Woodstone Prairie

One of the downsides of living where we do is our unpredictable electrical service. Several times a week, for no apparent reason at all, the electricity will go out. It usually comes right back on again… it just goes out long enough to get all the clocks blinking 12:00 and shut the computer down (losing whatever I happen to be working on at the moment… )

That’s what happened yesterday just before I clicked on save here on my “write post” page. Grrr…. It’s not like I’d written anything profound, but darn it’s frustrating when that screen goes blank in the middle of a sentence! (It tends to make my computer a little cranky too!)

Our little sheltie is settling in very well. He’s a sweet little thing and we’d decided to name him Quin (which means intelligent).

He does seem to be a smart little guy… He sits, lays, and stays on command. I still need to teach him to heel on a leash. He came with a few toys, including a very ugly stuffed fish. The fish is almost as big as he is and it’s obviously his favorite toy. If I ask him where his fish is, he’ll perk his ears up and immediately start running around the house looking for it. Once he finds it he’ll play endless games of fetch and tug of war. The kids are having a lot of fun with him.

I took both dogs to the vet yesterday, which led to all kinds of excitement. First Quin got off the leash in the parking lot and took off. At the same time my car alarm went off (one of the kids hadn’t shut the door tight and that set it off) and Emma got so excited by the noise and commotion that she started in with her big deep barks. M (who was holding Emma’s leash) was so upset by Quin getting away that he dropped her leash and so, for awhile, we had two dogs wandering around the vet’s parking lot, the car alarm blaring, the kids panicking and me trying to catch little Quin (who wouldn’t come near me because Emma was following me around barking!). It was total chaos.

Eventually the dogs were caught, the car alarm turned off and we made it (sweaty and a little disheveled) into the vet’s office. She said that Quin was healthy but confirmed that he does have some problems with his legs. I have the veterinary terms but it boils down to his back legs being very bowed and having knee caps that don’t stay in place. He might also have some problems with one of his hips. She said in a larger dog… one like Emma… this would be devastating. But because Quin is so little it shouldn’t cause him too much trouble. (Whew!)

We talked goats for awhile (our vet raises dairy goats!) then she gave both dogs their shots and we headed home. We weren’t home 15 minutes when I noticed Quin’s face starting to swell up. He was having an allergic reaction to one of his shots! I called the vet back, gave him a benadryl, and started watching for signs of respiratory distress. Sure enough, before long he started breathing very quickly so I loaded him back into the car and headed back to the vet. She gave him more benadryl (injectable) and a shot of steroids to help with his breathing. She was going to keep him overnight to watch him but I said I’d watch him closely so she let me take him home. By that time we’d spend most of the morning at the vet’s office (and M had assigned himself the job of “greeter”, sitting and visiting with everyone who came in the door!) so she gave the kids a tour of the recovery area and told them about the different animals that were recovering from surgery there.

Quin was a sleepy dog for awhile (all that benadryl) but the swelling eventually went down and he seems fine now.

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Here’s a picture of our brave hunter returning victorious with his really ugly stuffed fish

…. making sure it’s really dead.