Major Dramz!!

(With all due apologies to Perez Hilton)

It was a whirlwind weekend of drama last weekend.

The dog bit a neighborhood boy. It wasn't aggressive or anything, just going after a ball the boy was playing with at the time (the dog loves to chase them). Unfortunately, my middle daughter's friend was holding the dog's leash at the time and let go. The boy's stopped by later looking for my wife or I. The mother verbally assaulted my oldest daughter asking questions like: "Where is your mother? You do have a mother, don't you? When is your mother coming home? She does come home, right?" I'm a little more old school in that any adult should feel free to correct the behavior of a minor child, so long as they are not abusive. The questions and demeanor of this woman towards my oldest was bordering on abuse. She left my darling child in tears. So much so that she couldn't speak to me on the phone about it. I was very angry, but my dearest Ellen talked me down from the ledge. She handled speaking to the mother. Thankfully, the injury was minor and the mother must have come down off of her abusive "high" and spoke to my wife about the situation. No harm, no foul, she basically said. However, she chastised my wife for having a daughter "with a sassy mouth". I can't imagine what my oldest said back, but I'm pretty sure it was in response to her abusive comments and tone.

Saturday was a completely different story. My middle daughter (it was her major drama weekend) and a friend went to the movies. It was the last weekend of an already long run for this particular movie and it was in our small town theater. Besides my daughter and her friend, there were only three other children in the movie. From what I've been told, there was disruptive behavior by the other children: running, gymnastics, and noise. My daughter's friend decided to throw some popcorn. That escalated into some chair kicking and finally some mild touching/tapping. For some reason, my daughter's friend arm looked appetizing to the oldest of the other group, so she bit her! I would have expected this from a toddler or perhaps first grader, but not a fifth grader (the approximate age of the biter). I received this frantic call from the theater (my middle daughter is old enough to attend the movies with friends without a parent) about the biting incident, so I raced right over. I confronted my daughter and her friend and found out that the biter was still there. In fact, the biter's father was sitting in the lobby of the theater! After some searching I found the movie theater manager and I requested he make a report of the incident and take down names and phone numbers since I was responsible for my daughter's friend's well being. I lectured a little bit on the proper behavior in a movie theater and what they should have done if someone was misbehaving in the theater. I had to tell my daughter's friend's parents about the incident. They said "kids will be kids". Not quite the reaction I expected, but since the bite marks were superficial, there seemed to not be any sense of urgency (in their opinion).

I'm hoping this is the last of the drama for a while...

Pets, Dogs this time

We Grizzwolds love animals. Well, my kids and I do. Mrs. Grizzwold could really care less, although I have a new found belief that her attitude might have changed somewhat.

Grandma Grizzwold decided to raise West Highland White Terriers upon her retirement two summers ago. She got two purebreads and put them in the back yard and let them have the run of her place. Long story short, the dogs mated and had puppies. Sadly, Grandma Grizzwold hurt her hip and couldn't really take care of the puppies in the manner in which they needed.

In swoops Mrs. Grizzwold! We took in the whole litter (5 puppies - 3 male and 2 female) to the Grizzwold manse and took care of them from the point where they were getting around. We found homes for three of them right away (2 males and 1 female). The other two left were kind of sick. You see, puppies are pretty much born with worms. The puppies had been treated for worms once, but they need multiple treatments. None of the other puppies got as sick as the one female and male we had kept. Additionally, the male exhibited an irregular heartbeat! A couple thousand dollars (including a night's stay in the doggie hospital) both dogs were back in the pink!
We've since found a nice home for the other male as his irregular heartbeat has resolved, so we're left with our little female.

Thankfully, Grandma Grizzwold felt bad that we had to do all this for the dogs, so she pitched in some funds to help take care of them.

Clark

A Grizzwold Moment - Pet Style

Since we are the Grizzwolds, we're unique in our lives and experiences. However, it's completely possible for others to have what I call a "Grizzwold Moment". Case in point below is an experience related to me today:

