Massive Tansy update comin’ in.

I looked at the Tansy category, realizing that I haven’t written about her in a while, and my! Last time I mentioned her was Canada Day. Then again, I haven’t been much for posting these last few months. I’ve had lots of ideas, but never enough time to get them all down. So I figured I’d get some things taken care of, since I like having things written down to look back at.

One of the things we discovered last year was Bailey’s Local Foods. They need their own post just to sing their praises, but that will come at a later time. We haven’t been there in a long while, mostly because construction in that part of town sucks major balls. The point is they are an online farmer’s market like the 100-mile market, only they seem to have had more stable success. But when we would bring food home from there, we noticed something. Tansy would go nuts! More often than not, we would find her staring longingly into the kitchen drooling if we were doing anything with any of the food from there. Tansy has good taste. Trixie had good taste too when we would shop at the hundred-mile market. They used to deliver it to us. Once, she jumped into one of the boxes! Woops! I just think it’s crazy how both dogs could tell that that food was a special brand of awesome. They’re right.

Even though Tansy is almost 4 and a half, she’s still crazy hyper. Steve joked once that the next time someone asked me what kind of lab she is, I should answer with, “meth.” That would raise some eyebrows.

I still laugh at the things she gets excited about. If Steve asks, “Want a beer?” She starts bouncing as if to say, “Yes please! That would be a great idea!” I have no idea why this phrase gets her going so nuts, but reliably, it does.

She also starts getting really excited if I say “Woo!” in this certain way.

I always said that I was so happy that she’s not a humper dog, which I like since she seems like she could be quite dominant. Well…I found out in June of this year that she will hump another dog…and that dog is my brother’s wee tiny dog Zoe, the perpetual motion machine I wrote about a while back. I was shocked when I let them out in my brother’s backyard, and when they weren’t running, Zoe would try to climb on Tansy, and Tansy would hump her! Tans outweighs Zoe I think by 5 times. That’s evil!

At Thanksgiving, Tansy got more Zoe time. Tansy and I went home with my brother, his wife and the wee little guy who is 8 months old now, woe! Of course, Zoe came too. We all went home to my mom’s place and I think fun was had by all. Thankfully Tansy didn’t hump Zoe at all.

But we figured out the way to keep both dogs from just endlessly running around the house in circles and causing chaos. If you give them each a bone and their own bed, after a little bit of playing, they’ll each chew on a bone and veg out on their own spots. I wish I’d got a picture of them napping side by side. All I got was this one.

If I got the right picture, it's Tansy, a big black lab, next to a much smaller dog. I think this picture might look like an action shot, neither of them would hold still.
Is this a picture of Tansy and Zoe? If I remember correctly, neither of them kept still.

I’ve also learned that Tansy didn’t like being put away in the bedroom like she asked to do last year. I put her to bed there and shut the door and went out to hang out with the rest of the family, and heard this weird sound that sounded like a combination bird shriek and dog bark! I heard it all the way out in another part of the house, and my folks’ house isn’t exactly small. Whenever I would go listen, she wouldn’t make a sound….but I’m pretty sure that sound was her.

Since Tansy is so rambunctious, I haven’t exactly let her and the little baby be loose together much. But I did put her on leash and try to show him how to pet her. She seemed to enjoy that, and rolled around on the ground letting him rub her belly and stuff.

Somehow, during that trip, Tansy’s GDB dog tag fell off. I’ve seen instances where all the dog tags fell off, but I’ve never heard of losing just one. I think I know where it happened. I was getting out of the car so we could take the dogs for a pee and get a coffee, and I heard this little “tingalingaling.” I checked my pockets and saw everything was there, and then just assumed it was something someone else dropped and went on with stuff. No one else saw it either. I think that was when it fell. So, I don’t think I’ll ever get it again. At least that tag is easily-enough replaced, easier than the Rabies one or the Avid one. I’m waiting for a replacement tag from the school, but that’s a new one on me.

Tans has had to go to the vet for her first ear infection back in September. Her ears are so awesome that I often don’t have to worry about them. But I noticed one ear getting kind of crusty, so took her to the vet and they had a look. Sure enough, it was barely the beginning of an infection. Thankfully, after we treated it, things seem to have gone back to normal on that front.

