Dear Readers,

As you may have noticed, I’ve been a little quiet lately. I had eighteen teeth removed in September and I was one miserable little dog for quite a while.

It’s hard to keep a good dog down, though, and now I’m healed and feel better than I have in like forever. One might say I have a new leash on life. And not to point any paws, but one thing Momma learned from this experience is that no tooth is better than a bad tooth. She had really “dug in”against a removing a bunch of my teeth before, especially the front ones, thinking that it would result in my tongue permanently hanging out of my mouth (“and how would that look, Lina?”). Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed, I got rid of the bad teeth and my tongue does not hang out (unless I’m sticking it out at Momma when she’s not looking — but don’t tell her).

So life goes on — I’m back at agility, back fetching my Frisbee, visiting with my friends and going to day care at Camp Bow Wow. And I bet the Camp counselors there like my personal enrichment one-on-one time with them much better without my stinky breath. Here I am playing ball with one of them!

For her part Momma is doing everything she can to save my few remaining teeth (and avoid another huge bill to be honest). She is adding TropiClean fresh breath solution to my water dish, carefully measuring out 5 ml in one of her shot glasses every morning and adding it to one cup of water. She is also giving me a Teenie Greenie every other day to prevent plaque and tartar buildup and as a treat to me. She decided against giving me one every day because each bone has 25 calories. God forbid I gain an ounce. Here I am enjoying one! You will see two of my remaining teeth sticking out.

Then there’s the part that’s a little problematic — Momma wiping my remaining eleven teeth once or twice a day with pre-moistened, honey flavored, textured wipes that fit over one of her fingers. Actually, to be honest, she only wipes ten teeth clean because she still has not located the eleventh one, but knows it’s there from the diagram the vet gave her. Any ideas from you, dear readers, would be welcome, cuz I would not look forward to another extraction.

Boo!

One of the highlights of my fall was having Doctor Becca and Winnie stay with me for a week when Momma went off galavanting in Florida. Winnie and I are still great friends and love playing tug of war. (Momma was secretly cringing when she saw this video, hoping I wouldn’t lose any more teeth, but luckily Becca knows what she’s doing.)

Dr. Becca (Perpetual Motion) and Jenny Gott (Animal Intuition) had a Howl-O-Ween pawrty at their offices, the Saturday before Halloween, and here are Winnie and me in full costume! Note that Winnie is wearing a skeleton t-shirt in keeping with her momma’s career as a chiropractor. And note that I am wearing an astronaut costume in keeping with Momma’s life as a space cadet. (Did I just woof that out loud?)

Seriously though, I am wearing an astronaut outfit that Momma bought me when she was tweeting @elonmusk asking if I could be the first support dog on one of his SpaceX rockets. Guess we still have not heard from him on that one.

Luckily Becca did not make me wear my “space helmet” that Momma tried on me. Seriously?

Winnie and I also enjoyed some down time with Becca at home and a beautiful fall walk. I think I’m all better now.

Lina, One dog whose bark is definitely worse than her bite

WOOFDA!