Dear Tess

Dear Tess.

Just because you appear to have opposable thumbs does not mean you get to use them to gain you life rewards. Just because you CAN doesn't make it acceptable, even if you think the benefit risk ratio is stacked in your favor.

Sincerely, Mel



PS

I've been pretending not to notice your predilection to for sleeping next to OTHER people's feet, even with your lousy excuse of being able to better see me watch me stare at me creepily...but today, when I found you under my husband's desk even as I was working at mine I found myself at a loss for words. REALLY??? Is it THAT hard to sometimes act like you like me for more than cookies and lifting up the toilet seat for you to drink out of your preferred water bowl?




PPS

Matt agrees that it's scary creepy how you stare at me from across the room. Just come sleep at my feet and under my desk please.

Of runs and fruit

Last week Tess and I set off for a run. Life has been getting in the way of my runs lately and this is a bad thing, since I have a half marathon in the beginning of May, with my gullible cannot be discouraged sister, who has recently decided distance running is a good thing.
What won't help that image is the sight of my trudging and wheezing beside her, and so I squeeze in a run here and there and cross my fingers that a once a week run is enough considering my base.

Which of course it won't be, but I being the enternal optimist have not considered I can't continue to put one foot in front of the other for the required 13 miles. All I need is enough glucose.

But I digress.

Tess and I were running along a double track with tall grass on either side when out of the corner of my eye I saw her jump into the grass next to me. Not unusual for her as she is a crazy self-motivated individual that wants to make sure she gets as good a work out as I am, which means she often does extra mileage weaving figure eights on and off the trail in front of me.

Except this time I *thought* there was something odd and black in the grass, superimposed against her whiteness and I thought....could that be? But everything was happening so FAST and like a popcorn kernal Tess was back on the trail.

Sporting a new accessory.

A yellow patch on her chest.

Now at this point I thought there was a good likehood she had just gotten sprayed point blank by a skunk.

But here's the funny thing. When you are that close it doesn't smell like roadkill skunk.

Tess had crazy eyes and kept trying to dash off into the wild blue yonder, or at least down the cliff side into the river, and I was trying to make her stay close because at our previous run the week before I had seen a coyote the size of my German Shepherd in this area and I didn't want her to get *eaten, but when she was close to me I couldn't stop puking. My eyes didn't burn. My throat didn't burn....I couldn't even smell "badness", just a strong smell that instantly had me retching.

*A friend later pointed out that a coyote wouldn't eat a freshly skunked dog. Even a cute white one. 

It was a very long 10 min to get to the point at the river where there was a beach she could swim.

And a very long 15 min to get back to the house.

At which point I cracked open the door and asked my husband for help and an opinion. Because it didn't smell like skunk to me still. But it sure as hell smelled like skunk to him and he immediately implemented de-skunking protocol.

Tess, completely bonkers by this point was beyond ego-depleted and had no self control left that she was aware of and made a bolt for the neighbors lawn.

Now, when I had some sort of abnormally high motivation for writing this post (I blame it on the coffee, aka Magic Juice) I was going to illustrate this post with cartoons. But since that so isn't happening I ask my Dear Reader to imagine rainbows. Coming out of cat butts. Because according to Tess, that is what cat shit is.

However when I observed the dog gulping something off the lawn, cat shit rainbows is not what I had in mind. Some sort of foreign body was.

So I grabbed the dog, rooted around in the back of her throat and pulled out....a hand covered with cat shit.

Let's reiterate. I had a skunka-fied dog. Who now had cat shit breath. And my hand was now covered in cat shit. And I was still dry heaving from the (ongoing) skunk experience.

So can you blame me if I completely lost it? Kid friendly neighborhood complete with seemingly formerly sane adult screeching obscenities at the top of her voice while a rather small white dog tried to make herself as small as possible under the assault of cold water hose and not-so-gentle restraint. 

At one point I had the hose directed at her mouth, "rinsing it out" before I realized that would probably not be effective, came to my senses and redirected my efforts to eliminate skunk and decided cat rainbows were the least of my worries.

It was not my best moment.

Lest I give you the impression that all my runs have sucked....I did manage to do another run about a week later, which was probably one of my best runs since the beginning of the year. It was a long run, about 2 hours, that I decided I wouldn't carry food and water with me. For a change of pace I decided to make sure I ran by a Starbucks at a crticial point and buy an iced tea. Something special! Something different! Something to keep me going! I decided $5 was a reasonable amount of money to bring.

Except....I rounded a corner ~1/4 mile from the Starbucks and saw it.

