Patton's Diary

Well folks, I finally made it back to the beach! It’s been 7 years since I last felt the sand between my toes. I will admit, it was nice to smell all the smells on the ocean breeze.

This year the parents decided to take Ugg with us. (He didn’t go last time because Mom thought he was too young & might chew something up in the rental house.) Hmmm… maybe they should have left him at home again. Ugg was a very bad, bad dog.

I’m not sure which happened first, but I’ll start out with the funnier story. The parents took us out to potty before bedtime. Of course Pixie & I are perfectly behaved, just have to hold our leashes with a single finger. Ugg on the other hand, he requires a lot of supervision. Mom as letting us sniff around while she was watching Dad walk Ugg. All of a sudden she burst out laughing – Ugg had lifted his leg and was busy peeing on dad’s foot!! Dad didn’t think it was all that funny.

Turns out Ugg loved the beach & the ocean. He was always thrilled to run into the surf & bounce along the sand. Of course this excitement caused Ugg to get a little full of himself, and Dad… well Dad didn’t keep a close enough watch on Ugg. All us pups are kept leashed while on the beach, but we have long leads just for the beach that allow us to have some freedom to wander & sniff. This is were the problem came into play with Ugg.

A gentleman spotted Ugg on the beach and quickly headed towards him & Dad. Dad always wants to think that Ugg is friendly, but Mom knows better. Dad didn’t shorten the leash up on Ugg and he launched himself towards the man. Turns out Ugg bit the man! Yikes!! The man was understanding and the bite wasn’t severe, but Mom was freaked out. She gave Dad a lecture on how he needed the keep Ugg on a short leash anytime he’s around people he doesn’t know because things could have turned out much worse.

After that incident, the rest of our vacation was fairly uneventful. We did get a yummy treat from The Food Truck for lunch. It was what they call a “Rescue Dog”. It’s an all beef wiener wrapped in bacon & deep fried, then chopped up in pup bite size pieces. It was delicious! I think I need to add something like that to my list of favorite foods.

Well, it has been a long time since I last wrote – the mom has been slacking on the typing for me. Since it has been so long, I’ll only update on the highlights of this year. In early February, the humans took in a German Shepard from a neglect situation. They tried their best to make that work out, but sadly it had consequences that they never dreamed (more on that in a few).

The past 4-6 weeks have been pretty rough in our house. First pop got hurt (completely tore his Achilles Tendon) when at set of stairs collapsed while he was on them. He had surgery to repair it in late April and has to stay off of it for about 3 months – no weight placed on it. Needless to say, he isn’t able to do much but sit around, no stairs, no walking dogs, no driving, no working on construction projects around the house – pretty much no to anything he would like to be doing.

This leads up to the German Shepard. It was not an easy integration into our pack as she had been neglected, traumatized with shocks from an invisible fence collar and had not had the proper socialization or training needed for that breed of dog. Mom has had years of experience fostering dogs for other rescues, so she wasn’t unfamiliar with introducing new dogs to the household and addressing basic obedience issues. But this dog was way different than any that she had previously dealt with. The humans tried lots of things and finally thought they had found a middle ground. The GSD was never allowed to be outside of her crate or outdoor kennel run unsupervised due to a couple incidents early in her stay. Things had been going smoothly and it seemed like she was starting to settle in. The routines were working well with her and she wanted to be part of the family. Then something went wrong.

On April 25th, mom had gotten home from work, checked on pop since he was basically stuck in the recliner after surgery & then she went to get the GSD out of the outdoor kennel so she could join the rest of us pups for the evening. We ran around the yard for a while & all seemed good.

Mom turned her back for a few minutes to refill a water bowl & then it happened – the GSD attacked my little sister Pixie. It was not good. Pixie weighs about 25 pounds while the GSD weighed around 65 pounds. Mom got the GSD off of Pixie & put the GSD back in the outdoor kennel to keep the rest of us safe. Pixie was rushed to our vet’s office (thank goodness they are on call 24/7 since mom would be arriving after they closed for the day.) We do not know what caused the attack. There wasn’t any toys outside and no food was around.

Mom got to the vet, they took one quick look & said Pixie would need to have surgery and be kept overnight. Mom was a wreck, she felt that she had failed Pixie by failing to keep her safe. And she felt like she had failed the GSD as well – as it was obvious that we could no longer trust the GSD and could no longer keep her. A lot of decisions were going to have to be made, and made soon.

