This is NOT a Drill!

So Saturday was interesting. Mom and Dad left that morning to run errands and do some shopping. When they got back they decided to clean the house, which means they got out the noisy vacuums and stuff.

But right before they started, they heard something... At first I thought it was a kitty howling, but then mom looked and dad and said "Seriously?? Okay, kids, this isn't a drill, in the bathroom!"

Next thing I know I'm in the bathroom with Duncan, then we have Simon thrown in, then Alley then Mia. Apparently those noises were tornado sirens! Since we don't have a basement, the safest place for a tornado is a small interior room, and that's our bathroom.



I have learned that the porch is NOT the place to be during a tornado, plus I don't want to see witches on bikes (on in my case annoying teenagers on skateboards, grrr!).

We were all pretty cool, except for Alley who kept making evil devil cat noises and hissing at air. I tried to hear what was going on, but due to the kitty noises of death all I heard was:

Mom: So where's the stor...

Alley: RAWWWRRLLL! RAOOOOOORLLL!

Dad: I think it's to the nort....

Alley: HISS!!! HISSITY! HIIISSSSSSS! SPAT!

Mom: So, looks like we dodg.....

Alley: DEVIL NOISES! LOUD DEVIL NOISES!

Mom: Okay, I'll go let the kids ou....

Alley: RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

Finally we were released from the Devil Kitty prison. As we all piled out, I tried to explain the heck that was the bathroom with Alley, so I drew an artist interpretation for mom:



The storm went north of us. Later the sirens came on AGAIN, but it was again north of us. They just turn on the tornado sirens anytime there's a warning in the whole flippin' county. I howled at the siren, mom and dad thought it was funny. I was actually protesting the Devil Kitty Bathroom. It's going to be a long storm season...

Oh, an mom is going out of town for a few days, taking my internets. I'll be back soon! Hugs!

The Kitty Low-Down

Dog mom here. Anna is letting me post on her blog today, there's a lot of scientific stuff her little puppy brain doesn't quite get.

First off, THANK YOU! When I looked in on the blog this weekend and saw all the encouraging posts from people I don't know or have never met, it humbled me. Both Dog Dad and I were so touched. Pet parents (and their pets of course!) are the best--I am honored to be part of this online community.

Okay, so here's the lowdown on Simon's situation. Vet called Friday, and while his thyroid levels have improved, his liver has gone up...from 260 two weeks ago to 795 last Thursday. This is raising concern of possible liver failure. After the initial shock, I began researching and found that his thyroid drug can be causing the liver spikes.

After a phone call with the Vet Friday night, we're trying to find the correct balance. Taking him off the thyroid pills will kill him, and so could the possible side effect of these pills. So we're adding another pill to the mix, Denamarin. Vet said it can be a miracle drug--cleansing and rebuilding the liver.

The game plan is to continue the thyroid meds, add in the Denamarin, give sub-q fluids twice a week and see where we stand next week. If the liver levels are high, we'll have to look at something else, like a thyroidectimy. But we need to get him strong enough to go through surgery, meaning he'll need to be on the thyroid meds to do that.

So basically we're waiting-and-seeing. I pray the Denamarin does its job. He has been eating more, which makes me feel better...maybe being a southern girl I think anything can be cured with food! Again, thank you all so much. You have no idea what it means.

Oh, and Anna wants you all to know she's been giving more magical healing slobbers aka kisses to Simon. She has been quite attentive to him, but I mean, she is the best dog nurse ever! Much love,

~Dog Mom

Bad News :(

Mom just got off the phone with Dr. Vet. While Simon's thyroid levels have improved drastically, his liver values are out the roof.

Dr. Vet is afraid Simon is going through liver failure...she's not sure if it's a mass or what. We're going to try some things involving subq fluids and some new food. Please pray for Simon!

