All Things Towal

A funny title for someone that has a bunch of Papillons, eh?   I know Papillons are right for me, but a lot of people come to my page with questions about Paps, so I decided to make a Squidoo lens to try and help answer some of those questions.

We spent a lot of years doing Papillon rescue and have/had many of our permanent resident dogs become residents because they were “unadoptable” rescues.   We love the little guys here, but they are not right for everyone.

A couple other things before you go, if you agree and want to expand on something I said or disagree with something I have said and want to offer a differing point of view, please feel free to post your perspective in the comments at the bottom of the page.   I’m happy to have other perspectives for potential Papillon owners to read.   I just want informed folks out there so Papillons are getting into good homes that are prepared to take care of them.

There is a poll where you can weigh in on the side of the Papillon or the Phalene.

Finally, if you buy anything recommended on my lens a portion of the proceeds automatically go to the National Wildlife Federation Alaska Regional Center.   They are a group dedicated to Alaska conservation issues, including clean and renewable energy solutions, sustainable tourism, global warming solutions, the cultivation of youth conservation leaders, green jobs, and getting kids outdoors. (You will notice that this can be verified at the very top of the page near the ranking that is automatically done by the system.  I have no control over it).

If you wonder if they are right for you or you just want to see what I had to say, head on over to my Squidoo lens Is a Papillon the Right Breed for Me?

Teq does not yet get full access to the entire house for safety reasons (she is pretty small) and she also doesn’t get full access to the backyard like the other dogs yet.  So when she gets to go out in the full back yard we say she is thinking “wow this is a really big room” (yes we are anthropomorphizing, it’s part of the fun of owning a pet)

She burns a lot (A LOT) of energy in “the big room” so I am starting to let her go out there more often now that she is a bit older and has shown she has no desire to try and get under the deck or any of the other teeny, tiny places that small dogs shouldn’t be going, but Papillons all seemed to think were the best places EVAH when they were puppies (I finally learned by the time we got the chihuahua!).

Here are some pictures of the Chihuahua and her Papillon siblings in “the big room” over the weekend (some comments follow):

Pictures of Bun without headgear..it’s a festivus miracle!  Poor Bun, hopefully the allergy shots will start working and he can be permanently headgear free.   I’ve managed to keep some fringe on him despite the headgear (not an easy feat), so you can imagine how much fringe he’d have if he wasn’t wearing that thing 24/7 for the last couple years.   He’s a good boy.   You can see Teq taking advantage of his temporary headgearlessness to jump on his head.   He prefers to play with her WITH the headgear on (I don’t blame him, her baby teeth are sharp).

Kendall is getting so red, which I do not understand, because I don’t see her incessantly licking , but from the looks of her legs you would think that is ALL she does.  She is going to be 9 and is a pet, so it’s not really a battle I am planning to fight, but it’s slightly perplexing.

A picture of camera shy Obie with his *great* front *cough*   That was one of the few times when he has actually posed for a shot.  Usually he runs when he sees the camera. Maybe the prozac is working.

Mooshey and Teq loved the beds I made them so much that I decided to make some beds for a couple of my friends.    I spent a couple weeks sewing beds (because I am a s l o w sewer lol) and finally I sent them all off.  I was rewarded with these great pictures of Papillon Bed-A-Palooza!    There are a couple pics I took of just beds included here too.   Click on the pictures to view them larger.

We got Cajun’s memorial stone from the same place we have gotten Ruthie’s, Zach’s and Otter’s.  Adirondack Stone Works

Our vet clinic also did something different for us this time that we have not had done before, but I really appreciated it.    When you board your dog/cat you have the option to sign them up for “arts and crafts.”   The thought of this was so funny to me, so even though we have never boarded any of our guys I asked what that was and was told you could get a paw print made and stuff like that.   So when John went to pick up Cajun’s ashes, they always had done a paw print of him for us.

You can’t tell in the picture, but the words on the dog house are “good dog.”    This turned out to be kind of funny and have special meaning for us.   We got Cajun and another foster on the same day.   The other foster was…difficult and Cajun was a very easy going dog, so I took to calling him the good dog (as opposed to the nono bad dog)  and it stuck so pretty soon he became Cajun Good Dog.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cajun.  It looks like it’s sideways, but it’s actually the right way. He was sitting directly below my chair and I called his name and when he looked up I snapped the shot and got this one.

I miss him so much

It has taken me a while to be able to write this post.   On February 11, 2011, Cajun crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.   As some people know, he had a bad incident several weeks ago and we almost lost him.   At that time, we initially thought that he was finally in heart failure, but he rallied over night in the ICU and we took him to a cardiologist for a consult and an echocardiogram and they discovered that he actually had a tear in the heart muscle.

It was not really related to his enlarged heart, it was just a flukey thing that can happen.   The tear was already starting to heal and the vets felt that his prognosis was good given his recovery from it at that point.  He was given some new meds and would be treated as a CHF (Congestive Heart Failure) dog from that point on, something we had been trying hard to keep him out of AND were succeeding at thus far!

