TV tray - protect me!

Change is a slow process, and it takes work. Overcoming a fear doesn’t happen overnight, and setbacks are normal. At least, these are the things I used to remind my clients in my former life as a therapist. Clearly, the same process is true for pups.

From the start, Ella has had a fear of the vacuum cleaner. There have been glimmers of courage and progress since the early days when she ran and hid behind the toilet or tried to squeeze herself into a space one-quarter the width of her puppy belly behind the bookshelf. On several occasions since that time, she’s boldly come within a few inches of the Bissell, at one point even sniffing its attachments. My brave girl.

But, of late, she’s reverted to past behaviors a bit. As the clips below show, she has at least learned that she is now too big to seek refuge behind the bookshelf. She’s now turned to the TV tray as her fallout shelter. As you'll see in the first clip, it's a good thing I had the window closed or else she would have made a mad dash out and down the fire escape. Of course, there's a cat in heat down there that's howling so crazily it scares both of us, so I'm not sure that would have really calmed Ella's nerves as she'd hoped.

I must say, it is interesting that Ella is so terrified of the vacuum yet has absolutely no fear of any loud noise momma can make to distract/scare her when she's chewing up a bill or stealing the toilet paper roll from the bathroom. Do you think they make battery-operated portable vacuums that I could carry in my pocket and turn on whenever she's misbehaving? I'll check ebay...or hsn.com...i'm sure I can't be the first to think of this...

Happy returns...

Ella and I finally made it back to Central Park today after a rough week dealing with a lame leg, diarrhea, and exercise restriction (that is, Ella’s lame leg and diarrhea…just to be clear). I think she managed to poop out whatever was ailing her leg because she seems about 90% recovered this morning! We are both noticeably a little less in shape than we were a week ago (amazing how fast the fitness level degrades…), but managed to make it through a nice long walk/sprint regardless.

Here are a few shots of Ella atop a hill just inside the park on the east side...

Ella, my little flower
"You better hurry with this shot cuz I'm 'bout to eat these bright yellow things."

Ella, my little model
"Check out my hot new collar and leash set!"

Ella, so over it.

"And if you look behind me, you'll see a lovely gazebo well-suited for small wedding ceremonies...blah blah blah"

Ella, my heavenly angel
"Damn light's in my eyes...what's that on the ground - more mud?"

Playing the water hazard

In a game of catch, my apartment is not that unlike a golf course. There’s a main fairway lined with all sorts of metaphorical bunkers, and it’s a challenge to find the green (let’s face it, there’s not a whole hell of a lot of green period – it’s a Manhattan apartment, people). Few would have the precision required to always keep the ball – or in this case, squeaky hamburger – on course…or so I like to tell myself.

Anyway, the most devastating hazard on this course is undeniably Ella’s water bowl. If I tried, I couldn’t dunk the hamburger in the bowl 3 times out of ten. Without trying, however, I hit it about 60% of the time. And it definitely puts a damper on our game...not to mention the hallway and kitchen floor. Who wants to play with a slimy hamburger that's so water-logged it shoots out dirty bowl water when you squeeze it? And who wants to keep mopping up the dirty bowl water and filthy puppy paw tracks running up and down the hallway EVERY TIME it happens (and it happens a lot)? Well the answer to both of those questions is of course, NOT ME! And frankly Ella doesn't care for the wetness and mess either and generally prefers her toys dry and clean. But that incessant energy motivates her to keep the game going. She may curse the bad shot and stare in disbelief that it's happened yet again, but ultimately she puts her game face back on, picks the hamburger out of the water and takes the 1-stroke penalty, and plays on...

"Haha momma! Your aim SUCKS!...Now what do we do?"

"Oh if you expect me to dip my nose in there and play with a wet hamburger, you've got another thing coming."

"FINE. But this is the LAST TIME I'm fishing this out for you! And I'm going to attack the mop when you try to clean up the floor too, just out of spite!"

HOLY CRAP

(Warning…puppy poop talk ahead…)

As you know, Ella has been nursing a lame left front leg for several days now. The doc put her on an anti-inflammatory to ease her discomfort while she’s in recovery. She warned me that the Metacam “can cause some stomach upset”. Ummm…folks, I don’t think “stomach upset” quite describes it adequately. Poor Ella has had the shits all night – at times to the point that she scared herself by the noises coming out of her bum and ran off, dribbling doo doo across the floor as she scurried away in fear. And poor momma has had a fun night cleaning up behind her. It’s one thing trying to scoop up diarrhea off of the sidewalk outside with a little baggie (totally pointless but I had to try). It’s quite another dealing with the mess indoors. It’s easy enough to clean up the wee wee pads, but I have been through an entire pack of matches and half a bottle of febreze just to clear the air in here! At least I’m getting my exercise running dirty wee wee pads down to the garbage every 20 minutes, but I can tell it’s going to be a long night.

