I’ve mentioned before that Blue is a half-brother to
Fox. Fox is the elder statesman of
Grammy’s two hairy children. Fox and
Blue share the same mother (dam), Royal Dream.
As an aside we’ve
searched all Blue’s life with us for a photo of Royal Dream. She is (maybe was at this point) owned by
Janice George. We’ve tried contacting
Janice a few times but she’s never responded.
We’ve searched for hours on the internet on the chance that maybe there
was a photo of her posted somewhere, for some reason. So far with no luck. If anyone out there has a photo, or knows
Janice, we throw ourselves on your mercy since living with this insatiable
curiosity is killing us! We hear that Royal
Dream is/was a favorite of Janice.
A Fox Corn |
Taking my cue from Fox, I watch Blue like a hawk for any of
the maladies that have afflicted poor Fox (and the number of said maladies is
not insubstantial). Since they share so
many of the same genes, and they’re so alike in personality, I’m very afraid
they will also be alike with respect to their health. One of the things I have always done is check
Blue’s feet for corns. So far we have
been all clear but I always expect to see one someday since Blue is one of the
lumpiest and bumpiest dogs I know.
So it was with a mixture of surprise and a sense of “I knew
it!” that I picked up Blue’s foot the other day and saw on one of the pads of
his left front foot a fairly well developed corn. I pressed on it and fiddled with it a
bit. It didn’t seem to be causing him
any discomfort. I hadn’t noticed a change
in his gait.
And so I had to face it.
The moment I had been expecting had arrived. I have always harbored an absolute belief
that Fox is the model for Blue’s aging patterns. Blue is a year behind Fox in age but so far in much
better shape than poor Fox at each stage.
Yet I still harbor the belief and fear that Blue will follow his genetic
heritage and suffer all the things that have challenged our poor Fox. I don’t let the fact that Blue has exhibited
almost none of the issues that Fox has suffered so far get in my way. I just know in my gut Blue is going to fall
apart in the same way Fox has.
Blue's feet, corn and blueberry muffin free |
With sad resignation I decided to carefully note the
location of this very first corn. This
harbinger of doom. This horseman of the
apocalypse. I got Blue in an area with
good lighting and lifted his foot up. I
got right down in there and took a good look at that corn. Only it didn’t look like a normal corn. I fiddled with it some more. It felt like a corn. I looked even more closely. It definitely did not look like any corn I
had seen.
I reached out again and began to scratch at it. At first nothing happened but the more I
scratched at the edges of it, the more it began to crumble away. I finally loosened it to the point where it
popped off in my hand. What the…?
The harbinger of doom apocalyptic corn turned out to be a
dome of some unknown substance (my money is on blueberry muffin) that stuck to
the bottom of his foot and hardened there.
Because of Blue’s newly developed concern about walking on our linoleum
floors, I had begun spraying his pads with a product made for show dogs. It makes their feet tacky so that they have a
grip on the flooring of typically slippery show arenas.
Nikki is our corn dog. So glad that Blue's corn turned out to be muffin.
ReplyDeleteI've never had a dog that has had corns and I've never heard about the tacky stuff for show dogs! I could of used that so many times for Leroy who refused to run on the floor mats in the ring!
ReplyDeleteJen
MyBrownNewfies
Your fears about the health of your dogs are common. I'm frequently checking Fleur for osteosarcoma since Val had it. What is the spray for the feet?
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at the end of this! Your feelings about Blue and Fox are a lot like I felt about Lilac and Blueberry, who were mother and daughter. They were very alike in certain odd quirks. Lilac lived past sixteen and I figured that Blue, who developed SLO just like her mother, would follow that same genetic blueprint. What I wasn't prepared for was for Blue to do something different, like get osteo and break my heart at thirteen and a half. In a lot of ways, though, I'm glad she didn't follow exactly in Lilac's footsteps. Going through CCD with Lilac wasn't fun and I really didn't want to go through it again. Truth be told, I want to just freeze them all in time and keep them from aging at all!
ReplyDeleteWith so many Greyhounds leaving us because of cancer in the past year or so I'm almost too scared to touch Beryl in case I find a lump :( I said almost, she demands cuddles when she's in the mood and I figure as long as she stays demanding she is in good health. Although if she wasn't well she'd probably be more demanding! Seems like Blue might be taking after the other side of his family although I guess there is still time for him to develop lots of ailments! Glad the corn was a false alarm.
ReplyDelete