Injured Reserve



'Watching my stories.'

(Yes, that' is STILL L'Oreal 5.3 on her side. Seven weeks and counting)



Ruby has been pretty darn healthy in her first year. Other than the weird warts on her toes and the one episode of what we will delicately refer to as 'tummy trouble,' she's not had any issues. Until now. A couple of weeks back I saw the first sign that something was wrong, but wrote it off as a fluke. I put my hands under her chin to tell her hello and kiss her on the nose and she yelped loudly. A few days later, it started to happen more regularly. We have been able to rule out and narrow down the injury. It is NOT her teeth, foot, ankle, or plain old fear. All of those have been ruled out in one way or the other.

If she jumpes up to give hugs, she sometimes falls back down yelping in absolute pain and won't put her right front foot down. One time, she was literally on the floor howling for a good 2-3 minutes. If she raises her head quickly to attempt to catch a treat (she still can't do it, btw), same reaction. Its also happened once or twice fighting with Sophie, a few times jumping in fear (the garbage cans were terrifying Monday), and occasionally when she races after the squirrels. She favors her right side when she lays down, laying awkwardly.  I also gave her the giant bone that she loves on Sunday and she couldn't carry it straight. You could tell that it hurt her neck to pick it up. And it is big, but I've seen her carry it around LOTS of times. Current school of thought is that it is a toss-up between her shoulder and her neck. Or a combination of the two.

I called Dr. Burke about a week and a half ago and gave him our list of symptoms and potential causes. Among them, too much roughhousing at camp (although the symptoms don't directly correlate with a day at camp, they did get worse the last time she went. Understandably.). Too much jumping like a fool after squirrels. Or possibly, it COULD be, I mean the possibility EXISTS that the attempts to break out of her kennel have caused her some pain. Trying to break out to the point that she has pulled the front of the kennel so hard that it is rounded IN now and a small creature could easily escape if needed. Presumably she has done this with her teeth since she's yet to sprout opposable thumbs. This has to hurt her neck. It just has to.

So, under Dr. Burke's orders, no walks, no camp, no chasing squirrels, giving hugs, wrestling (with Sophie or anybody else). General calmness until she heals. And lots of lap-dog time. Or as much as Mom can stand.

We are hoping that she comes out of it and we don't have to do x-rays to try and diagnose this. My main concern is that they have to put her under anesthesia to do it, which I hate doing unless absolutely necessary. Then there's the cost. A $250 minimum outlay to find out, potentially, that she sprained her neck trying to chew out of a metal cage and all we can do is wait it out until it heals. Dr. Burke called again this week to check up on her and said if she isn't better after Christmas that he really wants to go that route. uggh. I'm really hoping it isn't necessary.

We took a huge step and decided that if her stress level from being kenneled was causing her physical harm, we need to try something else. So for about two weeks now, Ruby has had the Run Of The House during the day. We have developed an elaborate 'cat in-dog out' security system with the upstairs bathroom door. So far she's not cracked the code. The rest of the upstairs doors stay closed, protecting mattress pads and fluff-filled objects everywhere. Downstairs she's been very good, other than almost digging through the couch cushions in the front living room. She's trying to 'bury' her toys in it for some reason so we've had to resort to piling all the cushions on the couch and wrapping the whole couch in an old blanket. Eventually we'll get through that annoying phase/habit as well. I just hope the furniture survives in the meantime. But there hasn't been a single household accident, food theft, garbage spill, upturned or turned up anything. I think she just lays looking out the window hoping to see one of us pull in the driveway. The squirrels have not slowed down and any given morning there are at least a half dozen of them on the deck. So if she's paying attention, she's got plenty to occupy her time. I'm going to leave the TV on tomorrow anyway. On Animal Planet. Just to give her something to do. :)

We had an unofficial weigh-in a few weeks ago and Ruby tipped the scales at just over 98 pounds. I think we all expected her to be bigger by now. But Dr. Burke told me on the phone that a 1-year old Great Dane is like a 7-month old German Shepherd. I think that means she's not nearly done growing. I had heard that about this breed, but had never heard it put quite like that. He still expects her to end up in the 130-150 range when she's completely filled out.

On the good news front, her reaction to visitors was really put to the test this weekend and she passed with flying colors. Friday night we had some friends over and she warmed up to them almost immediately. I kept her on a leash until she was relaxed so she wasn't pacing around annoying everyone and stressing herself out. She did great and within an hour was snuggled up lap-dog style on my pretty blonde friend. :)

But the real test was Sunday. Monroe Family Christmas, here at our house. An extra 10 bodies in the house, including very small ones. We put Ruby in the kennel upstairs until everyone got in and settled. I figured if she was going to freak out, it was best she do it once and get it all over with. I was so please that when I did bring her downstairs (on leash), she was nervous, but very calm. I think everyone here gave her a treat and before you knew it she was plopped on the couch or wandering around saying hello to everyone, and just being very pleasant. Even with tons of food perched on the edges of all the counters, she was very well-behaved. My sister-in-law accidently knocked THE CAN off the edge of the counter once. I'm pretty sure Ruby had an mini-stroke from the next room, but she rebounded quickly.

