Happy Birthday Carly

Today Carly turned 12. I have to be honest and say that a couple of months ago I didn't think she would see her 12th birthday. We have been seeing a Pet Dermatologist in Edmonds and she has not had any new sores develop in over a month. She is still taking steroids and immuno-suppressant drugs, but we have been slowly reducing the dose.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Carly a bright caterpillar. At Easter I usually get a large stuffed toy from Costco and within a couple of days the dogs have it destroyed. They first go for the eyes, then the arms and legs come off. When I saw the caterpillar I knew I found the perfect toy. The dogs would have lots of arms and legs to rip off.

Unfortunately they haven't been too interested in playing with the new toy. Occasionally I can get them all charged up and they play tug of war with it.

In the past few days Carly has been dragging out her tennis balls to play with. Some of you may know that Carly can get 2 tennis balls in her mouth at one time. She also will get a tennis ball in her mouth and another toy. She does this to keep Allie away from her toys. I took them outside today and Carly let me throw the ball for her a few times. It was nice to see her back to her old self, but she is still quite stiff in the hips. She happily chased the ball around but then she was tired.

About a month ago I bought a new bed for Carly. She was having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning (I know that feeling) so I bought her a special bed. It was raised a little so she wouldn't have to climb as much to get up. Initially she sank into the bed and had an even harder time getting up. Gary put some firmer foam in the bottom and it has since worked much better, sort of.

Allie thinks the new bed is hers and since she is very territorial she now has possession of the new bed. So every night when they go upstairs to bed Allie quickly jumps into her bed and Carly gets the sleeping bag. I hope Jenny & Laura don't want their sleeping bags back because they now belong to Carly.

A couple of days ago Allie crawled under the blanket of one of their beds. If you have been to my house you know that I have about 6 beds for the dogs. Two of them are up in the bedroom. Allie is a Cairn Terrier (a Toto dog) and they are known for burrowing into rock piles (Cairns) and keeping out the varmints. Well, Allie is true to her breed and loves to burrow. She dug and got herself burrowed under the cover of one of the beds. Without knowing this Carly walked into the kitchen and the bed started growling. Carly immediately knew to stay away from the bed. A few minutes later Gary walked into the kitchen and the bed growled again. I am not sure if she had a little midnight snack in her bed or not. Eventually she came out and the kitchen was free again.