Tula Boo Boo

When we got back from the UK, we noticed a small button like bump on Tula's paw. We thought it was just one of us stepping on her foot during a walk, as they are prone to do that (get under your feet) at times. So we let it go. We noticed it wasn't going away, so the following week, we took her to the vets (and she is officially 50 pounds now, we found out on the scale!) and we decided to take the casual approach at first and put her on a heavy dose of antibiotics for a week. It wasn't going down, so I took her back to the vets yesterday and the number one possibility at this point is that is could be a histiocytoma. It's a solid benign tumor, common in puppies under 2 years old, and common in boxers. This confirms that she could be part boxer. We think her dad was a lab/boxer and her mom was a plottie. Anyway, they needed to take a small cell sample from the center of the lump. They took her away in the back to do this, which was good. I waited in the front lobby area, and I heard the saddest sound in the world, a little Tula, having to go under excruciating pain. The squeal that came from her just broke my heart. She came out with a bandage on her paw, and she was much tamer. She just sat down, and I gave her a few kisses and I fed her a biscuit (to gauge how distressed she was), but she ate it which was a good sign. She is doing very well right now. We won't know the results for at least a week. If it is a histiocytoma, there is a 50/50 chance she will need surgery. The other option is that it will regress on its own. Fingers crossed it will regress on it's own!

Tula Est Ein Plott Hund

Thanks to Kristen Jones for teaching me this German, by the way. My friend, Maggie, found this article about Plott hounds, and the dog show. This is the first year that Plott hounds were shown at the annual dog show. Although this article is very biased and very adamant that a Plottie would never win, we (and I am sure that many other Plott hound owners agree)wholeheartedly disagree! For that matter, any REAL dog would never win the award, only dogs that were bred and raised to be show dogs ever have a real chance. But we think that Josie or Tula have a fair chance of winning best in show, but we are proud parents. :)
This article also goes on to say that they were first bred in Germany to be boar hunters, and they are one of the toughest dogs there are. The reason they would never win, is that they would be covered with scratches from being super tough pupper dogs.
I also feel that Tula is a very tough pup, and believe we are in good hands if we were all face to face with a bear/boar. As long as the bear/boar is not vacuuming, carrying a rolled up magazine, or carrying a full kitchen garbage bag, Tula won't be afraid!

Back in the US! And Happy 1st Year, TULA!

We went to the UK and Ireland for 2 weeks to visit Anthony's family. We had our friend Maggie stay with the girls for us in our house. We heard that Josie had separation anxiety, as usual, as she always seems to miss me when I go away for awhile. She is a big softy, really. Tula didn't know what was going on, as this was the first time we've been away from her for awhile. It would appear that she was perfectly fine...didn't miss us at all. Which emphasizes what I always thought, she would miss Josie the most, if they were separated instead. And that makes her a big a softy to her older sister.

Winter Wonderland!

Tula experienced her first snow this week. We got about 10 inches of the glorious white stuff. She loves it, she can't get enough. My new task now is to see if she can pull me on a sled. I think she is strong enough, that is for sure. So keep an eye out for some video footage of that, and possibly one of them prancing around at the dog park. We have a new video camera, YAY!

In other news, Tula got some new American Kennel Club toys, they are supposed to be stronger. Tula is the destroyer of all toys we buy her. But last night she was so excited to play with her toys that she kept whining all night. It drove us NUTS.

Just Checking In

Wanted to send an update-Everyone is doing fine. We had an incident where a crazy old hag (and this is meant to be rude b/c she was not a very pleasant old woman) tried to shoo Josie away with her garbage bags, when she was pooping on the sidewalk, and nowhere near her "lawn". I understand that people have requests, but dog owners are not brute people, when asked, we actually can be reasoned with and talked to! Tula came to the rescue, and jumped up on the old woman, to which she responded with "oooo, I'm gonna call someone". I decided to wait for her to do that. On a side note, whenever I get the chance to get back to that woman's sidewalk, we do so and Josie pees.

Dogpark Fun

Yesterday, I took the dogs to the dogpark. We were the only ones there. Something bizarro happened. As we got there, Tula was all interested in playing fetch. Josie is doing what she normally does, which is try to poop about 5 times, and then run around and sniff everything. Tula and I, playing away....Josie pooping everywhere. Then, Josie must have gotten jealous, because out of nowhere, she found her very own tennis ball. But she wasn't letting it go, nor was she about to give it to Tula. But the STRANGE thing about this, was that as Josie was running, she was not moving her head, nor her back, as she ran. Only her feet. And she was running diagonally across the dog park. Tula became interested in this, and ignored me. She tried to get this new tennis ball from Josie, and she succeeded. And now, this is the STRANGER part...Tula started running with the tennis ball in her mouth. In the same diagonally strange way! Dogs, they are strange.

Mouth Gaurd?

So...Anthony was watching the pups, I was not at home. Anthony went to the bathroom, leaving Tula unattended on the bed in the bedroom. On the dresser, I seemed to have left my very sexy mouthgaurd (I GRIND, OK???). Anthony came out of the closed door bathroom, to a very innocent looking Tula on the family room rug. With my mouthguard, perfectly placed in her mouth, as a mouth gaurd, with a priceless look on her face to say "what mouthgaurd?". Too bad the camera was not nearby.

It's currently being bleached, burned over open flame, sanitized, dishwashed, autoclaved, boiled, steamed and disinfected before going back in my mouth.

She eats poop, people.