My mom loves me

Even though mom's knees were hurting and she needed a cane to help her walk, she still took me to the park today so I could have a nice long run - she loves me so much!!! It was the perfect weather for me, only 61 degrees which is the coolest we have had in so many months. We spent a long there as mom could only walk slow but I had the best time running and sniffing. Can you believe it though, yet again I had the whole park to myself - no buddies to catch up with - sigh. I guess I did have some company though (apart from mom) there were hundreds of these hopper things. Mom said they were either grasshoppers or locust but I don't care what they were because to me they were just annoying!! They would jump up and land in my fur every time I went to sniff a bush and they were eating the yellow flowers that mom likes. I even managed to chomp one but it didn't taste at all nice so I spat it out very quickly. This afternoon I went over to visit Franklin and we went for a short walk together around our common. Franklin hasn't been going out much lately so he really enjoyed his stroll.

Sooooo bored

Mom's arth-e-rit-tus thing has been really bad the past week and we haven't really been doing much (apart from veggin on the couch) so I will give you an update on Bonnies kitty. She came home on Saturday and she is eating and drinking tiny bits now, but she has only one kidney working and her pancreas and liver are not functioning very well so sadly it is just a matter of time before the rainbow bridge calls her to cross. Mom has been going over twice a day to give her antibotics and says she is getting weaker every time she see's her. Mom is also VERY worried about Bonnie - she was already very frail and this whole thing has her so upset and she isn't sleeping or eating properly. Mom has sat down with her and talked about her taking care of her own health too. Sadly this kitty was Bonnie's husbands (he passed away a few years ago) and the kitty is sort of Bonnies last link to him so she doesn't want to let her go. Humans really live very complicated lives, I think it is much better just being a dog and I just want to go visit my buddy Franklin. I am also not very happy at being left at home again when mom goes over there and all because I am a little bit partial to chasing the kitties. That is what doggies do - chase kitties although I must admit Bonnies kitties scare me a bit. Mom says that's not a good thing to do at the moment so I have to stay home. My ouchie leg is all healed now, but where they shaved the fur off is starting to grow back and dog oh dog it is itchy. Hopefully mom will feel better tomorrow and we can go somewhere exciting.

Good news and bad

Franklin's mom Bonnie called this morning and was very upset about one her kitties Emily. She has not eaten in two days and hasn't been drinking either so mom took her to the vets this morning and it seems she has liver failure. She is a pretty burman cat with startling blue eyes and is just over ten years old. What has shocked Bonnie is how quickly she became sick as she was just at the vets last week for her yearly checkup and everything was fine. Please keeps your paws crossed for Emily. The good news we have is that Franklin's results came back and NO ringworm !!!! Yippee, I can go and see my buddy again, in fact I am going over there now so we can check on Bonnie too.

I have an ouchie

That silly sock or garden monster tripped me up when I was coming up the back steps and caused me to scrape my leg (mom says I am just a bit clumsy - but we all know it was sock or garden monster!!!!) Mom checked my leg yesterday and it was a bit pink and she cleaned it, but today it was very red so off we went to see Dr Boyer (sigh - she is so nice and she calls me her cutie pie) She shaved a bit of fur off and then took a scraping to see if was infected and it is just a little so she put some antibiotic ointment on it and then wrapped it in a bandage. She gave mom some more antibiotic ointment to put on it and it should be fine in a couple of days. Here I am doing my best "oh it hurts look" Oh coarse as soon as I hear those little hoomans going by outside I am up and chasing them without a worry. But hey, it gets me an extra treat if I look all sorrowful so I think I will keep doing it for awhile.

Apple Jack Festival

Wooo hoo, mom, dad and I went to Apple Jack festival today and it was lots of fun. First we went to Arbor House (this is where Mr Morton of Morton Salt fame lived and he was also the person who created Arbor Day) For my buddies who live in other places in the world, Arbor day is like "plant a tree day". Mr Morton's family donated his beautiful big house and beautiful grounds to the State Parks so everyone can enjoy it, even us doggies. Mom and dad have been inside the house before and had looked around and were very very impressed with it, but they don't let doggies in the house so we just walked around the gardens today. Check out these funny paths too, they are the original cobblestone roads that horses use to walk on.












