Saturday, December 11, 2010

Men in pink, and other stuff

I'll get to the men in pink in a second.

Today was the second day of the ICDOC agility trials in  Cedar Rapids. True to form, we had a mix of rain, freezing rain and snow throughout the day with the promise of a blizzard warning beginning at 9 p.m. tonight and lasting through 6 p.m. tomorrow. I made it home okay on dicey roads this afternoon, the jury is out about the return trip in the a.m. 

Club members and lots of other exhibitors wore pink today to honor a member who was diagnosed with breast cancer this fall. She's doing great. We had a raffle of weave poles and jumps with proceeds going to the Susan B. Komen Foundation. 

Real men wear pink as evidenced below. From left, Bill, Jeff, Terry (now known as Saint Terry), another Bill, Vern, Don and another Terry. I've never seen any of them wear pink before. I'm pretty sure I won't see any of them wear pink again.

Phoenix has had a great weekend so far. Friday he ran great in Std. and finished his MX. Dropped a bar in JWW but otherwise had an amazing, beautiful run. Today was a repeat: great run to Q in Std. and great run but dropped one bar in JWW.

Since I know everyone is fascinated by other people's dogs' personal quirks, I'll share this little treat. Phoenix rarely throws up. Like never since he was a puppy. Seriously. In the last almost 4 years, I think he's tossed his cookies twice.

So imagine my surprise when I was sitting here, typing away, and he trots up to me, arches his back, opens his mouth and hurfs up some very weird looking slimy stuff. No advance warning, no drama, no endless pre-launch noises . . . just, HURF. Here ya go. And then he trotted off.

Inspection revealed . . . drum roll please . . . a variety of toy parts. Well. Yuck.

Phoenix had indulged in some unauthorized toy consumption a few days ago. I'd been doing very thorough poop inspection since then, which revealed various furry little scraps of this and that. Honestly, the only thing more unpleasant than poking through poop is poking through poop in the pouring rain just a few degrees above freezing.

His deposit (on the dining room carpet, of course) revealed various furry BIG scraps of this and that. He ate more than I thought. I'm grateful they had been churning around in his tum, not trying to pass on through. Pretty scary, several friends have had dogs with bowel obstructions from eating inappropriate things and that's not an experience I want to have.

Time for supper and an up-date on the weather. And a hot shower, ibuprofen and mug of cocoa. Tomorrow morning and its decisions will come soon enough.

5 comments:

  1. Hope to see you there in the am, but only if it's safe. Love the men in pink! What good sports.

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  2. Congratulations on the MX!! That's awesome.

    I really like the pink and the raffles. It sounds like a great way to honor her.

    Layla rarely throws up. Not as rare as Phoenix, but definitely not as common as other dogs I've had.

    Yes, I can agree, any stomach blockage due to unauthorized toy consumption is the stuff nightmares and mental breakdowns are made of. Good luck having him pass it all through! I had to go through her poop on steamy 95+ degree days, so I had the opposite weather issues you did.

    When she swallowed her toy, I heard a lot of stories of peoples dogs, but the grand majority of them were about how the toy (or whatever) laid around in their stomachs for ridiculous amounts of time and then got vomited out at some point. A lady's Malamute ate one of the soap dishes from the shower and threw it up (in one piece) about 10 days later, and the vet who ended up seeing Layla (the conservative one at the regular vet hospital, not the emergency vet) has a brother whose Lab threw up the vet's Chihuahua's toy, and they hadn't seen each other in over 2 weeks.

    So, positive thoughts that it's all coming out in one form or another!

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  3. Congrats. But on the foreign body removal plus side your veterinary staff has great fun placing bets on what will be extracted!

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  4. YUMO!! Congrats on the MX and yes REAL men do wear pink and they get bonus points for doing it for breast cancer awareness! Safe travels.

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