Adventures with Astrid: Once upon a Time

As we mentioned last week, poor pup Astrid isn't getting her usual walks right now. And she won't be getting her usual walks for many, many weeks. After all, she's waiting for the surgery to repair her torn CCL (like a human's ACL), and after the surgery she'll be on cage rest for 6 weeks. She'll be allowed short, controlled walks 2 weeks post surgery, but Astrid has informed me that's not good enough.

For now, Astrid is surviving on short trips down the street as well as lots of time in the back yard. She's also living vicariously through photos of some of her recent walks, like this one from once upon a time.

Astrid says it's absolute garbage the way she's being treated. Speaking of garbage, here's a garbage can from that walk.

Need to see it closer? Here you go.

Astrid wants to remind you all to properly dispose of your excrement, especially when in public. Or, at least she wants to remind her canine friends of that. Actually, Astrid would prefer if her gifts to the world were left exactly where she put them, but that's beside the point.

It's a bit upsetting to Astrid that she can't mark the entire neighborhood. Don't worry, though, because she's depositing plenty of goods in the back yard for us to clean up. Astrid prefers when we miss a pile and step in it. She says karma's a you-know-what.

Despite her current house arrest crankiness, Astrid wishes you all a happy Wednesday!

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Flashback Doodle of the Day

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Tip of the Day

Since September is Animal Pain Awareness Month, we'll be finishing out the month with a short series of tips on this topic. Today's tip relates to how our furbabies might let us know they are in pain. This can be a bit difficult sometimes, as cats and even dogs can be very good at hiding pain. This is why we must be very observant of our furbabies on a regular basis, in order to know when they aren't acting themselves.

The symptoms of pain in our furbabies can vary greatly, depending on the source of the pain, as well as the individual animal. You might see decreased activity level, or even a decrease in your cat or dog's appetite. Another potential sign is an altered gait, or an unwillingness or inability to move or jump. A cat in pain might avoid or miss the litter box, and a dog in pain might have accidents inside the house. Aggression and hiding are yet more potential signs that your kitty or pup is in pain. The list of signs and symptoms of pain in animals could go on and on. This is why it's imperative that you know your kitty or pup's norm, and that you make frequent observations of their activities and behavior in order to catch when anything is out of the norm. Altered activity or behavior could mean any number of things, pain being one possibility.