Scooting and the Tail Pocket

Just another update. Since we dug out a ton of gunk from her tail pocket, and cleaned for a day or two afterwards, the scooting is over. I checked out her spot, and the redness is gone and the sores are gone. Just needed a little cleaning.

Wart Update - One Month, Almost Gone!

The past few days, Ruki's warts started shriveling up. The one on the inside is just a sliver. The one on the outside is just smaller, but it looks like it might be gone soon. From Feb. 22 to March 20, about a month, and they're gone. So far.

Cleaning Out the Tail Pocket

So as an update to the last post--about anal glands--I dug around her business with a pet wipe. We used to just wipe around her anus, but this time I tucked up closer to where the tail meets her behind.

It was a bit--nasty. There was some reddish-brown caked hair up there, that I finally cleaned out with four wipes. Out came some tufts of gunky hair, and the area was soon cleaned up. The skin around there looked a bit red, but nothing too bad. Looks like we might have caught it just in time.

I then searched around for her anal glands. You can feel them, but I won't say they feel "swollen." I'm just going to keep up on cleaning her, watching her scooting, and seeing if her anal glands feel any bigger. (I think the anal glands are on the inside of the anus--or the rectum--at about 2 and 10 o'clock. They feel about the size of raisins on our bulldog puppy.)

Scooting? Anal Gland Expression?

Ruki started scooting a few days ago. Nothing that was too noticeable. I first noticed it when she was playing in the snow and then just started scooting in the snow. And then I noticed that in the morning she might do a few scoots--three or four scoots on the carpet.

Here's a thread from the Bulldog Domain on scooting and anal glands/tail pockets:

http://thnlnk.com/bulldogdomain/Anal.Glands/907

So we're not sure if it's an anal gland issue just yet. We're going to keep on it. Keep her area clean with baby wipes. Watch the scooting. Check for the poo/fishy oil smell. And feed her a wheat biscuit or two every day. And give her some real good play and exercise and maybe her anal glands will express themselves.

Ruki Loves the Snow

Today we got a nice thick powder of snow. When Ruki first was introduced to snow, she just jumped around trying to eat the flakes. Then when the snow collected, she loved eating it. I worried initially that maybe it'd make her sick--no real reason why I thought this, I just did.

It hasn't made her sick. But she does love it. We let her run around free in the snow, and she loves plowing around in it, and she loves burying her face into the soft stuff and chomping away.

Who am I to rob her of pure joy?

Bananas and Poo

So since I've been eating more bananas for breakfast, we've occasionally been feeding Ruki bananas because... Well, she loves 'em. But then I worried if they'd mess with her digestive system. Most people seem to think that they constipate dogs, just like with people. I don't know if that's what they do to Ruki, but I do know that while we were feeding her bananas, her poo was a little looser than usual.

So from our one-time experiment, if you feed your dog bananas, expect at least that her poo might be a little looser. Thinner--and not the nice meaty ones she usually throws out there--and wetter.

Another Wart Update

So Monsterface's warts started showing up around Feb. 22. It's now March 16, and they've been starting to shrink. The one on the inside--the one that showed up first--started to shrivel and looks like it might fall off! (It's the one that looks more like a cauliflower, but even more like a whitish artichoke.) The one of the outside--that looks like a pink sea anenome, or a traditional wart--has gotten shorter and thinner. Maybe it'll go soon!

The Interplay from Joy to Responsibility

I've been real busy the past week or so--and for the next week or so. Like today, I left home early, waking Ruki up before 8 a.m. and leaving by 8.40 a.m. And I got back late, a bit after 1 p.m. My plan was to try and make it to work by 2 - 2.15 p.m. That left me about half an hour with the Monsterface.

I love playing with Ruki. She's a joy and a pleasure. It's fun taking her for walks, or to the park to play. But this isn't all the time. Today, it was a responsibility. I admit, that it was fun, but that wasn't the main purpose. The main purpose is that she needs exercise, she needs some discipline--we did some training, and then she needs some time with me.

The key point here is my motivation. If my motivation was my own joy--which also comes from Ruki's joy, then, sure, I received joy. But joy is inconstant and joy has many methods of fulfillment and denial. On the other hand, responsibility has a framework. With discipline, it is constant and the inputs and outputs are predictable.

I think that the prime motivation should be responsibility. And then try to attain joy in every moment of that responsibility. That way it's about Ruki, and not about me. And in the end I think that a puppy trained and structured through responsibility will be better able to deal with life than one that tries to adjust to and figure out how you can be motivated through joy.

Right now, she's just chilling out, laying down, chewing on a toy nearby. My joy might be to play with her. Right now, the joy would be forced because I want to write this and it might not be so fun. My responsibility might be to play with her. Right now, I think my responsibility is to make sure I'm here, just around, with Ruki nearby, and so that's what I'll do.

Wart's Still There!

It's March 5, 2007, and the wart's still there! Almost two weeks...

On another note, Ruki's totally going crazy right now and running all over the apartment.