MeghanIsMe

Ella got a new toy recently, and now she has a problem. She has to decide whether she likes her old squeaky rope or her new squeaky ball more. And sometimes a mischievous human squeaks one while she's playing with the other and she just doesn't know what to do.

This morning, she tried to bring her new ball outside with her and I wouldn't let her. It's a hard life, being a dog.

Pictures ( behind the cut. )

I decided to take a real camera on my walk with Poesjkin today. So, of course, it rained again. But before I rushed back to give him to his parents and get home, I took a few decent pictures of him. I was shooting at f1.8 and still barely got him to sit still long enough!

I'm going to miss my weird little Chihuahua housemate, but it's swiftly becoming time to find a new person or people to take care of him. It'll be extra rough for him and I both after Danae moves. I wrote up a description of him and his care and feeding instructions. With some editing from Danae, here they are! It's a lot, but I care about him and want to tell people as much as I can. Wanna know about caring for an epileptic Chihuahua?

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Hi there! I'm Rufus the Chihuahua's foster daddy!

My partner and I have been taking care of Rufus (also known as goofus, floofus, roof-roof, etc.) for quite a while now. I've always been a big-dog person, but I've come to care for and love Rufus so much! However, my partner and I are moving out of the country, so Evanston Animal Shelter needs to find new foster parents for him until he's ready for a forever home. So let me tell you about him!

Rufus is extremely loving and cuddly with people he knows. He is quite content to spend most of his time snuggling with me on my chair in front of the computer, or squirming up against me to nestle against me while I'm on the couch. He's often sitting with my partner when I get home from work and he gets so excited to hear me that he'll start squeaking and screaming (I don't have a better word for it!) and pulling against his leash to get to me as fast as he possibly can!

That said, we do have to keep him on a leash all the time (or in diapers). He's not neutered and will take nearly any opportunity to find something to lift a leg against and mark. He hasn't been neutered yet because he has epilepsy that is not sufficiently controlled for him to have surgery. His seizures are pretty scary the first time you see one, and they last a long time; as much as 45 minutes to an hour typically, and sometimes as long as two hours. They do not seem to cause him any harm, but we worry that he is scared and confused while seizing. I tend to put him somewhere safe like a corner of the couch with one of us and tell him he's a good boy and make sure he knows I'm around. He can't control his movement and can fall off of things while seizing, so if he's not on the floor it's important to be near him. Since his seizures are what are called partial seizures, he sometimes is able to move around while seizing, but he does so in a kind of drunken stumble. When he is seizing but mobile, he can be given food and medication, if done with care.

He's a very strong-willed dog. I'm told that's true of most Chihuahuas, but I've never had one before so it's new to me. He wants what he wants and is not afraid to let you know. The way he does that is to growl. I'm not used to dogs that growl so much. If you want to move him from his spot on the couch he growls. When you pick him up and set him down he growls. It's not a growl of aggression; just kind of a "Hey! That's not what I want!" I've gotten used to it, but I wasn't at first and was worried he was actually angry. His actual angry barks and snarls are distinct!

He takes medicine for the seizures, but so far it has not eliminated them. It seems to have reduced their intensity at least. He has seizures approximately once a week, and they are sometimes brought on by excitement. I've seen them start when his dinner alarm goes off, or when he's really excited by someone coming in to the apartment. On the other hand, they sometimes seem to start for no reason at all.

Rufus likes to play! His idea of play is to try to grab your hand with his forepaws while making excited growls and play-biting at your hand. I've tried to get him interested in biting at toys more than hands, but I haven't been very succesful I'm afraid. He has one toy, a lamb with a squeaker in it, that he loves, and will spend a lot of time biting and squeaking. I've tried introducing other toys, but he's not very interested in those either. He's stubborn. Good thing he's so cute. Rufus also likes to sing. Certain squeaky toys, when squeaked, will prompt him to make a high pitched noise that is somehow simultaneously adorable and annoying. We’ve found that if you make a sound that is a similar pitch with your own voice, this will also get him singing.

