WTH?

Not my beach, not my monkeys.

I was sitting at home on my day off when I received a text from the Chief of Police. It said:

"Are leashed monkeys allowed on the beach?"

That was it. No context.

At first I didn't know if the chief was pulling my leg so I texted back "LOL." Then "Seriously?" She said yes and gave me one of these: 🐵

Two things went through my mind. One, I'm flattered the Chief thinks that I'm a subject matter expert. But then thought number two: "What the hell?!"

I told Chief that primates are not addressed in our ordinance, leashed or otherwise. Also, they're not on the list of prohibited animals nor the list of rabies vectors. I cited the ordinance numbers so she could verify the info for herself. (Hey, I am the subject matter expert!)

Chief wrote back "Thank you." Again, no context. Now I'm going to be looking for monkeys on the beach during my routine patrol. Never a dull day. -- K

Slow Bowl

Trooper's breeder said he was "food motivated." That was an understatement! Trooper attacks his food like he's been in a POW camp for years. He's not food aggressive -- I can take the bowl away -- but he's very enthusiastic. He gulps food down so fast that Hubby and I are afraid he'll bloat. 

Bloat, also known as gastric dilation volvulus, is a serious condition where a dog's stomach fills with gas and twists. Quick eating/gulping air is a possible cause. Any deep-chested dog is susceptible to it. I hear stories about GSDs dying from it all too often.

To help slow down Trooper's eating, I got him the Happy Hunting Bowl. It's molded plastic and holds about 2 cups of kibble. The protrusions keep Trooper from inhaling his food. Getting into all the nooks and crannies forces him to take smaller bites. His eating time has gone from seconds to several minutes.

Pros:

• The bowl has a wide base. Otherwise Trooper could just flip it over and inhale the food off the floor. 
• There are no sharp, food trapping corners so it's easy to clean.

Cons:

• It's smaller than I imagined. 
• The nonslip strips are tiny and keep falling off the base of the bowl. I'm going to have to glue them in before I lose them forever. 

All in all, the Happy Hunting Bowl was worth the $8 on Amazon.-- K

Take Your Dog to Work Day

Technically, Take Your Dog to Work Day is the Friday following Father's Day. But when you're an animal control officer for a small beach town, the rules are a little more relaxed. Here Jedi and I were sharing McDonalds cheeseburgers for lunch. Apparently, he felt I didn't share enough!

Trooper is still not completely housebroken. We're working on that plus crate training. I've been bringing him to work to help with his training. Luckily, he's cute (and my office has tile floors). He licked the Chief of Police's face and got a free pass for now.

As frustrating as this job can be, it does have some perks. Remind me of that next time I threaten to quit. Later, -- K

Happy 4th of July

Let the festivities begin!

 Trooper        Jedi         Roxy

Crazy Poop Calls

Yes, that's poop in a bag.

A couple years ago I told you about Poopmeister, a resident who blew a gasket and started flinging poo like a chimpanzee. We all thought that was a poop story that couldn't be beat. We were wrong.

Last week I received a call from another exasperated resident. Her next door neighbor was hanging bags of poop from the electrical pole between them. It seems that whenever he found a stray pile of poop in his yard, he would bag it up and tie it to the pole. She said she's already cut down three bags and doesn't know what to do. I was empathetic, but had no idea how to help. So what did I do? Drive by and take a picture, of course!

Speaking of pictures, I have a resident who is frustrated with a neighbor's dog. She swears that the neighbor lets his dog poop in her yard. I told her that I didn't doubt it, but we couldn't act on her assumptions. She needed to see the dog "leaving a deposit" before I could write a citation. She never did catch the dog, but she left this on my voicemail:

There are three new lumps of poop in my yard. I took a picture of it. Do you want me to send it to you?

Uh, no.

I had a guy call me because he found poop in his garage. He wanted me to come out and identify the species of animal that left the feces behind. (It was ordinary cat poop. I was so disappointed.) I guess I'm a scatologist now!