For Who the Yack Tolls

Yawwwwn.....sorry, I' m soooo sleepy today. And so is mom. We're dragging. Mom's had a few cups of coffee, I've had a few fresh blades of grass, but we're still tired. Why? Oh, let me tell you why!

Last night dad was working, I jumped up in his spot, curled up with mom and dozed off to sleepy puppyland--I dreamed of squirrels and balls made of bacon and streams flowing with gravy...I don't know what mom was dreaming about...probably shoes or Johnny Depp or something.

As we peacefully slumbered, something began to pull us away from our noms and hot pirates...it was the sound of a yack.

No, not that kind of a yack, but the yack of a kitty. A yack sound that could wake the dead out of a coma. Mom scrambles out of bed to find the yacking offender so they don't yack on her new carpet and find it's Simon. Luckily he was on the wood, so she cleaned it and came back to bed.

Off again we drifted....I was dreaming of certain studly dogs and mom was dreaming of George Clooney when....Yack Round 2.

Again mom got out of bed (not quiet as leaping as before and mumbling something about words I cannot publish). Yack crisis two averted. Back to dreamland. At this point I got sick of being awakened by the yack, so I got out of bed and went to sleep in the spare bed. Ahh...serenity now.

Whatever. Mom gets up and starts turning on lights (it's now about 4 a.m. btw) looking for the yack sound...but I didn't hear a yack sound. But I couldn't see anything cause the lights being turned on burned out my retinas. Woman, just let them YACK for goodness sake! Gah!

Then mom realizes it wasn't the cat yacking, it was Duncan licking his feet. At 4 a.m. Yeah, I'm not even going there, but mom was so yack-paranoid she thought that it was another yack attack. She has yack shellshock.

By this point she had had enough! She buried herself in the covers and didn't emerge until 7 a.m. So we're both sleepy, the cats are sleeping soundly on the couch and I am quite worried about my brother's 4 a.m. foot fetish.

Have a great weekend! :)

Magical Time Machine Thursday

Time to dust off the Time Machine for a trip back in time! Did you know that 137 years ago today, the famous magician Harry Houdini was born? Do you have any idea how old that is in dog years?? Like a billion years old!!

Anyway, Mr. Houdini didn’t just pull bunnies out of hats and stuff, he did scary escaping stuff. He was actually born in Hungary then came to America as a little boy, I guess cause they had no noms in Hungary.

He was called “The Handcuff King” cause he could escape from handcuffs and chains and stuff. We might could learn something from this....


To prove he was doing it without tricks, he'd often do them almost NEKKID!!



He did stuff like escaping from a skyscraper while hanging upside down, getting out of straight-jackets, being burried alive and other such weird things...

One of the weirdest (to me and I think you'd agree) was the Chinese Water Torture act! They'd go dunk him in water all tied up, and he'd escape before he'd drown! I often feel like this during bath times...so I guess I can sympathize, but why would you do it willingly?!?!

A lot of people think that Mr. Hou escaped by swallowing a key and upchucking it furball style and then using it to escape. Most times he escaped hidden...in boxes or in the ground.

But then, still at the top of his game, at the age of 52 this happened:

Not by one of his magical tricks, but by something even Mr. Hou couldn't escape...a ruptured appendix. He actually collapsed on stage in Detroit then died later that night.

So the lesson here, bath's are torture, you can cough up a key and don't ignore when you're feeling bad, go to the Dr. Vet or Human Dr. Vet. Ta-DA!!!

Wordless Wollerin' Wednesday

Even a diva has to get dirty every once in a while!

Decisions, decisions, HALP!

Well, I won an item in the awesome Paws for Peace acution benefitting Richie and Ronnii and their vet bills! Now the hard part, how to pick my prize?

I won an awesome collar and matching leash from Cody's Creations. And they have SO MUCH cool stuff, I don't know what to pick. I narrowed it down to three, but need your help! Tell me which one to choose (or pick one out for youself and go get it...or get the one I get and we'll be twins!!) :

1. Skully Sweet
2. Grape Crush
3. Pink Argyle
I really don't know which one is more fabulous...they ALL are...don't you see my dilemma?? I love pink, but I may try something different?? I don't know!

