In case you haven't had enough cuteness here are some more pictures of the dogs playing yesterday. Legend is happy to have a new Kong Frisbee-the old one got sort of destroyed and didn't fly anymore.

A-frame

We finally got our new A-frame assembled for the dogs. It looked easy-all you have to do is put in one pole and hook up the chains but the pole was so tight that the sides had to be lined up perfect and then you still had to bang it in with a mallet. It was quite a chore. Here are the dogs practicing on the new stuff. Also we had Barney give it a try as well. Oreo couldn't (or wouldn't) go up it so here is picture of him just playing and looking cute.

Rabbit Watching

We have been fostering "Jingle" the BC being treated for heartworms at our house over the holidays to make room for all the boarding dogs at work and to let her get some exposure to other dogs and cats. She was starting to learn how to play with toys and interact with our dogs and was getting lots of attention until she discovered our rabbits. Now she pretty much does this (see picture) when she is out of her crate. Rabbit watching used to be one of Zodiac's favorite hobbies as well-and they don't even do that much, mostly just sit around and sometimes eat. And here is a cute picture of Oreo with a little bit of Legend's tail in the way.

And another picture of "princess" Icy

Sneaky cat

In our bedroom we have a bench that has a lower shelf on it that I keep some blankets stacked on. Almost every day when we get home I notice that there is a blanket knocked out on the floor. I wasn't sure why this was happening until Jerry took these photos of the culprit in action. Apparently Jelly has found this to be a great self-made napping area. As if our bed and new couch weren't enough now she has to throw things on the floor to make herself a suitable nap spot.

Tree

Here are some pictures of our tree-actually decorated-to prove to everyone that we managed to get it done. And it's only the 21st-a little late but it's not like it's Christmas eve or anything. Plus we even put up a few lights on our deck. It's starting to look like we actually made an effort around here!














And here is a cute picture of Icy looking out the window at the bushes blowing in the wind. She's so silly-but luckily we have only caught her climbing the tree once and that was pre-ornament. So far she has seemed uninterested in the ornaments and tinsel. We are surprised by this but pleased. But you never know when she might notice all the dangly things on the tree and go crazy!

Christmas

We finally got a Christmas tree on Monday-if you wait until December 17th you can get one 50% off at Lowe's! That is if they aren't sold out like the one in Ozark which is where we tried to go first. We also managed to get up a few decorations and some outside lights. However the tree is not yet decorated. We are kind of holding off until Icy is not so excited about the tree. Then maybe she won't notice the ornaments so much. Jerry took this picture while I was at work one day. The only time the dogs ever get close to Jelly is when she is sleeping-and sometimes not even then!

Snow party

Legend got to have a friend over this weekend! This is Pip-she is my friend's foster border collie. We are watching her for the weekend while Cheri goes to an agility trial. Anyway, Pip and Legend had a grand time playing out in the snow today. They ran and chased and wrestled and then they actually came in and took a nap! Even though everyone got kind of wet and muddy out playing today we had to let them get some exercise. Better to have four tired dirty border collies than four hyper clean ones! FYI Pip is available through MOKAN BC rescue if anyone is interested-she's very entertaining and sweet.

Here is Jelly using the new couch as her own personal bed and below is a super cute Zodiac using our bed and his own personal bed. When did we lose control? We had another slow day at work-guess everyone is out Christmas shopping. I finished mine on Tuesday-yeah. This has been Secret Santa week at work-always the highlight of the year :)

I got home tonight to find the horses have been playing with the fence for the 3rd time in the last few weeks. I wired it together as well as I could in the dark and mud and hooked the electric up again-they will be in for a shock next time they try to mess with it! Whenever I actually see the house in daylight again I will have to do a better repair job.

Surgery

Today I did my first splenectomy. It was on an old Rottweiler who had a splenic mass. The spleen/tumor combo weighed almost 4 pounds. I know that sounds big but last week my boss did a 10 lb splenic mass on a Labrador (a very large Labrador). Anyway, turns out removing a spleen isn't that hard, just kind of tedious. And pretty dull for the tech who gets to stand there and hold the tumor in a convenient position for me to work on it!

This adorable border collie below was found by one of our receptionists. She is very, very thin but also very, very sweet and loving. She appears to be already spayed but did turn out to be heartworm positive. She is being treated for her heartworms and will be available for adoption through border collie rescue in approx 60 days. She has so far been quiet and has not pottied in her run and I think will be ok with other dogs, cats or kids.

And here is a picture of one of our barn cats-Lefty. He was named lefty because the people who moved out of our house apparently left him behind.

Ice

We woke up this morning to ice on the trees and power lines-just like we did this past January when a monster ice storm hit the Springfield area. Although this was pretty minor compared to that we did have a power outage at work for about 2 hours this morning. It brought back chilling memories of the 11 days the clinic went without power earlier this year. For those of you that have not heard the story I have copied here the email I sent to my vet school classmates and a few pictures I took at work. After our ordeal we were featured in a national veterinary magazine.

