Our dog Laika isn’t doing so well. She had a big seizure Tuesday night and since then she’s had trouble with balance. We are hoping it is just the anvi-convulsant medicine we have been giving her, and that it will pass (the side effects lessen over time) but we don’t know. The doctor thinks it is probably a brain tumor. People always say their dog is the best dog but Laika REALLY IS the best dog in the world.
When Benny was a little baby, Laika would lie down next to him whenever there weren’t people within ten feet of him, to make sure he was ok and to protect him.
Let’s raise some more money for vulnerable Democrats in the House to support the impeachment process. I’m afraid that if Trump skates on this, there’s no going back to a world where presidents are expected to follow the law…at least until we get a Democrat in the White House again, at which time wearing tan suits and asking for Dijon mustard will once again become high crimes and misdemeanors. Do it for Laika.
Betty Cracker
Laika is clearly among the best of girls. Here’s hoping her symptoms are temporary side effects from the medication and that she bounces right back.
ALurkSupreme
So sorry to hear about your dog.
Baud
That is hard. Best wishes for Laika.
West of the Rockies
Oh, damn… So sorry. I hope the prognosis offers, well, hope.
Dorothy A. Winsor
If I ruled the universe, everyone would be issued a Good Dog when they’re born, or perhaps when they’re old enough to care for it. Then the Good Dog would live as long as they do. I hope Laika will bounce back.
Another Scott
I’m very sorry, Doug. Here’s hoping she rallies.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Yarrow
So sorry to hear about Laika. She sounds like the best girl.
hitchhiker
Thank you for writing the hard lines & letting us be part of whatever happens next. Fingers crossed.
Soprano2
Same thing happened with our dog. Once we got her on the anti-convulsant med, she lived a couple of more years. Our vet also said she probably had a brain lesion, but we never knew for sure. He’s hoping you have at least as good of an outcome as we did.
Tinare
Sending good thoughts your way. Dogs are among the best creatures on earth.
Amir Khalid
Hoping for the best for Laika. She’s a good girl.
evap
So sorry to hear about Laika. Best wishes to all.
And I donated, I was planning to go hunting for the previous thread today, but I didn’t need to!
AliceBlue
Sending healing thoughts to sweet Laika.
patrick II
I remember when my dog, shou-bei, (little white in chinese) time was ending. She was a Samoyed and was the happiest to see me when I hit the door after work every day. She always knew I was coming. She hated baths, so when I got out the galvanized tub I washed her in, she would go hide. Then, I wouldn’t put out the tub, before I caught her, but she would see the soap in my hand, and go hide. Finally, with just the leash, and evidently a “you need a bath” look in my eye and nothing else, but she would go hide.
My son Jimmy was her favorite. Jimmy and I were wrestling around one day, and she looked on with concern. Finally she came over and gave a very soft bite to my hand, held on, and looked me in the eye — kind of letting me know she was concerned I might hurt Jimmy.
She was territorial with other dogs (Samoyeds are border collies for reindeer in Siberia, and guard the herd against wolves) but was incredibly gentle with people. I would kid she was the worst guard dog in the world — she would simply show the thief the best stuff.
I sat next to her when she went to sleep. That was fifteen years ago and I still think of it sometimes.
Anyhow, Dougj, it’s part of owning a dog, and I am sorry that your dog Laika may be ill. I hope she will be ok. They are great friends.
zhena gogolia
I’ll be thinking of you and Laika. She looks like a sweetheart.
trollhattan
Sorry to hear your pup is doing poorly. May it turn out to be something controllable and treatable.
Good dog is good!
Kristine
Best wishes for Laika.
trollhattan
@patrick II:
Friends had a Sammy who was quite the character, and a great family dog. Got my best laughs when she’d come out of the water after swimming, under all that fur was a stick dog. The indignity! Spring shedding season was a horror of white tumbleweeds of floof.
They adopted her and another dog, a GSP. One day they both took off for the relative wilds of suburban Idaho and a few hours Sammy returned alone. They asked and asked her about Greta’s whereabouts and Sammy was all, “Who? Never heard of her.”
DougJ
Thank you everyone.