Rufus knows how to sit. Sometimes, though, he just doesn’t want to. He also knows the command “crate”, though he expects to get a treat after going in his crate at least *some* of the time. We’ve also been training him with the command, “Wait” before going through a door. The idea is to delay his inevitable lunge at another person who turns out to be on the other side of the door. Even when he really needs to pee, he is a very good boy and will wait a minute or so until you say, “All done”, which is how he knows he is allowed to go through the door. Admittedly, he does not wait properly when there is someone on the other side of the door. But he hesitates long enough to give you a chance to rein him in.

He is not very social with strangers or other animals outside of the people he already knows. Our cat is over twice his weight, but Rufus still tries to chase and bully the cat. I would recommend a home that doesn't have cats, for your own sanity. It kind of drives me crazy how often he tries to chase and pester our kitty. He also does not get along well with other dogs. He gets very snarly and aggressive and I just keep him away from them for everyone's safety and sanity. He can be pretty defensive when people he doesn't know come into his living space, but if you give the new person a few treats to give to Rufus, he warms up to them pretty quickly. It usually takes about five treats before he decides that someone is safe. He has a pretty good memory for people he has met. Once he realizes that a person entering ‘his’ territory is someone he knows, he gets very excited, and is often quite eager to cuddle with his long-lost friend.

Here are detailed instructions on his medicine, food, and potty habbits:

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MEDICINE

He is on two medications. Leviticeteram, and potassium bromide. They are both liquids and we give them to him with a dosing syringe. The numbers on the syringes seem to keep wearing off over time, but CVS or Walgreens will provide them free. He takes medicine three times a day. I give him his medicine, then a treat. He's not a big fan of the medicine, but he will put up with it. However, he gets upset with my partner when she tries to medicate him. One of the syringes we use got stuck while she was giving him a dose, then suddenly shot a lot of liquid into his mouth. Because of that, Rufus gets defensive and snarly when she tries to give him medicine. I'm not sure if he'll be that way with other people or not, but he is pretty responsive to treats when he's grumpy. I'll be happy to show you how I dose him.

Morning:
1.25 ml of levetiracetam
0.19 ml of potassium bromide

Mid-day:
1.25 ml of levetiracetam

Evening
1.25 ml of levetiracetam
0.19 ml of potassium bromide

I get up early to get to work, so his morning dose has been around 5:00 AM. My partner was giving him his mid-day dose around 2:00, but because of his more recent issue with her, I've been doing it when I get home around 4:00 PM. Then we give him his evening dose before bed around 8:30 or 9:00 PM.

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FOOD

Rufus eats 1/3 of a cup per day.

Morning
I feed him 1/6 of a cup when I leave for work at 5:00 AM.

Evening
I feed him 1/6 of a cup when his dinner alarm goes off at 6:00 PM. He gets so excited when his alarm goes off! It's adorable! You can also sing his dinner alarm to him. He recognizes it, even off-key.

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Potty breaks:

I take him outside in the morning at 5:00 AM, and before I go to bed around 8:30 PM. He typically goes out once during the day too. He can wait quite a while between going outside, but as I noted, he's really quick to pee on things if you give him a chance to. I think that's in no small part because he is intact; I hope he'll be much better about house-training once he's snipped.

I saw the Super Bowl mentioned today and remembered how last year I wanted to watch the Puppy Bowl but do not have any way to see it at home. I was going to get online and see if I could convince anyone to host a Puppy Bowl party whenever the Super Bowl happens. We could get a bunch of food together and watch puppies being cute! Then I found that it's this weekend, so I guess the notice is a little short. Maybe next year.

I overslept by about an hour this morning. I remember both my phone and my alarm clock activating, so I must have turned them both off. Without Miriam's graciously dealing with the dog, I wouldn't have made it to work on time. I ate a piece of leftover pizza, put on the clothes I left out last night, and dashed to the car. I even made it to work in time to open the library, if only by a few minutes. I'm annoyed that I had to drive, but maybe I'll bring some more books home with me.

Rufus is doing well and has been seizure-free for a while now! I wish I could get him to stop peeing on things. It's probably marking behavior, so I hope getting neutered will help. In the meantime, we're keeping him on a leash.

