Puppy Blues

Okay, so we have these three great dogs and we rescued them from certain death at the animal shelter (not really) and thought that we had it great for the first few months. Boy were we wrong! First, our German Shepherd mix Starsky started climbing the 4 foot chain link fence in our backyard. Hotwire it, we thought. So we did. Mikey yelped and ran across the yard when he barely tapped the wire, Iris quickly figured out not to even go near it, but Starsky (aka Houdini dog) wasn't even phased by it. In fact, it almost looked like was enjoying the nice massage he was getting from the wire.

On to Plan B. We decided to construct a "dog pen" out of 6 foot chain link fencing. It's not cheap, but we think it will keep Starsky busy for a little while at least. Just to be sure, we surrounded the top with hot wire. That seems to have worked so far...knock on wood!

A couple of weeks ago, our sweet Catahoula, Iris, started to really limp around and was really stiff when she got up or went up and down steps. She's always been a little sore in the mornings, but we just attributed that to rough play with the other two dogs. When it got worse, we took her to the vet. It turns out Iris has hip dysplsia in both of her hips. It's very painful and at just 8 months old, we can't justify putting her to sleep, so off to A&M Vet School we go. If she has surgery, it should fix her for good. Let's hope Mikey (the only one I picked out by the way) doesn't turn up with some ailment anytime soon!

So much for the tax rebate. It is, quite literally, going to the dogs!