Roxie and Haku/Old Pup/Junior

Today two interesting things happened.

First, Roxie got her stitches out, and therefore no longer has to wear the cone-head. This is good - she obviously feels much better without the cone - and bad - she now is free to escape again at will. At least now if she does leave us, we know that there won't be more litters of puppies as a result.

Second, I received an email from out of the blue from a woman called Kate. Kate says that she's known and loved Haku since he was a small puppy, and she has been trying for all these years to convince him to be her dog. She calls him Junior, and she tells me that he was born in the early spring of 1998 - making him nearly 10 years old already.

Anyway, apparently Kate has been worried about Haku, who has not been around her house for the past many months (he's been at our house, of course). Kate's sister found my web page with the Haku photo, and passed that along to Kate, and Kate actually found our house and has driven by twice in an attempt to see him. We've missed her both times - but she clearly wants to discuss all matters Haku/Junior with us.

So, there's one more person we know of in the Cult o' Haku. See - it's not just us - he really is magical!

(Curly Update)

Little Curly, who's name is now 'Bubbles', has settled into the good life with a new family that are providing her lots of love, a comfy chair for daytime naps and a nice bed for nighttime sleeps, plenty of lovely kibble and even a couple of bows for her fur. Sometimes stray dog stories can be short and have very happy endings.

We love you, Bubbles!

For Roxie, things are never simple.

The good news: Roxie's tick fever re-test came back negative, and she is now officially off the puppy train for good! She got her spay this morning, and she's recovering just fine.

The bad news: She got a special, even-more-expensive-than-the-expensive-almost-spay- spay by the emergency vet who had to anesthetize her anyway in order to clean and suture her many lacerations.

Said lacerations caused at some moment between about 6pm and 10:30pm last night by some indeterminate but clearly extremely aggressive and mean other dog, who beat the bajeezus out of our poor girl. Roxie's a big strong dog, but when John saw her wandering around the house covered in blood on his return from the climbing gym, it was clear that someone else in the neighborhood must be even bigger and stronger.

So, poor Roxie, in addition to her spay sutures, has staples and sutures all over her sweet self. Including but not limited to: both ears, all four legs, and her derriere. And a really big set of stitches, plus a drain, in the giant slash on her side. And she's on antibiots and pain meds for the next two weeks; assuming we can keep her long enough for that to be done. And, at least one more vet visit to remove the drain in 10-14 days.

Haku was nowhere to be seen last night while all this was going on. I was really worried that he'd been hurt too, and then maybe was laying somewhere needing help himself. But he showed back up when we returned Roxie home from the vet this morning, clearly worried about her but not injured himself.

What could've happened out there? Dunno.