I read through all of the monks of New Skete's "How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend." A lot of training described there is difficult to apply to Rufus both because it's winter and I can't take him outside and because he's just so small that I'm worried that any kind of traditional training collar will hurt him. I'll have to do more reading. There are other attitudes and actions in there that I can and will use with him, and I feel like I got a lot of value reading it. I'm going to order some of their recommended reading list too.

In the meantime, I'll do some reading here too. https://www.chihuahuapuppytraining.com/

I bought a second one of those old Radio Shack electronics project kits from a thrift store lately. I spent some of last night organizing the wires and parts from both of them. The first one I got was missing its crystal earpiece and now I have one from the second kit. That's extra nifty because they can be useful in troubleshooting other electronics too. The second kit is newer than the first one and includes two ICs. One is a dual op-amp. I hope a number of the projects use it because I really want to understand op-amps better.

Some evenings in my near future will be spent building some of these circuits on my workbench next to all my test gear until I have a deep understanding of them.

Rufus had another seizure on Saturday, the first since he started on his new medication. It lasted most of two hours, during which I spent most of the time lying on the floor with him, petting him and telling him it was ok. It started right around when I would have been going to bed, so I ended up sleeping in even later on Sunday than I normally do.

This is a minute or so of that seizure. It's still alarming, though not nearly so much as the first time. I hope that he'll have few or no additional episodes now that he's medicated.

He's gotten quite good about getting dosed. I get him settled in my lap, fill the dropper, and give him a treat. Then I put the dropper tip by his mouth and he eventually lets me get it inside and squirt the liquid in as he swallows. Then I give him another treat and he's all set.

He was being really snuggly and playful last night, but he has an issue with play-biting when he's excited. I'm trying to substitute a toy when he gets bitey, but toys aren't as interesting sometimes.

He's been really good for my brain. It's just so clear how much he likes me. Sometimes when I come home and he realizes it's me he starts screeching! I don't have a better word for it. He's so excited he screeches and screams and bounces until I come pet him. He still loves burrowing under the covers and lying down next to me when I go to bed for the night too. He's been good for me to have around.

National Coming Out Day this year reminds me of how quickly the conditions in my country seem to be deteriorating for folks who are members of minority sexual orientations and genders, among other people.

Silence = Death. If you must be silent, I am doing my very imperfect best to be loud for you. You inspire me to try to make change; thank you.

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Yesterday evening, Miriam and I picked up our new foster dog, Rufus, from Evanston Animal Shelter. He's verah verah small. At five pounds, this little Chihuahua is less than half the size of our cat! I thought Piper was small, and she was over twice his size! It's a little weird to get my head around: he *seems* like a dog, but...



He was a surrender, and the shelter was told he's epileptic, but none of us have seen him have a seizure yet. He was also fed purely on table scraps, so we're going to have to wean him off of that and get him onto real dog food. For now, we have a bag of cooked chicken to feed him bits of. I'm going to start mixing it into some wet food as a start.

I think the stress from his situation change and the kennel plus the diet issues are giving him some diarrhea. He has some trouble pooping and sometime during the night he made a (very small) mess on one of my sandals. He's mostly going to be in his crate at night until we're sure of his potty habits and his relationship with the cat, but he was so scared and uncertain last night that I slept with him on the couch. I didn't even have to ask Miriam if she minded; she had assumed I would and said it was ok. I am predictable.

He was terrified of every little thing at first. He was scared of Miriam and I at the shelter, but that didn't last long, especially after we gave him some chicken. He trembled and cried in the car all the way back from the shelter, and was clearly nervous at home at first, but he seems to be settling in. He likes the couch, and when we're on it with him he either gets nestled in on top of one of the back cushions, or comes to us for attention. As well as giving us licks, he tries to pull our arms out from our bodies with his paws. If we oblige, he'll lie on his side to push his head and body against our arms, pushing against us as hard as he can (which isn't very hard) while we rub his tummy. It's really adorable.