Pixie had a large gash across her back, several puncture wounds around her neck/throat, one of which barely missed her jugular vein and bruising on her abdomen. Below are photos showing the progression of the healing on the gash.

 

Mom discussed the attack with several professionals over the 24 hour period following the attack. She reached out to rescues who specialize in the GSD breed. She gave them the complete history of the dog as she knew it prior to it coming into our home and she told them exactly what had happened since it was with us. She knew it was a long shot for a rescue to take on a dog with this type of history. To cover all her bases, she made an appointment to have the GSD euthanized the Saturday after this attack happened.

Surprisingly, mom did hear back from 2 different rescues and one agreed to accept the GSD into their program on the Friday night that Pixie came home. They said they had recently placed another GSD with very similar issues and they screen all applicants for adoption closely and require training after adoption. Mom signed the GSD over to the rescue the next day. We are hopeful that the GSD will find the right home and can work to become the best dog she possibly can.

We are hoping that the rest of our year goes by smoothly & quietly.

Envelope please…. the results of Pixie’s DNA test are as follows:

Mom has had the test kit to do Pixie’s DNA for years! For some reason she managed to get mine & Ugg’s done in a reasonable amount of time, but kept putting off doing Pixie’s. Well, she finally got around to swabbing Pixie’s cheek (which Pixie was not a fan of) and sent the test off. The result arrived in Mom’s email late yesterday afternoon. Turns out that mom was correct in thinking that the Pie was a beagle mix.

Mom was late getting home last night to give me my weekly bath and to feed me my din-din. She went to the grocery store… and she came back telling tells about something beyond my wildest dreams. She said she saw a giant hot dog!

Everyone who really knows me, knows how much I love hot dog wieners. They are like food from the gods in my opinion. When the peeps have them, I know exactly how many are left in the pot on the stove. I counts them with my sniffing nose.

So… needless to say I didn’t exactly believe mom’s story. I thought the lady had simply inhaled way too many of the fumes floating through her office building. But then she said she had proof! Photographic evidence if you will:

Oh my dog! I thought my eyes would pop out of my head!! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, she didn’t lie – it really was a giant hot dog! I admit, I drooled a little when I saw the photo.

And I can’t believe she didn’t come pick me up so I could see this amazing creation in person. I would have gobbled it right up!

~Woof!
Patton

I think one of Pepe’s relatives was visiting my neighborhood last night…. but first let me set the scene.

Mom gets home from work and gives all 3 of us pups a bath – we had spent the weekend enjoying some nice clay mud on the construction site, so everyone needed a bath. Myself, I  personally love baths, I get one every week & I hop into the tub willingly. My siblings, Pixie & Ugg, they do not enjoy baths so much and mom has to carry them into the bathroom.

After we had eaten our kibble & dried off, we spent most of the evening laying around while mom caught up on laundry & TV time. Around 8:30pm or so, Pixie & I  decide to go outside – no big deal, we have a doggie door. A few minutes later, mom hears the door open again & Pixie comes bee bopping back in & hops up on the ottoman in front of mom. Oh my goodness! A trail of smell comes wafting off of Pixie & right into mom. It was the distinct aroma of skunk!  Of course mom has to do the sniff test and yes, Pixie does smell like a skunk. Mom decides that the stink is light enough that she can cover it up with the lilac scented dog perfume she bought years ago. So, Pixie gets a good coating of flower stink and mom goes checks the yard, but doesn’t see or smell any skunks. I was a good boy, I didn’t come back inside with any skunk smell on me!

Then around 9pm, she hears the dog door open again. Seems like Ugg had gone outside & when he came back in he jumped up on the ottoman and guess what?! He smelled like a skunk too! This was too much! The dog door was sealed off for the next hour. Ugg got to smell like pretty lilac for the evening just like Pixie.

Mom searched the yard again & in the corner near the woods, she could smell a skunk. She’s guessing that Pixie & Ugg must have went to that corner to investigate something and ran through a lingering stink cloud!

Well friends… I had hoped to share news of my new digs by now. However, the move hasn’t happened because the house isn’t finished. My pawrents are very unhappy about this considering they were told we should be in sometime in July. It is now almost mid-October and you can see where we are to date in the photo below.

The parents are ready to take over the build from the contractor. They figure they can get things done just as fast as he has and probably faster. Needless to say this experience has not been pleasant.

Mom is thinking that it will be closer to Christmas before we can move in — just in time for the snow to start. At least I will have some very large windows to look out and survey my domain while enjoying the comforts of a toasty fireplace.