The Big Boy Turns 8!

Today is Gio's 8th birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my big man!

As a treat, Gio got a big bison RMB for dinner. He had to work for it though, no breaks on birthdays for this boy, especially when "mom" is a blogger! So the work in this case involved candles, balloons, a (homemade) party hat, and a good "leave it" command.


Of course, Gio takes "leave it" very seriously.

Like this.

So in order to get him to appear as if he is enjoying this photo shoot experience, I need to use words that will make him prick up his ears. Words like "cookie", "hungry", and "what's that?". These words, when coupled with a lovely hunk of raw bison-y goodness, result in pictures like this.


So the "ear prick" words were punctuated frequently with "leave it" words. "Leave it. Cookie? Leave it leave it! What's that? Where is it? Leave it! Are you hungry? Leave it leave it leave it."

Oh, he's such a good boy.

By the time I finally got a picture that I liked for our 52 Weeks project, poor Gio was literally quivering from the effort. I removed the flaming candle from the vicinity, and Gio was happy to indulge in his reward without worrying about the hat and balloons.

Busy. Can't talk. Eating.

Happy birthday my big boy! Let's say we plan for many many more of these, eh?

Christmas With The Shelties

First things, first.

Happy Holidays to all! Regardless of whether or not you celebrate this time of year, we want to take this time to wish you and your family (furred or otherwise) health, happiness, and prosperity now and throughout 2010!


This afternoon I took the dogs to some of the nursing homes that they visit regularly as therapy dogs. Many of the people there don't have family in town or aren't able to get out to celebrate the season, so it is nice to take the boys around and spread some holiday cheer. Gio and Romeo were both decked out in their holiday outfits, complete with jingle bells, faux fur and sparkles. Out visiting buddy, Lily, was also stunning in her festive bells. And with her quick trot, you could hear us coming clear down the hallway!

After visiting our favorite ladies, I took the boys over to my parent's place for Christmas supper. After I whooped some butt at cribbage, the boys supervised the carving of the turkey.


They got their own special supper afterward. Consisting of the raw turkey neck and innards, as well as some sides of mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, gravy and cranberry sauce. Christmas and Thanksgiving are the two days were we deviate from the regular Raw diet and the boys get to indulge in some tasty treats.

Gio, always the carnivore, goes straight for the turkey neck. Romeo, on the other hand, prefers the special sides and chowed down on the gravy and cranberries first.


Of course, both boys left their veggies for last.


I hope you are all able to spend some time with friends and family this holiday season. Wishing you all the important things in life ... wet noses, warm paws, and an unending supply of toys and treats!

Big Boy Coat!

This afternoon I spent up to my elbows in the tedious job of petting puppies. I evaluated a bunch of prospective therapy dog teams ... and am proud to offer congratulations to 8 new St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog teams in Saskatoon and area! Wonderful job, everyone! Fantastic dogs that, I am sure, will be bringing smiles to many faces very soon.

This evening, I was again up to my elbows in puppy fluff ... this time bathing my own dogs. Yes, it is that time of year again. I've heard rumor that some cities in the South of the province have been getting snow the past day or two, so it is likely headed up this way soon. Can't complain, really. We are normally snowed in by the end of October. But, regardless of when it comes, the "before the snow flies" bath must happen. I don't like bathing the dogs when there is snow on the ground as it is usually SO cold and the boys take SO long to dry, outdoor potty breaks pose a serious risk for pup-cicles.

Neither dog is amused by baths. Gio toughs it out like a man. Where Romeo follows the "passive resistance" route ... hanging his head down so that the water runs over his face as if to say "You try to bath me? FINE, I'll just DROWN myself then!" Yeah, he's full of drama like that.

What I noticed during the bathtime, though, really shocked me. Romeo definitely has his big-boy coat now! I've noticed he's been filling out these past couple of months. As you have probably seen in recent pictures, that fur really gets flying. But I guess I never really noticed how much hair he has until it is all slicked down by water and I'm trying to part it to get the suds out from his undercoat. It's NUTS! He definitely got his dam's coat, it's HUGE! I attack it with the FURminator, Coat King, and traditional slicker ... and can't even make a dent. None of my other Shelties, past or present, have had this much coat.

In other news, thanks to everyone that offered words of sympathy for my ankle. It is getting better. I can walk *almost* normally on it. The worst part is the random and sporadic muscle twitches. They come up out of no where and hit like a jolt of lightening! HOLY FRICK! But the bruise is really sexy, currently lovely shades of maroon and pea-soup green. Yeah, I know, you're jealous. And who doesn't love the artificial club foot look due to copious amounts of tensor wrap?

And, because I greatly dislike a blog post without pictures, here are some pictures from a few days ago of the dogs eating FREE trout.

"Mmmm Trout-y goodness"

Gio does not like trout.

"I only eat this because I like to uphold the image that I am starving to death."