I think he's scared of being alone. When I walk around the condo, he's glued to me. If I'm in the bedroom with the door closed, he starts to cry outside of it. I'm sure he's still pretty shaken by all the change in his world lately.

He's been passably good with the cat so far, as Seregil has been with him. When we first came home with him, Seregil was waiting at the door for us as usual. If I were to put his response into words, it would be something like "Yay! My humans are b-- what the hell is that!?!?" Rufus is a little nervous about the cat, and I've headed off a couple of interactions that turned into growls on his part. By the end of the evening, they were both wandering freely about and were looking at each other but avoiding proximity. I think that's a good place to be for now.

He's in the crate today while I'm at work. I hope his tummy issues clear up soon. I'd like to get a handle on his potty needs and be sure about he and the cat so I can leave him out during the day. I'm hopeful for positive change!

I think I'm reacting to Piper's adoption a bit like I reacted to King (our former housemate's cat) having died. As time passes, I'm feeling it more. It helps that Piper is with people who love her, but it's so hard not to wonder if she's confused or scared, and that makes me start feeling really sad. And because she's so dependent on careful management of her health, and I know what she's like when her blood sugar crashes, I worry about how well she's being taken care of.

The latter worry is not rational, and the former is unavoidable and will slowly pass, I hope. But it's hard. If my mental stability was as low as it was a year and a half ago when I started volunteering at the shelter, I'd be a wreck. There was one night when I was lying against Danae on the couch crying my eyes out because I couldn't stop thinking about how sad, confused, and scared the German Shepherd Dog I'd just met at the shelter that night must be about being in a kennel.

I dunno. It's hard for me to articulate how I feel, or in some ways even understand how I feel myself. As I write, feelings flit butterfly-like around my brain, disappearing into the woods or changing color in patches of sun or shadow.

I want to have another animal around the house. It's so strange not having one. Danae will find a cat who she loves (and who doesn't maker her sneeze), and we will take it in and love and snuggle it. Once the kitty's settled in though, I'd really like to foster another dog. Part of me wants to say that I'd like to not have one with special medical needs like Piper because it makes it harder to trust in someone else to take care of her, but in actuality I would take one again. I know that I *can* take care of animals that can be hard to manage, and that makes me feel like I can offer something special as a foster parent.

If I had space and land, I'd foster a big energetic dog, one who's hard to place because it seems intimidating, who needs some socializing and training, and I'd spend some time helping him or her be more adoptable. I have a small condo instead of space and land, but I can still help dogs who may not be as adoptable as others. I did that with Piper and I want to do it for more dogs.

Normally cute dog pictures make me smile, but for a few days at least it'll be other things distracting me. A variable power supply kit I ordered should be there when I get home, for instance! More soldering fun to jump into!

Danae and I went out for a nice dinner of Tonkotsu Ramen last night. When we got back, we found that Piper had thoroughly searched the garbage bag that I'd uncharacteristically left out in the hall to be tossed. When I realized she'd most likely eaten a half bar of 99% dark chocolate that I tossed after nibbling at for a few months, I would have had a debilitating anxiety attack if I wasn't in a position where I needed to do something for her ASAP.

We took her to the emergency vet where they induced vomiting (she produced, the vet said, a "copious" amount of dark-chocolate-looking liquid and chocolate pieces), gave her another injection to settle her tummy, then fed her some activated charcoal along with bland food to counteract any theobromine that got into her intestines. She seemed to be feeling pretty good after all that. She's a resiliant little thing; they said I should 'try' to get her to eat a little once we got home so I could give her insulin. I still had a can of wet food from when she had surgery, so I gave her some of that and she devoured it.

This morning, she ate, pooped, and got her insulin, and all seems quite normal, thank the powers that be. I paid for the treatment rather then letting them put it on the shelter's account. I feel completely responsible. That plus the exterminators' fees reminds me how often it seems that expenses increase proportionately with one's ability to pay them.

I still feel pretty dumb about it. But Piper seems completely normal this morning, and that's the best thing. Danae came with me to the vet and gave me much needed encouragement and support. As I always am, I'm very grateful for her presence in my life.