Keeley's belly is wonky

Poor little pup-boy. Keeley's tummy is upset again. He must have eaten too many weird things yesterday and he's paying the price for it today.

It's been several months since he had any stomach upset. It's not so bad because he's still eating and drinking, holding everything down, his tail is up, and he's still acting like his normal self (although a little low energy). I'm concerned but not too concerned.

Something is obviously working it's way through his system because he's been making the most stinky farts!

I'm just going to continue to keep my eye on him and keep him on a bland diet and hopefully he'll feel better by tomorrow.

Trip to Madison Yesterday

Saturday we took a little trip up to Madison to visit Romare and his dads. Romare is a giant airedale and Keeley's best bud.
Romare has an awesome, big yard. Here's Keeley watching some squirrels up a tree. He still hasn't figured out how to climb trees yet.
Romare likes people slightly more than he likes dogs. Keeley likes people plenty but they don't even compare to how much he likes dogs. Keeley thinks Romare is just the greatest. He follows him around where ever he goes just like a little brother would.
Romare loves balls so Keeley's grandma brought a ball with feet for him. Romare loved the way it squeaked.
When the boys are inside the house they can get a little crazy. But when they're outside, they mostly just stand around. What goof balls!

Things I forgot to blog about earlier

A few of months ago, Keeley got a new bed for the stairway because he destroyed his old one. I forgot to blog about it at the time, but better late than never. Here he is in the new bed while guarding the stairway. This is his favorite spot to nap on the weekends.

Another thing that I forgot to blog about earlier is that I taught Keeley a new trick. He's so smart. Now Keeley knows how to "give paw". He needed a new trick in his repertoire. Next I think I should try to teach him to "roll over".

Keeley can't walk right

Poor Keeley. There he is watching his grandma and his uncle Ryan leave to take a walk.

Now you might be asking, Why aren't they taking Keeley pup with them? I know that's what Keeley's thinking. And the answer is because Keeley just doesn't walk right.

The first 10-15 minutes of any walk with Keeley is miserable. He has to sniff and mark absolutely everything. This takes forever and I could fall asleep just standing there (literally). But I can't because I've got to be watching him like a hawk at all times so that he doesn't find any chewing gum, cheese puff, moldy bread, or chicken bones to pick up.

After that he gets moving a little faster but never in a consistent direction or at a constant pace. Keeley prefers to zig and zag, start and stop, go around obstacles such as trees and signs and light poles, and sometimes he likes to go backwards for about half a block.

All that is manageable though. The worst is when he just sits his butt down and refuses to move another inch in the direction we were going. I mean he really will not budge. The only option is to turn off in a different direction or go back the way we came.

Every other dog that I see being walked seems to be doing a much better job of it than Keeley. I just don't understand how they can walk so nice but Keeley can't.

I asked about this at work and my co-workers told me it's because dogs that can't walk nice, don't get walked at all. They said that I only see dogs out for walks that walk well because those are the dogs that get taken for walks.

I still walk Keeley everyday (except daycare days) and he does seem to be slightly improving with age but he would get taken on longer and more frequent walks if he could only walk right!

An award from Kirby!

Thank you, Kirby for this wonderful award which came with some rules.

The rules for accepting the award are as follows:
1. Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awards you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on your blog.

Well we had better do what it says...
Keeley would like to pass on this honor to:
Bogart because he blogs just about every day and reports on terrific dog friendly festivals,
Faya because she's so gorgeous and sweet too,
Jackson because he's such a tough guy and we love his snarky sense of humor,
Lacie who is another one that writes with a lot of sarcasm (especially when it's about her brothers) and she's super cute too,
Kimi because he has pawsome hiking adventures with his mom and is super well behaved,
Willow who is a sweetie that always seems to be getting bullied by her sisters and we don't think she deserves that,
and Scottie who is just getting started with his blog but seems like a very stylish guy.

Keeley's first Blogoversary

Today is Keeley's first blogoversary. I started this blog about my sweet little Keeley boy one year ago today. The first post was about Keeley catching a mouse. He loves to catch all sorts of little critters. And he's good at it too. Mice, rabbits, moths, fireflies, grasshoppers, and worms are all critters that he's managed to catch or find at some time. He's very gentle with the critters and never intentionally kills them. I really think he's just looking for a playmate or perhaps he thinks he needs a pet of his own.
We joined DOGS WITH BLOGS in September and the first friends we made were Claudette and LacyLulu. They showed me how to enable comments on blogger. Up until then, I had no idea if anyone was reading Keeley's blog. If it weren't for them, I probably would have lost interest in it. But here we are one year later and Keeley's blog is still going strong.

Grant Park Walk

We went to Grant Park this morning for our morning walk. We were surprised by so much damage that had been caused by all the rain we've been getting. Several bridges on the 7 Bridges Trail were washed out or damaged and lots of trees were down too.


Keeley often likes to find the most ridiculous big stick that he could possibly carry. He wrestled with this one for a while but it proved to be too much for him. The main problem was that it was still attached to the tree!


Here's Keeley checking his pee-mail. He also did a lot of marking of his own.
Keeley is usually scared of the water but he must have been feeling brave this morning. He played tag with the waves for a while. He also retrieved a few sticks that his grandma threw into the water for him.
On our way back to the car, Keeley spotted a squirrel and went charging for it. He was on his extending leash and he chased it into some bushes. We called for Keeley to come back out to us but he didn't seem like he was able to. He got so tangled in the bushes and vines that he was stuck. I had to reach in there and rip the vines from his little Keeley boy body. He seemed thankful to me for saving him. After he was freed, he grabbed some of the vines in his mouth and gave them a good shake. I guess he had to teach them who was boss.

More Pawlimpic Practice

Well, Keeley and I tried to do some more practice for the upcoming Pawlimpics that Lenny is hosting. We tried to play ball but Keeley got mad at me because I'm not very good at throwing the ball and taking a picture at the same time. He quickly lost interest in playing with me. I got mad at my camera because I hate that digital delay. It makes getting good action shots nearly impossible. This last one is the best I could get. Perhaps we'll have to try this again tomorrow and recruit Keeley's grandpa to help.

Cool Summer Nights

It's firefly season again. Keeley was out in his yard this evening enjoying the cool temperature. It got hot today but a storm just passed through so now it's nice and cool out. Keeley was also inspecting the fireflies which were out in large numbers tonight. They move so slow that Keeley can catch them easily.

Paw Update & Keeley's Weekend

Thanks to all you dogs that showed your paws to reassure me that Keeley's paws are normal and okay. Faya, Bogart, and Kirby all posted pictures of their paws on their blogs. Rocky did some research on the topic too. Thank you so much for all your helpful advice. I've decided to just leave Keeley's paws they way they are - a little sandpapery and not to worry about it.
The weekend here has been pretty uneventful. It's hot and Keeley and I do not care for hot weather. We prefer 65-72 degrees for a temperature. We've been doing all our walks in the early morning when it's still fairly cool out. The rest of the day we're just hanging out inside the house. Occasionally we go outside but only for 10-20 minutes at a time since that's about all we can handle. It's nice that Keeley and I are so much alike.
Keeley did alright with the fireworks. He totally slept through the big ones at the lakefront on the 3rd. But on the 4th is when they have the smaller ones at the county parks and we live just blocks away from Washington Park. And so those bothered Keeley because they were so close. He also doesn't like the ones that the neighborhood kids set off all throughout the day, but it doesn't seem as bad as last year.