Recovery from Cruciate Ligament Tear Going Great!

We originally posted this a few months back, and will leave the post intact, but want to update you!  This is one of the posts that didn't transfer very nicely when we used an application to transfer this blog from Wordpress to Blogger. 

Before you read the following, please know that it has been almost a year since Aspen tore the cruciate ligaments in her legs.  Though she is not allowed to jump up and down any longer, and can't do so, she has adjusted to her bed on the floor.  We hold her when we can, and she can walk around on her own.  If she were a LARGE dog, it may be a different story, but she is small and doesn't have has much weight to carry around.  Aspen will be 14 next month, and we treasure each day that she is with us. 

Now, below is the content of the original post:

We find ourselves writing on Aspen's behalf more as she gets to be an elder dog. Not that she doesn't still have lots of energy when she is in the mood, but she tends to sleep more now.

We told you about her cruciate ligament tear injury first here and then gave an update when she tore the ligament in the other leg.

Ten weeks have gone by at least since this all started, and she is walking around pretty normally. We downloaded the Recovery Guide, it's free, and signed up to get weekly emails to remind us what steps we should be taking to keep Aspen recovering well.

She definitely isn't the same dog she was, always jumping up on things and such, but she has this past week - against our better judgment sometimes, stood on her hind legs against the side of a chair, chased a squirrel a short distance, and is walking all the way around the back of the house and back, so very much better than she used to be.

We give her pain medicine prescribed by the Vet less frequently, but still about once a day, skipping an occasional day just to get a true picture of how much discomfort she is in. We also purchased a Glucosamine/Chondroitin product suggested by the same people that put together the Cruciate Guide. All of this seems to be helping.

We are never going to allow her to jump again, in fact she can't even if she wants to try. She can barely do a step still. But she is also a small, lightweight dog, so that should be taken into consideration when reading her progress.

Having a Yorkie or Dog's Teeth Cleaned

It has been quite a while - in fact years since this Yorkie has had it's teeth cleaned.  As an elder dog, my owners are concerned about me having me anesthetized so they use a spray that helps to keep the plaque away, which seems to work.  But it is important to have your dogs teeth cleaned.  It is the cause of bad breath in dogs.

We put together a page about having teeth cleaned.

I remember that my food dish and water dish will disappeared at midnight the night before I went in, since they will be putting me to sleep for the cleaning.  Please do visit the helpful page about having a dog's teeth cleaned.

Saddened by the Death of Barney Bush

My family and I were sad to hear that Barney Bush, the Scottish Terrier owned by former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, has died.  He had Lymphoma and his body could no longer fight the disease.  We loved Barney and miss seeing him as well as his devoted family living in the White House.

In fact, way back in 2008 when Barney guided one of his famous Christmas tours of the White House, we did a post about it, you can find it here.  It includes videos of the tour.  Barney still has an archival page on Whitehouse.gov.

It is hard for people to lose their pets, I know that because I overhear my owners talking about how sad and hard it will be when I have to move on.  So give your dogs a hug, a tummy-rub, and an extra treat.  Appreciate us while you have us, we appreciate you and depend on you more than you know.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Bush family as we know how much they will miss Barney, the White House Scottish Terrier.

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Updated 2/28/17 

Yeah! The Olate Dogs Win America's Got Talent!

We are SOOO happy that the Olate Dogs won America's Got Talent! Congratulations! We think we remember the father and son team saying that the dogs are former shelter dogs, but don't quote us on that until you check and make sure. You can visit their site at the link above and go to the Olate Dogs Facebook page and like to keep up with these wonderful and special dogs.

Here they are during one of their shows on America's Got Talent:

What do you get when you mix a Dachshund with a Yorkie?

I'm not sure whether you would call this a designer dog or not, because a Dachshund and a Yorkie mix is called a "Dorkie". My owner's kids used to call each other "dorks" when they were growing up so I'm not sure whether that is a flattering name, but they are very cute dogs.


Dorkie puppies are not common, they are not purebred, but a mix of a Dachshund and a Yorkshire Terrier.  Below is a video of a few adorable Dorkie Puppies, they look very much like a Yorkie puppy.



Do you have a Dorkie dog or puppy picture, or any other dog or cute puppy picture that we can share on our site? If you do, let us know in a comment...we won't post it unless you want us to as they are all moderated.  We can post it here for you, or if it is possible to add a picture to a comment, feel free to do so.