"I DO! I like trout! I'll have his portion, too!"

Have I mentioned that Romeo is a weirdo?

Tub o' Trout

I love my job! For many reasons, actually, but the focus of today's adoration revolves around the surprise gifts of meat.

See, I work at an Agricultural college. As part of the college, there is a research farm including beef and dairy cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, and an aquaculture center. Occasionally, animals from any one of these areas need to be cleared out. Sometimes they can be sold commercially, but often they are deemed "research animals", even though the research that is done is all nutritional (so no funky disease or chemical research), and they cannot be sold commercially. The college then sends out an email to the employees and grad students in the Animal Science department offering to sell the meat for SUPER CHEAP or, in some cases, give it away for FREE!

Today there was an e-mail for FREE TROUT! Intestines removed, but everything else intact ... just the way the dogs like 'em.

So I stopped by after work and picked up about 40lbs of trout.

The car rental place is going to LOVE me! First, 25lb of raw bison in the trunk. Now 40lb of whole trout. The contract I signed said not to smoke in the car ... but it said nothing about not hauling around tonnes of raw meat in the trunk.

The boys love these days, too. Especially when the meat is frozen into large lumps and must be thawed in the bathtub before repackaging.

"What do you mean? We have to wait until they are thawed?"

"But they are so close. Just riiiight there."

"If I just stretch a little ..."

"... Stretch a little bit more ..."

"JACKPOT!"

Bison RMBs

The boys each enjoyed a bison RMB for supper last night, courtesy of our new meat buddy, Jen!



They are GREAT. Huge gobs of meat still on the bone. Just perfect! Thanks Jen (and Spike and Sophie for sharing your haul. Hope you enjoyed the sheep.).

The boys dug in with gusto! Love that bison! But, while normal RMB chewing is fun and all ...



... it just lacks a certain ... style ... flare ... synchronicity?

Gio and Romeo now present, for the first time on Life is Better with Sheltie Hair ...

SYNCHRONIZED RMB-ING!

Ready ... and ...

To your right, two, three, four


Center, two, three, four


To your left, two, three, four

Sure, their routine could use a little work. But for a first time, not too bad, right?!

While they enjoyed their bison, I made my own little treat. Sour cream cookies! YUM!

Gio's New Pancreatitis Menu

Gio has gas. Not just normal toots, but "peel-the-paint-from-the-wall-run-for-your-life-clear-the-room-hangs-like-a-thick-fog-over-the-ground ass fumes of death"! Serious, not exaggerating even a teensy bit! It's to the point that Romeo won't even sleep on the bed with him anymore. If this keeps up Gio will be spending the nights in his crate, which he hasn't done at home since he was a wee pup.

He had another vet check today, it was time to get his phenobarbital levels tested to see how things are progressing there. I told the vet about the flatulence and she thought it was just him adjusting to the new food (ie. canned yuck). I guess that makes sense. He was on antibiotics for a week, so that probably killed off a good handful of his normal gut flora. Then he was abruptly switched from a home-made raw diet to a canned rice-y mush diet. So, if that is the case, why not switch him now while he is adjusting and just be done with it. His bloodwork has all indicated that he is making a good recovery, so I'm goint to start switching him to a better diet slowly.

I've done a good bit of research into home-made pancreatic diets, and there are three main diets that I have come across.

• Dr. Dodds' Liver Cleansing Diet (also good for pancreatitis)
• Dr. Billinghurst Pancreatic Diet
• Monica Segal's pancreatic diet (since this one, to my knowledge, is not posted online, I will not go into detail about it, rather refer interested people to her book "Monica Segal's Optimal Nutrition")

The basic idea behind all the diets is high veggie content and lean meat in small quantities (~25%). Dr. Dodds and Monica Segal strongly recommend a cooked diet in situations of pancreatitis. Dr. Billinghurst recommends raw. Since the proportions of veggie to meat are roughly the same in all three diets, I've adapted them a bit to form a diet that I can manage and maintain.

I've just started making my first batch, here is what I've done:

• Pushed 4.5lb of raw cabbage, zucchini, white potato, sweet potato, carrot, spinach, apple, and broccoli through a juicer, collecting all the juice and pulp in a large bowl. Added 3 crushed digestive enzyme tablets. It's currently sitting in the fridge.
  
• Thawing on the counter are 2lb of cod filets and about 1/4lb raw beef liver. I will poach the cod and braise the liver, chop and mix into the veggie slop.
  
• Portion and freeze.
  
• I've purchased a infant's liquid multivitamin which I will give once daily as per Dr. Dodds' Liver Cleansing Diet. Also a probiotic capsule twice a day to help him adjust after the antibiotics.
  

