keep on bloggin.....

Hi Folks,

Tina thought that just because I am not living on earth anymore I'd stop blogging....NO I don't! I'll keep on posting, right here from doggies heaven...
So, what happened? I could see that Tina and Poldi were quite sad that I had to leave them. Especially Poldi behaved way differently than I knew him: he didn't want to go for walks anymore and didn't know what to do without me when they met other dogs...poor him.
So,
I then made a plan and, guess what, it worked out: I telepathically sent Tina to a shelter where I knew, a little female dog was waiting for somebody to take her home. Her name is LOTTE. Lotte is already an adult dog but is even smaller than I was, and seems to be around 2 years old.
So Lotte  now lives with Tina and Poldi and Poldi is sooooo happy again!
Yes, and I am very happy that my plan to get Poldi a new friend worked out!

Of course, they don't have any idea that I do observe them here from doggies heaven,  but, you know me, I always did what I want...:-)

GOOD BYE BRAVE LITTLE MUFFIN!

Today, January 31st, 2011, little Muffin started his last journey - 

Poldi and I wish him all the best...he was a great friend!!!

After a week of almost no eating and getting very weak the last two days, we've been to the vet, today. 

The blood values showed that the kidneys probably have stopped working at all. He suffered the whole night from muscle contractions and this morning, he was somehow not himself anymore.
It was time for him start his last journey without us - so I decided to let him go...

GOOD BYE BRAVE LITTLE MUFFIN !

Arrived in Europe!

We arrived at Frankfurt Airport yesterday morning. All three of us were on the same planes and we got our connections in Toronto easily. Muffin behaved well in his bag. Only when he couldn't see me being around, he got upset. Probably that was because of his separation anxiety that he still seems to have when Poldi is not around. Anyway, no accidents in any of the creates.
So, I am happy that everything was so easy. More the next days...Tina

3 days to go

we've been for 2 really long walks today. First with our best friend Ivan, the white shepherd husky mix, in the morning. Then, Tina's friend came around and with her another dog, Winston the chocolate lab. We've been for a long walk with them, too and now we are all tired.
Tina will be on a good bye party this evening and Poldi and I might just sleep. Last  night, Poldi slept in his traveling kennel with the door closed to get him used to the kennel again. I slept in my traveling bag with the door open since I like it anyway. Tina keeps pretending she wouldn't be nervous but I could bet she is....she never before said "everything will be fine" like 10 times a day...I am only concerned about the fact that Tina said I won't get supper on Tuesday since dogs should not eat while flying. Maybe I could put on my "poor-little-doggie-look" so that other people give me something to eat - Tina said there will be a lot of people at the Airport and in the plane...so let's see, I still have hope that there will be supper for me on Tuesday as well!

4 days to go....

busy times, organizing and preparing our BIG MOVE....

Yesterday, I found out that both dogs were booked only for the second part of the flight - from Toronto to Frankfurt - but not for the first part - Halifax to Toronto. (?!?!)

I really wonder how something like that could happen. Even if someone would consider them purely as baggage - it doesn't make any sense to book in a suitcase only for the second part...nobody could check it in....????

Anyway, after several calls with Lufthansa and Air Canada everything is fixed now and the dogs are booked for the first half of our journey as well.

So if anybody of you out there ever plans to travel with pets - call your airline and make sure that everything is allright and that they really SEE your reservations in their computer system....

countdown to Europe

it's only 12 days until Tina, Poldi, and I will be leaving Canada.... and we already sold our car.

Today I got groomed. I was scared and the groomer told Tina that I shivered the whole 2 hours! Tina said she was really surprised since I am normally such a brave little guy, she thinks maybe I am traumatized since my last grooming was during my hard times in summer (even though the groomer was such a nice lady).
The good news is that the groomer estimated my age to be around 6 years! Wow maybe I am still that young! Would be great!
I totally look like a poodle now look at the picture:

The picture below shows me in my new travel bag that we will use for the flight to Europe. I think it's more  like a doggy bed and Tina seems to very glad that I like it soo much...

wow, it's hard to believe that it's me on both pictures.....

travelling in winter

is fun, too!

but it's even better with a nice place to stay in the evening!

5 months after adopting an old dog

Muffin is with us now since August last year. It is amazing how great he has recovered, changed and adapted to his new situation.
> his blood values are much better - only 4 are (slightly) out of range instead of 7 in the beginning
> he is not underweight anymore
> he is energetic enough to do even long walks of 2-3 hours
> he shows no separation anxiety anymore
> he became fully housebroken within the first 2 weeks
> he learned commands like sit, down, stay etc.
> he nicely walks offleash and does well on recall - improving day by day
> he learned from Poldi how to play ball and also brings the ball back to me most times
> ground pumpkin seeds helped with the first signs of nightly incontinence - no accidents anymore
> he learned to travel nicely on the backseat of a car
> I learned to not leave any food on the kitchen counter while leaving the house

in short: he is a great example showing that also older dogs adapt very quick and well to a new home. As I got him last year, I was not sure if we will be able to publish posts with the date of 2010. Would he still be alive then? Well, we do have 2010 now, he is here and in great shape!
He has definitely the nature of a little fighter, knows no self-pity and literally runs full speed into life. I am so glad that nobody gave up on him as he came to the shelter! Honestly - how many shelters would have put down a dog like him? Old, skinny to the bones, not willing to eat, smelly like a rotten fish, black teeth, infected eyes and ears, not housebroken. I am so grateful to the folks of the LA Shelter in Amherst - they did not even think about that!
Since the first day I learn from this old little guy that you can enjoy each single moment, independently from your past and without worrying about the future. Is there something better a pet could do for you?

Europe!

