Ask Aunt Foley: Snow Dogs

Dear Aunt Foley:  I have heard lots of people complain about the snow this year.  I don’t understand why.  I love it.  I could spend all day playing in it.  Why do people and pups hate snow so much?  Presley

          Dear Presley:  I will address this in two parts.  First:  Humans.  Humans are a transient species, always on the move.  Whenever there is something that impedes their progress they fall to pieces and nothing impedes progress like snow.

          It needs to be shoveled, blown and plowed.  The roads become icy and people have to obey speed limits.  They need to buy all the bread from the grocery store because…..OK I have no idea why they do that.  Being made to slow down or, even worse, stay home, drives humans to madness. 

          As for dogs we can see why dogs like you, with those long, sexy legs would like the snow.  You can run through it, over it, and leap up and down in it.  It does sound like great fun.  As for little dogs like me we end up getting snow up to our ears, our most private parts freeze in the cold, we kick a lot of snow and sand into our undercarriage, and that leads to another issue.

          Part of the problems with dogs and snow is Moms.  My Mom hates the snow.  She doesn’t want any snow, sand or salt in the house.  If Daddy took us for a walk as soon as we got in the house she would scoop us up and drop us in the tub.  I don’t know why making us wet helped with getting us dry but I learned never to question Mom.

          So for dogs it’s all about size and how anal your Mom is.  And that’s two strikes against my pack

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Presley is our April 9, 2014 Pup of the Week

I don’t like to complain, and frankly, when you take a job like Judge at Rainbow Bridge you assume you are going to be weary for an eternity, but, with all the friends I have recently had to swear in, I have been exhausted.  So I am so happy this week to celebrate a friend who won’t be visiting me anytime soon.

But he still managed to give all of us quite a scare.  A few weeks ago Presley’s Mom noticed a lump on the inside of his front leg.  It wasn’t like a bug bite or a fatty tumor.  It was the type of thing that makes a Mom go “oh crap.”  His Mom took him to his vet but the doctor wasn’t as impressed with the growth as his Mom was.  The vet suggested it was something minor that needed to be monitored.  She made an appointment with Tag and Atlas’ old vet.  He was more impressed and did a needle biopsy that showed it was a pre-cancerous tumor.  He scheduled a surgery to remove it and prescribed several anxiety attacks for his poor Mom.  She asked for prayers that the tumor would be benign.

After his Mom’s anxiety attacks ran out it was time for the surgery.  She put him in the car, took him to the vet, went home, asked for more prayers, and prayed herself.  Later that day the doctor called Presley’s nervous Mom after the surgery to say all went well and that once Presley loopiness wore off he could come home.  The vet told her that he would do a biopsy but there was nothing to worry about. Because she was a dog Mom she immediately began to worry.     

                           

Thanks to lots of dog and human answered prayers the result was a "grade 2 soft tissue sarcoma” which, in dog, means there were some cancer cells but it was localized and the chance of any cells remaining after surgery were very slim.  

So a big tip of the tail to Presley, who I won’t be seeing crossing the Bridge and climbing the stairs for a real long time, who has many heartbeats left, and lots of time with his Mom.  And a big tip for all the pup prayers that ensured Presley’s additional heartbeats.