Skeletor's Salvation

Captain Insano has been promoted to Admiral :(

2012-01-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

Insano's adopted owner, Elmer said that he had been sick with an upper respiratory infection of some kind. He started Insano on anti-biotics and he was starting to feel better. He was going up and down the stairs, eating and using his litter box like normal.

Unexpectedly, my old friend Insano was found dead this morning.

He had lived nearly 12 years. I've been reflecting on his life, and thinking about his many interesting traits, his loving personality, and all the funny faces he used to make.

When I lived with my friend Jimmy, our friends Becky and Levi were getting evicted from their apartment and asked for our help. We took my old 1986 Toyota Celica over to pack it full of as many of their belongings as we could.

We got the car all loaded up and it was starting to get dark. The last thing they needed from the house was their little black and white kitten. The crazy little cat escaped and darted into the woods nearby.

The four of us poked around in the woods trying to find him. We had no such luck.

We were starting to come to the consensus that we were going to have to leave the poor little guy. Our chances of finding him were fading fast. Suddenly Becky shrieked with joy as she swooped him up from the bushes.

Becky, Levi, and the kitten stayed with us for a few weeks while they found a new place to live. The cat was non-stop entertaining. He was very affectionate and seemed to have been weened to soon. He would sneak up on people and nurse on their earlobes. Sometimes even while they slept!

His wacky mannerisms earned him the name "Captain Insano." He was a hoot! He was not skittish in any way. He would attack the vacuum cleaner instead of running and hiding from it. He would surf across the kitchen on our trashcan lid. He was not shy in the least bit.

When they were ready to move out, Jimmy and I told them "The cat stays." They agreed.

Insano went on to make many friends. He was always making his way onto your lap whether you wanted him there or not. He was very vocal when he was ready to be fed. He grew up to be a very big cat.

He was not a huge fan of taking baths, but he did tolerate it quite well. Insano was always the alpha cat when he needed to be. Whether it was little kids, big dogs, or even bigger cats, he would put them in their place really quickly if they tried to mess with him. He had big claws, and knew how to use 'em.

He didn't usually start fights, but he often finished them. He could never get enough attention. Some cats prefer to be left alone, but Insano wanted pets... and lots of them. He would start purring the moment you touched him. He LOVED people!

He was a great friend, and he will be dearly missed.

He always made the funniest faces!

He always found a way to get comfy... whether or not if was convenient for you.

Despite his enormous size, he would find his way into the smallest of spaces.

This was about as close as he ever got to Skeletor unless they were duking it out.

He was such a pretty kitty!

Somehow he lost one of his canines when he was young. It resulted in some bizarre facial expressions!

He loved to streeeeeetch out!

He didn't like this hat we made him wear :)

He was very curious. Here he is checking out my makeshift microphone booth.

He loved to keep my chair warm for me.

He always sat up like a human.

"What are you looking at?"

He pined for the outside world, but then when he did manage to escape, he got a bit freaked out and wanted back inside asap!

He was just one of the guys.

Insano and Kim

Sprawling out on the carpet

Such a cute lad

He had a fascination with people's hair, and a taste for my particular brand of hair gel.

Self pets weren't uncommon

How can this be comfortable!?

My left-hand man

He even helped with the filing

"You didn't have anything important up here, did you?"

This is an 8 inch wide cat lounging on a 5 inch window sil.

Chillin in our new house

On the fridge

On the laptop

"Well, that was unpleasant!"

"Aaah... this should be MY bed!"

"You don't mind if I shed on this, do you?"

"Aaaaaah.... "

"Hey, would you mind opening these blinds?"

"ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz"

What a handsome boy

"What's this thing you keep pointing at me?"

He had one hell of a piercing stare.

He would always find unique places to hang out.

In his golden years, he preferred dark places where he could get some peace and quiet.

Insano, knowing you was worth every hairball I ever had to pick up.

It was worth every pair of pants I couldn't re-wear because you sat in my lap.

It was worth every smelly clump I scooped, every time I had to hide you from the landlord, every time you spilled the garbage, every time you destroyed the blinds, and every time you knocked the items off my desk to make a comfy spot to lie down in.

Rest in peace Insano. You are loved!

Only Skeletor could be traumatized by a Christmas card

2011-12-23T12:30:00.002-08:00

Proving that he has what it takes to remain the biggest wimp on the planet, Skeletor has become traumatized by the photo shoot for our Christmas card this year.

I'm not sure if it was our goofy hats, the camera flashes, beeps, or the furniture rearranging... but whatever it is, he now associates with my camera.

It's no exaggeration when I tell you that he now hides and cowers in the bathroom or the nearest accessible dark corner as soon as I turn my camera on.

Yes, he literally trembles in fear.

Wowee... Skeletor you're such a pansy! :)

Strangely enough, his bad doggie tendencies seem to be strong enough to briefly snap him out of the grips of fear. Yesterday, while he was cowering, Mel rang the doorbell and he instantly forgot that he was being scared and ran to the door barking. After a few moments, he went back to being scared again.

He's definitely got a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. (read more about PTS in dogs here) The strangest things will freak him out. It's nowhere near as bad as it used to be though... you may recall when we first rescued the boy, he'd spend literally all day cowering in the dark hallway. Now-a-days, his wimp attacks usually don't last more than an hour or two.

I'm happy to report that a while after his fit yesterday, he was playing with his new ball (thanks Mel!) like that mean old camera was never around.

He has another present waiting in his stocking. Ho ho ho!

Another bit of good news... we managed to snap some really nice shots the other day before the traumatic holiday photo shoot took place. Mel and I took Skelly out to beautiful Fort Caroline! :)

Enjoy the photos, and have a very very Merry Christmas!

Can your sanity (or complete lack thereof) be measured by the nicknames you have for your pet?

2011-12-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

I remember when I first took Skeletor to dog training and Michael asked me my dog's name. I told him it was Skeletor, and he asked if he had a nickname (something with fewer syllables.) Melanie and I looked at each other and shrugged. We hardly ever call him Skelly in person, even though we use the name online quite often.

Thinking back on that conversation, I realized that I have many, many weird names I call him on a nearly constant basis. I don't use these names when I'm actually calling him mind you, but I say them enough that I'm sure he'd answer to just about any one. (I may have to test that theory)

So, without further ado, the many ridiculous nicknames of Skeletor. If you need me, I'll be getting settled into my straight jacket...

Mr. Dog - the most popular by far. I can exactly pinpoint the origin of this nickname. It was when I was 10 years old. My stepdad's friend was visiting. He had a son who was a few years older than me. I remember being taken aback with how juvenile it sounded when the boy referred to a tomcat in our yard as "Mr. Cat." I referred to Insano as Mr. Cat for most of his life, and now Skeletor has become Mr. Dog.
Old Man - He's not really that old.. a young adult or a teenager really. However, his droopy pooch face makes him look like a grandpa.
Pup / Pooch - These ones are pretty standard issue...
You Turd - A term of endearment that kinda means the same thing as you brat. I let it slip out on Melanie once and found out that she doesn't appreciate it one bit.
Doggy! - Another popular one. I'm pretty sure this has evolved from the show South Park when Cartman yells "no kitty! that's a bad kitty!"
Doggo - This is actually a nickname I created for Sophie when she lived with us. I got a huge kick out of it when she started responding to "Doggo" - her owner Kim, wasn't quite as amused :) Since Sophie isn't around, Skeletor sometimes gets referred to as Doggo.
Buddy / Bud - When he's being good or acting pathetic, he'll get one of these praise-infused nicknames
Senior - The origin here... it's kind of a cross between Mr. Dog and Old Man.
Mister - Short for Mr. Dog. He gets this a lot when he's misbehaving... ahem... jumping on the couch or bed for example.
Hound - When I was in high school, I thought this word was funny for some unknown reason. Probably for the same reason I think a lot of words of German origin are funny.
Houndo - A cross between Doggo and Hound

So as you can see, I'm a crazy person. Post your bizarre pet nicknames in the comments so we can go to the nut house together!

An oil painting of Skelly and Insano

2011-11-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

Never in a million years could I ever get these two animals to pose like this. So, I had to rely on the magic of Brushstrokes by Susan to bring them together!

This painting is a very early Christmas gift from Skeletor and Insano to Mel. :)
It's Skeletor and Insano hanging out in the backyard of our old house.

Here's Skeletor's Christmas card for Mel (created by yours, truly)

I'm working with Susan to help her sell pet portraits through her website. There's very little time left to immortalize your furry friend in your choice of medium. Oils, acrylics, watercolors, Susan does it all!

While I'm working on the website, feel free to email Susan directly at art@brushstrokesbysusan.com.

A very Skeletor Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

I've had more to be thankful for since this wacky pup came into my life. See for yourself!

10. Puppy dog eyes - They help him get his way, while simultaneously warming my heart.

9. Afternoon naps - I have never been much of a napper. However on the rare occasion that I can take one, I really love it! Note: I've been able to take a nap each day for the past 3 days. I think I'm getting old. Old guys rule!

8. Old hats - I never knew what to do with my old hats, until I realized just how much joy they brought to this silly pooch.

7. Back seat drivers - Though it means my windows are constantly covered in slobber, every time I load this dog into the car, adventure is sure to follow.

6. Fewer vet visits - Some of those visits were certainly doozies! These days, I'm so happy to report that Skelly is down to just one pill, twice a day. It's great to see him so happy and healthy! Keep it up, bud!

5. Rawhide - I don't like the taste personally, but I certainly get a kick out of watching Skeletor go nuts over it!

4. Dog training - I will admit that I haven't been working with Skelly as much as I should, but he has definitely improved his behavior since attending school.

3. Pink bandanas - I love the looks I get walking my big manly pit bull around the block while he flaunts his flamboyantly pink bandana!

2. Skylights - They let in the moonlight so you don't kick the coffee table on the way to the kitchen, and they make for some warm afternoon naps for the pooch.

1. And the number one thing I'm thankful for this year is everyone! My family, my girlfriend, my newborn niece, my dog, my former cat, my friends, my blog readers, my friends' parents, my friends' children, my clients, and my vendors. You guys and gals simply rock!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Skeletor says goodbye to an old friend (his rope toy, that is!)

2011-11-24T11:48:00.000-08:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth?

Anyways, take a look at this video, and I'll type some words as well.

The other day, Skeletor was full of youthful vigor and/or angst. He destroyed one of his oldest toys, which was donated by one of his wonderful blog reader friends (Let me know if you recognize it in its current state) and once a very tough green and white rope tied in a knot at both ends. Before that, Mel caught him trying to eat my webcam. I was very lucky because she caught him before he did any damage. *phew!*

I have seen this dog destroy things before, but he's never really been a bad chewer. He did eat part of my brother's leather jacket (sorry, Ian!) He ate a friend's cell phone (sorry, Shawn!) and He has certainly eaten his share of delicious leather belts.

I have known young male dogs in the past, and they were a hundred times more destructive than Skelly has ever been.

Knowing Skeletor, it's probably his way of trying to tell us something. I think I know what that something is. "Hey buddy, I don't have anything yummy to chew on!"

I think I'm going to add rawhide to Skeletor's Christmas list.

Skeletor was not being bad, he was just misunderstood!

2011-11-08T06:53:00.000-08:00

I should have known that there was something behind Skelly's recent drastic behavior change. His appetite for couch lounging had increased tenfold. He was so determined to get on the couch, that he bypassed our dog repellants.

I began to wonder if it had something to do with his bed being too old and flattened out. It was indeed starting to look like a giant rectangular pancake!

Mel and I went to walmart to scope out the dog bed scene. His old bed was of very high quality, but the stuffing just wasn't what it used to be. Underneath the bed was nothing but hardwood flooring.

They had some good deals on new beds.. a rather nice one for about $30. However, we decided upon a big bag of pillow stuffing.

I returned home, unzipped the 2 layers of his old dog bed. Tossed the old stuffing, and washed the rest of the bed. An hour or so later, it was all dry. I simply dumped the bag of fluff into the old bed, zipped it up and gave it a good fluffing.

