Tessa is on the injured list

A couple of weeks ago, Tessa managed to hurt herself by jumping out of the car at warp speed in hot pursuit of a cat she saw on the other side of the street ! ! !  It was one of the rare moments, when her Shiloh halo slipped off to the side and prey drive took over.  I'm sure you've seen that happen before with your own dogs. Your oh-so-well-behaved dog all in a sudden seems to have gone deaf and chases some critter with determination into far away places. Besides the fact that she could have been hit by a car, I don't care for moments like these to happen too often. In the interest of keeping my own sanity !
The result of this kitty chase was a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament. Great ! *grrrr*  Now madame was put on six weeks of rest and relaxation and the healing process will hopefully be accelerated by acupuncture.
Usually, Tessa is terrified at the vet's, but not this one:

 Upon getting into the treatment room, she first has to

 inspect the place,

and once the needles are placed, she drifts off to a half hour nap. Completely relaxed and with no worry. Before she gets acupuncture though, she's being treated with osteopathic methods. By now we've gone to see Dr. McIntyre four times already and Tessa seems pain free and putting almost normal weight on her leg again. I'm thrilled ! All withoug surgery ! Yeah ! 

If you're in need of a fabulous osteopath and homeopath, look no further: http://holisticvethealth.com/index.html

Thank god it's summer. Because of the heat and humidity it's much easier to rest her than it would be during cooler days. Let's be honest : I'd feel extremely bad about having to leave her at home while I take the Budelheimers out for a walk. That way everybody gets to go on long sniffing excursions with very little movement, lots of wildlife to admire and quality time to check out exciting scents. 

Sometimes it's even pleasant enough for a quick sun bath on the patio,

or some doggy hai-ku in the yard: 

Now keep your fingers crossed that everything keeps healing as well as it does !

More of Maple, the Turtle

Since we met underneath the big maple tree for the first time, my little friend now has a name: Maple. :-) From the looks of it, she spent the night in the ground cover in front of the house. Proof were all the turtle size tunnels I discovered the next morning.  Call it fate, but when I looked out the kitchen window I saw her yet again on her way to the neighbor's yard that morning. It's not that I'm hanging at the kitchen window all day, and so I thought it was a wonderful coincidence that we met again. Of course I had to run inside and grab the cam. It hat started to rain and the water gave my little friend a kind of polished look:

The Day After

Don't complain to me (Me=Rodney, who else ?) about not reading more of my adventures. Hu-woman is extremely lazy and full of excuses when it comes to being my personal secretary.  I've been trying to explain to her that typing with claws is way more difficult as it ever would be using human fingers.  Better stop complaining now before she stops typing about the stuff I'm complaining about. (GOT THAT RIGHT, RODNEY ! ! ! **hu-woman here**) Reason she won't complain about typing is, that she's been giggling all morning because I partied hard yesterday and therefore don't feel so good this morning:

Now ! If I get one sly remark about my looks today, I'll be very upset and you all will have to endure more of my writing in the future. At the moment I don't really care too much about talking food, but let me tell you: I got some duck meat for my birthday and it was DE-LISCI-OUS ! In August, Tessa's Boneday is coming up and I'm looking forward to that day's special treat. Our Humans may be a bit weird some time, but they sure know how to spoil a dog. That's it from me...........back to sleeping off that hangover !

Looking Out The Kitchen Window.....

I saw a box turtle slowly coming up the hill . . . 

I admired her beauty from all sides:

She seemed in search of the perfect hideout for her eggs, and even the border rocks did not pose a serious obstacle on her conquest:

I wish you all the best, little turtle. . . 

It also made me wonder how a turtle manages to survive in an urban setting. They like it warm and moist and concrete and chem-lawns aren't really on their dining plan either. I tossed out some salad for her in hopes she'll find it on her way back. If she ever comes back through here. It was the first turtle I ever saw in our neighborhood. Maybe, if I see her again, I'll pick her up and take her to the swamp at Great Falls Park. I'm sure she'll do well there.

For The Ninth Time

....our chaotic, always adventurous,  mostly always up-to-no-good, always keeping life interesting Mr. Monstermeister, a.k.a. Mr. Budelheimer, a.k.a. Rodney  is celebrating his birthday today ! 

Happy Birthday and we hope you delight us for many more years to come !