Happy August 15th -- and Happy Birthday to Me!
And Happy Birthday everyone else whose "sign" is Leo!
We are a special group (in our opinion!).
Yes, I ate a slice of that cake for breakfast this morning.
Since I last posted, I took a quick trip to Florida to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons, ages 7 and 9. Oh, and Maxi, their year-old Red Bone Coonhound.
Two days after my return, Covid reared its ugly head. I started taking meds right away and the worst was over in 2.5 days. Of course, as soon as I was well, Lynn got it.
There went our plans to actually attend a family reunion as a family. The reunion was in Nebraska. Our sons, Aaron and Trevor, and two granddaughters, Janis and Klara were able to be there. The oldest attendee was my Aunt Shirley, Mom's 98 year-old sister and the youngest was a 3-month-old. In all we had 97 people there.
Back at home, I still had Deacon's coat change to contend with. He'd started matting while I was in Florida and Lynn and I took turn grooming him, depending on which one of us was sick or traveling. It just took an hour each day for about a month, and now the worst is over. Now when Deacon sees me getting the grooming table out, he hides under the footrest of the recliner.
I finally decided to part with Kira. It was such a hard decision but it needed to be made. She has such a wonderful disposition. Sweet and loving, content to play by herself, eager to please, and playful with our kitten.
We were recently visited by Paul and Pam and their Lhasas: Lil One, Josie, and Rusty. Pam and Paul welcomed Rusty into their home last year. It was good to see Rusty again, but he wanted nothing to do with me! He is very happy in his new home and with his new people.
Upcoming events for me include a show in Lake Elmo, MN on 8/23, a 4-day show in Amana, IA from 8/29 - 9/1, and one day in Des Moines on 9/7. If you are near any of these places and want to watch the Lhasas show, let me know and I will email you the ring times and ring numbers when they are available.
joyslynslhasas73@gmail.com (with a reminder that the outlook account is no longer being used).
Then it is back to Nebraska to celebrate Mom's 92nd birthday.
Puppies?
We currently have no puppies available. We are waiting for two girls to come in season and do have plans for breedings. If you are at all interested in a puppy from a litter born later this year or early next year, contact me to get on the waiting list.
Adults?
We retired two of our girls (Autumn and Millie) , both Grand Champions, from breeding. They have both made contributions to the breed. Both are up to date on all vaccinations and both have been spayed. I would like to find loving forever homes for them. Contact me if you are interested. Here are photos taken a week ago.
Autumn
My Survey Idea
Having adults available to pet homes gave me an idea. I have successfully placed many many adult Lhasas in pet homes over the years. Sometimes people keep in touch on a regular basis. Others do not. But I decided to conduct a survey about the experience from the new owners' point of view of adding an adult Lhasa to their home.
I went through my records and then sent emails to people who had purchased one of my adults. The email explained that I was conducting a survey and asked them to reply to the brief survey questions about their experiences with the adult dog.
Now, if you are reading this and thinking, "Wait, I got an adult from Joyce, why didn't she contact me?" it could be that I tried but did not have an up-to-date email address. I did have some returned as "undeliverable." I want/hope as many people as possible to take part in the survey and contribute to its success. So if you have/had an adult from me and did not get the survey or if you received the email and, as happened with a few respondents, could not open the Word document, please contact me at joyslynslhasas73@gmail.com and I will send you the survey. I have already heard from a few people and look forward to hearing from others.
The plan is to compile the survey results and then to write an article.
Looking Back
Here is a photo of me showing Bo Jangles, whom we purchased as a show prospect puppy. Judge Ed Bivin awarded Bo his first and only point. Bo grew to weigh almost 30 lbs.! I learned a valuable lesson from our experience with Bo. When the breeders saw him in person they tried to convince me to give him back to them and accept a replacement. Of course, young stupid me said "no." I loved him. I could not part with him. He lived with us the rest of his life, but I missed a chance to get a different/better show prospect from his breeder.
Gigi's Story
Frequent readers of this blog are familiar with Kris and Nanda's Lhasas, Ty and Gigi. They are brother and sister, born a year apart. Parents are Josh and Bekka. I asked Nanda to share her recent experience with Gigi becoming ill. Here is what she wrote.
"We have two super healthy Lhasa Apsos. They both eat Farmer’s Dog and no table food. Out of the blue, our little girl Gigi, who is turning two in November, got sick on Friday, July 19th. She started to act extremely hyper. She didn’t sleep and paced frantically throughout the house. At that point we were concerned about a neurological illness.
