Poor Fat Cat

Yesterday Fat Cat had her dental surgery and had 4 more teeth out. She barely has any left now and only one canine tooth left in the front so she is pretty gummy. Her mouth is all sutured up but she is doing well. Zack was so cute when she got home he was all over her following her wherever she went making sure she was ok and checking out all the weird smells. She came home with pain medication and antibiotics for a week. As you can imagine popping pills in Fat Cat's mouth is no easy task but so far so good. She has no teeth hardly so she can't bite, but with no teeth down the sides means the pill slips out the side of the mouth easily LOL!!! We will do what we have to do to make sure she recovers.

Poor fat cat tho is struggling with getting hold of her food. She has a parrot mouth (badly overshot) and with only one canine seems to be having trouble grabbing hold of her food - she is trying to scoop it so hopefully she will adjust. I will watch her carefully and I am sure knowing her she will be back to scoffing soon enough.

Anyways, I am glad it is done while she is still relatively healthy before her hyperthyroidism starts progressing.

Discovery

Uh Oh, I discovered all the dog collars on etsy.com and couldn't resist getting this one for Zack. I think this is my most favourite one yet.

More Pictures from Lake Louise

I HATE having MY picture taken so that is probably it now for the rest of the year, but that doesn't mean there won't be loads more of Zack in 2012 LOL!!!!

Three Little Words

I love them

Cheeky

He just about peed on my shoe

Lake Louise Weekend

I apologize in advance for this longer than normal blog but I just couldn't narrow it down anymore than I did. Anyways, here goes.....

It was a long ways to drive for a one night stay but oh was it worth it. It was everything I imagined it to be and more. The weather was perfect and the scenery spectacular.

We stopped in Canmore on the way to Lake Louise for lunch and went for a walk along the river

I love Canmore.

When we got to Lake Louise there was so much more snow there it was amazing. The temp was only about -10 so it was wonderful. As soon as we got there we made the most of it, we put Zack's boots on and started walking on the frozen lake and taking in all the scenery and Chateau. Zack became a bit of a celebrity as we got stopped many times by people from Australia and other parts of the world so they could take a photo of Zack. They said they had never seen a dog with boots or even a coat on before as where they come from it doesn't get that cold!!!

The international ice sculpting competition was going on this weekend so we got to enjoy all the amazing sculptures. This was just one of them - a castle on the ice skating rink on the lake.

Chateau Lake Louise is a pet friendly hotel and Zack made the most of it. I have never been to a hotel that treated dogs so well. There were dogs everywhere - it was great. There was a huge dog bed in the room and shiny new dog bowls just for Zack. The extra cost was only $20.00 to have the dog in the room - amazing. Dogs were allowed everywhere except the dining room (which is fine of course). As dogs are not allowed to be left alone in the rooms they even have a dog sitting service where someone will go and sit with your dog in your room if you want to go somewhere without them.

The scenery all around was beautiful.

We did some more walking along the snowy trails. There was so much snow but it was so pristine and lovely.

Sunday morning we went on a sleigh ride. Our horses were a team of percherons.


Zack of course came on the sleigh ride too - see so pet friendly - brilliant. I think all Zack was thinking about was whether the horses would poop or not and hoping he could get a little nobble of one!!! I could see him sniffing the air when the horses got gas - it was hilarious!!!

The sleigh took us to the end of the lake to see the mountain of ice. There are actually people up there ice climbing. The black specks are the ice climbers. They must be crazy!!!


Chateau Lake Louise was an amazing place to stay even if it was just for one night but if I was rich I would definitely go again for longer that's for sure.

I think this is Zack's thank you face to my wonderful husband for such a great Christmas gift.

Fat Cat - Update

Our vet appointment went well on Wednesday, although Fat Cat was a screaming challenge the vets managed to get a blood sample from her and give her her examination without giving her any sedation. Her blood sample was sent away to have a complete senior panel test done and today we got the results. Luckily nothing serious showed up. Her results were good, liver, kidneys, etc. all good, except she is in the early stages of hyperthyroidism. Luckily hyperthyroidism is treatable but there could be side effects to the medication so for now as she is asymptomatic the vet recommends no treatment at this time. I am to watch for certain signs of the disease progressing and then further blood work and possibly treatment would then be required. I am so relieved it is not her organs or diabetes and at least hyperthyroidism is manageable.

The vet did find that poor Fat Cat has two bad teeth (of the total of 6 that she has left) that are bad and need to come out. She is now booked in for Jan 30th to have her last two back teeth removed. Poor thing. That is probably why she has been a "little off" lately.

Pete, Zack and I are off tomorrow for our weekend at Lake Louise. Whoo hoo!!!

