The Budman

So in all the pregnancy excitement and vacation excitement, I realize it's been a while since I've posted about our sweet Buddy. Poor Buddy's been having a hard time lately. While we were in Vancouver, he stayed with an awesome dogsitter but the day before we got back he seemed to lose hope that we were going to come get him and stopped eating, which I didn't think was possible for Buddy. We've been back for a month now and he still hasn't sprung back to his old self. He no longer eats his breakfast, though he will eat kibble as treat on his morning and afternoon walk. He's also started drinking twice the amount of water, irrespective of the weather. And he's extra clingy with me but also often irritated - we never seem to be petting him right (though in all honesty, this was an issue before we left too, we just never seem to get it).

And then last week he had to go to the vet - here's a picture of Buddy at the vet from this spring -




twice in four days, once to get his anal sacs done (ouch!) and then two days later he burst out with a massive ear infection and had to go back. The infection was quite inflamed and painful and having it cleaned out was not pleasant for Buddy. After the vet cleaned out Buddy's ear, he brought him into the waiting room to show me how to put the medicine in his ear. Poor Buddy had had enough though and ran two circles around the vet trying to get away from him and then hid underneath the bench I was sitting on and looking balefully at the vet from behind my legs. Mark and I have had better luck but it's still rough on poor Buddy. We bribe him with milkbones, which worked at first but then he decided even the milkbones weren't worth it so now we just tag-team him, hold him down, pour medicine in his ear, and ply him with milkbones after. Unfortunately, he isn't 100% responding to the medicine so it's back to the vet on Thursday.

It breaks my heart, poor little guy. If only there was some way to let them know why you're doing this to them. Overall, it's been a hard month for our sweet Buddy. And in a few more months, it's going to get even worse.

On the plus side though, Buddy flushed three rabbits while at the cottage this weekend - major score for our little hunter. He also saw a mama skunk with two babies in the back yard on Friday night. We was looking out the screen door and started getting excited. Mark went to see what it was and, spotting the skunks, quickly closed the door. But Buddy remained really excited. We decided to take him in another room in case he started barking and scared the skunks. Only problem was my sister's cat, Simon, was sitting in the doorway and had become very agitated at Buddy's level of excitement. Simon refused to move, being unresponsive to shooing and too scary to pick up (he's a bit of an attack cat). In all the jockeying about, Simon suddenly lunged at Buddy and followed him around for about 30 seconds, hissing and biting at him. This was very upsetting as they had been enjoying a peaceful coexistence for many months now. But it was over quickly, no one was hurt, and the next day it was as if nothing happened. Frankly, I think Buddy felt it was worth it to see the skunks. He didn't calm down again until we left the cottage a day later. Silly Buddy! :)