Sunday, August 30, 2009

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Summer in Texas means I am greeted each morning
by at least one kamikaze toad that has sought
refuge in the dogs' water bucket,
then is unable to escape.

Can you stand one more photo of poor Jaz's tail?
The cortisone cream they prescribed
was pulled off the market or something.
They gave me a spray called Genesis,
which says it's for dogs.
So far, I'm not impressed.
His condition will get better as the weather cools,
regardless of how I treat it.
His mane is not this bad.

Dosed both Boyz with EquiSpot,
which was on sale for cheaper than
I have ever seen it — about $8.

I hurried to take this photo before Pokey shook.
His mane is very thick and grows forward.
After he shakes, you can't even tell there's a bridle path.
I'm grateful he has more mane and tail than
most Appies. His tail grows quickly,
but this is 3 years worth of growth in his mane.

Speaking of growth ...
Here is Martha at the shelter.

Here she is yesterday. She is a PIG.
We call her "R-WIT" —
Rat Weasel In Training.
She's turning into a little
sausage like Cindi.

THE big lesson for dogs at Casa Fry:
the laundry room is off limits.
Stay away from the cat food and the litter box.
Bad things will happen.

I can't break Martha of raiding the cat food,
despite instilling abject terror with
a strategically placed crop in the doorway.
Every time she takes a step down the back hallway,
I snap that crop on the tile floor,
and say in a menacing tone, "Never, never, NEVER."
She immediately drops to the floor
and rolls onto her back in submission.

But she's too smart for her her own good.
She gets it that the crop itself is not evil.
It's Mom plus the crop that equals trouble.

She's gotten in trouble every day this week.
I've popped her butt with that crop,
literally scaring the piss out of her.
Still, it continues.



It's a beautiful morning.
I plan to tack Poco up
and walk him down the road
like I did with Jaz last week.
I hope Norma Jean and her buddies
are out barking themselves silly
so we can do a little desensitization.
Then I'll turn around and ride him back.

9 comments:

Mrs. Mom said...

Oh geeze-- poor baby!! What is causing the allergy, do you know? Is it gnats or some such? (Rotten little flying b@stards...) We have sand gnats here on the coast that make some horses break out and rub themselves completely raw and bloody like that too. Not much stops them either. In our spot, where we have some but not tons of gnats Mosquito Halt stops them. (Shoot that stops everything BUT those giant green headed horse flies and the really really BIG flies.)

Almost enough to make you want to give him baby Benedryl huh?

Cactus Jack Splash said...

lovely shoots and nice read

RoSe said...

Hi Ms Leah, nice post and pics, Marthas too cute and like the behavioral modification technique. We use a water spray bottle normally, but Maggie begs to be watered.
have a nice sunday!

Chelsi said...

Ouch! That looks nasty! Poor thang! I hope that cream works for you. That spotted skin is so sensitive!

Paint Girl said...

We get frogs in our dog water bowls too. Cute frog!
Jaz looks like he is in so much pain! Poor guy!
Martha looks good, even though she is chubby, but anything is better than when she was at the shelter! She's spoiled!
We couldn't keep our dogs out of our laundry room either, (also our cat litter box and food). So we had to buy a baby gate. We installed it up higher in the door so the cats can get under to get to their food and box. But keeps the crazy Aussie's out! It can be a pain in the butt, to remember to step up and over it, but it is so ingrained in my memory that if we ever removed it, I would still step up and over!!

City girl turned Country Girl said...

That's to bad you can't get that tail cleared up!! I bet you are wishing for the weather to change for sure!!

the7msn said...

I'm using a product prescribed by our vet on Lyle's allergy spots called GenOne spray, and it's for dogs - is that the same stuff you're using? If so, give it a chance. I call it "miracle spray" around here. As soon as I see an oozy spot pop out, I give it a spray and it heals within days. No joke.

Also meant to tell you last time you shared Jaz's allergy woes about another thing our vet turned us on to - Spirulina wafers. They're a micro-algae supplement that Lyle gets from March through October - allergy season here. It's made a HUGE difference - he still gets some spots, but nothing like what happened pre-Spirulina (there are some pictures of his spots here http://www.the7msnranch.com/2008/04/story-of-lyle-part-3.html)

We're not sure if Lyle is allergic to bugs or something he contacts out on the range - his problem areas are his face and pasterns. He doesn't itch as Jaz does.

ezra_pandora said...

Our older mare's mane grows forward too, it's so frusterating to get it nice. lol That stinks the stuff that works got pulled. Maybe you can find some on the black market, hehe. I hope you get some cooler weather soon for it to ease up. We are in the 70's during the day and upper 40's here at night this week, which is unusual, but it is quite nice for a change.

AareneX said...

don't tell my dogs that I told you this:

if you keep a mousetrap (unbaited, but "cocked") in the catfood container, the RWiT will get a surprise if she sticks her nose in there. You don't even need to be in the same room.

I think there's a way to unwind traps so they won't amputate a dognose, but will still make a very startling SNAP. With my older dogs, it only took one snapping catfood box. My younger dogs have never needed it, and the mousetrap I used is long gone.

WV: jouthe
"I was jouthe twying to tayshte the cat's food, honest!"

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