A STRAWBERRY stand.

With fresh, delicious strawberries.

I couldn't help myself. I had an out of body experience and watched myself plunk down the cash for strawberries and spent the next 2 minutes slowly jogging and stuffing strawberries into my mouth as their delicious red, plump juciness exploded in my mouth.

Being a reasonable *individual I offered Tess a precious strawberry, which she spit out into the dirt. Fine then. More for me.
*my sanity and sense of fairness and equability had returned by this point

About the time I had recovered from my strawberry high, Starbucks came into view.

Umm....this is the cash I have. How much ice tea will this buy me?

It was this glorious run that keeps my hope alive that somehow I will get through my half marathon on Saturday.

You see, it was fruit that saved me on on that Saturday run almost 2 weeks ago....and fruit that has prevented me from running since.

Fresh cut, delcious pineapple. So delicious that I had it for dinner. It was the sole thing I had for  dinner on  Tuesday over a week ago.

That night my throat swelled to the point where I couldn't *swallow, which painfully started to resolve in the next day or two, about the time some sort of secondary bacterial bronchitis moved from all the inflammation and irritation.

*I did my customary "should I go to the hospital check". Which consists of my concerned husband asking if I should go to urgent care/ER, my response always being no, and then waiting to see if he makes me go **anyways. I apparently looked OK because he sighed and didn't make me go. Which meant I was perfectly OK.

**Seriously this actually works. Exhibit A is that time that he made me go in anyways and I had a broken arm. Or that time when he made me go in and I had a kidney infection. 

***BTW I found out that not everyone gets oral ulcers when they eat pineapple? Much to my surprise. Apparently this is not part of the normal pineapple eating experience and it should have signaled that perhaps pineapple in moderation was best, not copious amounts of pineapple for dinner. Also, apparently having a latex allergy (check) and pollen allergies (check) puts you at risk for pineapple allergies. 

This puts me in a precarious position. I have legs that haven't run in 2 weeks, that are going to be seriously protesting at the unfairness of a hilly 13.1 miles. But I have lungs that may be able to handle running on Saturday if I don't unduly stress them out before the race. Which means no running. Maybe a little 2 mile jog tomorrow, the day before the race with some strides.

Runs and fruit go hand in hand, but not like I learned in medicine.

A worthwhile thing

Last week Tess saw the vet. It was her first nothing-is-actually-wrong-with-the-dog general "wellness" visit, even though she's 3 1/2 years old. 

As most of you know I'm a vet student. Do you think it's odd that I don't blindly follow the recommendations of the various professional organizations statements bombarding us students? 

Yearly annuals for all pets! 

Feed store vaccines from pet stores are useless!

Tarter removal not done under general anesthesia is fraud!

The medications you get at online pharmacies are tainted!

Dog foods are all the same!

I think that a lot of the recommendations are manipulative - we tell owners to do this because it causes them to do this and that's the real reason they need to that, but their brains (and yours, you poor little vet student) just simply can't handle the complexities of why so don't bother explaining it. 

In truth, I find the small animal veterinary world a little insulting after residing in the large animal one for so long. 

It's not just the veterinary world - it's the drug companies too. When sitting through small animal sector drug company presentations, in general the reasons I hear why a certain thing should be prescription or why the new product is better than the existing ones on the market is because of control. It's something the pet owner can only get at the vet. There may be other reasons (efficacy, safety etc) but these (at least in my experience) are rarely emphasized. Contrast that to large animal sector drug companies. In general new products are presented as making up for the deficiencies (ease of administration, better working etc.) of the current products on the market and the emphasis is on client education. 

I dislike being manipulated and controlled, and that has been my overwhelming experience when I take my dogs and cats to a small animal vet. 

The final nail in the coffin of why my pets don't get an annual "wellness" exam is that I'm tired of paying for physical exams that never actually happen. 

If I bring my seemingly healthy happy (friendly) dog into the vet office and a physical exam does not occur - not just a cursory exam of "is this animal healthy enough for the meds/vaccines today" but an exam that asks the question "is there something wrong minor today that we can catch before it's a major issue in a year" - then what I've done is pay a fee to have a medication (such as heartworm preventative) dispensed.

Not cool, especially because one of the heartworm medications is a combination drugs that are easily obtained over the counter for large animals - just not for small animals. 

So why is this post titled a "worthwhile" thing? Because while doing a small animal externship locally over the last couple of weeks, I *finally* found a small animal vet that I felt made it worth my time and money to pay for a yearly exam on my dog. 