Just $9 later, he's got a bed that for all intents and purposes is BRAND NEW!!!

Lo, and behold.. his attitude has completely changed! He barely bothers getting on the couch anymore. He really seems much happier all around (and lazier I might add :)

Goes to show... often times dogs may seem like they are acting out, but they're just trying to tell you something.

Whatagoodboy!

Suddenly those tasty acorns have taken on a sinister persona

2011-11-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

A while back, our pal Skeletor had a very, very upset stomach.
We were quite worried when he puked for um... 12 hours straight.

Though we never found out exactly what the little guy had gotten into, we had certainly considered that it could have been from ingesting acorns.

We have a plethora of acorns outside our house. Skelly has been know to snack on them when nobody's looking. I read that acorns are no good for doggies.

About a month ago, we started noticing some noise coming from the back porch area. Melanie pointed out that it was getting worse. At first, I thought it was squirrels running around on the roof. But then I thought to myself... how do squirrels get worse?

Then it dawned on me... those acorns! The giant trees were dropping them like they were bad habits. The colder it gets, the more frequently they hurl them suckers downward.

Sadly we have not done much handing out on the back porch, and it's the perfect weather to do so! Melanie's been really busy going to school online to get her master's degree. I've been working my face off trying to rule the world.

Today, I decided to take a break and get some fresh air. I let my pal, Skeletor tag along. We were only out there for a few seconds when an acorn smashed into the roof. This really scared the crap out of poor Skeletor. It scared him so bad, he lost his footing on the tile floor. After that he was not too interested in the fresh air, so I let him back inside.

Hours later, I decided to snap a few photos of him in his nifty pink bandana. (I bought the pink bandana for "Race for the Cure" which Mel and I participated in last week.)

Wouldn't you know it, this vicious pit bull is still shaken up from the acorn incident! Oh, the poor little guy! Here's a video

Skeletor's oh, so clever methods of always getting his way

2011-10-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

Always the innovator, our pal Skeletor never ceases to amaze. On the surface, he's a drooling, clumsy, mouth-breathing goof. Upon closer inspection, you'll notice that he may be smarter than he lets on.

Skeletor is totally convinced that he's human, so it's only natural that he love, love, LOVES the couch! This is one of the few "no dogs allowed" zones in our house. Skeletor objects to this rule. Any time we're not paying attention, he's there. Sometimes he'll hop up there while I'm staring right at him. Usually he's more tactful though.

Usually when he's lounging about on the couch, he automatically slinks off the second one of us enters the room. Clearly he knows he's not allowed on the couch, but remains fundamentally opposed to the idea. As a deterrent, we have to put the lid of a giant plastic bin on the couch when we're not using it.

First, you should know that he's managed attain the freedom to roam the house at night instead of being confined to his kennel. Of course, you give him an inch, and he's going for the mile. Just being allowed free reign of the house, wasn't enough. Skelly then charmed his way into our bedroom where he would sleep next to the bed.

It's amazing what he can get away with thanks to those good looks!

Well, being very light sleepers, Mel and I quickly grew weary of Skelly's incessant night noises.

12:15am: Skeletor decides to shake it off. His lips flap and clap about like the loud and sudden shuffling of cards.
12:47am: Skeletor locates a very tasty part of his body, and begins a 10 minute licking session.
1:12am: Skeletor imagines he has peanut butter stuck to the roof of his mouth, and tries to lick it off.
2:24am: Skeletor in deep slumber, begins to snore like a couple of lumberjacks sawing down a tree.
4:01am: Skeletor decides to go for a drink in the kitchen. His nails tap tap tap the whole way there and back.
4:04am: Before curling back up, Skeletor feels the urge to shake it off once more. Que the veritable orchestra of lips slapping against each other. :)
4:49am: More licking
5:39am: Even more licking
7:00am: Alarm goes off... people must get up and go to work, while Skeletor gets to continue his slumber.

Needless to say, we decided he should stay out of the room, at least on work nights!

So, the other night, the new rule went into effect. Skeletor was exiled from the bedroom and was limited to the entire house for his nocturnal adventures.

I heard what sounded like skeletor pulling the bin lid off the couch and curling right up. I thought to myself, "no way he just did that." and I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, I felt well-rested. When I entered the living room, my suspicions were confirmed. There he was curled up in the cushiony fruits of his diabolical labor.

Well, as my ability to out-smart this pup wanes, I can take solace in the fact that soon, he'll be smart enough to hold down a job and start to contribute around here!

Have a great week!

Sketch of skelly

2011-09-24T18:12:00.001-07:00

"ok I am layin' down.. Gimme the biscuit already!"

Dropping of skeletor for an echocardiogram

2011-09-23T06:28:00.001-07:00

Hoping for great news!

Update: well, not exactly great news, but not bad news. There is a very slight improvement in his heart. However there is also some scar tissue on one of his valves that they find odd. The poor little guy will always have a bad heart (as we know and today's visit reaffirms.)

He is to stay on vetmedin probably for the rest of his life.

Go figure. Oh well, at least he is happy and relatively healthy :) go skelly!

Skeletor looks funny with no collar

2011-09-21T04:37:00.001-07:00

Last night, he had some kind of itchy ear and kept making all sorts of jingling and jangling. I decided to take his collar off and now he is quiet as a ninja.

Long awaited update: dieting, playfulness, cooler weather

2011-09-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well well well... where to begin.

I guess I'll pick up after my last post. I'm sorry it was so long ago. I've been extremely busy with work lately!

Last I posted, Skeletor was having quite a problem with coughing. His x-ray had not improved since he was all heartworm infested. This was certainly not great news for us.

After about a week on a whole host of various medications, the boy started to feel better. I was able to take him off the cough suppressants well before they ran out.

He had some minor issues with fleas and tapeworms. (which go hand-in-hand since animals contract tapeworms by eating fleas)

The fleas issue was one that we shared. I woke up one morning with tiny bites all over my arm. Wow... it had been quite a while since I was bitten by fleas... they make mosquito bites seem like gentle kisses in terms of discomfort and itchiness!!! No wonder poor Skelly has been so miserable with these critters chompin' on his flesh!

We tried some over the counter drops on his back. These did little to nothing. Fortunately, the doc sold us a drug called Comfortis, which fleas seem to really hate.

So, a few weeks ago, Mel and I started to notice that our pal Skelly was really starting to pack on the pounds. After some consideration, we realized that we were feeding him 3 times a day instead of twice as recommended by the dog food bag.

Something else we noticed was that we seemed to have synchronized eating schedules with him. His food and water are near the table. Whenever we sat down to eat, Skeletor would want to join us. We would just give him a cup of food without thinking twice about it.

It had gotten to the point where he wouldn't even eat his food unless we were sitting at the table.

At first, he was not pleased with his new feeding regiment. He would flip out when we were having lunch without him. He would demand seconds after gobbling up his breakfast and dinner. He would push buttons like crazy (his nose is his tool for pushing buttons. He has been known to nudge people for pets, turn on and off xbox consoles, knock over food containers, push empty bowls across the floor, etc) to indicate that he wanted more food!

After he settled into the diet a little, he became a much more frisky fellow. We did not realize how subtly lethargic and lazy he had become until he reverted to his playful former self.

Lately he has been going crazy entertaining himself. He has dragged every single toy from his toy box. I'm talking everything from favorite new toys to the old toys that he's had since we rescued him that he has never paid attention to for more than 2 seconds. He is suddenly so much more energetic and interested in just about everything!

I have always known that overfeeding your animals was not a good thing to do, but I had no idea what a positive effect a little fitness could have on a pooch. I guess they are no different than people in that respect. (and so many others!)

So, as you can see, Skeletor is doing VERY WELL!!

He has not been doing much coughing at all. He's been really spry and energetic. His appetite is off the charts!! When we feed him now, he woofs it down and is demanding more before the food even lands in the bowl.

Today, I realized that he's quite a fan of carrots! Now there's a nice dog treat that won't tip the scales. :)

After the bad news x-ray we had in July, I decided to post-pone his echocardiogram for about a month to give his condition a chance to improve. His echo is scheduled for this month (the 22nd I think).

We're hoping that his energy levels are an indication that his heart and lungs have shown signs of improvement! The summer is FINALLY breaking here in north Florida, and holy crap are we all sick of the heat! Skeletor is surely going to enjoy the fall activities we have in store for him :)

Skeletor is going on a doggy diet

2011-09-06T19:02:00.001-07:00

After many months of scamming extra meals, this puffy pooch needs to shed a few pounds.

Skelly is not out of the woods yet :(

2011-07-25T12:35:00.001-07:00

X-ray reveals no lung improvement. Coughing worse than ever. Details to follow...

Update: Well everything was going great for a while.

Skeletor went into the Vet for his vaccinations on Thursday. I mentioned when I dropped him off that we were out of Vetmedin (which was the only drug he was taking, aside from the occasional Viagra that I was able to administer.)

I wasn't sure if he was supposed to keep taking it or not at this point. I was hoping since he had been doing so well that he may be ready to start weening off. (It's over $80/bottle!)

Melanie picked him up that afternoon and I forgot to tell her anything about the Vetmedin.

Long story short, we were all out and the weekend was upon us. We would have to wait until Monday to get another bottle.

Now, it's unclear if the lack of medication was a factor or not, but Saturday night he just started coughing. Coughing, coughing and coughing. He has always had a little bit of a cough... but this was the worst Mel and I had ever seen it.

The fits were measured in minutes, not seconds. He would cough and cough until he hacked, and sometimes vomited... then cough some more. I had some leftover Tussigon that was prescribed before when his coughing was really bad. I gave him a pill. He wretched it up a few minutes later along with his food :(

The next day, his condition had not improved. He was not lethargic. His appetite seemed normal. It's just that he could hardly stand up without inciting a coughing fit. We tried not to excite him. We did online research. We wondered what we could possibly do for him!

This morning, Melanie took him back to see Dr. Chick. They performed an x-ray and compared it to one from a year ago. His lungs and heart didn't look any better on the x-ray. :( Both organs are still functioning on an impaired level.

The vet has always been very clear about the fact that the damage to his cardiovascular system was most likely permanent. However, it was a sad truth that I had optimistically pushed to the back of my mind. It was easy to do when he was going months at a time without any bad symptoms or complications.

Now he's back on a whole host of medications! He's on antibiotics to clear up any possible infection in his lungs. We've got more Tussigon for his coughing. He's got another bottle of Vetmedin. He's on another pill called Furosemide which is prescribed to reduce water retention.

The poor guy has to take over 10 pills a day. I sure hope they work. He certainly doesn't mind as long as we don't run out of pill pockets!

It's not all doom and gloom of course! His appetite remains strong. He's not showing signs of lethargy (when he's not zonked out on cough suppressants that is!) And he's not showing any indication of the dreaded anemia that he's battled with so often in the past.

He's so strong and happy that it's easy to forget how close to death this dog has been. Every so often, he'll give us a scare and we're reminded just how fragile Skeletor's life really is.

As I write this, Skelly is snoring peacefully behind my chair on his comfy bed.
Hang in there, bud!

Local dog has owners worried sick over unexplained vomiting

2011-07-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

The other day Skeletor was chomping gingerly on a giant butcher's bone that I picked up at the grocery store. He was one happy pup! He wasn't allowed to chew on the bone in the house, because of the mess it'd make, but that didn't bother him one bit. He was more than happy out on the back porch, just chewing to his heart's content.

Later on that day, Mel and I were minding our own business around the house, and heard a loud splash coming from the other room. Much to our horror, there was a HUGE pool of yellow liquid about 2-3 feet in diameter right in the middle of the wood floored living room. I had to use a towel to clean it up.

Apparently, Skeletor had just finished drinking a lot of water, and something in his stomach wasn't agreeing with him.

Thus began a horrible evening to say the least...

Something was definitely wrong with Skelly's tummy. He was puking constantly for the rest of the night. He was soooo very pathetic, and not feeling good at all. Mel and I were both ready to join him in puking after having cleaned up so much of it!

