and her name is althea

I've mentioned our dog Althea (Thea as we call her) quite frequently on this blog. So, I thought it might be fun to introduce all of our animals...instead of just always talking about the chickens.



Althea

Like most dog owners, I love my dog, I spoil my dog and I believe that she may be the greatest dog that God has ever put on this planet.

And just like most dogs, Thea has plenty of escapades and misadventures to talk about.

Like the time she got a fish hook caught in her lower lip...

As soon as I saw the little fish hook package sitting on a chair, I thought to myself,  "I should put this up" but for whatever reason I just didn't. So of course, that came back to bite me in the butt. At the time, I didn't think it was that urgent because 1) it was in a chair that Thea never bothers with and 2) it looked like something that would never catch her interest. Big mistake. Everything catches a dog's interest. 

Sean and I were out and guess where that damn fish hook ended up when we returned. Thea's lip. She did see it, did find it too tempting to pass up, tore into it and now it was dangling from her mouth. I was absolutely horrified. She, on the other hand, didn't seem to be bothered by it. She did what she always did when we got home: run to the door with her tail wagging and jumped up to say hello. It was Sean who discovered the thing hanging from her lip.

We did our best to get the thing out, but of course, it was imbedded too deep in that lip. I was freaking out. It was late and no vets were open, so we (I) had to calm down and assess the situation (I was ready to give 911 a call). She didn't seem to be in too much pain so we decided to take her to the vet in the morning. Sean made the suggestion that we capture this moment with a picture of her with a fish hook dangling from her mouth but I was way too panicked to even think that sounded anything close to a good idea. My dog had a fish hook dangling from her mouth for crying out loud!

(I will admit now that I wish we had a picture of her with a fish hook dangling from her mouth. And yes, I do know it could have been much worse, like her swallowing the hook. And yes, I have learned my lesson on keeping things out of her reach).

The next day we made an early trip to the vet's office. Thea just super excited to be going on a car ride (she LOVES riding in the car) even with a fish hook stuck in her lip. The vet confirmed that the hook was in too deep for anyone to pull out on their own and they would have to put her under in order to take it out. So, they knocked her out, took the hook out and woke her right back up. Whole thing took like ten minutes. She came out looking like she had one too many shots of tequila and we were off (after spending a hundred or so dollars).

I did capture a picture of her on the ride home. Poor girl was pretty drowsy for a good part of the  day.



Try as she might, she could not keep her head up.

More recently, we had another injury occur. This time a more common injury for dogs but that didn’t stop me from thinking that we should again just call for an ambulance.

She tore her dewclaw. Her dewclaw?

I had no idea what that was until after this incident and doing a little research to find out what we could do (besides calling 911). Turns out, the dewclaw is that upper claw on the paw that I refer to as her thumb and apparently dogs snag that thing all the time. It is such a common injury that most people just get the whole thing removed. I had no idea.

Well, Thea snagged that thing on god knows what outside and I noticed her licking quite incessantly at her paw. This is always a sign that something is wrong. And sure enough her paw was bleeding. Bleeding a lot. Just drips and drips and drips. So once again, I become a frantic mess and have to rely on Sean to be the voice of reason.

Luckily, she didn’t tear out her thumb (thank god!) but instead just cut the nail pretty deep, which is still a pretty painful injury for a dog. And after doing a little internet research, we discovered that this did not need to be another hundred or so dollar trip to the vet. We cut off the ripped part of her nail, put a little peroxide and cornstarch on it (apparently cornstarch helps to stop the bleeding) and wrapped her paw up.




Injury up close

Good as new but she still hated having her foot bandaged up.

Like a champ! 

And did you know that dogs can have epilepsy?

Well, let me tell you they can and our dog does.

