Oliver Visits

Keeley had a playdate with Oliver today. They did a lot of wrestling with each other and got a lot of petting from the humans. Oliver put up with all of Keeley's silliness and seemed to take it all in stride.
We met Oliver and his owner, Rebecca at Washington Bark Day last month. He's about the same age as Keeley and is very friendly towards both people and dogs.
Keeley just loves having other dogs over. They had so much fun together.
When it was time for Oliver to leave, Keeley watched him from the sunroom window. Three minutes later, Keeley was sound asleep.

New Guestbook and Comments

I added a better guestbook and deleted the old one. To sign the new guestbook, scroll to the bottom of the page.
I also revised my blog settings to make it possible for readers to leave comments now. Thanks to Lacy's mom, Claudette, for showing me how.

Feeling Better Now

Well, it seems that Keeley is back to his old self. His appetite is back (with a vengeance!), his tail is up, his eyes are open wide, and he's looking everyone in the face again. Today, we took him to Runway Dog Park for the first time in over a week. He was happy to be back and ran around meeting every dog he could. When we got home, he ate a big dinner of raw medallions, pumpkin, and some spaghetti noodles that he begged from me. Then, he went and wrestled his pillow for a good 10 minutes, (There's one pillow on my bed that is known as "Keeley's pillow" and he knows that's the only one that he's allowed to wrestle). He drank a bunch of water and then scavenged an empty milk jug out of the recycling bin. He must be feeling a lot better. I'm so glad!

Dogs With Blogs

Keeley's blog is listed on Dogs With Blogs. Here's the address: http://www.dogswithblogs.com.au/theblogs.htm
Keeley is the 635th dog with a blog (you have to go to page 4), but he's the ONLY Irish Terrier.

Keeley is one sick puppy

Here's a picture of Keeley resting with his grandma because he's been very ill the last few couple of days.
Late Monday night, I took Keeley outside for his last potty trip before bedtime. He was sniffing around for a spot and then he stopped in the back corner and started eating something. At first I didn't think much of it because I figured it was just rabbit poop but soon I realized it had to be something else and went to investigate. Keeley's reaction as I approached him confirmed my suspicion that it was definitely something that he should not have. So i grabbed him and reached into his mouth to try to pull out whatever it was. I was too late though and all I could get out was a part of what appeared to be a foil wrapper from a Hershey's Kiss.
Okay, I know there's a lot of trash always blowing around in the neighborhood. Ridding the yard of empty potato chip bags, Hostess cake wrappers, plastic grocery bags, and newspaper is a daily task. But how the heck did a pile of partially unwrapped Hershey Kisses get way back into Keeley's yard? It just doesn't make sense. Anyhow, I was pretty confident that there couldn't have been enough there to make him sick and so we went to bed.
Right away on Tuesday morning, I could tell that something was wrong with Keeley. He didn't want to get up. Then I made him breakfast and he didn't want to eat it. He didn't want to go upstairs and knock on his grandmother's door like he usually does. All he wanted to do was to lay around and be petted.
Eventually, he did eat part of his breakfast. But by the time I got home from work, he had thrown it all up.
For dinner I made him rice and burger since it was obvious that his tummy was upset. He did eat it but then 10 minutes later, he threw it all up. And later, he threw up a few more times outside. All he wanted to do was to rest and be petted.
I was woken up at midnight by the sound of Keeley throwing up again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again 19 more times through to the morning.
Keeley was not himself. He wouldn't make eye contact and his tail and his head were down. He looked so weak and completely pathetic. I was so worried about my little baby boy.
When morning did finally come, we took Keeley to see his vet. I had to carry him to the car and into the vet's office because he couldn't even walk.
He spent all day Wednesday at the vet's office. He got his blood work done. He got his electrolyte panel done. He got x-rayed. He was given IV fluids. He got an antibiotic injection and an anti-vomiting injection. By the end of the day he had begun to act a little more like himself and was happy to be going home.
I stayed home with him all day today. He took his medicine and drank a little water but didn't feel like eating anything till just about 35 minutes ago. Finally, he ate a little rice and beef and a few rice krispies. And so far he's managed to keep it down.
What we think is that Keeley got into some poison. Maybe a neighbor put out some poison to try to kill the mice, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, birds, or possum that live behind our garages (and in many of the garages on our block). Or maybe Keeley killed a little animal that had eaten poison. Who knows?
At least he's beginning to feel better now.

Keeley's cousin, Tully

Keeley had a playdate this afternoon with his cousin dog, Tully. First Keeley had to thoroughly sniff everything in Tully's yard. Then the two boys had great fun play wrestling each other and being fed lots of homemade liver treats from the Dad. Keeley was so tired when he got home that he went to bed 3 hours earlier than normal. Thanks to Tully's mom, Helen, for this picture.

Keeley's neighbor, Sandy

Our neighbor dog, Sandy, visited Keeley in his yard this afternoon. Keeley loves having dog visitors. Unfortunately, Sandy does not much care for Keeley and his antics. Ever since he was a puppy she's warned him to always stay at least 2 or 3 feet away from her. Sometimes she will go nose to nose with Keeley but then she walks away from him or snarls at him to back off. Keeley speaks dog very well and he tries everything he knows to comunicate to her that he's not a threat and that all he wants to do is play. He does his play bow. He puts his ears back as far as they will go (to the point of looking like he doesn't even have ears). He lays down low to the ground and puts his head down. But still Sandy wants nothing to do with him. She growls, snarls, and snaps at him. Keeley gets so frustrated sometimes that he does what I refer to as "his mad dawg routine". It's very similar to the zoomies. He runs around frantically at full speed until he wears himself out and then lays down on his side. Even though she's never nice to him, I still think that Keeley really likes Sandy.

They're even worse today!

If it's possible, the mosquitos are even worse today! I tried to take Keeley for a walk in the parkway but only lasted about 8 minutes before I said "forget it!" and ran back to the car. I had to call Keeley's grandpa and ask him to brave the mosquitoes (he's Canadian, so stuff like that doesn't bother him) and take Keeley for a proper walk.

Mosquito Attack!

The mosquitos are terrible right now! I've already got 9 bites. Keeley is wondering why I keep swatting him. I'm just trying to keep the bugs off him. I don't know what I'm going to do with Keeley for exercise since I refuse to go out in these conditions for anything more than 3 minutes at a time. Guess I'll just have to chase him around the house a few times. Maybe we could ping-pong with his grandma too.

Doggie Dip at Cool Waters

We took Keeley to the Doggie Dip at Cool Waters in Greenfield Park this evening. He had a blast! This was the first time that Keeley has ever gone swimming and he did very well, for the most part.
Keeley was brave and went running right into the shallows with a bunch of other dogs. Then he got up the nerve to jump in where it was 2feet 6inches deep and he did the doggie paddle. It was so cute! Later, in his typical knucklehead fashion, he jumped into the deep end and sank like a rock. I had to jump in to save my baby even though I was fully clothed. After that he decided that it would be a good idea to go back to the shallow end.
It was difficult to keep track of Keeley since there was so much to do and he was moving so fast. It was a very chaotic scene because there were so many dogs and people there. Keeley had a great time.