I’ve tried for two years to capture this silly little grin of hers on film but never managed ’til now.
Tag: dog cone
The Anguish Patient
A month or two ago Ellie’s famous chop chop turned into cough cough so she was off to the vet. She had picked up kennel cough so we picked up cough medicine. And what medicine! She hardly coughed after taking it, dogs must get some magical stuff that isn’t approved for us humans. She wasn’t allowed to socialize with dogs for a while so her walks were sadly solitary. But if you thought a cough was going to slow down her hedgehogging, you don’t know our Ellie.
Hedgehogging did get shelved temporarily a few weeks later when we were playing and she split a nail up close to the quick. After taking it easy she was back at it and we spent a beautiful Thanksgiving hedgehogging on the leaf-covered lawn. She came up limp during the next day’s game, I felt her paw and it seemed fine but I called the game as a precaution. As soon as we got inside the floor was covered with bloody paw prints so I applied pressure while my wife called the vet. Thankfully the pressure stopped the bleeding and they were able to see us right away. One of the punctures was large enough to require stitches so Ellie came home with a big bandage on her front paw. She had a follow-up visit this morning and got the bandage off but stays in stitches for a week yet.
Hedgehogging has once again been sidelined, not that she has gotten the message. Dear Ellie, how many legs would have to be hobbled before you stopped pelting me with hedgehogs?
Fully Recovered
After a week of house rest Ellie was feeling better and definitely ready for the cone to come off. While Ellie wanted to jump right back to her normal routine, we followed the vet’s advice and slowly ramped her up to her normal activity levels. This meant her toy hedgehogs had to be hidden for a few days after the cone came off to reduce the temptation for too much running and jumping, two staples of hedgehog play.
Soon enough she was fully recovered and the house was once more filled with the joyful squeaking of hedgehogs at play. Squeaking, and squeaking, and squeaking …
Radio Free Ellie
The riverdog came tumbling down,
Now a cone adorns her crown.
Ellie’s training has advanced far enough that this summer I’ve been letting her off-leash in appropriate areas. One of our favorite things to do is to head to nearby Kelley Point Park, where the Willamette River gently flows into the Columbia. There are a number of places along the trail with beach access, so Ellie can (dog) paddle the rivers that Lewis & Clark once paddled.
The last few visits I’ve brought a tennis ball and our riverdog just loves to chase it, either in the shallow water next to the beach or out into the deeper water where she can swim. We weren’t able to go a week ago because of a Hempfest (she’s already got a permanent case of the munchies), but this past Sunday we took advantage of the lovely afternoon for another visit. After about an hour of play, she came up limp so I decided it was a good time to head home. She does this whenever her foot lands on something unexpected so I wasn’t concerned, she was soon walking normally on the path back to the car and played vigorously in the evening.
By morning however she was limping noticeably and constantly licking her paw. My wife took her to the vet and it looks like she may have rather painfully sprained her ankle, she’s on painkillers and has to wear this cone to keep her from licking the troublesome paw.
Ellie joins some fine company of pets in cones, Templeton wore a similar hard plastic one while Emma’s was flexible cloth. This picture exaggerates the size of the cone, it doesn’t stick out much farther than her nose, but it reminded me of a radio transmitter, sending out Radio Free Ellie on all channels.
Boolie 