Good morning!!! I have a good dog story to share with both of you - I knew you'd appreciate this.
Yesterday, I had to take my cat Christina for her annual check up and shots. This is a traumatic experience for her - she literally loses all her bodily functions during the 25 minute ride to the vet (ie: she poops, pukes, pees, and foams at the mouth BIG TIME). Anyway - she is processed like normal and all is well. She is at a healthy weight and her ears were clean as a whistle. Next, I have to go over the boarding place to pick up Buster, who has been boarded since Thursday afternoon. The boarding kennel is part of [name withheld] animal hospital and is right next door to the hospital section. I had scheduled him for doggie day care on Friday and yesterday.
So…I pay the bill, which included a new prescription for heart worm meds and a heart worm test so it was a steep bill. They bring Buster out to me and he is really happy to see me. He always looks great when he comes out, especially after he has his bath and toenails trimmed. Anyway - off we go to the car and Buster jumps up as usual but needs help getting in the back seat. I'm driving down Falls Road and I start looking at Buster in the rear view mirror and notice that he doesn't have as much grey around his muzzle as usual. Then I notice not as much grey on his stomach - and his eyes looks different. THIS IS NOT MY DOG!!! Yes, it is a chocolate lab and yes, this dog is named Buster. Thank goodness I had not gone too far - I high tail it back to the vet and bring back the dog to them. Of course, Christina is still freaking out and foaming at the mouth in her cage!!!
What are the chances that there would be another chocolate lab named Buster that really looks like him?????????????? They were all extremely apologetic at the boarding kennel - no one could believe it!
Now we are trying to figure out if my Buster really did go to doggie day care and really did get a heartworm test, etc……I'm disputing the bill until we get this all straightened out.
I did finally get the real Buster home and he looks completely exhausted - he couldn't get off the bed this morning to go out and do his business.

Poor Buster!

Clark

Pets, Cats to be specific

Like all most "normal" families (we are the Grizzwolds, dontcha know) we have had family pets. It seems as if these pets are cursed once they cross our threshold. We've had both cats and now dogs, so let's start at the beginning:

Cats - The Grizzwold family has had three cats. The first, Disney, was a grey tabby who liked to sleep on my head at night. Sadly, this cat ran away after we moved to a new home. The second cat was Belle, a big fluffy black and white domestic long haired cat...with a horrible "cattitude". This cat would allow you to pet it about three times, then it would lash out and bite. It walked around like it owned the place. This cat was smart about it's nastiness. Instead of growling and hissing, it would purr, luring you into a false sense of security before WHAMMO! You've got teeth marks in your arm or leg. Make a loud noise next to Belle? WHAMMO! Teeth marks. Crying kids were the worst. After our third child was born we had to start kicking Belle outside because the baby cries were making her nuts and she was taking it out on everyone else, including the baby. The final straw was when she laid in wait for a neighborhood kid who, not knowing any better, patted the cat on the head. WHAMMO! No more Belle. She was sent to "the farm".

Our final entrant in the Grizzwold cat parade is Dewey. Dewey arrived a few summers ago with four of his brothers and sisters in a fostering effort for the Humane Society. We had agreed to foster cats, so we got cats. All four of them. Dewey's brother's and sisters (Daffy, Donald, and Daisy...sense a theme here?) are adorable orange tabby cats. They had the run of our unfinished basement for the summer until Donald got sick. It turns out Donald had FIP (which has a meaning, I assure you, but darned if I can remember it), which is an immunodeficiency disease that is terminal in felines. You can equate it with HIV in humans. Since they were kittens, their immunodefense mechanisms were too weak to defend against it. Donald got horribly sick (there are two forms of FIP, wet and dry...both involve body water either the overabundance of it or lack thereof) and literally drank water until he got horribly bloated. We put him down to avoid additional suffering. Daisy did the same about a month later. We shipped Daffy and Dewey back to the Humane Society for a while, hoping that they wouldn't get sick, but they both were carried and no one wanted cats with terminal diseases, even if the Humane Society was picking up the tab. Long story short, Daffy and Dewey came back to our home. After about another month, Daffy came down sick and had to be put down. Then there was one. Dewey somehow has survived all of this death around him. He's infected, but shows no symptoms. For the most part Dewey is a good cat. He's not over aggressive like Belle, has not run away like Disney, and has maintained his health for the most part. Good is all relative as Dewey has one of the most BIZARRE habits I've ever seen in a cat or a dog. HE HUMPS STUFFED ANIMALS!

I'm sure you're asking, "Grizzwold, why isn't the cat neutered? That will solve his little problem." Well, Dewey was neutered quite a while ago. Still, he'll latch on to a stuff animal (he has his favorites) drag it out into an open area, and "get bizzy". I feel sorry for the poor stuffed animal, as he generally leaves his victims behind after he's done with them. Most of them look like murder victims sans the chalk outline. How do I know this? I've seen him in action. Scruff of the stuffed animal neck in his mouth, back all hunched over, gentle grumbles and slight panting, tail all twitchy and off to the side. It's pretty disturbing. I'd had a little trouble explaining this to my kids (all girls, mind you), but now he's the butt of family jokes. Lest you think he's exclusive to stuffed animals, we've caught him with baby blankets, pillows, and cotton T-shirts. He had a stuffed lion hidden in a corner of the Grizzwold laundry room. It's fur was all stuck together and matted down. I found it one day when I was cleaning up. It was splayed out, on it's back, the vacant stuffed animal look in it's eye almost saying "make him stop"!

(next posting: our new puppies. Yes, there is more than one!)

Clark