Monday, May 11, 2015

First Visit to the Vet, Visiting my Niece, and a Graduation


Last Friday was Olive’s initial visit to her new veterinarian. I was pleased when I checked out the local vet practices on line that the vet I brought my dogs to way back, Dr. Keish, was still involved with his old practice. It seems that he is mostly retired, but his daughter, Dr. Pampreen, is a licensed vet and seems to have taken over the practice. She seemed quite knowledgeable and competent, gave Olive a thorough checkup, updates on all of her shots and medications, and a clean bill of health. Olive behaved perfectly in the vet’s office, even when the vet drew a blood sample and gave her shots. I was comfortable registering Olive as her patient. Her staff took Olive’s photo for their records, which I am posting here.

 


Olive looks a bit defiant in the photo. She did not seem scared, but a bit bewildered as to what was going on there.
 
My only concern is that Olive seems to have lost nearly five pounds since last December. I had been giving her two cups of dry food per day, but decided to increase that by a half cup per day and monitor Olive’s weight. The flea/tick medicine the vet prescribed, NexGard, was the same that Nanne suggested. The heartworm medicine, Heartgard7 plus, is a different brand, but I am confident that it will be quite effective and works in the same manner as the heartworm medicine that Nanne suggested. As for the cost, well, keeping a dog these days is NOT cheap.  $$$

On Saturday my niece Katie flew up for a very short visit from her home in Bogota, Columbia. We had hoped that she would bring her schnauzer, Dogmatix, to stay here permanently while she flew back to prepare for a move herself (with her husband Andrew) to the U.S. to pursue a graduate degree. At the last minute Katie decided to accept a promotion from her employer in Columbia and stay another year. So Olive will not meet her “cousin” for at least another year. At least she was able to meet Katie, however briefly.

Sunday was a big day for my Cousin Donna’s daughter, Lisa, who graduated from my old alma mater, the University of Connecticut. Lisa and I have long been close, and I was quite honored that Lisa reserved a ticket for me to attend the commencement. I left Olive with my sister around 1:30 and drove out with Lisa’s aunt and grandparents to the University. After the ceremony, we had a modest celebration at a restaurant in Lisa’s home town of Cromwell. My sister had deposited Olive at my house before heading to Cromwell herself, so Olive was there to greet me with her tail wagging when I got home late at night.

Olive seems to have taken to barking at relatively little provocation. I am attempting to break her of that by being reassuring and calming whenever she starts. We will see how that goes.

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