We were worried that he may have been poisoned or something. We spent the evening doing research online, investigating the house, cleaning up vomit, hypothesizing, worrying, cleaning up vomit, trying to get him to eat, cleaning up vomit, worrying... well you get the idea.

Finally around 1am, we decided to try and sleep. We left the bedroom door open so Skeletor could sleep on the floor beside the bed. The ice maker would make a noise, and we'd think it was poor Skeletor puking again. He would lick his lips and I'd say to myself... "better get the towel!"

Needless to say, it was a miserable night for all 3 of us. Very little sleep was had. The good news is that Skeletor made it through the night without puking. We sincerely hoped that he'd be back to normal the next day. If not, I was going to have to take him to an emergency vet that was open on saturday. Uh... gee I'm sure that would cost a pretty penny!

Skeletor was still very lethargic. He was not interested in food at all. Mel managed to get him to eat some bread soaked in water. His stomach rejected it just a few minutes later.

What could he have gotten into!? I think we have oak trees outside. I've seen him eat acorns in the past. I read that they are toxic to dogs... but how could he have eaten enough to make him so sick!?

His early payloads contained many small fragments of the bone he was chomping on. Was the bone to blame for making him sick? Was the marrow too rich?

Did he munch on a neighbor's grass that had been treated with chemicals?

Fortunately, I had recently had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Sophie O'Neill, owner of Molasses Junction Mobile Vet. I decided that I had better call her. Dr. Sophie asked me a few general questions about Skeletor. She said that if he had a bone or obstruction lodged in his throat, his vomiting would be constant as opposed to only when he eats or drinks.

She said that we should not worry about getting him to eat, but try and introduce a little bit of water over time. She said that it's likely that he ate something that he wasn't supposed to. His body's natural reaction is to empty his stomach. She said that when a dog is sick, he'll know better than to eat because he doesn't want to keep throwing up.

She also said that if his condition got any worse, to call her up and she'd come by our house and take a look at him.

We were so very grateful for Dr. Sophie's advice! She really put our minds at ease. We cancelled our plans to go kayaking that day, and we kicked back and watched a movie while keeping an eye on our sick friend.

That afternoon, Skeletor started feeling better. HIS APPETITE HAD RETURNED! He was wagging his tail and getting back to his chipper self!

*Whew!*

Since his recovery, Skeletor has been doing very well. We never figured out exactly what he had eaten, but we sure hope he learned his lesson. We're so glad that he's better!

Thanks again to Dr. Sophie! She's an excellent Veterinarian! If you live in Jacksonville, I would highly recommend you count on her to care for your pet. Call Molasses Junction Mobile Veterinary Services at 904-315-5070.

Skelly and his old pal, Insano

2011-06-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Old "Friends"

Last week, my brother Ian dropped off Insano for a few days while he went out of town. Insano, at eleven years of age, is quite the strange old curmudgeon. While he is still the affectionate little (and somewhat fatter) furry menace we've grown to know and love, Insano appears to have become more nocturnal than ever before. At first, I thought he was just being reclusive. He would find a hiding spot (usually in a closet) and hang out all day long.

Who invited HIM!?!?

In his younger years, he would become extremely lazy and reclusive when he was sick. However, once the evening rolled around, Insano would come into the living room and socialize. He would insist upon pets and chatter up a storm like the spry young fellow he once was.

A I organized the closet, Insano found a new spot to hang all day.

Another trait he has retained is his sheer bad-assedness. He was terrorizing Skeletor on a semi-regular basis. For no apparent reason, Insano would just walk up to Skelly and attack. Skeletor was very, very nervous about this.

Oh great... he's behind me, isn't he!?

Usually Skeletor avoided Insano's wrath at all costs. If Insano was near a doorway, Skeletor did not dare pass through. If Insano walked into a room, Skeletor walked out. Sometimes, Skeletor would climb into corners and behind furniture in an attempt to "turn invisible." He reminded me of a scared little kid.. he'd put his nose in the corner as though the danger couldn't see him as long as he couldn't see the danger.

I have to admit, the tactic did seem to work. Insano didn't attack while Skeletor was "invisible."

I've since seen Skeletor use the same tactic during a thunderstorm. Did I mention that Skelly does NOT like thunderstorms? Oh yeah.. he's petrified of them!

He trembles and cowers throughout the entire duration. It's so pathetic! We give him plenty of reassurance and sometimes let him hang out in his crate where he feels extra safe.

I'm such a mean old, vicious pit bull!

It was nice hanging out with my dear old friend, Insano. I gotta tell ya... cats are WAY messier than dogs! At least way messier than this distinguished gentleman. We've swept the room where the kitty litter box was at least 4 times and still get leavins stuck to our bare feet. The clumps of cat hair are still gliding across the floor from time to time.

Bobble head!

I used to believe that common misconception that cats were "lower maintenance" and required "less attention" than dogs. If you'd prefer to channel the energy spent on leisurely walks around the neighborhood and giving belly rubs to extremely grateful recipients into sweeping up cat litter and picking up warm hairballs, I suppose it's true. However, in my experience, a well-trained dog practically takes care of himself! :)

Skelly's Bloggin' Mommy

Now that school's out, Skeletor's lovely mother, Melanie has had plenty of time to relax and take up a new hobby. She has started a blog that she'll use as a creative outlet and a teaching tool. She just wrote a nifty post about Skeletor's doggy training and points out some parallels that she noticed between the classroom and the training ground.

Check out Habitual Learner and tell her Skeletor sent ya!

Skelly is adjusting nicely to his new home!

2011-06-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

Well, we no longer have a fenced back yard, but we're making it work! We live in a smaller neighborhood that's more centrally located in Jacksonville. Skelly is slowly getting better about calming down so I can put his collar on to go outside.

He really loves his "number two" walks around the neighborhood. He has been doing a great job at obedience training every Thursday.

Skeletor isn't a huge fan of the hardwood floors, but he doesn't mind so much as long as he's got his ole comfy bed and a sun-filled skylight...

Blast from the past

2011-05-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

I was just bored looking around on youtube, and watched this relic...

It's amazing how far he's come. Funny how his bark used to be so high pitched...
He's got an echocardiogram coming up in July. We'll see exactly how his heart and lungs are recovering from those nasty parasites!

I expect that the news will be good! The other day, I took the boy for a walk and he insisted that we run instead! He's doing fantastically!

Another bit of good news.. he's officially (and hopefully permanently) off of the enalapril. I believe that was his blood pressure medication. The cardiologist suggested that he discontinue taking it 2 months after his treatment.

He's nearly completely weened off the prednisone as well. So far, he's still taking the vetmedin, and would be taking viagra if we had any.

Hopefully one day soon, all he will require is food, water, and love!

Skelly loves his new toy!

2011-05-14T15:39:00.001-07:00

We're going to sign our lease today!

2011-05-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that we've found a home to rent!

A nice lady is going to rent us her 3/2 house. The location is good. The price is reasonable!
She is ok with the fact that we have a Staffordshire Terrier ;)

We're going to sign the lease today at 6! Thanks to everybody for your helpful suggestions and unwavering support.

Skeletor is one lucky pup to have so many great peeps looking out for him!

In related news, I took the boy out on the leash today. He did very well with his training exercises. It was a bit hot out, so we stayed under the shade in the front yard.

Right now, we're focusing on "heel" and some other basic commands that he already knows. We're having to teach him slightly different words for them, and we're doing away with the hand gestures.

He did a really great job on the leash. Such a sharp lad, and a fast learner!

Keep up the good work, Skelly!

Bath time!

2011-05-08T12:38:00.001-07:00

Dog training is messy business. Especially when skeletor decides to roll around in the dirt!

We're pleased to announce that the boy is all fresh and clean again! He's rockin some super soft fur to boot!

Skeletor officially begins obedience training

2011-05-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it folks!
This is the month where it all goes down. We're going to find our new home, move into it, settle in and enjoy a huge sigh of relief when all is said and done!

In an effort to hone Skeletor's social skills, I invited my friend, Jared and his female pit bull, Shay over for a BBQ on Friday. Shay likes to play, but she isn't into too much drama. She's 8 years old, and enjoys a more chilled atmosphere.

I imagined that Skeletor would be thrilled (which he was) to meet Shay. I hoped that they would hit it off, and run around in the backyard while we enjoyed a relaxing BBQ (which is not exactly how it went down!)

As we all know, Skelly loves to yell at people, dogs, cats, and just about anything else he encounters in public. He does so in a playful fashion, with his tail-a-waggin! Despite his good intentions, his craziness is not always welcome.

So Shay comes in and Skeletor is thrilled! They give each other some initial smell tests, and everything seems ok. Skeletor is just so darn excited, he starts giving shay the flea-nibbles. Shay, understandably confused, tries to get away from him. Skeletor, ridiculously excited, persists to try and nibble on her face.

Shay eventually got fed up and gave a menacing growl. I had to take Skeletor out to the back yard in hopes that he would settle down.

Throughout the course of the night, we let the dogs interact. Eventually Shay would just try and get out of Skeletor's reach and Skelly would yell and pitch a fit because he wanted to play.

Now Skeletor... you are just acting too creepy! Women are NOT into that. You need to play it cool my boy!

Despite my disappointment in his behavior, neither pup was injured, and I think Skeletor did show a little bit of improvement by the end of the night.

We have got work to do, that's for sure! Skeletor needs to be cool and collected in a social environment if he is to overcome the pit bull stigma!! We're going to need Skelly's help in appealing to potential new land lords and ladies... it's time he really learns some manners!

I wake up bright and early the next morning (Saturday) and load Skelly into the car. We're off to a local dog training club for a free evaluation / training session.

I pull up to the closed gate. Skeletor sees a dog. He starts barking at the top of his lungs. I can literally feel the barks vibrating my ear drums due to the confines of my car... Keep it down doggie!!

I meet Michael, the co-owner of the club. I tell him about Skeletor's history and why it's important for him to gain social skills. I explain to Michael that pulling on the leash is one of Skeletor's biggest problems.

A few other dog owners show up. Most of them have German Shephards. There's also what appeared to be a Belgian Malinois, and a Boxer.

The exercises began as the more experienced dogs performed two at a time. One dog's owner would take him into the shade and tell him to lie down. That well trained pup would lie there unrestrained the entire time while the second dog would perform his training exercises. Then they would switch.

These talented pups would walk on a lead without any pulling whatsoever. They would look to their owner upon command. They would sit automatically when the owner stopped walking. They would pivot when their owner turned. It was exciting to imagine Skeletor learning to behave so well!

I sat in a plastic chair with Skeletor on a leash. He would yell and pull when a person or dog came close to us. After a while, he finally started to get the hint. He started barking and pulling a little less.

Michael took some time to work directly with Skeletor. He said that he believed that Skeletor could be trained, and that the question was whether or not I could be trained! He said that what they do is teach owners how to train dogs. I told him that I was up to the challenge!

Michael also explained that his training philosophy uses positive reinforcement. He said that corrections are only made when needed. I have made a lot of progress with Skeletor, and I can assure you that based on my experience, positive reinforcement is the way to go!

I'm planning on returning next Saturday morning for another session. After that, Skeletor will go to 6 group training sessions every Thursday.

I think we're going to see a total transformation here, folks! Skeletor is going to be one well-behaved, and socially adjusted pup!

Happy as a ham!

2011-04-26T16:56:00.001-07:00

Just as happy as a ham, Skelly's spirits are high in the days following his castration.

Next week, I think he'll be ready to meet his new lady friend! My buddy Jared is the proud owner of Shay. She is a fellow pit bull, and an absolutely sweet pup. She loves to play and meet new friends. Hopefully she and Jared can come visit next week! Stay tuned for doggie antics :)

Completely unaware of the impending castration

2011-04-22T05:11:00.001-07:00

Skeletor isn't allowed to eat this morning. We are about to load up and head to the vet!

Update: We dropped the boy off with Dr. Chick. They are going to hook him up to an EKG, examine his echocardiogram results, insert a catheter, and take extra special care to make sure all goes well.

*gulp!* sounds like it's going to be expensive!