After looking around the front part we went around the back of the house where the fine art fair was supposed to be. Mom was rather disappointed as there were only 6 displays. Here we were watching a gentleman make things out of iron and here I am checking out what was going on over in those tent things. I got lots of pats and one little human left greasy stuff all over my fur on my head where she patted me. She was eating something called 'kettle corn" which smelled kind of good. I looked up at mom to ask if I could have some - but she said no because it might upset my tummy. Mom did buy some apple cider though but I don't think she will let me taste that either.












After Arbor House we then went to Fredrickson's - the apple orchard. This is a great place because they are pet friendly and let you take doggies for walks all around the orchard. I am not to sure about this whole apple picking though. Dad walked up and down and down and up the rows looking this way and that......couldn't he see the dogzzillion apples right in from of him? I figured this had to mean something so I decided join in and run from tree to tree too.












I kept asking dad - what about this one or this one? He just kept shaking his head and saying "no - that's not a good an apple" I thought there was only supposed to be one bad apple in the bunch - but is seemed like today he was trying to find the only good apple in the bunch. Eventually I decided to just lay down in a shady spot and wait until he found that "one good" apple he was looking for. So that was my day out, I had so much fun but now I am ready for a long snooze on my nice cool air conditioning vent.

Help - It's after me

We had a visitor to my yard today. Her name is Daisy and she is an 8 week old pit bull. Dad's hooman daughter is looking after her today while Daisy's mom is at work. I don't think I like these things called Daisy's and think they should rename her "mini monster" She chased me all around MY yard - can you believe that chasing me and she grabbed mouthfuls of my fur and pulled it out!!! Mom said they are going to have to do a lot of training with Daisy if she is going the become a well behaved lady - but personally I think she will always be a little monster. Mom always worries about pit bull dogs - mainly because people get them and don't know how to socialize and train them properely and as Cesear Milan (The Dog Whisperer) says these are one dog that needs dicipline, exercise and then affection if they are become well behaved members of society.

An Update on Franklin

We thought we would give an update on Franklin. He is doing just fine, the sores have cleared up and the skin is now nice and pink. He had his second bath with the special shampoo last night and he isn't scratching or itchy. Bonnie herself is also feeling much better today. She has good days and bad but today is a good day and mom took Bonnie to the craft store this morning so she could gets some more paints. At 80 Bonnie has just took up water color painting and is loving it and she is very good at it too! As for me, I am feeling a bit left out, I can't go and visit Franklin until the end of next week providing he gets the all clear. I am trying to be patient but it's not easy and I get very upset when mom goes over there without me. Yesterday one of the wooden slats on the blind at the window where I look out got broken. Mom asked me if I had been jumping up at the window while she was at Bonnies, because she said I looked a little "sheepish". I told her I am doggish and not sheepish and that it must of been the sock moster trying to take dad's sock outside again. Mom says she wonders why the 'sock monster didn't just go out the doggie door like 'he' normally does. Somehow I don't think mom believed me and I may have to enlist the services of Martha and Bailey to represent me in this case. The good thing is though, mom took me to the leash free park, so I guess I can't complain too much. Mom was trying to be silly and when I wasn't looking she hid behind some tall grass. I wasn't scared or anything when I couldn't see her but I thought I had better come running back to make sure SHE was okay. These are my "I'm coming to save you Mom photos" I was hoping to see some of my buddies there today but alas we were the only ones there. Can you imagine that, we have this wonderful park and hardly anyone goes there. At least I could leave them LOTS of pee-mail to let them know that I had been there. I also had a great time checking all the pee-mail they had left. This weekend is the Apple Jack Festival at Nebraska City and Mom, Dad and I are going to go to pick some fresh apples get apple cidar and have a picnic. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend too.

