On The Road To Recovery & Boredom

Well, it hasn't been the easiest task trying to keep Sage from pulling out her stitches, but I'm happy to report that the healing process has been a success so far! This morning I took out her stitches, and everything is looking good! Maybe later we'll go on a little walk.

This past week felt SO long. Sage was inside most of the day, which means I was also home most of the day. As you may remember, Sage has a little incontinence problem so I normally don't leave her inside for more than 3 hours at a time.

Side note: She is usually on medicine for this problem, but I haven't given her those meds since last Sunday. After her minor surgery to get all stitched up, the vet told me to hold off on her dinner. Since you're supposed to give Proin with food, I also decided to hold off on that too. Additionally, I have read about some scary side-effects from Proin so I figured this would be a good time to see if her problem had somehow resolved itself. She has been "accident free" for 8 days! Let's hope she can be off of Proin for good! 

So, Sage and I had a pretty uneventful week. However we did manage to keep ourselves occupied with some stylish modeling shots. 

And I also fooled around on photoshop quite a bit...

 Finally the weekend rolled around and my sweet husband helped us decorate the house for Christmas!

We also took some fun photos at the Old Time Christmas Tree Farm where we cut down our first Christmas tree as a married couple!

I also thought the Christmas dog that lives by the front door needed some dog booties to keep her feet warm. Sage said it was ok to borrow hers.

It's starting to feel like Christmas!

Sagey's Creative Side(s)

I had no idea Sage was so creative...

Remember the incident this summer when the deer attacked her out of nowhere? 

Ya, it sort of resembled a Zorro "Z" or Harry Potter's scar...

Then, on the way to the emergency vet on Sunday, I couldn't help but notice the shape of her newest injury.

I think the vet agreed with me...

So, not only are her injuries unbelievable, but also the shapes of her injuries! What a strange dog I ended up with!

Lazy Day

Thank you for all your sweet words about Sage and her recovery!  She is feeling much better!  I made her take it easy today while my Mom and I worked on some Christmas decorations.

The day started early around 5:30 AM when I heard Sage whining downstairs and when Sage is injured, I go into full action mode. I jumped out of bed and hustled down the stairs to make sure everything was OK. Sage, sporting her cone of shame, let me know not so subtlety that she was VERY hungry (and that the cone of shame needed to come off...immediately).  Since I'm a push-over, I'm letting Sage go cone free when under my direct supervision.

Typically after her morning meal and potty break, Sage is feeling good. However, this morning she still seemed a little bummed.

So, being the good Dog Mom that I am, I took it on myself to help lift her spirits. A quick trip to Petco was all it took...

In addition to some new toys with functioning squeakies, I picked up a new little treat...

Yes, yes I know...frozen yogurt for dogs; I must be crazy! Well, to be honest, I got it purely for some good blogging material. Although I told Sage it was because she was so good (don't tell)!

Needless to say, it was a BIG hit! I got a pack of four so Sage will be indulging in some banana & peanut butter frozen yogurt for another few days.

Anything to lift her spirits, right?!

I Guess We'll Stay On The Topic Of Injuries...

I'd like to start this post off by saying that I'm actually a good Dog Mom.  I love Sagey very much and try to keep her healthy and safe. It just seems Sage is drawn to danger or is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Today it was the latter...

Today, Sage and I tagged along with the hubby when he went to pick up Lady & Hawk (Sage's brother and sister) from his sister's house. John's sister and brother-in-law live on some land sort of out in the country. They often find themselves taking in stray dogs that wander onto their property malnourished and in rough shape. Right now I think they have 7 dogs. They're pretty great!

John brought Sage's Chunk-It thrower and tennis ball out there and found a good place to play Sage's favorite game. While they were playing catch, one of the other dogs nipped at Sage as she ran by to get her ball. It wasn't until the dog ran back to the house that Sage hesitantly trotted back to John. Apparently, one of the dog's teeth tore and ripped some of Sage's skin aside leaving a large, gaping hole.

We decided that it would be best to take Sage to the emergency vet to get antibiotics at the least, since she has a history of infections, especially with dog bites.  Since John's sister lives about 45 minutes from our house, we immediately began the trek home. Sage was in good spirits and didn't seem phased at all...well, maybe a little.

I was expecting for Sage to be seen by a vet and quickly sent home with a large dose of antibiotics, but instead the vet said Sage needed to be sedated and sutured to prevent the wound from getting infected. I was a little caught off guard and reluctantly watched as they took Sage to the back to await surgery.

John came to pick me up and I nervously waited for the call to hear how the surgery went. A couple of hours later, I was able to pick Sage up and take her home.

8 stitches later, Sage was more than ready to go home!

She is supposed to wear the cone until the stitches come out...which I hear is in 10-14 days. Although I took it off for a little while at home since she was having trouble getting through the door frames! I'll put it on when we go to sleep tonight.

Feel better soon Sagey Girl, but can you please explain to me how in the world you get hurt all the time? Seriously, this is getting a little hard to explain!!

While We're On The Topic Of Injuries...

