Category: Photos

Mia

Image

Mia, an eleven year old Dalmatian, came to stay with us on a trial basis yesterday. She is tiny for a Dalmatian, much smaller than our Collie Lody.

Mia has a sweet, friendly personality, but unfortunately had become very apprehensive around the toddler in her family. They live in an 800 square foot house, and Mia was living in a sort of internal exile to keep her away from being jumped on by the toddler. She had lived with her family since she was six weeks old. They were quite upset about the situation, especially since their vet assured them that it was better to put her down rather than try to find her a new home since older dogs always become so depressed when they are rehomed! I told the owners we had adopted several older dogs, and they seem to feel at home within a few weeks.

Mia was quite apprehensive last night, and clung to the security of the sitting room, which probably had the smells of her family since we had sat and talked there. However, when she heard me scooping up dog food, she indicated that a little thing like being abandoned was not going to keep her from eating. Although we don’t allow dogs on the furniture, I decided to give up on that battle and put the dog comforter on the sofa for now, so her first experience of us isn’t one of being corrected constantly.

This morning she has been wandering around the house and coming up to me to be petted when she sees me. Lody is being very good: she doesn’t seem to mind me petting Mia as long as I pet her at the same time.

A Very Expensive Tooth

Hap\'s Tooth
Yesterday morning, when I went out to feed the horses, I noticed that Hap had some sort of drainage coming out of his jaw. My friend brought her clippers over and we found an impressive abscess underneath all the hair. I thought he had somehow managed to catch strangles, a highly infectious disease which is usually self-limiting in healthy horses. His vet came out, examined him, didn’t think it was strangles, and really, really wanted to take x-rays, to rule out nasty causes of the abscess like an infection in the bone, or a chip off the jaw.

I hauled Hap to the clinic this morning. My friend came along to provide moral support if it turned out to be something particularly nasty, and practical assistance if Hap decided to be a butthead. Fortunately, Hap’s evil twin did not show up, and the x-rays indicated the jaw bone was healthy. However, his teeth badly needed floating, and there was a possible fracture of one tooth. This was that tooth, which popped out as the vet started to float that side. She is quite confident that this fractured tooth was causing the abscess, and is glad that she got it out before it caused even more problems. As it is, I have to figure out how to get SMZ down him for a month. SMZ is a sulfa drug much used as a horse antibiotic. Horses don’t like the taste, so one spends a lot of mental energy trying to come up with novel ways to disguise it.

I was so euphoric as I drove back that I drove onto an icy patch on a hill before I realized it and got stuck. Even four wheel drive didn’t seem to be help. While I was assessing the situation, and trying to figure out a solution that did not involve Jack, a man in a truck stopped to help me. He had two shovels, and it took about five minutes to shovel enough sand over the ice that the truck was able to pull out the trailer using the lowest gear of the 4WD. Hap stood quietly in the trailer the whole time.

I bet I can’t get anything close to what this tooth cost from the Tooth Fairy.