The next morning she had severe diarrhea and stopped eating and drinking. We took her to the ER. All vital signs, physical exams and blood work were normal; so they sent her home with Metronidazole and recommended a blend diet of white rice and chicken. She refused to eat, threw up the antibiotic and the diarrhea worsened. She pooped 12 times in 10 minutes. We went back to the ER and they started a subcutaneous fluid treatment. They also started CERENIA and continued the Metronidazole.
Back at home Gigi still showed no interest in food or water, didn’t stop having diarrhea and got extremely lethargic. We went to a Veterinary Specialty Center and she was admitted to their hospital. 3 days of tests. Blood work, urine work, x-rays, ultrasounds, biopsies, fecal tests, PCRs, etc. All normal.
Vets stopped the antibiotics and diagnosed her with “allergy”. They put her on Royal Canin hydrolyzed food. We chose not to feed her that. We enticed her to eat by warming up her chicken and rice with a bit of Primal Chicken Bone Broth. We consulted a Canine Nutritionist @CutTheKibble and following Joyce’s advice, we reached out to Jim, from Nature’s Farmacy. Their guidance was heaven sent. We kept it simple and started slowly to home cook for her with the supplements recommended to her scenario. We also used Gastro Elm Plus before her meals (MIRACLE PRODUCT).
Since I don’t have time to home cook forever, we have now transitioned her to Ever More. She is back to super healthy and happy. She eats, lamb, turkey and beef. I honestly don’t believe she has a food allergy. I believe that her former food was full of fillers. Tones of garbanzo beans, sugar and carbs. Her sensitive stomach just can’t handle it. To sum it up for you, when you need help with your beloved pet’s health, go to:
- Cut The Kibble (YouTube or Instagram)
- Nature’s Farmacy (Jim) 1800-733-4981
- Gastro Elm Plus (Michael) gastroelmplus@gmail.
comOR CS@gastroelm.com
Both of our dogs don’t do well on raw food. Lightly cooked foods that worked for us: Small Batch and Ever More
If your dog gets sick and you need to talk. Please email me at chitownanda18str@gmail.com. I’ll call you. Together we can do this!"
Jim sent this picture of Daisy, taken after a fresh summer haircut.
Kyle wrote that Cosmo and their older Lhasa, Fin, "have built a reasonably warm friendship - sleeping together at night in the crate. We are so happy to welcome another Lhasa into the family and it’s quite fun watching the two dogs run around or play with the kids."
Marsha wrote that "Baron can leap tall arms on big chairs in a single bound.... he's Super Baron!"
Lynn wrote about Aimie, "How is it possible that it’s been 8 years since you put this little angel in my arms in Loveland, Co? Every day with her is such heaven on earth. There are just not enough words to tell you how MUCH we adore her…..she’s the light of our lives.
Thank you for your blog and all you do for this beautiful breed"
Lisa sent vacation news about Duncan:"Here is a photo of Duncan and Dresden in Traverse City. Duncan has done remarkably well despite his nerves on this trip so far. We head for Mackinac Island tomorrow. Then he will go on his first ferry ride and be around all the island horses."
She later wrote that "He did really well on the ferry ride. He is not interested in or bothered by the horses."
Doreen sent a note about Henry: "Thought I would share this with you..Henry has been featured a couple of times on his groomer’s Instagram page...They just think he’s the best as he’s so sweet…and he loves this summer cut."
Here is a picture of Judy L's Gus and Lippy at their daycare.
Sharon sent this picture of Gi.
Sally sent pictures of Ginger and Jaxon fresh from the groomer.
My thanks to all of you for sharing your photos with the rest of us!
Once again things are gearing up for the American Lhasa Apso Club's National Specialty. This year it is in Gettysburg, PA.
Speaking of ALAC, if you have not yet visited the new website, please take time to do so. Very nice new look!
Go to lhasaapso.org
Red Dog History At Joyslyn's
Every so often I pay tribute to the black Lhasas and it hit me the other day that I have never paid tribute to the red Lhasas we have had. So, here goes:
This is Sara :
This is Bo Jangles again:
This is Flame:
This is Rusty:
Of course, the latest is Deacon:
Interestingly and sadly, from Sara through Rusty, the reds faded to gold or reddish gold. Walker's color did not fade, but as I groom Deacon, it looks to me like Deacon's adult coat is coming in as a red gold already.
Final Notes
The worst part about turning 73 was finding out that I had to make a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) which, for those of you who do not know, is an amount of money the IRS requires people 73 and older to withdraw from a qualified retirement plan each year. Ouch ... taxes!
“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” ~Larry Lorenzoni
Thanks for taking time to read this month's post.
Joyce
