So here's what happened

A few days ago, while Bridget and Jake ran off to Cambridge and I was here hanging out with Lucy and John and Rose, I kinda ran off. Well, "ran" might be an exaggeration. I saw that the gate wasn't completely closed, I wiggled through, and wandered off. As you might imagine, John and Rose were quite worried. But they had heard that I do occasionally go visiting my neighbors, so they figured I'd be nearby. And indeed, when John went out to find me, one of the neighbors a few doors down yelled "are you looking for a dog?" and it was me and I came home and all is well and that was over. John and Rose told Bridget and Jake about the adventure. Or at least, the version of the adventure that they knew.

The plot thickens.

Yesterday, I did it again. Jake was getting stuff into and out of the car, and I made a break for it while he wasn't looking. Bridget went off in search of me, and again, a neighbor yelled "are you looking for your dog?" and Bridget came to get me. I was not at all interested in the fact that Bridget had been calling my name, walking up and down the street. I totally heard her. The people at the house where I was informed Bridget that I had been there a couple of days ago, and that they were having a BBQ then. More importantly, they thought that I was their landlord's dog, and they GAVE ME CHICKEN AND HAMBURGER OFF THE GRILL. So Bridget actually had to climb up two flights of back porch stairs to pull me away from the grill, which I was calmly sitting beside, ignoring the conversation and the urgent search for me.

We have the best neighbors!!!

Pawtograph

A big fan of mine requested an official pawtograph. Bridget had some challenges with getting this done. First of all, I'm at the height of my fuzziness at the moment. Said fuzziness involves a lot of hair growing between my toes. Seriously. They made it difficult to do anything other than a furry mass of blue ink. So Jake joined in and helped Bridget clip the hair between my toes, and she did a re-take today. As you can see above, it looks pretty good.

By the way, the vet called and said that my tongue thing biopsy came back clear, and the lump was totally benign and unlikely to reappear. This is all good news. The vet also said that I am UNDERWEIGHT, so I need to work on bulking up!!!! WOO HOO!!!

Carter after Dentist

So yesterday I went to my friends at Wignall's, and they totally got me drunk. Well, actually, they put me under anesthesia, cleaned my teeth, and removed the growth on my tongue. But when I woke up, I totally seemed like I was drunk. I just hope I wasn't as bad as this kid.

Before the surgery, the doctor thought I had an irregular heartbeat, and they were worried that this indicated some heart disease. But an x-ray informed them that my heart is OK. Of course it is. The rest of things were smooth sailing. I get to have delicious, canned wet food for a week or so, which is totally awesome. Bridget and Jake haven't had a chance to see my tongue yet (they don't want to bug me about it too much), but I'm doing pretty well. This is totally embarrassing, but the picture above shows the nasty lump thing pretty well. Gross! I'm glad it's gone. In a week or so we should have a biopsy back to know what the heck it was.

In other news, someone at Bridget's work asked for an actual paw-tograph for her son. He totally wants to have it to hang up in his room. I am awesome!

Growth

So there's this thing growing on my tongue, and it's not a new tongue. It's a bump. So Jake took me to the vet for the usual $300 appointment (every single time it is $300). They want to take it off (my poor tongue!) so I'll be going under the knife (probably) on Wednesday. While they're at it, I'll get a full teeth cleaning deal. Fun! So look for a further report later this week.

Also, I just spent a week with my lovely Aunt Paula, and my dog buds Briscoe and Marlin. I'm awesome.

Health Check All Clear

The vet called back and I'm in good health! We're all very happy about this. Check out this photo -- obviously I'm a model dog, the picture of good health!

Health Update

So last week, I was coughing, like a lot, during the day. Bridget called the vet, all worried, and I went in the next day for a visit with the vet. The thing is, I didn't cough ONCE after Bridget called the vet. Seriously.

So they gave me the "senior" blood workup, since I'm a "mature" dog and all. They also wanted a sample of my pee. Yup. So the vet-tech and Bridget took me outside to make a collection. But I would not pee in front of them. They were weirding me out. They kept walking all close, shuffling up to me with their plastic container anytime I went near the bushes. So I held it. So the vet tech gave up, gave Bridget the equipment, and sent us home. So Bridget tried for the rest of day to collect my pee. This is hilarious. I mean, it's hilarious to me, and I'm sure it's hilarious to the neighbors who were watching. I don't think Bridget thought it was too hilarious, though, as she seemed to say a lot of angry words. She tried for a long time. And she failed.

She did finally collect the pee a few days later. We're still waiting for the results. Basically, according to my bloodwork, I might have some trouble with my thyroid, but that's not bad, and it's not terribly unusual for a dog of my age. But overall, my health is good. And I enjoy making Bridget feel inadequate at collecting pee.

Eating Antics Updates

I've been on a bit of a tear, grabbing all kinds of stuff off of tables and out of bags. I ate a bunch of Lucy's candy that she got from the artists' studios last weekend. Bridget was particularly irritated by this, because Lucy had one of those Lindt milk chocolate balls, and she had resisted eating it because it was Lucy's, and then she found the wrapper (all nicely smoothed out) on the floor and realized that I had munched it. This made her mad. She should have taken the opportunity when it presented itself. That's what I do!