Update: Skeletor did it! His good pal, Claudia up at San Juan sent me this photo haha! He's just waking up :)

Attn: Jacksonville property managers and owners

2011-04-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try casting a net in hopes of doubling up our efforts...

Please send this link to your property owning buddies in Jacksonville, FL :)

http://skeletor.fuelmm.net/

Skeletor is scheduled to be neutered!

2011-04-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank you all for your feedback, input, and suggestions regarding the challenge of finding a pit-bull friendly home to rent. We have not yet found one, but we are looking and there is hope!

It's become obvious that we can absolutely NOT rent an apartment. Large complexes have racist, breed-specific rules and they make no exceptions! With apartment complexes out of the question, we'll have to expand our coverage area and look for situations where we can appeal directly to the property owner. (houses, townhouses, and maybe condos)

Lately, Mel and I have been taking Skeletor on more regular walks around the neighborhood. Skeletor gets very, very excited when it's time for a walk. Once we get outside, he gets rather preoccupied! He forgets every command he ever learned. He is completely driven by the urge to smell things. Anything and everything must be smelled!

Hmmm... Skeletor is usually a joy to train.. and I've been wracking my brain. Why does he have such a mental block when it comes to walking on the leash? Then it hit me... all those dog scents must be causing him to go mad with hormones!

That brings me to our decision that it's time to have Skelly neutered. (Not that we had not planned on doing it since day one, as it's definitely the right thing to do!) We were waiting until his heartworm treatment was done with. We were hoping to have the procedure done when it presented minimal risk to his well-being.

Dr. Chick says that he's been doing fine, and that he is now willing to perform the castration. Skeletor is scheduled this Friday! Dr. Chick also said that they want to take extra precautions with Skelly, as he is a special case. They are going to put a catheter in, and take a second look at his echocardiogram results before performing the procedure.

Some landlords and property managers require a pet application and/or a pet interview. I'm hoping that the castration will help Skeletor with his manners. The more well-behaved he is during the "pet interview," the better our chances of finding a new place to live!

Breed Specific Rules for Renters

2011-04-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

We're going to be moving across town in about 2 months. We have started looking around at places to rent. We are getting more and more nervous about finding a place that will even consider allowing a pit bull like Skeletor.

It looks like we've got a lot of homework to do.

I'm wondering if it would help if I were able to get renter's insurance before moving or not.
I'm wondering if I could even get renter's insurance with him.
I'm wondering if there's another breed that Skelly looks like that I can tell prospective landlords he is.
I'm wondering if there's a waiver I can sign that makes him my responsibility and not the apartment complex.

Ugh... as if moving isn't a big enough ball of stress as it is :(

It's so very silly... this dog is the biggest pansy on the planet! A 2 minute interview and anybody would see that he's a complete softy!

Not a single sign of human or dog agression in over a year... seems pretty conclusive to me!

Poor pitties... lousy dog racism!

The notorious Skeletor!

Followup visit to the vet, springtime walks

2011-04-04T05:41:00.000-07:00

Melanie took Skelly to the vet on Friday. He has been doing his share of coughing in the mornings, but aside from that he's been doing very well! Dr. Chick said that his heart sounded good. I bought him another bottle of Vetmedin.

I was hoping that Dr. Chick would let us take him off Prednisone, but he didn't mention anything about it. I heard that it's hard on a dog's liver (or was it kidneys?)... anyways I'll ask him about it when I speak to him next.

Skeletor's gums are a nice and rich pink, which indicates that he's not anemic. His appetite for food and destruction is nice and healthy. :)

Dr. Chick said to keep his walks to a minimum. Skeletor insists that we keep them to a maximum! We'll have to find a happy medium.

He's scheduled for a checkup in about 3 months. I've got to drop by and pick up his heartworm preventative today or tomorrow.

This whopper of a pooch weighed in at nearly 67 lbs on Friday! I think he's been sneakin many bites of delicious cat food! I believe that 65 is an ideal weight for him... we're going to try and keep him around there.

We'll be moving across town soon... about 2 months to go. Mel and I are nervous about landlords and breed specific prejudice. I have asked Dr. Chick to write a letter of reference for Skelly. Just something explaining that he's got his shots and has not shown any people or animal related agression.

Skeletor doesn't know it yet, but I'm planning on taking him for a walk today during my lunch break.

Another starved pup hopes for a second chance

2011-03-24T15:01:00.001-07:00

Thanks to notanillusion for sending this link.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/tinton_falls_animal_hospital_h.html

Patrick was starved to the point that he could not bear his own weight, then put in a garbage bag and tossed down a trash chute. (how can people do such evil things!?)

Fortunately, a custodian noticed the moving trash bag and Patrick may have a chance at recovery.

If anybody in the NJ area, please consider adopting Patrick!

Springtime fun awaits!

2011-03-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Skeletor has been doing quite well. He's been spending longer than 30 seconds at a time outside. This must be because of the amazing weather!

This week is Skelly's follow up visit to the vet after his final heartworm injection! I'm guessing this means they are going to test his blood and xray his heart and lungs to make sure the nasty jerks are gone for good. I'm sure this will also mean that we start him on regular doses of heartworm preventative. (which all dog owners should do! :)

Mel and I are hoping that we can start taking Skeletor out on walks and to beaches and parks now that he's finished with his heartworm treatment.

He still coughs in the mornings. He pants a lot and tires easily. He's big and strong though, and full of youthful vitality and energy!

So without further ado... SPRINGTIME ACTION PUP!! (click to enlarge!)

Local dog has a money saving epiphany and an old friend moves across town

2011-02-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Skeletor finally decided that his chewable heart pills are actually chewable! Hooray! This means a drastic reduction in the number of pill pockets per day (PPD) this guy uses up ;)

Way to go Skeletor!

We're about 2 weeks out from his next vet visit. He has been doing fantastically! He's been working on a couple of new tricks. His energy levels are up. I've actually cut back a little on his feedings because he was starting to look a little chunky.

While he still prefers his bed or the couch, he seems to be enjoying the comfy new pad inside his crate.

Skelly's pal Insano has gone to live with his soulmate, Ian. Insano is a rather old cat (11 years old this year) and as you may have noticed in the videos, is not a fan of Skelly's antics. I think Insano will enjoy his golden years a bit more if he doesn't have a feisty puppy yelling in his face.

I miss Insano already. He's the best cat in the world. One of these days, I'll locate the video of Insano's youthful days when he was an acrobat. It's great stuff! The furry menace was kind enough to leave a bloody forget-me-not on the side of my neck as I was carrying him to the car.

Ian says that Insano is doing what he does best... making sure the furniture doesn't float away, and seeing to it that every comfy surface and clean garment of clothing is outfitted with a nice layer of cat hair.

Bone Chompin' Photos

2011-02-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

Happy "Birthday" Skeletor!

2011-02-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

That's right! It was one year ago today that this bony little guy wandered up to my front porch. Our best guess is that he was about a year old at the time, so what better day for his birthday?

A lot has changed since that day. Skeletor has gone from 37 to nearly 67 lbs. His coat has gone from straw to silk. His bed sores are barely noticeable scars. He has become quite the spoiled pup. He's a complete inside dog now. He never sets food in his dog house. He's one of the pack! He has learned quite a few nifty tricks. He has undergone both of his heartworm injections!

Just a few short weeks from now, Skelly should be "out of the woods" so to speak. At that point the dangers of exercise will be reduced. He'll be able to go on walks and visits to parks and beaches! He's certainly been bored out of his mind cooped up in the house all the time with 2 cats that don't want to play with him. I've also got a new girly friend I'm going to introduce him to soon. A very friendly pit bull named Shay.

For his special day, Mel and I took Skelly to Petsmart to have his nails grinded. It was his first time ever. He was a bit nervous, but thrilled to see all the people and dogs. Mel bought him a huge bone (video on that below) and I got him a comfy pad for his kennel.

Happy Birthday Skeletor! You've really enriched my life this past year and I'm happy to have been given the chance to help save yours!

Skelly's appetite has returned

2011-02-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

I returned from my morning errands and found that Skelly's bowl of breakfast (and dinner from last night) was completely full. I decided to jazz it up a bit.

I gave him a bowl of wet food with some dry food sprinkled on top.

He gingerly ate up the whole bowl and seemed more and more interested as he ate.

After that, I put the rest of his dry food down and he kept on eating!

Good job Skelly! Glad to see him eating again.

He's back!

2011-02-14T19:20:00.001-08:00

Skelly is very pathetic. He moves like he is underwater. He doesn't want much to do with his food.

However this is pretty much normal after a painful shot of immiticide.

Dr chick said he's doing very well. Looking better than ever! Skeletor tipped the scales at nearly 65lbs.

Tonight, I'm letting him sleep in my bed. I can tell that he's jumping for joy under his lethargic exterior.

Dr chick was surprised that skelly ran out of Viagra over a week ago. He said that we should try and keep him on it and reminded me that skeletor is and may always suffer from pulmonary hypertension.

Poor little guy!

Well gnite!

We're off to the vet. Skelly's final round of heart worm injections are today!

2011-02-14T05:29:00.000-08:00

Good luck sweet boy!

Skeletor gets his kicks barking at cats

2011-02-10T08:41:00.001-08:00

Ready for round 2 with the immiticide

2011-02-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that Skeletor is looking and acting as healthy as a horse. He is due this week for round two of two of his heartworm injections. I'm going to call San Juan Animal Hospital today and see when Dr. Chick will be available for me to drop him off.

A bit of TMI for you...
Skeletor seems to have experienced his first case of "morning wood." The other morning he was making some strange sounds. I let him out of his cage and he was frantically licking himself. It appeared that he was in pain. I was a little concerned. Upon close inspection, I was actually more concerned. It appeared that his "lipstick" was trying to pop out sideways. I looked understandably painful.

After he calmed down a bit, the swelling went down and he was back to normal. This is seriously the first time I've seen him "get excited" since we rescued him. This must mean that his body is healthy enough to start producing reproductive hormones!

Sorry it turned out to be a painful experience Skeletor, but I'm pretty sure it's a good sign! I'll be sure and mention the incident to Dr. Chick later this week.

In other news, Skelly has been out of Viagra for over a week and his coughing has not really gotten any worse! It's still fairly rare... mostly in the mornings and sometimes he'll get through a morning without a single cough.

This one is my favorite. Look at that grin haha!

It's becoming a bit of an artform - waking him up and trying not to get him coughing... I let him out of his cage as quickly as possible so he doesn't have time to get antsy. For the first 5 or 10 minutes I don't give him much attention. Once he calms down a bit, then he often gets the belly rubs he's after.

Like I said... some days he doesn't cough at all!

We're all very excited about his final stage of heartworm treatment! Go Skelly!

Skeletor was reunited with his old flame

2011-01-31T05:22:00.000-08:00

I'm a total dullard for not busting out the camera. Kim dropped by for a visit and brought Skelly's old pal, Sophie. They had a great time chasing each other around the house. Skelly's bark went up a few octaves with excitement.

While Kim was removing her curtain rods, I let the dogs in the back yard so they could play together. Fat chance.. the spoiled little punks were barking and jumping on the door dying to get back inside 2 minutes later and would not stop. Tsk tsk tsk!!!

In other news, Skeletor's cough seems to be a little more common lately. This could possibly be related to his running out of Viagra. He's due for the second and final round of heartworm injections in about a week!

I have requested that Dr. Chick write me a prescription for some Viagra. I figure that 6 weeks at 25mg per day should be good. This equates to 21 50mg tablets. I'm hoping that I can find a cheap source.

Aside from the coughing, Skeletor's been doing very well. His gums are pink, his tail's a waggin', his appetite is strong, and he's full of that signature spunk!

Two months from now, this whole heartworm fiasco will be a thing of the past. Guess who will be on a regular dose of heartworm preventative? Skeletor and every dog I ever own, that's who!!!

If your dog isn't on heartworm preventative, you may want to consider changing that ;)

Keep him calm? You've got to be kidding me!

