Memorial Day Weekend

It is hard to believe that we began the month of May with temps   in the 30's and are ending it in the 90's!  We made a quick transition from winter to summer!   The puppies and I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend at a friend's lake cabin south of Duluth.  We have so many wonderful memories of Princess, Dee Dee and Elvis swimming in the Great Lakes, so I was eager to teach Scarlett and Zak to swim.   I held Scarlett's collar for about five seconds and she took right off!   Zak was more tentative.  He desperately wanted to get the stick but couldn't muster the courage to get his nose wet.  My friend tossed him in once at the end of the dock and he paddled to shore; a look of abject terror on his face.   He didn't let her get near him again!  He loved the water though, and I have no doubt he'll be swimming by the end of the summer.

Scarlett learns to swim!

 Zak has been limping on and off  the past few weeks so I took  him for an Xray on Wednesday.   I expected to learn he had a bad sprain or maybe had sustained a hairline fracture when he jumped off the bed a while back.   Unfortunately, the news was much worse than either of those things.   Zak has a  condition known as premature growth plate closure, which occurs  most often in short-legged breeds.  I am waiting on a second opinion, but we are  almost certainly facing at least  one surgery; quite possibly  more.   It was a devastating  blow and has turned my summer  upside down.  The timing is  especially bad, as we had looked  forward to some summer fun, after a long, cold winter.   The hardest part will be keeping Zak quiet.  His favorite 'toy' is a chipboard mailing tube and I have accumulated quite a stash, thanks to a co-worker who works part-time at WalMart.  I'm hopeful that they will keep him happy and entertained in his post-operative recovery.