A lot has happened in the last 5 days. Our big baby has developed Kennel Cough in spite of getting a vaccination shot for Bordatello and has been doing a lot of hacking around the house. I took Griff to our Veterinary Clinic, Noah's Ark on Thursday, September 6th to have him checked out and begin a new treatment record on him. Several of the ladies there including Ruffin's favorite lady Vet came out to see him. He was an instant hit. A few of the girls said Griff looked so much like Ruffin. On the way home we stopped at the KentonCounty Animal Shelter and got his a dog license. And once again he was a big hit.
Update on Griffin, September 7, 2018.
Another trip back to the Vet today for Griffin. The hacking cough has persisted every day since he arrived and it sounds worse now. Vet prescribed Cephalexin antibiotic and Hydrocodone to ease his sore throat. Since he arrived on Tuesday afternoon he has had diarrhea, little or no appetite and several bouts of vomiting. I decided this morning to have a full workup done on him to see if anyone missed something. As we were leaving the Vet this morning Griff had a massive stool dump in the office, half solid and half diarrhea and a smaller diarrhea in the van. The Fecal exam came back clean and the Heart worm test was negative. So far so good. Waiting for the rest of the blood panel tomorrow. (it was also good except for some elevated white blood cells due to the kennel cough) Vet suggested boiled chicken and rice for dinner. With an empty stomach he must have been hungry. Griff ate it all and vomited it 3 hours later. I noticed on his previous Vet report before we got him his weight was 115 lbs on 8-30-2018. Yesterday it was 107 lbs and today it was 106 lbs.
Bessie and Griffin are getting along fine, Griff still wants to play and Bess has begun to show her command voice. She stopped one of his exuberant attempts to play with a few very loud barks right in his face. And the barks have a different sound to them, they didn't sound like the one's she makes at the front door.
Morning update on Griffin September 8th.
Griff has become attached to me. He spends most of his day sleeping on the floor under the computer table. And I love the way he snores. He follows me around the house wherever I go and the last two nights at bedtime I was forced to use that to my advantage because he does not willingly go into the crate. Good thing I bought the extra large size because I found if I crawl into the crate he follows me and then I can back out and close the gate.
I found a way to get him to take pills.
It's still raining so I haven't gotten to the store with my shopping list so I melted some shredded cheddar cheese in the microwave and formed it in a ball and buried his pills in it. But he spit the whole thing out when I put it in his mouth. Not wanting to waste the pills I dropped the ball of cheese into the dog food bowl with a handful of kibble. Griff went over and ate the whole thing.
The other night I found Bess and Griff snoozing together in the hallway. They had their faces so close together it looked like they were smooching.
Last night I saw a major change in our sleeping arrangements.
Griffin may be only 15 months old but he is as smart as a whip. After three nights of coaxing and tricking him into the crate at bedtime, even to the point of me crawling in first and having him follow me, last night he wasn't having any of that. And this posed a major problem. I couldn't let him roam the house after I went to bed because he is so curious he gets into everything. This same problem would apply to him sleeping on the dog bed on the floor in my bedroom. So I tried letting Griff sleep on my bed. Which, of course, is where Bessie always sleeps but they wouldn't make any room for me.
So I put a 6 ft leash on Griffin and tied it to the corner of my bed so he could sleep on the dog bed where Ruff used to sleep. Bessie didn't like this so she left my room. Griffin found the leash gave him enough room to climb on my bed and after I turned out the lights he came over me (literally standing over me) and drowned me in kisses. When he tried to lay on top of me I forced him off and he ended up sleeping down at the end of the bed with his back pressed against my back. And thank God he didn't snore once. When I woke up this morning Bessie was sleeping on Ruff's bed next to mine.
I wish there was a way to publish a video on this blog. I just had Griffin and Bessie outside and watched Griff dance all around Bessie trying to get her to play. At first she would just lunge and snap at him to make him stop but he never gave up trying. Then she started playing with him and it was the most enjoyable sight I've seen in the 9 years since we adopted Axl and he played with 2 yr old Ruff. And they kept it up for almost 10 minutes.
Oh, I almost forgot. This was really uncanny. The other day I sat down in the leather chair in the family room and almost immediately Griffin casually stepped up on the arm of the chair and climbed on to my lap and gave me kisses. Once before many years ago, when Ruffin was young he did the exact same thing. Back then my wife Jacqueline grabbed the camera and took some photos. When Griff did it I went and set up the camera on the tripod and sat down with the remote in my hand and Griff came over and did the whole thing again. Here are 2 photos of Griff and 2 photos of Ruff.
In 2008
And here's the really weird thing, in both photos I was wearing the same old work jeans.
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