Anyway, Ella is still limping unfortunately. She seemed slightly better on our evening walk, but not enough to ease the knot in my stomach. I’m giving her a couple more days to show a full recovery, or it’s back to the vet we go for x-rays.

In the meantime, I’m not so sure the Metacam’s benefits outweigh its side effects. I know if it were me, I’d choose the strained arm anyday…

Even I’m not so dedicated a blogger (or tasteless for that matter) that I obtained footage of Ella’s runny poo fest to put on display here (I mean, I’ll TALK about it – but pictures cross a line). I will, however, provide evidence of the resilience of the puppy spirit…even in spite of her ills, Ella couldn’t help herself from attacking the empty paper towel roll while momma was cleaning up her messes. Oh well…perhaps the cardboard will be “binding” and counteract the Metacam…

Lameness Update

OK so Ella’s PREVIOUS vet got even lamer today. Dumbfounded that I didn't hear from him yesterday, I didn’t receive any call from anyone at all until 12:30pm this afternoon. He left a message. Had the nerve to use the ol’ “Um, I didn’t feel my beeper vibrate in my pocket and just got your message.” excuse. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????? Are you a guy giving me an obligatory call back after a few dates when you really just want to blow me off (hypothetically. That’s never happened of course), or are you my veterinarian? Anyway, I called his office, had them fax me Ella’s records, and that’s the last I will ever speak of Dr. Lamo.

Moving on…tonight I took Ella to see Dr. Jackson at the Center for Veterinary Care on E. 75th Street. SO MUCH BETTER! She doesn’t see any evidence that it’s broken or fractured, although Ella did not like her manipulating either of her front elbows very much (in all fairness, if Dr. Jackson were pressing that hard on my elbows, I wouldn’t much like it either). But Ella really didn't have much of a reaction to any of the other horrifying positions in which Dr. Jackson maneuvered her legs. She suggested it would be good to get her elbows x-rayed when she gets spayed just to make sure they look ok and are in alignment. Of course I’m already nervous about her joints so that didn’t help my anxiety level much, but she recommended it really more as a precaution than because she has any evidence of a problem. Because of course immediately after Ella was done glaring about the elbow exam, she got up and RAN up and down the hallway – not exactly the behavior of a pup with bad elbows!

So anyway, back to the here and now…Dr. Jackson prescribed her an anti-inflammatory (Metacam) and advised continued exercise restriction for the next week or so. If Ella gets better, fabulous – then it was probably just a sprain. If she doesn’t, then we have to get some x-rays and go from there. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a little more rest and time will heal all wounds.

Of course, restricting Ella’s exercise is easier said than done. And I think that Metacam was actually liquid speed because it gave her the zoomies like nobody’s business. Her adrenaline was pumping so hard she was running like she was on fire, jumping up and down off of the couch, and even up onto my bed (which she’s normally not yet able to get up on). And all this jumping is not exactly what the good doctor prescribed! I had to literally lie on top of her when she got on the bed just to stop her and make sure she didn’t try to leap off like Super Puppy! (I swear all she was missing was the cape) Ahh, well. I think that anti-inflammatory just had her feeling like her old self again…spry and ready to go!

Reminds me of the good old days when she was running me ragged 3 hours a day in Central Park. Speaking of, here’s a clip of us on the day she was injured (before the injury, obviously)…hopefully I’ll be complaining about all that excessive physical activity again very soon…



P.S. Ella is now 26-and-a-half pounds!!! Holy cow! Dr. Jackson says she’s going to be a ‘big girl’. How did this happen? She had such tiny paws when she was 8 weeks old! Oh well, might have to get rid of some furniture to make room for her in my apartment, but we’ll figure out how to make it work…

Lame pup...WAY lamer veterinarian

(WARNING: SERIOUS RANT AHEAD…)

Yesterday, Ella injured her front left leg while we were out in Central Park. Ella grew tired of the Jack Russell Terrier who couldn’t decide whether he wanted to snap at her or sniff her, so she decided she’d rather say hello to his owner. She jumped up to greet him, he backed up a little, her jump was cut short by a taut leash, and she came down off balance and landed on her side.

The fall wasn’t so different than the other falls she has as a reckless puppy on a daily basis, but this time, she didn’t get up immediately. When she did finally get up, she came up lame, limping on her front left leg. We were very deep into the park at that point and it was a long way back home. I carried her as far as I could, but Ella’s getting big and momma’s got guns but even her arms of steel can only take so much. Anyway, mean momma made Ella hobble the rest of the way, and we eventually made it home.

