4-09-2025
I got 2 aluskies brushed for the first "official" time of 2025. Sassy first - She always plays keep away with her paws cos that's what an alusky is hardwired to do. I bait them with rabbit nibs after every claw or paw so that's how Sassy smiles during grooming. But she still makes me work for it!
     I had to back off grooming more often cos of Sassy's osteo-arthritis and game of keep away. But this proved to be more of a BAAAAAD idea cos her undercoat was so matted that I only got halfway done with her before my back and rigid spasticity pain became blindingly unbearable. Pain meds for me that tell your nerves to sit down and shut up don't work when your brain can't talk to your body.
     Putting a muzzle on Akula takes the fight right out of him and I was done with him within 20 minutes. Yeah - HOUR PLUS for Sassy. I so do not miss the 4 dogs we had during husky blooming season. In Texas!
     Additionally, With it being as dry as it is, the hair was just everywhere, clinging all over EVERYTHING like cobwebs in a horror film.

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4-05-2025
As time has gone on, age is showing Sassy it's not going to be real sympathetic. Sassy has Osteoarthritis and she can now hyper-extend her right shoulder without even trying. This will most probbably make her scream and cry the same time as she favors her right paw. All the while she's staring me in the eye to make it go away. We're both helpless. It'll pass in a couple minutes and she'll have forgotten about it. Yay but still. Sassy is also going deaf. That's about the only normal and expected thing to have, says her vet.
     She can get startled real easy and this'll probably make her jump then scream and favor her paw. In the evenings when I'm holding down the couch for the rest of the night, she'll lay on the floor right where my feet would naturally go when I need to get up. So when it's time for me to get up, I gently touch her fur then her body to wake her up. It can still be hit or miss but I have a 95% chance of her not screaming.
     When it's time for lunch, oftentimes I have to go to her bed to wake her up by nudging her bed and saying loud enough for her to hear "YUMMY YUMMY - LUNCH". I have trained her to know "yummy yummy" means food or treat. This may get her revved up where she turns into a rocket, When she's not in a rush to jump up, I figure pain is holding her down.
     Sassy IS medicated in a couple ways and her vet is keeping close tabs on her. Due to other people asking what she's on then telling me they think they know more than our vet, I'm not going there. Just know Sassy is plenty good at getting the attention she needs!

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8-22-2024
It has come to my attention that Sassy is not the jealous hoarding meany that she portrays herself as! When it's not obvious that you're watching her, you'll see that she is well aware that Akula is now blind. She herds him out in the yard and pretty much protects him when she's not protecting HER things that HE wants. That's an alusky for ya!
     I've been seeing Sassy sleeping on the floor in the evening with a paw or tail or her fuzzy butt touching some art of Akula so he knows she's near. It took a while for me to notice this cos I see them ALL the time. It took someone bringing it to my attention.
     Clearly, in the morning, after breakfast when they're all fat n' happy, they could care less about each other....

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8-10-2024... (Happy birthday, Brimstone!)
My day started with Sassy having puked in her bed... She ate breffess without the vigor she usually has - as Akula always has.... Her not wanting her morning ice cube is a bad sign! Someone WILL be cleaning up something later....

 

So... no coffee this morning. It's a Dr Pepper and Everclear kind of morning! I'm already chilled out with just making room for ice and all!... So... GOOD FRIGGIN' MORNIN'!!!..

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Akula, NOT to be left out....

A couple weeks later.... Concerns have risen. AFTER getting an all clear from 2 separate and trusted vets - Akula has Chronic kidney disease and Systemic hypertension. I would have liked to have known this prior to surgery.... Well, that explains Akula's excessive drinking like a racehorse.... One vet's office says he'll be needing a needing a special diet and high blood pressure meds - a half a pill twice a day. The primary vet told me his blood work numbers show a light elevation in a couple different numbers that are only consistent with old age and not a death sentence. Not necessary to change his diet.
     Cataract surgery for dogs are extremely different than for humans in that humans can recover and see shortly thereafter whereas dogs have to deal with inflammation for a long time. Akula doesn't love receiving the eye drops anymore than love giving him the drops. Or various pills but here we are. It's still too soon to give up hope on his eye recovery so we shall ...see....
     Meanwhile, good thing he has a hard head cos he's now booping it into walls and things. He's real slow now, head hanging low. He ambles about with his head hung low.
     He's often really slow when it's time to go into the backyard. There's a big half circle brick step, 6" or so tall step to the back door and glass screen door. Often, I need to tell him to "follow my voice......." so he knows which way to go.
     The worst thing about this is all is the malamute in him can no longer protect his family, particularly me. He knows I'm "wounded" from my stroke. I now have to protect him. The mothering instinct in me.... He knows it's there and I've not done wrong by him so he's able to find his way to the - HIS - chaise lounge bed in the living room.

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The Legend of Sasin....

Whoever wakes up first and finds the "prize" has to clean it. We finally got Sasin aka Sassy to a diagnostic vet clinic to solve the mystery of her vomiting issues. Well... She has "Mega-esophagus"... WTH??

Poor Sassy has a "Mega-esophagus" and our vet has not seen one has bad/big as hers. "It should not be visible on an x-ray". Her's and Akula's food and water bowls are now up on 5 gallon paint buckets and the condition has greatly improved BUT...

if her food manages to not get down to her tummy, anything and everything caught in her esophagus will find its way out with deadly accuracy to target any last cleaned and disinfected area. The esophagus is the black tube to the left, below the spine. Our vet said something about it's not supposed to show up an x-ray. Great...

So with the food bowls on the buckets, almost daily vomiting reduced to a few times a week. Yay! But... vomiting was still happening and since I'm a kinda light sleeper, if I don't hear Sassy ringing the bells at the door, I'll be the one getting to clean it up. Yay, me....

So, again... I got to thinking when it was grooming time. Sassy will sit in the corner of the couch to avoid nail clipping. I got to thinking... She's sitting almost upright! I started rubbing her chest and her throat, hitting that sweet spot where Lil Miss Princess gets a thorough rub down in her "spa day". I say "Bailey Chair" and Sassy will come, knowing it's a good thing. I'm retraining her to come to "Gravity" cos it adheres to the "1 word, 3 syllables" rule for dog learning.

This also means treats and snacks have to be well thought out cos even a bite of BBQ'ed steak can "release the hounds".

Now... where the diagnostic clinic urged us to get a Bailey's Chair, we declined, needing to research this. Considering it cost over $1,400 for the diagnostics service, we weren't about to wrestle an unwilling participant into a $275 (at least) chair!

From time to time, I snooker Sassy into getting on the couch and into position as shown. I'll massage her chest then throat. Easy peasy.

So far she has not yakked Sassy style!!! Yay!!!

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