Been A While

 So, it's been....

... over a year since my last post, so I figured I'd get back into the swing of things and start again, since my personal assistant (Bleeder) has transitioned to full time care of me. I want to thank everyone that reached out to express concern about my lack of blogging... oh wait... nobody noticed.

Here's an update on what has been happening:

Nothing really. Nothing incredibly exciting, other than playing with three Sparrow fledglings in the yard. If you thought the squeaker toys the humans bought me didn't last very long, those fledgling toys are very fragile and only last for seconds.

I gained a bit of weight and was put on a DIE(t). I'm back down to a reasonable circumference, and had to have my harness adjusted smaller.

Is it lunch time yet?

Since Bleeder's transfer to full time caretaker, we all now go on morning and sometimes also nightly walks, which I really enjoy. I've even stopped pulling Bleeder down the road, over to one side, over to the other side, and lunging, but I still want to play with every one and every thing we happen to pass, and I especially like Mondays because the trash gets picked up and there's all sorts of tasty things on the road to snatch up and freak out the humans.

It is currently 5,000 degrees here with 45,607% humidity and torrential downpours and loud storms, so we haven't been able to walk in 2 days. I have excess energy to burn right now. I don't mind storms much because I get a Woof ball to concentrate on, but I do NOT like fireworks at all. We just passed the fireworks week, thankfully. From what I hear my "phobia" isn't as bad as Meeshka's. I don't leap on the bed and pee on it, but if that got me more treats, it is an option to try.

I haven't made Bleeder bleed in a while, but I did manage to rake Toast with my finely honed dewclaw the other day, so win-win.

I am attempting to eat all of the bugs in the yard. Beetles, Cicadas, those annoying little leapy spotted lantern fly things. It makes the humans run and shriek at me to stop, which is great fun. 

The humans have started doing a lot of home cooking, and bread making and that's a win for me because I LOVE bread products. 

I would like a bit of scone please

I don't get a lot, it's not good for me or my new girlish figure, but I do require a sample. I also get whole wheat flour pumpkin, peanut butter cookies that Bleeder stores in the freezer. Those are quite tasty and refreshing.

Some days I get to drive in my fancy car and we all go to a store where some stranger throws food into the back and then we go home and put the food away. I try to help, but they weren't happy about my taking a container of yogurt onto the deck to eat... or the tube of tomato paste I sampled with my teeth... or trying to make off with the celery.

So you see, it's been pretty boring around here, but I'll try to keep up with the blogging a bit more regularly... after my nap.

Merryland is a Stupid State

 Last week I dreamt of snow... no, I glared outside and demanded that it snowed.

I got snow for my birthday celebration

Now that's what I'm talkin about

I got to lay on my giant ploop of snow and lick it like my personal snowcone bed

so tasty

Yesterday is was 70 degrees 

Bleeder, can you turn that outdoor thermostat back to snow?

and now it's 40 degrees and pouring rain.

I'm so done with this state.

Why aren't you packing to move to a sane state?

Happy Birthday To Me

How ya doin?

 

Today I turn 3 years old, that's 21 in human years, so I'd like a beer, and the car keys, please.

In classic fashion, my birthday gifts won't arrive until tomorrow, but Bleeder did outdo herself with my birthday cake

Can't wait to eat... I mean blow out the candles.

Not only did I get snow for my birthday, but it's very tasty snow. I love licking it, and eating the clumps. I'm not crazy about the height, as the snow tickles and freezes my delicate po-po, so I've had to make some changes in my normal poop stance.

Bleeder also made me a snow "man".

Looks more like the monoliths of Mawphlang Sacred Forest in Meghalaya, India, but whatever. 

I wasn't exactly thrilled by it, and also forgot all about it, so the next time I came outside, I sensed an interloper in my yard, went full out front and back end hackle raised and stalked it. Bleeder knocked it down for me.

My favorite thing to do is lay on the deck and watch all of the birds and squirrels and ignore the annoying squeals of small children hurtling to their doom on slick pieces of plastic down the hilled busy road to doom.

I like others to share in my pasttime, so I require an escort on the deck. Silly humans have to put on their external furs to join my observations and witting repartee, but since it is my birthday, I asked Toast to put on some special furs befitting my birthday status, as well as my pecking order within the household.

I have yet to find anything that they aren't willing to do to make me happy... it's a challenge I've accepted with ridiculous demands.

• Throw the ball (for no reason because I won't chase it)
• Take me out (so I can lay on the deck and not pee before bed)
• Wake them up to take me out at 0100 so I can pee because I wouldn't get off the deck (or my favorite, get into bed, get my nightly treat and skritches, then jump off the bed to go pee because I wouldn't get off the deck)
• Wake them up at 0400 every morning to feed me tasty cream cheese (I know there's pills in there) and breakfast.
• Steal the entire bottom half of their bed
• Feed me pancakes on Sunday (I'm currently waiting on Toast to whip up my birthday pancakes, which are different than regular pancake Sundays in that it's not my birthday every Sunday.... but it should be).

