Yesterday started as a nice day. Instead of waking up to the bucketing downpour we've been getting every morning, we had sunshine. While Mr. Wild Dingo prepared to leave for Switzerland for a week, we headed out for a nice long walk to the tree farm where they both got to run free with 2 Northern dogs, Little Wolf (a wolf-malamute mix, who isn't exactly "little") and Dakota (a malamute sibe mix who's recouperating from 2 broken legs). Both are really nice, fun dogs and Loki and Little Wolf enjoyed lots of zoomies and I stupidly forgot to take photos. But I have some great photos of the class 4 rapids under NitWit Bridge that we'll share tomorrow. For now we'll share the bit of drama that occured after our hike.
When I got home, I decided it was time for yard chores since the rain didn't let up for several days. Time to clean the dog yard, take down the trash cans and other boring stuff. I let the dogs zoomie around the fenced-in yard while I did chores.
When I'm ready to go in, I call Loki first, because Juno is so packed onto him and he is packed onto me, that's usually a great way to get her to bend to my will. Booowhahhah. So Loki runs in toward me first.
Juno knows we're headed inside, so she likes to take her own path and goes down the back hillside, full throttle, where she barrels into the porch and dunks her snout into her water bowl. It's her favorite "calming" activity when things are "too excitable" for her.
Note that we don't have landscaping "yet" after 2 years of living here because we're still working on other projects, like the rest of the gingerbread you can see going up on the left side of the photo (the unpainted arch in the porch). Some day, when we get back from Europe, we'll have landscaping. It's one reason why I want to leave so badly, just so I can see some green grass and not work on any more house projects for a few years.
When Loki and I got there, I gave him his treat and was about to give her one when I saw her limping. It looked like her paw had a stick stuck in it. So I tugged at it. It didn't budge. I ask her to sit and she does. Juno hands me her paw instantly without me asking for it. So I tug at the "stick" harder this time. She YELPS. I've never heard her scream in pain ever. So I looked under her paw and saw this:
Yup. it was a nail. I couldn't see the nail head from the top of the paw because her fur and other pad hid it, and the sharp end really looked like a stick to me. It didn't even feel like a nail when i touched it. It was dark and rusty.
Naturally, I panic. I'm still in sweat pants from our walk. I haven't brushed my teeth or my hair and I'm full of mud. And I'm panicking like a crazy lady. Juno on the other hand is walking around, tail high with a big smile on her face. Damn sibe. She's either stoic or stupid. I'm voting for stoic. I call Dogtor Hillary and they tell me to bring her in. Mind you, I'm actually 2 minutes away from a vet near my house. But we LOVE Dogtor Hilary and don't mind the 25 minute drive it takes to see her ever.
When we drove up, the staff was outside waiting to assist in helping Juno to the door, if they had to pick her up. But Juno jumped out of the car and pranced in like nothing was wrong with her nail in her foot. Juno was just at The Whole Pet Vet spa the day before getting her accupuncture after her usual PT. And here she was again. She told Dogtor Hillary, "I really love my accupuncture and wanted to try my own home version of it!"
Dr. Hilary shakes her head and tells Juno this needle is not suitable or standard for accupuncture. However, if she is really good, she can now get a pedicure instead, since she's here. It sounded like a good idea to Juno, so she willingly walked to the back with the whole staff, feeling like she was about to get star spa treatment. You know the kind of spa treatment where there are 5 people "working" on you at once. She was unsuspecting of what was to really to come. You know she's a Sibe. It's in the Siberian Owners manual that lying to them in certain situations is mandatory because they are too smart to handle the truth.
The nail was dug into the deep hard part of her pad so local anesthesia wouldn't do. They had to pull out the heavy duty drugs.
"Dude, I think I like pedicures. I'm floating and seeing hunky malamutes adoring me with meaty bones."
Notice the wire cutters. Dr. Wheeler is a thinker and cut the rusty nail short so she didn't have to pull it all the way through her pad. She flushes the open wound.
Oh that was fun! Lets do that again! Lets see how far we can shoot saline through this hole in her pad!
And what kind of cool doctor do you have to be when I shove my camera at her staff and say "take pictures?" We love the entire staff at The Whole Pet Vet! They rock!
Post Op: "Um, I'm not so certain this was a standard pedicure. After all, only one of my paws was attended. Gheesh."