Leto
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t know how to make you ruler of the universe, but I love this idea.
Your Laika reminds me of our Pepper. I hope it’s nothing serious, and that she and Benny have more time together.
Yutsano
Aww. Hearing bad doggo news is never good. Hopefully the brain tumour diagnosis doesn’t come to pass.
WereBear
Whatever happens, we are happy to learn more about a fine doggo. May the sun come up many more times for Laika.
skyweaver
Best wishes for Laika. She is the best dog in the world. I hope she is better soon.
Betty Cracker
NFLTG Hillary gives absolutely no fucks:
Leto
Here’s another good doggo:
rikyrah
Sending positive thoughts to Laika
Roger Moore
Here’s a good kittie:
Yutsano
@Betty Cracker: You have to admit: the amount of freedom she has now that she isn’t President makes her all the better as an attack weapon. Oh and NOTHING sets Dolt45 off like Killary!
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: All my thanks to Hillary for that. Even my super lefty friend agreed yesterday when I said the country was being run by bad movie mob bosses. I suspect he has changed his Bernie fealty to Warren because he’s more in tune with reality now that he has kids, plus his wife is an immigrant.
Doug, I sincerely hope your sweet girl adjusts to the meds soon and you have more good years together.
Yutsano
@Leto: SOOOO not showing that to my brother! He would seriously drive down there just for the breed alone!
trollhattan
@Leto:
GSPs are so much fun. Just look at that face!
WaterGirl
Come on, Laika. It can be hard for them to get the seizure meds right. My pup had a few more good years after his first seizure, and yep, it can take some time for them to bounce back. Hoping that your sweet girl just needs some time to get her legs back under her. If love and good thoughts could save her, I’m sure she’d live to be 100.
The Lodger
@Roger Moore: Ele é um advogato?
Patricia Kayden
Sending warm thoughts Laika’s way. Had a cancerous tumor removed from my Boxer so I know what you’re going through. Hope to hear better news about Laika soon.
[Individual 1] mistermix
It really is hard to overstate what a good dog Laika is. Best ever.
patrick II
@trollhattan:
Spring shedding season for our Sammy was a gift for the birds in the neighborhood. There were many white nests (until they got dirty). The birds would swoop in, pick up a bundle of white hair blown against the fence, and fly off and build nests.
Msilaneous
Poor darling. Here’s hoping it’s the medication.
CaseyL
Oh, that photo! Laika is surely the goodest of good dogs. I do hope adjusting her medication does the trick and she sticks around a good while longer!
Ruckus
@patrick II:
I’ve wondered before that if someone believes in a higher power that this was planned, that we would learn something powerful from the differences in lifetimes about life itself, a lesson of the importance about living, health and dying, doing it better for all of us so that we could recognize that we aren’t the top of the heap, just a part of it. Strange though that it works even if it wasn’t planned.
DougJ, sorry about your dog, that she’s having problems that must be scary for her. And you.
Leto
@Roger Moore: OMG! The kitty has an IG account and… SOOOOO CUUUUUUTE!
https://abovethelaw.com/2019/09/cat-lawyer-is-real-and-he-is-everything-right-now/
@Yutsano: Avalune wants more doggos so I’m Glad we’re not near SB ?
@trollhattan: Right???
MazeDancer
Sending much Light to you and Laika.
patrick II
@Ruckus:
I have had the same thought. They are such great friends and we feel such loss. Another lesson they teach us.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
trump’s problem is that he’s never had a dog and if he did, he’d be pissed that the dog didn’t understand his greatness, to the dog he’d just be one of those unfortunates who walked on two legs with his head so high up he became oxygen deprived. And look where that’s gotten us today……..
Aleta
Hang in there Laika.
Hoping for continuing happiness together for all of you.
Aleta
@patrick II: Thanks for this.
schrodingers_cat
Laika is the bestest dog ever. I hope she feels better soon. Adorable.
@Betty Cracker: She is right, of course.
Aleta
@Ruckus: I’m repeatedly grateful that he does not have a dog.
Yarrow
@Ruckus: Thank goodness for all dogs that Trump hasn’t had a dog. Unlucky dog to be a Trump dog.
