Getting old sucks....but we are taking it one day at a time

Well I turned 11 last month. Mom really celebrated my birthday bigtime and gave me 3 brand new duckie toys!!!! I was squeeking them like crazy.

Things are not going so well for me. I started have seizures frequently in the spring and I got diagnosed with a brain tumor in May. Mom says I have a plucky spirit because the vet didn't think I'd last the summer and her it is January and I am still alive and barking.

I played a little bit of flyball with a vetran's team this summer. The first time was 2 days after my brain tumor was diagnosed. Mom was worried it would be too much for me and my meds. made me a little woozy but I had a blast. I kept on playing until August when we went to a team practice and I got over excited and had a really big seizure. Mom said it wasn't safe for me to play flyball anymore so I am officially retired (for the 2nd and final time!!!)

I have good days and bad days now. Last month I stopped eating and was having problems walking and mom was very very worried about me. The vet gave me some more meds and by Christmas I felt great again! Mom was worried the excitement of the holidays and all the visitors would be over stimulating for me and make me sick but it didn't at all!!!!!

My legs are a little shakey now and I fall over sometimes or I can't jump up on the bed to snuggle without help but mom is always right there to help me. Tilly doesn't play as rough with me, she likes to lick my ears, but when we do get going, I still like to chase her around a bit and then I lie down on my back and play with her that way! I'm still having fun and mom thinks that is a very good thing. We don't know how long the medications will help me but mom says just to take One day at a Time....

Licks and Wags to you all!

Tessie Girl, aka:
Tessie Doodlebug &
The Tessinator!

Tess the BRAVE

Mom says I must be feeling much more BRAVE these days. We have been goin' to flyball practices and I am much more confident! Mom has been trying some new release techniques and they help me stay calm, cool and collected. I'm so happy to be back in the game, even if it only for a few turns, I really love to play this game and was just too freaked out and scared after being interfered with.

Rona's getting a puppy!!!!!!!

I am so excited to hear that our friend Rona is going to get a new dober-puppy in about 2 months!!!! Rona was so sad when Smoochie died and I still miss him too. Rona was searching to find just the right dog to add to our friendly little pack, so it was pretty exciting to find out that she has found one! He is a boy and he was just born a couple of weeks ago! I can't wait to meet him! I promise to write more details about him when I know them!

I am "RETIRED"

Well a couple of months ago I was attacked by a dog at a flyball fun day. The other dog wasn't really mean, just new and not well trained and it pounced on me. I gave it back good and we got into a real tussle. The humans separated us but not before I had pulled out a lot of the other dog's fur. I was so upset, that afterwards I howled sadly for 5 minutes.

I decided that I don't feel safe anymore running and playing flyball when there are other dogs around that I don't know. Mom has been trying to help me get more confidence and I am o.k. playing flyball with my own doggie friends but as soon as I get around other dogs I panic. Anyways, mom has decided that it is time I retire from competition and even though I really do want to play, I agree. Mom and I are still training and playing flyball with our own club, and mom hopes that one day I might feel safe enough to help out a team every now and then, but for now I am just going to take it easy!

More sad news

I just learned that our pal Amos the Greyhound died suddenly last night. I will miss him a lot. He was quiet and gentle and sweet. He liked to lean against humans and ask them for a gentle rub. I remember in flyball demos his mom would say "ready, set, go" and release him but he just wouldn't budge until the crowd cheered and clapped for him. What a great sense of humour! It will seem strange to go to flyball practice on saturday and know he won't be there.

smoochie is gone :(

My best buddy SMOOCH, the dobermann, has died....I can't believe it I am so shocked - he was only 5. Poor Smoochie, He had a cough for a few weeks and his mom, Rona, took him to the vet. The vet said he had a throat infection and gave some pills but was also worried about possible heart problems. Two days later he was gone. How sad. :( My Mom doesn't know all the details yet so she hasn't told me exactly what happened.