So, by royal decree, I say unto you: go eat some pancakes and celebrate my birthday. While you're at it, eat some snow, but not the yellow stuff.

I Have An Alibi

 I'm just laying here... not doing a thing... napping a bit

Seriously, I have no idea how that pillow got there, it was the most amazing thing... there was this very strong wind...

So... anyway, now that the pillow is here, would you turn off the light so I can get a little nap.

New Year? What's a Year?

 Out of the blue, Bleeder stayed home for a very long time, and I was very happy. I love having my personal assistant with me at all times, and frankly when she leaves to go off and do work for others, it makes me really mad.

I'm supposed to be your only client

Bleeder and Toast spent a lot of time cleaning their clutter out of a back room and hauling it away. During the times when the front door wasn't open and I was locked behind the stairway gate, I got to assist with this decluttering by:

• Standing in their way
• Standing directly under some precariously balanced boxes
• Sniffing places that I was told was dangerous
• Chewing things found on the floor and being chased and bribed
• Not "getting out of their way" when told
• Barging in and taking over supervisory duties when I felt a box needed to be placed on the floor for sniffing purposes

I've never seen the downstairs back room so clean before! Now I'm able to go back there and sniff new things (except that mitre saw, for some odd reason), and paw through the stack of papers that Toast is trying to scan and shred (I'm also not allowed near the shredder, for some odd reason), and generally help sort through the stuff and decide what stays and what goes. I have free leash to walk in the back room now... which means I don't want to walk in the back room now. What fun is going into a room I can go into freely.

During one of the days that they call "Christmas" I was given a wonderful gift!

It was called a "lambchop" for some reason. I had to check to make sure it was suitable.

Hey, how about a little privacy, I'm getting to know this lambchop

The first order of business was to rip out its tongue, which I served with some Fava beans and a nice Chianti. Can't have it screaming all the time.

Then I ripped its face off.

It did make a nice pillow when I was tired of gnawing on it

Or when I wanted to gnaw, but was just a bit worn out.

3 Days later...

I also got a chicken. I still have the chicken, but one leg and its squeaker is gone

I have to say, I really enjoyed that Christmas thing... the New Year thing though... not so much.

There were no gifts at all, and people were making very loud booming noises in the middle of the night. I was perturbed and woke up Toast and Bleeder to express my dissatisfaction was the noise. Wasn't there some kind of law about this?

I was out in the yard trying to take a peaceful pee and next thing I know I'm being bombarded with sparkly things in the sky and booming.

According to Bleeder, I'm not as affected by them as Meeshka and Loki were, and she told me that she is thankful that I don't immediately pee on the bed and claw her, I just demand treats and play time when I'm anxious.

I also don't know what a "new year" is. It's just another day and it is my opinion that every day should be spent by waking up and having fun without the use of loud munitions, so why do humans celebrate one particular day... there's a lot of days, celebrate them (quietly) by having fun, not waiting around for one particular day. 

Daylight is wasting, let's get in that muddy yard and play!

In case you need a way to block out the noise of life, I highly suggest wearing a stylish pink dinosaur on your head.

Happy New Day to you all... now get up and go play.

It's a Hard Life

 While I'm waiting for the weather outside to be frightful, and I don't mean buckets of rain, I spend the mild temperatures out on my deck or on the lawn because there are an awful lot of rude birds and squirrels around here. Somebody has to keep them off my lawn.

My latest hobby is paw modeling.

If you order now, you can get two bricks for the price of one, just pay shipping and handling

Here we have some very lovely bricks covering the holes I've dug...

When I'm not paw modeling, then I'm working toward the total destruction of all pink dinosaurs. I prefer to do that on my deck perch so I can watch out for trespassers.

Was that a squirrel?

Bleeder sits out on the deck with me, but she complains about how hard the boards are on her butt.

You have plenty of butt padding, Bleeder, I don't know what you're complaining about

Was that a squirrel?

All of this work is, of course, very exhausting, not to mention all the exercise I get from wanting in, wanting out, wanting in, wanting out, play with me, don't play with me, pet me, stop petting me, let me roll in this dead thing, and watch out, I just pooped in those leaves.

Naps are essential.

Not for the Faint of Heart

 Yeah, yeah, I'm not a regular husky, so don't be expecting regular posts, I'm too busy having fun and creating bruise artwork on Bleeder, or using her as a pillow:

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, so pay attention:

I have epilepsy.

Heartworm pills set off my seizures

Yes, ALL of the heartworm pills.

3-10 days after taking a heartworm pill, I'll have a seizure.