Yutsano
@schrodingers_cat: She has been right. She was right during the campaign. She was right when she “lost” the election. She was right every single time she’s called him out after the many scandals and Charlie Foxtrots that have come up since.
I know you know this, but once more for the people in the back if you want to call this that.
Yutsano
@Aleta: @Yarrow: There’s a quote out there (too lazy to find it now) that Herr Drumpf hates dogs. That seems fitting as I can’t see him trying to care for anyone or anything outside his little internal shell. A pet would distract from him. Can’t have that.
Ruckus
@Aleta:
@Yarrow:
Sort of the point, why waste a dog on trump? The dog would be miserable, the human would learn nothing – obviously oxygen deprived. Even a dog (must be something about dogs – I often start typing god instead of dog, hmmmm) couldn’t help him.
Betty Cracker
@Ruckus: I read somewhere that Trump’s first wife DID have a dog, and that dog HATED Trump and would growl at him whenever he intruded into its space. (More evidence that dogs are generally a good judge of character.)
glory b
We had to put my beloved Tone, a mutt on his way to the shelter as a pup when my daughter saw him, to sleep in July. It’s really hard, I hope you have good times left with yours.
Amir Khalid
@Yarrow:
A typical dog has many virtues that are beyond Donald Trump’s ken: love, kindness, politeness, courage, determination, loyalty, a sense of fun, among many others. Trump is simply not worthy to be in the company of a dog.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of pets being good judges of character, my husband isn’t a fan of cats. He doesn’t hate them, but he wouldn’t voluntarily have one in the house and much prefers dogs. But cats LOVE him. We were visiting some friends recently, and all of their cats glommed onto him at once. Happens all the time. It’s weird and funny.
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: There is a reason for that:
Why do cats go after non-cat-fans?
schrodingers_cat
OT Afternoon break:
Just yesterday I discovered the sound track of Water, directed by Deepa Mehta, which A R Rahman has rated as his best score and it is beautiful. It is sublime. Set in British era Kashi (Varanasi) one of Hinduism’s holy cities on the lives widows who live near the waters of the Ganga. I haven’t seen the movie. It was nominated in the foreign language film category at the 2007 Oscars.
Piya Ho (Piya ==beloved, lover)
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: His lifetime of deals = extortions. Thanks to the protections and norms of prior US power, this sham presidency has been one long series of them.
J R in WV
So sorry your beautiful best dog is ailing. Hoping hard it’s just adjusting to the meds, which can be hard on anyone.
@Betty Cracker:
My mother-in-law disliked cats intensely, and didn’t much care for dogs either. When the in-laws came to visit us briefly in Pascagoula MS, we had a black cat who instantly picked up on Mom being uncomfortable around her, and lurked staring at her. Which creeped M-I-L out totally.
That night we had to put the cat in the bathroom for M-I-L to get to sleep, as Jezabel cat had her so freaked out. Cats know when someone doesn’t like them, and they have a natural need to keep an sharp eye on those people. Who can blame them!!
Leto
@Betty Cracker: “I WILL MAKE YOU LOVE ME!” – Every cat, ever, to your husband
Ladyraxterinok
Is Kendra who made the super surprise 2018 OK win on your list?
GOP is very angry they lost a Rep from OK and are pouring $$$ into the race!!
catclub
@J R in WV: All the things we do to attract a cat, and show affection to it, are rude in the cat world.
Conversely, all the things people who don’t like cats do, to avoid interacting with cats, are eminently polite and interesting in the cat world.
even though werebear’s link was members only.
Percysowner
I’m so sorry about Laika. I hope the meds kick in and she has many more years. Dogs get into our hearts and make our lives better. I’m sending hugs.
LuciaMia
All the best for Laika, good girl.
God, why do we love them the way we do.
WereBear
@catclub: Augh! I try to keep track.
Thanks for the fine summary!
trollhattan
@patrick II:
Awww, that’s cute! Fledglings living in luxurious puppy floof.
patrick II
@trollhattan:
Hypoalergenic too.
Death Panel Truck
Terribly sorry to hear about Laika. I hope she rebounds.