Poor Franklin

As some of you may know, Franklin the Corgie is my little buddy and lives just a house away from us. Mom goes every day to see how Franklin's mom (she is 8O) is doing and I go with her to see what Franklin has been up to. On Monday Franklin's mom called early in the morning very concerned about a sore she found on Franklins back - mom went straight away to have a look and said we needed to take Franklin to the vets. Mom made me stay home which I wasn't very happy about but it was for my little buddy so it was okay. Anyway, the vet checked Franklin all over and found 3 other sores. She took skin and fur samples and then gave Franklin's mom special shampoo, ointment and some antibiotics to take. They are not sure if it is ringworm or if Franklin has been stung or bitten by something (we are having a terrible yellow-jacket problem around Omaha at the moment - yellow jackets are nasty horrible wasps that are extremely aggressive). The test for ringworm takes 14 days to come back and only one sore had a ringish look to it, but was gone completely later that evening. The others were just swollen scabs. Until the tests come back Franklin has to be in quarantine (which means I can't go to visit) and even I had to bath in special stuff "just to be safe" mom said. Franklin's mom is terribly upset as she does everything to take care of Franklin and make sure he is healthy and she feels she has let him down. Mom spent a lot of time talking to her and explained it isn't her fault. If it is ringworm there will certainly be some questions asked though - as the only place he could of got something like that is at the groomers (he goes every 6 weeks and was there 12 days ago) and that is the only place he comes in contact with other dogs apart from myself and I don't have anything on me. Needless to say my mom has been quite crazy checking me all over since Monday which is very irritating MOM!!!!

Ricky also asked how Franklin's mom was doing - she had a very rough patch for about ten days while she got use to some new pain medicine, but that has settled down and she is now able to sleep through the night. She also has an epidural every 3 months and that helps her too. She is still very frail - mom says a gust of wind could blow her over so I have to be very careful when I am over there not to get in front of her where she could trip over me. Please keep your paws crossed that Franklin doesn't have any nasty old ringworm.

Off to the lake we go

We haven't been doing much the last few days as mom has been feeling very well, but yesterday she said we needed some fresh air, so off we went to the lake. It was very odd though because we went in dad's car and look, the seats were gone!!! Dad had took them out and forgot to put them back in and I had to lay on the floor which I didn't like very much because I couldn't see out the windows. My harness was attached to the floor so I couldn't move much either! Anyway we got to the lake and look what we found. This is actually a tree root that over many many years has been run over by the lawn mowers and it created this funny shape. But you now what was really odd, if I rolled over on my back, that shape in the middle would be a perfect fit for me - so we decided to call it the Reilly Thing!!!! I must also say the lake is looking very pretty at the moment and we are glad to report that we saw lots and lots and lots of baby fish. (This was the lake they poisoned last year because of the Zebra Muscles and all the big fish died)

9/11 None of will forget and all of us will remember

Reilly's Mom
I don't think any of us will forget where we were the moment 9/11 happened. For me this is especially true. I arrived in America for the very first time on September 10 - 2001. What happened the next day is forever etched in my mind not only for the sheer devastation it caused in New York that day, but the devastation it caused everywhere. I remember so clearly being in Detroit and suddenly in hours this huge bustling metropolis became a ghost town. There was no one in the streets, no one going anywhere - everyone just stood staring at TV with their hearts just aching with an unbelievable pain. None of us will forget and all of us will remember. Prayers and love to all those affected by 9/11.

In the Womb - Dogs

Has anyone seen the new series called "In the Womb" on the National Geographic Chanel? Mom and I watched the episode "dogs" the other night and we were both just amazed. They actually follow four dogs (wolf, labrador, mastiff and chihuahua) right through their life in the womb from conception to birth. The photography is amazing and so is the information they give. Did you know for example that at day 35 exactly - the momma dog can either decide to continue with the pregnancy or adsorb the fetuses! This is actually a wolf trait. They said that in wolf hierarchy only the alfa female tends to give birth if conditions are not good (lack of food etc) so any other pregnant females adsorbs their puppies but continue to produce milk and will help in looking after the alpha females pups. This doesn't happen often in domestic dogs but can if the dogs are stressed. This is what happened this year to my dog mom, she was pregnant and then suddenly she wasn't but continued on with a 'phantom pregnacy' and as a result we didn't get a little sister for me. You can actually watch the show online and here is the link. This is whole series and they also follow cats, humans etc.

