POSSIBLE INCONTINENT ISSUES FOR BUDDY

Yesterday morning, Buddy bounded onto my bed, sat by my head chattering to me about who knows what.  After about ten minutes of non-stop one-sided conversation, I got out of bed, grabbed him figuring he probably wanted to eat.

We proceeded into the kitchen where I discovered Buddy spilt some of the contents from his water dish completely soaking the towel I placed underneath.

There was a gigantic puddle of water on the kitchen floor.  Odd that there was water on the floor since the kitchen counter top was bone dry.  Then it dawned on me - Buddy was upset because he had an accident.

Last night, we returned home from running errands and dinner out to find Buddy had another accident on our guest bed - he likes to sleep there sometimes.  I can only guess he woke up and didn't make it off the bed in time.  There was a cardboard box nearby where my brother was temporarily storing some papers he needed to throw away.  We discovered Buddy used it as litter box - now the papers were soaked!

This is upsetting.  Buddy has always been very fastidious with his toileting habits so it is very uncharacteristic of him.  We will have to keep an eye on Buddy to make sure this isn't a new problem.  Hopefully, the use of the cardboard box was either "in a pinch" or just a bit of confusion.   

UPDATE ON BUDDY AND ANNIE

Well. it's been a funny day.  Both Annie and Buddy spent it vying for the same spot on my bed.  It's very amusing to see the two of them staring at each other, one waiting for the other to vacate a brightly-lit spot on a double bed when there is plenty of room to lie down. Other areas of the bed have sunlight but for some reason they have a need to one-up each other.

Both of them are with me now as I blog.  That's because the sun has gone down so it's no longer fun to try and beat the other out of the coveted spot.

Buddy's been acting a bit peculiar today.  He'll eat if I hold the dish up but not so much if I place it on the counter.  I ended my stint as Jeeves by placing a pint plastic soup container upside down and positioning Buddy's food plate on top of it.  My brother added a rolled piece of tape to the two bottoms effectively sticking the container and plate together.

I gave Annie a quick check-over today.  Her coat is beautiful - so shiny since she's been eating home cooked meals.  She has a habit of separating some of the vegetables from her meal so a while back I started to puree the vegetables before adding them to her meal. Yesterday I prepared a large quantity of food to last about 4 days (2 meals a day) and decided to puree the meat portion along with the vegetables.  This worked out OK with Annie eating her meal without any food landing on the floor.

Today was spent looking at two old terrycloth bathrobes with an eye towards turning them into bath towels for Annie and Buddy.  The pockets will be re-purposed as bath mitts.  This process will be described at length in another post.

FUN WITH ANNIE

My sweetheart of a girl has unbound-less energy.  It's all I have to do to keep up with her - actually, I really can't keep up with her.  She constantly surprises me.  After 9 years, Annie is still running around like a puppy.  I love to see her break into an all out run.  She appears to be an inch or so off the floor when she does this and all I have to do is stand still uttering an occasional word, clapping my hands or shaking my arms to keep her going.

What kind of crazy things does Annie do?  Well, for one, she wiggles.  Yes, wiggles.  Whenever she's happy (and that's about every evening when my brother comes home from work) she gets on her back, paws in the air and wiggles like a worm.

Annie also cuddles and will rub the top of her head, ears, eyes and snout over our cheeks and under our chins.  Annie is also a bit of a hoarder.  She will take her cookies and place them on my bed or near her dog bowl if she doesn't eat them right away.  Another funny thing she does is take a cookie but immediately ask for a second one.  Once she has both, she will either eat them both or put them aside for later in the day.

What really touches my heart is when Annie crouches down with a wide-eyed, hopeful look on her face and starts to hop around.  This is Annie's signal she wants to engage in play.  If I respond, she will run to her toy box and select a stuffed toy for me to throw.  After a fetch or two, she will break into a run, stopping to look over her shoulder to see if I'm chasing her.  This is a favorite ploy of hers when playing with other dogs.  Annie is great at getting other pets to engage in play.

Every evening I sit in my recliner to read or watch TV.  I love it when Annie crawls onto my lap and goes to sleep although I can only take about a half hour of this tops because at 42 lbs. she's a bit heavy to be a lap dog.  Of course, our mini massages are wonderful bonding time; I try to do this every day since Annie loves them so much.  She always appears calmer and quite serene after a session.

The best is when Annie shows her contentment by sighing.  She will do this if cuddling, sleeping on my lap or during a mini massage.  To me, it shows her complete contentment with what we're doing and makes me happy to know she's happy too.

Annie is a sweetheart - I love her so.

REFLECTIONS ON MONKEES, HORSES AND MR. JONES

OK, anyone reading this will be saying to themselves, what does Davy Jones have to do with a blog about family pets and their medical issues.  The answer would be absolutely nothing, except Davy had cats.  I've been grappling with the idea of posting about Davy since the announcement of his death this past Wednesday and I've decided to go with it.

To say that I am sad over Davy's passing would be understatement; I'm heartbroken.  Davy was always a presence in my life and not because he was a Monkee.  Davy and Mickey were the professional actors; Mike and Peter were musicians.  The operative word here is "actor".  Sure, he sang, danced, played guitar but I remember him as an actor first.

Davy's career started at about age 14 on the British soap opera "Coronation Street".  From there he appeared in  London's West End in the musical "Oliver" which crossed the pond to Broadway with Davy still in the roll of the Artful Dodger. The first time I saw Davy was as the Dodger with the rest of the Oliver cast on The Ed Sullivan Show.   Everyone always watched Ed Sullivan but that particular night I was watching to see some other Brits I was interested in for it was the first of three evenings The Beatles performed.

The insanity of Beatlemania started but through it all I never forgot Davy.  He appeared on "Ben Casey" a very popular doctor drama of the early sixties (Yvonne Craig also appeared in the same episode).  All in all, I managed to catch him on whatever show he was on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzj7AVjNrlk

Colpix released (pre-Monkees) a solo album entitled, "David Jones" which was a mix of pop tunes and British music hall songs!  To this day, I catch myself humming or singing songs from this album (most of the cuts are on You Tube).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w-VH473Ttw

Like so many of us, Davy started out pursuing one career course but wound up doing something entirely different.  Davy originally intended to be a jockey but the entertainment field beckoned.  Even so, Davy always kept a hand in by raising, training and racing horses.  And Davy was with his horses when his time came.

So here's to you, Davy.  Thank you for all the good times and the great memories.

"Good-night, sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

 (William Shakespeare: Hamlet)