Both cars are packed, their tanks are full, and just waiting to be driven. Tomorrow morning (very early) my dad and I will be driving up and I will be moving in to the area I will be living for grad school. But Chloe won’t be coming. Not for almost 5 weeks anyway. Since I will be moving 350 miles north, it won’t be easy for me to just “go down” and pick her up some random weekend between prior obligations and school. I am going to have to wait until after my birthday,which is when my dad can drive her up to me. I know she will be ok at my parents’ house, but it will still be hard for me to leave her. Hopefully the time up there will pass by quickly… The bright side is that she will be with her sister Rocket the whole time I am gone. Its still not going to make me miss her any less. Since I will not be with my dog for quite some time, I will only post when I get some interesting news from my parents.

Anyway as I promised, I have a picture of Chloe in her Ruff Wear Harness! More to come when I am not so busy moving my life so far away. I’ll be sure to take her to a dog beach and catch some sporty picture of her in her harness when she is up with me again.

Chloe in her new harness!

It will be a hard good bye tomorrow morning.

Happy 2 week ampuversary to Chloe! Today was the day Chloe was scheduled to have her staples taken out, a day I know she and I were both be looking forward to. No more annoying cone and no more bonking into everything in the middle of the night. The cone will surely not be missed by either one of us. So I got her in the car, rolled down the back window and drove about 10 min to the vet’s clinic. The best part of this whole deal for Chloe was probably the car ride. When we got to the vet’s office she seemed happy just to be out and about, which was surprising considering that is where she had her surgery. While we waited, we met a cute chihuahua who wasn’t so cute after he snapped at Chloe (she didn’t react back).  Apparently he thought he could take on a dog about 8 times his size… maybe he had a small dog complex.  Anyway, we got a few stares (well Chloe did anyway) and a couple people asked the usual, what happened, how is she doing…. until a technician called her to go in the back. As soon as he took the leash she stood her ground and refused to go anywhere with this person. I think he didn’t want to pull too much because she’s only got 3 legs. Guess Chloe’s initial indifference to being there was cut short. Knowing how stubborn Chloe could be, I walked with the technician to the door so Chloe would follow.

While I waited for her staples to be removed, I conversed with an older gentleman about his older chihuahua. Apparently his dog did not like going to the vet, as was readily apparent with whining and crying. I was surprised to learn that the dog was 16 and was still healthy. Not surprised at the healthy part, but more the age. I should be so lucky to have another 7 years with Chloe. Once in a while during the conversation, I could see Chloe in the back room when other technicians went in and out. She was being a very good, calm girl while they removed the staples. A few minutes later I saw her walking the doctor out to see me. Apparently he wasn’t walking fast enough for her. 3 legs sure hasn’t slowed her down. He said that her incision site looked good, she seemed to have a good grasp on the whole 3 legs thing and that I definitely made the right call. She was doing better than he could have hoped. Goes to show that positive energy, some tough love and finding the right incentives to be “normal” again really made a difference. Now the last thing that needed to be done was schedule the surgery for her teeth. Since I will be moving up this weekend and have to leave my beloved baby behind for a month, my mom will take her to get her bad tooth removed, her teeth cleaned and updated on her shots. I know I will miss her like crazy until she comes up in September, but I also know she will be ok staying with my parents. So I am just going to enjoy the day and a half I have left with her to the fullest!

P.S. So the fedex package tracker says the Ruff wear Harness is out for delivery! I can’t wait to put it on Chloe now that her staples are out. Pictures of Chloe in her harness will be up tomorrow. It should be here any minute…

It is important to give an adequate description of how our dining room/stairway up to my parents’ bedroom looks so the story I tell following this makes more sense.  My parents rebuilt our house in the late 80’s and one of the neat things (or at least I think is neat) about the shared wall between the stairs that go up to their bedroom and the dining room is that there are little cubby hole type “windows”.  There is no glass, just 6 open framed “box” spaces that echo adjacent stairway (if still confused, see first picture). So yesterday afternoon while my good friend and I were in the kitchen working on some art pieces (canvas painting), I noticed a dog face peering out at us on the topmost “box” which is about halfway up the stairs…  Apparently she really wanted to check and see if my dad was upstairs and was disappointed to find the door closed (because he was at work). However, I decided this was an opportune photo op because she went up all by herself!!! No falling!! As soon as I grabbed my camera she was already coming down to see me, so she is a bit blurry. Needless to say I gave her lots of rubs and positive noises to let her know how proud I was of her. Guess we do need to invest in a gate since she is very curious. The harness is supposed to arrive sometime tomorrow which is same day as her staples come out so its good timing. At least she only tried it once.

Chloe the stairmaster

Since Chloe has more freedom, she loves laying outside on the lawn in the sun. Her fur hasn’t grown back in and I am a little worried that she might get sunburned… Luckily she seems gets bored or hot after 10 min and usually goes to the shade or back inside to check on me.  I took a cute picture of Chloe while she was outside. Somehow I managed to sneak up on her. Did I mention she has a habit of sleeping with her ear up like that? It’s pretty funny.

Time for a nap in the sun

Her staples come out tomorrow!