Mallory, one of the vet techs at the at The Whole Pet Vet is very creative and used an old IV bag and guaze tie to protect to protect her bandage from getting wet and infected. She's sent home with a bottle of antibiotics (the new treatment for rusty nails rather than tetnas shots). Juno walks just fine with her contraption on her foot. Geez, I just stopped giving her a long round of antibiotics in December for her mysterious illness in November.
I was so proud of my stoic little angel. She never cried once. Until we go in the car. On the way home, she didn't stop whining. And at night she paced and whined and did this a lot:
"Mom, look at this paw! It's appalling! They called it a pedicure! But they turned it into a pink monster! All the other Sibes will make fun of me!"
So I broke down and gave her one of these:
They're called "Wolverines." I can't imagine why. Don't they look, um, delicious? I just bought them on Thursday from Loki's new private trainer (who I'm using to train other specific behaviors). She sells raw foods and some neat treats. I've never seen these before so naturally, I had to have them. I was saving them for a special occasion. I guess this was as good as any.
"I'm so upset about Princepessa's paw. I cannot eat." (Don't worry, he got over it quickly.)
"I guess this will do. For now. Nom. Nom. Nom. If you don't want yours Retardo, I'll eat it for you."
Any readers out there keeping a tally on how much this dog is driving us into the poor house? Let me re-cap:
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Day we adopted her: paw limping from over-running her on a pulling team. Vet visit.
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Spay stiches slightly infected. Vet visit.
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Who can forget the foxtails?
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The Unexplained Fever that went on for two weeks, with 5 days in the hospital. To this day we don't know if it was a bacterial infection or an autoimmune response to a virus. I'm sticking with autoimmune and refuse to give her drugs that may compromise her immune system, including anti-flea topical drugs.
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Hip Dysplasia following her hospital stay.
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Physical Torture to help with the hip dysplasia
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Accupuncture to help with hip dysplasia and sore muscles from working out during Physical Torture.
Damn Sibe.
And I don't think I have to list the digging, the mini-cooper eating, the dozens of shoes chewed up, mail fraud, more digging, furniture destruction, house molding chewing, yoga-mat nibbling, blue-tape gnawing, sleeping-formosan-dog-disturbing and her hundreds of other costly habits that send us into the poor house.
Damn Sibe.
Lets just say there are a few things that redeem this pup:
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The Juno Mind Trick
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She wiggles when I come home
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She puts Retardo in his place
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She makes everyone happy
Damn Sibe.
"Don't woo know by now that charm and naughty are two sides of the same coin?"
We're so glad Juno is OK! That's VERY scary!
Give her a kiss on the snooter for our mom, OK?
Luv,
Dave
I think the pink paw thing is quite cute, actually! When my little big sister broke 2 of her metatarsals about a year and a half ago, she had a big pink thing like that on her rear foot FOREVER (note from Mom: it was 12 weeks, because at 17 years old - at the time - they couldn't do surgery on her to fix it, and 17 year old miniature poodle bones take forever to heal). She actually got quite used to it, and thought she was quite dashing! (Eeesh on the pictures, though! Our vet will let us take them, too, but Dad always gets queasy, so Mom doesn't take too many!) Heal fast!
*kissey face*
-Fiona
Woo dang well had better choose STOIKH ovFUR the OTHER 's' word woo suggested -
OR there would be some whopass khoming in your direkhtion!
JBJ: woo SOOOO nailed this one!
Pantyloons, Noodleloons, & Jodhpurs,
Khyra & Khousin Merdie
PeeEssWoo: Those nom noms look INKHREDIBLE!
My Master shot a nail through his thumb once with a nail gun. He was brave too, just like you, but didn't get a nommy bone for it.
I am glad that it all worked out in the end. Your poor mom! She must have been really scared! Master dumps his old wood behind the barn and some of it has nails in it and Momma is always worried about us. I did step on a little nail once, but nothing like you! Wow!
Slobbers,
Mango
Poor Juno and shame on you having us in stitches over a painful ordeal. An entire nail? Sweetie! And you weren't even the instigator! At least your gauze looks pretty. I hope you're just waiting for your foot to heal and you're not in pain. Let me kiss it: mwah (gently)
Twink!
That was for sure a can of whup-ass... for SOMEBUDDY...
Now I thinkin' that Ms. Juno is actually getting ready to go GOTHE... Let's see if she pierces anything else.
Did you save the... SPIKE??? You could make a Ring. May as well have something useful out of the ass whuppin'. I'm just sayin'.
hello wild dingo its dennis the vizsla dog hay yoo mayd dada shreek well dun!!! ok bye
First, can we bring a kayak and run your Class IV's?
