The Terrible Two's

Happy Belated New Year to one and all. I apologize for the lack of updates. You know how life gets.

Today's update is special because it is Curly Joe's second birthday! Or so it said on his adoption papers. I admit, I'd forgotten about it until I got an e-mail from Dogster wishing Curly happy birthday.

At obedience class last year, the trainer said that dogs are still pretty much puppies well into their second year. Well ... crap. I guess we'll have to put up with this a while longer. And by "this" I mean CURLY JOE. There's no end to his energy levels, and nothing ever gets him down. The rest of us are exhausted, but Curly Joe still wants to go go go. I'm grateful for this, of course. He's still a sick little dog in regards to his liver shunt, but he is maintaining very well on his supplements and special food. We ran his labs at my work and his bile acids came in at the high end of normal, so the vet suggested I put him on Denamarin, in addition to the Hepato Support and l/d food. In less than a week, there was a marked improvement in his health. I had thought he'd been looking a little "off" for a few weeks, and that confirmed it. The supplements are expensive, but if he needs them, he's going to get them.

I don't really have anything to report in regards to our little friend, and really, that's the best news. In December, our friend Aed and her two dogs moved in with us for a few weeks, and Curly Joe had a great time playing with them. Not that he doesn't enjoy Tank and Jackson's company, but Tankerbelle is old and arthritic and Jackson has bad knees, so neither of them are viable options for roughhousing. Aed's dogs were perfect for that. Video (and pardon the audio -- we were figuring out what to get from Pita Pocket):

And here he is, frolicking in our (thankfully) only snow this winter:


Last video, me trying to get Freddie to beat up Curly Joe. She loves it.


That's basically all I've got. Want some pictures? Here you go.

Tuckered out while the humans play Cranium:

I took this one when I got home from work this morning. As you can see, he still hates having his picture taken. But it was the best I could do for an impromptu birthday pic!

So that's about it. Curly Joe is doing well and running us all ragged. He is having some dominance issues which I'm trying to clear up. It might just be the new pecking order amongst the dogs, but he does tend to get protective of the strangest things (litter boxes, a pile of laundry, the couch, etc). There were a few recent incidences where Curly Joe and Tank got into a fight while I was at work. Nothing serious, but I still can't accept that kind of behavior from a dog. We'll have to work on it.

We took the dogs to Sauvie Island last summer. This year, I want to take them to the coast. As far as we know, only Tank has seen the ocean, and though we know none of them like to swim, it would at least be nice to get out and enjoy Oregon with the boys.

I hope you are all doing well. Curly Joe sends his love. Or rather, he would send his love if he weren't busy chewing on his Nylabone.