Day 2829 - Autumnal Equinox

It's officially Fall. The days are getting shorter and the leaves are starting to turn. Last year at this time we were taking early morning walks in the dark. Sadly, Dot is no longer with us and there is no need to get up early. I just walk Dash by myself later in the morning after Janet has gone to work. Usually, Dash still enjoys these morning walks, but today I had trouble getting him to leave the house. He was in a weird mood all day. He didn't eat his breakfast. He didn't want to walk. And he was lethargic for most of the day.

Something is wrong, but I don't know what it is. There's a good chance that the antibiotics he's taking for his dewclaw injury have affected his appetite. This has happened before. Maybe the increase in his phenobarbital dose is a factor as well. It's never good when a dog won't eat normally, but hopefully this isn't serious. Dash's blood work and vital signs are good and his vet doesn't seem worried. I worry about everything though. You don't want to take chances with a dog who is already dealing with cancer, vestibular disease, and epilepsy.

I finally fed Dash some canned food around noon because he refused to eat his breakfast at all. The fact that he ate the canned food leads me to believe that the stubborn dog is just holding out for a tastier menu every day. Every dog we've ever had has lost their appetite toward the end of their life, so I still need to get to the bottom of this. If his appetite doesn't return when he's finished with the antibiotics, we'll need to run some more tests.

My appetite is still good. I had a nice breakfast and then went shopping at Central Market for dinner. That was my outing for the day. When I returned with the groceries I didn't leave the house until it was time for Dash's evening walk. Dash walked fine this evening. He seems to need someone to follow. When Janet goes with us, he will always follow her.

There are several big Dalmatian Rescue events this weekend, but I'll be staying home with Dash. I feel a bit guilty about not volunteering, but I don't trust leaving Dash alone all day with a cone on his head. I don't feel comfortable boarding him either. It would be so easy for him to open up that cut again. We could take him with us to one of the events, but Dash is terrible in the car. After cleaning up an explosion of poop after one trip in the car recently and cleaning up blood after he tore out his dewclaw during another car trip, I'm nervous about ever taking him in the car again.

Sometimes I feel like I'm destined to be housebound as long as we have dogs. Even short trips are problematic. I need to go to the dentist next week to have my teeth cleaned and the forecast says there will be thunderstorms that day. Jeez. It's been clear all month. Why would it rain the one day I need to go somewhere? I can't leave Dash during a thunderstorm. We'll see. Maybe the forecast will change.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2189

We're done! I always say that I never want to do one of these pet picture marathons again, but that's just my aging body talking. When it's all over, I usually think we've done something good. Hundreds of people now have their Christmas card photos. We've made a lot of people happy. And we've raised a fair amount of money to help my favorite charity. Shooting Santa photos with people's pets is the only team activity I get involved with all year. Maybe a little teamwork isn't such a bad thing. I'll have to say that we're a pretty good team. It takes eight people to put together these Santa Paws events and over the years we've become experts at it. People come back year after year to dress their pets in ridiculous costumes and have Santa hold them on his lap. They say we have the best Santa photos in town. I believe we do.

Today was tiring, but everybody was in a good mood since we knew we were on the home stretch. I think most of the bad, misbehaving dogs decided to come today. We definitely had our hands full. Our set got peed on again. Several dogs were nervous and didn't want to have anything to do with Santa. Other dogs couldn't stand still for two seconds. Quite a few drooled a lot and couldn't keep their tongue in their mouth. It takes a lot of patience to be a pet photographer. It also takes a lot of dog treats. Eventually, we got a good photo of almost everybody, but some dogs took longer than others.

Texas weather is remarkably inconsistent. When I went to bed last night it was warm and muggy. During the night it poured rain and by the time we called it a day at our Santa Paws location this afternoon, it was thirty degrees cooler and felt like it could snow. I thought there might be a lot of no shows because of today's rain, but I think all the weather did was make people late for their appointment. I never criticize people for being late anymore, since I'm late so often myself. Dallas traffic is terrible and encountering a single traffic accident or construction site can put you twenty minutes behind. With some of the wild dogs we photographed today, I'm amazed that many of these people made it to the photo shoot at all.

With the Santa Paws season behind us, it's now time to catch up on other things. I'll make a trip to the storage warehouse tomorrow to return some of the equipment we used and hopefully return with a box or two of Christmas ornaments. Putting up a Christmas tree is definitely on this weeks to-do list. So is putting up the new set of mini-blinds I bought last week. I'd like to sleep in tomorrow, but it's a work day. Janet will be getting up at the crack of dawn to get ready for work and we'll all go on a morning walk as the sun comes up. After that, who knows. There is a fresh bunch of bananas and a tub of strawberries in the kitchen for my morning smoothies. There is certainly plenty to do tomorrow, but it will be hard to resist the temptation to take a long nap as soon as Janet's car leaves the driveway.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day