My Week in Review

Please excuse my lack of blogging lately. I've been busy with pet shitting. No wait, make that pet sitting, although this particular time, it actually has been both. A dear friend and I exchange pet sitting with each other, and I love their animals like my own. It is even (normally) a nice little get away a few times a day to a quiet, clean house.

Scratch clean this time. Lauren best described it as a crime scene. If you are reading this at breakfast, you might want to navigate away from this page and come back later. Really. Or maybe I should temper what I say, as I've been told by known sources that I can be crude. (Excuuuuuuuuse me!) So I'll be a bit more circumspect.

This beautiful dog to the left, Kiara, is a lot like my Daisy. Both are imposters, masquarading as one breed all the while they are really Beagles inside. Both having abandonment issues, they need a lot of love and reassurance, and love their food, eating everything quickly and totally. Given that I know this way of thinking, I should have predicted ...well.

As I've done myself, the owners left a treat for the dog, something to assuage the dog's sadness over their departure. In typical Kiara (and Daisy) fashion, she finished the footlong rawhide bone in one day. This resulted in days of digestive upset (which is putting it mildly). To top it off, Kiara also somehow managed to get an entire canister of soft dog treats off the counter and eat the entire can. The results of that - you don't want to know. As I said, think crime scene. After a few days of boiled hamburger, rice and cottage cheese, she is all better. Thank goodness.

During this time, we also were trying to increase Chiron's (minature horse) training and exercise. One day, Anna and I walked him around "the loop", a two mile walk. Because it started raining, we walked quickly. Later that night, Wm came running from the barn. Chi wasn't doing so well, laying down and rolling, which is a typical sign of colic. He seemed, however, in no pain, had gut sounds, had manure even. He was also doing a strange stretching out with his back legs.

Lauren suggested that he was "tying-up", a condition sometimes seen in horses that have over exercised due to release of lactic acid from exercising into the muscle. He seemed to be having muscle spasms. I'd worked the poor little guy too much. I called the vet and he didn't agree - said it was colic. The prescription for both was the same, however, a bit of banamine (pain killer). After twenty minutes, he was doing well. I, however, got no sleep that night as I had to get up every two hours to make sure he was making manure (I told you this week was crappy) and on his feet. He's fine now, and on a more gradual exercise schedule.