Had to put Samantha down; Now Bubba

[rlown]

Great to see the photos and stories about your dogs.
Never had an outdoor dog. We just lost our sheltie (Jerry Garcia) in April after almost 9 years. Life without a dog sucks.

Get another. You know you will. took me a year to get over my loss of Bubba and I have all the equipment to train. I've decided Simba is good enough to take out this waterfowl season. Even ordered him a closed cell pad, and he watches birds, which is a huge plus. We went on a 5am hike in the fog just to see his reaction. He's fine. Next June my plan is to take him backpacking.

[oldhikerQ]

Thanks. Someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, i will. The missus swears that she will never have another dog because of the way ours died without any symptoms at such a young age.
My plan is to get another sheltie as soon as i retire (only 1397 days, but who's counting?) if i haven't convinced her by then.

[rlown]

Funny story: When I was a SW architect at HP, I had 200+ people in the vroom as I was leading the meeting. Samantha strolled into the home office and lays at my feet and the power strip button turning it off and booting all from the meeting.

Everyone was back in the vroom in 5 minutes but that button is now taped permanently in the on position.

[Tom_H]

Nice to see Hershey!

Thanks, unfortunately, we had to put him down on the 14th. I took him to the kennel and they called 3 hours later saying he was drinking copious water and throwing it right up. Vet said it was a stomach torsion (stomach spins upside down) with poor chance of recovery due to probable necrosis and damage to other organs. Vet said cause was unknown, but online articles said biggest trigger is swallowing lots of air due to panting/extreme anxiety. Happens most frequently at kennels. Also read that old dogs get this anxiety from Alzheimers like brain deterioration, often following painful trauma. He'd had that severe arthritic pain in spine recently. Called Canine Cognitive Disorder (Dysfunction?) old dogs get confused, have more pain at night, get scared and anxious at night, all of which he was doing. It listed lots of other symptoms like staring into space, which he didn't do.

He was very affectionate and super smart. He followed about 20 commands and when he wanted something he'd bump my knee with his nose, sit, and stare at my eyes. I'd go down a list of what he wanted. When I said it, he jump run in that direction, then jump back towards me. He always defended our small girl cats from meaner boy cats when they were being bullies. Those little girl cats rubbed all over him with love because of that. He didn't care for that too much, but still let them do it. When those girl cats would sneak into his bed, he'd bump me with his nose, look at me, turn his head, look down at the cat in his bed, then look back at me with this look of, Please get her out of my bed for me, She adores me. I want my bed back, but don't want her to be put out with me, so please be the bad guy for me.

One time we left a container of donuts on the table with all chairs pushed in where he couldn't get to it and the cats couldn't open it. I walked in the next morning. This tiny girl rescue cat with no claws and no teeth had pushed the box off the table onto the floor where Hershey tore the box open. They were laying on their sides, face to face, munching on opposite sides of the same donut.

This dog was endlessly loyal and loving. I was torn up for days and am gonna miss him a lot.

[rlown]

Very sorry for your loss. When Samantha started to gulp water, I knew something was wrong. She lived for another 6 months on meds, and then it was time. Incontinence. muscle loss, and just a general state of decay. She knew it was time.

Sorry again for you, your wife and Hershey.

[rlown]

I was looking at quilts for Simba. I found this:

DSCN4107-225x300.jpg (19.27 KiB) Viewed 78 times

Now, the face on the dog tells the story..

I got a closed cell foam pad, now I need the quilt.

[rlown]

Got Simba's quilt. 1.8lbs. And I've been training him in his new pack. 5lbs of water so far.

[Tom_H]

Really pretty dog!

[rlown]

Tomorrow night is Doggy tent test night. I was digging through my gear and came up with a Nova +20 bag. I don't remember getting it but it still fits. I fully expect Simba to be an idiot and he'll be on his check leash; we'll see if my neo-air hangs in. he's got his pad and quilt so we'll see how that works. I'll set it up on my front lawn, and just see how it plays out.

I love experiments.

[rlown]

Three nights in a tent so far. He did well. Thunder, Lightning and heavy rain last night. Didn't flinch.

Welcome to the tent

Thinking about where to sleep

It was warm, even with the rain

Figured it out in his kelty quilt

He's good to go..