It's been a day for the dogs!

Last night, Patches graduated from Basic Training at Petsmart.  It was very cute!  He had a 5 part test which included Down-Stay by the rodents (yes, he had to lie down and "stay" in front of hamsters and gerbials), Sit-Stay by the birds, Wait at The Door (which involves him sitting and staying by a door until we call him through), a Walking Leave It (where he ignores a treat while he walks past it), and Come! (which means he runs to Mom and Dad with a happy attitude.)  He did very well; he wasn't as happy as he normally is for "Come!" but he was in the cat aisle and he had to inspect everything before he trotted over to us.   Apparently, Patches is stimulated by both birds and rodents which makes him "unique"--- most dogs are only stimulatd by one or the other.  I don't think this bodes well for the cats!  The Christmas photo of all the animals together may be a little tough to get!

The cutest thing, though, was the graduation photo with Dave and me sitting on the floor by Patches while he was wearing a graduation cap and tassle.  Yes, the whole doggie mortarboard and diploma!  We start advanced training next week.  He's a good doggie, but there are habits and behaviors he needs to relearn!  Also, the instructor says our dog is smart!  He can go as far as we want with the training!  :-)  Suck up, maybe, but we love it.

This morning, I took Patches to the vet.  We have been noticing a limp that comes and goes since we adopted him.  Dave and I both felt a bit over-protective by deciding to go to the vet.  He runs just fine; it's only occassionally that he has a pronounced limp.  My family even noticed it two weeks ago when they came up for a visit.   (What does this say about us when we have children?  Will we be running to the doctor over every sniffle?  I vote yes we will, Dave votes no we won't.  Yes, we did have this "conversation" last night on the way home from graduation with me dramatically proclaiming that if our child has a 105 degree temp, I am going to the doctor with or without him.  And there may have been some rather rude statements made on my part about others being invited to bite my derriere if anyone stood in my way! OK! It was melodramtic!  But it was dinner time;  I was getting hungry and cranky!  I was being a good mom for my future baby!) 

So the scoop from the vet:  Front limb limps are very hard to determine the cause.  I told the vet that the limp was in the front right leg.  The vet poked and pulled and determined that there may be a problem in Patches's right shoulder.  However, Patches also appears to have a badly healed fracture in his LEFT leg.  Whoops!  So now, we're going to give Patches glucosamine for a while to help his joints and really look to see which leg he's limping on.  

This is one of the things I suppose you can expect with a rescue puppy.  Maybe he was hit by a car as a young puppy and broke his left leg and tweaked his right shoulder.  That's fine.  Duncan was nearly brought back from the dead as an abandoned kitten hit by a car before Dave adopted him.  It's so worth having Patches and knowing he's in a good home now. 

OK.  Now to work!  Articles to read.  Laundry to do.  Puppies and kitties to encourage being friends. 

10:55:36 AM