Vets Today

Blimy is -35 with a -46 windchill this morning. Unbearable.

Of course I have a vet appointment today so I will have to venture out of the house in this cold and take Zack & Asia in. Zack is just going in to have his titre test done to make sure his immunity levels are good and if they are low, have a booster vaccination.

Fat Cat is going in for a thorough check up. These last few months I have noticed a couple of things with her and she has lost a bit of weight (yay) but I have not changed the amount of food I have been giving her and occasionally she sounds "chesty" or when she meows she sounds like she has lost her voice on and off. She eats fine and seems happy but at approx. 10 years old I want her to have a complete check up just to make sure nothing is going on. Trouble is from being such a cuddly affectionate cat at home she turns into this nightmare feline monster at the vets. Every time I have been in the past she has been put in the "cat bag" at the vets because she is so awful and gets so stressed poor thing. This time they had told me they may have to sedate her in order to do a complete exam and also to take a blood sample so that they can do a senior panel on her to make sure all is well. I am thinking it is nothing serious but want to make sure. Hopefully it is just normal aging and nothing to worry about.

Brrrrrrr

We have been spoiled this winter with unusually mild temperatures but it came back with a vengeance yesterday. Woke up this morning to - 25 degrees with wind chills in the - 30s. Too cold to take Zack for much of a walk as frostbite can set in. Luckily tonight we have our training class so at least we will get out of the house and do fun things and still be inside!!!

Zacky Come!!!!!

Mind the grass - LOL!!! I just love his ears :)

Open Wide

You need a bigger mouth Zacky or a smaller ball!!!

Zack & Me

First Snow

First snow of the year, first snow EVER for my rescue foster dog Taco who flew in from Cuba to Canada 3 weeks ago. She has seen heavy frost but I don't reckon she has ever seen snow before. I think she was wondering "what the heck". She feels the cold as she is not used to our temps yet so I put a coat on her and she was quite comical to watch in the garden.

It didn't take long for her to have fun though!!!

Beyond Basics Class

So I signed Zack and I up for a Beyond Basics class last night. I haven't done any "formal" training with Zack since we decided to take a break from agility in August of last year so I think it will do us both good to get back to it. It is going to consist of a lot of distraction training, shaping, tricks and things like that. I think both Zack and I need to "think" a lot more than we do when I do any sort of training. I am always to blame that's for sure and it will be good to have a refresher as well as learn new things when it comes to teaching Zack. My goal is to try and get Zack's attention away from objects like "poop" and have a better recall when he sees "rabbits" and other dogs when we are on our walk as well as learning new things like tricks!!! I am excited to start the class next Monday it should be fun that's for sure.

Adoption Pending

Happy news, my little foster dog Taco met some people who were interested in adopting her and everything went really well. They are friends of one of the ladies involved in Windy City Rescue so they know that Taco would be going to a great home which makes me feel a whole lot better.

Now it is just a matter of checking further references and by this time next week Taco will hopefully be living in Calgary with her new mum and dad..

She is such a special little dog and I am already getting a bit teary thinking about the day she goes but I was glad to help out fostering her in the meanwhile.

Where Are They?

With all this unusually warm weather we are having it feels like spring and I think Zack was wondering where his favourite ground squirrels are.

They live underground and pop their little heads out of their holes in the spring - adorable really - but they are still hibernating right now.

Poor Zack will just have to wait.

PS. Fingers and paws crossed potential adoptees are going to see our little foster dog Taco this afternoon. Hope she finds her forever home today.

Bloody Wind

No matter which way we turn these days we just get wind blown!! Another big wind storm near Lethbridge yesterday and we are under a wind warning for today. I guess at least we can get out and walk the dogs even if it is windy where you can't when it is -30 degrees and 2 feet of snow!!!

Foster Dog

Meet Taco. I have become a foster home for Windy City Canine Rescue for this little sweetheart. She was rescued from the streets of Cuba and then through the rescue organizations came to Canada. She looks like a giant chihuahua and is about and inch or so taller than Zack.

Zack and Taco have become friends already and she is a great little dog.

She would make a wonderful addition to the right family. If you are interested please contact adoptions@windycityrescue.com

Agilitease

Part of our New Years day walk we were behind the Lethbridge College where they have the outdoor training course for the police students and couldn't resist seeing if Zack remembered anything from his agility training. He definitely remembered the plank

and was itching to start the quadruple combination jump


Whoo hoo Zacky

Zack got a bit confused at the giant tunnel LOL

oops

Yay that's the way

I laughed at this picture as it looked like Zack was waiting on the podium for his gold medal for winning the agilitease LOL!!!