2011-01-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

As evidenced by his ridiculous amount of energy, Skeletor is doing fantastically after his first heartworm injection. I was instructed to keep him calm. At first I boxed up all his toys. He then made myself and the cats his toys. When Skelly gets bored, he makes it your problem! He's been nibbling on my elbows all day because I have been too busy to let him outside every 10 minutes.

The elbow nibbles are nothing compared to the claws in the back or shoulder when he decides to jump up to get my attention. Yowza! Cut those talons!

I'm a little behind on posting. Work has been (thankfully) very busy so far this year. Let me see...

So last week I ran out of dog food. As you may remember from an earlier post, Skelly refused to acknowledge most dog foods as being food at all. I (quite foolishly) thought that this pickiness may have been a symptom of his condition at the time. I thought perhaps he'd appreciate a little variety.

So I picked up a huge bag of the same exact food but the beef version this time as opposed to chicken, which he's chomped through a consecutive 65lbs of during the past few months.

Well... fat chance!

Skeletor would occasionally nibble out of desperation, but did not consider this beef-flavored atrocity to be food in the least. I weighed out my options... I could either A) add something to his food 3 times a day to make him eat it. B) Play tough love and let him starve to the point that he breaks down and eats it. or C) Return it to the store.

Now, I have never returned a bag of dog food to the store. If you had asked me, I would have doubted it to be possible. However much to my relief, petsmart took the bag back, no questions asked.

I exchanged it for the chicken variety and Skeletor is back to his normal eating habits. *whew!*

That's all we need is his anemia coming back just because he's got such distinguishing taste. Who'd a thunk that the dog who has come back from the brink of starvation would turn out to be the world's pickiest eater!?

At any rate, Skelly is doing very well. Coughing is rare but still occurs in the morning. He's definitely breaking the rules when he goes out in the back yard. He runs around the perimeter of the yard expending copious amounts of newfound energy.

I brought his toys back out and he sometimes entertains himself with those. Mostly he spends his days demanding to be either let in or let out.

He barks in the face of poor James whenever he wants to go out. He's a spoiled brat! There's no doubt. We'll have to really start working on those manners once he's out of the woods with these darn heartworms.

On a more somber note, I just filled up his pill organizer over in my compounding lab...

He's down to his last week of Viagra. After seeing what a difference it has made for him, I may have to seriously consider its purchase.

I think it would be wise to keep him on the Viagra for the next 6 weeks. Perhaps I can find a deal online.

Now if you'll excuse me... somebody wants out (again :)

I caved

2011-01-11T20:28:00.001-08:00

Skeletor is a bit sore and slow moving but he is home, eating, and living it up in the comfort of my bed.

I've been thinking about how I'm going to keep him from getting excited for 2 months. The time when he's the most excited is in the morning before I let him out of his crate. Perhaps I'll move his crate into my bedroom. Hmmm...

Injections today!

2011-01-11T05:36:00.001-08:00

Update: I dropped him off this morning. The injections are actually happening! I'm sure that he'll have no problems whatsoever. He has been doing very well since starting on the Viagra.

We have about 1 1/2 weeks left at his current dosage. If anybody has some samples of Viagra they can send my way, please shoot me an email: Skeletor [at] fuelmm.com.

Bone Crunching Bliss - a haiku

2011-01-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

Silly Skeletor

Chomps happily on rawhide

*nom nom nom... nom nom*

Complications... But not bad ones

2011-01-07T08:13:00.001-08:00

My plan was to take skelly in Thursday, but Dr Chick was not working that day.

I dropped our boy off bright and early this morning. I received a call from the vet. Dr chick said that skeletons heart and lungs sounded better. We went over skeletor's dosages and such to make sure we were on the same page. I explained to him that we were fortunate enough that a friend of skelly had mailed us some Viagra. (thank you!)

He agreed with me that his cough was much better! He still coughs in the morning but not nearly as frequent or persistent as before.

A while later I got another call. Turns out they are out of immiticide! I'll have to bring him in next week :)

His blood work looks great! Go skelly!

Skelly injections today!!

2011-01-06T04:10:00.001-08:00

Good luck skeletor!

Skeletor unvacuuming my office

2011-01-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

This silly hound seems to be in high spirits. I had just vacuumed my office yesterday. Guess what I get to do tomorrow?

Coughing less, destroying more... thanks Viagra!

2011-01-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, one of Skelly's wonderful friends was nice enough to send some samples of the ever-elusive Viagra that he was prescribed. I was going to wait and consult with the doc on when the administration would be most beneficial. Skelly's cough was getting a bit worse, and then he was being a real scaredy dog. I started to think he was getting sick(er) again. I decided to halve the pills and give him 25mg with his evening meds.

Since I started giving him Viagra, I have noticed a marked improvement in the frequency and severity of his coughing! The Viagra helps with his pulmonary hypertension, which may be tied into his dry cough. In any case, I'm pretty excited about his improvement. He's got enough Viagra to last him a few weeks at this rate of consumption. I may have to look into getting some more if it helps him out this much. I just wish it wasn't so flippin' expensive!

It looks like the thing he was scared of was a motorized toy robot arm that was sitting on the coffee table. Since Ian took that to his bedroom, Skelly has not been acting so terrified.

Skeletor has been full of vigor this past week. While I'm not a huge fan of cleaning up his wake of destruction, I am glad to see him feeling good enough to focus on being bad :)

Sophie left her little pink dog bed here, which Skeletor has been using as a toy box. As it turns out, pink isn't his color, so he decided to rip out half the stuffing. Tsk tsk!

This week is the big day!! Skeletor's first Immiticide injection! The first of 2 doses he'll need to kill the adult heartworms. The 2 injections will be given a month apart. This means we've got 2 months of very little excitement in store for this little Tasmanian devil. It's going to be interesting to say the least.

We will have to keep him calm and collected. If his heart rate goes up (which it does on a rather constant basis) it could cause a dead or dying adult heartworm to shift and cause a blockage in his heart. Needless to say, that could be very bad for Skelly.

The doc did say that they can prescribe a sedative if need be. I'm also under the impression that the injection itself will cause a drop in energy levels.

This is the moment we've been preparing him for since day one! Thanks again to all of you for your help. He's come a long way and we wish him the best of luck in being rid of these pesky parasites once and for all!

Go Skelly!

Scaredy Dog

2010-12-27T09:50:00.000-08:00

Saturday, the roommates and I went to a Christmas party at a friend's house. They came home afterwards and I stayed over. I returned home the next day, a little after lunch time.

As I was unloading the car, Skeletor darted out the garage door and across the street. I chased him until he had to stop and take a pee. (that's usually how I'm able to catch him)

I dragged the bad doggie back home, trying not to cause him to throw up (which leading him by the collar usually does)

After I finished unloading the car, the roommates told me that he had been acting weird. Reminiscent of the old days, he was acting very scared of the living room. They told me that when they let him into the back yard, he would just stay there too afraid to come back in. Despite the fact that he was shivering in the cold, he was too petrified to enter the house.

Apparently they dragged him in forcefully so he didn't freeze. Skeletor ran into James' room to hide out and seemed interested in the window. James opened his blinds and Skeletor tried to jump out the closed window, knocking over his dvd case.

I let the terrified Skeletor into my bedroom (which seldom happens) and sat with him on the bed. He seemed to be feeling better immediately.

He had some dry food in his bowl that he was apparently not eating. I went into the kitchen and made him a big bowl of wet and dry food mixed together. I called him and called him... he wouldn't leave my bedroom. I tried biscuits, treats, raw hyde, you name it. Skelly wouldn't budge.

I was worried that his sheepishness may mean that he was getting sick again. He had been doing so well lately! A relapse at this point (about a week before he is supposed to begin heartworm treatment injections) would be terrible!

I went and got the food tray and set it down in my bathroom. Skeletor devoured the food like he had not eaten in a week. I left him to finish his food and came back a while later to check on him. The food dish was completely clean!

When he's sick, he normally loses his appetite. Hmmm...

I figured that he may need to use the restroom after that big meal, so I tried to get him to follow me to the back door. No such luck. I went and got the raw hide and biscuits... he did not want to leave my bedroom. Eventually I was able to get him to follow me down the hall, into the living room, and out the back door. I closed all the bedroom doors so he had nowhere to go and be reclusive.

Normally Skelly uses the bathroom and is ready to come back inside after 10 seconds. Ten minutes had passed and there was no sign of him. I looked outside and he was just laying there in the cold grass. I called him and told him to come inside. He walked up to the door, but wouldn't come inside.

I didn't want to force him inside, which wouldn't do much for his nervous state... so I coaxed him inside with a biscuit. Finally, once inside I sat down with him in the living room. His whole body was shivering! I moved his bed in front of the fireplace and covered him with a blanket while I made a fire.

I sat there petting him and waited for the shivers to stop. He was finally beginning to settle down. After a while, I moved over to the couch and Skelly followed. A while later, he was snoring.

When it was time for bed, Skelly walked into his cage like normal and went to sleep. He seemed to be ok again.

This morning, he has been his normal chipper self. He ate all his breakfast without my having to add anything fancy. I let him out to use the bathroom. He was running around the yard having a great time. He took a leak and then wanted to come back inside. I opened the door and he rushed in without hesitation. He's now chomping happily on the floor next to my chair enjoying the leftover raw hyde from last night.

It seems like everything's fine. I was worried about the little punk! Skeletor's sunny disposition, smarts, and vigor make it easy to forget what he's been through. Underneath his healthy, happy puppy exterior lurk the memories of being a starved, neglected, and very sick little doggie.

Being unable to fully understand what goes on in his head, I would imagine that it doesn't take much to jar those awful memories.

Hang in there, Skelly!

Gimme the pill pocket already!

2010-12-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

Skelly Warhol

2010-12-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

I was just messing around with my new Camera (thank Mel!) and came up with this...

PS: We all got a good chuckle last night when Skelly sneezed and passed gas at the same time.. such a clown!

Skeletor and Insano

2010-12-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

Insano was spectating while I was trying to teach Skelly some new tricks.

"OK, I'm laying down... now make with the treat!"

That winning smile!

This shot of Skeletor yawning is rather funny!

"What are you looking at!?"

I gave Skeletor his heartworm preventative this morning

2010-12-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Per the doctor's orders, I am to monitor Skeletor after giving him the drug to ensure that he doesn't have another nasty reaction.

I gave him the pill around 10:30 this morning. It's 1:05 now.

Let's take a look and see how he's doing, shall we?

That's right! It looks like he's suffering no adverse reaction! He's jumping all over me and trying to nibble my imaginary fleas like it's nobody's business. Way to go Skelly!

It looks like I may be able to bring him in for his first heartworm injection around January 9th. This is exciting yet nerve-wracking news!

Certainly he'll have no issues with the treatment, and he'll come out of it stronger than ever!

Good luck, bud!

Skelly playin' fetch

2010-12-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

I took a break from work to toss the ball for this very excited / bored pup... nothing like a little dog drool on the keyboard eh?

Bobble head

2010-12-06T18:56:00.001-08:00

Skeletor wants to go outside.

Skelly needs a new trick to learn.. any suggestions?

2010-12-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

He's got this "turn around" thing down pat!
At first, there was some confusion because of the similarities in hand gestures to "roll over." He was also having trouble performing the trick at a distance... but not anymore!

A big surprise for Skelly!!

2010-12-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

We have a winner!

Skelly's painting sold for $40. Big thanks to all of our bidders!
I hope you enjoy the painting, Maureen. :)

Skeletor's Treatment Update...

Yesterday, Skelly ran out of Prednisone. From what I understand, Prednisone is the steroid that is helping him ward off the anemia. It's also the drug responsible for his insatiable appetite for water and consequently his affinity for making lemonade!! :)

I checked his supply levels and he was getting low on both of his other meds as well. Enalapril was down to 3 tablets and Vetmedin was down to 5. I called the vet and requested refills on all 3.

