A trip to the vet today.

This morning we all took a ride across town to visit the Golden Retriever Vet. Bella had to have her booster shot for her Lepsis. But Clyde and Rusty had a more serious visit. Clyde had been limping since we picked him up at Doggy Jail. His right rear leg was badly swollen at the knee. After another exam today, Clyde is going to have his knee worked on. They hope to restore most of his use of his knee so that he can chase balls for real. He loves to chase balls and play fetch. But right now they can't throw a ball more than about 10 feet for him, they don't want him to do more damage to his leg.

Rusty has several minor things they needed a look at. She had a "hot spot" just in front of her tail. She has a small growth on her eye lid that will need to be taken off soon. She has several fatty tumors that are no danger, but they do need to be watched. She also has weak hips and has trouble getting up and down. Once she is up, she goes like mad, but she hates to get up when she is down, and she hates to lie down once she is up. She still chases squirrels and checks out the hikers on the park trail outside the fence. She has been put on a small dose of Rimadyl, and we can watch it to see how much she needs to become more mobile. We keep telling her that when you are 10 years old, you have to slow up a little. Rusty says she can slow up this winter when it is snowy and cold outside, in the meantime just give her her pill and open the back door when the squirrel chirps.

It is the height of the squirrel season in our yard. The apple trees are bearing a huge crop of apples this year and squirrels are coming in from miles around to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. The grape vines have a good crop and soon the raccoons will be raiding the apples and the grapes. The squirrels have not discovered the blueberry and blackberry bushes yet, but they will soon. The giant sunflowers are setting on soon, the squirrels love them as well, if they can keep the birds away long enough to get to the seeds. It is a full time job just keeping raiders out of the crops, Bella is our head squirrel chaser but even she needs help when there are squirrels on three sides of the yard at once, so Rusty needs to be in good shape to help protect the crops.

Next week we will have another trip across town to get some of the work done. We hope that Clyde will come out of his operation with a leg that can keep up with the rest of us. Wish him well, he is a little bummed out about it all. He says that if we will just give him a bigger dose of Rimadyl he will be fine.

All of our rescues have some health needs. That is why your donation to the rescue is so important. The vet bills and medications for GRRR run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, that is almost all there is in the annual budget, just a huge category called "medical". In the meantime, make a donation to your local rescue. Keep an eye on the blogg, we will keep you informed as to how Clyde and Rusty do.

Mogley G. Retriever