I was hoping she’d rest it off, and that she was just scared and a little bruised, but today it seems she’s worse than yesterday. I tried to take her for a little walk around the block after work but she looked AWFUL, to the point I thought her leg was dislocated. On the verge of a panic attack, I scooped her up and brought her back inside so I could call her vet.

I called a little after 6pm and the office was already closed – I guess that’s my fault for calling “so late”. The answering service picked up, asked if it was an emergency (and panicked momma naturally said “yes” even though finding someone to calm me down was really probably more of an emergency than attending to Ella’s leg), took my number, and assured me she’d have someone call me right away.

That was 4-and-a-half hours ago. And guess what? STILL NO CALL!!!

I don’t care whether the underlying cause of Ella’s limp is simply a pine needle stuck in her paw pad, the job of a veterinarian…and the point of a messaging service…is to assess the situation and provide appropriate and timely care. I mean, what if her leg were broken? Is that not enough of an emergency to warrant a call back? Now, I don’t think it is broken, but the woman who took my message certainly didn’t ask enough questions to know that. What story should I tell next time I call that would elicit a response from this vet? A needle in the eye? A fish hook in the nose? Swallowed my razor? Ate 5 boxes of those chocolate peanut butter girl scout cookies? Would ANY of those work, do you think?

Well, all I know is I’m not sticking with this ridiculous vet long enough to find out. Truth is, this isn’t the first time I’ve been turned off by his practice…when Ella was 9 weeks old I was concerned she had kennel cough. I had just been in to see him a few days before, and he told me to keep an eye out for certain symptoms and call back if it worsened. The symptoms did worsen and I called back at 9am on a Saturday morning to get her in for further evaluation, only to be told by the receptionist that they were “really slammed” that day but I should call back Monday afternoon to try to make an appointment! Not only would they not make room for me that weekend, but she couldn’t even be bothered to schedule an appointment for me…I had to call again in a few days! Ridiculous.

So, here we go folks. This is one of the perks of having your own blog – you have the forum to tell the truth and the audience to listen! If you ever find yourself in NYC on the UES, avoid this vet (I know I will from here on out…):

Country Vets
Thomas DeVincentis, DVM, PC
430 East 75th Street
New York NY 10021
Ph (212) 535-3250
Fax (212) 744-6983

SHAME ON YOU!! How could you disregard this sweet face???




"My leg hurts momma...why won't the doctor call back?" *sniffle sniffle*



Anyway, first order of business tomorrow morning is to call a decent veterinarian and get Ella checked out. Fingers crossed it really is just a sprain…

Here’s a short clip of Ella’s little limp. I can’t really get any good footage of it while she’s inside. You can really see her favoring it when she's outside and scurrying along like a three-legged gimp...but you can at least see her hobble about with a sad pout...

A dog and her bone...

One of Aesop’s Fables is a tale about a dog and his bone…after receiving a bone from a butcher, the dog starts to hurry home with his prize, but runs into trouble when has to cross a bridge. While on the bridge, he looks down and sees his reflection in the water, mistaking his own image for that of another dog with an even bigger bone. So he opens his mouth, dropping his own bone to go after the bigger bone, only to fall in the water, struggle to swim back to shore, and end up with no bone at all. The moral of the story of course is that it is foolish to be greedy.

I’m not so sure that this classic fable really resonates with modern day pups. At least, I’m certain it doesn’t with Ella. First of all, Ella would never go to the butcher herself to get the bones – momma does that for her. Second, if Ella dropped her bone in the water, she’d look to momma to jump in and fish it out for her. And naturally, momma would. Third, if Ella did lose her bone, I think the photos below quite clearly illustrate that there is no shortage of back-ups. In fact, in this context, it would be foolish to NOT be greedy and take advantage of the opportunity to amass a personal fortune in bones.

Clearly Aesop didn’t consider the influence of doting and overly indulgent furparents when he originally wrote this fable. Maybe he didn’t anticipate our culture would ever evolve to this point, but I suspect that perhaps things weren’t so different back then, and Aesop just left out the part about the pup running back to the butcher with sad eyes and a cocked head, ultimately suckering him into giving him a replacement bone fit for a king. I find it hard to believe that even the ancient Greeks could resist the pout of a poor, wet, hungry pupper…














Remember I said that if Ella dropped her bone, she'd expect me to go fetch it? Well here's proof... (she's not spoiled at all...and I am not the least bit whipped...really. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run...Ella has an itch and can't be bothered to lift her leg to scratch it...)

Ice Rocks!

