MY PAPA

Well mamie decided that the whole "no news is good news" philosophy just wasn't good enough for her today. After speaking to the doctor earlier this afternoon and being told he'd only call back if something happened, she decided she just HAD to call the animal hospital at about 9:30 to check on Meatball... I guess just in case the surgeon forgot to call and report a complication. As of that time Meatball was doing well. They'd had a bit of trouble getting his temperature back up, it had dropped to 98 degrees, but they have since gotten back to 101 where it belongs. His head has obviously been shaved so his fur couldn't interfere with the surgery, and he has some pretty significant bruising and swelling, but the vet did warn that bruising and swelling would happen so that's no surprise. Meatball is being given fentanyl which is a pretty heavy duty pain killer, is being packed in ice for 20 minutes every 4 hours, and has been resting in his comfy cone all day... ironically enough the vet tech said he woke up and actually sat up for the first time all day about ten minutes before mamie called to check on him. The vet tech told mamie that at about 10 o'clock they were going to take Meatball outside to do his business... because so many dogs won't do it in the kennel because they sleep there and also take him for a very short walk just to get him moving. After going outside he was going to receive his last round of antibiotics for the night via his IV and then be put back in his kennel to rest. Dr. Fingeroth is going to re-evaluate him in the morning, check things like his progress, his eye (to make sure it's functioning properly) etc and then call mamie with an update, if all is well Meatball should be cleared for discharge at some time tomorrow and can come home otherwise he may have to stay for observation another night.

As soon as I hear more information from mamie tomorrow morning I'll be sure to post an update on Meatball's condition/discharge for all of our pals to read. Thanks everyone for all of your support, with any luck the power of the paw will bring Meatball a speedy recovery!

~Puck

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mamie just announced to us all that MEATBALL IS COMING HOME TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She spoke with the vet a little bit ago on her way to grab some dinner and the vet said Meatball is doing well and is ready to be discharged tonight! Mamie is gonna call big guy and see if he wants her to wait until he gets out of work to go pick Meaty up or if he wants her to go get him now so that Meaty can just come home instead of being stuck there any longer, after all he's been there since 7 YESTERDAY morning! WOO HOO I haven't been this excited in my whole life. Mamie says I'm gonna have to be gentle because he's still going to be sore, and she warned me that he may look funny because his head is shaved, he's swollen, stitched together, and bruised but I don't care, he'll still smell like Meatball, he'll still resemble (to a certain extent) Meatball, and eventually he'll begin acting like the old Meatball too! WOO HOO Papa is coming home!!!!!

~Puck

Time to do a happy dance!

Well this morning I was acting very funny, even got a little bit urpy, ran behind a curtain and peered out as if you beg not to be yelled at, and everyone thought I had the puppy flu, but they have since figured out that I was just upset and missing my papa Meaty. Mommy and mamie went and picked Meatball up and the minute I saw him my whole demeanor changed, I'm hyper, I'm playful, I'm overly excited, I'm so happy to see my Meaty words can't even describe it!

Meatball himself is doing very well. His eye is quite red but doesn't appear to be bulging as bad anymore. He seems very hyper at the moment and couldn't get enough of running around the house to investigate while saying multiple hellos but we all feel that the excitement of being home was fueling his hyper-ness and that once he calms down a bit his medications will take over and he'll become rather sleepy. Mommy was shocked that he doesn't look as bad as expected, she was expecting quite a but of swelling and bruising but really all you can see is his funny looking haircut and then the obvious incision. The incision looks very good, well as good as a slice in your face could look and was closed with something called sutures (that's mommy's big word!) rather than staples and will be removed by good ole' Dr. Clauss in 7-10 days! His pain medications and antibiotics only have to be given to him once a day at about 8 in the morning but the ice regimen of every 4 hours for 20 minutes has to be maintained for help with pain management and to reduce the swelling. He doesn't have many restrictions other than not being too rough, so he can't chase his bucket or his ball in the yard but he can play gingerly with his bucket or chew nicely on a toy. Ozzy and I have looked him over and over again trying to figure out what that funny looking black thingy on his head is but mamie said it's just a cone and is there to protect him not hurt him so I guess I'll accept that answer. Dr. Fingeroth will be calling in a couple of weeks when he receives the results from the biopsy to discuss the prognosis and determine a plan of attack from that point, but as of this moment it's just a mission to help Meaty heal fast! Meatball has taken himself downstairs to rest now and as I get ready to take myself downstairs to join him I find myself thinking... Is his hair going to grow back tan or white? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

~Puck

Beautiful Day

Today has been a beautiful day! The sun is shining, barely any breeze, and it's so warm! I love beautiful days because they mean I get to be outside more often and for longer! As the day goes on today the temperature is actually rising, and tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be up near 85 and 90 degrees!

