Gerry

Holly came to town this past Saturday and we had the first Midwest Tripawd Pawty!!! (That we know of).  For a relatively short visit, and only two tripawd attendees, we sure had a pawesome time!

I learned that Holly is a goose aficianado, and that the park we met at there are so many geese that the city is actually thinking about killing a bunch.  No need!  Holly and I will relocate them for free – just let us looses on the gooses!

People at the park were impressed by my mad running skillz, but I think Holly’s ability to impersonate a quadpawd was even more impressive.  Holly’s mom and mine had to actually point out to people that she’s a tripawd too.

While I did my best to show off, a much wiser Holly spend most of her time very sweetly going from person to person, checking for treats.

Now, it’s not easy to impress a more mature female like Holly.  My athletic abilities were no big deal to her.  Even my stylish red Ruffwear harness did not turn her head.  Fortunately, with the body of water in this park, there were also dead fish to be found on the ground!  The perfect cologne to attract the ladies.  Rolling in it did unfortunately mean I had to get a bath last night, and the smell made Mom a little woozy, but it was worth it!  At first, Mom had thought maybe my harness would save us from having to do the bath, but I knew to make sure to get those fish guts behind my ear, not just on my back.  The smell mostly came off of me, but luckily it’s still pretty well stuck on my harness – yay!  My harness will still make me a lady-killer for many park trips to come.

We hope to have another Madison Tripawd Pawty – with lots of attendees, once Mom advertises around town – on May 30th (or June 5th if bad weather on the 30th).  Don’t worry tripawd pawretns, we don’t have to go back to the dead fish park.  In fact, the one on the 30th for sure is being planned for a different location (Badger Prairie Park). We hope other Tripawd members/visitors can make it.  All numbers of legs are welcome!!!

Here’s why you should come:

P.S. Mom apologizes that a clip or two got put in twice.  She kept trying to go back and fix it, but kept making the same mistake – haha!  So she gave up.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Mom thinks it’s weird that when we go to the pet store, or sometimes when we’re walking in the neighborhood, people assume I’m Yoda.  They see Mom, they see I have three legs, and they think, “Oh yes, this dog’s name is Yoda.”  Mom doesn’t understand this because she has a much harder time recognizing/remembering people than their dogs – at least at the dog park. And then there’s the whole thing about Yoda having been brown and white, a lot taller, and missing his front leg not his back, yadda yadda.  I argue that I do an excellent Yoda impression and people’s confusion confirms it.  Mom is not convinced, but you can judge for yourselves:

Mom says I look more like Spock or… she doesn’t know somebody with even BIGGER ears than a Yoda (my big spirit brother or the little green guy).  Is Spock another tripawd??

I am as squirrel crazy as the next pup, as you can see (that’s what I’m looking at).  Sorry the lighting wasn’t great for that, but Mom had to record it and share it.  I made her laugh out loud when I flopped down under the tree.  Squirrels do fall – rarely, perhaps – and you gotta be ready!!!

I also took my Yoda impression a step further these past few days by running up a big ol’ vet bill.  No worries.  Nothing serious.  Something got in my eye a few weeks ago (dont’ know what) and it’s been goopey since.  While having the vet check that out, Mom also brought up that my chin had become really itchy around the same time, and she couldn’t take watching my stumpin wiggle, trying to scratch it, so she had to ask if it was something more than dry skin.  Whoops!  Yep, I have some kind of really mild infection there (hopefully it didn’t spread elsewhere – or to my rommie!).  Sounds like I may have had it all the way back since I was at the shelter, but it wasn’t irritating me then.  So I got meds for those two things and then, whaddaya know, it’s flea and heartworm season already – so even more meds!  Wowee!!!  Mom took it in stride and I earn my keep with adorableness.

That’s all I got for now…

We got permission to share video/pics of my new pal and roommate!  Yay!!

For starters:

Okay, Mom says I have to update first, because it’s been so long since I blawged.  But really, whose fault is that, Mom?  She hasn’t been keeping up with her movie-making of me.  I better prepare you all that we don’t have any new pictures or videos for you yet!

