Look at that glare. You just know he’s planning his revenge, and it will be terrible. Not terrible as in “that’s lame”, terrible as in fearsome and awe-inducing. Just to be clear about that.

Get well soon, Wembley, from another stumbly (albeit two-legged) fella.

And for those scientific types who crave a diagram: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pOc4ZHk_R34/TZpk-mMx97I/AAAAAAAAAG4/nifoa6CL7oI/s1600/Dog_muscle_Anatomy.jpg

Look Dad! Soft tissue damage! I need an escalator, not a stairway to heaven the leather couch!

If there were a god, a cocksusucker like Newt Fucking Gingrich would be having seziures and sore feet, not my pal, who I have never met nor pet. Hang in there you wobbley fucker, and you, too, TBogg.

Bed rest must simply be torture for such an active lad.

Sorry to hear about Wembley’s injury – Ernie the emo dachshund had a similar injury last year (left front bicep), and it was all we could do to keep him from jumping off the couch in pursuit of the cat.

Once he realized that it meant plenty of sleeping and much being fussed over, though, he started to behave.

Looks like you use the same rug decorator we do, bunched up by the chair, or door.

Poor guy. Lucky to have a people that will take care of him and has the means to do so, too. I’ve said before, even my old buddies who I loved so much it still aches terrible when I give thought to them, I could never have spent so much for treatment if they had needed it. Find an extra bucket for the doggie-care karma coming your way.
Now for the unsolicited medical advice, I found one mixture of green tripe(awesome doggy stuff on it’s own) that had trachea in it. This is supposed to be loaded with natural chondroitin, something about supplements not being able to be used like natural products so it’s supposed to be very beneficial.

Wembley’s pulled up??????

Did you know that Doggies can have aspirin? Arthur’s veterinary allows him some, when his arthritis is bothering him.

mmmmMMMM!! Trachea! That’s good eatin’.

It’s just nature’s way of telling Wembley it’s time to slow down– although given the fact that he is a basset hound, it’s difficult to see exactly how that would be possible.

Tom, I’ve been wondering for some time, so I’ll just ask– do you have health insurance and does it cover your deggs*? Is there such a thing as health insurance for pets?

For the youngsters, I’ll backstory: it’s only in the past decade or two that pet owners have lavished the kind of attention on their familiar’s ailments that they give their own; back in the day, if your dog was off his food or shambling in his gait, you’d simply say oh poor thing and watch him slowly die and veterinarians were no help, except to shrug and offer to put him down.

But as I say, this has changed (as GWPDA points out, dogs are treated now for arthritis) and it’s gotta be getting pretty expensive.

So, health insurance for dogs?

*Aye, deggs. h/t Brad Pitt in “Snatch”.

I will step in and tackle the insurance question. Yes, pet insurance is widely available. That being said, the coverage tends to be somewhat limited and really best for catastrophic situations. Also, there are generally clauses that exclude coverage for pre-diagnosed conditions, which, it seems, all of our dogs have had.

As for Stumbley, the meds have already reduced the limp significantly…however he is, at best, an uncooperative patient…continued launches off the bed, running full speed up and down the stairs and requiring a head lock maneuver to administer the meds. Brat.

Poor baby–I hope he recovers quickly and is feeling better soon. Very glad to hear the seizures are greatly reduced. I’m sure there’s nothing quite like putting a basset in a headlock to medicate–it’s damn hard enough with a cat–can’t imagine fighting against 55 pounds of determined dog.

Thanks for that, Missus.

I’m still mystified, though. I mean, I can understand how Matt Kemp can pull a hamstring, but jeez [laughing], a basset hound? Since anti-inflammatories tend to be corticosteroids, by the way, I guess I get to say:

So, bassets on steroids [laughing again], whatever next.

Re administering the meds: Could be worse, you know: had to give my cat a bath after he acquired a stripe of axle grease down his back when he was crawling around under a car. There was simply no other way to remove it, and although I live to tell the tale, I still have the scars on my arms and face to illustrate it.

55 pounds? Looks bigger. One our early bassets, Henry, went a solid 85 pounds. ‘Course, he was intact, which I swear meant an extra five pounds.

Green tripe too. Though…it smells like prepooped cow poop because it pretty much is. On property is the enzymes which are supposed to battle some cancers. The funny thing is, and maybe because of that claim, when we got our shipment it said “Not to be eaten by humans.” which, I say, if you cna eat THAT stuff then have at it. Needless to say, you have to love your pooch verah verah much.

