My Favourite Things

I love everything about Zack but if I had to narrow it down to three things they would be:

1. His Ears



The hair on his ears is so soft compared to the rest of his body and when he trots along they bounce and tap the side of his head in unison with his stride - it is so cute.

2. His Bum Whorls



He has had these curly Qs under his tail since he was a pup and still has them.

3. His Little Black Feet



All of Zack's pads are so black and are still as soft as a baby's bottom. Blimy, I could just squish him.

Supper?

Zack gets fed off a plate everyday so I was wondering if he was confused with the frisbee and thought "where's my supper"!!!!!

Pet Expo

This past Saturday I had a booth for my Pet Portraits at the first annual Lethbridge Pet Expo. It was a great turnout and a good day. I was going to take Zack with me to sit at the booth but at the last minute I changed my mind. Thank god I did as right across the aisle in front of my booth is where they kept about 20 rabbits. Big ones, little ones, fluffy ones, patched ones, you name it they were there.

Zack would have gone crazy, I could see the headlines now "FIRST ANNUAL LETHBRIDGE PET EXPO AND THE BORDER TERRIER RAMPAGE - BUNNY CARNAGE EVERYWHERE!!!!! I don't know if he would have killed any of them but it definitely would have been chaos.

I chose wisely that day and left Zack at home LOL!!

New Plate

Our old licence place was over 20 years old and was rusted out and illegible so as our registration came up for renewal we decided to get a new licence place. A personal one this time. As we pretty much drive Zack around everywhere he now has his own taxi service. BT Taxi. Which stands for Border Terrier Taxi.

Crikey what we do for our dogs eh!!!

The Gift That Was

Zack was so excited to get his new basketball


He was barking his head off as he couldn't figure out the cardboard box


He soon shredded the cardboard tho and while I was taking the cardboard to the trash, this happened!!!

It lasted all of 3 minutes!!!! I think that is a new record.

Birthday Boy

I can't believe Zacky is 3 today. It just seems like yesterday that I brought this little black puppy home with his wispy punky hairdo on top of his head.

Today he has matured and is the best dog if I do say so myself and I love him to bits.

I couldn't help but get him a new collar for his birthday as well as a couple of other little things.

Happy Birthday Zack!!!!

Latest Portrait

This is my friend's cat "Bessie" who is really sweet and really fat. She might even outweigh "Fat Cat" and that's saying something!!!!

Sports

May be alot of dogs just like alot of humans have the same idea when it comes to sports and exercise they would rather watch it on TV than do it themselves LOL!!!!

Match of the Day

Zack's ready for the "kick off"!!!!

Lazy Sunday

It was a lazy Sunday morning in the White household, it was the big Coronation Street Tram Crash episodes so we have been glued to the tele for the whole morning - blimy well worth it...best we've seen in ages. Zacky just had a really good lay in .....snuggled up and snoozed all the way through.



Bless him. Time for a good long walk this afternoon I reckon.

Decision Made

These last few days I have been thinking about what to do about Zack and his agility classes. Our last class was last week and I decided not to sign up for new ones because after a lot of thought I just realized that both Zack and I were just not enjoying it. Zack had some great moments but only for short periods and then he would rather ignore me, sniff the ground or hunt for grasshoppers. I have struggled to motivate him these last couple of years in my agility classes and feel I have not really progressed no matter how much I practice with the motivation at home. New toys are great initially but the excitement would soon wear off. I wish I could use wieners, rollover, all those tasty treats as Zack would definitely keep his attention then but I can't because Zack's belly has been bad on and off and I don't dare try anything new - it's not worth it. His health is more important. Anyways, I feel like I failed and I have said I didn't want to quit to my instructors but I think it is best for now. My instructors have been great throughout the learning process and I think I developed a stronger bond with Zack along the way which is great.

On a different note, Zack and I have an evaluation for him to become a Certified Pet Therapy Dog on October 15th. May be that is his calling. I know he loves people and visiting so it should be a great thing to follow up with. I am excited about this prospect.

For now, Zacky will enjoy long walks, playing with his buddies and chillaxin on the couch with fat cat.

More to Share

Here are some more photos of Zack.



Of course we couldn't get through a walk without Zacky doing the stop, drop and roll, and then wiggle in shit....LOL



A close up



Fetch and retrieve



All I can think of looking at this photo is amazing.



This one too, how awesome to capture the moment when this bug flew by.



Thanks again Wendy.

POP!!!

He finally did it!!!

As Promised

Finally, I have some pictures I wanted to share that Wendy at Paws-on-the-Run Photography took of Zack. What can I say she is brilliant. I wanted "action" photos of Zack as mine are always blurry and she sure delivered and captured him just right. See for yourself.








I have a great keepsake now. I have a CD of all the pictures, I got all the pictures developed and have put them in an album and I also uploaded them on the computer. Can you tell I was impressed!!! LOL. If anyone in the Lethbridge area was thinking of getting photos of their pets Wendy at Paws-on-the-Run Photography can't be beat.