Today was an incredibly busy day for me at work. I was up at 5:45 to prepare for a 7:30 business networking meeting. My meeting prep time was cut down a bit because I noticed the heel of the sole was falling off one of my shoes. Fortunately I found some super glue. (on a side note, these appear to be nice shoes... hand-me-downs from my step dad that say they are "Made in Italy.")

Towards the end of my networking meeting, I stood up and realized that the front of the sole was now about to fall off. I shuffled about like a penguin, saying goodbye to my fellow networkers, and trying not to lose the sole of my shoe.

After my first meeting of the day, I made an unscheduled stop at Target to possibly buy some super glue. Then, I figured that since these are "nice" shoes, they were probably worth saving. I considered the fact that the only thing that might possibly dry fast enough was super glue and that it may not hold like real "shoe goo" or something made for shoes.

For some reason, they didn't even have any of the stuff that's actually made for shoes. Not that I could have used it to immediately glue my shoes together for my next meeting, which by then, was in about 20 or 30 minutes.

I found a generic pair of shoes for 30 bucks and decided to buy shoe glue later on to worry about fixing these fancy Italian ones. (one of the only 2 styles of dress shoes they seemed to have in black... what a selection!)

I paid for my new kicks and shuffled out to the car. As I put my shoes on in the parking lot like a weirdo, I noticed that it was actually BOTH soles that were falling off of my shoes... The mental picture of me leaving my networking meeting carrying the soles of both of my shoes was priceless!

By 1pm, I had finished up with 3 meetings and received a call from my roommate. His Jeep had been in the shop and was expected to be ready on Monday. I had agreed to drive him to pick it up. Guess what... it's ready early and he needs a ride!

For those of you who are not from Jacksonville, it's a really strange layout for a very spread out city. We have an extremely wide river running through the center of town and personally I think we need more bridges! In order to get anywhere, you have to make a huge circle! At any rate... the Jeep dealership, our house, and the vet's office form a nearly equilateral triangle that stretches across the entire town.

I got home to pick him up and it was nearly 2pm. I had already had 3 cups of coffee and no lunch. I stopped for chik-fil-a, which I pretty much inhaled on our way to the jeep dealership. I dropped James off, and then headed to the vet's office.

In case you're wondering why I'm blathering on about the mundane details of my hectic day, I'm doing so in an attempt to help you understand my mindset by the time I made it to the vet to pick up Skelly's meds.

I had been dreading the $100+ price tag that would undoubtedly be associated with 3 simultaneous refills. The vet tech went in the back to grab the pills and the office manager came out a few minutes later with the medication.

She asked me if I knew that somebody had sent in a donation to Skelly's account. "No, I didn't" I replied. She then informed me that an anonymous friend of Skeletor's had sent a donation of $1,000! It looks like we have met our goal for Skelly's treatment!! This amazing news couldn't have come at a better time!

Woo Hoo!! To say that this made my day, would be a huge understatement! Skeletor's medication is paid for, and he's got a credit balance at the doctor's office!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to all of Skelly's magnificent friends out there! He really is the luckiest dog on the planet!! (except for catching heartworms in the first place)

I clarified the next step in Skelly's treatment with the doc. He's supposed to take another month of heartworm preventative before beginning injections (assuming his condition remains stable.) I'm going to bring him in for the pill early next week.

Thanks again for all of your support! All Skelly wants for Christmas is a clean bill of health, and we hope to give it to him. It may be a couple months late, but I don't think he'll mind!

Some new tricks

2010-12-01T13:20:00.001-08:00

Skelly's Training Update...

Teaching Skeletor to close the door is going to take more work than I had anticipated. Not to mention the fact that I need to make him a new handle. We'll see if that ever actually happens :)

Fret not! Skelly has learned some other new tricks. Take a look for yourself...

"Sit up" and "Turn around" are both new to his arsenal. Way to go Skeletor!

Say Cheese!

Skelly and Insano are best buddies

2010-11-20T08:07:00.000-08:00

Old habits die hard!

Emma desperately needs a home!

2010-11-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

Do you remember Emma?

Emma was abandoned with her litter of puppies back in August. Claudia from San Juan Animal Hospital has been taking care of her ever since. The folks at San Juan found forever homes for all of her puppies, but Emma still needs a loving home.

Here's a message from Claudia:

Foster home needed immediately! This pretty girl NEEDS A HOME NOW!!! My boss is threatening me with "alternatives" :( She is UTD on Vax, recently spayed and on Heartworm prevention (she is positive so she will need further treatment) Sweet girl needing a forever home!

If you, or somebody you know can give Emma a foster or forever home,
please email me: skeletor (at) fuelmultimedia (dot) com.

Teaching your dog not to bark at your cat

2010-11-19T06:17:00.000-08:00

As you've seen in some of Skeletor's videos, he gets his kicks barking at Insano.

This is very entertaining unless you're trying to talk on the phone with a customer, or watching a movie in the living room.

After many complaints and dirty looks from the roommates, I decided to try and teach him not to bark at the cat.

Whenever he would bark, I would correct him by saying "no". After three no's, I said "timeout" and put him in his cage for 5 minutes. Oh, and talk about pathetic! The first minute in timeout, he's silent.. then he starts with the most pathetic noises you ever heard. Nice try punk! :)

I wasn't sure if it was working until this morning. He was following Insano around and looked like he was going to begin going nuts and barking at him. Without having to say "no" even once, Skeletor resisted, and didn't let out a single bark! He was kinda making weird monkey noises, but no full on bark!

This is great news... his barks are enough to cause permanent hearing damage :)

He's one smart pup! Such a great learner.

With Skeletor not barking in his face, Insano is now free
to do what he does best... absolutely nothing!

Next, I've got to teach Skelly not to go crazy when somebody rings the doorbell.

Skelly's guest post is live at PBU

2010-11-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

Skeletor's entire life story in a nutshell :)
Check it out...

An unrelated photo

"Gimme the treat already!"

Inspiration comes from the strangest of places

2010-11-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

Before reading on, you should read this post from last month if you haven't already... Hot Pencil Erasers

Recently, I have linked the mysteriously foul aroma emitted by our friend Skeletor to Purina brand canned dog food.

After having switched to generic Publix brand, Skelly seemed to have his little gas problem under control. Last week, I got the Purina again because it was on sale.

Lo, and behold! The horribly bad, paint-peelin' funk is back in full swing!!

Did I mention that Skelly's favorite place to hang out ALL DAY LONG while I'm working is DIRECTLY UNDER MY DESK?!?!?!???

Here's the proof!

On the left is the wheel of my chair. On the right is my computer. :)

Needless to say... hot pencil eraser clouds (much like hot air balloons) tend to float up!

Having been subjected to Skeletor's deadly fumes all day, I felt a fit of dementia coming on, so I channeled that energy into creating this nifty illustration...

Thank you for the inspiration Skeletor. You are the foul-smelling wind beneath my wings! :)

Skeletor AKA Hercules gets some good PR

2010-11-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

First, I'd like to thank Pam and Oskar from over at Pet Blogs United for inviting Skelly and I to pop in and guest post. Skelly's story is scheduled to air tomorrow (November 17th).

Be sure and stop by for a read :)
http://petblogsunited.blogspot.com/
Tell 'em Skelly sent ya!

An unrelated photo:

"Aaaaaaah!!!" - This dog loves hanging out upside-down.

Next, a Skelly training update...

So as you could see in the amazing "door closing" video, Skeletor was having a little bit of trouble getting a good grip on the leather belt. If only his mouth opened sideways like an ant, he'd be in business!

I decided that maybe a better grip would help him perfect his art.

I found an old wubba that he had long since torn to shreds. I thought the soft straps would make for a good grip. I removed the belt, and started the metamorphosis. (For those who don't know, a wubba is a dog toy that looks kinda like a squid.)

After some hole drilling and a bunch of new zip ties, the modified leather belt was attached, and boasted 4 soft straps that should be very easy for Skeletor to grab.

I let the impatient hound back in the house to try it out. Before he even came inside, he became very interested in the new door handle.

I asked him to "close the door." He clamped his mighty jaws around the part where the belt wrapped around the wubba and began pulling from outside. "Skeletor... pull the door shut, silly."

The destructive maniac had other plans... within seconds, he had ripped the belt clean off the door and was already half way through shredding what remained of the wubba...

Jeez, Hercules! I guess that plan backfired! Perhaps a good grip wasn't such a great idea. This burlyman is likely to rip the door clean off!

So, I have not yet attached the belt back to the knob, but I had better do so before he forgets the ninja jedi door closing training that he has learned thus far.

And then, I wanted to update you on the status of Skeletor's auction.
The bidding frenzy is off to a great start! The bid is currently up to $40 for this fine work of art!

Place your bid using the form on the right of the page! ---->

More unrelated photos:

Ian and Skelly - lounging on the couch

"Aww man... I was here first!"

Well, that's about it for now.
Have a great day!

I'm auctioning off an oil painting of Skeletor

2010-11-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

Melanie was so kind as to paint a portrait of our dear friend Skelly. In the painting, Skeletor is enjoying one of his favorite passtimes... laying in the grass!

I told Mel that if she gave the painting to me, that I couldn't bare to sell it. So, she gave it to Skeletor, who then authorized me to Auction it off for him. :)

So without further ado... The painting!

This 5x7 oil painting is on canvas. I'm going to start the bidding at $20.

All proceeds will go towards Skeletor's heartworm treatment. I think his first injection is in 2 or 3 weeks. The auction will end at 12 noon EST on Tuesday, November 23rd.

If the winning bid is over $150, I'm going to throw in a Skelly Threads t-shirt. I have large and XL available. Just let me know which size you prefer.

How to place a bid...

Unless I get a better idea, just fill out the form on the right side of this page to place a bid. It will send me an email and I'll update the current bid amount.

Other important information...

Payment Methods Accepted: Paypal (preferred) or Money Order.
Shipping cost: $8 for ground shipping in continental USA. For international shipping, please ask when placing your bid.
Winning the auction: I'll send an email to the winning bidder and wait for a response. If I don't hear anything back by Monday, November 29th, I'll contact the second place bidder.

Go-Go-Gadget Skeletor

2010-11-12T10:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice photo Mel took at our Halloween party.
Skeletor as Inspector Gadget's neice Penny's dog, Brain :)

Say that 5 times fast!

Skeletor's new trick: Close the door

2010-11-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

We've been working on this one for a while. I wouldn't say that Skelly has perfected it, but he's getting rather good! See for yourself...

"Why would a dog need such a skill?" you might ask. Well, as I may have mentioned before, Skeletor's prednisone makes him a very thirsty animal. All that water has got to go someplace. Fortunately, he is hardcore potty trained and does his business outside.

Sometimes, and I'm not exaggerating here... Skeletor will need to go out 5 minutes after he has just come back in. He just loves making lemonade... and lots of it!

Lately, he's been on a new kick where he gets really impatient and obnoxious when he has to go out. He'll bark and jump on you if you don't comply with his demands.

Once he gets the hang of this highly marketable skill, he'll be 30% less obnoxious and 50% more self-sufficient! Go Skelly!

Tough guy home from the vet

2010-11-06T08:05:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to announce that Skeletor had little to no reaction to the preventative yesterday! He came home the same day and was barking at cats and chomping on rawhide like nothing had even happened!

Quite a pleasant surprise! My guess is that being anemic and weak last time, he was just more susceptible.

I'm going to call Dr. Chick Monday to schedule Skelly's next visit.

Kiss those heartworms goodbye, tough guy!

Here goes nothin' - Taking Skelly to the vet

2010-11-05T05:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to your generous contributions, Skelly is ready to begin treatment. Step one is to administer the heartworm preventative. As you may recall, Skeletor was given the preventative back in March and it stirred up one heck of a dangerous reaction.

This time, he's going to stay at the hospital and will hopefully have nowhere near as strong of a reaction.

Needless to say, this is pretty nerve wracking! We'll have to wait and see... I'll post updates as I receive them.

Good Luck Skelly!

[UPDATE]

I called ahead to the vet's office to make sure that Dr. Chick was available. They said that he was seeing patients until 10am, at which time he was going into surgery. There was no time to be wasted!

