Oh my... I don't know if I can handle much more excitement this year! I'm OLD you know! It's ok though I'm NOT complaining one little bit.



Jenny is engaged and will be getting married on Sept. 4th in Logan.
Holy cow!... Sept. 4th, that gives us about 10 weeks to get this whole thing figured out, planned and paid for! Whew! Oh yeah throw in the first grandchild making his/her debut right in the middle of that.

In the flurry of activity that defines our lives right now, one member of the family is suffering a fate very unbecoming to him. Yes, it's our young furry son. He has experienced an anal gland issue. Don't ask... you REALLY don't want to know but suffice it to say that the result was three days of having to wear the dreaded 'Elizabethan collar'.

Poor thing... with nearly every attempt to jump up on the couch, bed, or anything very high the collar would hit the edge slamming him back to the floor with a shocking thud. Against all odds, every door he tried to go through he would manage to just catch the edge of the door frame causing him to jerk into an unexpected detour.

Doing what doggies do best, sniffing the ground when he went outside, proved to be a rather breakneck experience for him as well. Lowering his head to sniff while walking would catch the edge of the collar in the grass and force his head further down than he anticipated then suddenly release it with his forward movement and his head would jerk upward. (Did you get that visual from my description?) Trust me, it wasn't pretty and the poor dog was developing a serious phobia of mobility.

He eventually would just sit down and look up at me with the pitiful face below waiting for me to carry him or lift him or help him find the perfect place to pee so he didn't have to walk the yard sniffing for it.

On the ride to the vet's office to check his progress in healing, he was a nervous wreck in the car. The whole 20 minute ride he was trying to climb over my shoulder or out through the closed windows.

Nothing good ever happens to him when we take him somewhere in the car. It means the groomer or the vet and he hates them both.

We finally got the ok to remove the torture device from around his neck.

Is it possible to see joy in the face of a dog?

The collar came off and he broke into a four legged happy dance, I swear! The entire way home he lay peacefully on a pillow in the passenger's seat relishing in his new found freedom once again.