I don’t let Thea outside when we are at work. So, when she is finally let outside after being cooped up, sometimes she just wants to run. And sometimes, no matter how hot it is outside, she just runs and runs at full speed like she'll never be able to run again. After these runs, well, she needs a moment. On this particular day, things were a little different. I just got home, let her outside while I changed, looked out the window and saw her lying on the grass, and I didn’t think anything of it until I saw our Uncle Wesley pull up the driveway and Thea just continued to lie in the grass. Usually, she is on top of any car that pulls into the driveway. She didn’t even come up to say hi like she ALWAYS does whenever someone comes over. Nothing. Not even when we called her. Now I knew something was wrong.

She was panting pretty heavily. But that could be because it was hot and she was running. She wasn’t responding to anything we did. It was like we weren’t even there. I shook her, I ran to get water, I repeated her name over and over. Nothing. And then I noticed something that scared me to death – her tongue was white. I mean white. No color.

That was it.

Surely my dog was dying and I didn’t know how to help her. Sean wasn't home from work yet and it didn’t help to have Wesley say to me, “I don’t think there is much life left in her.” It was probably the absolute worst thing to say but I know that Wesley loved Thea too and was just as worried as I was.

Wesley and I carried Thea to the car and drove to the vet. I was so frantic, but a funny thing happened along the way...Thea picked her head up and looked like nothing at all was out of the ordinary. By the time we got to the vet, which is only about ten minutes away, her tongue was back to its normal color, she jumped out of the car herself and she was the same old Thea. We contemplated even taking her in but I decided that it was best to go in just in case.

And after talking to the vet, I relized that this incident actually happened a year before during one of her stays at my parent's house. Same type of thing, Thea came inside (it was another hot day) and just dropped to the floor, panting heavily and not responding to any of us. We searched for the closest emergency vet - it was the weekend and no vets open - while my mom cooled her off with a damp cloth. And before you know it, Thea was right back up, wagging her tail and ready to get going. Like nothing ever happened. We blamed the heat that day, but no one got a look at her tongue though.

Epilepsy was the diagnosis. And epilepsy in dogs occurs more often than you (at least I) think. In both cases, Thea most likely got overstimulated by running like a maniac, had a seizure (which no one saw) and what we witnessed was her recovering from the seizure. And as scary and serious as all that sounds, it really could be worse. Some dogs have seizures quite frequently and some require medication. In Thea’s case, her seizures happened almost a year apart and seem to be pretty minor. She didn’t need a brain scan and she doesn’t need medication. She just gets way too excited and pushes herself a little too far.

Of course she does. Crazy dog.




Thea being all bashful

And aside from her health scares, here are some more facts this girl:

Thea is pretty spoiled (my fault)...

She is so used to me buying her things that every time one of us comes home with a bag, she immediately tries to get into the bag because she is so used to me having something for her. And when I don’t have anything, I feel so bad that more often than not, I will make sure to buy her a little something when I am out.




New Toy!

Thea is just a little high maintenance...

She also suffers from allergies, which causes her to itch and her skin to turn black. It gets pretty bad during spring and fall when the pollen count is at its highest. So it seems that our dog may actually be allergic to the outside.

She also had a recent bout of really bad diahrrea and let me tell you just how much fun that was not. Rice and canned pumpkin. RICE AND CANNED PUMPKIN, PEOPLE!!!

And Thea is just a little more work (and expensive) than our two cats combined...

Why do you decide to role around the wettest and muddiest spot every time you go out? Why did you decide to chew the coffee table leg? How much is the vet bill?

But I have to say that I couldn’t imagine my life without her. I was always a cat person growing up (still am) but I think that life is really not complete without a dog in it. I mean what is better than having your dog lay on you while you're watching TV or having her so excited to see you when you get home from work.

Now keep in mind, I will probably say the same about a cat or really any animal, so I may not be the best person to give that opinion…goats anyone?

And just the way you talk about your kid, I am going to talk about my dog. I find her stories just as funny (if not more) as any you can tell me about little so and so. I am also just as proud of her as you are of little so and so. And the fact that she is epileptic is just as interesting and frightening as if you said little so and so was epileptic.

And who else can you do this to and it be so adorable???

I moustache you a question

How do you do, sir?