I stretched a bed sheet across my back seat and then went in the house to put a harness on the already overly thrilled Skeletor. I lead him out to the car through the garage. As soon as he hopped in the back seat, he began coughing. By the time I walked around and got into the driver's seat, his coughing became very productive as he lost his breakfast (and medicine) all over the seat. :(

Poor guy was just too excited (as usual). I sprung into action, pulled him out of the car, clipped him to the tree, bundled the sheet around the puke and placed it in the garage. I grabbed a roll of paper towels and some upholstery cleaner and quickly cleaned the remaining juice off the seat.

I grabbed Skelly and he jumped back into the car. "No more puking please?"

I'm happy to report that he didn't do any more coughing on the way to the vet. He even took my advice and lied down for about half the way.

Skeletor is at the vet... is he ready to begin heartworm treatment?

2010-11-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ian took Skelly to the vet. Stay tuned for the news...

[update] - I spoke with Ian and Dr. Guill on the phone. As is part for the course, we've got good news and hard truths!

The good news: The steroids are working well enough to keep Skeletor's anemia in check.

The hard truth: Skelly still has high blood pressure. Something that could be helped by Viagra we can't afford. :(

The good news: The vet is standing by, ready to perform the first step of Skelly's treatment, which will be administering the preventative to kill the baby worms.

The hard truth: Money money money! Saving Skeletor's life has proven to be one expensive project. Today's visit cost $173.50. The preventative visit will cost $95. The injections will total roughly $600.

The good news: Skeletor's weight has leveled out. Today he weighed 62.5lbs. Good job Skelly!

The hard truth: The doc was quoted in saying: "If we don't treat the heartworm disease, he will die. If we do treat the heartworm disease, he may still die."

The bad news: Dr. Guill said that Skelly's was the worse case of heartworm disease that he's ever seen. The X-Ray revealed that his lungs and heart are full of worms and sludge.

The doc said that for as sick as he is, Skeletor is as healthy as he is going to get. The treatment will be a risk, but Skeletor's best chance at survival is to kill the worms now. He is definitely not getting any healthier and there's no telling how long his lungs will continue to function.

It's time for us to do a little fund raising. We have a clear goal in mind. The t-shirts didn't work. I'm not sure what will. I'm going to do some brainstorming.

Basically the treatment plan mentioned above, plus the balance on Skelly's Care Credit card add up to about $1,000. This figure actually pales in comparison to what it has taken to get Skelly to this point. (a spectacular feat that would have been utterly impossible without your kind donations, spreading the word, suggestions, and moral support!!)

Let's not get choked up over all the bad news and hard truths! This is the crossroads we've been headed for since day one! Skeletor is a fighter. He's been training since February for this very moment.

He has nearly doubled his body weight.
He has taken countless pills.
He bounced back from a fierce battle with anemia.
He learned all sorts of manners and tricks.
He developed a winning smile and the personality to back it up.
He has turned his pathetic whimper into a fierce and manly bark!
He has gained confidence.
He's had tons of fun.
He has developed exquisite taste in dog food.
He has provoked inanimate objects to attack

He's ready to beat these worms once and for all!

GO SKELLY!

Finally... a cat that doesn't hate poor Skeletor

2010-11-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Cheshire Cat!

Courtesy of craftyslackers.com

Spoiled doggie alert! Local dog sleeps in owner's bed

2010-10-31T07:19:00.001-07:00

We had a Halloween party Friday night. Skeletor was having fun mingling until Calamity Jane showed up with her cap guns. She didn't scare him on purpose, but skeletor hates scary, noise making hand-held devices. He decided to hang out in the back yard for the rest of the evening.

Mel and I went back periodically to check on him. Skelly was happy to see us but had no interest in rejoining the party!

Having not used his dog house since early spring, skeletor was just laying in the wet grass in a very pitiful fashion. We couldn't bear to leave him out there and he was way too scared to hang out inside. So we dragged the nervous hound into the Holy Grail of doggydom... My bedroom!

Skeletor was totally excited once he got past the commotion. He amazed Mel and I with his ability to take up the entire king sized bed!

Needless to say, it took quite a bit of convincing to get him into his own sleeping quarters the following night :)

Makeshift pill pockets

2010-10-21T18:43:00.001-07:00

I ran out of pill pockets and tried some alternatives. First, I tried wrapping the pill with cheese. This wasn't so great. The cheese wasn't really pliable enough. Next time I tried wadding the pills up in bread. The bread was easy to mold around the pill, but it wasn't gooey enough. Skeletor chewed it instead of swallowing and the crafty jerk ended up spitting out the pill. Finally I tried cooking some oatmeal with less water than normal. I tossed it in the freezer for a while and when I pulled it out it was rather gooey indeed. To my amazement, it worked rather well. Whodathought the world's pickiest dog would be such a fan of plain oatmeal!?

That's skeletor for ya!

Skeletor needs help getting heart meds

2010-10-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

I have created a new bloggy button in hopes of garnering support for Skeletor's meds.

I'm trying to cover all the cost myself, but business has been slow lately, and I'm slipping into debt in the process.

He will need another bottle of Vetmedin in 2 days!

To make it easy, just copy the code below, then paste it into your webpage or blog. Thank you for all of your support!

Heart Meds Code

Skelly Threads Heart and Crossbones Shirt on eBay - Size XL

2010-10-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

Place your bids on this fabulous tee shirt featuring the adorable Skelly Threads logo.
Size XL (I also have large available if you prefer. Just let me know when you check out)

Click here and place your bid!
Proceeds will go towards paying off Skeletor's credit card.

I got him a care credit card when he needed the emergency echocardiogram.
It's a nice enough card as long as I can pay it off quickly enough. Zero interest for 6 months.
After that... yowza... let's just say I need to pay it off before then :)

Skeletor's coughing comes and goes

2010-10-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last week when we got back from the vet's office, I noticed that Skelly's coughing had become more frequent. It was cause of concern throughout the whole weekend. However, it seems that it's now down to a nominal level.

I just spoke with Dr. Chick about the coughing issues. He prescribed a cough suppressant that I can go pick up and keep on hand in case Skelly has another bad spell.

I also asked Dr. Chick is he thought the elusive Viagra might help with Skelly's coughing. He said that since the Viagra treats the pulmonary hypertension, which is contributing to the cough, that it could indirectly treat his coughing.

I double-checked to see if the Viagra was safe to give him with his current regiment of meds and the doc says it's ok.

If anybody has a rich uncle or grandpa with a few viagra to spare, send 'em Skelly's way :)
You can email me skeletor (at) fuelmultimedia.com to request our mailing address.

Since he does have a bona-fide prescription for the stuff, I don't see any legal issues with helping a puppy out.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention... the nice folks at San Juan Animal Hospital gave Skelly a cool tag that says "San Juan loves you." Thanks for taking such good care of him! :)

Home from the Vet - Skelly's condition update

2010-10-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

We're home from what I considered to be a positive visit to the doc. (despite some of the hard truths that the doctor brought up)

On the way to the Vet, Skeletor was saying hi in a very loud fashion to the lady next to us at the stop light. She seemed to get a kick out of it.

Within seconds, the bed sheet I spread across the back seat was wadded up in a ball. Nice work Skelly :)

"Be patient" is a trick Skeletor has yet to master!

He was very interested in a wiener dog he met in the waiting room. She was NOT interested in him :)

Skelly was determined to be heard by every person and pet in the building.

He was practicing his monkey impressions as well.

"Jeez, can we go back already!?"

"I'm sick of waiting!"

Sit Skeletor!

Good Boy!

The Good News is that this monster of a dog weighed in at over 64lbs! I have not been trying to put any more weight on him, but it seems that he has other ideas.

The Even Better News is that his blood is looking GREAT! His red cell count is up to a whopping 48.46%. This is well within the normal range of 37-55. Way to go Skelly!

The Other News

Dr. Chick said that he had a chance to hear Skelly's heart during the brief moments when he was not panting from excitement. Dr. Chick explained that his heavy breathing is due not only to excitement, but also to the deteriorated state of Skelly's heart and lungs. Skeletor's heart murmur was noticeable. I would hypothesize that the heavy breathing is also due in part to his pulmonary hypertension. (the constricting of blood vessels between his heart and lungs that is apparently only treatable by the ever-elusive Viagra)

Dr. Chick explained that the damage that has been and continues to be caused to Skeletor's heart is most likely irreparable. (meaning that his heart will never heal completely) The heart medication he is on is intended to slow down the rate at which he heart takes damage from the parasites.

Skelly was prescribed an additional heart medication (Enalapril) to take along with his Vetmedin. His prednisone dose has been cut in half.

He's scheduled for another checkup in 2 weeks. Let's hope that his blood remains stabilized during the prednisone weening period! That lousy recurring anemia is the major thing preventing Skelly from beginning heartworm treatment.

I asked Dr. Chick if I could take Skelly out for the occasional walk. He said that it was OK provided that I keep them short and cool. He assured me that with heart problems like Skeletor's, too much excitement could literally cause him to collapse and never get back up.

With the permanent damage to his heart and lungs, Skeletor may never run in dog marathons or swim across the English Channel, but I'm going to continue doing whatever I can to prolong and improve his time on earth.

Go Skelly!

Home from the Vet - Skelly's condition update

2010-10-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

We're home from what I considered to be a positive visit to the doc. (despite some of the hard truths that the doctor brought up)

On the way to the Vet, Skeletor was saying hi in a very loud fashion to the lady next to us at the stop light. She seemed to get a kick out of it.

Within seconds, the bed sheet I spread across the back seat was wadded up in a ball. Nice work Skelly :)

"Be patient" is a trick Skeletor has yet to master!

He was very interested in a wiener dog he met in the waiting room. She was NOT interested in him :)

Skelly was determined to be heard by every person and pet in the building.

He was practicing his monkey impressions as well.

"Jeez, can we go back already!?"

"I'm sick of waiting!"

Sit Skeletor!

Good Boy!

The Good News is that this monster of a dog weighed in at over 64lbs! I have not been trying to put any more weight on him, but it seems that he has other ideas.

The Even Better News is that his blood is looking GREAT! His red cell count is up to a whopping 48.46%. This is well within the normal range of 37-55. Way to go Skelly!

The Other News

Dr. Chick explained that the damage that has been and continues to be caused to Skeletor's heart is most likely irreparable. (meaning that the damage is most likely permanent) The heart medication he is on is intended to slow down the rate at which he heart takes damage from the parasites.

Skelly was prescribed an additional heart medication (Enalapril) to take along with his Vetmedin. His prednisone dose has been cut in half.

Go Skelly!

64 lbs!?

2010-10-15T06:33:00.003-07:00

At the vet

2010-10-15T06:33:00.001-07:00

Hoping for good news... Let's find out!

Today's the big day! Off to the vet.

2010-10-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a whole month since Skelly's last visit. Judging from his unwavering appetite, bright pink gums, and astronomical energy levels, I really think this will be a good one!

Skeletor's been doing incredibly well with his training. We're working on a new trick that is sure to blow your mind! I'll post a video when Skelly gets it down.

I'll post an update when we hear from Dr. Chick. Go Skelly!

Fun in the Fall

2010-10-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Skeletor has been enjoying short little visits to the front yard. He's got a cool new orange tie that affords him the opportunity to urinate on not one but TWO different trees, as well as a few different bushes :)

Here are some photos of Skelly and Mel having fun in the grass!

Good Morning Skeletor!!!

2010-10-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Mine and Skelly's morning routine...

He makes weird noises, he sees me, he gets all excited, I let him out, he starts coughing, I try (in vain) to calm him down :)

Skeletor displays his awesome willpower (and stubbornness)

2010-10-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

You can't see it in the video, but there are streams of drool pouring from both sides of his mouth while he's sitting there waiting. It's weird how he hesitates so long to lay down. When I have the treat in my hand, he lays down instantly. He's focusing so intently on that delicious biscuit!!

On silent haunches...

2010-10-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Insano was sitting behind me in my chair, studying Skeletor's habits.

