Past Stories

Shoulder training One day we took Bizzy and Yukon to the lake to teach them to ride on shoulders. What a riot!
First I took Yukon out into the water. I stood in water up to my knees and had Yukon on my shoulder. I told him "shoulder" to get him used to the word and what I wanted. He didn't hold on and fell into the lake. The look on his face when I picked him out of the water was so funny. Well he got even with me. I put him on my shoulder again and said "shoulder," he pooped on my shoulder and jumped into the water! Yukon liked to swim and looked like a little otter swimming in the water.

Now it was Bizzy's turn. Same thing, put him on my shoulder, he started to fall, but I only let him fall far enough to feel the water. I figured I would take it easy on him. Second time up he jumped into the water. We tried it a third time, he pooped on my shoulder and jumped into the water. He liked swimming too. It was fun for them to dig in the sand also, though they had to be put in the water to get the sand off them. They like the water when they want to play in it, not when I want to rinse them off !

Joey's first vet visit On March 20, 1998, Joey had his first vet appointment. This is his experience "in his own words"

First mom put me in a box thing, she says it is a "carrier". It had a soft fluffy thing on the floor that smelt good. Mom carried the box somewhere where it was very bright. Then she put the box down and something made noise and made the box make noise too. Then the noise stopped and mom took me where it was bright and then somewhere not as bright. Mom took me out of the box and set me down. Mom said that I weigh 1.6 pounds. She says I am a big boy. I don't know about that cause I was scared. Mom carried me to a room. (that's what mom called it) I crawled into mom's coat and hid cause it smelled funny and I was still scared. Then someone came in. Mom pulled me out of her sleeve so he could see me. I didn't want to come out and spread out my back feets to hold on to moms jacket. Mom won. She handed me to this person who smelled funny. He squeezed me and poked me and put this cold shiny thing on my chest. He told me my heart didn't have to beat so fast. Yes it did, I was still scared. Then he put me on a cold shiny thing. Mom put some of that nummy oily treat on the shiny thing. Mom said I didn't even feel my vaccine. What's a vaccine? Maybe someone will tell me, if they ever talk to me and not drag me around. Mom said I was a good boy. Boy was I glad to be home.

Scooter I'm overdue in putting a story here, for those of you who have been waiting for a *new* one I apologize.
I'm going to tell you about Scooter this time. If you looked at his page, you know we found a lump on his
leg and had it removed in October. Our vet, Dave, told us that type of cancer generally comes back. Well
   it has. We found a lump further up on his leg. We took Scooter in to have it removed again after they
drew fluid from the lump and there were cancerous cells. We had them x-ray Scooter before performing
surgery so we would have an idea as to what was going on. Another lump was found even higher up next
to the perineal area. Surgery would involve two incisions and most likely a lot of pain for Scooter - not the
surgery but after. So with a heavy heart we decided not to have surgery done and to let Scooter live out
whatever time he has left. With the information we were given, that is the decision I would make for my
    own self, if it were me. Scooter is nine years old. He does well day to day. He spends a lot of time
   sleeping, but when he plays he plays hard. He has had two *episodes* of low blood sugar in the last
week. It's getting harder to get him *out* of them and back to 'normal'. He doesn't seem to be eating hard
food anymore, but really enjoys his *soup*. Today, January 14, 1999, I was inspecting Scooter (like I
usually do) and found another lump. This one is on the outside of his right leg, sort of in the hip area and
is the size of a small pea. I am currently 'working' on a page with pictures of how the tumors progress.
                                    They are hard to look at...

Skeeter sent a letter to her other mommy April 13th, 1998 it said:
Hi, my new mommy said I could use her 'putor to writes you a note about hows i's doin'. I was sorta kinda upset at first when i's gotten here and didna want to eats my food. there be others here thats looks like me and theys scared me! mom tooks me to someone she calls the vet and he poked me with somethin sharp and put something cold somewhere he shouldna have! he said I was okay and a good girl too. this made me very happy, that and his removing the cold thing! i's eating my food now and exporin' my new house. I don like those others that looks like me though and i's always tryin' to bite them when they get too close to my cage. wee thas all i's has to say, i's didna want yous to worry too much about me as you can see i's doin fine.
love and dooks, skeeter
ps my new mommy says i's need to mprove mys spelling. i's wonder whats she menes by that?!

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