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I'm just back from another visit to Aunt Paula's house where I was hanging out with my pack, including the likes of Marlin, Briscoe, Walter, Penny, Quimby, Monty, and Mylo.  Yup.  That's a lotta dogs.

That's me with my old old pal, Marlin.  We're checking out the new puppy, Mylo, and as you can see, he does not meet with our approval.  Puppies.  Ugh.  Just 'cause they're cute doesn't mean they get to take over your bed and your toys.

Or maybe it does.

Health Updates: Concerns & Curiosities

Carter's been having a rough couple of rough weeks.  For a few days, he was pretty much unable to walk.  This has been stressful and awful.  He was bad for a couple of days, then improved, and was bad again.  We had a couple of vet visits, and it was suggested that perhaps he was just having an arthritis flare-up.  But still, it's been very worrisome.  He'd have a great day, needing no help, and even be able to climb the front steps. Then the next day, he'd be rough again.  So Jake brought him to the vet for an x-ray.

Verdict: arthritis flare up, but more than his rimadyl can handle. He's going on a course of prednisone, starting Monday.

His knees and hips actually look good for a dog his age. The arthritis is in his lower back (lumbosacral). Apparently this is common in German Shepherds. Go figure.

The x-ray showed one weird thing. It's not causing him any trouble, but he's got a bb in his butt. It wasn't there in 2009, when he last had an x-ray. So somebody shot him in the last 4 years. Again, it's not and won't be a problem for him, but it's crazy messed up.  The vet was positive it was a bb. I suspect she sees it often. Just in case your misanthropy needed a booster shot. Sheesh.

All in all good news, no tumors or other horrors.

So, be on the lookout for jerks wielding BB guns.

I'm a WINNER!

So at this past weekend's Dog-a-Palooza, Bridget entered me in a raffle.  Readers, you know me: I am the luckiest dog in the world.  Guess what!  I won!  I'm getting a gift bag of goodness from Pete's Grain, an awesome local pet supply & grain store!  I am SO EXCITED.  Maybe I can even get a sponsorship deal with them!

Cheers!

Nom! Shortcake

I have a problem, and that problem is baked goods. If there are baked goods cooling on the dining room table, I will attempt to eat them.  Jake and Bridget seem to keep forgetting this.  But I am ever hopeful, ever vigilant.

And today, I won!

I got some shortcake!  It was awesome.  Bridget screamed. But I didn't stop.

I am the master of the baked goods.  No one can stop me.

Yes, I will pull down the tablecloth if I have to.  Yes, I will eat until I make myself ill.

But Jake, as long as you keep baking, I will keep attempting, by any means necessary, to eat your baked goods.  Bring on your cookies.  Bring on the breads.  I will eat them.  All.

Oh, also, yesterday, the whole family went over to Sue's condo building where they had this awesome Dog-a-palooza event, with proceeds to benefit my good friends at the Lowell Humane Society.  It was amazing.  I got SO MANY treats.  I also got my toenails clipped, which wasn't awesome, except for the fact that I got lots of treats.

All their treats are belong to me.

NOM.

Lowell Folk Festival Rocks!

Carter loved his day at the Lowell Folk Festival.  He really got into the spirit of it with his lei and all, especially since we got to see & hear Hula Halau 'o Keikiali'i at Boardinghouse Park:

We also caught a great set by Denis Pepin & Susie Lemay, who both play accordions and perform French Canadian music.  It was all wonderful.


Just like last year, we picked up our bag of compost from the previous year.

We went down to the Lowell Folk Festival on both Saturday and Sunday.  Both days were amazing.  We were especially into the food.  Our favorites: The Jamaican meat pies. Oh, and pretty much everything we shoved in our mouths.  Thanks, Lowell Folk Festival!  We'll see you next year!

RIP, our friend Dinky

I heard some sad news from the West Coast this weekend: my furry comrad, Dinky, passed away.

Here he is with Dean and Jake (and Nirvana's gold record) at Subpop.  They have an interview with Dean there, where he explains about moving to Seattle with Dinky in a bike trailer.  And they have a very nice obituary for him there at SubPop, too.

Dinky loved people, and people loved Dinky.  He was really just a totally awesome dog.

That's why they call it the Emergency Brake!

So this afternoon, I (Bridge) was being a model of efficiency.  In an effort to decrease the errand-running and bridge-crossing, I picked up Lucy a bit early from school, then together we picked up Carter from the groomer's, then all together, we went to Shaw Farm, where we usually go once a week to get our milk and eggs.