Juno. Excellent achievement in panicking your mom and creating havoc at the vet's office. All vet's need at least one Sibe on their patient roster so that they can (1) pay off the student loans and (2) break up the routine.
P.S. - We expect that you go for maximum sympathy with the *snicker* pink *snicker* paw.
And Mom forgot one more thing - she is just beautiful:)
That was one scary post - the breed never ceases to amaze our humans about how stoic we can be with what should be real pain, but try to cut our nails and whoa - you are killing me, stop now.
Glad you found that nail before the paw got infected.
Woos, Phantom and Thunder
OMG!
The nail thing scared me!!!
That's all I have to say! 🙂
Darlin', we told you that you were already a paw in for the next season of Days of Our Sibes. Everypup can see that from one look at those black mascared eyes of yours. You really didn't need to take another stab at it. Or did you change your mind and are auditioning for General Pawspital?
Hugs,
Yukon & Sierra
Oh God, Juno = I spoke too soon in your last post...THIS post will REALLY give me nightmares! Eeeeeek! That picture of the nail sticking out of your paw!! I think I'm going to faint!! 😕
Still, I'm glad you're all better now - you were so brave! - and I actually LOVE that pink bandage on you!
What were those raw yummies you had? Rabbit?
SLobbers,
Honey the Great Dane
aww. you can't resist that fuzzy face!
What a beautiful place to run wild-- and it ends up with a trip to the vet, a pink toe toe cover & wolverines. quite a day! i'm pooped!
toodles,
Tula
peeesses: tell your mommie, everyone gets Norwood & my mommie confused.. since their twins, even their family doesn't keep it straight. no worries.
Note to Juno: I am quite sure they sell non slip doggie boots for running on glaciers in Europe; There really was no need to go and try outfitting yourself so drastically !Milk it for all it's worth is what I say; keep those treats coming and your Maman on her toes...a little guilt in one's human is always a good thing, bwawawa.
Hubbles.
PeeS: check the link for booties
http://www.petplanet.co.uk/category.asp?dept_id=123
Oh my, a simple romp in the yard turned into a huge drama! I'd say that there are no drama queens at your house. Any whining or complaining was fully justified!
We have a similar list of costs for our dogs. We also have pet health insurance, which I'm pretty sure is going to drop us very soon, when they see the bill from K's gastrotomy and hospital stay.
Lots of love to the very brave Sibe who survived a nail in her paw!
Sweet Juno, this should qualify you over the top fur your membership in HULA! (Have woo applied to Meeshka yet?) I think your pink is furry pretty!
a-roos to yous,
jack a-roo
Wow, the day started off great, but owie!! That nail looked painful! I'm so glad you are ok and they got it out. The pink looks quite nice on you.
You look like you might have some Malamute in you cuz your face looks a lot like mine.
Holly
Poor Juno! The adrenaline must have wore off when she got home. I wish I had a vet as great as yours. I didn't know they were prescribing antibiotics for rusty nails now. Will that protect them from tetanus or do dogs not get it?
oh juno! that looks PAINFUL! you seem to get into a lot of medical mischief! you're going to have to cut back when you move to switzerland cause you wont have your handy friendly dogtor to fix you back up!
Hi Loki and Juno
Juno.. you can really milk this one. That hurts just looking at it. In my first year I too had a laundry list of vet bills...but I haven't mastered that pouty face. I'll will study yours and practicing.
Hope you're better!
norwood
You really have been through the wringer. And as one who has stepped on far too many rusty nails...OUCH!
Holy cow! I think it might be time to put Juno in some bubble wrap because she is just getting into too much trouble!
Steve
PS. Mom uses that same trick to get us inside. Kat will come running from anywhere in the yard, but I could be standing right outside the door and not turn around when she tells me to come inside. However, I usually want to be wherever Kat is so I go in if she does.
oh my GOD!!! i couldn't believe that!! how horrible!!!!!! what a brave brave girl!
OMD Juno...what a day you had!! Your pink bandage is very chic and you have done a GREAT job training your peoples and doctors!!
Smileys~
Dory
Pink bandage looks all to familiar...and holding up what I like to call "the money leg", saying "please mommy rub my leg."..... I know that one very well too. Heal quickly!
That nail looks really nasty and I'm so glad you're ok! Hey, but you got a really cute pink boot out of it! 🙂
Mochi