like a house on fire.

Then the miracle happened. Mummy decided, as Jason's dad was encouraging us, to walk me over. All of a sudden, I was sniffing Jason and wagging my tail! I LIKED Jason - he wasn't such a big scary monster after all! He just wanted to meet me and play!

For the rest of this last week, every evening has brought a better and better result. I love meeting up with Jason, I love meeting up with other doggies, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my walks. And so is Mummy. It's clear that I still have fear issues. Whenever a whole bunch of doggies are around and we're all schmoozing and sniffing, it can become too much for me, so I either hide behind Mummy, or turn away from them and pretend they don't exist. But we're working on this too, and Mummy has been so very encouraging.

It's truly been a miracle, this past week, for me to turn from a reactive dog with just about EVERY dog I meet, to a doggie who struts her stuff calmly and relaxed along the walk around the lake (and it's a long one, lol) and just enjoys saying hello to other doggies without going for them before they go for me (at least, in my mind).

Mind you, there was ONE instance last night that didn't fit into all the good stuff above. We encountered two men walking very big doggies, including a Rottweiler, who was OFF LEASH! (It's illegal to do that here). So we walked off the path because I did start to react. What happens? The rottweiler followed us! Every time we moved back, he/she came too, very close. Now, he wasn't threatening and looked very calm and relaxed, but not to me he didn't, and I did start screaming and lunging. Mummy, however, got VERY snarly (insert shocked emoticon here). She snarled at that idiotic man who was the Rotty's dad, "Get your dog AWAY from her. Now! And it should be on leash!" Wow - never seen her so mad when we've been out walking. The idjut dad didn't say a word, but called the Rotty, who went. And I calmed down. We thought it might put me back a bit with all the success I'd had this week, but no! I just continued on greeting other doggies and enjoying my walkies! Now THAT really is a miracle!!!