Here's what happened next:

We left Carter in the car while Lucy and I went inside with our empty bottles.  It was a quick exchange of empties for fresh full ones; we paid and headed back to the car.  Carter had clearly attracted the attention of the young man in the car parked next to ours, and they appeared to be entertaining each other quite well.  I asked Lucy to stay on the sidewalk, while I opened the front door of the car and put the eggs and milk inside.  She squealed with glee, watching Carter bound about the car, very excited to see us (you'd think we'd been gone for hours).  Carter was very worked up, and bounded into the front seat just as I closed the door.

I called Lucy, opened the back door, and popped her into her seat.  This is where things went crazy.  While I was working to get Lucy strapped into her seat, Carter was positively going crazy in the front seat, too excited to be still, just pacing and bounding and jumping.

Somehow, in all his chaos, he disengaged the emergency break, which sits in between the driver and passenger seat.  The car began to roll backwards, with the back passenger door open and me halfway inside, half on top of Lucy.

It was crazy.  The man in the car beside us jumped out of his car with a horrified look, but clearly wasn't going to be able to do anything.  Carter was jumping around, and Lucy was squealing with delight (she had no idea that rolling backwards, with no control, in a parking lot, was a problem).  I threw myself farther into the car, fumbled around a bit, and managed to grab the emergency break, pulling it with everything I had.  The car came to a stop, about a full car-length behind where it had started.

No damage.  Thankfully, no other cars were pulling in at that instant.

The man in the car beside us was shaking his head, his eyes wide.  He kept saying "I can't believe that happened!"  I felt the same.  He told me I should go buy a lottery ticket.  Hilarious.  A bit shaky, we drove home, with Lucy delightedly talking about how Carter drove the car.

So, let's add that to his resume: Carter the dog, the famous movie star, once drove a car.

Head Tilt

So Carter is still struggling with his crazy vertigo (also called, at least around here, "Dizzy Dog" and also called, by vets, "Canine Vestibular Syndrome").  He's seeming a bit better, but he's still a bit off.  For instance, there's this head tilt thing he does:

I know, it's cute.  But his poor head is ALWAYS at this tilt, not just when he's asking for more treats.  It's totally pathetic.  He is no longer stumbling around so much in the total drunken-sailor style.  But he is having trouble navigating steps and uneven ground.  The crazy eye-rolling that was happening the first night (pre-diagnosis) has thankfully disappeared.  We did the dramamine for a bit, but it didn't seem to have much effect.  It's our hope that he'll be better soon.  On the bright side, he's eating just fine (you know we were really concerned when *this dog* didn't want to eat).  We've been missing our walks (though perhaps he hasn't so much!).

The weather here has been lovely lovely lovely!  Hooray!

I am a movie star, and don't you forget it

So we had some guests here and I had a great time getting lots of extra attention (not to mention bacon, ham, and turkey scraps!  Thanks, Grandma!).

It has come to my attention that certain members of the guest party have not yet seen my movie.  I cannot believe this.  Truly unfathomable.  One guest suggested that my clip might be available on YouTube, so for those of you who have not yet seen my star turn, you can click here (though beware, there's some "inappropriate language," and the video's of pretty low quality.

Even crazier, someone has redone my scene with other actors, including ANOTHER DOG playing my role.  Again, the "inappropriate language" warning still holds, but check out this ridiculous little dog trying to play my role!  He actually RUNS AWAY!

While I was searching for the right video (it's tough when you're typing with paws!) I found out that Mickey Ward was bitten by a dog back in June!  That's just crazy.

In which I celebrate

So Bridget was in the process of creating this blog post when she heard a suspicious noise. That noise was me eating the brand new awesome bagels that Jake and Lucy bought at one of their favorite stores. Bridget was PISSED. Man, she can scream.

Anyway, Bridget's post was going to be about the fact that she's so glad that they just spent a lot of money to find out that this weird lump thing in my arm pit (leg pit) is just a benign tumor. Benign. That's good. It's actually called a FATTY TUMOR. Perhaps, Bridget has suggested, I should stop stealing bagels and other baked good and I wouldn't have so many FATTY TUMORS. Whatever. That bagel was awesome. And so am I.

movie update

Looks like that movie really is coming to Lowell! Check out this article in the Sun, which says:
[I'm pasting the whole thing below as the Sun stories don't seem to stay up for very long]:

LOWELL -- Window grids cast shadows on the exposed brick walls of a loft above the American Textile History Museum as Robert Moresco looks out over the Acre neighborhood past a downtown canal at sunset.

In the eyes of the two-time Academy Award-winning movie producer, the loft space defined by the century-old mill's original ceiling beams and the gleaming granite kitchen countertop signifies what Lowell stands for.

"It's a brand-new Boston with all the old underpinnings," Moresco said.

A perfect marriage between old and new is what Moresco has been looking for in locations for the shooting of the upcoming movie based on an international espionage novel. The Residences at the American Textile Museum on Dutton Street delivers that for him.