Updates:

1. We got housemates!!!  Now I have two people in the house to give me belly rubs and tell me how cute I am.  Though I do have a little competition as I have dog housemate too.  He’s pretty cool.  He likes to clean my back teeth for me.  He gets a little jealous when I get attention and pushes his way in most of the time.  But theres room for both of us on the couch and a human in the middle – one hand for each of us.  AND the best part is that he has about a zillion toys that he shares with me.  Mom still needs to check with his mom about whether she can post videos and pictures of the two of us.  Be warned, the level of cuteness might be unbearable.
2. I got Yoda’s old Ruffwear harness.  Though, actually Yoda only wore it like once, so it’s more accurate to say that I got Kassee’s old Ruffwear harness.  Mom sent it to Kassee after Yoda passed on to chase spirit bunnies.  We heard from Kassee’s foster mom that she got a great new home.  She must have, because her new pawrents were willing to buy her a new harness so that hers/Yoda’s could be sent back to us.  I like it pretty well.  Don’t always like how I have to shift my weight to get my front right leg through, but harness = walk and that brings a swish to my tail every time!  Mom’s going to make a movie of me in my harness soon to post.  I love how the bright red color draws peoples’ attention – YES, look at ME!
3. I’ll be starting beginner training classes soon.  And NOVA, get this – my classes are going to be underneath the Great Dane Pub where Mom took Barney when he visited – whoa!

Okay, now for the important part.  Mom says that after I graduate from my training class, I can host tripawd pawties at the dog park in Madison!  Roohoo!!  That won’t be til the last week in April and Mom is insisting on that because I wander too far and ignore her sometimes at the dog park : (  … it’s no fair, Yoda got away with that all the time, but she says it was different because he knew which dogs not to play with – whatever.  (Mom would make an exception for HARLEY though, the other Madison tripawd, to meet him at the park before I graduate). 

So, I wanted to let you all know, in case any of you can travel to Madison for a tripawd pawty.   Mom thinks she’s definitely going to try for one Memorial Day weekend and advertise around town for it, but feel free to tell us what days are good for any tripawd travelers and we’ll try to save those dates!  You can PM my mom or just leave a reply on my blawg. 

Now I just gotta graduate, oh boy…

Mom wants me to write educational posts, so here are a few things I have learned since my last blawg entry:

1) A relatively easy way to catch a vole at the dog park is to dig one up from hibernation in wintertime.  (Mom thinks this is unsportsdoglike, but Spirit Yoda assures me it’s just plain smart).  Those little rodents are jumpy though, so if you want a vole snack, chomp quickly before they hop out of your mouth.

2) I discovered another advantage to bringing toys on walks.  If you drop your toy somewhere while your human is distracted, you could end up with a much longer walk.  I got a double walk last week when we were nearly home before Mom realized that I no longer had Rudy with me.  We had to retrace our steps to find him.  So pawesome!

3) I don’t know if it’s similar for front-leg amputees going downstairs or not, but I have learned it’s important not to think too hard about going up stairs.  I do best with a treat at the top to focus on. 

Here’s a video of me doing stairs.  The first time, I was thinking too much about Mom and the camera and my feet.  The second time, Mom got out the treats and it was a breeze.

I forgot to share about Couch Day!  Oh, it was a great holiday on 1/18  to get my couch back.  And I got it back in time for my first three-legged trip to the dog park, so it really came in hand for snoozing afterwards.  Here’s a pic:

Now, I’m gonna try to include something educational in every post.  Today it will be walking three-legged through snow.  Not easy!  No wonder Mom and the vet said I wasn’t allowed while I was still healing from surgery.  So here’s a video of me walkin’ through my back yard.  I had the added motivation of a trail of rabbit droppings to follow.  Mom wasn’t too pleased about that.  Apparently rabbit droppings used to upset Yoda’s tummy.  Hasn’t done me any harm yet!

And now, for some comic relief, though once again, I’m not sure what is so funny.  Mom came home from work, and I was ready for my walk.  But all my toys were way over on the other side of the room.  So I grabbed her shoe.  After all, that served two functions.  One, I had something to carry on my walk, which I like, and two, it communicated to Mom that it was time to WALK. 

I love the dog park!

What else needs to be said?  Nothing, right?  The pawesomeness of the dog park is evident in the video.  But Mom wants me to add that this was my first trip to a dog park after my amputation and that in fact it was exactly one month and two days since then.  Also, I had my sutures taken out that day, but not from my amputation (that was a while ago) but from where they cut out the benign little bump from my shoulder two weeks ago.  After that my doc said I was good to go!  I love that guy!!!  What was that Mom?  Oh, she wanted to know who I don’t love…?  She’s looking at me like she told a joke.  I don’t get it, but I’ll wag my tail anyways. 

