I haven't written much about Lassie lately, because I didn't want the blog to turn into a soap opera, but things have changed so much that it feels only right give you an update. She hasn't been doing well. After her ALT values were slightly elevated about a month ago, we did an ultrasound and her liver looked clear. We did a bile acid assay, which was slightly elevated, but not enough to make a biopsy seem worth the intrusion for a 16 year old dog. She's gone up and down since then (some vomiting, urinating in the house, but only erratically), and was scheduled for more tests today. But on Thursday she went into free fall. Vomiting, no appetite, looked truly miserable. Tests showed her ALT (a sign of cell death in the liver) to be off the charts. Subsequent tests with an internal Read More

We've been in a conversation about helping others (and ourselves) if and when we get frustrated by our dogs. It's been a great one, thanks for all your comments. I thought of something important that I haven't mentioned yet, and I thought it deserved it's own forum. It seems to me that an important part of whether a dog frustrates someone is based on whether their personalities match. Look at all the comments on earlier posts that said ".... and then I got THIS dog...". Lassie and Willie are wonderful dogs for me. I'm a bit of a Border Collie myself: I like the cold, I hate hot, humid weather, love working sheep, love working, and am so sound sensitive that I'd rather starve than eat in a noisy restaurant. Granted, I wish that every once in a while I could yell "naughty words" without Read More

Our discussion about how people handle being frustrated by their dogs brought out so many interesting points, and it got me to thinking: First off, the more we know about dogs, the less frustrated we get. Frustration comes from an inability to affect the world around us, and once we understand who dogs are and how they learn, our ability to influence them increases significantly. As I think about it, the comparison of my frustration levels now and 25 years ago is like night and day. Right now, there are really only two things that Will or Lassie do that have pushed my buttons in the last six months--Will's relentless stalking of Sushi, and Lassie's tendency to get under foot when I'm moving around the kitchen. My frustration with Will was a classic case of an inability to influence the Read More

Willie woke me up at 3 am this morning, as he did yesterday morning. I have no idea why-speculation is that he needed to potty, or he is waking up earlier and earlier to get the food in his morning Kong. I told him to "settle" and managed a restless doze until 5 am, when he pretty much threw himself at the bed, woke Lassie up from a log-like slumber, and careened me out of bed, still asleep and not at all pleased. I held my tongue, let the dogs out to potty, and then gave them their stuffed Kongs and went back upstairs. When I came back downstairs, about an hour later, one of the dogs had defecated all over the house, and I mean all over. In the dining room, on the rug in the living room, on the floor in the living room, in the study, in the kitchen . . . Isn't it amazing how much area Read More

Not much time to write, sitting at Barnes and Noble to latch onto their wireless internet connection, but thought some of you might enjoy some of the photos we've taken of the wildlife here (around Naples, not at B & N!). It's pretty much bird heaven here, even though it is colder here than since the ice age. Between fund raising events for The Brody Project (both smashing successes, thanks to the organizers and to the generous people of the area), Jim and I have soaked up some of the animals in the mangrove swamps and the beaches. We've watched river otters playing in a mangrove swamp, dolphins arcing through the waves in the sea while we ate breakfast, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets (with feathery white plumes, black legs and yellow feet -- they look like Dr. Suess animals), White Ibis, Read More