Jasper's diary

[Ari_RR]

...and then spent half an hour or more barking at whatever needs barking at down the end of the garden....
...Last night he was out there for almost an hour...

Poor boy! How do your neighbors deal with this, or do you have to treat them with chocolate and wine every now and again?

 

[JudyN]

Poor boy! How do your neighbors deal with this, or do you have to treat them with chocolate and wine every now and again?

Luckily it's a longish garden, and he hasn't the loudest bark, so they haven't complained... yet. Last night he he asked to go out quite early, was let out the side, came back in then remembered he hadn't done his monster-scaring duty and asked to go out again... and again... I was a bit worried he hadn't thought to do what he was meant to be doing, but he slept through

 

[JudyN]

The down side of only letting J out into the side bit is that if the 'monster' is actually in our garden - the bit he can't get to to chase it off - he goes even more ballistic At least, I'm guessing that's what happened last night. He ran into the hose reel that was out there as he exploded out of the door, and was snorting louder than an angry bull. When he came back in he was barking for a few minutes - and he's not really a barker. Then when he finally agreed to come up to bed with me he was whining for about half an hour and had to go out again before he finally settled.

It's not that much of a problem, just a PITA. Roll on light evenings!

 

[JudyN]

OH's latest hobby is painting. Oil painting. Jasper loves oily food, and he's very inclusive in his definition of food. And of course, if OH should be waving around a funny-shaped wooden plate of oil-based foods and not paying attention, what's any self-respecting theiving lurcher to do?

'Dad, that's the worst-tasting pizza ever!'

He didn't get much, though the white that was next to the cadmium yellow also disappeared... OH has researched the ingredients and there's no concerns there

 

[Josie]

Ha ha cheeky boy!

Dennis has become extremely cheeky in his old age. Usually he’ll take a good sniff at what we’re having for dinner (we are lazy and eat on the sofa!) and then leave it as that but recently I’ve caught the little monkey licking the bowl!!
I guess we have trusted a Labrador for too long

 

[RGC]

I nearly got a photo of Jasper playing with another dog today! He hardly ever wants to play with another dog and if he does, it's usually another sighthound who's been pestering him. Or he'll play, but it's in an 'OK, you wanna play? I'm gonna show you how the BIG boys play!' sort of way...

But I'd been chatting to someone in the park for a while, and been ignoring the 'Muuuuum, I'm boooored' whining for a while, so he decided to play with her cockerpoo instead - with lots of playbowing and even going easy on the boxing, given the difference in size. But the moment I got my phone out to take a photo of this unprecedented event, he wrapped his front legs round the cockerpoo and tried to hump him. And when he gave that up (it was never going to work, for various anatomical reasons) he got a bit more growly and worked up, so we parted before he got too rough.

I'm sure he's more lively in the cold weather - has anyone else noticed that with their dogs?

 

[JudyN]

Poor old Jasper - with his ongoing joint/nerve(?) problems, after another chat with the vet this afternoon, he had ELEVEN tablets with his tea tonight 1 gabapentin, half a paracetamol (I'm counting that as 1), 6 YuMove Senior, and 3 YuDigest.

I'm not even going to think about how much this is costing me...

 

[JoanneF]

Poor Jasper.

I think I saw an offer for YuMove but is the senior one the one that you can only get on prescription?

 

[JudyN]

No, you can get Senior over the counter. Or over the internet, anyway. It's 30% off if you subscribe, so that helps!

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

Ya know he's worth it.

 

[Whippylove]

Poor jasper hope he feels better soon x

 

[arealhuman]

Sorry to hear Jasper's not tip-top at the moment, I hope he's on the mend soon.

 

[Hemlock]

I hope the Yumove works as well for Jasper as it has for Babydog.

 

[JudyN]

Thanks all I found a slightly chewed gabapentin capsule and a half-paracetamol in the conservatory this morning, where he'd had his tea. I don't suppose anyone knows if it's OK to open the gabapentil capsule and sprinkle it on his food? If not, and if I struggle to get this lunchtime's capsule down him, I'll have to get in touch with the vet again.

 

[Hemlock]

Will he take it concealed in pate?

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

The old peanut butter never failed,crushed tabs mixed in with it.

 

[JudyN]

I hid his lunchtime dose in some mince also laced with a bit of Southern fried chicken, and it disappeared in one gulp He normally has his tea in the garden as he tends to sling the carcasse out of the bowl, eat the mince and then eat the carcasse, so the floor ends up needing a mop, but I'll stick to feeding him in the conservatory now so I can check. It was lucky that it was raining last night, as if I'd fed him in the garden as usual I wouldn't have realised he'd picked them out!

 

[JudyN]

What a difference a day makes. It's been a beautiful warm sunny day here and Jasper is usually useless in hot weather, panting in readiness even before we've left the house. I expected him either to turn down the offer of an afternoon walk, or to get as far as the park and then want to sunbathe for ages... Instead, he headed down the trailway towards the heath and still looked quite lively and free-moving at the point we'd normally turn round, so we carried on... Then I thought we should carry on till he got to a bit where there was some water he could bask in... then being so close to the heath, it didn't seem fair to head for home just because I didn't want him overdoing it...

We didn't stay long at the heath, though he would really have liked to go further. He was still quite lively on the way home, and I couldn't work out why till it dawned on me - arthritis is worth in cold wet weather and better on warm days, isn't it? And maybe joint problems in general?

And even after we got home, when I was ready to collapse......

 

[JoanneF]

Yes, I have had friend with a dog with dysplastic hips. She can always anticipate a good/bad day from the weather.

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

Good on the old boy, pain free the minds free, turn the clock back .... Happy days.