After tonight, I'm wondering why it took me so long to give Ella ice. I'm certainly always looking for things she can chew on other than my hands, arms, hair, furniture, sweater, toilet paper rolls...little did I know that ice would not only distract her from all of those other things, but also provide endless entertainment for both Ella and myself! And, IT'S FREE!! (Makes me feel like a fool for spending so much money on those damn Kongs and bully bones...)

Anyway, Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi can eat their hearts out...Ella puts on a far more dazzling ice show...

"So momma, how cold are we talking here? Why are you smiling that way?"

"I'm not so sure I trust momma right now but there IS something very irresistible about it."

"Let me just dip my toes in the pool first..."

"Maybe if I'm 'at one' with the ice...you know, Zen Ella."

"Oh, to hell with that zen crap. You betta back up, cube! I ain't no punk!"

"Ha! Now I've got you right where I want you, cube! You're no match for my killer puppy teeth!"

"D'oh! Brain freeze! FOILED!"

"Oh my God get it away! I can't take it! I can't take it!"

"Hurts so good."

Dreaming of my nikes...

I assure you that I did not set up this picture. I don't rule out that Ella staged it herself, though. Bitter that she didn't get the role of Cottonelle puppy, perhaps she's trying to create opportunities for upcoming Nike Shox ad campaigns. I wouldn't put it past her. I think all of the attention she gets on our walks is really going to her head. And I only feed into her ego further by constantly filming and taking pictures of her. I know she'd love nothing more than to be adored by millions.

Anyway, regardless of the underlying intentions, it's clear that she is having some sweet, sweet dreams about my sneaks...

"...mmmmm...the smell of that leather..."

"I can just taste those crisp white laces..."

"Momma, don't wake me up. I'm in the middle of a really good dream here and I'm not finished yet."

"Now, where was I? Oh yes...mmmmm those laces..."

"And there's nothing better than licking the bottom of those soles...oooh, except for when I sink my teeth into the tongue and thrash it back and forth like a rag doll...oh somebody pinch me this is too good to be true..."

Wild goose (duck??) hunt

Ella and I are currently in the routine of hitting Central Park twice a day for an average of about 90 mins each time (sometimes 2+ hours per walk). Momma’s EXHAUSTED (I thought I was in good shape before I got Ella – but not good enough. This is insane…). The jaunts are typically a balanced composition of walking, sniffing, socializing with other dogs, being stopped by random people who can’t resist Ella’s cuteness, Ella trying to dominate by sitting and refusing to move when she’s not the least bit tired, sprinting, jogging, and, recently, “stalking prey”. In Central Park, those prey consist of pigeons, squirrels, and geese…or are they ducks?

OK, look I don’t really know whether they’re geese or ducks which I know is ridiculous. And I’m a smart person, I swear. Geese have longer necks right? All I know is that when I lived on Long Island during graduate school, there was such a geese epidemic…well, really a geese POOP epidemic…that it became a public health problem and they were literally gassing them to death to try to resolve it. Awful. And they used to wander around the parking lot at my old apartment complex…but I must admit I never really studied the differences between those geese and the ducks I grew up with (not as pets, mind you…I’m referring to the ducks at nearby ponds in my community). Anyway, duck duck freaking goose, ok? Point is, Ella had a ball today going after anything with feathers and a beak.

So here’s a clip of her wild goose hunt on tonight’s walk. You’ll hear me call them geese on the vid…but in hindsight I think they were ducks. Look, it was pitch dark…and clearly in daylight I’d have trouble…again, NOT THE POINT, PEOPLE.

A couple of additional comments about the video…a) Sorry for my incessant sniffles…it’s still really cold here in NYC plus I haven’t gotten rid of my sinus infection yet, b) You’ll hear me refer to some crazy man who’s groaning in the background and distracting Ella…you can only hear a little bit of it in the clip, and just trust me on this one – LUCKY YOU – I SWEAR he was just jogging but those noises were obscene (and went on forever because he was “jogging” at a snail’s pace), and c) I didn’t get this on camera unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – but those ducks/geese left QUITE a mess behind in the end (hee hee…pun sort of intended). Ella scared the sh** out of them! Good girl Ella! ;)

Might as well play in comfort...

The life of a puppy is so strenuous.

Eat...chew...chase...bite...bark...chew...run...chew...jump...chew...I mean even with Ella's super puppy energy, she's bound to be a little tired sometimes...

Here's one rare occasion when she isn't quite at full speed while playing with her football. I think the coziness of the comforter soothed her just enough so that rolling around and letting out a few baby growls was about all she could manage. Even so, I think her devilishness shines through (and OH has she been a little devil these days...).

Enjoy...and if your ears are sensitive to squeaking, you might want to lower the volume...no matter how tired Ella is, she will never go easy on the squeakers...