A Dorothy Update

My sister, Martha, and I like to quote to each other from the movie Persuasion.  And one of our favorite lines is when Mary says petulantly, “Why does everyone say I don’t care for a long walk?  I love a long walk!”  Or something to that extent.  Well now that quotation seems to apply to Miss Dorothy, since after a year and a half of, shall we say, eschewing a walk and lying flat on the city sidewalk in protest, Dorothy has discovered that she does indeed love a long walk.  And walks beautifully when she gets to go on one.

Because of the heat we haven’t been walking her daily, but when given the chance, she is more than happy to join her pack when it’s on the move.  And in case you are wondering, she still likes to find a stick and carry it about:

We’ve been giving Dorothy a daily zyrtec for her skin allergies, and it has done wonders so far on keeping her body hotspot free, and in keeping the UTI’s at bay.  She still has a rash on her head that you can see under the white fur.  I’m not sure what causes it or how to get rid of it (the only thing that has made it go away previously is antibiotics).  It doesn’t seem to bother her very much—she doesn’t scratch at it or anything.  You can just see that she has what look like bug bites up close.  And maybe they are mosquito bites?  It is possible.

The other issue she has at the moment is that her nose is all light brown and scabby.  When we googled it we found that it could be an allergic sun reaction?  I don’t know if that is right or not.  At any rate we got some Snout Soother and have tried to apply it, but Sean has to do it stealthily via “drive by” application, otherwise she freaks out if she sees it coming.  Has anyone else has similar issues with bulldogges?

Dorothy is also a somewhat picky eater.  We feed her Natural Balance venison, but she doesn’t love it.  We put a little of the wet food on top and she will eat that, but she often will leave the kibble in her bowl.  Frequently she isn’t eating her kibble because she ate grass in the yard and her stomach is upset, but I have no idea how to prevent that from happening, other than by not letting her go in the yard, which seems severe.  We keep hoping that she’ll learn to associate the grass eating with the upset stomach, but I’m afraid that is but a pipe dream.  So anyway, Dorothy is a little skinny at the moment (the only member of the family with that particular problem, ahem).  She’s about fifty pounds, but is a little bit ribsy-looking.  I think we need to fatten her up a bit.

Dorothy thinking, I’ll eat anything off the barbie.

Whatever Happened To Dorothy?

It has been a long time since Dorothy has been featured in this blog, and since this was originally a Blog About Dorothy, I feel a bit guilty about concentrating on other beasties, be they two-legged or four.  It’s partly that I am busy, and Dorothy really doesn’t like the camera and tends to scamper away when I point it at her.  And who wants to read a blog post about Dorothy when it isn’t punctuated by cute pictures?  But it is also that although Dorothy and I are quite fond of each other, she is very much a one-person dog, and that one person is her beloved Dad.  Sean sometimes feels like he is being stalked by Dorothy, because she is attentive to his every movement (sometimes rather annoyingly so), yet she is always ready for a fun game or outing.

So if it were up to Dorothy, all entries about her would consist of:  Dorothy spent the day playing out in the yard with her beloved Dad.  They rested inside on the couch and indulged in some kind of meaty dinner followed by a wrestling match.  The end.

But I’m sure Dorothy doesn’t want me to give you the erroneous impression that her life is all fun and frolic. For life as a bulldogge in Bulldogge Manor—nay, make that The bulldogge of Bulldogge Manor—is often Hard.

For example, Dorothy doesn’t just have to wait for Plum and Posy to be fed before she gets her breakfast these days; she often will have to wait until Owen is done as well.  And although Owen will sometimes share his meal and scatter his food off of his tray for Dorothy to pick up, more often than not, Dorothy ends up with the dog equivalent of a sign on her back that says “kick me,” when the food Owen drops lands squarely out of reach right onto the middle of Dorothy’s back.  Who wants to be covered in banana and cheerios?  Not Dorothy.

But eventually Dorothy does get her breakfast—a nice venison kibble with some soft venison food as well, and a zyrtec for allergies.  And then she gets to go out in her yard!  She likes to parade the perimeter and make sure nothing untoward has happened to it in the night.  She will likely chase a squirrel or a robin, and get yelled at if she dare go in the direction of the wild rabbit.

All Sean has to do is rap quietly on the window and Dorothy puts up her head in a Dad needs me?! kind of way and then goes running so fast up to the sunporch door that her front legs scissor behind her back legs.

Then often Dorothy is left behind to guard Dad’s Young, a job she takes very seriously. 

On a weekend, Dorothy loves nothing more than to help her father out in the yard, although if he is using machinery, Dorothy will be locked into the porch so she doesn’t attack the lawn mower, say, or get whacked with the weeds.

If you need further confirmation of Dorothy’s feelings towards the leader of her pack, I proffer exhibit A, The Nap:

Need I say more?

We often will take Dorothy on a walk with Owen, and you’ll be happy to know that all of Dorothy’s previous walk aversions seems to have dissipated.  She now is more than happy to be included and she walks like a champ.  One of her favorite things is when we walk to the nearby campus that has tennis courts on it—Dorothy will often walk home with a new tennis ball in her mouth.  Finders Keepers!

All in all I'd say Dorothy is happy in the suburbs being a bulldogge in her yarde.