An update on my food

As some of you may have read I have some major problems with food. I can not eat any kind of beef, chicken, pork or lamb be it in dry food, cooked or raw. I also can not eat anything with rice in it. After many trips to the vets and lots and lots of testing they found I could eat a limited ingredient diet of venison and sweet potato. (They are now thinking my problems relate to the chemicals, additives and hormones found in most foods). When mom checked up on my old food on dogfoodanalysis.com and two other sites and she found it had a very poor rating and the one which the vet recommended was even worse !!! So mom did a lot of research and found this food which is called "taste of the wild" and has bison, venison, vegetables and fruit in it. All the products that go into this food are organic so there is no chemicals in the meat etc. Of coarse the only thing I care about is whether it tastes good - and it does!!!!! The best thing though is that is doesn't upset my tummy at all - so no more of the icky jelly poops and my fur - especially the black now has a nice shiny gleam to it. Mom has also noticed that I am not as lethargic as I was and I am not shedding as much now either - of coarse that could be because we are heading into fall now too.

Along the lazy river

Today we went down for a walk along the Missouri River, which I must say was anything but lazy. With all the rains we and other states have had the river was a raging torrent. I am stood on the Nebraska side and the other side is Iowa. In this first picture I am stood waiting for my dad. My mom and dad are very conscientious when it comes to me leaving "little messages" on the grass when we go out (which I very rarely do but I just had breakfast and well poop happens!) Anyway dad had to walk back to the trash can to dispose of the baggie and I had to stand watch and make sure he didn't divert from the path back to me. When he got back it was time to make a decision as to which way to go. Hmmmm that way looks good mom and dad - so off we went following the path along the river.












Eventually we came out at the boat marina where I became quite fascinated by something in the grass and look what mom found when she came over to see. It was a little baby bird that had fallen from the nest. Mom looked around in the tree and found the nest and we popped it back in as it wasn't quite ready to fly yet. Mom said I was a very good for not trying to chomp it - errrkkk why would I want to do that?












Next we went to check out the new rose garden they have just finished. Mom said the roses smelled heavenly. Silly mom, the goose poop smelled much better but she wasn't interested in that!!!! And look at the silly geese. These are Canadian geese and look what was leading them, it was a little white duck. I sooooo wanted to go and herd them but mom didn't think it would be a good idea. So that was my walk by the river.

Lake Manawa

Seeing how dad is going to be ignoring me all afternoon while he watches his foozeball - which actually last about 4 hours because he watches the pre-game discussions and the after game analysis, we decided to go out for walk early. (Hey Josh and Jess - if the check the previous post Cheri_Berri gave an excellant discription of what foozeball is) We went aaaaallllllll the way to the next state Iowa (okay it it is only 10 minutes away but it sounds more dramatic if I bark it that way) to a place called Lake Manawa. It is a HUGE lake with lots of surrounding park. Mom says visually it is very beautiful but it's not very user or dog friendly. There is a bike path which LOTS of people were using so we couldn't walk on it but there isn't actually any walking trails. There are a lot of picnic areas but they set up in little cul-de-sacs and there is no where to walk from them.












It is without a doubt a great place for fishermen and wildlife, in fact look what we saw. These are wild turkeys - there a group of about 20 (there was more over in the trees). Mom was very surprised when I stuck my head out the car window and growled and barked at the turkey's as we drove past. Mom also thought these looked like vultures because they were kind of ugly - if you click on the photo to bigify it you can see why. We also saw the most magnificant blue heron but he flew off just as mom was about to take the photo. Then here is am (below) at one of the picnic areas and then also we found a small place called Boy Scout island and that has this nice fishing dock

The foozeball is back !!!!!

Oh no !!!! Dad told me that he will be watching his beloved Penn State play their first game this Saturday. Our local cable company didn't carry the Big Ten games but this week they signed a deal and are now going too. Now I don't mind that dad watches the games - even though it means he ignores me while it is on - but what I don't like is when he jumps up out of his chair and cusses and the TV because for some reason cussing really worries me. Dad doesn't say bad words or anything but he calls the TV odd things like "you stupid umpire, are you blind, what were you thinking, how could you miss that....and so on" Mom thinks it is the 'tone' dad uses that worries me although she is not sure why because he has never used that tone with me and never uses it around the house - except when the foozeball is on. Mom says I am just a 'sensitive" boy. Either way, it looks like I will be protecting moms feet in the craft room while the game is on. Mom doesn't understand the game so she usually goes and does something else. I just hope dad doesn't want me to wear the silly jersey again this year!