Ugh, now she (Mom) wants me to tell about the pills she got from my new doc.  Geez, who’s blog is this?!  Okay, so I got some Dasuquin to protect my joints and stuff so that I can run and run and run on my three legs, until I’m really really really old.  Right?  Close enough, Mom says.  Pam has said on the forums that it’s a good idea for tripawds of any size, even if you’re not having any joint issues yet.   One thing I’ll say for the Dasuquin, they are deeeeelicious.  How do people turn liver into hard circular little things like that, which look and feel nothing like liver, and yet still smell and taste like it???  And even more mysterious, why do they go to all the trouble to do it?  There must be an easier way…  Still, those pills, just one more reason to looooove my new doc.  He has such good taste in supplements.

I almost got to have a sour cream and onion chip on my walk tonight!!!  I found it on the sidewalk.  So tasty…until Mom made me spit it out.  Well, actually it was even tasty for a while after that – it really sticks with ya. 

I’m gonna go to bed now.  Cause the sooner I go to bed, the sooner it will be Friday; the sooner it’s Friday, the sooner it will be the weekend; when it’s the weekend, I get to go back to the park!!!

Hey all,

Yesterday my adoption was made official.  It was exactly one month since my amputation too.  Mom can’t believe the couch has been turned around for only one month.  And neither can I!  But we get it back tomorrow!  Today is Couch Day Eve and we’re very excited.

I’m trying to convince Mom that every year we need to celebrate my official adoption day, my unofficial adoption day, Couch Day and Couch Day Eve, my ampuversary, the day she brought me home from the shelter, and we need to pick a birthday for me, since we don’t know when it is!  She wants me to pick just one or two of those holidays.  Humpf!

Oh, and a couple days ago, I got my very own collar and I.D. tag.  No more hand-me-downs from the shelter or from Yoda!

I think Mom made a good choice with the yellow and gold.  I want people to NOTICE me and pet me.

And then tomorrow I get my sutures out and probably get to go to the dog park after.  Whoohoo!  I love it when Mom gets extra day weekends.  Though I’m not sure how I feel about all the car ride practice she wants to do.  Ugh.

Well, I must be off.  It’s Walk Time!

Oh, and Yoda fans, be sure to check out my last blog entry, if you missed it.

Rock on, tripawds!

Well, even I know this is long overdue, but it sure was boring waiting for Mom to finish with the video cameras and the TV and the computer…

Soooo bored... and yes, I have spots on my tongue!

 Mom had to take video of Yoda on her old camcorder from the 90’s and has wished she could have shared them with you all for a long time.  Well, she tried playing the video on the TV and recording it with her new Flip Ultra video camera.  She’s not thrilled with how much darker everything turned out, but with some editing, most all of it is good enough to see how pawesome my big brother was on three legs, at least.  Maybe some day she’ll get a professional to convert the old video.  But on the eve of my official adoption (forking over the dough to the shelter tomorrow!), she wanted to complete a tribute to Yoda’s memory.   I wouldn’t have gotten here without him!  Thanks, Bro!!

Since the picture quality isn’t great, Mom wants me to give you the head’s up to watch for when Yoda jumps over some big ol’ rocks to stay in a game of chase at the dog park.  There were “Whoa’s!” from the other humans at the park when Yoda did that, but since Mom was filming from far away and you pawrents with your weak ears won’t hear it, Mom went ahead and added music to the video. 

The chase game part is funny, cause it was Mom and Yoda’s first trip to a park after they found he had lung mets, and he had run all around the park already and she thought she had let him run too long, when he stopped for shade and water for quite a while.  Then, as she was wondering if he could make it to the car, he hopped up and took off to check out a gang of dogs several yards away.  And before Mom knew it, he was playing a game of chase!

So enjoy the somewhat random string of video clips of Yoda to “It’s Not My Time,” by 3 Doors Down…

Gerry’s Mom says –

Just have a few cute pictures of Gerry hiding from the camera to share…

 (Disclaimer, no Gerrys were psychologically traumatized in the taking of these photos.  He was already covering his face before I got out the camera, which seemed like the best time to photograph him).