"I vant to be alone..."

Abby is continuing her aloofness and spent a good part of yesterday and this morning channeling Greta Garbo in "Grand Hotel".

Where's Abby?

I'm pretty convinced it's a side effect of feeling funky on her pain meds, but plan to talk to the vet about it when we go see him today to have her drain taken out. (Hoorah! That thing is just icky. I realize it's there for a good reason - but it's still icky and it bugs her.) 

The worst thing about the aloofness is that once she plants herself somewhere, it's next to impossible to get her up again. (Hopefully I'll be able to get her up for today's vet appointment!)

There she is! Under the fern.

For example, last night was no fun at all. It started when Mike came home from work. Normally they run to the sofa together and she wiggles and kisses him and then flops over on her back so he can rub her tummy. Last night, I heard him pull in and she was sound asleep on the sofa. I started trying to wake her up, so she'd be ready and not overly excited out of a sound sleep. Well, she wasn't quite awake yet when he came in, so I guess she forgot about the mess she's in. She tried to flop over onto her back when she saw him and started yelping. So awful. (And not at all a good greeting for poor Mike.) We managed to calm her down with a good helping of Newman's Own organic canned dog food. (More on this below.) But then she wanted out, so Mike took her out on the leash. Several minutes later, dinner was ready and still no sign of them, so I went to investigate. 

Abby had flopped down in the jasmine in the yard with the stick-to-itiveness of a speed bump. She wasn't going anywhere. And Mike, on the other end of her leash, was also stuck out in the yard. It was dark and starting to get a bit chilly, so we didn't want to just leave her out there, but no amount of coaxing, begging, or gentle tugging on the leash would budge her. I brought out some of the Newman's Own; I brought out cheddar cheese; I brought out some of the plain ground turkey I'd cooked up for her while making our dinner. She would eat any and all of it if we held it down to where she was planted, but wouldn't even lift her head to take a bite as soon as we tried to use it as a "carrot." Eventually, we had to just leave her there and keep the front door open so we could keep an eye on her. After about 2 hours she finally got up and we got her inside and up to bed, where we spent another not-great night, up every few hours checking on her and giving her more pain meds. But at least she stayed in the room all night and even got in bed with us for a bit this morning.  

Here she is this morning, hanging out in the backyard. 

"Perhaps a swim, since I've got my life preserver handy..."

At least through all this, her appetite almost never fails her. We're taking that as a good sign that the pain is not unbearable. As I said above, the Newman's Own is a huge hit. The other day when Terry dogsat her, I didn't want to take the time to go all the way to the pet store for more of the Blue Buffalo Backyard BBQ or Turducken (yes, turducken!), so instead figured I'd just get some food at Vons. Well, the selection was not great - everything was "meat by-products" (gross) and grains, and I read that dogs with cancer need a low-grain diet. But then, I found a brand that I love anyway: Newman's Own. Got her a few cans of the organic beef and beef & liver flavors. The ingredients are: organic beef, org. beef broth, org. liver and some added minerals + vitamins. That's it! Well, she totally loves it and gives it a "dew-claws up!" rating. But it's SO gross looking. I was expecting it to look chunky, like the Blue Buffalo canned foods, but no. If you saw it from a distance, you might mistake it for chocolate mousse - it's so . . . fluffy and light. Seriously, you could probably add some seasonings, pack it into a little terrine and then pass it off at a party as paté. (Note to self: never serve paté at a family party, so as to avoid cloud of suspicion.)

Gotta go. Daddy's coming home to visit at lunch and then it's off to the vet to have the drain removed! Yah!