Winston Wednesday: It's All About the Little Things

To say it has been a stressful week is an understatement but I have survived my eight days in a row of work and now I have three blissful days off to relax and recover. Working in retail it's easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of crazy shoppers you encounter on a holiday weekend and to say I almost lose it sometimes is another understatement...it's hard to not yell at the people who yell at you and treat you like their personal assistant or the ones who throw clothes on the floor and trash tables. I just don't understand how someone can walk into a store and be so disrespectful to the people working there and create such a mess. Plus it drives me crazy that it was Memorial Day and as a country we choose to ignore the real meaning of the holiday and instead use it as an excuse to bargain shop. Sorry for the rant...I will move on. My point is that when I am having a stressful day or week it's amazing to come home to Winston and see how excited he is to have me home. He immediately grabs the nearest toy and runs circles around me with it in his mouth while he snorts and wags his curly tail. Just that little act of love and excitement he shows me makes everything a million times better. I know on Saturday he is going to be very excited because my husband and I are taking him to a huge Pug Event and I will make sure to take a ton of pictures to post! For now here are a few of him relaxing at home.

Happy Caturday

Winston and I hope everyone has had a great week but more importantly we wish everyone a happy Caturday! Winston celebrates every Caturday by spending extra cuddling time with his feline siblings. Sometimes I think he believes he is just one of the cats. I wanted to share some cute pictures I took this week of all four of the pets. Enjoy!

Jasper giving me attitude.

Charlie always has to be touching Winston when they are sleeping. 

My beautiful Rusty. She is a sweetheart.

Charlie showing off his cute toes.

Winston sleeping with his eye open. He does this a lot.

Charlie's tummy makes the best chin rest.

Three out of four babies on the bed.

He jumps up here and waits by the front door until we get back home.

Jasper decided Charlie needed a bath in the middle of playing.

Princess Rusty. She knows she is royalty.

Charlie - a snowball with a cat head according to my dad.

The cutest face you will ever see.

Make sure you check back Monday for a new post! Have a great rest of the weekend and please check out my gofundme page on the right side. Thank you!

Winston Loves His Sheep

Sorry I have sucked at posting on here! Things have been hectic with house hunting and then l have been helping out taking care of my mom because she had surgery last Friday. So to make it up to you I am going to share a cute video of Winston playing with his new sheep toy he picked out. Alex and I took him to Petco last week and he gravitated towards this toy so I took it off the shelf for him and he instantly grabbed it. He would have carried it all the way to the registers but he kept dropping it and I don't know how dirty their floors are so I ended up carrying it for him. Anyways, here is a cute little video of Winston playing with it and then some cute pictures I got of him with it.

He's precious. There is no denying it. Well I hope everyone has a great day and Winston sends you tons of Pug kisses!

Officially Back in Washington!

I am excited to report that I am officially living back in Washington state! YAY! After a few days of stressful travel I am very pleased to be back in my home state. I don't recommend driving over 2,000 miles with 4 pets in the car but you do what you have to. Obviously my husband and I took turns driving and we rested in California for a couple days visiting some family. That way we could get a nice break and so could the pets. We also would make frequent stops to let Winston out to go potty and then we set up a litter box in the backseat and would let each cat out of their crate to use it (which none of them did because they were curious about the car). I am a very anxious person and I was worried the entire time about my three cats and getting them to use the litter box and eat/drink so it was eating me up inside and making me feel guilty when they wouldn't use the box. Fortunately all the cats actually did pretty well and Charlie only meowed for like the first two hours then they all slept and were little angels. Then once we reached California we set up a litter box and Rusty and Jasper used it immediately. Rusty being fifteen years old scared me to have her traveling so far but she only had one accident in her crate while we were driving which wasn't a big deal because I had anticipated that and had put training pads down in her crate. Charlie actually didn't use the litter box for a whole two days which I didn't like but he ate and drank water and acted like his normal playful self so I knew he was just adjusting. When he finally did use the box I was extremely relived. While in California I met a bunch of my husband's family and caught up on some sleep. We stayed for 2 and half days and then packed up the pets and drove straight through to our final destination in Washington. Right now we are staying at my parents house in my old bedroom. The cats have free range of the bedroom and they all seem very happy. Winston is loving it here too because my parents have a dog who he gets to play with. My parents also have a cat that Rusty used to live with but they never got along. In the next month I will be looking for a part-time job and Alex will be hopefully getting a full-time one. Our goal is to buy our first house in the next couple months. I am excited for the next couple months to see what they hold. On Monday I will have a new Meow Monday post so definitely stay tuned for that and then Wednesday will be a brand new Winston Wednesday post! I just wanted to update you guys on life and let you know that my weekly posts will be back starting on Monday! I would also LOVE to start posting some YouTube videos regularly so hopefully I can make that a reality. Well I hope everyone has a great week! Pugs and kisses!

All of my babies on the bed last night. 

Winston Wednesday: Save A Life

Happy Winston Wednesday! Winston and I hope everyone has had a great day. I just got home from work and came home to a clean Winston who was freshly bathed by my husband. Winston loves baths and was definitely in need of one! He's got to be nice and clean for Puggerfest on Saturday. I bought him an adorable shirt today to wear there but I'm not going to give you any details. You will just have to wait for pictures. I brought the shirt home and tried it on Winston and he was so excited.