So far today I've been out for awhile with my mamie, and then mommy took me out for over an hour just a little bit ago! I dug in the garden (SHH don't tell mamie), I ate some bugs, ate some leaves, and even hunted a dandelion or two as a "treat" to myself. My big brothers don't do so well in the heat... see Meatball has that big black cone thing around his neck which I figure must make the heat pretty unbearable for him and well Ozzy is covered in thick fur, he's a snow dog not a sun dog, they've been outside playing too but they only make it a few minutes before asking to go inside, I on the other hand have to be forced or bribed to go inside.

An update on Meatball:

Meatball has been doing well. He tries to get his comfy cone off quite often and has succeeded a couple of times already. At times mamie will take his cone off for him and just keep an eye on him. He has scratched a few times and made himself bleed so he's finding himself spending more time inside the cone and less time outside but he'll learn his lesson one way or another and mamie would rather him learn by being stuck in the cone rather than learn by pulling stitches and needing to go back to the vet. He's been pretty rambunctious lately, much more willing to play and stuff than we ever expected him to be already but we're not complaining, he's not allowed to do much in the way of playing... no chasing his ball, no chasing his bucket, nothing too hard but it's still nice to finally see some motivation out of him. His eye is looking better, much less red than it was at first and no longer bulged at all that we can see which is a good sign. As soon as he goes for his suture removal and as soon as Dr. Fingeroth calls to discuss the results of his biopsy I'll have more updates for you all!

~Puck

Stormy Waters

Well today I got not one but TWO thunderstorms and these ones were big! Nobody expected me to handle them very well because I always bark at even the smallest ones, but I didn't make a peep during today's... well maybe a GRR here and a woof there as it first rolled in but that was it, I just lazed around watching the flashes of bright lightning, and listening to the crackle of intense thunder, and the sounds of heavy downpours flooding our streets... and our basement. Yeah in your faces know-it-all humans, I'm not such a baby after all :-P

Mommy dropped her ipod in my water dish today... rut roh! See, my dish sits at the edge of her desk and her ipod was charging on her desk and she isn't sure if she caught the cord with her hair straightener or if I caught the cord with my paw but somehow her Ipod ended up right smack PLOOSH in my water dish. Now it's turning itself on, but only for a few seconds at a time, is only showing a completely blank white screen, and the computer isn't even recognizing it. According to apple.com her Ipod serial number is still covered under warranty until October so hopefully they either repair or replace it... that's her music in the car ya know... jeeze ipod gods why couldn't you just let it float and be okay after swimming in my dish.

Speaking of my dish I got a new one a couple of days ago. I used to have two small metal ones, and mommy kept seeing this really cute one at the pet store... it's plastic, and my water dish and food dish are attached to one another making it harder for me to push it around, and it's ADORABLE, it's white and blue, with dog bones on each side, and cut-out dog bones on either side, and the real plus is that the plastic inserts (for food and water) are disposable, so I used them once, and get a new one so my food and stuff stays cleaner. You'd think I'd be super pumped, but NO I was afraid of it at first. I dropped my toe, ran into the corner barking and growling, then I'd slowly creep up, peer around the bed to see if it was still there and bark and growl some more when it wasn't gone... hahahahahaha. I finally braved it and ate some food out of it today, but the water still scares me, my grandma thinks it's because I can see through my water, and the plastic insert and see my placement (which happens have a dog on it) staring back at me... it's gonna take some time for me to get used to seeing through my water, to the floor, and having something looking back at me, even if that something is just painted on.

Meatball goes to good ole' Dr. Clauss tomorrow morning to have his sutures removed! Mamie is afraid that because he's scratched before the vet is gonna take these sutures out and have to replace them with more rather than declaring him healed enough to go suture-less, so keep your paws crossed everyone and we'll update you as soon as he gets home!

I'm off to bed, it's late and I'm one tuckered out little pup.

~Puck

Long Time

Sorry everyone that it's been a little bit since my last diary entry, things here have been a little bit crazy lately... our washing machine broke last week and isn't being repaired until tomorrow so mommy, mamie, and even grandma have been taking regular trips to something called the laundromat... I tried going with them but grandma said there's a sign hanging on the wall that says "No pets inside the building please", and mommy agreed and said yes in fact there is... PSH I'm not a pet, I'm Puck I'm a living, breathing, family member with clothes of my own ya know.