Some of you may have gotten a chance to experience the pleasures of running a veterinary clinic without electricity but in case you have not let me tell you a bit about our week.Tomorrow will be our 6th day without power (unless by some miracle power is restored overnight-but the branches and power lines down in the alley behind the clinic are not a good prognostic indicator) since the ice storm hit Springfield on Friday night. This morning the temperature in our reception area hit a new low of 40 degrees. We are fortunate to have a client that owns an equipment rental shop who loaned us a generator. He actually didn't have any available but was saving this one back for himself in case he lost power-however is has not been that long since I euthanized his dog on his bathroom floor so he went ahead and let us use it. We can only run it during the day though, because if we leave it out at night it will surely be stolen. It manages to heat the very back of the hospital (mainly the furthest ward) to a tolerable temperature. We moved all the boarding animals we could not get rid of to the back ward cages and then piled the floor with blankets so we can all sit around and be warm and wait for the phone to ring. Of course since we are "paperless" and rely on computers for everything we are essentially crippled when it comes to everything. We have no idea about patient history (nothing like asking the client what size pills they need and how many, or trying to verify a refill at a pharmacy without the record-"sure just give them what the bottle they have says on it"), vaccine records, weights, ages, nothing. We have no scheduling system anymore, have no idea what is supposed to come in or who to call to cancel. But we have not had a single scheduled appointment come all week so I guess that worked out ok. We can't see anything that might need bloodwork, radiographs, or hospitalization, and I can't use the microscope or anything else needing electricity. Our phone system requires electricity and the battery back up crapped out sometime overnight on Friday so by Monday we had scrounged up 2 old fashioned phones. But the only jacks in the building we could plug into were way in the front of the building with the arctic temperatures. So we have to send someone running every time it rings b/c we are all camped out in the ward playing games (like those you use to keep busy on a very long car trip). Today it got so cold that the batteries in the all the thermometers went dead and we couldn't take temperatures on the 3 animals that came in the door.We have spend the days fending off requests for boarding (evidently people have no problem leaving their pet in a cold facility while they go somewhere heated), and explaining to people that we cannot bathe their pet, verify vaccination records, or reschedule their neuter appointment-please keep calling back until we have power.Since I am lucky enough to live far enough south of town that we maintained power my refrigerator is now home to hundreds of vaccines, insulin and a few other medications. I have also been dragging a few vaccines back and forth every day in a cooler in the event that we should happen to need them. Plus some lucky person gets the job of going over to the freezer every day and poking the dead dogs to make sure they are still frozen!And even though we look forward to the electric coming back on, when it does we will have to enter all the medical notes, prescriptions, SOAPs, and monetary transactions into the files. It is unlikely that the cash drawer will balance b/c we are figuring everything, including tax by hand. On the plus side we get to close early every day because once it starts to get dark there is no point to even trying to do anything. Plus by 3 or 4 PM we are so cold and bored we can't stand it anyway.And the real kicker is that our boss is in Orlando at the NAVC swimming with the Manatees!

Here are few pictures I took of the horses when it was still green outside. The weather has been cool and rainy here but at least not yet snowy or icy. We finished most of our christmas shopping today but still have made no attempt to get a tree or decorate the house. It has also been too yucky outside to set up the new agility equipment so it is still laying flat in the back yard waiting.




We are somewhat concerned about having Icy in the house with the christmas tree since she seems to like to try and go everywhere we don't want her to be but I guess we will give it a try!

More agility pictures

Here are some pictures I ordered after the specialty of Zodiac and Legend doing agility. I love the one of Legend going through the tire.


Also here is the ribbon holder she won for placing first-I finally got it hung on the wall along with the bigger photos I bought to frame.

Happy Birthday and Trial Results

Happy Birthday to Oreo-he turns 13 today. We will have doggie cake tomorrow-I didn't make it the bakery today. Too busy trying to save little dogs and cats:)

We all went to Columbia this weekend for the agility trial. Zodiac qualified in Standard on Saturday but did seem to have a little trouble getting over the triple jump these days. I think I may move him to the preferred division soon after all. I've never been able to diagnose anything wrong with him but I think he must have a little soreness somewhere.

Legend got her first Open Jumpers leg on Saturday and placed 2nd and her first Open Standard leg on Sunday and placed 1st. She probably would have qualified in Jumpers on Sunday but I didn't handle it the way I should have. A naughty teeter fly off kept her from qualifying in Standard on Saturday. But we bought a dogwalk and an A-frame at the trial and soon she will be able to practice everything at home! We hope to get it all put together this weekend.

And for fun here is a picture of Icy enjoying the new couch.