Heartworm pills are nothing but a neurotoxin in doses that kill the stupid little bugs that grow into large bugs that are injected by infected mosquitos. In me, it sets off my seizure trigger.

My choices are:

• Don't take any heartworm pills and risk dying of heartworm disease
• Take them while also taking anti-seizure medications and hope that staves off the seizure.

So, I take monthly heartworm pills while also taking anti-seizure medications (generic Keppra). I get my 2 Keppra pills three times a day, 8 hours apart with whipped cream cheese. Once a month I get the lowest dosage of heartworm pills for my weight.

Once a month, for 3-10 days, my humans are nervous wrecks. I am oblivious and go about my days like normal.

On Thursday (day 7) I had a recheck with my neurologist. He has three assistants and they sat on the floor, so I made sure to give them the full husky attention. My owners proudly talked about how I've been doing fantastic, no seizures for over 3 months, everything going well, optimistic, wonderful, very pleased. Keep doing what we're doing he said. Hope for the best he said. Seizures are stupid and nobody knows what the heckin to expect so do what works for each pupper (I'm paraphrasing that).

On Friday (day 8) I puked, fell over (that's how all of them start) then woke up in a puddle of drool and pee.

I don't feel them, I have no clue what the fluff even happens, so I'm confused when I wake up, and frankly this time I bit my tongue a little and that was annoying.

I'm clingy and restless for about an hour, and need to poop immediately, so I'm ushered outside where EVERYTHING SMELLS AMAZING. Then I poop. Then I pace, pace, pace while one of them tries to towel the drool and gunk off of me (I prefer to wipe my mouth on their clothes), and steam clean up my drool and pee.

The humans are always freaked out, according to them, it's horrible to watch, but they say they stay with me to make sure I'm safe and don't bonk my head or other things into hard objects and tell me I'm a good girl (because I am). They move away from me when I come out of it because they know I'll be confused and may be afraid and try to attack them if I feel vulnerable and threatened.

They are watchful because with seizures, you never know if that was the first and only... or if more are coming. During seizures they video me, and time them... anything over 5 minutes is very bad. According to them, even 1-2 minutes seems like an eternity.

I have an amazing amount of energy after a seizure. I want to play, play, play and they do play play play with me once I have my balance back... I'm a bit wobbly in the beginning, but I'm actually not that coordinated under normal circumstances.

When I do finally rest, I rest pretty hard.

It takes a day or two to recover fully, muscles a bit sore, stomach a bit upset, etc. But then it's back to normal... except for the humans, who watch me like a hawk and log my every movement, burp, hiccup, bowl movement, food intake, and pilling.

Seizures suck. I have epilepsy. Would I have them if I didn't take the heartworm pill? Don't know, but until my humans can find some state that doesn't have stupid mosquitos... we just do what we need to do to keep them at a minimum and hope for the best.

We thank all of our social media fans for their care and concern. Feel free to let us know if you live some place in the United States where your pup is not on heartworm because the risk is low to non-existent. It also has to be a place with good access to vet care (neurology included) and Emergency vet services.

Big shout out to Chewy.com for affordable and reliable Pharmacy services that keep my generic Keppra flowing without drama.

UPDATE - We have now switched Casey to oral Ivermectin compounded by the wonderful Chewy pharmacy instead of heartworm pills to minimize unnecessary neurotoxins). So far, so good.

This will probably be the last post about my epilepsy, as I don't want my fun blog to become a downer. I am a normal pup 99% of the time, it's just those bad days that ruin the mood. 

-Casey-

I Told Them So

For the past week there's been something smelly behind the fence.

I sniffed, snorfled, and paced back there and Toast and Bleeder were all "there's nothing back there, leave it".

But there was something back there, and on Saturday I almost caught it.

There we were, out in the yard at O'Dark Thirty... an intruder had breached my perimeter and I was having none of that, so I chased it up the tree.

Bleary eyed Bleeder didn't see what it was because she had her nose so deep in her phone and didn't look up until the intruder had scampered up the tree. I tried to follow, but climbing trees isn't within my skill set, so I just glared up in the tree.

My glaring should have been a clear signal to Bleeder to climb up that tree and throw the intruder down to me so I could take care of it... instead she ignored me and told me to go inside... for a treat.

A treat? While an intruder is trespassing in my tree?  What kind of treat?

I went inside, because there was a treat, but I wasn't happy about it.

They wouldn't let me go out again until daylight, and only after Bleeder searched the yard and inspected the trees to make sure nothing was out there. Like I can't handle myself or something. eeesh.

So, the day goes by, it's getting cooler, which means I can play in the yard without overheating, so we played a lot in the yard, and we had fun... but I had a feeling.

