Seriously. I’m putting my foot down. Lilly and I have a
veterinary appointment this morning, and I’m asking for them to draw
blood according to exacting standards, and I’m shipping the blood to
Dr. Jean Dodds at Hemopet in California for detailed thyroid testing. She’s considered by many to be the ONE WHO KNOWS when it comes to
canine hypothyroidism. …
I realized recently that maybe I haven’t given you enough detail on what exactly I mean when I say that Lilly shuts down. So, here, in full glory — using the best literary devices I
know — is a description of a true and total shut down. …
In early 2007, we began having problems again with Lilly wandering the neighborhood. The snow drifts were taller than our fences, so it was easy for her to get out. This is also around
the same time as the snarking began at our rally obedience classes, which we were doing to try and build ring confidence for agility. Can you say backfire? So, I asked the communicator to find out
what was up. Here are the results. …
In July 2006, about 6 months into Lilly’s agility meltdown, I sought help from an animal communicator. Essentially, I asked her to find out what’s causing Lilly concern at agility
classes and what she needed me to do to help. I did not give the communicator any details on what the problems looked like. I simply gave her a list of pretty vague questions and a photo of Lilly.
She did not meet Lilly, nor did she know much about agility as a sport. Here are the results of their first communication session together.
…
So, I’m in the shower this morning, and someone crashes into the bathroom door. I assume Tom is rough-housing with the pups and just laugh. But, when I open the door, I find Lilly
cowering outside. …
The research that first ranked dog breeds by intelligence
essentially measured how many exposures it took for various dogs to
learn something new. Border collies, as you’ve likely heard, were
(and often are) touted as the “smartest” dogs. Now, I don’t know
about smartest … as in smarter than every other dog in the world,
but Lilly is very smart, and she is certainly smarter than any dog
I’ve had. …
Last week, we got back the results of Lilly’s blood work in
preparation for trying antidepressants to help her cope. The good
news is that …
Once upon a time, when Lilly was still an evasive pup, she got lost right here at home. We looked high and low but did not see her smiling face anywhere. We checked all over but saw no tiny black butt sticking up from an under-construction hole. We drove the neighborhood, calling her name, to no avail. …
Subtitle — what can happen when a border collie gets bored. As a youngster, Lilly did not get into typical puppy trouble. She did not chew anything up. She did not have potty accidents in the house. She did not fuss much at all. Instead, she went looking for adventure. …
My friend Linda jokes that when you have dogs, you never pee alone. That’s pretty much true around here, so I’ve taken to asking for a variety of behaviors. If Lilly is going to follow me into the bathroom, she might as well entertain me. …
