Category Archives: Julie

Then . . .

Remember when she actually had brindle points?

At Louise’s house, December 2001

A graceful leap.

 

With her third and final litter June 1999

Steen’s Mountain, July 2000

And now . . .




Fifteen years ago, Mandy was 18 and Jamie going-on 15.
Fifteen years ago, I had just started my day job at SOS Alarm.
Fifteen years ago, I had never finished a champion.
Fifteen years ago, there was no corgi-l.
Fifteen years ago, we had 2 Aussies and 4 Pembrokes.
Fifteen years ago, I was much younger too.

I’ve learned a lot since then.

Happy Birthday to the old girl: Da beyootiful Jawoowoo, Joogers, Wonder Log, Woogies, the Ancient One, Julie.

Champion Spyrock Coal Miner’s Daughter, CGC, NAC, ROMs

I hadn’t heard from Alden in a long time (ahem!) and I was glad to this week, though not so happy that it was because Axel was at the vet with kidney problems.

The update is that is he home and after a scary day or so is eating again.

. . . like that famous bunny. Julie AKA Woogers AKA da beyootiful Jawoowoo is 14.5 years young today.

What is that in Cardigan years? Dog years are said to be worth 7 of ours, but she’s not 101.5. At 5 years each she would only be 72.5 and she’s older than that. I’ll go for splitting the difference at 6 years which makes her 87. That sounds about right. That makes Kacy 73 and Alice 48 this month.

Julie spends her days sleeping in Tom’s office. She wakes up rarely until dinner time. Her newest quirk: she has decided that the only ways dogs get fed is for her to go out the dog door into the yard, stand under the kitchen window, and bark until food appears in bowls at the dog-room door. At that point she runs happily to her crate. She still crunches down those chicken legs and does as good a job on beef bones as do the younger dogs. As soon as she eats she starts making these sounds in her crate like she’s having some kind of fit. It works better than barking as far as getting the humans to rush in and let you out.

Through the winter we were having a little problem with incontinence and she was wearing “blue jeans” in the house. When the weather warmed up (which is relative this week) I weaned her off of rimadyl again . . . and the issue vanished. I doubt that it was a coincidence.

I have the feeling that Julie has some quality chicken-eating time left.

I recently got a note from Debby Stephens of Alabama, the breeder of Julie’s dam Dixie. Julie’s grandma Daisy lived to the age of 16 (that would be 96).

Here’s a picture of Daisy at 12:

Debby says:

“Daisy used to help my run my horse farm. She knew many words and could move horses easily from one place to another. Her favorite thing was to have me say ‘go get the whip’ cause then she knew we were going to the round pen to lunge and she’d get to pop the whip. She really could do it too-6 ft whip with 6ft lash – hard to believe a short dog could do it but she did it a lot.

“Daisy was such a big part of my everyday life, I really had no idea how to act without her. She traveled with us to all the horse shows and actually knew many more people than I did. When we set up our stalls and tack rooms at the shows, she never had to be crated or tied-just was our meeter and greeter, never left unless asked to go-she always just seemed to know what to do without a lot of fuss-you know? I always wondered if they were all like that-Cardi’s I mean.

“Now I have my Tess, that I got from Mary Belhoff. Mary was so wonderful to meet and get to know. Tess is 2 now and is so much fun! So, I’ve found that yes, as far as I have experienced they are the smartest dog for me. We have an orphan kitten that she has taken charge of and is so sweet to. Goes to the barn everyday, can almost drive the golf cart by herself. Goes everywhere I ride the horses, no matter how many times I ride around the farm-she goes. ”

Debby’s Tess at 1.5. Still one of my favorite names. This Tess is a Kodak daughter. Very pretty.

Last night the dogs all ran in to their crates for chicken dinner. Julie wasted no time at all scarfing hers down. After dinner as usual I let all except the pregnant one and the ancient one out in the front pasture for play time. I went back in to let Julie out of her crate to wander around out front with me, intending to put Alice in the dog yard and then let her in the house for a while.

The scene started out normally: Julie sniffed through each of the other crates to make sure no food was left, snagged a piece of left-over oxtail bone from one, Rah-Rah’ed at Alice’s crate on the way by, and ran out the door with her prize in her mouth.

She stopped as soon as she hit the front lawn to take a dump, squatted,

. . . . . . . and fell over.

She got back up and walked around a bit but seemed to be limping on her good leg in front. I called (or rather motioned) her back into the house. Over the course of a few minutes she progressed from limping on the one leg to limping on all 4 legs.

Feeling her all over we determine that she is not in any pain. Sensation in all 4 feet and wagging her tail. We note a lack of bladder control as the are dribbles where she is laying on the floor. Tom thought maybe she finally gave herself a stroke barking at Alice. I think that it’s probably her back acting up.

I gave her 1/2 of a 25 mg rimadyl and put a pad in the corner of the bedroom with a couple of sections of ex-pen to block her in.

This morning Julie seems somewhat better. Last night by the time I put her to bed she could barely get up and walk on the pergo at all. Now she is a drunken sailor, but she is mobile.

I would like her to see 14 . . .