Ubes

Little Uben never fails to amaze and entertain us. Last night we were standing at the end of our driveway talking to our neighbor who came along with his Malamute puppy. Now Uben knows and likes this puppy Abakus, but for some reason he barked his head off when he first saw him. He calmed down, but clearly was telling Abakus that Bernd and I belonged to him, and would get between Abakus and us whenever Abakus came to be petted. As we were talking to our neighbor and the dogs were also standing there talking to each other, Uben walked over to Bernd, raised his leg, and started to pee on Bernd's foot. We assume this was a further signal to Abakus that "this guy is my territory so back off." Bernd jumped out of the way in time to save his leg and foot from the drenching and we both ended up hysterical at this new and not so wonderful development in Uben's repetoire. The above picture was taken a few weeks ago when Bernd started working on his new office in the basement with his Brittany helper. The room is now almost finished and thankfully looks nothing like this photo!

Coney Island

Our poor little dog has been through hell recently. He got hurt in France crashing through some dry bushes around the first of July and had a pretty bad wound at the base of his tail, or more correctly put, at the base of his stub. He licked it before we got home to our vet and by then it had abcessed. Oral antibiotics did not touch this wound, and it has been off and on pouring pus for 3 months now. He's spent way more than his fair share of time in a cone, and in the last 2 weeks the vet has been coming every day (thank goodness she lives 1 minute from us) and irrigating the wound with powerful antibiotics. It was looking better every day, but yesterday the irrigation seemed to really hurt at the opening of the wound, and this morning even though the wound was closed it was red and swollen and just angry looking and seemed to hurt worse than ever. Our vet Yvi took a look at it and was not happy. She said it looked like a hematoma which came out of nowhere. So she opened it up, flushed and squeezed and there was no pus but it just all looked awful. Yvi and I were both just pretty depressed. After she was finished and Uben had a treat (never has there been a dog so cooperative with this daily irrigation...he's just been amazing) I asked him to come back and sit in my lap so I could see the wound. His butt was more toward Yvi and she squeezed and felt the wound once more, and then suddenly her expression changed and she said in an excited way, "It's coming, It's coming!!!" and out came the source of all the problems of the last 3 months, a nasty old thorn. I almost started to cry just in relief. Now we think the wound has some hope of actually healing, and little Uben soon will not have to put up with daily assaults on his butt. He seems to know Yvi is trying to help him, and as soon as it is over every day he is all over her licking her and jumping on her. His daily message to Yvi is "Don't hurt me, owww that hurts, ok I still love you." It was looking like little Ubes was headed for the operating room, but thankfully we think maybe just maybe it won't be necessary. He's back in a cone for a few more days until the wound closes again, and so his name this week is Coney Island. Note the duct tape on the cone....this is from wear and tear in the past couple of months, and no cone ever slowed my dog down in a corn field! He came out one night with the cone totally torn apart, thus the duct tape. Yvi, thank you for all you did to try to fix this wound and for never giving up. Please don't send us a bill ha ha ha.

Willie aka Willinger aka William

Willie is here for the second time, and I would have to say that this is one nice little Jack Russell. He for sure remembered everyone at our house and adapted to the routine here instantly. He likes Uben and Jazzy, is very well behaved on walks (especially for a dog so young), plays well with others and is just an all around pleasant little fellow. I also think he is exceptionally photogenic!

Jazzy

Jazzy is the dog of our neighbors, and she is here for the first time entertaining us with good old Labrador antics. She carries everything she can find around the house (to remind us she's a retriever), and finding our shoes this past week or so has been a challenge. She also drags around her bed, her rug, and today an empty plastic bottle. She barks at the door when outside on behalf of all the dogs here when they want to come in. She stole an apple strudel from the kitchen table of my mother-in-law over the weekend and we just hung our heads because we know better than to let food sit within reach of a labrador. Bernd's grandchildren were here over the weekend and she played with these two little boys like she's an old pro with children. She cracked them up when she jumped repeatedly into our pond. She is the queen of all the hedgehog hunters around here. She does not hurt them thankfully, but wants to sit outside and stare at them after dark. She can be stubborn as a mule and sometimes looks at me with a thought bubble that says, "You are not my mom and I don't have to listen to you. Period." She's quirky in her own interesting way and she's been a lot of fun to have around.

Jessie

Here are some nicer pictures of Jessie. We miss you girlie!