I snapped this photo and thought that maybe I could help them become buddies by giving them equal attention at the same time.

I started petting Insano and Skeletor. Skeletor was liking the idea just fine. Insano, on the other hand, took the opportunity to try and perform a little eye surgery on the unsuspecting hound.

Fortunately, he didn't cause any real damage, but I suppose it's going to be a while before these two curl up together.

He usually gets along with other animals... well he used to anyways. Insano has never been a fan of children. He's been known to sink his claws into many unsuspecting little kids, resulting in many shrieks of terror.

Speaking of which... when Insano was much younger, a friend came to visit and brought her child of maybe 3 or 4 years old. The kid was playing with Insano in the next room and next thing you know, we hear the poor kid screaming bloody murder. It was no surprise that Insano had introduced her to his claws, but what was surprising was how it went down.

We walked into the other room to survey the scene, and the poor child was running across the hardwood floors with insano "chasing" her on hind legs. Apparently he had sunk his claws right into the small of her back and they had become stuck. Here's an artists interpretation of the grizzly attack...

That's a bad kitty!

More drugs for Skelly

2010-10-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Today I had to make a run for my favorite pill poppin' pal, Skeletor.

Thanks to Greenie's Pill Pockets, he's become quite the little hypochondriac! He struggles to sit absolutely still while trembling and panting with anticipation every time I walk over to his "pill station."

He's got quite a little boneyard of empty bottles going here. What am I saving them for? I don't know. Maybe I'll tie them together one day and create a life raft?

At the vet's office, I couldn't help to chuckle at what a wicked cool name this dog has. He seems like he should be the frontman for a heavy metal band or something!

You would think he was a rock star if you saw how much he pays for his little drug habit :)
But hey, seeing him happy, full of energy, and maintaining a healthy appetite is totally worth it! Your donations and t-shirt purchases certainly help as well! THANK YOU! I really can't say it enough.

Hoping for great news at his next visit. (Oct 15) Go Skelly!

Skeletor was talking smack to Insano and paid the price!

2010-09-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

Skeletor is so bored now that Sophie has moved out, he has resorted to picking fights with Insano.
He also learned to growl!! Notice his tail is wagging the whole time. Such a weirdo!

Attack of the laundry basket

2010-09-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Haha... this silly dog never fails to entertain.

Earlier today, I was just minding my own business stressing about work (or non work as it would be) and I hear this calamity coming from the hallway. I jump out of my chair and here comes skeletor tearing around the corner being chased by a laundry basket which had apparently got hooked on his collar while he was curiously nosing around its contents.

My roommate is in the process of moving out, so this basket was full of miscellaneous junk. Among the junk was a nice, juicy leather belt. I noticed Skeletor taking an interest in the belt the other day. I knew it was just a matter of time before he got ahold of it... however I must admit, never expected the basket to get ahold of him!!

Bahahaha!!

Hot pencil erasers

2010-09-22T14:22:00.001-07:00

I've been smelling this strange scent I can only describe as "Hot Pencil Eraser" for the past couple of hours. My suspicions were confirmed when Skeletor just passed gas and I was suddenly engulfed in the aroma. Ew.

Skeletor has gotten a little rusty

2010-09-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

After a very busy weekend, I finally had a chance to play with Skelly and ask him to perform some tricks. I told him to sit and stay... then I walked across the house.

I told him to "come" and he just sat there looking at me.

"Come, Skeletor!"

He lied down on the floor... stared at me for a second and then rolled over :)

Hey, at least he is trying!

On the block: Skelly Heart and Crossbones Shirt - Size XL

2010-09-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

I just started another ebay auction. This time the size is XL.

Anything over $11 goes towards Skelly's care.

Click here to see the auction

Here's a bloggy button created just for this auction, which ends Friday.

This is how the button will appear:

Click here and place your bid.

One the block:
Heart and Crossbones Tee Shirt, Size XL

Here's the code you can copy and paste into your blog or website:

Thanks for spreading the word about this auction, and Happy Bidding!

Skelly Video: Skelly goes nuts for the belly rubs

2010-09-17T06:33:00.001-07:00

Friend of Skelly, Jimmy is on the road to recovery

2010-09-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Lucky for him, Jimmy was found by the right people in Baltimore. Some extremely evil person had mangled his face to the point that his nose had to be surgically replaced by a blowhole created by various grafts.

Here's a news article on Jimmy...
http://wjz.com/local/Couple.Finds.Abused.2.1861586.html

His foster parents have started a blog to document his journey. Jimmy's photos are hard to look at. Especially the early ones. I can't believe somebody would do something like that to any animal!

His story, however, is a positive one so far. Jimmy appears very grateful for his second chance at life. He really is a nice dog and I wish him all the best on his recovery.

Here's a link to Jimmy's blog: http://jimmys-journey.blogspot.com/

Huge thanks to Jimmy's foster family for helping him out!

Skelly's friend stopped by for a shirt

2010-09-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

Jen stopped by and purchased one of Skeletor's shirts. After that, they ran outside for a quick photo shoot. Skelly was running wild all over the back yard (peeing on everything!)

Finally Jen had to coax him into standing still with a handful of biscuits.

Enjoy!

At the vet...

2010-09-15T11:22:00.001-07:00

Hoping for good news. Let's find out!

[UPDATE] - The results are in!

Dr. Fish has moved to the Keys, so Dr. Chick is taking over as Skelly's primary care provider.

The great news is Skeletor's weight. This hulking beast tipped the scales at 60.5 lbs today!

Skelly's friends at San Juan Animal Hospital were quite happy to see him! The nice vet tech took him for a tour of the hospital to see all his buddies. She said he was the most friendly dog ever :)

Skeletor was also thrilled to see his old pal, the jar of treats!

Dr. Chick said that we he no longer needs to gain any weight. He also said that he could not hear a bad murmur in Skelly's heart. Granted, Skeletor was wagging his tail and panting like a maniac from the sheer excitement of going to the vet, so it was understandably hard to hear.

The neutral news is that his blood has not improved. I say neutral, because it's not any worse either. Skeletor's red cell count is hovering at 36.49%. His white cells are at 28.4% which is a little elevated from the normal range. His platelets are up to normal levels :)

His anemia, while mild, is still persisting. I suppose the condition of his blood is a common side effect of the heartworm disease. http://www.petplace.com/dogs/heartworm-disease-in-dogs/page3.aspx

I have been instructed to keep him on his full dose of Vetmedin (7.5mg 2x/day), keep him on the current regiment of Prednisone (10mg 2x/day), and stop when I run out of Doxycycline in about 3 or 4 days.

He could still benefit from the Viagra if only there was a way to obtain it for pennies on the dollar.

I guess that means no more super fattening dog soup for Skelly. Perhaps we'll cut back to 2 or 3 meals a day and see if we can maintain his current awe inspiring weight of 60lbs!!!

I should note that when I was putting his harness on, it was WAY too tight. I had to take it off and make it bigger haha.

As long as his condition doesn't deteriorate, we're scheduled for another visit one month from today. I'm going to call Dr. Chick and see if it would be ok to take Skelly for a short calm walk a couple times a week. I'm sure he's going nuts cooped up in this house all day.

Skelly video: Pit bull vs. Wiener dog

2010-09-12T16:55:00.001-07:00

Hehe

Skeletor Video - How to make peanut butter and egg surprise

2010-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Every dish I mention is a surprise. I ran out of wet dog food and dog soup, so I had to improvise with a little peanut butter, egg and chicken broth.

This is my first attempt at making a video by strapping my phone to my head. This is also my first attempt at publishing directly from my phone. (sorry about the poor quality)

Please pretend that you can't see what a cluttered abomination of a messy kitchen I have! I guess I will have fun washing me some dishes today.

Bad Doggie Alert: That is NOT a chew toy!

2010-09-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough the long weekend didn't allow for much time to clean up the house! It looks like a tornado hit this place!

This is bad news for everybody but Skeletor. He's surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of items to chew on.

This morning, I heard him chomping happily on something behind the couch. Lo, and behold, it was some poor sap's belt. Skelly No!! Later on, I look down to see what he's doing and much to my horror, he was munching on a blue ink pen!

I've been liberally applying oxy clean, resolve, and whatever else I can find. As I expected, ink is a pretty tough stain to get out of carpet!

Why was there an ink pen on the floor? That's a good question. :(

The good news is that he's acting healthy enough to cause such destruction. I've learned that his behavior, appetite, and attitude seem to be a direct indicator of his current level of illness. At least that's what I keep telling myself as I repeatedly scrub, mop, wipe, spray, etc...

On the fund raising front, I've got a medium sized Skelly Threads Heart and Crossbones Tee Shirt on eBay. This auction is ending tomorrow!

Place your bid here

Here's a new Skeletor dog trick video

Here's another video I happened upon...

I just got a phone that actually records video.. I think this could mean more frequent and perhaps higher quality skelly vids!

Skeletor's bathroom has been remodeled

2010-09-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

In a last ditch effort to stifle the influx of pee-pee mud being tracked into the living room and across the house, something had to be done about Skelly's restroom areas.

Here's a little bit of background info...

There are shrubs on either side of our back patio where Skeletor relieves himself every single time nature calls. His corrosive lemonade has long since killed the grass surrounding the shrubs. The grass has been replaced with the aforementioned pee-pee mud. This pee-pee mud is splattered all over the back door and then tracked into the house. It leaves our entire back porch smelling far from fresh.

Ian and I needed a plan. Something less muddy would be good. Mulch seems like it would just get stinky again really fast... so we decided on rocks.

I did some calculations and determined that I know nothing about landscaping.

My amateur estimate said that we needed 4 cubic feet of rocks to fill a 4x4 area 3 inches deep surrounding the 2 shrubs.

I bought 10 feet of plastic border, some stakes and weed blocker material. Ian was to pick up 8 half cubic ft. bags of rocks on his way home.

It was time for the fun to begin. I armed myself with a hedge trimmer, 2 shovels, and a pair of gloves. I stepped out into the afternoon heat and was immediately greeted by the putrid, rotten aroma of the pee-pee mud.

Since we do not own a wheelbarrow, a plastic bin would have to suffice. I started shoveling the stinky earth and decomposing grass into the plastic bin. I then dragged the bin across the yard to deposit the funky load in an area that a) needed more soil and b) was far from the back door!

It was surprising how much tainted turf had to be removed from the areas surrounding the shrubs. I was sweating profusely and I was slightly nauseated, but the job was coming along and there was plenty of scorching daylight remaining.

I fired up the hedge trimmer and went to town on the shrubs. Apparently this was a job that we had been neglecting for the past 2 years. Oops! :)

Ian finally arrived with a truck bed full of bags of rocks. The area on the right of the porch was square shaped, while the area to the left was nice and rounded. We contemplated how to get them to match.

We decided to cut some sod out and make a patch that would hopefully take root and result in a couple of matching rock beds. We went to work creating the trench into which the plastic border would be sunk. The foul aroma of pee-pee mud was down to nominal levels by now, as the bulk of the grimy gook had been ferried to the far reaches of the yard.

Ian cut out the correct shapes and we laid down the weed barrier, followed by the plastic border. I sunk a few stakes into the dirt to hold the sheet in place. We began hauling heavy bags of rocks to the back yard, two at a time.

Starting with the more popular of Skelly's restrooms, we dumped the rocks into their new bed. Alas, it took 5 bags to fill the larger of the two beds. Naturally, this left us a little short on filling up bathroom number two... we got it fairly close though.

2 or 3 sweaty hours, 8 bags of rocks, 10 feet of plastic and a handfull of metal stakes later, Skelly's fancy new restrooms were unveiled!

Believe me, the king of urination wasted no time in Christening his new sprinkling grounds! :)

Bathroom One:

Bathroom Two:

Skeletor mentioned on Jacksonville.com

2010-08-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Mel for spreading the word about Skelly. He was mentioned on Jacksonville.com, which is the website of the Florida Times Union.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/401979/deirdre-conner/2010-08-30/cold-noses-pet-owners-go-online-raise-money-vet-bills