I am so sad, I will miss him so very much. He was a sweet soul and was really very gentle. He was always glad to see us at the dog park - even when Mathilda the monster pup pestered us and drove us nuts. When he came over to our backyard we would patrol the perimeter, then run around, play in the puppie pool and try to rip up toys. He was obsessed with squirrels and would bark up the tree at them all day if he could.

The best part about my pal Smoochie was that he was always there for me, and very protective of me at the dog park. In fact it was after Smooch drove off a bunch of dogs that were being mean to me that our Moms realized we had formed a pack with mom & her friends Rona and Elaine and their dogs. They call themselves the Dog Park Girls and they always stick together at the park. We dogs would run off and play, always coming back to check on each other and our moms. Now the park will never be the same as our pack is missing one of its members.

Rest in Peace, Smooch - you will always be in my heart.

My Picture is in a magazine!

Mom got an advance copy of the Dogs in Canada Annual and I am so excited to say that my picture is in it that I could just run in circles and bark up a storm! Well, the article is really about the dog paintings at the museum Mom works at but I still feel pretty special to have been included! I wrote all about the photo shoot in my last diary entry. Mom went to the pet store and the book store and saw that there were lots of copies of Dogs in Canada Annual for sale there. She turned the pages to pg. 41 so everybody would see my photo running across the lawn in front of the museum!

Tess, DOGGIE SUPERMODEL EXTRAORDINAIRE!

Did you know my mom works in a museum? Sometimes she sneaks me in for a peak. There are lots of beautiful old paintings in the museum of dogs!!!! Well, Dogs in Canada magazine decided to write an article about the paintings for all the humans to read. They sent a professional photographer to take pictures of the paintings and the photographer wanted to have a picture of the outside of thebuilding but they needed a dog in it...enter ME!!!!!! Tess, DOGGIE SUPERMODEL EXTRAORDINAIRE!

I posed on the front steps of the museum, sitting, lying down, foot hanging from the step and various other poses just like a supermodel. Then I posed with my paw on the door handle...or at least that was the idea when mom put a dog biscuit on the handle but I was too quick to eat it and the photographer didn't like the shot. Then they put dog treats in the mail slot and I posed pawing and licking at the mail slot. We stopped for a while and mom and the photographer looked at the all the photos on the computer. Mom says it was really cool.

By then the sun was starting to get low in the sky and there was sort of dappled sunlight in lawn and on the building. Mom set me in a sit stay and the photographer moved way back to get a shot of me in front of the entire building. The photographer asked mom to tell me to walk slowly from the front of the building towards her quite a distance away. Mom wasn't sure if I would cooperate since in flyball when she recalls me I have been trained to run as fast as I can rather than walk. So she crouched down and very quietly called me name. I got the hint, stood up and slowly trotted over to her. We did this several times until the photographer got the shot. It was awesome - he took the picture just as I stepped into the sunlight and I looked beautiful (the museum looked pretty good too).

Mom told me I was an extremely good girl! She was impressed at how well I listened to her instructions. My photoshoot lasted over 2 hours. When we got home, Nana, Grandad and Peaches had arrived for a visit - what an excellent end to an awesome day.

I sure hope they end up using my picture! I always knew I'd be FAMOUS! I think that they are going to put the article in the Dogs in Canada Annual which is published in November. If it is the Annual that means it will be for sale for a whole year and tons of people will see my picture! I guess we will have to wait until november to see. Then, I'd be happy to give you a pawtograph!

My Tail of Devotion for Tess

This is a special Tail of Devotion

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A puppy, oh, no!

Mom came home with a puppy last week. Boy was I surprised. Mathilda is an Australian Shepherd/Black Lab Cross and is only 8 weeks old. Mom thinks that I might be good at mothering but pleeeese, I am so not into that.

At first I thought that if I ignored her she would go away, but that didn't work. Then, she had the nerve to actually play with my very special beloved DUCKY! I had to jump right in there and take it from her. Before I even knew what I was doing we had started playing together. After a big romp with 'Tilly I have to admit she is pretty darn cute and having a puppy around the house might not be so bad after all.