A New Kind of Summer Heat to Hate!

As you can see from her fashionable denim shorts, Winnie is in heat for the first and last time. But don't let the fun shorts fool you, she is Miserable.

Having never had a dog in heat before, I wasn't sure what to expect. At first, she was just acting a little oddly. Needy with a dash of weird. Then she was licking a lot. "Hey, maybe this is it!," I thought, "This isn't so bad." Then all of the blood in her body rushed to the back third, and she was literally so swollen she couldn't go to the bathroom. The vet said she had never seen it so bad, and poor Winnie was just extremely uncomfortable.

Thank God for Metacam, it seems to be making her quite a bit more comfortable, and we are both anxiously waiting for this episode to be over. I predict she'll be used to the shorts about one day after she doesn't need them anymore, and she's scheduled to be spayed in early September. Should be healed up from that just in time for cool weather fun and some birds!

Happy Birthday Winnie!!

Winnie is one year old today! Seems like she's been part of our family for much longer than that. She actually hasn't been feeling great this week so I think we'll skip the cake. I'm also almost certain she's going into heat right now. But I will somehow try to find a way to spoil her a little bit more than usual today. Below are pictures from each month since she was born...

JULY 08

AUGUST 08

SEPTEMBER 08

OCTOBER 08

NOVEMBER 08

DECEMBER 08

JANUARY 09

FEBRUARY 09

MARCH 09

APRIL 09

MAY 09

JUNE 09

JULY 09

Can't Wait for Fall!

I am really looking forward to Fall, I'm anxious to get Winnie back to training with birds, and venturing into the whole gunfire thing and seeing how she'll do. But, whether she hunts or not, I know Winnie is looking forward to cool weather even more than I am! She hates the heat. We went to a horse show today, this is her pleading for me to turn up the A/C so she can fit her tongue back in her mouth.

It sure is fun taking her out in public though. Nobody knows what kind of dog she is, and furthermore, I'm very surprised at how many people don't know what a regular Vizsla is. I also think a lot of people assume she's a mutt because they've never seen anything like her before. But she gets a lot of compliments and comments no matter where we go!!

Winnie's First Swim!

On our last visit to the river, Winnie was quite curious about the water, but wasn't quite ready to jump in and swim. My friend Carolyn said a stick or a toy wasn't compelling enough, that I had to get in the water! Well, she was right! Today, after several minutes of standing in the water and thinking about it, she finally swam out to me. Took her a minute to realize that, unlike on land, actually coming to me isn't the end of the transaction! She soon figured out that she had to then leave me to get back to land. Once she swam that first time though, she really thought it was fun! Anyway, here's some video footage...

Maiden Voyage

Since we moved here three months ago, frequent heavy rain has kept the river high and muddy. But the river FINALLY cooperated and we were able to take the kayaks out for our maiden voyage, from our house downstream to a public boat ramp 5.5 miles away. Our friend Marty, Sandy and I launched late in the morning on an absolutely beautiful day, and had a great time. Sandy has never really kayaked before and she did great! Even caught some fish, too.

It's been a long day and I almost forgot this, before we left we saw our first bald eagle here! I knew we would eventually but it was spectacular, I can't wait to see him again!