A funny mental picture for you...

Picture this...

Yesterday I was walking Skells on a leash and Sophie was walking with us with no leash. I've been getting better about bringing poo bags with us. This time was an exception, and I was poo-bagless. I noticed the mail lady was doing her thing.

I know Skeletor better than he knows himself. Something about going on a walk gives him the urge to drop a stinky load. It was just a matter of time.

We were almost to the area where it's "ok" for him to poo, and I was worried that he would handle his business prematurely. I decided to pick up our pace to a jog.

So I was running with Skelly on the leash and Sophie was doing her best to keep up. We get to the poo zone and Skelly goes straight to work. *whew!*

It was a rather large payload too! Glad it wasn't in somebody's yard!

Anyways, we were walking along and the mail lady pulls up and says... "When you guys were running, it looked like you two were being fleeing from the dachshund! bahaha!"

I agreed with her that it was quite a funny picture!! We will have to stage some photos!!

Another checkup at the Vet

Thursday, I took Skelly to the vet for a checkup. I was going to take him right after lunch, but through better of it. I decided to take him and sophie for a walk first in hopes of calming him down.

I had been getting better at remembering to bring dog poo bags with me on walks. Of course, this time I forgot, and of course, this time Skelly dropped a stinker right on the sidewalk!!

After a quick walk, we loaded up the car and headed to the doc's office. Skelly didn't hesitate to say "hi" at the top of his lungs to every dog, cat and person that came near us. I didn't even bother trying to sit in the actual waiting room this time. Skelly and I just went out front to wait instead. (it was nice and sunny out there!)

I'd say that there was about a 70/30 split in favor of those who were NOT scared and/or horrified by Skelly's appearance and mannerisms. Not too bad. He's far from menacing, but some people just see a pit bull and judge based on stereotypes.

At any rate, the skeleton dog weighed in at a whopping 57.8 lbs! As we waited for the doc to arrive, Skelly was yelling at anybody he saw pass by the window. Some of the nice vet techs came in to say hi. Skells was quite thrilled about this!

Everybody was super stoked about his weight gain. They commented about how much he looked like a totally different dog! While we waited, I let Skeletor earn some yummy dog biscuits. He was sitting, shaking hands and even staying like a champ. Of course this was when we were alone in the room. If anybody else is around, he's way to excited to be bothered with silly dog tricks!

Dr. Fish arrived and was very pleased (I think he actually cheered a little) when he saw how much Skelly was up to! He listened to Skelly's heart and lungs and said that everything sounded good. They took Skeletor off to draw some blood.

A while later, Dr. Fish returned with some more good news. Skeletor's red blood cell count was up to 40%, which is within the normal range! Now that his white and red cells are where they need to be, we're going to continue weening him off of the Prednisone.

After Dr. Fish is satisfied that he can maintain a normal cell count with no drugs, Skeletor will be ready for the next step in his treatment. That step will most likely begin with another dose of the heartworm preventative. This time, they are going to administer it at the vet's office, just in case he has another nasty reaction.

Dr. Fish said that theoretically, if he has a reaction next time, it should be less severe. However, we just won't know until we get to that stage.

I got a good bit of video footage at the vet. I'll try and throw something together this weekend. I know I am way behind on videos, but there's no time man!!! :)

Skeletor and the case of the mysterious behaviour

Let me start by saying that the weather around here lately has been absolutely amazing! We are finally being rewarded for suffering through one of the most agonizingly long winters in recent memory.

The other day when I was walking Skelly, it was about 85 degrees and sunny. (YES!) We were walking on the street and just as we were passing somebody's driveway, he stopped dead in his tracks. This is not unusual, he often has to stop and pee. I turned around and was shocked to see him doing much more than peeing right there in the middle of the road.

Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather he drop a stinky load in the street than in somebody's yard. It's just that the middle of the road seemed like a funny place to plant one.

I have not yet trained myself to bring doodoo bags with me on walks and this was the first time I had actually needed one. I nonchalantly glanced around to see that the only possible witness was too far down the road to have noticed.

We reversed direction and headed homeward :)

We were in the final stretch of sidewalk when suddenly he stopped in his tracks again. I turned around and this time he was lying down in some random person's lawn. I could tell he was hot... perhaps he was tired and could continue no longer. I urged him to continue with his walk as he playfully rolled around in these people's grass. I busted out the camera and snapped this little video...



Today was another fantastic day for weather, and off we went right after lunch. We were nearing the home stretch, and Skeletor stopped in his tracks again. Being the scumbag that I am, I was once again doodoo bag-less! I turned around expecting to see horrified neighbors watching as Skelly desecrated their lawn.

What I saw was Skeletor laying in the grass again. The very same grass as last time! I realized that this was the only yard with a big giant shade tree, and that Skelly chose it for that very reason. I breathed a sigh of relief, and snapped a couple of shots on my phone. Case closed!

Skelly's got it made in the shade!