Katy's new song

Katy loves Mommy...and Mommy's gum. :-)

Poor Puppy Molly!

See this? This is Molly not wanting a bacon dog treat. She's sitting on the futon in the playroom, which she usually only does once every couple days in the late evening when she is tired but we aren't going to bed yet. I put a blanket on her an hour prior to this picture, and she clearly hadn't moved. I also tried offering her chicken broth, cheese, and bread. Nothing interested her.

I noticed last Thursday or Friday that Molly wasn't hungry (which is weird). I figured it was just a bug and forgot about it. It seemed a little better on Saturday, she hung out with me outside while I worked in the yard. But she still has the food in her bowl from the middle of last week (and she didn't want my steak bone last night), so clearly something isn't right.

For some reason I suddenly got really worried about it this morning. After trying all these different foods that she would normally jump about all spazzily for, I finally called a vet. The lady on the phone asked several questions, but no, I don't think Molly has gotten into anything lately.

"Is there any chance she's had salmon or trout?"

Yes. We almost never have fish. I haven't bought any since Utah. But our neighbor brought over some fresh trout that he caught on April 27th. I didn't make it that night because Dan isn't home for dinner on Tuesdays (Portland Mormon Choir practice), so I made it the next day. And I threw Molly little pieces as I cut it up. I always do that with whatever seems like okay for her to eat. Apparently trout is NOT in the okay-to-eat category!

Google "trout poisoning in dogs," and a whole bunch of stuff comes up. They all basically say this (copied from here):

SPD (Salmon Poisoning Disease) is an acute, infectious disease that affects dogs, wolves, ferrets and foxes, when they ingest uncooked salmon, trout, steelhead, and similar freshwater fish. While the disease is typically more prevalent in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon and northern California), the disease has surfaced from a dog ingesting raw fish in Southern Calfornia.

Symptoms of SPD include vomiting, loss of appetite, fever, diarrhea, weakness, swollen lymph nodes, and dehydration.

“Most people in this area are unfamiliar with the symptoms of this disease, which appear within five to seven days after eating infected raw fish. Left undiagnosed, SPD can be fatal within several weeks,” explained Mike Moore, DVM, at VCA All-Care Animal Referral Center.

“SPD is treatable if diagnosed quickly. If your dog has been around raw fish or you are unsure of what they have ingested and symptoms appear, consider SPD a possibility and see your veterinarian immediately for evaluation and treatment,” he added.

I'm 99% sure this is what happened! My poor, poor puppy dog! I poisoned her with raw fish! I'm sorry Molly!

We have a vet appointment at 3. Hopefully it's still easily taken care of!!!

Run for the Animals!

Molly and I ran in a race today! Only, it ended up not being a race. There were no numbers, no timers, and the "5K" ended up being 2.87 miles. But boy did Molly love it! See, this was the Walk or Run for the Animals, with proceeds going to the Humane Society of SW Washington. And the vast majority of participants brought their pups with them! It was Molly's dream come true!

The run began & ended at Esther Short park, with lots of booths set up with people selling pet-related supplies. I've never been there before, so I drove by it before looking for parking. And I could tell the instant Molly spotted it, because she went from happy to be going for a car ride to oh-my-goodness-look-at-all-those-other-dogs excited! She wasn't very patient while we parked. Luckily we found a spot pretty close, walked back, and the other dog smelling began! She smelled the nose and/or tail of lots and lots of other doggies!

And if that wasn't exciting enough, about 20 minutes later we got to run, too! Seriously, Molly was in heaven! I hadn't run all week thanks to a yucky cold, and I haven't run very consistently since moving last fall, so I kept a 10:07 pace, finishing the run at just over 29 minutes. My goal was to do it in less than 30, so it was lucky that it was almost a quarter mile short!

I should've taken a picture of the excited Molly, but I didn't. So here's a picture of Molly & me when we got home. Oh well, better than nothing.