Everyone’s dog is the best in the world. My best dog died July 23rd of liver cancer. He was a black cocker spaniel who filled our lives with joy for almost 14 years. I’m sure Laika has done the same for your family.
Death Panel Truck
@LuciaMia: Because they love us without condition.
Genine
I’m so sorry about, Laika. I hope this is temporary and she feels better soon!
JPL
Golden’s are the best. Sunny had a stroke at eleven and lived six more years. I hope you receive good news.
Redshift
Sorry to hear about Laika; hope it all turns out for the best.
Find out yesterday my bunny Rory has had her thymoma return (cancer of the thymus gland). She’s doing okay for now (just a bit of labored breathing), but the vet says she’s not long for this world. ?
geg6
Of course, Laika is the best doggo. All goldens are the best doggos (don’t tell Koda or Lovey I said that). I still miss my Otis terribly. He also had seizures, but he had them even at a pretty young age. We believe it is because of the terrible conditions he lived in before we adopted him (much physical abuse–I still want to kill the asshole). He died of cancer anyway, though. He had a tumor in his mouth that was almost impossible to see (neither we nor his vet noticed it) and on October 31, 2014 (I hate Halloween), John and I came home to a kitchen full of blood with Otis sitting in the middle of it (he already had major mobility issues at that point) and Koda shivering in a corner of the sunroom. We rushed him to the vet and were told it the tumor and it had burst. Due to all of his other physical issues, we and the vet decided to not make him suffer any more. I will never forget my boy and what a wonderful doggo he was. When John was still traveling a lot doing consulting, Otis was my best buddy, protecting me and sleeping next to me when John wasn’t home and just being the best company I could ever have wished for. He was a love and I’ll love him forever.
Laika is getting all my best, most positive vibes.
Raven Onthill
Sympathies.
Leto
@geg6: /hugs if you want them
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Whose a good doggy!
Any dog that doesn’t like trump is a good doggy. I can see that he’d attract barking and defense from any dog. They are good at seeing the character of those around them, they have to be defensive, humans are bigger and some of them are assholes. Dogs usually get mistreated by those assholes. trump seems like the quintessential asshole to me so maybe I have some canine in me or he’s just an extreme example of asshole. One of those is correct…..
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Agreed.
trump is anti-canine. That right there is an impeachable offense. Maybe should even be a pre-requisite for running for president. You don’t have to like dogs, but dogs have to like you.
Sister Golden Bear
I do very sorry.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
I like cats but some of them make me stop being able to breathe. I consider that to be a bit of a problem.
I’ve lived with cats, they seem to like to sleep on or with me a lot. Maybe it’s that I like them and they recognize that. But stopping breathing seems to end one side of the love affair rather quickly, I don’t know why………
Yutsano
@Leto: I dunno…you are Chair Force. :P
OH I get the tall blond Mormon who threatened a manoeuver that could drown me once for aquatherapy today. This could get fun.
Lucifer Rising
@Leto: @Leto: @Leto: @Leto: @Leto: @Leto: @Leto: @Leto: @Amir Khalid:
Ruckus
@LuciaMia:
Because their attention doesn’t come with a price tag. It is pure, they will like us if we let them. All we have to do is like them and be their buddy and they will make us part of their pack, their group, their friends. They don’t actually ask for much in return and it’s the cheapest love that we will ever find.
Lucifer Rising
@Yarrow: @Yarrow: @Yarrow: @Yarrow:
Yes! Very happy that man does not have a dog!
Mel
Laika is a lovely girl, and she clearly loves her baby Benny. Nanny dogs are the finest and kindest of creatures. Fingers crossed for your sweet puppy girl.
Miss Bianca
@Leto: “Advogato”! Ha ha ha!
Here’s hoping Doug’s Laika can get on meds that will give her a few more trips around the sun.
@glory b: awww… : (
Annie
Laika is beautiful. I hope she will be OK.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Sorry your doggie is not doing well. Hope she gets better, soon.
Joy in FL
I hope dear Laika has a lot of good time left with her humans.
Another Scott
Donated, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
TomatoQueen
Please get well Laika for you are loved and needed.