I’m still playing around with Photobucket.  It’s been a few slow “news” days here so I thought I would post this slideshow of The Bun growing up.   These pictures are from when he is 3 months to 9 months old.

We have dubbed our spare room, which is mostly used for storage, as the “cat room.”   We have a baby gate blocking the door so the cats can come and go, but the dogs can’t get in.   This gives the cats a safe haven from the dogs if they don’t want to be bothered and we can free fed them and not worry about the dogs getting in the litter pan.

The cats were long adult by the time we blocked the room off for them, so the room being kind of haphazardly arranged wasn’t an issue.   It is not kitten safe though, so this weekend was the kitten-proofing of the “cat room” project.

Bun, does not like change…at all.  Thus, kitten-proofing the “cat room”  translates to a time of great worry in Paxtonland.  Paxton’s ears are a really good barometer of his mood.   Up ears is a happy Bun.  Floppy ears is a stressed out Bun.

Here is Paxton, relating to his dad that he’s had ENOUGH of this change crap and would like things to go back to normal.

Here he is looking at the kittens playing, but as you can see his ears show he’s not very pleased about the whole day’s events

Here are a couple close ups I got when he was watching Parker play with the camera strap.

We finally were able to pick up Zach’s ashes from the vet hospital.   I was surprised to find out that they used a different service for cremation than our regular vet.   They use the same schedule, so I just assumed we would end up with matching urns.

I’m not really sure a box is called an urn, as an aside.  To me an urn is more like a jar or vase…anyway, I digress.

The service the vet hospital was equally compassionate and also sent a lovely certificate certifying that the ashes we got back were, in fact Zach.  The urn is also very nice and has a plaque that has his name and birth/death dates.

John got a good picture of She Who is EVUL so I thought I would share it.

We have not received Zach’s ashes back yet, but the memorial stone I ordered did arrive yesterday.   I ordered his stone (and one for Otter) from the same place I got Ruthie’s stone 2 years ago.

They do really nice work and are very quick.  The stones look very nice and they are a lovely reminder of those we have lost when we are out in the yard.

It is with deep sadness that we had to let Zach go to the Rainbow Bridge today.  Zach has been suffering a lot of heath issues recently.  Today we had a CT scan done on his neck as he came up lame in his right front a few days ago.

He had 4 slipped disks in his neck and the vet felt that at this point his quality of life was pretty poor.  Given all his other current health issues, we made the decision that every pet owner dreads.

Zach came to us as an unadoptable rescue 6 years ago and turned into a lively and friendly family pet.  He still had his issues, but he got along quite well here.

He will be deeply missed.

While looking at pictures of a friend’s Papillons today, I was once again reminded that one of the reasons I love the breed is the variety of markings they have.  That in turn, reminded me of one of my favorite “features” of The Bun.

I am often on the phone with Anna when she whelps a litter of puppies and usually function as the Official Record Keeper during the births, writing down times, weights, markings etc. so it’s done in real time and Anna can worry about the bitch and puppies.

In The Bun’s litter, there were 2 puppies which looked nearly identical and we were trying to find ways to tell them apart when they were newly born, as they were both boys.   When looking at the newborn pictures we noticed that one had an all white side.  This is not all that unusual in Papillons, of course.   Many Papillons have all white bodies.

Normally, even the dogs with largely white bodies have one big spot of color on one side or the other or a spot in the middle of the back that drops over onto either side like a saddle.

The Bun, however, has one all white side and one side that has 3 spots of color.  I had never personally seen this particular marking in a Papillon (not that it doesn’t exist…just not in my experience).

I said that we should paint a nice butterfly on his all white side.  John thinks we should offer that side up for advertisements when he take him out to different venues

Paxton (aka: The Bun) joined us a few months ago. He came to us from my friend Anna of Asia Papillons. Paxton has been a marvelous addition to our family and we could not have asked for a better puppy. Since our other dogs are mainly rescues, not all of them are as thrilled with Pax as we are

When we first got him, his favorite place to hang out was on my desk, as you can see from these first 2 pictures. He has outgrown my desk now, but still loves the tiny green bed that sat on my desk for him.

At some point, I started calling Paxton various forms of bunny names, including Bunicula, The Bun and Bun Bun. I’m not even sure how it started anymore, but now most often he’s referred to as Bun or The Bun.

These are just a few photos that show him growing up a bit since I haven’t written about him in the past. I hope to have more regular updates now that I got started. We are in the midst of training him various and sundry things and I hope to get a video of him doing his tricks up soon.

Spring is upon us (although winter seems to be having a hard time letting go this year) and with spring comes thunder storms.

If your dog is not storm phobic count your blessings.  Since most of my dogs are rescues that were unadoptable to the general public due to behavioral or health related issues, I deal with a variety of issues on a daily basis.

Storm phobia was a new one to me, however.  When we got our storm phobic foster (now resident) we were not told he had an issue with storms.  He had an incredibly severe case of seperation anxiety which may have masked the phobia due to the conditions under which he was kept in the home he was in.

If you have a storm phobic dog, this article on storm phobias is a must read. Even if you don’t have a storm phobic dog, it’s a good read as you never know when you may end up with one.

I tried to manage my dog’s phobia for several years through a variety of non-drug means and it just continued to get worse.  Finally, when my other dogs started reacting to storms because the one was so stressed I said ENOUGH.  I made an appointment with my vet to get some kind of medication for him.

 Ironically, the day I decided to go with a medical intervention method of coping with his storm phobia, I found that article which just made me more sure I was doing the right thing.

Today it has been going on 3 years that we have medicated during thunderstorms.  We use Xanax and had to work on getting the dosage right, which did take a while because we only medicate during storms.

While Cajun is not thrilled with storms now, I no longer worry that he is going to have a heart attack during a storm.  He is able to lay quietly (panting) beside someone and he no longer tries to eat my carpet or tear down doors.

He also knows now that if there is a storm he is going to get a special treat and at the first sign of a bad storm will come running to me waiting to get his bite of squeeze cheese (which contains the Xanax, of course).

(originally posted October 26, 2006 — yes I know the 26th is before the 31st…it’s been a long day)

 Just a very quick update that I did today.

We lost our old girl, Ruthie, on Mother’s Day this year. She was our first Papillon to cross over the Rainbow Bridge and we were deeply saddened by her passing.

Today I pulled pictures off the camera and there was a very nice one of the memorial stone we got to commerate Ruthie’s life so I put that on her page.

View Ruthie’s page.

Technorati Tags: Papillon, Rainbow Bridge, Towal