Post Your Pet

Kajiimagi said:

Our town moved where the fireworks are held and now we cannot just watch them from our front yard. We had a spot scoped out but while there I checked on my cat with the security camera. He was on the bed passed out same as now. He got a little bent out of shape when we got home but it was because he wanted to see us. Really does suck about dogs and fireworks though.

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Both of ours we're firmly in the "time to let us in off our enclosed and air conditioned patio so we can hide under your desk while the world is trying to blow us up!" camp.

Arya has pretty much been attached to my hip since Sansa died. She’s been losing her mind a bit and it seemed like it was time for her to have some kitty company again. I’m apparently just not a suitable replacement.

So, say hello to the new idiots. Still going back and forth on names, but have some in mind already. Both girls, they’re about 3-4 months old. The tortie already yearns for freedom and has escaped the guest room twice. The gray is a little more reserved for now and the two are also still trying to get used to one another as well, as they were not from the same foster. Arya is super curious about what’s going on in there, but I’m making sure to give her lots of extra love and tubes. Hopefully everything goes smoothly over the next few weeks.

Decided on names! The gray is Katia and the tortie is Imani. They are escape artists and terrorists. Saturday will have been a week in the kitten room, so going to take them downstairs to my finished basement that’s mostly empty and let them run around and also bring Arya down as well for some play time and treats together.

As they’ve door dashed from the kitten room multiple times, they’ve already met Arya on and off and it’s been civil so far. A little hissing from Arya but that’s about it. Imani now specifically looks for Arya when she zips out of the kitten room and tries to be affectionate. Hoping Arya’s mama side kicks in again like it did with Bruce.

The two kittens have definitely become friends now as well. Went in this morning and caught them sleeping together in their donut tunnel. No more grumbling or hissing between the two of them, even when around food or toys they want. Hoping everything keeps going smoothly.

Also, Katia’s little multi-colored toe beans are fucking adorable.

The kittens are now officially free of the kitty containment room, as they decided to pick up the end of the carpet and make a nice inch-wide gap between the carpet and the LVP. I was only putting them in there during cooking/dinner and bed time at this point. Other than the carpet, they’ve been pretty minimally destructive, aside from knocking over my Lego Enterprise (RIP).

Imani absolutely loves Arya and is constantly trying to get cuddles and grooms from her, which Arya will oblige with much grumbling. The kittens are doing a good job keeping each other occupied, and thankfully Arya has joined in on some play occasionally, too, though she mostly observes and steps in if someone gets too rough. She’s been a good Bean Mama.

So OK.... new dog having issues experience for us.

One of our two (Sugar), who has always already been the more chill and laid back of the dogs had an odd episode. She'd been seeming a tiny bit lethargic, which isn't super abnormal or anything. Then a few Sunday's ago they were laying in the living room just before we started watching some football. I'm walking in from the other room and I hear the wife scream panicked.

Sugar had gotten up to go somewhere took like one step and her whole body basically barrel rolled onto the ground and she couldn't get up. Needless to say panic ensued. I honestly thought she'd had a dog stroke or something. They're "middle aged" (around 10). We had to carry her since she was suddenly super disoriented and couldn't stand on her on. Throw her in the car and off for a Sunday emergency vet visit. They had to bring out a cart and roll her in.

Get there, I'm half thinking "This is going to suck and we're about to go home with fewer dogs than we left the house with". My wife is taking it even worse. Doc comes out after a bit. Turns out our dog had an episode of something called "old dog disease", aka Canine peripheral vestibular disease. It's like a part of the brain attached to the dogs inner ears (and ergo balance/etc) just desyncs and breaks. Turns out this is apparently not that uncommon (her regular vet this week on a follow up said she'd treated over 100 dogs who had it, and ours was actually a milder case). We get sent home with her more stable, but still not really wanting to try to walk on her own. With anti-nausea/anti-vertigo pills. Now three weeks later, she's back up and around, but still obviously only at around 75% balance I'd say. Still not eating as much as she did before, and now her head apparently has a permanent tilt to the right (which the docs said is probably permanent). And now she's developed a new heightened level to which she simply always wants to be near a human. She'll come into my office now to basically sit under my desk and lean up against my leg while I work. It's slowly improving but they say she'll probably never be back to 100% on agility/balance. And apparently the only cause/explanation is "This just happens to some dogs when they get a little older" and apparently her case was on the milder end.

Kinda just rambling this to share the experience, only notable take away would be. If you see your dog do it, don't panic. Get them to a vet, let the vet do their job. Vet at the emergency vet place was great about all this and especially about calming a certain Mrs Haus' nerves.