I have no idea how much Gio will have to eat. I'm guessing something like 2 cups per day, so this will likely last me a week or so. I'll have to measure it all out later to know for sure. I've got about 7 cans of the yuck left over, so I will be giving roughly half and half canned and home-made until the cans are all gone. Then hopefully we can just continue on with the home-made, gradually increasing the amount of meat in proportion to veggie over the next couple of months. I'm planning on taking this very slowly, probably sticking with at least a portion of the diet as veggie in the end though I would like to get the meat up to at least half of the diet over time, and eventually switch to raw again. But that may be a year or so from now before we switch. Told ya I was planning on going slowly! As severe as Gio's pancreatitis was, I don't want to take the risk of going too quickly in getting him back onto a carnivore's diet!

Food Time

Gio would like to tell everyone that he is STARVING!

"Attention citizens of Earth. I regret to inform you that my stomach is very empty. I fear that I may expire due to starvation at any moment."

"You guys hungry?"

"When will you learn to STOP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS?!"

Gio remains eager that he will get real food one of these days.

Exhibit A:
"Real food" that Romeo gets to eat.
Beef liver and boneless sheep.

Exhibit B:
Yuck.
Point of note, it looks very similar when it comes out the other end.
Did I mention, yuck?

Exhibit C:
Gio's medicine cabinet.
The fact that he HAS a medicine cabinet means he is not "well" yet,
so more "yuck food" for him for a while.
Note the bright orange sticker on bottle #3? That sticker warns about drowsiness, or more aptly termed "Drugged up Sheltie".

But Nurse Romeo knows how to deal with patients that are "Drugged up Shelties".
They just need a good cuddle.

Catch-Up

Hey all. Sorry for the lack of blog-action lately. I'm finding that I'm spending much less time on the computer lately. Think it has to do with the change of living conditions. Before, I was all cramped into one room ... bed, computer, TV. So I would just sit in front of the computer and swivel as I saw fit. Now with everything in different rooms, I'm really not in the computer room as often. Guess that is likely a good thing, right?

Anyways, the boys have been keeping busy. Therapy dog visits and rally-o practice. We have a little walk routine now, and if I leave at just the right time we end up meeting our new "park buddies" on their respective walks. Joey, the Labbie-type mix, and a little Shih Tzu pup whose name I have forgotten, I think it was something like Izzy.

More sheep carnage has been going on. The boys shared a sheep shoulder the other day.

Little Mr. Dramatic had to play up the whole "carnivore" image for the camera.

Gio also felt that he could block Romeo from getting any sheep if he casually draped his front paws over the whole hunk. ... Didn't work.

I also caught the boys sharing a moment of brotherly love ...

"No ... I am NOT cuddling with my little brother. I'm wrestling with him ... yeah ... big mean fighting dog, that's me. ... GRRR!"

They are enjoying the fruits of MY labor!

Last night I finally got around to offering the boys some of the sheep that we chopped up on Monday.

Thank the Raw-Gods, they LOVED it!

Pure enjoyment ...





And THIS is how dogs brush their teeth. Tell me that chemical laden, artificial chicken flavored doggy toothpaste on a rubber knubbly thimble is better than THIS!!

Sheep Carnage

WARNING!

What follows includes pictures of graphic carcass dismembering. No animals were hurt maliciously, just your run of the mill culling and subsequent dismantling into dog-meal-sized pieces. But if you are squeamish or hold a belief that animals should not be food (even for other carnivorous animals), then stop reading here.



Really ... You have been warned. If you keep reading and then make a mess on your keyboard and have nightmares for 2 weeks, it's not my fault.



Right then.


WE HAVE SHEEP!

The campus farm was culling 6 nutrition trial sheep, and since they were fistulated they couldn't be sent for slaughter. So to prevent them from going to waste, a friend of mine took all 6. It was a case of where if you bring a truck and take them away, they are yours for free. So she jumped at the chance, then started making phone calls trying to get rid of the extra ones that she couldn't store in her freezer. She called me, and I made a couple of calls, and in the end all sheep were spoken for. I claimed one and another couple of friends took three between the two of them. For a mere $40/sheep for the gutting and skinning, my freezer is now full! The catch, I had to dismantle my sheep after it was skinned and gutted.

This was my first "dismantling", so the friends that took the other 3 sheep agreed to show me the ropes. It was a lot more work than I imagined! Who needs sculpt class when you just need to tear at a frozen sheep carcass?! Honestly, I was feeling it this morning!

Now, for the gorey carnage shots ...

The sheep before the saws came out.

A sheep next to it's yummy organ bits.

The dismantling begins!

My artsy ribcage shot.


This is the horrible hack-job I made trying to get the front leg off. Yeah, it probably would have been neater if I had used my teeth to tear it off. Luckily, the boys don't care about how their meat looks.

This is what three dismantled sheep look like. The fourth sheep remains intact ... we were just too tired.

And this is all the meat that Gio and Romeo get to share! Plus a large garbage bag full of organ bits.

When I got home, Romeo was enthralled with all the gooey wonderfulness on my shoes. And he so kindly offered to help me clean them up.