Sentient or not, Ellie’s stomach got upset after the 4th of July weekend and Monday morning and evening we had the pleasure of cleaning up after she pooped in the house. Sometimes she gets diarrhea like this when she eats something she’s not supposed to, but to the best of our knowledge she’s had no misadventures lately. My wife moved her right away onto a bland diet of rice and chicken and she regained control of her bowels.

It’s possible it’s stress related from all of the fireworks activity. When it got loud on the evening of the 4th I closed all the windows despite the heat to help deaden the sound and ease the nerves of the cats who were hiding under beds and couches. Ellie didn’t show much outward sign of distress, and although she would look up at me when a boom was especially loud or close, she always settled back down when I told her it was OK.

If she thought it was doggie Armageddon, she didn’t seem too concerned that she wasn’t being raptured, so long as we were together. That is unconditional love.

I’ve made a couple of modifications to our morning ritual of treats for the pets. We had started giving Ellie Checkups once a day, a white dog-shaped treat that is supposed to be good for her teeth. When we discovered this is by far her favorite treat of all, instead of giving Ellie a charcoal dog biscuit in the morning she now gets her white bone.

And oh how she loves them! When I open the door to the closet where we keep them, she runs into my office and quickly lies down on her dog bed, so intently focused that she doesn’t move apart from her big black tail which wags furiously.

My wife takes her about once a week to doggie day care so she can spend the day socializing with other dogs. She normally enjoys this and doesn’t need any encouragement to go out the door, but one day my wife was running ahead of schedule and was ready to leave while I was still feeding Scout her treats, and thus before Ellie had gotten her highly anticipated white bone. When my wife called her, Ellie got up and started for the door but then returned to me and half-sat and half-stood, torn between obeying my wife’s call and waiting for her treat, as if she were being controlled by two minds.

I think her stomach has become self-aware.

The other morning I woke up at 4 a.m. and felt my wife cuddled up against my back. I rolled over to put my arm around her and discovered Ellie there instead. I later discovered my wife had just gotten up and Ellie immediately jumped onto the bed and took her spot.

Perhaps my wife had better watch her back lest Ellie “accidentally” push her down the stairs.

This picture of Ellie was taken on a foggy winter’s day in the off-leash section of Irving Park. When we first got her I had doubts we’d ever be able to let her off-leash like this as she was a bit of a wild woman when given her freedom. Now though she does really well and we enjoy our playtime in the park. She still prefers playing with me to dogs, but at times she joins them in their fun.

Yesterday I took her on an extra walk in the afternoon and she romped around with the two dogs who were there, both energetic little puppies. She kept up with the little ones just fine, then came home and zonked out on the floor of my office.

Ellie and I are making our return, mine to blogging, hers to hedgehogging.

Ellie came up limp while playing hedgehog late one night a couple of weeks ago and when she still wouldn’t put weight on the leg in the morning, she was off to the vet.

When we arrived she gingerly put weight on it and even walked on all four legs (albeit with an obvious limp) back to the examining room. Fortunately the tech saw her limping because when the doctor came in Ellie was hopping around and showing no signs of distress. Even a thorough exam showed nothing, not during the range-of-motion exercises nor even when she had Ellie put her full weight on the supposedly sore leg.

The vet recognized that with the adrenaline kicking in Ellie was probably ignoring all signs of pain and that I wasn’t faking injuries to my dog just for the attention. She suggested Ellie probably had a soft tissue injury and ordered two weeks of bed rest and a follow-up visit for X-rays if that didn’t cure her. That meant the return of the exercise pen for when we weren’t home, oh how I hate the gaze of the sad puppy dog eyes when I close that gate!

Fortunately two weeks of bed rest did the trick and Ellie made her triumphant return to everyday life. Unfortunately for me, between the pain pills and the rest she was pretty much ready for the return from day one of her incarceration and I was mercilessly pelted with hedgehogs throughout the two weeks.

Since she couldn’t play and her older hedgehogs are now squeakless, I gave her a new one so she could at least make her music. If you walked by our house and heard the sad sounds of the bed rest blues being squeaked out from the depths, now you know why.

To get the full effect, make a loud sigh when you view this picture, to let the world know how put upon you truly are as you oh-so-patiently wait for the next round of hedgehogging

Happy Birthday Ellie!

We adopted our sweet girl two years ago and, since we don’t know her real birthday, we celebrate it today as well. She was five when we adopted her and so now turns seven.

This picture is from June when she was still recuperating from her surgery, this is the look I get in between sleeping and snuggling and hedgehogging. Speaking of which, someone has been patiently waiting all night for me to finish my chores, so I’d better go.