Sunday, September 03, 2006

Giardia :-(

Well, after many truly unspeakable acts on the part of the vet, we have determined that I have giardia. What is giardia, you ask. It is some kind of nasty one-celled parasite that attaches itself to my intestines and basically steals my food while also making me feel yucky and have diarrhea. A nice beagle lady wrote a whole long explanation about it. Because of the giardia, all five of us pups are now taking Flagyl--but we know it as a peanut butter niblet.

Speaking of peanut butter, my person gave Rafe-oaf puppy a stuffed Busy Buddy to keep him busy. Of course, as soon as I could I took it away from him. Then, if you can imagine it, my person got up and took it away from ME and gave it back to HIM.

Here he is just chewing away on it. He is not nearly as skilled as I am at deconstructing the busy buddy. I used to get one every morning so that my people could eat their breakfast in peace, so I got very good at cleaning it out.

I'm pretty sure that he'll leave some of the choicest morsels--the kernals of dog kibble that have been thoroughly saturated with peanut butter--aided of course through targeted salivia delivery, which serves to bind the peanut butter more completely to the kibble.


When he gives up, I'll be waiting. In the meantime, my people lamely tried to appease me with a Kong--also stuffed, but not nearly as much challenge and really not more than a blatant bribe against my being mad at them for taking away my rightful acquistion.

Here I am in the last stages of cleaning out the Kong. I took it to the people's bed so that I could leave a nice peanut butter smear on their freshly laundered comforter. You can compare my skill to Rafe's--note in particular the differences in our grips--the wrist bend makes a lot of difference. Plus, you'll notice that my tongue is completely inside the Kong whereas Rafe is putting his in and out--a completely unnecessary use of energy that obviates the benefit of the additional calories gained from the peanut butter encrusted kibble in the first place.

Believe me, I have tried to explain this to Rafe, but he simply doesn't listen. Indeed, he listens to very little I have to say.

In this picture, I am doing my best to explain that there are serious consequences for staring at other dogs, in particular, for staring at me. You'll notice that he is averting his glance, finally--but this was after several tense moments of showing all of my teeth to him. I really am not sure he will ever be ready to enter the world of refined gentle pupdom, but I will perservere and accept that my lot in life is to try and teach this young rapscallion some respectable manners.
I may at some point need to enlist the services of the great Mugsy, who recently rid a Chihuahua of demons or perhaps William John Gavin can talk some sense into Rafe. I'm just glad that my goofy little brother Hamish is not quite such a project or I don't know when I'd ever get my grooming and napping done.

Today's picture from the puppy archive
Me at 10 weeks with my first ball (it even had a "tail")


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Pippin!!!

This entry is hilarious, got me laughing for awhile.

I've come across a few silly puppies recently too. They just NEVER listen or learn from us, do they?!

But i must admit i was a rather annoying puppy when i was young. Took a BIG ridgeback to pin me down before i learnt some dog manners. Phew, thank God i'm alive!

You take care, i'll check back in abit!

Isabella said...

Hey Pippin! Sorry to hear you got a nasty parasite- doesn't sound like much fun at all. My humans have decided to get another puppy and I was looking forward to it until reading your entry. They better not expect me to share my toys. Maybe being the only dog isn't so bad after all. I'm going to have to think this over.
Big Wags,
Isabella

Charlie Kelley-Church said...

You have a purple saucer food thingy too! That is one of my favorite toys. Mom puts some peanut butter bone cookies in there. I can usually get them out in under 2 minutes. If you squash down on one side and shake your head really hard, the food will pop out of the other side. Peanut butter is one my my favorite food flavors.

C-K-C

JustMeCopper said...

Pippin, I am going to tell my mom I want one of those purple things. It looks yummy. Loved your blog today.

Opy - the Original GruffPuppy said...

Hey Pippin,

As special friends of Charlie and Opy - and DogsWithBlogs - you are invited to appear in the 2007 DogsWithBlogs calender. Please go here - http://dogswithblogs.com.au/calender.htm for further details. Hoping you will participate.

Love
Opy

Pippin, the Gentle Pup said...

Chester: They don't learn; however they can be useful for some small missions. Good work on your agility.

Isabella: All I can say is make sure you a part of the process at every step if your people persist in bringing in a puppy. These can be very trying situations--what you want is a small, pliable creature who will lick your muzzle and go away when you say. Give you all its toys on demand and not be a mommie-stealer.

Charlie and Copper: The purple saucer is awesome--insist that one be at your feet within the week along with a fresh jar of peanut butter. Tell your people you can get them at Petsmart and some other places like that (but the peanut butter comes from the people food store)

Floss: The stupid giardia seems to be in retreat--yay.

Charley and Opy--I'm flattered

Anonymous said...

That is the best picture ever of you and Rafe!

xxoo

Brittany Boomer

P.S. I have to post as "Anonymous" for now. I'll explain on my blog.