Change of Heart

After further thought, I had a change of heart and decided I would become the foster home for the little border terrier mix that was coming to Lethbridge dog rescue this weekend. I figured we would work through it and provide a foster home for him and give him lots of love and even a forever home if Zack and him got along. I was getting things organized for him and then I found out it was not meant to be BECAUSE he got adopted by the oscar winning movie star actress Hiliary Swank!!!!! She must have seen him up for adoption on the news. How awesome is that. He can now live a life of luxury instead of a stray on the streets. I am so happy for him :)

New Computer and Stuff

We finally bought our new IMAC computer last night so may not be blogging for a few days while we get everything set up and transferred over. I cannot wait. Hopefully it will be easy to figure out how to use especially for organizing my photos etc. I will input the wonderful photos we had taken of Zack with Wendy at Paws-on-the-Run Photography and will be posting some for suRe in the next few days.

On a different topic I have been torn these last few days about a little border terrier that has come into rescue in Lethbridge. It has made me feel awful that I am not taking him in as I do call myself an animal lover and would do anything for them. However I know if I fostered the little dog I would end up keeping him. My 85 yr old father who lives with us makes the decision of a second dog harder no matter how much I want one. We have looked after Dylan and Deuce before but those two dogs were very laid back and my dad was never left alone with them so to have two dogs running round when both Pete and I are away may be just too much. It is very upsetting and just the wrong time in our lives. I sure hope the little dog finds a home quickly as it is killing me thinking about him.

There are so many dogs in rescue it is sickening and I do not know how people can just dispose of them or abuse them so easily. I know if I won the lottery and did not have to make a living I would dedicate my life to help out these forgotten souls who need a voice and someone to "give a dam" about them.

Crikey, I'm a slacker!!!

Crikey, it's been over a week since I blogged that must be a new record for me. Not much has been happening, although Zack, Pete and I went to Montana for a few days to stay with my sister. There were new additions to her garden - squirrels!!!! Oh boy, Zack was fascinated - I swear they would sit up in the tree about 10 ft and chatter to him just teasing him something awful, then it would just scarper sending Zack in a frenzy. I can see why there is "war" between dogs and squirrels. I had to keep Zack leashed as my sister has no fence and I know he would be "up the tree" or "down the street" chasing after those bushy tailed little buggers (albeit they are so cute and I love them). On a sad note, one died in the horse trough Monday morning - poor thing.



We took Zack for a lovely walk along the Swan River and then later that day friends of my sisters brought their dogs over, two Goldens and an Australian Cattle Dog. They all played together for ages. Poor Zack had to sleep for two days to get any energy back!! Talk about recuperation from vacation - he needed it!!! LOL

Look Out!!!

Fat Cat took over Zack's kennel and decided it was "her domain". The look on her face says it all.

Belly Trouble

This last week or so Zack has been having his bouts of belly pain on and off again. Normally it is just a one off, I give him his meds and he is fine later that same day and then is back to normal. However, this last week he has had a few setbacks.

It is always the same thing that happens, around 4 - 5 a.m. I am awakened by loud squelching noises in his belly and then he starts to squirm because he is in pain. Never any diarrhea. On Tuesday morning he had a really bad bout and was vomiting too. I gave him his meds and pepcid but he threw them back up. I took the morning off work on Tuesday because I was worried about leaving him. The vet then prescribed him to stay on his anti-inflammatories for 7 days rather than one treatment which he has been on now for 2 days. Yesterday Zack seemed to be back to his old self, bright, happy, eating, tearing round the garden, playing with other dogs, etc. perfectly normal and I thought great the anti-inflammatories are working. But then at 5 a.m. this morning the same thing happened, although no vomiting this time.

Another trip to the vets to have him checked over and this time have a complete bloodwork panel done. Luckily everything came back normal including his white blood cell count. When he was sick as a puppy his white blood cell count was off the charts so I was so relieved to hear his WBC was normal.

Then Dr. Nagy advised that she thinks he could have been born with a stricture, a defect in his bowel where the small intestine meets the large intestine, and as his normal poop moves through his bowel overnight it sometimes causes irritation and flares up and then the squelchy belly noises are his intestines trying to move the poop through the stricture causing pain. It make sense that that is what could be happening.

Dr. Nagy said it is something he may just have to live with these bouts but if it gets alot worse down the road there were two options that she said could be done to find out and that is an exploratory surgery where they open him up and check his stomach and intestines and remove anything that is bad looking or have an endoscopy done up in Calgary to check inside his bowels. She didn't recommend either of these procedures at this time as she felt he isn't bad enough yet and it is treatable and I definitely don't want to have any invasive procedure done to Zack unless I have to. Hopefully it won't come to this but inevitably we will do what we have to to get to the bottom of it.

Zack is to stay on his anti-inflammatories and also if he gets a real painful bout again we were sent home with trammadol to give him to ease his discomfort.

Glad to say I got home tonight and Zack ate his dinner and is much brighter. Fingers crossed this phase is over.

FREE TO GOOD HOME

FREE TO GOOD HOME: 2 year old child. Genuine reason, I've just got a new puppy so no longer have the time for the child. Also worried the child may bite the puppy. Child is currently kept in a crate 24/7. Needs a home by tomorrow or it'll be put to sleep. Thanks. YOU WOULDN'T DO THIS TO A CHILD SO WHY DO YOU SEE IT AS ACCEPTABLE TO DO IT TO A DOG OR CAT? If you can't dedicate at least 10 years to a dog or cat DON'T GET ONE!!!

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