State of the Schnorkie Address

"eArThworm has left a new comment on your post "Not a paean to Pizza Hut": 

OK, forget the pizza, HOW'S THE SCHNORKIE??? "


Well, since you asked so nicely.


The Schnork isn't doing so hot.  I took her back to the vet for her followup appointment, and she dry-heaved while we were there. Not an encouraging sign.  We got access to her food allergy testing results from 2010 and we're moving her onto a venison and sweet potato food (which is what Beauty is on).  So far she likes it.  I don't know yet if it will cause untoward gastronomic reactions or not.

Schnork trying to leave the examining room

I also asked the doctor (A new doctor, and a man.  There has never been a male doctor at this clinic since I started taking animals there in 1999.  But he seems competent and friendly.) to take a look at the Schnork's leg.  He is reasonably certain that it's not broken, and that her patella hasn't slipped.  He thinks she may have a torn ligament - either a new injury or a tweak of an old one.  He gave her an injection of anti-inflammatories and sent us home with more to give orally, and instructions to keep her quiet for 3-4 days.  Sure, YOU try to keep a yorkie quiet.  Even in the crate she has 3-4 strides (at least!) of room from side to side.  


She's too uncomfortable to just lie still and sleep for any length of time, so she gets up and moves around a lot.  I do have permission to walk her on the leash for visits to the outhouse, thank goodness, and she was walking great this morning.  By the time JD got home, she was super lame again.  He dosed her at probably 4 pm, and by 8 pm when I got home, she was still quite lame.  So I don't know how well these particular painkillers are going to work out.


It seems likely that if she has a torn ligament, we will just drug her (with the current drug, Metacam, or with Rimadyl) and let her be.  Her other three legs aren't supporting much weight, and she gets around quite well as a tripod.  Right now we're just kind of waiting to see if she heals with rest.

Schnork in jail

So that's how the Schnork is doing physically.  Mentally and emotionally, she's integrating pretty well into the household.  I have caught her licking Olli and Dori.  She's sniffed noses more with Beauty, but every so often she goes all chainsaw and shrieking, and poor Beauty's all "MY NOSE!  MY NOSE!" but so far I don't think they've actually hurt each other.  The possible exception is Beauty whacking the Schnork with her giant Labrador tail.  The Schnork takes exception to that.


She is completely gaga over JD and loves nothing better than to be less than six inches from him. I take that back.  Even more, she would love to lick him.  But he's allergic to dog spit, and he gets a rash if she licks him, so she has to settle for licking me.  I don't mind.

  

Soaking wet Schnork drying out under JD's t-shirt this weekend.  He literally gave her the shirt off his back.

All is well at the House of Crazy Animals

At some point in the last two days, the horrible beast settled down.  I don't know why.  All I know is she isn't piddling everywhere and shrieking at us.  Though she is occasionally barking at JD, and I have no idea what she's trying to tell him.

Thank goodness.  I was dreading the thought of living with a tiny demanding pee fountain.

She got her stitches out yesterday from her spay surgery.  In the evening I took her for her first walk with us, and we worked on not pulling on the lead.  She's been adventuring around the house on her own and so far I don't think she's done anything I wouldn't want her to do.  Our stairs are a bit steep for her - I've seen her slip going both up and down.  But she doesn't appear to be particularly dismayed.  Given her size I'm sure it's something she's faced many times before.

I guess settling into domesticity in under two weeks is pretty good.  It just seemed bad because of her first few days.  I'm starting to think the name Princess isn't such a bad fit after all.

I wished I had a camera with me this morning when I went upstairs to check on Princess's progress.  Princess and Olli posed on the stairs together.  I think it's hilarious that the dog's best friend in the household appears to be a cat.

My dog is having an unnatural relationship with a sheep

This evening we managed to keep the little terror from doing anything awful OR making horrible sounds, which is some kind of miracle.  Also, she was being cute:

There is very little as ridiculous as a dog with a sheep for a head

She decided this old cat bed was just perfect this evening.  Unfortunately, it is heavily imbued with cat hair.  She is getting hairballs from it, I'm pretty sure.  That should be fun to deal with.
We don't care if she tears up the surface of that bed, so we're letting her do whatever she wants to it.  At some point I should probably remove the heating pad from inside it.  It's not plugged in, so she won't get electrocuted, but I'd like to be able to use it next year.

More importantly, Olli would like to be able to use it next year.

She is currently curled up in the bed with her head pillowed on the sheep, kind of moaning.  And shnorking.  She's a weird one, that dog.

JD let her in the living room to watch tv with him this evening.  She made several trips to various locations in the room to secure her stuffed squirrels.  She felt that it was important for them to be on the same sofa as JD while they all watched Star Trek together.  Those are going to be some nerdy squirrels.