I received an email from Gail @ Empawrium today - Sahara's and my favorite dog couture boutique - and was delighted to see they've featured Sahara - again - with the story of her two ACL surgeries. They sent her their best wishes, but unfortunately I had to email them back and tell them of her third and upcoming surgery for her torn menisci. Looks like I'll be buying her another beautiful collar to aid in her recovery :)
Sahara settled down nicely after a day or two at the dog minders whilst I was away; and even ended up sleeping in bed with Maggie, the lovely lady who took care of her. Phoenix had some time to himself at home, and both were overjoyed to see me return. Sahara is slowly improving, although not exactly in the leaps and bounds I'd hoped for. It was quite depressing watching fly-ball and agility trials at the Pet Expo I ended, as she was coming along so nicely for both before she injured herself. Still, she absolutely LOVES hydrotherapy - to the point where she starts squealing in anticipation the moment she knows we're heading for the pool. Once we arrived, the barking starts, and doesn't stop until she literally launches herself into the pool. Phoenix, on the other hand, doesn't float so well, and as he doesn't appreciate getting wet I have to somewhat manhandle him into said pool. He inevitably sinks, and has to wear a highly attractive, fluorescent yellow doggy life jacket, which he is deeply offended by.
Both are loving the smells on me when I come home from helping with the emergency shifts at the RSPCA due to the bushfire crisis, and they get squeezed awfully hard each and every time I come home - it's heartbreaking seeing all the beautiful pups who will never get the chance to be loved like they should, and so I always make sure my two get extra long cuddles when I get home.
Since Chef & I broke up, Sahara sleeps in my bed with me in the spare room - I'm slowly getting accustomed to the fact she is taking over that as well as my life in general, and wake up on a tiny sliver of bed with paws in my back as she stretches herself out comfortably across the sheets. I've been working her quite gently at dog training, but she's in desperate need of being told who's boss at certain times. She does, however, act extremely angelic when she comes with me to Cam's for the day; she gets thoroughly overexcited to see Cameron but eventually sits quite quietly on her bed once she settles down. It must be pretty hard for Cam; gaining a ready-made family like my own and having to put up with not only my two kids, but Sarah's three as well when we head back to his for a beer after training.
Sarah's new puppy, Ruby, is an American Staffy X Ridgeback, and is absolutely gorgeous. One day she's going to be bigger than all of our lot, and she appears to know it. After their first meeting of snarling and growling and Sahara exerting her dominance; both get on extremely well. We did wonder, as Sahara's the only girl do
g in our pack and loves it that way.
I still have my dreams of one day having a beautiful purebred White German Shepherd of my very own, and can't seem to keep my eyes off of Neigepearl Shepherds and their current litters. Oh, to have my own house and a man that accepts me for wanting a large family!
As it is, I'm on two lists awaiting animals to be temporarily fostered through the bush-fire period, which shall be fairly heartbreaking but rewarding as most will be coming to me injured or orphaned from the fires.
Phoenix: I am Boof, destroyer of worlds. Wanna play?
Sahara: 'wake up mum - time to play!'
Bruza fast asleep @ girls night.
Sahara informing me it's far too hot to sleep - especially with a kitten on your back.
Phoenix 
Sahara not appreciating how pretty she looks.Sahara's had a few set backs - she managed to wrench her leg on the flimsy piece of material on the tent door a few weeks ago, and has since been back on a high dose of anti-inflammatory's and pain relief. She did, however, manage to attend training, and I noticed an enormous change in her personality - she will sit, very quietly, happy to observe in her time out breaks. I only worked with her very lightly, and we dropped down a class to get her back in the groove, and concentrated mainly on hand commands, food refusal and solid sit/stays and drop/stand commands. When Bruza & Mac came over for a puppy play date Friday night (while use girls did our nails and watched chick flicks), she was a completely different dog to the Sahara we know and love. She hardly got off her chair, and didn't even attempt rushing out the door with the 3 boys to devour their lamb necks and terrorize the dogs next door. She sat calmly and let Mac adore her with licks and allowed Bruza to lavish her with attention, instead of out-running him for the tennis ball and starting brawls with Phoenix for prime Bruza Love time. I'm glad in one way she's adapting to being 'disabled' and she can self regulate herself with her own exercise a little, but boy do I miss my old girl.
