[Dailydrool] Basset Crap and Pill-taking

[Lisa K. Metzler via Dailydrool]

Hi, Droolers! 

Happy August!  Does anybody know where July disappeared to?  It seems like just yesterday I was making a ginormous pasta salad to take to a 4th of July picnic.

Basset Crap...  Well, there's not a huge amount, but I do have a couple of items that are special.  At the top of the list is a puzzle that my Mom did just before she died two years ago.  I'd given it to her as a fun Christmas gift a few years ago because it looked so much like my Pelly (ATB).  He was her favorite, so the puzzle was a real hit.  She completed it just before she went into the hospital for the last time, and when my Aunt and Uncle came for her Memorial Service, Dennis lovingly painted it with puzzle glue and then we framed it.  I was lucky enough to have Pelly with me another 18 months after Mom passed...so the puzzle is all the more special.

My other favorite Basset pieces are a small, rustic-carved wooden Basset "doll" with leather cord for the joints.  I'm not exactly sure where he came from, but he is posed on my bookshelf "snoozin'" away. Then, there is the Basset mobile that hangs from the ceiling over my desk.  It's basically paper and string, but a beautiful tri-colored Basset, floating in the air. My birthday present this past June came from a good friend who lugged a 25-pound carved STONE Basset (which I've named "Merwyn"--means "good friend") in her suitcase on an air trip from California.  And, last but not least, is a small, beer-bottle brown glass Basset, given to me by my petsitter.  She found him at a rummage sale and knew he had to come to live at my house.  I have a few jewelry items and a couple of other pieces, but these are the favorites.

As for pill-taking... My crew are definite fans of EXTRA-CRUNCHY peanut butter.   I push those pills into that peanut butter with all those chunks, spread it on a wedge of flour tortilla, fold it over and then watch the pills disappear.  I have tried nearly everything I could think of in the past--Pill Pockets, cheese whiz, velveeta, cream cheese, hot dogs, nasty-smelling sausage, meatballs...you name it, and never had real success after more than a couple of doses.  But, the extra-crunchy peanut butter has enough "stuff" in it, they don't notice the pills, and the tortilla seems to make it easier to just eat rather than gun up their mouths.  And, I've noticed that even the nasty-tasting pills, like Tramadol, are well enough hidden/coated by the PB to do the trick.  I buy a pair of jars of Jiff every time I go to Sam's, and flour tortillas are pretty in expensive, especially when I cut them in 5 pieces (I've gotten really good at eyeballing that to get 5 equal pieces).  Everybody gets a PB&T twice a day.  A teaspoon of peanut butter is usually enough even fort he big capsules.  If we have more pills, a little more PB and we make two and back off another treat.  I do carefully supervise the PB&T for them...either give them seperately of their meal or separate the "pill-ees".  So far, so good.  Myatest challenge has been getting the right dosage of HW and flea/tick meds into the right kids... Three different sized pills and five dogs, it's a real process, but I'm working it out.

Drool, prayers, and good thoughts to all in need.  

Lisa Metzler
Addie, Annie-the -energizer-Bagel, Ariel, Madison, and Rocky...and Penelope, Jasmine, and Pelly 
(ATB)

Toppogigio at yahoo.com



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