On top of that mommy's car broked TWICE. Last Sunday it red lined from the engine being all the way at cold to as hot as it could get in a matter of a few minutes, luckily she wasn't far from home so she made it okay, that Monday it happened again so the dealer came and towed it in for repairs but had to keep in until Thursday because it needed a new head gasket and they wanted to replace her thermostat to keep it from happening again, or so they thought. Friday, mommy and mamie were on their way to errands and it happened AGAIN. Mommy was very unhappy and the dealer actually had the audacity to say "Well what do you want me to do about it?" This made mommy even more mad, that car is still under warranty so um gee mister I think she wants you to fix it. Determined to figure out what was wrong with her car she popped the hood, rolled up her sleeves, and attacked it herself... scary considering her car savvy boyfriend told her to trade in the car for a bus pass because she doesn't know the first thing about cars. Well she fixed her car all by herself! Turns out there was almost NO coolant in her coolant reservoir! About a gallon of coolant later her car was back to normal, thanks to her boyfriend telling her what type of coolant to use... No credit goes to the mechanic on this one though. I mean really, when they kept her car for 4 days to replace the head gasket and thermostat didn't they bother to check the coolant level?! That's probably all the car needed to begin with.

This upcoming Saturday is the 4th of July! I don't know what that is exactly but I did hear mamie say something about there being lots of loud booms of fireworks and stuff... mommy and her friends even went all the way to Pennsylvania last Sunday and bought over $1500 worth of their own fireworks to blow up in a friends yard... I wonder if I'll be able to hear them from safe here in my own home?

Mamie and the big guy are going on something called vacation in about two weeks so that's making things even more crazy with shopping for the essentials, and to top that off mommy is going on her own vacation about a month after them so she's got some shopping to do too... something about needing more summer clothes... I play in BOTH of her closets she has plenty of clothes. BOL.

Needless to say I've obviously been a very busy pupper because every time they leave me home to do their errands that means it's time to torment grandpa, and then when they come home I have to torment them all so I'm doing, double, triple, and sometimes even quadruple tormenting duty these days and boy is that time consuming and tiring!

Meaty is still doing well. He's a very playful guy these days, much more so than he has been in a while from what I hear from the family, and WAY more so than he has been since my arrival and I am not complaining, I love to see my papa Meaty all happy and wanting to play and be rambunctious with me. His sutures are supposed to come out (for real this time) when he visits his vet on Tuesday afternoon so I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes.

Now, I am off to bed I am such a tired pupper and I'm sure I have a lot of excitement tomorrow too!

~Puck

Yappy 4th of July

Well this is my first ever fourth of July so I must say YAPPY 4th of JULY all. I haven't been too big of a fan thus far, there's an awful lot of loud booms and crashes as neighbors set fireworks off and I am not a fan of noises that I can't see coming or see where they're coming from.

Mommy has a party to go tonight that I'm not allowed to go to HMMPPHH. She says it won't be a good place for me to be because they have about $1500 in fireworks to blow off and A.) I hate them, B.) They may hurt my ears, and C.) Who knows how much ash and stuff would be around me, and that's all toxic to us puppies. It's times like this I wish I was a human.

I hope every woof and their humans have an awesome holiday, enjoy yourselves but be safe!!

~Puck

Rough Few Days

It's been a rough few days around here lately. See a couple of days ago my mamie and big guy pulled out this big black case on wheels and started packing their stuff into it. I heard all kinds of talk from the humans about some place called Florida and Disney World and when I talked to Ozzy and Meatball they described this time as a rather miserable, LONG period of time without the humans... well they said we'd still have grandma and grandpa which is a plus but still depressing. The only thing they found odd was that my mommy and unkie Jay hadn't pulled out any large black cases on wheels... HMMM puzzling. Then bright and early yesterday morning Uncle Mackie came and picked mamie and big guy up for something called the airport it seems he too was going to Florida. It's been two full days without mamie and big guy and I must say it is kind of depressing, it's just so odd not having somebody to go downstairs and bother when my mommy is working, but I do still have grandma and grandpa. I hear that the humans intend on bringing some goodies back from Disney for us, so I say HURRY UP and get back here, I want to see what they are! Word is that they have another week in the sunshine state to go before returning here to Buffalo but that they are already having a blast!

Today was an even rougher day. First I went in the potty and decided to eat a piece of a Loofah, yeah that has mommy rather worried about what it's going to do to my insides and if I'm going to be alright or need to be rushed to the emergency vet or something. I say CALM DOWN mommy, but what do I know. It's been about 4 hours since my incident and I have been playing like usual, eating and drinking like usual, and even went potty a few minutes ago without any problems but mommy is still concerned. She said she won't be satisfied until she sees physical proof that the loofah is exiting my body, or until it's been long enough since the incident that she knows there's no way the loofah is still inside me whichever comes first.