And for all you fashionable fellas out there, there are some awesome manly collars as well. I can see some of you in them already!! Help support those who support awesome causes like the Paws for Peace Auciton!

I can't wait to see what you guys pick!

Bark the Vote/Lost AGAIN!

Congratulations to Bailey for the Bark the Vote Spectacular Tongue-Tacular Fan vote!! If you would, email me your mailing address at annagsd at gmail dot com so we can get your goodies out to you! And Link, you should be getting yours this week too, mom's going to mail them out at the same time.

So this weekend, mom and dad and me went back to Weogufka state park...you'll remember this as the state's "best hidden (emphasis on HIDDEN)" state park. Last time, mom and I searched for hours to find it, and after some dog puke and some scary peoples we found it and left.

But this time dad ASSURED us he had the right directions to get there, cause one of his coworkers had gone and gave him the directions. So, off we went....on some country backroads that reminded me a lot of getting lost in NC for Elk Falls where we encountered the Mountain Chicken.

We cross some scary bridges and find a dirt road, we go up the dirt road, and we come exactly to the place where mom and I had stopped last time. We get out. We walk up the road to the firetower thing.


Dad keeps muttering this can't be it. Mom says "this is it, this is best hidden secret in flippin' Alabama". Dad gets on his phone to call his friend.

"Hey dude, yeah, I'm out here in the middle of no where with a pissy wife and a hot diva GSD...help."

It was hot, it was like 86 that day. It was on that hot mountain that I realized I'm not as cool as Shawnee...Shawnee would have found this trail in two seconds cause she's the MacGuyver of trails. Here I was stuck on the same stupid mountain with mom and dad.

After my pitty party, finally dad gets off phone with dude and says we have to drive more, so we drive and mom sees this, the trailhead! THANK YOU JESUS!! I was ready to get this show on the road now that we finally FOUND the road!

We crossed a stream, which was good. My dogs were HOT! Ahh, stream water!

I decided to do my best Holly impersonation!

We came upon some old cabins. This one had fallen apart, but mom caught a butterfly! She didn't even know it was in the picture till later.

Biggiefied butterfly

This cabin was standing, but I'm not sure it would pass my building inspektion

No, this doesn't look up to code AT ALL!

But dad did find a swinging bench to take a break!

See dad, this place is not up to code! They need our remodeling skillz!

I got hot. Dad carried my backpack for me and I made it back to the stream where I majorly cooled off! Now that we know where the park is, maybe it is a good hidden secret? We'll have to go back!!

Found: Secret Kitty Weapon

This may seem like a kitty blog, but it's not...I, Anna the GSD, have discovered a secret weapon that makes kitty into putty in our paws--this is for all puppers. But I must continue to study this, because it caused some odd side effects...

Mom came home with something in a package yesterday, something that Simon was going bonkers over! She put it on the floor and I watched what happened...

Simon began just rollign around on the floor....he was oblivious to me. At first I thought he was having a cat-niption fit (Badda bing! Get it! Oh well..)

He was unawares of anything around him. I probably could have picked him up and tossed him and he wouldn't have realized it....

As I studied the effects of this odd Weapon of Kitty Destruction (WKD) I wondered if it was just Simon, or if other kitties would fall to it's spell (and yes, that's Simon drool marks on the floor, not mine!!)



So I got Mia in on the act...just to see what would happen....

At first Simon didn't want to share...he was like a CRAZY man!! But Mia finally got a sniff..

OMG she became a blur of craziness!! Maybe I shouldn't have gotten two kitties involved because now I had two cracked-out felines on my paws...and they were getting scary...

I finally got the WKD away from them...I don't get it. It's just a little mouse thing....apparently puppies are immune to it's kitty crack effects...I even licked it, nothing...