How? 

She actually DID a physical exam. Yes, even the distasteful parts that are relatively unpleasant for both dog and vet, like getting a good look down the ears.  

Even if she hadn't found anything I would have been satisfied, knowing that there was nothing major I had missed, there was no additional procedures (like ear cleaning) I should be doing throughout the year. A verdict of "everything looks ok" when things were actually looked at is as valuable as finding something wrong. 

But she DID find something. 

In an otherwise beautiful ear (Melinda, you have to take a look down her ears. They are the best you'll see! - we see a lot of nasty ears) were nasty little foxtails. They hadn't been there long, but they didn't just get there yesterday.

Potential problem averted. I had no idea they were there - no head shaking, head tilt, scratching, smell, or debris.

Since I was already at the vet, I went ahead and asked for a Heartworm preventive medication (it's cheap and I had already paid for the exam so why not?!) and a new oral tick preventive since Tess is getting more and more itchy and uncomfortable with topicals.

Drug companies and those lamenting the lack of clients willingness to come to the vet office, you've got it all wrong. Forcing clients to show up at the vet to get the fanciest preventive medications and vaccines is not the secret to getting the educated and finance-conscious clients to show up at the vet and part with their money.

Increasing the value of the exam will (but you actually have to do one first).

As a bonus, findings during the physical exam will likely result in some sort of additional procedure/revenue.

And, since the clients are already in the office, they are more likely to purchase those fancy products.

Finally, perceiving the experience as a good value and a "smart decision" will result in better compliance.

As a manager I quickly learned that most complaints I had about the employees working for me likely originated in me, not them - communication, approach, philosophy. I can't help but wonder how much of the struggles I hear voiced in the small animal veterinary industry in particular is due to this. As a student, I'm not "in the trenches" dealing with these issues on an every day basis, but I do get to watch a LOT of vets interact with their clients as a "fly on the wall" and I can tell you what works and what doesn't. Combine that with my own experience on the other side of the table as a critical-thinking, skeptical client, and I think it gives insight into what policies and procedures are likely to help, not hurt, the business of the small animal veterinary hospital.

For Sale

Tess: Cute puppies in for-sale ads sell tack!

Mel: Puppies only serve as reminders to the potential buyer that items potentially have non-equine hair on them and chew marks.

Tess: Oh. Well. I think this particular item would make an excellent dog bed. It's white like me AND has fleece. 

Mel: This chunk of fiber and fleece cost twice as much as your dog bed.

Tess: Well, I'll just sit here next to it so you can contemplate your decision.

Mel: Go Away!

Tess: Isn't the name of this blog "say YES to me". You've been saying "no" an awful lot...

Mel: I'm about to post this picture and not elaborate which furry white thing is for sale.

Tess: I've suddenly remembered pressing duties elsewhere....

UPDATE

(Less than 12 hours later)

Mel: So...the pad sold. To a face book friend that apparently hadn't seen my gorgeous flyer which was sprinkled liberally over the web. But saw this post.

Tess: Told you so. Cuteness sells tack!

Mel: I'm pretty sure good prices sell tack.

Tess: You're welcome.

Unlocking a new feature

Why Tess,

I didn't realize you had been retained as my confidential document shredder.

How....nice.

Can we?

I've successfully dragged myself out of bed several times over the last couple of weeks early enough for either a run or a pony ride. Pony rides usually win because in my current rotation I have a long enough lunch I can run at school.

This is very disappointing to Tess because being my clinical year in vet school, she no longer goes to school with me on a regular basis.  

So, this morning I chose the running shoes over riding boots and Tess was invited along.

I needed some pics for an upcoming review on the orange mud pack so I decided some pre-run pics were in order.

This is my morning face before the trifecta of coffee, run, or shower.

Tess did not understand this preoccupation with pictures.

Is something wrong? lick lick lick......

Soon the strain of too much delay before the run took it's toll.....

Rapidly approaching critical time where either coffee or run MUST take place....

...and we've reached the breaking point. CRAZY EYES

I'm doing a short taper for a marathon on Sunday, which isn't a goal race but a training run for my mid October 50 miler. I've been a little disappointed how beat up my feet and legs have felt during this week while tapering and today was the last short easy run I'll do. The plan was to do it in my cushy shoes (Lone Peak Altra 1.5's) which feel good at the end of long runs but make me feel slow and sluggish on "regular" runs so I tend to not put the miles in them I should during training.

