Animals

There’s a great article in the 2015 Annual Natural Dog magazine entitled, “15 Natural Tips to Optimize Your Dog’s Health.” Seven are particularly interesting, so I will share them with you here. So, there you have it. Seven ways to keep your dog healthy that you might not have already considered. Now, go hug your dog (and…

On Monday, I took Nora for another ACTH Stimulation blood test and fully anticipated a good report. Nora’s been almost back to normal after a pretty rough few weeks following her diagnosis of Cushing’s disease. Things got so bad at one point, I didn’t know if she would survive long enough for the Vetoryl to work. The recent increase…

Crossing my fingers, but Nora has had some good days since her meds for Cushing’s disease were increased. She almost seems like she’s back to normal. It’s weird to think that this isn’t a medication that we’ll be done with at some point. She supposed to take it for the rest of her life. And if she…

Nora spent some more time at the vet last week. She wasn’t too happy about being left there and gave me genuine “puppy dog eyes” that tore my heart out. She had another X-ray to see if her bladder stones were gone and also an ACTH stimulation test to see if the Vetoryl is being…

When we adopt dogs, we gain furry friends who entertain us, we experience their unconditional love, and we avoid thinking about the inevitable. Several years ago, after losing two young dogs, in rapid succession, to cancer, we adopted two-year-old Cairn terrier sisters, Nutmeg and Nora. Their owner had died, and they had been housed at a kennel for two…

A couple of years ago, I resolved to love winter. Since Husband Jim has never moved me out of this frosty bucket, I figured I should bloom where I was planted, so to speak. This year, as for many, it has been hard to love winter. I’ll tell you who loves winter, though. Nutmeg and…

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a growth on one of our Cairn Terrier rescues’ right paw. It was dark in color and about the size of a small marble. I had never noticed this bump on Nora before.  When I tried to examine the growth, Nora would retreat, so I knew it was…

When I used to walk Happy and Scout, our 100-pound-plus Labrador retrievers, I was often annoyed by the little-dog walkers we’d encounter, who acted as if mine would engulf theirs like Jaws off the beach at Amity Island. Now that Happy and Scout are somewhere over the rainbow bridge, and I walk our Cairn Terrier…

This morning, as usual, I rolled out of bed and stumbled down the dark hallway with our cairn terrier rescues’ toenails tapping on the hardwood behind me. Like every morning, we passed through the garage into the sunroom on the way to Nutmeg and Nora’s fenced area. Snapping on the outdoor light, I proceeded to…

I hope I didn’t scare you. For all we’ve gone through with these cairn terrier rescues, the thought of giving up Nutmeg and Nora has rarely crossed our minds, especially because I’m not sure how well anyone else would handle them, and therefore, I would worry about their future welfare. So, when we finally found…