Then Simon came back for his "precious" as he started calling it. I gave it to him. I was scared. What had I created?!?!

He just kept saying "WINNING! WINNING! TIGER BLOOD! WINNING!"

OMG, Simon turned into Charlie Sheen...

After about 20 mins, he collapsed in his own kitty drool and just passed out. I have no idea where Mia went, last I saw she was just staring at a wall saying something about the "colors".

I don't know what WKD's are, but they have to be used wisely...but I must see if this has the same effects on squirrels....

Enough kitties! Swamp dog time!

I'm taking my DOG BLOG back!! No more kitties...for awhile anyway. :)

Last weekend when cousin Lola and Aunt Temple were down, I took them to my woods. It was still very muddy from all the rains, which, of course, meant it was AWESOME!!

I forget Lola's legs are a "tad" smaller than mine and she can't go quite as far or fast as I can, but we made it to my sloo which was up over the reeds/weeds. Which made for great Swamp fun!


Lola is a bit at her limit...I mean, she can't go too far!!

I waded out...looking for gators or lepord-cans....

RUN AWAY!!! Leopard-can's scare me!!

But I was safe with Lola...we're gangsta!

I tried to get that big stick, but mom said "no" and "leave it". Boo mom!! I think Lola found a bug...

I was ready to jump in and go for more, while Lola....

...not so much!!

It was a great weekend. Mom and dad are off all weekend, so dad wants to go back to Weogufka State Park...mom and I had a bad experience there, but apparently, we used the wrong directions. So, dad's up for trying it again...mom shudders about it and thinks back to this post. No big breakfast before we head out this time!!!

Bark Your Vote Tongue-Tacular Fan Vote

We'll be announcing the winner of the Tongue-tacular today, but first, the Bark Your Vote poll is now open!!! You have until next Monday Morning to vote. All entries can be seen in the links below. Good luck!!!

I. Bajas- RA Husky
II. Amber- Baby Rocket Dog and Hootie
III. Noodles- Ruby
IV. Calhoun - Kayla
V. Jazzi - Lady and Lucky

Simon Update

Okay, this blog IS NOT going to the kitties!! I know it seems like it though and I'll post tomorrow about some good, dirty, doggie time, but I wanted to give the full scoop (not litterbox scoop) on what's been going on with the oldest fur-kid, Simon.

Simon is 13. He's gangsta. He's always been a thin kitty, but in the last month of so he's got like REEEEALLL skinny. Mom thought it was due to his teeth, so she went to an all canned food diet. This didn't help. He also began having diareah (cha cha cha) of a pudding consitancy. And STEEN-KEY! OMG even I didn't find it appetizing!

So after much worry, Mom loaded him up and took him to Dr. Vet Friday. Mom was terrified of something like the "C" word or the first stages of kidney failure. Mom didn't have a cat carrier so she had to make a bootleg-ghetto one from a paperbox at work. It was pretty good (mom should have got a pic of it, but she was so worried she forgot about documenting for my blog...sigh) but even the vet staff kinda made fun of it!

Simon did great at Dr. Vet (since he's gangsta, he's very laid back...very). Dr. Vet took some blood to do a full blood panel and said she'd call mom that night. She said it could be anything and we wouldn't know what to do until she got the blood work back.

Mom isn't a very patient person, so anytime the phone rang she got excited/nervous. I thought she almost went rabid wombat at the poor Omaha Steaks telemarketer. Finally, Dr. Vet called....verdict...Simon is hyperthyroid! Mom was quite happy with this...his kidney's are great, no inkling of the "C" word and since mom was hyperthyroid, she can use her old prescripton for Simon!

So, Simon is all good. He's not acting as starving and he goes back in two weeks for a check up...the litterboxes are less stinky aka more appetizing again. Thank you all for your prayers and good mojo for Simon! I've done my part by giving him tons of magical Anna kisses and slobbers...they have healing powers, so I know he'll be fine!!