"This is a perfect fit for a single ex-cop," Elaine Rogers, a film producer, said of the movie's main character, who would live in the loft. "It has the right feel."

Hollywood is returning to Lowell.

Led by Moresco, Rogers and Lowell's own movie producer, Chris Byers, a production crew visited the Mill City on Tuesday on a hunt for ideal spots to shoot a new movie. The film doesn't have a name just yet. Based on Deadly Codes: A Gallagher Novel, a thriller authored by Bedford dentist Joseph O'Donnell, the conspiracy-filled story that centers around a Boston private eye is expected to be an attention-grabber. The crew is eyeing the spacious lofts that overlook the western edge of the downtown as

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backdrops for parts of the suspense drama.

The American Textile History Museum building, which houses the Residences, a 45-unit luxury condo complex, along with the museum and The Sun downstairs, is a stone's throw away from the cobblestone-paved downtown that has provided scenes for two recent Hollywood movies. In 2009, the shooting of Ricky Gervais' movie, The Invention of Lying, featuring Jennifer Garner and some other stars, drew crowds outside The Dubliner, a Market Street pub used for the shooting. The Fighter, the Oscar-winning movie about Lowell boxer Micky Ward, also incorporated many of the city's hangouts, including the Owl Diner and the West End Gym.

In case of the Deadly Codes project, Moresco said he wants to combine Boston's cityscapes with scenes from one of its "underbelly" towns like Lowell. The former industrial mill featuring the oversized windows not only has the right ambiance but should also help stir imagination for Moresco, who is writing the movie script from the book, Byers said.

"Bobby is a phenomenal writer," Byers said of Moresco, whose credit includes such Academy Award winning films as Crash and Million Dollar Baby. "He keeps it moving and exciting all the time."

Byers hopes the Deadly Codes project will help boost his hometown's new identity as a destination for movie productions.

"My whole goal is to shoot a film from start to finish" in Lowell, said Byers of New England Capitol Studio, who is involved in the project to build a 630,000-square-foot movie studio in Devens.

Deadly Codes is a second book written by O'Donnell, an associate clinical professor of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, who runs a dental office in Winchester and began writing novels in recent years. The movie project came about when his family member showed the book to an actor friend. Before he knew it, O'Donnell was sitting down with Rogers, an entertainment lawyer with an office in Boston, and a few others to go over a preliminary movie script. Once Byers became involved, so did Moresco. He never expected to see his fiction on a big screen, said O'Donnell as he toured the lofts of Ed Cain, owner of Candlewick Development LLC, which is developing a part of The Residences.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_18770608#ixzz1WEGlnZEN

The movie project now involves O'Donnell's and his business partner's company, Gallagher Enterprises, as well as New England Capitol Pictures and Apple Hill Productions. Byers said the movie and TV industry has changed tremendously over the past few decades. With 600 cable channels to feed contents to, filming now takes place anywhere in the country, and Massachusetts is claiming its share of the pie with the tax incentives, Byers said.

Lowell's permitting process, which is accommodating the film industry, makes the city an attractive place for producers, said Karen Stark, location manager who looked for locations for the Deadly Codes project with the help of the Merrimack Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Filming in Lowell costs 40 to 50 percent less than in Boston, Byers said. Navigate the traffic is also easier here.

"There are a bundle of reasons why" movie crews want to be in Lowell, Byers said.

If all goes well, shooting could start as early as next spring, or by fall of 2012 at the latest.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_18770608#ixzz1WEGpPa61

My next gig, perhaps?

Just saw in the news that the location scouts are out looking at Lowell again for another feature film. According to the Lowell Sun article,

LOWELL -- A part-time librarian from the Boston suburbs hops into her husband's car.

She turns the key in the ignition.

An explosion erupts.

Flames and black smoke engulf the car while her husband frantically tries to ply open the door from outside. The husband, a cryptographic analyst for the National Security Agency, has seen enough car-bombing videos to know his wife is dead.

These dramatic scenes open Deadly Codes: A Gallagher Novel, an international espionage story by Winchester dentist-turned-author Joseph O'Donnell. Lowell could soon provide backdrops for the suspense-filled story on the big screen as Hollywood works to shoot a movie based on the book.

I'm guessing that "Part-time librarian" and "NSA Agent" need a good, friendly, really good-looking and faithful dog as a family pet. Sounds perfect for me. I'm just waiting for the call from central casting.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_18723226#ixzz1VZTpi5S1

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!

Vote to help some fuzzy creatures

I'm a fan of the Lowell Human Society. If you'd like to help them out, vote for them daily here:

http://challenge.aspcapro.org/vote-your-shelter

(go to MA -- Lowell Human Society)

so that they can save more fuzzy lives. They're in 10th place at the moment. Voting goes on until April 15th.

thanks!
-Carter