Stoutpup

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My sister Dawn and her Bulldog Cookie are winners of The Bay Area Pet-Look-Alike contest!

No doubt we can all see the striking resemblance. Read the full article here scroll down.

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These two dogs really lived up to their breed yesterday in Lynnwood. We had to cut the wubba with scissors because neither dog would give up the toy.

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All this succulent turkey thigh needs is a little chef’s hat on the end.

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Tortoiseshell cat
“The term “tortoiseshell” (also called calimanco or clouded tiger in North America) is typically reserved for cats with brindled coats that have relatively few or no white markings.” Both calico and tortoiseshell cats are almost always female.

Folklore
Cats of this coloration are believed to bring good luck in the folklore of many cultures;[3] in the United States these are sometimes referred to as money cats.[4]

Stoutpup hasn’t posted a blog entry since Deezy passed away in January. We just haven’t known what to say. Diesel was diagnosed with Acute Renal Failure back in November, and we made the choice to treat her with the standard treatment for this illness which includes a nightly fluid injection. This was a difficult and costly decision no doubt based partly on the fact that we had to put Mazzy down last summer and just felt terrible about it. Should we have found a better treatment for Mazzy? MRIs? More Hospitalization? Did we put her down prematurely? Did we do the right thing, and if so how could we know for sure?

Flash forward to our last month with Diesel. There I am dressed in a heavy hooded sweatshirt, Corey’s snowboarding gloves with my sleeves tucked in, and wrapped in a down comforter, my huge gloved hands holding Deezy’s tiny body into the comforter while Corey administered the fluids, trying not to be slashed to pieces by a very uncomfortable and angry Torty. This went on nightly, then tapered until it was just too unbearable for all of us, especially Deez who stopped eating altogether and began to fade away right in front of our eyes.

Corey took her into the vet one day and that was the end of Diesels pain.

When is it ever the right time to put a loved pet down? After losing two beloved pets I think now we feel a little closer to that answer. What could we have done differently? The answer is we should have put Diesel down before she felt the pain and misery she endured in her final weeks. Her illness was incurable. She was going to die. We just didn’t want her to. I think every situation needs to be assessed by the animal, the illness, the probabilities of survival and most importantly the ongoing quality of life for the pet. I wish someone had told us to let nature take its course with Diesel, but no one wants to say that, especially the vet. I feel relieved to know the answer to this question now, but I know it will not make my future decisions any easier.

Stoutpup had to write this blog entry for Diesel in order to get back to the regular albeit sporadic business of blogging. It’s been a hard post to write, but now we’re officially back! We’ll miss our little money cat always. She had a good life and she surely made our lives more fun. We love you Deez.

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I took this picture on my New Year’s getaway trip to the Bay Area. As usual, Cookie was happy to see me, but really she was probably happier to sleep in the comfy feather bed I use when I visit. Here she is cuddled up with Baba on a winter’s afternoon.

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Photos by mom Cristina.

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Here is a picture of Lucy and Winston cuddled up in bed by the fire. They got along famously this holiday but as is tradition, the annual dog ass kicking did occur on Christmas morning when the dogs opened their stockings. You think everything’s going peachy and then someone has to get all territorial about their Wubba. As is also tradition the 1 second ass kicking was followed by the 5 second banshee hell-screech courtesy of yours truly. All is right in the world.

It’s snowed a lot this season in Western Washington which made our holiday extra Christmassy. We are lucky to have not had to travel very far to be with family in this uncharacteristic weather. Stoutpup hopes everyone had as nice a time as we did. Now we’re back in Seattle and Frank the fish is doing swimmingly. Deisel had no idea he was even here until about 45 minutes ago when she crept into the office and snatched his fake plant out of his bowl.

Of course that was probably terrifying for Frank, but he’s okay and it will not happen again. Don’t worry Frank, only 9 more days. Things will be great, I’ll play my new erasure cd for you that I got for Christmas.

xoxo Happy Holidays,
Stoutpup

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