Have a fabulous Christmas and New Years everyone. And thanks for reading!

Favorite picture...this is how I leave her every morning before work, ever-hopeful that her attention span will not wane long enough to remember the couch that needs to have toys buried in it. :)

Trouble Is As Trouble Does

My last update was shortly after the Great Sophie Bed Massacre of 2010 and just prior to the great Thanksgiving Day Mattress Pad Massacre of 2010. On the off chance that last one requires some explanation, I'll save the drama and just give you the Reader's Digest version.

Thanksgiving Day. Left home with Grandma and Grandpa for maybe 30 minutes. The little shit-dog snuck upstairs to the bedroom and dug a giant hole in the center of our mattress pad. A deliberate act of defiance for leaving her home. I'm sure of it. Only good news is, she stopped when she hit mattress. Black Friday sales being what they were, the replacement mattress pad was only $18.99, free shipping. Thank you Kohls.

So I didn't kill her.

As the Christmas decorations have gone up, Ruby has found plenty of additional ways to get herself in trouble. First, she paced in fear as the boxes came up from the basement. For a brief time we added outdoor lights to the 'things to be terrified of' list but that passed. After all the decorations are up, Ruby has learned that the following acts will get her in trouble:

• Taking candy out of the advent calendar.
• Taking ornaments off the tree.
• Walking around with a santa hat hanging out of her mouth.
• Grabbing ribbons off the tree on the front porch on her way to pee in the yard.
• Biting the tree lights.

To name a few.

Ruby being Ruby, Christmas decorations aren't the only way she's found trouble in the last couple of weeks. As the weather has gotten cold, very cold, her desire to spend adequate potty time in the yard is waning. The first big snow last week dropped about 7-8 inches in the yard. It's funny to remember that this was the dog who, in March, was peeing on the tiniest remaining pile of snow in the back yard because it was all she knew. But Friday night when it was snowing again, she was timid. By Saturday morning with piles of snow everywhere, she was nothing short of skittish. Where do I walk? Can I put my feet in it? How does it smell? WHERE DO I POOP!?!?

And THEN the snowblower started. She freaked. I put her in her kennel until we were done with the initial cleanup because she was so stressed out. But by afternoon, she had fallen in love with the snow. Running through the back yard like a gazelle, bounding through the drifts, and coming to the back door with piles of snow on her nose when I could get her attention. It also seems that the squirrels were extra busy this weekend, or at least extra visible. This picture was from our bedroom window. The tree is just outside and this big fat squirrel sat eating berries and openly mocking the dog. It was a busy weekend.

And then came Monday. Ruby was DEFIANT about peeing at 5:30 in the morning, but I dressed her in her sweatshirt to try and help the cold thing (didn't help). I finally got my coat on and stepped out with her where I outlasted her in the front yard, freezing my tail off right along with her until she gave in. Then she came in and refused to eat her breakfast. I think she knows its a workday and stalls thinking I'll give in and stay home with her. Since she won't eat, we put her food in her kennel with her.

At the end of Monday:

She must have tried desperately to get the bowl turned over, given the large dents in the bottom of it.

So Tuesday comes around and the routine continues. Put on sweatshirt (she hates that part), reluctantly leave the front door, pee because the cold won't let her hold it in, shiver annoyingly against the house. Sneak to the back door, then back to the front door, finally forcing the Mom out of the house to shiver in the cold. Give in and poop after pacing a good solid 4 minutes to pick a spot in the snow (WHY oh why is it so hard to pick where you are going to poop!?!?) Into the house to mope around and refuse to eat. In the kennel with the food bowl for the work day.

And today, we got THIS: 

Those black strips all over the floor are the pieces of the plastic tray that lined the bottom of her kennel. 

Let me clarify:

Ruby. Ate. Her. Kennel.

Clearly she is miserable in her kennel. But I'm sure you saw the video of what used to be Sophie's bed the LAST time we left her out to roam the house all day. So here's my plan. I will puppy-proof every inch of this house tomorrow morning. And we will leave her out. I will run home at lunch and make certain she hasn't destroyed anything. Or, more likely, I will clean up piles of fluff from the couch, or strips of what used to be our curtains, or I'll have to go price out new carpet after work.

Wish me luck.

Favorite picture of the week is easy.