The beautiful sunset on the beach last night seemed to be a perfect picture for the sunset on 2010.
As always, at the dawn of the new year, humans tend to make resolutions for what will make them a better person. Within our Herd, there is the perfect symbol for the resolution that our hu-dad embraces.
Be true to yourself and don't worry about what others think.
Have a Happy and Safe New Year’s! May 2011 bring you good fortune, great health, and much happiness!
We have written about this fantastic educational center once before, but were able to stop at it yesterday as we were moving up the South Carolina coast. Sewee Environmental Education Center is a great museum just north of Charleston that also houses a few Red Wolves. The Red Wolf was originally found throughout the Eastern and Central U.S., but was hunted to near extinction. A breeding and reintroduction program has been conducted into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. While we normally do not like to see captive wild animals, in this case, these wolves are a part of the breeding program and are important to the genetic diversity of the reintroduced wolves.
She is watching us very warily.
Posing on the rocks.
Laughing when he heard we left our snow for the beach.
Giving us the serious wolf look.
P.S. – As you can imagine, the trail to the red wolves is a human only trail, so The Herd rested comfortably in the S-RV while the humans took the pictures.
Tuesday, we drove down to Savannah, GA, and hung out for a while. We most enjoyed hanging out at Emmet Park, which is right on Bay Street in the historic district. After running through the park for a while, we just hung out in the middle of the park and people (and dog) watched – one of our favorite pastimes.
Emmet Park is several blocks long and is terrific green space.
Natasha is just looking at all of the acorns laying on the ground.
Who? Me? Acorns? Never. (And, yes, we are still wearing our seatbelts).
Just casually watching people and dogs stroll by.
Qannik was supposed to be looking at the camera, but clearly more interesting things were over there.
Kodiak said people watching is ok, but when do we get to run again?
Watching our Jeep carefully (you can just see the tire cover to the right of Kiska). People keep walking near it.
Yesterday, we visited Charles Towne Landing State Park in Charleston, SC.
Our guides were our Charleston pals Kody
and Nia (oh - and their humans David and Linda).
When you visit historic sites, you should always examine everything carefully and learn how life was different.
Kiska - Hey, this dog smells really funny.
Rusty - Never mess with the spanish moss in these trees.
Kiska - Hey, I found a souvenir to bring home!
So many trees, so little time.
Natasha - Look, Q-Tip, I may have been sick, but you bump into me one more time . . .
We may not be sea dogs, but we are thinking this ship is missing some important parts.
Kiska - Hey, Hu-dad, how about this one? Can I have this one?
Hmmmmm - this one could be even more fun.
Oh my - where is the air conditioning?
All in all, we had a great time. Thank you to our Charleston hosts!
Ok, pups, this is going to sound really weird. We are getting around 2 feet (~60 cm) of fresh snow at the house. Too bad we are not there to enjoy it. Yep, our humans decided not to stick around and enjoy all of that snow.
Our humans have once again loaded us into the RV to “escape” to the beach for the post-Christmas week. Something about the only week they can get off work and escape the cold and snow. We like the beach enough, but who would want to escape 2 feet of fresh snow? We just do not understand.
So we made our humans walk us around Charleston, SC this morning (Natasha still being restricted to short walks because of the “acorn incident“). But what fun would that be without some snow?
Ok, you might need to click on the picture to see the falling snow.
But if you look closely, it was falling at a steady rate.
Kiska, while happy that she did not need to be sprayed with Pam to prevent ice balls, still thinks this does not qualify as snow.
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow? Are you kidding us? We will just go straight to the mighty acorn.
First, the good news. The hu-dad was able to pick Queen Natasha up at the hospital Christmas morning and she soon rejoined The Herd. She is sporting a stylish reverse poodle hair cut on her leg from the IVs that she took. She certainly napped more than normal all day. And she is on a special prescription diet with multiple small deals a day (much to the horror of the rest of The Herd). But she is home. And as we said on our Facebook Fan Page yesterday – Best Christmas Present Ever.
In front of the hospital right after being discharged.
The doctors ruled out any sort of toxin and artificial blockage, and decided that the irritation in the stomach and intestine membrane came from something she ate. Specifically, something that irritated the membranes as it moved through her system.
Now all good humans to dogs are quite the poop detective. But veterinarians are expert poop detectives and, in Natasha’s case, they collected and analyzed what was produced. The likely suspect – a whole acorn. Yep, Natasha is quite the fan of the acorns that are readily available in our yard and on walks. For the most part, they cause no harm and are quite the tasty treat. BUT, an acorn swallowed whole can cause irritation and that started the chain reaction of events.
Whatever the cause, we are thrilled to have Natasha back in our midst. She will be on a restricted diet and exercise for several days, but we had a really good sign Christmas Evening that the Queen was back. We were out for a short walk and Qannik was walking too close. The Queen growled at him. Sheeeeeeeee’s back!
P.S. – Thanks to everyone for your well wishes. We are way behind on reading your blogs, but promise to catch up soon!
We had a jovial, happy post planned for today, but the last 48 hours or so have been quite challenging at Chez Herd. The events, however, have created a great deal of clarity for us on what really matters at Christmas.
It all started in the early morning hours of Thursday when Queen Natasha woke everyone up with that unmistakable “horka” sound meaning a dog is just about to vomit. We didn’t worry too much about that – or the second time – or the skipped breakfast – because she seemed alert enough. Throughout the day on Thursday, she played some, sang some, and generally seemed ok. But late on Thursday, she became very sick and lethargic.
Christmas Eve was spent with her on IV fluids, antibiotics, and taking barium and a series of x-rays looking for blockages. After an exhaustive day at our vet’s, she was transferred to our region’s 24 hour hospital – an hour away from the house. As of this writing, she is about to have her last x-ray. Based on the other x-rays, they anticipate closing out the barium test with the decision that their is no blockage. Kidneys, liver and pancreas have all passed their appropriate tests. No artificial toxins were found in her system and blood tests are reasonably normal. The consensus is simply that she caught and ate something – unknown something – that severely disagreed with her system.
If all goes well, she will rejoin The Herd at some point on Christmas Day, though on a very restricted diet (chicken and rice) and antibiotics.
And thus our title for today’s post. All of the material items for Christmas are appreciated and we are thankful for those gifts. But, frankly, all we want for Christmas is a happy, healthy, and complete family. Everything else is just extra.
Come home for Christmas, Natasha
With Christmas so close, every dog is trying so hard to be good. Well, almost every dog. Let’s just say a certain red-headed dog over at the Annex was tempted by a loaf of bread on a kitchen counter. An entire loaf. That was carried into the dining room for consumption. When the hu-grandmom spotted the debris (or what little was left), she dropped the mail to clean up the bread (sorry, there are no pictures of the bread carnage).
So when your mostly eaten loaf of bread is taken away from you, how do you entertain yourself? Remember that dropped mail?
Why - you open the mail.
To the relative that carefully crafted the letter, we did try to piece it back together and understand most of it. Sigh.
That being good thing doesn't start until Christmas Eve, right?
What is the joke, Rusty?
Who? Me? Would I clown around?
We have asked for your help once before for our good pal Cool Paws Luke ( aka Golden Boy Luke), but we understand that Luke and family really need everyone’s power of the paw right now. Feel free to follow this link to his blog and leave a comment (the post is a little old, but we all know the messages get through anyway).
Cancer challenges too many of our canine pals. While thinking positive thoughts for dear Luke, how about going over to the White Dog’s Blog and leaving a comment. For every comment left through midnight tonight, White Dog’s humans will donate 50 cents to Canine Cancer Research. For Luke, will you take the time to go comment?