Strange But True

We were in Waterton this weekend and I observed the oddest couple. The first encounter was in town, where they were walking a little dog and carrying their baby in one of those backpacks that you wear in the front (frontpack?). The next time I saw them the baby had on a pink jacket and the wife was holding her. Then the dad came around and put her in a jogging stroller. As I walked by with my 3 beasts she cooed at the baby "aww look at the big puppies!!"

Now this might not seem weird at all except their baby was a dog. Seriously. The dog was dangling in the baby pack as they walked the town. And the dog was pushed in what appeared to be a very expensive stroller, while it's owner pointed out what they seemed to classify as another species when my dogs walked by. I have to add here that I'm positive the dog can walk because when they put it in the stroller it was standing and turned a few circles before laying down.

These people really disturbed me. I think they may actually think their dog is a human baby. Especially because they have two dogs, and one walks around on a leash as it should. People are weird.

Dominance

Sometimes Sadie likes to sit on the other dogs heads.

Summer Stuff and Bad Vets

We've been doing lots of camping this summer. First in our very old boler, which we have since sold and upgraded to a 2004 aerolite. It is about the same length as the boler (16ft) but it has a little slide out, it's very cute. The dogs have been loving all the weekend get aways, some too much.

A few weekends ago we stayed at Lumbrick Falls and our campsite was right on the river. Duke could reach it on his tie out so he was swimming pretty much the entire weekend. The last day he started limping quite bad and by Monday I had him into the vets office. This was not our normal vet, not sure if we even have one at this point, but we were told he blew his ACL and needed surgery, like yesterday. The quote was over $2000. Now if I hadn't known that this vet had a history I most likely wouldn't have questioned it further. As it turns out, this is his very favorite diagnosis, without X-rays I might add. So we went off for a second and then third opinion with X-rays and both disagreed that it was a cruciate injury. Low and behold the very next day Duke was walking fine. Still concerned that it might actually be a cruciate we kept him on bed rest for 2 weeks. The follow up visit with the second opinion told us he may resume normal activity and he has, and he is fine. Now I'm imagining a very different scenario that could have occurred and it makes me furious.

No one wants to put anyone through unnecessary surgery. Its hard on the dog physically and emotionally, its hard on the owner, and its definitely hard on the budget, not that it would have stopped us, but still. I would just like to stress the importance of at least a second opinion here. Before you do anything drastic, please consider this. Not all vets, or doctors for that matter are perfect, there is always more then one solution to a problem, and usually there is more then one diagnosis. Be informed, do your research and ask questions. Do be afraid to be rude! I learned that from a wise friend, and it has saved me more then once!