Hows your face?

Poor puppy, he had a lump come up on his face rather suddenly on Sunday. About an hour after I last saw him I was like 'Michael, has Pedro got a big lump on his face or is it just me?'

The vet thought he may have had a sting and prescribed some anti-histamines and a anti-inflammatory. 2 days later we were back at the vets, who though he might have a seed burrowed into his face. We decided to go the whole hog and get it cut out, but unfortunately they couldn't find a seed. The lump was made up of dead hair and hair follicles, kinda gross!

We've spent the last couple of days hunkered down with him, he's better today but on the first night he was home he would cry until we were both in the same room with him, then fall into a deep sleep. He's been a bit feeble and helpless!

So the drains get taken out today and the stitches next week. He's on antibiotics for a fortnight, and we're hoping the lump won't come back after that. And here's a slightly gruesome Frankenstein photo, poor poor puppy.

The Sneaky Pea Thief

The other day I left Pedro with a delicious juicy bone, and after about 30 minutes noticed a peculiar noise. I went to investigate, only to find our sneaky vege loving lab nom-noming on the peas!

He'd pulled a whole big part of the vine down, and had worked his way through it, pulling all the pods off the vine and leaving the foliage.

Next year I'll plant the peas in the fenced part of the vege garden!

Pup-date

We had a lovely two weeks away, I've got a few things to share. First off is the wee pup Pedro spent time with, because she's just so darn cute!!

Michael's Dad Dave and his Partner Louise have a new German Shepard pup, Millie. So fuzzy!

She likes the water.



And repeatedly climbed into her bucket. It also seemed she took an extra mouthful of water after every drink, just to spit onto the floor!

She likes chewing on her ball,



But liked Pedro's better!



Pedro was so good with her, and she spent most of the time chasing him around with his neck (or ear, or most hilariously his back leg) in her mouth. At one point his collar had to come off because she was dragging him around by it!!



See her teeth wrapped around his neck?! Apparently she spent the day after we left looking for him! They played really well together, and will have bigger games next time when she's a bit larger. They may have to be banished outside!

And some sweet photos of Pedro, one of these is going on our wall.

A little bit of Pedro

I've been moving pictures around between the computers, and consolidating 5 years of digital photos. I found some photos of P-dog from when he was just so wee, I thought I'd re-share them here, as well as a few newer ones.

He's probably about 4 months old here,

And over a year here. We got rid of this chair when we left Christchurch, but I like how it shows the passage of time in these two photos.

I took these three photos in December last year. Pedro has calmed down recently (Finally! He's only 3 years old), but I think he will always be a cheeky puppy really.

And this is more his true colours. The other day we had contractors on site at work, and in one of the elcetrician's trucks there was a beautiful, distinguished black lab, who had been going to work every day since he was 10 weeks old! I don't think Pedro will ever have that kind of decorum!

We are having problems at the moment with him getting hotspots in the humid Auckland weather. In the warm, moist conditions Staphylococcus multiplies rapidly, getting into any small nicks or scrapes, causing a red, inflamed, itchy patch, which quickly becomes a pussy, weepy sore. (Sorry for the mental images!) Pedro was recently on a two week course of antibiotics, and is now on another week-long course. It's beginning to look like this may be an ongoing battle for us during the summer-time, has anyone else had any experiences with these hotspots? Oh and if you have a double coated dog (e.g. lab, rottweiller, german shepard) please be on the lookout during this warm weather!