She had another visit to the vet yesterday (a weekly trip at the moment, just to get her out and about and have a good bark at her favorite vet before succumbing to liver treats for affection) and she's been given the go ahead to start her pysiotherapy and hydrotherapy again. She's got quite a lot of muscle wastage in her left leg, and is in desperate need of some gentle exercise to build it back up. In between searching for HOURS online for accommodation for her as I'm going away on holiday on the 29th, I'm trying to book her in for an assessment at the doggy hydro pool. I had to whittle my holiday in October down to one single night (and call my mother in for an emergency babysit session) as it was impossible to find someone who understood the concept of not letting Sahara loose with 3 Labrador pups, Phoenix and a golden retriever. Apparently it was too much to ask that she be kept quiet "oh, she'll have to just stay in the laundry for the week, then" and "but she can sleep outside in the old tin kennel with the other dogs, right?" for which I STILL haven't been given a refund. Seriously, it's a nightmare, and I remember why it is I don't have a social life. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can find somewhere that will love her like she's at home, and stop her from snapping the two fake ligaments she's got goin' on in her leg right now. I'm looking for a miracle on this, it seems.
Sahara had her staples taken out yesterday (slightly early, in fact, as she's healing so well) and after a lot of sillyness from sheer excitement at being outside for the first time in a week, she was given the all clear to go back to training in the New Year. I, for one, am absolutely thrilled - she's in desperate need to get out and about, but in a controlled environment where I can limit her actions, unlike in the dog park where there's crazy mutts running up all over the place and jumping on her. We train with ADT, and she reached Gold - the second highest level - before injuring herself. Before that, I'd been super keen to get her to Platinum within the year - I think we'll be challenging ourselves to at reach that level 4 months, maximum (depending on her recovery time, obviously). It's about time we knuckled down and worked our butts off again - it's been far too long without the discipline she needs (and as there's been no agility or fly ball, let alone any form of hard physical work for the past 4 months, she's going absolutely bonkers). Phoenix will, of course, will be coming along and training at the same level - he's realistically more likely to be a Platinum dog earlier, because of his sheer devotion to doing anything I ask of him, but I'm more than up to the challenge of focusing Sahara's energy, too. Bring it on!
Phoenix has taken to stealing my socks - clean or otherwise - and making a nest with them. He doesn't harm them (unlike the incident with my new undies having the elastic carefully removed...), he just seems to enjoy suckling them.
I know why he does it. I haven't been home a lot lately, and he's wreaking his revenge. Yesterday I found my bikini in the hall way, a shoe next to his food bowl and several orange hairs in my bed.
We are so heading back to his extensive training in the first week of January.
...is doing great. 5 days in, she's at the same recovery stage she was at at around the one month mark last time. She's running around like crazy; jumping over furniture and chasing the cat. I am having hysterics practically on an every day basis because of this.
..at the top of my screen all the time, here is a nice photo of my chubby kitty, Cleo, doing her best Asian Samurai Master impersonation. Let me hear you say 'aww'.
I've kept this purposefully dark in the vague notion you might be able to keep your lunch down this way.I know I haven't been blogging here for a while - nor have the dogs, for that matter - but what with Sahara's healing leg, we haven't been able to be out and about like we used to. Now her surgery has failed, and she's back in again today, it'll be another few months before there will be more wild adventures. Bear with us. And check out more details on Made in Melbourne.
It's a bad photo...but she's so adorable when she's asleep. She looks like a big teddy bear. And snuffles like a real one.
I discovered this on Phoenix left hand side, right over his last 2 ribs last night. I am seriously hoping he's simply popped a rib, or run into something and has some fluid built up. It's grown in size over night, and he seems a little down. We've got the first available appointment at the vets this afternoon, and I'm terrified it's cancerous or something sinister. I am also horribly upset that I didn't notice it sooner - I'm trying to tell myself there's no way he could have had a lump for longer than about 5 minutes, because I'm always patting him, giving him massages and generally adoring him, and I would have noticed it, right?
