Skelly and Insano are best buddies

Old habits die hard!

Emma desperately needs a home!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

The Cheshire Cat!

Courtesy of craftyslackers.com