PUPPY!!!!!!!

I can't afford steep vet bills and if I was reliant on them my pup would be in very bad shape or dead rn. I can't praise what the PDSA do enough.

my wife has us on some pet insurance that is surprisingly affordable and came in handy when our old dog got sick , it covered a fair share of the bills.

This very good girl is my house guest this week:

https://imgur.com/a/vYE2tyY

that is extremely 3rd Grade Yearbook smile, i love it

if i get another animal, i'm going to get pet insurance asap. the pre-existing conditions bullshit is definitely still a thing with animals. by the time we found out my dog had hip dysplasia, there was no way we could get insurance.

Douglas is on WW2 sized rations of boiled chicken and rice until his intestine recovers, but his appetite has completely returned. When I put the bowl down it is like like watching a whizzing blur of piranhas on a feeding frenzy, it's so funny.

the labrador appetite is a thing to behold

i want a fucking dog

the labrador appetite is a thing to behold

We fostered a young black lab for a few months, and he managed to eat the best part of a 12 kg bag of dog food. Like, he just rammed that stuff down his gullet double-quick until he was completely misshapen. We had a trip to the vets at 11pm on a bank holiday. He was so stuffed with food, she was afraid it would rot inside him before he could break it down. So she knocked him out and manually worked that food through his system. Liquid paraffin poured in one end, literal punching of his stomach to work it into the food, then out the other end it came. It took an hour to clear him. We had to sleep in the living room with the back door open so he could continue the process.

Next morning, he was STARVING. You never met such a hungry dog in your life.

not really funny for the dog .. but lool! There is something quite comic about their grim obsession with food. My last Lab used to plot raids on the bin. He'd always be watching what went in and mount a knock the bin over and grab and run raid later. Obv this decreased in frequency as he got older, but the old dog still had a few tricks in him.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0MdhRaWsAIyEjG.jpg

I told him next time I catch him eating a sock I will be jolly mad and make him eat the rest of the drawer.

sorry pops, y'know i just can't resist the smell of th-*deep snoring sounds*

:p

one of our doggies passed yesterday. pretty tough on our son.

― you know who deserves sitewide mod privileges? (m bison), Thursday, February 21, 2019 12:38 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

our surviving dog was breathing weirdly, so we took him into the vet and...he probably has cancer and only a few months left, if that. sheesh.

genuinely sorry to hear that m bison.

omg that is too much
i'm sorry
too sad!

oh no. :( i'm sorry, m bison.

m bison, that's all awful. I'm so sorry.

Allegedly Labradors have genetically lost the trigger in your stomach/brain that tells you that you're full. Poor buggers are ALWAYS hungry.

Perhaps that is partly why they are so trainable as sniffers/guide dogs etc, in the sense that the reward means so much more to them than other doogies!

one of our doggies passed yesterday. pretty tough on our son.

― you know who deserves sitewide mod privileges? (m bison), Thursday, February 21, 2019 12:38 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

our surviving dog was breathing weirdly, so we took him into the vet and...he probably has cancer and only a few months left, if that. sheesh.

― you know who deserves sitewide mod privileges? (m bison), Sunday, February 24, 2019 2:43 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

put dog #2 (simon) down last night. he deteriorated so quickly after dog 1 (charlie) died last week. he was was mostly chipper this week, though, until i got home last night and he couldn't pick his head up without discomfort or pain.

i took this one a lot harder. partly because i thought we had more time with him and had far less time to prepare for his passing than the other one. partly because i picked him out when we first got him and spent the lion's share of time with him. he could be a difficult dog at times; he was a shelter rescue and he was big on chewing stuff he wasn't supposed to and pissing in the house all the time when we weren't home. but he was also very loving and protective.

anyway, this is the first time in maybe 25 years -- not counting the year i was out of town for college -- that i don't have a pet in my house.

sorry man; that's really rough.

M bison, so sorry, that is terrible

i'm really sorry m bison, that is awful. i hope you're doing ok, it must be overwhelming. <3

i recuperated by lining up to adopt 2 chihuahuas. they should be ready by tuesday. naming em ziggy and manu and will have pictures.

that is a very good idea, and an adorable one as well. holy crap! how old are they?

theyre each about a year old. luckily my school is v close to the city animal care services so i went after work initially intending to get one dog, but these two dudes were cellmates and brought in at the same time, so i couldnt separate them!

i recommend picking up the beverly hills chihuahua trilogy on the way home as well, this will be essential viewing for your new fam

I went down that path of getting another puppy before thinking too much about it when suffering bereavement. It has been hard work, but I don't regret the decision at all.

how is the sock gobbler

mar dhea and theres a few round here wouldnt be safe from him indeed

he's a bit depressed with the new low sock access regime, the intestine recovery rations he's on, lack of off the lead action and the elizabethan head-piece is inflicting psychological duress. I'd like to think the brush with death has instilled a new sense of maturity in him, but as soon as the stitches come out on wednesday he'll be back to his best/worst in no time I reckon, but thank god tbh.

I can't get a new dog till after the summer -- we're having major renovation work done on our house and we have to move out for a few months.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4Ge4jRW4AAU1Aw.jpg

Douglas is 6 months old today. ffs I lose the daily count of the amount of times I'm retrieving stones and lumps of chewing gum out of his gob. But he's growing into a real handsome dog for sure.

extremely good boy

That’s a real good creek you found there, Douglas <3

https://imgur.com/a/KwXvHXg

this is my buddy, Buddy

https://i.imgur.com/poRjUMw.jpg

(not actually mine, but we are pals)

I am a fan of these dogs.

god i want a dog

new mexico pup style! love it

https://i.imgur.com/ejMadtx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IjPW1ix.jpg

meet charlie! he's 3 but looks (and acts) like an old man. was a stray in texas and on a kill list and then bounced through fosters and bad adoptions :(

but now he's home! he is extremely mellow and settling in. already has a favorite spot on the couch and spent last night curled up at my feet in bed.

my first dog, i love it so far

he looks gorgeous!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGt4z2pWkAEy9eW?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

this is my main doog Douglas, he's reaching his first birthday in 2 days!

handsome boy

he has some very unsavoury habits and is an obsessive scavenger, so I have to put a muzzle on him off the lead until we get into deep countryside. Because he will literally eat anything, including discarded socks, dog-shit, fox-shit literally anything... but he is slowly getting more sensible.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DuNXSzvWwAAyOs9.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DuqA86nWkAAUMBZ.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0MdhRaWsAIyEjG.jpg

just shamelessly reposting earlier pics of Douglas's development in the last year from this thread, including after he needed major surgery to have a sock removed from his small intestine after nearly dying, because I felt like it!

he practically collapses that settee when jumps on it now!