The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

Finding a vet and a temporary place to practice!
Our first official hike!
Mum surprised us!

Finding a vet and a temporary place to practice!

Posted: 24 Mar 2010 05:32 AM PDT

My kittie bro, Wiggy, got sick yesterday, was throwing up and had the Big 'D.' Oh, how I want to lick up that throw up, BOL!! But Mum says 'leave it!!! Yuck'!

Here's Wiggy! This is Mum's favorite pic of him, taken BD - before dogs :)

Anyway, Mum started looking quickly for a new vet for us down here in TN. You know how picky about vets she is..they have to do chiro, have the same philosophy about vaccines that we do, have a holistic approach, etc.

She spent the afternoon interviewing a few vets she found on the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association site. They have a a nice little search tool by state/country.

Later in the afternoon, we talked with who is going to be our new vet! She is currently practicing at UT in Knoxville, which is about 1.5 hours from our house. UT has an extensive veterinary facility, as well as a state of the art canine rehab facility. Very exciting. Our new vet focuses on integrative medicine, and Mum likes her a lot! She even said we could blog about her. Cools!

We were used to traveling about 45 minutes to our last vet. So Mum is OK with our new vet being a little further away, 'cause we are totally worth it. We also now have a back up emergency vet all lined up that's closer to home.

Luckily, Wiggy is feeling much better today and hasn't thrown up since mid yesterday. No Big 'D' either. He seems find now, although he could use a little anti aging face face creams, BOL, he isn't getting any younger (he's 10 now)! Guess he just got into something that didn't agree with him.

But it was great to find a new vet and get that task accomplished, since we are all due for our annual exams and will have to visit her soon. Oh, and I could really use a chiro adjustment!

In the process of looking for a vet, Mum found a place about 30 minutes from us that has drop in agility practice on Wednesday nights. They have rubber mat flooring (which isn't my fav, since I slip a lot on it) but it will definitely do for a tune up until we get our equipment and ring set up. Also another chiro visits this place every two weeks, so I could get a chiro tune up too!

Slowly, but surely we are getting settled in and finding everything we need. This past weekend, Mum started scoping out trial ops. Most trials are about 1.5 to two hours away from us. A trade off to live in doggie heaven hiking area, but very worth it. She's thinking if all goes right, we can sign up for a trial in about a month, so I can finish up my MACH and ADCH (I'm oh so close!). And then hopefully qualify for nationals next year, and then, and then :)

One more note....we've been using a Sprint broadband card for our Internet. But we are still holding out hope that Charter Communications can get us hooked up with both TV and Internet here in the next couple of days. We miss TV!!! This has all been a big headache for Mum. The broadband just isn't as fast as I am, and it's frustrating her. Yesterday some utility guys were out here marking lines for digging, so Charter won't cut into our electric or gas. Mum says that's a really good sign!!! Paws crossed!

Hope you all are having a good week!

Our first official hike!

Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:47 AM PDT

Last Friday, it was 75 degrees and sunny in the afternoon. Mum had gotten a lot of work done throughout the week, while it was cloudy, rainy and cooler, and she was feeling better from that little sinus infection (which I thought she got over very quickly, good girl!). So Friday, we grabbed the opportunity to get in our first official hike on the property!

We started down the lane to our mailbox. It's about a mile there and a mile back, so makes for a nice little path walk.

After we got the mail and dropped it back off at the house, we started out on our hike down the path to the pasture (without horses) and the woods path beyond. On the way is a little creek we soaked our paws in to cool off a little.

We stopped a bit to take in the scenery. Here is the pasture (without horses). This is the one Mum thinks would be a good place for our agility field.

We walked a bit, and heard lots of frogs croaking. As we got closer they stopped of course. They were at the first pond we found on the property. A smaller one created to absorb some of the run off from the mountain above.

Here's another one of the ponds we found. This one is larger. We saw a duck land, just as we walked up. Love how they ski to a stop when they land on the water :)

Between this second pond and the third pond coming up, we found some tracks, from a deer and one of the vehicles that are used to maintain this area of the property. Mum and I need to bone up on tracks..so we can identify more!

Then we came up on the third pond we found on the property. This one is nestled in a very wooded area. It looks a lot deeper than the others. This one also has some algae in it, so Mum didn't let us go in. You know what they say about blue-green algae in ponds, right? Bad stuff.

Then we headed up the ridge. Kind of a steep walk up to this ridge. Worked Mum's bum, BOL!!!

There are so many smells out here I just can't tell ya!!! This spot was particular interesting to both me and Gracie. We swear some of these logs need a skin id to see if they have a disease or something, BOL!!!

Then we got to flat land again, and walked through the pasture to the other side, where there is another ridge we want to explore another time. But we were out for about two hours, and Mum didn't want to wear herself out too much. Gracie and I could have gone on furever!

Remember I told you about how Mum is letting me free to drag my leash when we get into some of the most familiar places nearer our cabin. Here I am leading Mum up our lane from the other direction, back to our cabin.

Mum was pleased...she finally wore us out a little :) It's been tough keeping us busy, active and tired since we don't have a fence yet.

Just give us more days like this Mum and we'll be happy!!!

Mum surprised us!

Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:39 AM PDT

A couple of days after we arrived in TN and got a little settled in, Mum surprised all us with new stuff!

Mum gave me and Gracie new Deer Antlers. She was sneaky, she saved them back just so we could enjoy them once we felt a little more comfy in our new surroundings. She also went out into the woods and got a nice cleaned up log (not one with that weird nodular acne all over it, BOL!). But one that was free of pests for the kitties to scratch. They are loving that!

Here I am enjoying my deer on the floor in front of the couch. You know how when you move into a new place you move the furniture around a lot until it feels just...right? She's doing that, BOL!!!!

And here's Gracie, enjoying her deer antler on our couch, all covered up to keep the dirt at bay, of course! There's a lot more dirt here since we've been doing all this walking and hiking in the woods. But Mum doesn't care, it's good dirt if it's from outside, right?