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to my iPhone for being a loyal companion and taking pretty good pictures when I am without the proper equipment. (You may be able to distinguish between the pictures I took with my old iPhone 3GS and my new, shiny iPhone 4GS which takes pictures and video in HD!)

new iPhone

Do you see that little bald spot over Sage's eye? Well, that is what's remaining of Sage's little staph infection. After the wound pretended to heal and then reappeared swollen and full of pus a few times, I decided to take her to the vet to figure out why it wasn't going away. $170 later, I found out she had staph. Some antibiotics and topical steroid cream cleared it up in days.

On the very last day of her 10 day antibiotic regimen, we deiced to celebrate with a fun "walk." Remember, Sage's "walks" aren't really walks...they're more of free range runs where she never ever slows down! Unfortunately, the walk ended rather abruptly when I discovered this...

new iPhone

As you know, Sage is somewhat accident prone. I'm still not completely sure what happened since she's always 30-40 yards ahead of me on her "walks." However, this injury resembles the other injury she received while on a walk in May. If you remember, I blogged about this incident and you can re-read it here.

old iPhone

Anyways, we were lucky that there was still some antibiotics in her system so we didn't need to make another trip to the vet!

Here's what else we've been up to...

1) Sage got a car bed. Now if you don't know what a car bed is, well, it's just a dog bed that you put in the car. Pretty simple right? Well, yes. And I know it's not really the safest thing (compared to a kennel) but  I can't really see out of the back of my car when the kennel is in there. Additionally, I don't get to turn around at a red light and see this...

old iPhone

and this...

new iPhone

We've been spending a lot of time in the car lately...

2) Sage is famous! Well, not really but she looks famous! My cousin Genie is a really talented painter so I asked her to do a painting of Sage for our house (we're still decorating)! It turned out awesome and I love love it so much!

3) The dog toys got washed!!

This may not seem like a big deal to most, but I can assure you...washing the dog toys makes a HUGE difference. Now, I can play tug-of-war with Sage and not have to rush to the sink to wash my hands! HURRAY!

4) I wish I lived in a small town where my dog could come everywhere with me...

Recently, I've been taking Sage lots of places with me! I just finished coaching field hockey (because our season ended) this fall and my mom offered to let Sage hang out at her house while I was at practice instead of leaving her at home. TALK ABOUT SPOILED! It's been so fun bringing her with me to field hockey games and taking her with me when I need a companion. The pictures above were taken when Sage came with me to check on a house near the bay for a friend. It's just fun having her around. She's pretty great!

5) Apparently I like changing iPhone backgrounds to feature Sage. Maybe I think it's funny or maybe I just think everyone should have Sage as their background...However, the other night I was having dinner with my parents and the subject of Sage's painting came up. Well, immediately my dad pulled out his phone and said, "oh look!" We all laughed and then my mom pulled out her phone...

Consider yourself warned...if I have your iPhone, I may be changing your background to feature my favorite furry friend!

Anyways, that's all for now! Let's hope Sage keeps herself out of trouble (or not if you want some blog reading material...)

Sage's Bizarre Colorado Injuries

Don't you hate those people that are lucky all the time? You know...the people that get pulled over by a cop and drive away with a warning or the people that always get the front row parking place. 

Well, lets just say I always get tickets and whenever there is a front row parking place, some idiot usually takes it...even if my blinker is on and I'm clearly about to pull in!

So it should come to no surprise that I end up with the most injury prone dog that has ever walked the planet. If you know Sage, you know she is notorious for getting rare and random (and expensive) dog ailments. I probably should have known this trip to Colorado was bound to have a bizarre injury or two...

 

What is that in Sage's eyebrow and tail you might ask? Oh you know, it's just a couple of porcupine quills.

Sage just happened to find a dead porcupine carcass in the middle of a random field and decided it would be a really good idea to roll around in it! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to pull those suckers out! Those quills get in there pretty deep.

So after a few pictures and a good laugh, I was happy to have Sage's random and rare injury out of the way so I could enjoy the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, I was oh so wrong! 

Sage had a little run-in with a very protective mommy deer. She was taking a little potty break when she spotted a deer walking across a field. She automatically took off fully expecting the deer to run away and challenge her in a little game of chase. Well, mommy deer with infant babies don't actually run away. Instead, they hold their ground and proceed to charge at full speed towards the enemy. As Sage ran for her life, I watched this entire thing unfold from a safe distance with my camera at hand thinking this would be good blog material. However, the iPhone turned into my weapon of choice when the deer started to pound Sage into the ground with her hoofs. I frantically ran towards my yelping dog and nailed the deer in the butt with my phone. As I got to Sage, I could see she was horrified and in shock. She was panting hard and smelled weird. As my husband loaded her in the car, we figured out that the smell was from Sage peeing on herself out of fear.

This is my sweet Sage, after a really cold bath with Colorado water, and her nice "harry potter" style scar from the deer's hoofs. 

Poor Sagey. Colorado was a dangerous place. (Notice the scar on her side in the picture above.)