So October is an important month for the ASPCA and Humane Society. They both have a similar awareness event going on during October which for the ASPCA is Adopt A Shelter Dog Month and really just bringing awareness to people on how much good they can bring into a shelter dogs life by either adopting one or volunteering at a shelter. The Humane Society is using October as Adopt-a-Dog Month. They also want to educate people on what a difference they can make. I would like to aid in this process and to encourage you all to help out at your local shelter. Whether you donate, volunteer, adopt a dog or cat, you are genuinely making a difference and that is what counts. I used to volunteer at my local animal shelter for a couple years back in Washington state and I mostly worked with the cats but it was wonderful and I loved it. I cleaned their cages, fed them, comforted them and even got to name them! It was a really rewarding experience. Yes, it was hard sometimes but I knew that I was doing something wonderful and that I was making life better for these cats and that was all that mattered.

Here is a cute video of Winston with his Winnie the Pooh blanket:

That is it for this Winston Wednesday! Have a great rest of the week and check back probably Sunday for pictures from Puggerfest. Although I might put up a quick picture on Saturday of Winston in his cute shirt.

Winston Is Ready for Fall

Sundays are definitely mine and Winston's favorite days. We not only get to sleep in but we can do absolutely nothing all day if we feel like it! It's a nice change in pace because I have been pretty busy the past couple months planning some things and also making some life changes for the better. Winston is super excited (okay, not as excited as I am!) that this coming Saturday, October 5th is Puggerfest here in OKC and you can bet I will be taking plenty of pictures which I will post on here! This will be our first Puggerfest and the theme is pirates so tomorrow I need to go find some kind of costume for Winston which I am excited for. Any excuse to dress Winston up is awesome to me. Not only will I be attending Puggerfest on Saturday but I will be participating in the Color Run 5k that morning. I am really looking forward to BOTH events and can't wait to share my experiences with you guys. I am going to finish this post off with a funny video of Winston thinking the cat toy is his. I will have a Meow Monday post up tomorrow with an update on the cats! Have a great weekend and make sure to check back tomorrow.

Getting Back Into This

Sorry for being a major slacker with this blog but I promise that I am now ready to get back into it! It's been a busy couple months and Winston and I have some exciting things going on the next few weeks. I will have a more official post tomorrow afternoon and then Monday I will have a Meow Monday post to update you on the life of the cats. Then on Winston Wednesday I will have an adorable video with some great updates! Again, I apologize for being lame and not keeping up with this blog but I am at a point where things have slowed down a bit and I can jump back into this full swing. So please check back tomorrow afternoon for some great stuff. Have a great night and great weekend.

Heartworms 101

I am often surprised by how little people really know about heartworms and the risk they pose to their dogs. I have worked in the Veterinary industry off and on and even went to school to be a Vet Tech so I have a lot of base knowledge about diseases and the health of pets. One of the biggest risks posed to your dog is heartworms. In this post I will go over heartworms and how to prevent them.

What are heartworms?

Heartworm is a parasitic worm that is passed to a dog through a mosquito bite. Heartworms reside in a dog's pulmonary arteries which causes damage to their lung tissue and vessels.

Where are heartworms?

Heartworms are found all across the United States. Wherever there are mosquitoes there are heartworms.

http://www.heartwormsociety.org/pet-owner-resources/heartworm.html#history

What is the life cycle of heartworms? 

Adult female heartworms release their young (microfilariae) into an animal's bloodstream. Mosquitoes become infected with the microfilariae when they take blood from an infected animal. It takes 10-14 days for the microfilariae to mature into the infective larval stage inside a mosquito. Once that happens when the mosquito bites another dog or susceptible animal the infective larvae enter into the bite wound. It then takes around 6 months for the infective larvae to turn into adult worms. Microfilariae are not able to mature into adult heartworms until they first pass through a mosquito.

What are the signs of heartworms in a dog?

Clinical signs of heartworm disease are hard to recognize in the early stages but as the number of the heartworms increases over a period of months and sometimes years the symptoms become more prominent. Dogs who are recently infected usually show no signs where as a dog who has been infected for a while might have a mild persistent cough, lethargy, become easily fatigued, have a decrease in appetite and even weight loss. 

How is heartworm disease detected?

Heartworm disease is detected by a snap test that your veterinarian can perform with only 3 drops of blood. The test uses an antigen to detect heartworms. Keep in mind though that it may take up to 7 months of infection for a test to show positive. Most veterinarians offer two tests, one which tests only for heartworms (referred to as a 1dx test) and another that tests for heartworms as well as three tick borne diseases (known as a 4dx test). In most cases you will want to do the 4dx test if you have never had your dog tested and have never had them on preventative. You will especially want to do the 4dx test if you have a large tick problem. The snap test only takes 10 minutes and while they wait for the results of that a technician will smear some of the blood onto a slide and look under the microscope to see if there are any microfilariae.

If the test is negative what do I do?

If the test comes out negative then you want to start your dog on heartworm prevention. This is a monthly pill that will prevent your dog from becoming infected. There are many different brands of heartworm preventative but the most common ones are Iverheart and Heartgard. Another preventative option is Trifexis which has a flea preventative in it as well. Personally I have Winston on Trifexis because it is cheaper in the long run because I don't have to buy one thing for fleas and another for heartworms. Remember that all of these products require a prescription from your Veterinarian in order to get them.

What if the test comes back positive?

Adult heartworms are killed with a drug that is injected into the muscle through a series of treatments. Usually a dog is kept at the hospital the day of the injection just to make sure no adverse reactions take place. When the dog goes home it should be exercise restricted and taken outside on a leash so it can't run around. You will want to restrict exercise for about 2 months. To prevent another infection a monthly heartworm preventative will be given. The heartworm pill will also kill any microfilariae. A positive test may not seem like a huge deal but in reality the treatment can be pretty expensive and heartworms can cause permanent damage.

In conclusion...

Make sure you consult your veterinarian about heartworms because they know how prevalent it is where you live and will be able to tell you much more than I can. The most important thing to take away from this post is that heartworms are a real concern and can cause many problems. You should test your dog once a year and keep them on preventative year round.