The Saluki Thread

[grizabella]

Poor Bella's feeling a bit sad this evening, she hurt her foot today when she was playing with Elvis. I'm not sure how she did it- it happened sometime during a super-fast-paced game of chase, and she kept going without signs of being hurt for a good minute or so! I only noticed something was wrong when we spotted a bit of blood on the ground.

She's now sad because Elvis has gone home (she had a cry and howl when he left), and on top of that she has a sore foot.
We're spoiling Bella a bit right now.

[grizabella]

Here she is

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Her Thundershirt arrived today, I'll have to take a picture. She's worn it a couple of times as apparently it sometimes takes a few wears to be effective. It looks nice on her.

[Gazinghound]

God, those eyes. Who could ever deny her anything? XDD I'm literally stroking my screen. It'll be all fingerprinted. x3

Hope the Thundershirt turns out to be functional AND fashionable!

Poor Bella! Take it easy 'til your cut foot heals up, 'kay? And don't worry...you'll see your buddy again. Ullie gets whiny and sad when we don't let her out to play with Lady Belle, the "winky" terrier next door, if it's too wet and mucky (it's that dreadful muddy rut they've all worn along the fence line. -.-) Just hate to see sad puppies. :<

Speaking of my girl, she's sensing another false pregnancy yet AGAIN. DX Which means acting weirdly, nesting (aka tossing sheets, blankets, pillows, clothes, comforters, etc., around, then whining and leaving), messing up made beds and pillows and stuffed animals and closets and piles of clothes, wanting to snuggle up with people, squeezing into tight places (sometimes, like yesterday, having to be unstuck), lactating, being barkier, and getting territorial--especially towards Rusty. Took her forever to get off my bed this morning...and I just can't bear to move when she's all comfy. Ay, yi, yi, yi, yi. This tends to happen twice a year just after the heat cycles, and then strikes on a couple of other random occasions. Must have been the reason all those males at the shows found her so irresistible (I mean, not that they wouldn't anyway, but it was kind of extreme! Should've seen her, she was so totally unimpressed with their advances. ;D) I knew she couldn't possibly be going into heat again.

[grizabella]

Poor Ulla, false pregnancy doesn't sound fun! I suppose the snuggliness can't be too bad- but the rest! Is it unusual that she has them when she's not had a heat cycle?

[Gazinghound]

May 11, 2012 18:03:43 GMT -5 grizabella said:

Poor Ulla, false pregnancy doesn't sound fun! I suppose the snuggliness can't be too bad- but the rest! Is it unusual that she has them when she's not had a heat cycle?

It's mostly not much fun. You can see that she's kind of confused by the feelings and compulsions. I'm sure that it's happened at least a few times before not in conjunction with the heat...just seems to strike her at random every so often. Happens for her quite a bit more than I'd have ever expected it to.

[grizabella]

I hope Bella won't suffer much from false pregnancies, she hasn't even had her first season yet (she's just a baby!).

[Gazinghound]

Yes, let's hope it isn't such a common thing for you, Miss Bella--or that you're really lucky and don't get it at all! I don't know what the average is. I do know it's very common following heat cycles...but apparently some dogs get it a lot more often than others. I've mentioned to our vet that that appears to be the case, and he wasn't too concerned about it, so I guess we just keep riding 'em out! Maybe it had something to do with being around another bitch who was in heat--the way menstrual periods often sync up for women who live or spend a lot of time together?

P.S. She's nudged several of my stuffies onto the floor (she usually tries to be quite considerate when she's up here and avoid trampling, stepping on, or even touching them, but not so much this time), and is curled up on my bed now. Every time she hears something of significance going on downstairs she goes to investigate, but keeps coming back. It's so much cute. ...OMG. Now she's gotten herself under the covers and moved up amongst the pillows. What a PERSON.

[grizabella]

Poor Bel is on antibiotics and is having her foot stitched on Tueday. She's feeling very sorry for herself. I don't think it's going to be one of my better birthdays, having Bella at the vet's getting stitched up.

[grizabella]

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She's been much happier since she worked out how to run/hop around on three legs, and has been enjoying all the sympathy cuddles she's received.

[Gazinghound]

Awwww...!! I didn't realize the injury was severe enough to require stitches. ='< It's tough to enjoy yourself when you know they're hurting. Poor thing, lying there like, "I gots owies..." I just wanna hug her. Give a few extra cuddles for me. At least she's got one comfy place to rest and recuperate; Ulla was in a very similar position on the sofa a few minutes ago. Now it's "Winky Time" because Lady Belle's been leased. It's been such a nice day that we've left the door open for everybody and everydoggie to go in and out as they please. :3 Had a nice Mother's Day barbecue (Ullie gave me extra kisses for the occasion.)

And getting around on three legs isn't the worst thing in the world. (Our old Bloodhound Floyd actually lost one of his front legs. :[ They often do figure out how to deal with the limited mobility pretty quickly.)

[grizabella]

Bella's been a bit loopy as she has so much pent-up energy from not being able to move much for a few days. I've managed to convince her to keep calm so as to not hurt herself- not easy with Miss Bella! She's now snoozing peacefully. Her new bandage is a boring blue one, I much prefered the fabulous bright pink one she had before getting her stitches!
She was a very groggy doggy yesterday after her long day at the vet's getting stitched up, and was terribly disorientated and wouldn't sleep for ages last night, but I think that now I'm more tired from it all than she is! Miss Grizabella is well and truly over her hang over now. She's been prescribed on-leash exercise only until she gets her stitches out in 9 days time, and the bandage will be off on Monday. I'm still crossing my fingers that her foot will have healed to the point where we can participate in the shows we've entered in, but otherwise we'll just go along to socialize.