Hi, it's Muffin. We've been a the vet yesterday.  I got treats there but also something that Tina called a rabies shot.  I didn't really realized the shot since I was so busy with grabbing treats from Tina's hand.
But then I heard Tina telling the vet that I will need the shot since we will go to a place called Europe and live there for a few years!!!
Hey - My blog is called "Poodle Muffin in Canada" and now we are moving to Europe???

Anyway, Tina said everything gonna be ok and it's gonna be nice there and we will live on an Island with a large sandy beach! And as you might already know, I love the beach ! And I think I will be happy everywhere, as long as I am with Tina and Poldi.

I will tell you more, soon....

on the road again....

we had a great sunday and traveled to Fundy Bay.
Temepratures were around -12 and it was windy so that we left the car only for short walks. Anyway, dogs and humans all had lots of fun!

quiet winter days

We haven't posted much the last weeks but hope that you are all still there! Winter is here now and Poldi and I have lots of fun in the snow. Also, I got a new sweater that protects me a bit better from wet snow than my knitted sweater. We only go for short walks when temperatures fall below -10 but running keeps us still warm. Tina said she thinks I am getting younger and younger. Unfortunately, we had mostly cloudy days -so no nice landscape pictures. Tina will take some as soon the sun comes out again....

100% supervision

Hi, it's Muffin,
my cookies & chips plan did not work out. Our dog sitter somehow knew which food we get and also how much.
Tina is back since almost a week now and stays at home all day since she catched a cold and is totally sick. It's nice to have her around so much, but it also means 100% supervision. No chance to steel any food from the kitchen counter...

dog sitter

wow, Tina is gone for 3 days and Poldi and I have a so called "dog sitter". It's one of Tina's friends and Poldi knows her since he was a little puppy, he said.
Anyway, I will try to convince her that little doggies get cookies for breakfast and like chips while watching TV with their humans. I hope my plan will work out.
We still have snow, it's about 20 cm high and I loved it as long as it was like powder. After we had some rain the snow is now rock hard like ice and sometimes I have trouble to make my way through it. The icy crust doesn't always carry me and then I break through. For Poldi it's worse since he is heavier than I am.
I am wearing two sweaters now when we go out since it got really cold and windy.
Ok, I'll go back to our dog sitter now to work on my plan....cookies and chips....

let it snow....

so, winter is here now....

.

Winter storm warning in effect.

Hallo hier ist Poldi,

Tina sagt heute Nacht soll es anfangen zu schneien und erst morgen abend wieder aufhoeren.
Dazu wird es wohl sehr windig und deswegen nennen es die Kanadier snow storm.

Ich weiss was Schnee ist, aber Tina sagt hier kann der Schnee manchmal so hoch liegen dass ich nicht mehr rausgucken kann....ich bin soooo gespannt!

Yeah, and I, Muffin, don't like it too much. As a Canadian, I am used to it. I am a poodle and snow gets trapped in my fur and I would look like a snow ball...se let's see how much snow we really gonna get tonight.

We will post pictures.....

Good news!

Muffins blood work resulted better values than in September!
Still, they indicate kidney failure but it seems to be stable.

Mainly BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and creatine are elevated. BUN is at 15 mmol/L (should be between 2-9) at was at 29 in September.
Creatine is stable around 180 (should be between 27-124).

His blood globulin concentrations are too low and decreased since September. From what I understand, it means that his immune systems isn't the best and I wonder the immune system fails to come up after the antibiotic treatment he got in September.

His urine was less concentrated than last time but that might be a result from all the water he drunk the day before since he found the can with instant hot chocolate powder on the kitchen counter....(* I should write an extra post about which kind of food  Muffin would "steal" without supervision)

And, eventually Muffin gained weight and is not underweight anymore. This last point means a lot since ongoing kidney failure is often associated with weight loss. So it's a good sign that  Muffin is able to gain weight.

Now, we are all looking forward to the snow that is not yet forecasted...YIPIEEEEEEEEEEEH!

another blood test...

Hi, it's Muffin.

Today, Tina told me that tomorrow we are going to do another blood test .
Puh......I am scared!
I know they will again shave my leg and then again this needle......I don't want that!

But Tina said it is absolutely neccessary.
She said that it's very likely that my health has improved and the values aren't worse than last time. But it is important to check whether my diet is right or not.

So, I hope the blood test will tell Tina that she should feed me much much much more food :-)

keep fingers cross for me...

DOGS ON THE BEACH

did you know that dogs see the world in black and white....?

pee head....

on our way to Parsborro/Partridge Island, Muffin sat in the car on the lap of our brazilian friend. She loves dogs and we were talking about Muffin and she said that he would behave a bit like he'd be blue blooded.
He always seem to assume that everybody has to like him and that he he seemed to use her as a comfortable sort of car seat.

Muffins Diet

Since Muffin's got these kidney problems he gets a home made diet that the vet suggested.
This diet contains less protein and less phosphorus than most dog food and is easily prepared.

Recipe:

500gr. ground beef (not lean)
4 eggs
6-8 cups of boiled rice (not salted!)
200 - 300 gr. bread

I usually cook the rice and the ground beef separately, then mix them together, add eggs and bread and cook everything for another 5-10 minutes.
I also ground the egg shells and mix them with the food since they contain calcium, which is an important electrolyte/ mineral, especially when it comes to kidney failure
(kidney failure might cause elevated blood phosphorus concentrations, which the body tries to balance by also increasing the blood's calcium concentrations from calcium that is stored in the bones - osteoporosis is then likely to occur)
I also ad flex seeds and flex oil to make sure he gets enough omega fatty acids.

Muffin weighs around 5kg and gets portions of around 200-300 gr per day, divided into 2-3 meals (breakfast and supper, and most days also lunch)

I store daily portions in the freezer.

Also Poldi, who normally gets "normal" dog food (high quality, though) likes Muffins diet.