Chica's vacation

While I was away with my sister visiting my cousin in the States, Chica stayed at her friend Gorby's. She had a great time!! Lots of attention from all the people in the very busy household, walks to Bruce Pit, play-times of fetch, and a box-full of toys that Gorby shared with her. It's so nice that she gets along so well with Gorby. She doesn't like every dog she meets. And, there are dogs who don't like her. There are two white dogs who live nearby and she is absolutely terrified of them. If they are out in their yard when we walk by, she doesn't want to go past them.

Thunderstorms

Poor Chica. She hates thunder and starts to pant whenever a storm is coming. There have been a number of thunderstorms the last few days. She runs from room to room, sometimes just jumping right up onto my bed. I try to comfort her, but she trembles and pants and is so unhappy.

I would like to make her a real little cave, something that would block the sound and the vibrations. If I were to win the lottery, I would make her a nice one, sound-proofed and vibration-proofed.

Chica and the muskrat

Chica met a muskrat a couple of weeks ago. They had a tussle. The muskrat lost.

However, the next day, I felt something crusty under Chica's chin. I thought it must be muskrat blood - there hadn't been any blood at the scene, just the poor lifeless muskrat body with a hole in it.

I looked under Chica's chin and saw a hole. So yucky! I took her to the vet. They had to put her under, cut it all back, clean it all out and stitch it up (with drain tubes in). She had to wear an e-collar (cone) and be on antibiotics for ten days. I took her back to get her tubes out, then, a few days later, took her to get the stitches out. Unfortunately, they did not put her cone back on and she scratched. It turned out the wound had not healed right through and her scratch tore it all apart. She had to go back into the operating room, get it all cleaned out again and get stitched up again, this time with different stitch material. Ten more days of antibiotics. (She gets the pills in peanut butter and loves her "treat".) She also got a larger cone so that she couldn't rub her chin in the earth which she was always trying to do to get a good scratch.

She went back today to the vet and she decided to give her another week with the stitches in to make sure that she is fully healed. Apparently, the hole in her chin was quite deep.