He was sent home with instructions for no activity for 2 weeks.   At 12 years old and with an enlarged heart, Cajun was not an overly active dog to begin with, so this wasn’t a big deal for him.   The first couple days he was a bit sluggish, but after that he was back to his old self and you would never have known he almost died a few days before.

He went almost a week without his trademark coughing something we (and I’m sure he) were very grateful for.   He started coughing again 1 week, to the day, of the incident and it was getting progressively worse, though not any worse than it usually was.  However, I made a vet appointment for him just to make sure he was not having any fluid build up.

On the 10th, we went to his vet appt and he had a great check up.  He was really happy and had a great day.   He did is signature trick, sneezing on command,  for Dr. Julie, our vet, which she was absolutely thrilled with.  She said she had never seen that before in all her years as a vet.    She was really happy with how he looked and how his heart and lungs sounded.    We got his meds refilled and left, happy with his progress and prognosis.

We went to Petco to pick up a few things and he got a new toy and got to walk around a bit in the parking lot, which he had great fun doing.  Then we drove through Wendy’s and he got his very own hamburger, which the dogs always enjoy as a special treat when we go out.    He was fine and happy the rest of the day at home.

When we got up the next day, he was clearly distressed about something.   I counted his respiration and it was no where near the danger zone and his gums were nice and pink.  I put a call in to my vet on her cell phone which I *never* do, but I was a bit panicky.   He seemed a bit nauseated so we gave him some pepto and he did settle down after that.   I told John to go ahead and go to work since everything seemed ok at that point.     He woke up in the afternoon and seemed better.  He was interested in having treats and I was able to give him his meds in some squeeze cheese, but almost as soon has he took them he became clearly nauseated and distressed again.

He also started coughing, but that was normal after having anything to eat.  He coughed off and on for about 90 minutes and finally settled down again on my bed.   I checked on him and he was laying near my pillows on his side.  His respiration was again not near the danger zone, so I left him there to rest, knowing he must be exhausted after the coughing episode.

When I went to check on him the next time, I found him passed away right where I had left him      I was (and still am) completely devastated     He had such a good day the day before, which is a blessing, but it’s SO hard to lose him the very next day.

Our vet thinks it was probably the “cord” in one of the values in the heart that snapped (which they suspected with the first incident that turned out to be the tear) or that he threw a clot.   We will never know for sure, but she says that fact that his respiration never went into the danger zone and his gums stayed pink is a good sign that he did not suffer (ie: suffocate/die painfully) and he probably just kind of faded away.

Cajun was loved and he is very deeply missed.

Bun picked a blue squeeky kitty cat out of the Big Toy Box for his birthday.   We have a big box of toys in the closet and the dogs (that play with toys) get to pick a toy of their choice out of it on special occasions.   The dogs that do not play with toys get something else on special occasions.  For example, Polo likes to have a cheeseburger from McDonald’s on his special days

Anyway, here is Bun with his special day choice.

Our New Year’s (eve) Baby is 3 today!   It seems like just yesterday that Grandma Anna was dropping him on his head

Happy Birthday Bun!

After the great job Nancy did with Zach, I decided to have Mr. Turner done for John’s birthday.   This one was a bit harder to choose the photo for since we have had Turner since he was a puppy, but I had 2 pictures in mind that were favorites of both mine and John’s.  Nancy was helpful in picking which she thought would look better for the painting and also which would work best hanging next to the painting of Zach.

My idea was to hang the paintings next to each other down the hallway, but once we got them we have ended up hanging them in the office where we spend the most time so we can look at them all the time.   We are going to end up having to move some other stuff we have hanging on the walls in here to make room for paintings because I have plans to continue to get paintings for John until I run out of pets!    They are such a great way to commemorate our guys and it’s so much better than another t-shirt!!!!!

Here is the fabulous Mr. Turner and once again the painting is so much better in person.

I am pretty far behind on blogging.  I am still not sure this is really my cup of tea, but I keep periodically giving it a whirl   Anyway, John is hard to buy presents for, in my opinion.  I think he disagrees, but he’s not the one trying to buy himself presents    Anyway, one person only needs so many t-shirts/clothes.

In fact, a few weeks ago he pulled out a sweatshirt that I am sure I was absolutely THRILLED to find because it had Taz on it and was Steelers as well!   However, it had been so long since he’d worn it (because he has about 10 billion sweatshirts) that we had both forgotten that he even had it.   Now it’s back in the “rotation” of sweatshirts, but who knows what others clothing treasures he has buried in there waiting to be found!

So I was casting about one day trying to figure out something else to get him and landed at Nancy Pinke’s site.   I decided to contact her about having a painting done of Zach-a-roo and after some discussion with her, I did end up having one done for our anniversary.

She did a BEAUTIFUL job and was so great to work with.  Zach  was not a healthy guy during his last few years and was on a variety of meds that made him very bloated, but some of my better pictures of him were during this later “bloated tick” years.   Nancy was able to use some of the pictures from when he was younger as well as the pictures of him later on and came up with such a wonderful representation of Zach that when I first opened the email with the rough draft in it, that I literally burst into tears.

Here is the final version and this picture is not really doing the painting justice.  It’s really much better in person.