Love that I have this area for running less than a quarter mile from my house

Tess was (predictably) behaving as if the trail run was the best thing that was going to happen to her all day and I was trying to reassure myself that I *always* second guess my taper and to obsess over feet or legs was not productive.

As usual, Tess was the one that saved the run.

First, she reminded me that I had a phone. And it's primary function on a TAPER run should be to TAKE PICTURES.

Not worry about how pauses and distractions would result in a really slow recorded pace and reduce mileage on the mapmyrun.com app.....

Second, she asked to go down to the river. 

Our normal loop has river access right off the trail and doesn't require us to go out of our way.  However, that trail is currently impacted by the levee construction so I've been choosing alternate trails where river access isn't as convenient.

Tess is usually happy to go down whatever trail, but today she stood at an intersection of a river turn off and very plainly asked "this morning can we go down to the river?"

So I made a decision. That today was a perfect day to detour to the river. Because of all days, 2 days prior to a marathon is NOT a time to worry about pace or mileage.

So I said yes.

Tess couldn't believe it.

She ran back and checked in with me several times to make sure I was still heading down the river trail.

And if there was time to go down to the river and enjoy the sunrise, there was time for more pictures.

An "eh" run turned into a great run, thanks to Tess.

All sorts of musings, including why Tess doesn't do agility

It doesn't stay green here in the part of California very long where I live, and so I viewed the recent rains and slick trails as an opportunity for a relaxed run and beautiful photoshoot, rather then bemoaning the slow pace such trails demanded.

 Tess is the most entertaining running partner - watching her bound her way through/over/across terrain and brush is just incredible.

 Beyond the sheer beauty of watching such athleticism, it's the sheer JOY that radiates from her that keeps me heading out the door day after day.

 Really, who can resist this face?

 She spends our runs in constant motion.

 It's not easy to catch a white dog careening through the trails.

 Today, knowing I would be faced with slick mud and beautiful scenery opted to take the "real" camera out and try to grab photos that captured Tess at her best - running the trails.

That green thing around her neck is a leash. I decided that she could carry her leash today instead of balling it up in my hand, since I brought a camera. 

 I've been doing my annual sort and archive and photos and realized...I take a LOT of pictures of Tess.

 In fact, it's a close race to see whether Farley or Tess wins that contest.

 Tess is more photogenic.  Farley attempts to ruin the shot but chewing with her mouth open, closing her eyes, or by showing off her "assets" to her advantage - making her head look bigger than it is even in real life and her butt smaller.  *sigh*

 Tess on the other hand has learned that sometimes I take pictures. And the longer she stands there ignoring me and not being too naughty, the faster she gets released to run again.

When Minx, my first horse died, I learned that no matter how many pictures you think you took (and there were far far far more pictures of Minx taken than I would admit to family and friends!) there's never enough once they leave us.

Tess is only 3 years old, but who knows what the next year, week, or day might bring? She's perfect right now.  Reliable off leash. Happy about life. Happy about what she perceives as her job.

 Much like I would love to freeze Farley in time right now as a 15 year old for the rest of her life, Tess is freezable right now as a 3 year old.

 Old enough to know better, young enough to still be able to DO.

We aren't doing agility because she doesn't want that to be her job.  It's not that she isn't athletic enough (she is). It's not that she's not smart enough (she is). It isn't that we didn't put the time in to learn handling, obstacles etc (we did).  And it's not that she wasn't obedient enough (she mechanically did what was asked).

Here's the problem: She finds no joy on the agility course. It's like taking a person who is meant to be outdoors in the sunshine and giving them an accounting job and locking them in a basement with no windows. They may love numbers, love the pay, and even appreciate the controlled temperature and free coffee provided. But sometimes that isn't enough.

It's different on the trail. When I look at these pictures, I don't see a dog who feels constrained by the rules that are placed on her when we are on the trail.  She embraces them and adopts them wholeheartedly as her own.

 She does figure 8's in front of me. She keeps an eye on me. She checks in often both visually and physically.  When she sees a person or dog in the distance she automatically comes to a heel at my side and holds it until we are past it. She's free to run, sniff, jump, and leap as she wishes - the more freedom I give her, the more she chooses to look to me for direction.

 Gone is the dog that spent our training time together stress sneezing/blinking/yawning/panting/bolting. We still learn tricks, but now I can use rewards that really motivate her - even if they are not "approved" for agility.  She doesn't want to work for her toys - she wants to work for food and for freedom and I respect that. 

I've learned some of my best lessons about Joy, Stress, and not asking someone or something to give beyond what they can offer, from Tess.

