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Bentley is a big Standard Poodle. I met him at our veterinary surgeon's clinic in Petaluma. I also met his fun human buddies, Johnny and David. They gave me cookies. Woof thanks!
Bentley is only eight months old, but he's a veteran of surgery. He had to have both of his front shoulders operated on because of osteochondrosis (OCD).
Osteochondrosis is a painful condition in which there's an abnormality in the cartilage at a joint space. It occurs fairly commonly in the shoulders of large and giant-breed dogs. In a puppy, the first clinical sign would be lameness — oftentimes, lameness that worsens after exericse.
Joint cartilage is the tissue at the ends of long bones that allows pain-free motion. When there's an OCD defect in the cartilage, it leads to formation of a loose piece, called a flap of cartilage. The flap can fragment or break off in the joint. Ouch!
Bentley developed painful cartilage flaps in his front shoulders. Orthopedic surgeon Russ Gurevitch, DVM, fixed Bentley's problem. Different surgical techniques are used to fix OCD, but the goal is always to remove loose pieces of cartilage from the affected joint and scrape the area clean.
Bentley's raring to go these days. His guardian/owner, Lila, got him to stay still for a second.
Somebuddy commented that Bentley and Lila look like they're made fur each other. They do go together well, don't they?
Another happy dog is Duke the Labrador puppy. He was with his grand-dog-mom. Duke's only 11 weeks old, and he was at the clinic fur a checkup. He's a healthy little guy.
I got so excited talking to Duke that I forgot to ask his grand-dog-mom's name. Doggoneit. I apawlogize fur that.
By pawlitico
When a young dog like myself reads the news, it can make me howl in a way that isn't funny. I need to be pawsitive, so I am declaring August 8, 2008, the first annual Compassion Day for Humane and Human rights.
I came up with the idea after reflecting on the need for stronger protection of human rights and humane rights in the world. I'm having a moment of compassion meditation with my family to remember everybuddy who suffers.
Today is opening day of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This makes me remember the May '08 earthquake in China that killed almost 70,000 people and countless animals.
This Beichuan pig survived in the rubble of her home.
Today is also the day after the world's attention was drawn to a statement made by a U.S. mayor whose two Labrador dogs were slain by police.
Below you can see the Labrador retrievers walking with Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, in an old photo. That's Chase, on the left. He was a four-year-old Lab. Payton, on the right, was a seven-year-old. They were shot and killed by a sheriff's SWAT team during a "drug raid" of their home on July 29, 2008. No one in the home was involved in drugs; all were innocent victims.
According to a Washington Post interview with Mayor Calvo, when the police went in, they shot Payton near the front door and followed Chase as he ran into a back room.
In the Mayor's August 7th statement, he gave further detail: "Payton was shot some distance from the front door. He was shot where his body was found, near the entrance to the kitchen. After Payton was shot, Chase reacted to the gunfire and ran away from the deputies. He was hunted down and shot in the back while he fled. His body was found in the rear of the house."
Such inhumane-ity. Such a violation of human civil rights.
Turning to the Olympics, everybuddy knows that China's hosting of the Olympics has been controversial. Controversy is fine with this dog. But I don't want humans to forget why there's controversy: Criticism stems from China's policies on Tibet, its lack of human rights for its citizens, and its lack of humane protection for animals.
The photo below says it all. A Beijing human is mimicking the Statue of Liberty at Miniature Manhattan in World Park, one of the three Beijing parks where Olympics protests have been permitted by Chinese authorities.
Chinese authorities have probably nixed many protests. One was Amanda Beard's event at Athlete's Village. But cancelation didn't stop Beard, the Olympic 200-meter breaststroke champion, from protesting outside the hotel: She unveiled a poster of herself naked in support of the anti-fur movement.
Pawnote: Our hearts go out to Mayor Cheye Calvo and Ms. Trinity Tomsic.
by winecountrydog
Today's the birthday of Carolina, a special dog-mom who, like her dog, lives on in our memories. We're remembering Carolina and Wishie, her "assistance" dog, by re-pawing dog-ma's story about them.
In dog-ma's words, here's the little story.The first time I walked through Carolina's front door, Wishie spotted me. He was my friend Carolina's arthritic Boston terrier.
I'd hardly taken a step inside the house when Wishie — outfitted in a dark-red sweater to keep him warm — came rushing right at me in a determined but unsteady run.
I fell to my knees on the living room rug. My heart raced. I reached out my hand to my adorable new friend. I forgot why I was at the house. And I didn't care, because I wasn't ever going to move from that spot. Wishie was radiating too much charm and love.
Wishie liked hitching a ride on the foot platform of the mobility scooter Carolina drove. Carolina's legs didn't really work because of a spinal cord injury. Wishie's legs didn't work well because of his arthritis. And Toby, Wishie's little terrier housemate, liked to hitch a ride, too, because he was half-blind and timid.
One night, we all went out to dinner in San Francisco. On the way into the restaurant, Carolina had Wishie and Toby tucked away on the foot platform of her scooter.
Somehow Carolina got the dogs into the restaurant. I then noticed a woman at the next table who looked very unpleasant. The woman looked down and saw the dogs, then looked up at Carolina. Uh oh, I thought. But the woman's serious expression dissolved into a huge grin, and she started talking away with Carolina.
I later asked Carolina whether people ever reacted negatively when she took Wishie into places with no-dog policies. She responded by sliding Wishie's special dog collar off her scooter handlebars. She leaned over to me and held out the collar for me to see the big tag hanging from it.
The tag read Official Assistance Dog.
I giggled and said, "Oh, c'mon. What kind of assistance dog could Wishie be?"
"He's a Seeing Heart Dog," Carolina replied.
Many different breeds of dogs — usually bigger than Bostons — make great assistance dogs. Big Golden and Labrador retrievers are trained as service dogs and skilled companion dogs at Canine Companions for Independence in Santa Rosa, California.
If you're a hearing-impaired human and need a signal dog, paw-leeze keep in mind that we Welsh Corgis are very good at signaling.
Pawdon me, though, if I assert that nobuddy could be a better Seeing Heart Assistance Dog than Wishie.