On top of that I got burned on my head today :-( Mommy was making some fried doughy stuff in the kitchen and I got a little too close and a little grease splattered and got me right on the head... I let out a little yelp and took off running down the hallway. Mommy caught up with me and checked me all over, making sure it wasn't in my eyes or anything, wiped off my head,then I ran and hid under grandma's bed and wouldn't come out even for mommy so she bribed me with Doritos, got me out and immediately placed neosporin with pain reliever on my new owie, and an ice pack! I have a bit of a bump on my head where the grease hit which is definitely a burn but other than that I seem okay, I haven't been whimpering or trying to scratch at anything and mommy has checked me over and over again and can't seem to find another spot on my body which she is very thankful for!

Hopefully all of today's stuff comes out okay and the loofah comes out no problem, and my bump goes away so mommy can quit worrying about lil ole' me! I'm off to play and sleep now, I've had a hectic day!

~Puck

Good New Good News!

Well I'm not sure if we should say it's good news yet but I guess it's better than nothing. See last night the loofah that I ate was turquoise, yup turquoise, so all day long mommy has been following me around making sure I'm eating, drinking, playing, and able to go potty, then after I go she's been looking to see if she can find anything out of the ordinary... AKA signs of a loofah and finally about an hour ago she noticed some turquoise strands when I went potty!! Now she isn't sure if it's just the coloring of the loofah coming out while the plastic remains inside me or if the loofah itself is coming out but she's hoping it's the whole loofah and actually thinks that makes the most sense as it seems quite strange that the color would wash off but come out still turquoise. She did speak with the vet this afternoon though and they assured her that as long as I was playing and eating and drinking things were looking good, told her to watch me closely for the loofah to come out, mentioned that my tummy acids may break the loofah down into smaller pieces, and said no need to worry unless I begin acting strange.

On the other hand there's my burn owie. I still have the bump on my head and it feels rather rough, mommy said it seems to be singed hair, whatever that means. She's still putting neosporin on me but is starting to wonder if the bump on my head is an actual bump from maybe banging my head when I was running under the bed to hide after the nasty grease spit at me rather than a burn at all. She did notice a little spot under my nose that seems to be looking a bit different so she put some neosporin on there which is exactly what the vet recommended. I guess she'll just have to wait and see what this bump actually is, if it's singed hair it'll grow out, if it's a burn it'll heal, and if it's a goose egg from bumping my head it'll go down soon enough... all I know is I better still be as cute as people keep telling me I am.

Mamie and the big guy are on day 3 of vacation in Florida and apparently having quite a bit of fun! They visited something called Epcot in Disney World and well the big guy and uncle Mackie went a little crazy with a Japanese drink called Sake...LMTO, you'd think after living in Japan the big guy would no how strong sake really is.

Alright well I'm off to bother mommy in the shower... I promise not to eat any more loofah, and then maybe curl up and wait for snack time with grandpa!

~Puck

Really mom?

As if my last few days haven't been horrible enough... mamie and big guy leaving us, eating a loofah, getting my poor little nose burned... mommy decides today is BATH DAY... are you kidding me mom? I understand I probably was a smelly little boy but couldn't you wait until I had some time to recover from the trauma I went through already this week?

Anyways today has been an interesting day around here... I'm still running and jumping and playing and eating and drinking as usual so I think mommy may finally be calming down a but which is good. Unfortunately her good day ended when the mail came today. The first letter she opens informs her that she is to be available for jury duty the week of August 10th... she's on vacation on August 14th and doesn't return until August 21st, sounds simple enough to just postpone, but here's the thing, mommy was summoned to jury duty earlier and had to postpone because it was the day after her knee surgery... so now to postpone this one she needs to present written proof that accepting duty for the week of the 10th would cause hardship to her, I say good luck with that mom. On top of that she got a letter today telling her that her application for health insurance (she got kicked off mamie and big guys when she turned 21) was DECLINED because she "makes too much" apparently if you make more than $109.50 per week you are disqualified from NYS health insurance... so what does this mean? This means she has three options: 1.) Go completely health insurance-less for ONE YEAR until she's eligible to obtain it through work, 2.) Request a fair hearing and try to prove she does deserve NYS insurance, or 3.) Pay $300 for private health insurance... again I say good luck with that mom.

Mom's got to go with Unkie Jay tonight to the Bill football stadium to watch them do suicides with a girl from work, and determine a winner... I don't know what suicides are but they don't sound pleasant and I LOVE to run!

Alright I'm off to run around and drive the people of this house nutso!

~Puck