And then we are back at the car.  Tess is cold and shivery and done with the wet weather for now - and I'm done with the heavy thinking and am ready for bed :).

Photobomb!

Tess is my little shadow.

Don't believe me, take a look at my HORSE blog and see how many pictures she manages to cram herself into.

Still not convinced? 

Trying to showing off my vaccuming skillz?

Tess is there.

 She's not the only culprit. Showing off my new pack, Harley decided to show off her bombing skillz.

 It's not like Tess is in danger of lacking for pictures.

Sometimes we take more pictures in "the tree".

 We take bad selfies

And good selfies

We still take group pictures
(and nope - still haven't gotten that perfect picture where me, the horse, the dog, AND the camera are behaving themselves)

And yes, she still goes running and riding with me and plays in the river.

And sometimes I still have to embarass her and make her do something like wear Christmas bells.

We are coming up on Tess's 3 year birthday, which according to this chart makes her the same age I am.

And since I still feel young and curious and active, it's no mystery to me why Tess feels the same. 

Kitties!

Lately Tess has been VERY excited when she sees kitty cats.

It makes me wonder whether she misses having a kitty, since Mickie passed away.

It's interesting how in the last year or so she's grown very opinionated about things she LOVES.

The first couple of years were defined by her telling me what she HATED (grooming, leashes, nails, being cuddly, teeth brushing).

But now, she's much more likely to communicate what she WANTS.  Kitty cats have joined the ranks of going on horse rides, runs, bikes, car rides, and bird watching.

A ten mile run.....Or was it 12?

This morning, braving 26 degree temperatures (yes, that's F), I went for a 10 mile run. 

Tess of course came along.  She's the best little trail dog you can imagine.  I imagine her limit in cold weather is somewhere in the 20-25 mile range - this 10 miles didn't phase her in the LEAST. 

Or rather......her 12 mile run that she did concurrently with my ten mile run. 

Both when I'm running and riding, Tess's style is to do giant circles or figure 8's (FAST, at top speed) if we are on a wide jeep road.  It's a lot of fun to watch her BOUND and JUMP through the brush and rough terrain on either side of the road.  

My run today was almost soley dirt wide roads, so out of curiousity I stuck my phone on GPS mode inside her backpack.  (inside a ziplock in case she dunked in the river without me noticing). 

Turns out for every 5 miles I do, she does an entire extra MILE.  The program I use doesn't take GPS readings very frequently, so as I look at the track, it didn't "get" all the crazy geometric shapes she does, so it is likely even more. 

Here's some pics from our walk on Friday - the day before we got a rare snow in the CA central valley. No pics today - too busy trying to make forward movement this morning and I'm not sure I had motor function in frozen fingers for taking pics....

 Too much to see - she would pose for the camera but not actually look at me.

 A gloomy yet still beatiful afternoon.

 This is how she moves across trail - bounding with full extension and coil.  It's the funniest thing.

 Tess's preferred speed down the trail is TOP speed which leaves plenty of time to stop and sniff at interesting things before I catch up.  When I pass her she takes off again to the next interesting thing.

Here she is waiting for me to catch up. If there's nothing interesting to sniff to pass the time, she'll stop and just look at something until I get there.  Her check in is automatic now and she decides whether she races back to me to check in, or whether she just wants to stop and wait for me.

It's incredibly motivating to have a dog that loves the trail as much as you do, and can do speed and distance that matches or exceeds what's usually the plan for either a run or a trail ride.

After some careful thought, I have decided I have some tongue in cheek advice for those New Year's Resolutions: 

Want to eat more vegetables? get a bird.

Want to exercise more? get a dog. 

Seriously. 

And.....since updates on Tess can be far and few between, another example of how #lifewithsmartdog regularly goes down in my life.

- I leave Tess in my car at the vetmed barn while doing a large animal palpation lab.  We had gone on a long walk and I let her swim in the creek. 
- I come back to this:
 
- It's hard to see by the glare in this pic off the window, but you should note how "high" she is off my backseat. She has taken my car blanket from the front seat, pulled it into the back seat, stuffed it in a milk crate that contains some laundry, and created a nest for herself.
- Clever, but dog nests are NOT what I have in mind for my favorite car blanket. So evict her and throw the blanket out of the milk crate.
- The next morning during my commute Tess is doing SOMETHING in the back seat.  I finally turn around to find this:



- Not quite as effective as the first time, but apparently she deemed it "good enough" and used my backpack to support her bottom half. 

Silly dog.