Tallulah at Terror Towers!

Aroo ! roo! roo!

January???? it's now the end of March! Where does all the time go?

This goes to show how busy I have been, that I have not been able to update my blog! So what have I been up to?


Well, the weather has improved a great deal better since I last updated my blog. I can now lie out in the sunshine and watch the other dogs having their turn at agility. I find it quite boring at times, just watching and I wish there was more time for me to do some training on my own.

We went to an agility workshop last week, but there were too many other interesting things there, such a pheasants, and rabbit smells, so I did get rather distracted. I am not a mindless collie who just performs. I am a sniffy gundog, and I just love to use my nose and do was it was put here to do - SNIFF!!!!

I am very clever with my sniffing.

Mummy has not been at all well. She has something called "Addison's Disease" which is an auto-immune condition, and if she catches a nasty virus, it then becomes extremely life threatening, because her body doesn't produce cortisol (and lots of other hormones) which are supposed to react to virus's and other kinds of stresses.

Well, because I am a very good sniffy dog, I can tell when mummy is in danger, and what I do is lie down next to her, and then keep putting my head on her until she reacts. Mummy has been in contact with an organization that trains dogs to alert their owners of impending dangers. They told her that they do train dogs to detect dips in cortisol, and suggested she downloaded the forms from their website. However, when mummy checked it said "diabetes and cancer only", so as yet, we haven't got around to querying this. Mummy said that we will just have to wait until she is a bit more back on her feet and then she will look into it more for me.

I would very much like to help mummy. I have told her so. Not the girls though. They are not interested in such things. They are more concerned about DINNER and when the next walkies is coming!



I take life rather more seriously you see, I Love to sniff.

Tallulah


has had a terrible experience!

She went to Terror House:


The man there said she was ok, and didn't have any terrible conditions. Mummy didn't believe it and asked for her to referred to a man by the name of Ben Harris, who works at "Terror Towers"!!!!!!!



Well, Tallulah was indeed terrorized!!!! She was put to sleep, brought awake again. Turned upside down, turned around and around, had needles stuck in her. Wires stuck in her, thermometers stuck up her bum, her blood stolen by vampires, and then after a few days, handed back completely traumatized to mummy!!!


It was indeed a terrible experience. When I arrived at the reception, I thought it was really nice and interesting, and everyone very nice and friendly. But then a lady arrived and lead us through some swing doors, and then I realized what this place was : "ARRRRRRRRRRGH" I want to go home, please let me out". However, we kept walking along miles and miles of passageway, and then into one of those horrible rooms. Then they took me away from mummy and started doing all those horrible things to me.

It went on for several days, and then... oh - and then they took me back to the room where I last saw mummy, and oh I was so relieved to see that she was still sitting there waiting for me.

After a bit of a talk with a lady, and then with Ben, I was told I could go back home.




What a relief. At least I could have some proper dinner there. They fed me horrible chicken at that place.

It tasted revolting and I didn't want to eat it. "Is there something else she might like to eat?" I heard the lady asking mummy over the phone. "No" replied mummy "she doesn't want to eat because she doesn't like where she is, and being stuck inside a kennel". "Oh, fair enough" the lady said. HUH!!!! Why not just let me go home to have a proper meal!!!!



But the outlook for Tallulah is not at all good and we are all very very sad. She has a thyroid problem, but worse still, she has peripheral neuropathy, and also a condition called Laryngeal Paralysis. This means the nerves which control her movements are failing, and eventually she will not be able to run, or even walk anymore. She will fall off her legs, and maybe have to have a cart, if she wants one. If she is very unhappy, then the unthinkable will have to be thought about. They say she might have another year. Already Tallulah is loosing her bark and it comes out more as a squeak. Her voice is failing so she can't shout properly at the door anymore. This means that Daisy and I have to do the shouting now.

But mummy had neuropathy, and it was caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. We must find out if Tallulah has been tested for the same. Mummy gets injections of B12 and this has controlled the problem. We have heard that some dogs have been helped by these injections too, but only if they have the deficiency.

Mummy is trying a lot of things to help Tallulah, such as giving her krill oil, as it is very high in omega 3's and not contaminated with lead and mercury!! We will just have to see how she goes. We are hoping she doesn't sink down fast, but just like mummy, she has very good days, and not so good days where she appears to be quite poorly.

Anyway - not everything is doom and gloom:



What's this???? I can sniff something which sniffs very interesting:




It's Aunt Tracy who works with mummy at the dog training school:




She has baked some really yummy scrummy doggie cup cakes!!!! Yes cupcakes! and they are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo delicious that everyone wants to queue up for them:




As everyone loved them so much, Aunt Tracy is going to sell her lovely cakes to the dogs who come to our classes, so watch out you guys. You are in for some real serious treating...... that's if there are any left for anyone else!!!!!



Well, there is some for Daisy - even though she wants them ALL to herself !!!!



Well, that's it for another blog. Lovely see and feel the spring sunshine bursting into my coat again. Let's hope it's a good summer for us - in more ways than one. Roll on Wales........ here I come.