Ear Infection

Gypsy has been a very healthy dog. We haven't had to take her to the Vet or treat her for anything very often in her 8 plus years. Sure she barely eats and thinks she is a cat but I cant complain about her health. She has an iron clad constitution. That said, she is prone to ear infections from time to time. We woke up this morning and sure enough, she has an ear infection. When she gets these she lowers her head and walks kind of crooked. Like she is trying to go to the right but walks to the left. It is painful for her to lay down, and her tail is down as low as it can possibly go. I feel so sorry for her. I also feel like a bad dog owner. Like I could have done a better job with the ear maintenance and cleaning to help prevent these things. Standards do require more maintenance when it come to the ears than most dogs. When she did this for the first time I thought she was having a stroke or something. Our Vet says it is a bit strange and that she hadn't seen this before.

When I first came into the office this morning she was just walking around in circles behind me, pacing away. Every time she tried to lay down she would wince and get back up. I put a med in her ear and gave her a Benadryl. She finally laid down behind me and seems to be relaxing.
I hope she is better soon. Or at least more comfortable.

More Fowl

 One of the most popular events during the water fowl festival is the Dock Dogs event. The dogs come from up and down the east coast for this event. You've probably seen this on TV but if you can take in the jumping live it is very impressive.

 I always thought it was limited to Labs but there were all sorts of dogs competing. This little Springer was a crowd favorite.

We thought this would be something that Gypsy would like to do. She does leap out of the garage into the backyard when she is excited.
I can get some hang time dude but I don't like getting my hair wet!!!

Water Fowl

This weekend was our local Water Fowl Festival. It is always held on the second weekend in November. We have had some cold rainy weekends in the past. This year the sun has been out and we have enjoyed beautiful fall weather.

 Gypsy loves going downtown. She was beside herself excited as we walked the streets. There are dogs of every shape and size downtown and they all want to introduce themselves to Gyp. She did her share of nervous barking and had happy feet all day long. As excited as she was, she kept an eye on all the shrubs looking for a squirrel or chipmunk. People would come up to pet her and she would really turn up the excitement. Everyone was shocked when we told them she was over 8 years old. We ran into a few other standard poodles and they were almost as excited as Gypsy. Maybe this is just the thing with the breed?

We met plenty of dogs and ran into a bunch of friends. That's the thing about a small town, you always will run into someone you know.
That's why I'm always on my best behavior!!!

One of our friends has a business doing mobile advertising. I suggested we have Gypsy pull a sign behind her.

At the end of the day I went into a local restaurant to use the men's room. Right there in front of me, while I was doing my business, was this portrait of a black standard poodle. Looks just like Gypsy. I hope nobody saw me take this picture.

I think the plan is to take Gypsy down to Water Fowl again today.

200 Posts

Hey, I just noticed that last post was the 200th. That's a lot of posts. I took a look back and the first post was in March of 2012 telling the story of how Gypsy came into my life. If you haven't seen those first blogs you might want to check them out.
I also took a look at who is looking at this Gypsy blog. I've had views from all over the world. In the last week the views have come from United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Ukraine, Slovakia, Russia, and Japan. OK, the views from Japan are from my daughter.

 I'll continue to tell you stories of my quirky little poodle Gypsy.
Hey, I may be a Diva but I'm not quirky!
She continues to make me laugh and give us unconditional love.

Fall

Autumn is definitely upon us. The leaves are beautiful this year and are falling fast. This weekend is the annual "Water Fowl Festival" in our town. It is a weekend dedicated to everything that the eastern shore is famous for and that is water fowl. People from all over the world come to look at the art work and decoys. There are hunting dog demonstrations and the very popular dock dogs. We take Gypsy and walk around downtown and greet the hundreds of other dogs walking the streets.

 Bliz and Gypsy

 

Not only is it the beginning of Autumn, it is also the beginning of oyster season. Sandi and I are friends with a couple of "watermen" here on the shore and they get great pleasure in feeding Sandi as many oysters as they can. They came over the other day and before you knew it, Bliz has the tailgate of the truck down, shucking oysters for Sandi. Gypsy is not a fan of oysters. Last year Rim would eat as many, if not more, than Sandi. Gypsy really likes these guys.

Another sure sign that it is getting much cooler outside is watching the cats jockey around the house for sun spots. Chloe, aka Queen Mother, is a pro at following the sun spot up the steps in the morning.

NYJ

Yesterday we paid tribute to our friend John. Aka New York John. He was diagnosed with cancer not even a year ago. At that time the doctors told him the severity of his situation but he didn't share the diagnosis with anyone. Not even his three sons. We met NYJ not long after we moved into this area. He was always around and very quick with a joke. He enjoyed sitting out front of the "Tide" taking in the sun and watching the action downtown. The guy that owns the Men's Clothing Store across the street would close up shop for a few minutes and run over to the Tide and have a beer with NYJ. He seemed to know just about everyone that walked by and waved at them. John new all the servers and made a point of talking to each of them. We often would take Gypsy along with us on these trips to the Tide. She always has a good time down there. She is less interested in the downtown activity but more interested in the squirrel and chipmunk activity. Gypsy also liked being around John. He seemed to have a calming affect on her. He always asked to hold her leash and have her sit by him. She would always take a break from obsessing over the wildlife and calmly lay by John. We all will miss those days of front of the "Tide."
Goodbye John!