But I have found a couple little bumpy things on Tansy, so of course, given my history of lumps, I had them investigated. They both appear to be benign cysts. I’m supposed to keep an eye on them and make sure they’re not growing. So far, so good. She also developed some dermatitis. I think it’s getting better, but I can still feel some of it. Keeping an eye on that too. Thankfully this year when she got vaccinated, she didn’t develop a big ol’ lump at the site like last year. Why is it that all my dogs develop lumps? I’m not even counting the old dog lumps that Trix got, but Babs had some kind of massed cell tumour, and Trix developed 2 sebaceous cysts. Now Tans has bumps. Doggies, you’re giving me a complex!

Here’s another weird thing I’ve noticed lately while grooming her. I’ll be grooming her and everything will be fine…and then she’ll start whining. I thought maybe the furminator had hurt her, but she even did it today when I was just using the Zoom Groom. Sometimes I’ll completely stop grooming her and she’ll still keep whining. Did something hurt once and she’s afraid it will again? Does she have a sore spot? What is this? Grooming is supposed to be fun!

Another thing I’ve noticed with Tans is once she loses hair on a spot, it’s hard as heck to get the hair to grow back. That bare spot I caused by not loosening the belly strap in time is still there. She has some other spots on her belly that have been bare since I got her. I don’t know what’s up with that.

And the last medical-related thing, at least once a year, Tans will have an incident where she will barf, seemingly without obvious provocation. The first one was in July of 2013 when she was pretty new. The next one was last September when I was starting to get really sick with the captain, and this year it was in August. I think I can blame this one on a toy getting a rip and she might have eaten a bit of stuffing, but I think it’s weird that every year, just once, around the same time, she has a major meltdown. Well…at least it’s not more often.

She continues to show that she’s super good at picking up patterns. Steve changed the ringtone on his phone, and now when she hears this new ringtone, she thinks it’s the buzzer and heads for the crate. It’s adorable and makes me chuckle.

She also knows what I mean by “turn around.” Funnily enough, she responds when I’m grooming her, but it doesn’t work where I wish it would, on the bus when I’m getting seated.

A bunch of other people around me moved desks, and instead of sitting beside Janna who Tansy loved, I now have a guy next to me. Tansy has discovered that he too loves dogs, and has fallen in love with him. I think it also helps that he babysat her when Steve and I went to a Blue Jays game back in September. But at any rate, when she sees him, she goes a little crazy, and she runs to him after she eats her dinner. I’m so glad he likes her back.

Oh my goodness, I failed at documenting something pretty important back when it happened. Oh well, I will write about it now. Tansy’s first Halloween was…eventful. Our area got very decked out in decorations, and I think we had to avoid some spider webs and other hanging obstacles. Then, a guy who Tansy tended to like wore a mask with horns and other scary things, and she decided he was evil and not to be trusted. Then some girls from HR dressed up as Sesame Street aliens. In case you’ve never seen these things, here’s a refresher on what they look like. Anyway, they happened by our area….and Tansy couldn’t take it anymore. She bolted from my cube area and chased them! Thank goodness for quick-moving office mates. I was calling, and she was looking at me, and decided not to come. Those human sock puppets were way too interesting. Let’s just say she spent the rest of the day on a leash.

Then last Halloween I was sick and at home thanks to the captain. So when this halloween came around, I didn’t know what to expect.

I decided to let her be loose until I heard people coming around, and I definitely had her on a leash when the floor filled with kids of my colleagues. Thankfully this prevented any disasters, but it wasn’t like Sesame Street aliens or horned masked things were in our area.

But I did feel her actually trying to hold herself together. Janna came around with her kids, and I could feel her trembling. At first I thought it was because she was afraid, which I had a hard time believing, but I soon figured out she was trying soooooo hard to control her impulse of “Jump on them! Jumpjumpjump!”

And I think that is the sum of all my Tansy updates. It’s hard to believe we’re headed for another winter, another Christmas, another set of anniversaries. Time really does fly faster and faster.

Join the Conversation

2 Comments

  1. Jayden’s vet calls him lumpy bumpy dog. Oy vey. why are these dogs so lumpy?

    Jayden hates being brushed. I’ve only ever used the stuff GDB gave us. He tolerates it and then all of the sudden he’s like, nope I’m done. And runs away.

    1. aww Jayden’s getting his old man bumps? My goodness I can’t believe he’s 7. I don’t know, but the non-old man bumps scare the hell out of me. Give the Jaybay a great big hug for me.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.