Later in the afternoon when we had finished playing and I was testing the firmness of a lovely stick I had found, Bleeder and Toast were chatting about something stupid and Bleeder looks up and sees this high up in the tree.

 TRASH PANDA! 

The trespasser I tried to evict from the yard!

It was just staring at us... like we were the problem. The gall of that trash panda!

I was immediately escorted back inside, like it would fling itself down onto us or something. I'D LIKE TO SEE IT TRY THAT! But I was not allowed to see if it would try that.

There were phone calls made, and no calls returned, because it's hard to find good help these days (or other words used by Toast), so the plan was to leash me up whenever I had to pee or that other thing, and keep me within the confines of the area of new grass that I shall not be allowed into until the grass has grown and then I'll be able to dig it all up with giant holes (I added that last part).

So, that's what we did until it got dark. Then Bleeder spied on the trash panda as it slowly made its way down the tree, and then tip-toed over to another tree, and climbed that, used some overhanging branches to get over the fence and make its escape.

After Bleeder was sure it had vamoosed, they took me out on the leash again, but I REALLY had to poop, and I only poop in one spot (near the tree in question), so they finally took me out of the little fenced area on the leash and allowed me to do my unfinished business in my official poop spot, and then we went to bed (after my medicinal cream cheese).

The next morning I had to wait with legs crossed while Bleeder went out with a flashlight (probably freaking out all of the neighbors) to search the trees and entire yard before announcing it was safe, and I went out for my morning constitutional. There were no enticing sniffs of it left, but I will remember you trash panda... don't come back here, I'm waiting for you.

Betrayed

 I will be totally straight forward and honest because I am an honorable puppy:

I have water issues.

I don't like to drink filtered fridge water, I prefer lukewarm tap water.

I will stick my head in the shower when someone is in there, I will lick the bath tub after they shower, but I will NOT get in the tub if there is water in it, nor will I get all the way in if the shower is left running.

I don't mind rain. I like rain. I like mud. I will lay in mud... 

BUT I HATE THE SPRINKLERS!

The sprinklers are supposed to go off at certain times when I'm not outside.

The sprinklers are supposed to ONLY go off when I'm not out there.

The humans are supposed to tell me if the sprinklers are about to go on, and I will absolutely NOT leave the deck if they are on.

So yesterday when I go out to do my afternoon constitutional at my usual time, and I search and finally find my perfect poo spot, then I get into position...

THE SPRINKLER TURNED ON!!!!

I'm already in position over the perfect poo spot, it's not like I can abandon the mission, things are in motion, and there's no stopping that.

I had to stand there and take it.

There were glares and words.

I may have even rubbed my wet fluff on Toast, but there will be a reckoning... 

My Work is Never Done

Now that the weather is FINALLY turning cooler, I have high hopes for snow this year. I know the humans are also hoping for snow, as they are utterly disgusted (as am I) with all the tasty, tasty bugs, and the heat, the humidity, the ghastly hotness of the summer, and my lack of proper exercise because it is so hot outside that I am forced to ricochet off the bed while they are still in it for my daily step count. Hey, I gotta keep in shape somehow.

Besides, their idea of "enrichment" is pathetic. For example: escape the dirty sheets.

Seriously?

I did enjoy: destroy the box.

Even better is that Toast no longer has "core hours". The stupid, yet very tasty, work laptop is gone, and now he has nothing but Casey time during the day.

I didn't realize that no core hours meant that I would be assisting him with the chores though, I just thought that I could bounce off of him, pull the rope with him, and stick my nose in his face while he napped all the time now instead of after the laptop got put up.

Enrichment doesn't mean helping with laundry, wiping my muddy feet before coming into the house, and being expected not to rip up vulnerable bits of apparently important paperwork as he sorts through them.

I'm also expected NOT to dig in the carefully cultivated new tasty dirt with tender shoots of tasty grass area. Clearly the removal of the fencing means it is fair game, and like all huskies through time, I totally ignored the lack of fencing for an entire day (come on, that's like a record) fooling them into thinking that I felt this "new" playground was off limits.

Oh no, I was just waiting for the prime audience viewing moment when both of them were present before going bat poop crazy on it.

As expected, the fence went back up, my work here is done.

Anyhoooo, yep, we're all happy with the cooler temperatures, and I've resumed my soccer goalie practice, my zooming around the yard, body checking Bleeder, and yard tug. 

By the way, I do approve of my new viewing windows. I get a much clearer view of the neighborhood and I do not approve of the new planters the people across the street put in, I think they are too gaudy and clashes with their brick facade.

Seriously? That's hideous, did Bleeder design those?

Just Another Day

 Doo doo doo doot doot doo, it's just another day

Give me that cookie

GIVE ME THAT COOKIE

you gonna eat all that?

While you're up, get me a cookie

Hey, it's rude to stare at people when they're eating

Nap time