Seriously, poop brings out the worst in people. Last month a woman called seething with anger. A Doberman was walking down her street without a leash. The caller wasn't upset about the lack of leash nor the breed of the dog. She was furious because the dog pooped in her yard and the owner didn't pick it up. The caller spent 15 minutes describing the dog owner in detail along with the three houses where he possibly lived. She was adamant that I find the dog owner and write him a ticket. Right now! By the way, she called back 5 minutes later to say never mind. The dog owner had come back with a bag and apologized.

And finally, TODAY'S crazy poop call: A man left a 3 minute complaint on my voicemail. He's said people walking past his house to the beach pick up after their dogs and throw the bags in his clean trashcan. "Today is trash day and now those bags are going to be in there for a week." He's tired of cleaning his trash can and wants a warning put out. He doesn't know who's doing it, but it happens all the time. I called him back, and he didn't like my answer. I understand he's frustrated but:

• It's the City's trashcan (our logo is on the top).
• He needs to bring the can in early. If it's on the street, it's fair game.
• The ordinance states that people must pick up after their dogs -- and that's what they're doing!
• He can nicely ask the neighbors to throw the poop away, but there isn't anything I can do because they are not breaking the rules.

I should introduce him to Poopmeisters 1 and 2. Maybe he'll feel better. (Probably not.)

One of the insults people like to throw around is "You don't know shit." I just laugh. Not only do I know it, shit pays my salary. -- K

Puppy Has a Name!

Say hello to: 

J-Lyn's Imperial Shadow Trooper

Trooper had been with us for a few days now and his personality has really come out. He's affectionate, goofy and energetic. He loves food, rope toys and belly rubs. He's very good at figuring out how to squeeze into places I thought were puppy proofed so I need to watch him like a hawk. Expect blog posts to be short until we get into a routine.

We're still trying to figure out the "potty outside" thing. He's not fond of sleeping in the crate at night either. I'll continue to share. Happy Monday! -- K

Vestibular Disease in Dogs

Roxy in her favorite spot

Roxy gave us a big scare several months back. She was restless and appeared queasy. She wouldn't lay down and couldn't stand straight. She kept walking in circles and occasionally fell down. Scariest of all, her eyes were jumping back and forth. This went on for about 30 minutes. Then the episode passed as suddenly as it came on.

Hubby and I weren't sure if she was having a stroke or if she had a brain tumor. It was 9:00 at night and we were at a loss. We called her favorite person in the whole world (Son #2) and asked him to come spend some time with Roxy. We were up well past midnight just loving on her. I really thought that was our last night with the old girl.

I called the vet's office as soon as it opened Saturday morning. I told the tech that Roxy was a 13ish year old German shepherd and described the symptoms. She said "Oh, sounds like vestibular. Come on in." She didn't sound nearly as worried as I felt.

The vet gave Roxy a thorough once-over. The official diagnosis was idiopathic vestibular disease -- the best possible option under these circumstances.

Roxy left with a bottle of ear drops, steroids (for other old dog issues), shorter toenails and a belly full of cookies. The vet said she looked great for an old girl. (Yea!) We were warned that Roxy could have another episode. Should this happen, we were instructed to keep her comfortable, try to prevent her from hurting herself and give her anti-nausea medicine (i.e. Dramamine) if she looked queasy. However, there was no need to worry.

Idiopathic vestibular disease -- sometimes called "old dog disease" or "old rolling dog syndrome" -- is actually a sudden, non-progressive disturbance of balance. Vestibular disease is diagnosed after a complete physical examination and other possibilities, like a stroke or ear infection, are ruled out. 

It's called idiopathic because no one can really identify why this happens. As the AKAs imply, it's usually seen in older dogs. It's also more common in large dogs. And if you believe the internet, German shepherds are often affected, though no breed or size of dog is immune to it.

Roxy has had a couple minor episodes since that night, however she seems normal (at least as normal as a 13+ GSD can be.) Oddly enough, I have two friends whose dogs were diagnosed with vestibular disease about the same time as Roxy. Their dogs are worse off than mine. One (an 11 year old German shepherd) has a permanent head tilt now and the other (a 17 year old terrier mix) has lost his appetite.

Vestibular disease is scary and I'm still learning about it. Has anybody else experienced this? Please share! -- K