Having given more than one flea bath to a cat, the best way is to get a wastebasket (clean it out, obviously) put the soapy water/flea dip in the basket, put the basket in the tub, & dunk kitty. Much harder for hi or her to flail about w/ claws when confined in the wastebasket.

Thanks for that, M.

Flea dip?

Oh dear, I’m a more negligent pet owner than I thought. I never gave Cato a flea bath or dip. He had a flea collar, yeah, but, jeez, that’s the whole point of having a cat, they’re low maintenance. It’s a point of honor for cats to keep themselves clean, and if you open a window, hell, you don’t even need a litterbox.

I would never have given the kid a bath but for the fact that he couldn’t deal with it himself: it was just too heavy, and besides, he was leaving axle grease streaks on the furniture, so in you go, pal. What you describe, M, was not enough, this shit had to be brushed out of the fur with lots and lots of mild detergent-charged water.

Cato was okay after it was all over– no, that’s a lie, he wouldn’t speak to me for weeks afterward, but at least I got some some relief. And tetanus shots.

I suspect I’m gonna get some grief from cat owners over this cavalier attitude to catkeeping (my response is, in advance, yes, you’re right, and then I stare at my shoetops). Fine, go ahead, get it over with.

But please, don’t be catty.

A belated “limping sucks”. Doggie massage might help. I’ve heard this is a profession and no not that kind of profession.

Thank God dogs sleep 23 hours a day and aren’t bored by it, because that should do the trick.

Oh.my.gawd. “Dunk kitrty.” Why did I never think of this?

I have also bathed kitties – never on my own, though, and no longer being married to my former assistant, I can’t imagine trying it again.

Luckily, it’s not usually necessary since the advent of topical flea meds. Whew.

Mrs. TBogg – I can’t believe you actually called Wembley “Stumbley.” Poor little guy.

I would never have given the kid a bath but for the fact that he couldn’t deal with it himself…

One of my cats came in once having apparently layed on a newly-painted patio; white feet, legs, belly. Both cats were mellow-ish, and I was able to hold her in one arm, belly up, and wipe off the paint (luckily still wet) with a warm damp washcloth. I tried to speed things up by dunking the feet, but she didn’t care for that– back to the cloth. No problem.

I sprayed them with flea spray a few times: pin them to the bathroom floor with a firm grip on the back of their neck, and spray against the grain. Let them go and they’d take off, only to come to me in the living room to be comforted. I could cause them to vanish thereafter by going, “Psssshhhhh!”

As others have noted, there is such a thing as pet insurance. We got some for Maui the basset who ate EVERYTHING and was in the hospital for GI problems rather frequently as a result. Of course, as soon as we got it he mended his ways and never had those problems again.

Maggie, our last basset, has an abdominal tumor and is on steroids. They’ve given us a few more months with her, which has been great, but I’m afraid we’re near the end. We’ve made the hard decision not to get any more dogs at this point, because our current lifestyle is very dog-unfriendly (work long hours and gone in the evening and on weekends a lot). So we are about to become a cat-only household. It’s the right decision, but transitions are hard….

See my comment above about our basset on steroids (wrote it before I saw yours).

Had the same (voracious and indiscriminate appetite) problem with my Rhodesian-Ridgeback-White-German-Shepard-Mix Wagner: Ate my fucking wallet one night while I slept. The whole thing. Crapped shredded currency for days afterward.

Very sorry to hear about Maggie. I’m given to understand that in heaven the cats and squirrels do not run as fast as they do here, so go bravely and happily thence Maggie.

Dear Mr Bogg,

This blog has an extreme pro-dog bias. Bassett Hounds no less! I am told they have short legs and drool a lot. Obummer has a dog also. Do you worship dogs just because Obummer does?

In my day, people posted pictures of their cats on blogs. Why can’t we have more cat pictures. I like cats because they don’t drool or hump your leg that much.

Sincerely,

J. Smythers Muggleworth III, J.D., D.D.S., L.M.T.

p.s. I am not a crank.

You know that anti dog guy prolly has a 100 million dollar Romney Super Pac he is just starting to gear up. America Fuck yeah.

Go read Kevin Drum’s blog. Plenty of catblogging there. Check out his pix from his recent trip to godless Europe.