The Thundershirt doesn't appear to be doing much but I'm living in hope.

I had a really lovely birthday despite Bella's being at the vet's all day. My ticket to go and see the great Lea Salonga came in the mail, and my local zoo announced that one of the chimps whom I so adore is expecting (or rather, two of them are- but not sure as yet who dad is!).

I hope Ulla is well and not too stressed with her false pregnancy. How long do they normally last? I hope she's not being too grumpy towards the boys!

This is what Bella was up to earlier, thankfully not for long because I managed to calm her down.

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She then moved on to another of her favourite hobbies- counter surfing!

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Before I played a nice low-energy game of tug with her to take the edge off her playfulness..

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Thankfully she's now all tired out!

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[Gazinghound]

Oh, my goodness!! ;D I'm glad she's over the hangover, and has finally been tuckered out for the moment! I can imagine how tough that is. 3: It's kinda like how the energy level in the house increases on yucky days when they can't, or won't, go outside to play and feel cooped up.

That first picture--omg, hilarious. "IZ GON EATCHOO, TAIL!!" That one pretty much sums up her loopiness, I think. Keeping Jack from engaging in strenuous activity following his operation to remove those warts he had was a heck of a challenge, too! And when he first came back, he was all dazed and disoriented, as though he were drunk.

And I like the blue bandage myself. Nine days of stitches, huh? Must seem like forever. Hang in there, girl...! Hope you get to do the shows! I'm thinking that our Thundershirt wasn't exactly a miracle cure for Rusty, either, despite all the great things I'd read about it. Guess we'll just have to give it more of a chance.

Oh, what a thrilling couple of birthday events!! That's very exciting. Enjoy the concert (LEA!! Wow! Now I'm jelly!!)...and hopefully the paternity of those babies will come to light. Maybe they'll let you help choose names or something.

The false preggers seem to last for quite a while--just like her heats, which are supposed to be about two weeks but typically go longer for her. So it could possibly be two and a half to three weeks or so. D: Hope this is one of the shorter ones, but it doesn't seem to be. Apparently this morning she forewent jumping on my bed to follow my mom around downstairs, wanting to sleep with her but then pushing her off each piece of furniture...and then she started getting extremely defensive with Jack, growling and leaping up to pounce him if he so much as looked at her (luckily she snaps in his direction but never actually bites him), because she's so used to him teasing her and trying to incite play when she wants to nap. For the most part Jack understands it's an empty threat and just keeps on going, but occasionally he does get as terrified as Rusty. She can turn into a downright fearsome beast when on a piece of furniture.

Rusty has wisely been leaving both of them alone for the most part. He's gotten more playful with Jack, though...think he's starting to get over the jealousy at having to share the title of King of Cute around here. He needed to hear from my dad that they're BOTH adorable. (We think Rusty's afraid to take Jack under his wing, show him the ropes, and teach him how to be a good boy, because he thinks we'll then love the little guy more! ;.; )

Either our counters are taller or Ulla's shorter than Bella, because her nose just reaches the edge of our countertop. Of course, that just means that she occasionally feels the need to rise and see for herself what's up there.

[grizabella]

Poor Jack probably doesn't have a clue why Ulla doesn't want to play anymore! Bless him, I guess he had to learn about bitches and their wonderful hormones at some point! That's lovely that Rusty and Jack are becoming buddies more now. Assure Rustopher from me that he isevery bit as cute.

Bella's moving around well on her foot, I'll hopefully know on Monday if she'll be able to show when she gets her bandage off- depending how grotesque it's looking under there! It was just a small wound under her toes so hopefully it won't be too messy/bald. She's also growing back hair on her foreleg from where she had the IV drip in. Send Bella lots of hair growing thoughts!

Bella is certainly known to jump up at the counters if there's something interesting up there! She does often just look at the counter, crying, as if if she sounds pitiful enough I'll give her permission to jump up and grab something to eat, lol. Dream on Bella!

[Gazinghound]

Yeah, it's just awful, isn't it? ;D Those growing pains and learning about women and their wiles. She's actually learned to "defend" herself against him that way normally sometimes, too, but it's gotten worse for the time being.
Oh, yes, Rusty has been assured that he and Jack are equally adorable.

Doesn't sound as if it should be too bad-looking under the bandage at all. *thinks powerful hair-growing thoughts* Wait, I don't wanna think too hard, or she might wind up looking like an Afghan! If worse came to worse, you could trim around the shaved area to soften the appearance of it...one of our friends did that before showing her dog while the square shaved area on his neck was still obvious. (One of her other dogs had attacked him, and he needed stitches too.)

Ha ha, why am I not surprised? Our girls have got the same ideas there, lol. Ullie's a whiner, too...that's one of her worst habits. Sometimes she seems to do it just for the sake of hearing herself squeak. The boys are definitely envious of her height, I know that. Jack would be up there if he could. Rusty might not be able to help himself once or twice, but then he'd be all, "Omigosh, I'm so sorry! How could I be such a bad boy?!" And then he'd go back to pointing instead, just to let us know that there's something good up there, and he knows 'cause he can smell it.

[grizabella]

Bella is a terrible whiner (she's whining right now actually!), especially if she's not the centre of attention or when she's in a clingy mood. That's what the Thundershirt was for, but even with it on she still cries a lot if she's missing someone a lot of the time.

Hehe, sounds like Rusty likes pointing things out to you, just in case you hadn't yet realised that there was something scrummy around that you might want to share with him, lol! ;D