Baby, it's COLD out there!

It is very, very, very cold here, and I don't like it at all!  Yesterday when we got up, there was about an inch of snow on the ground, and the temperature was 10 degrees.  That might not have been so bad, except that the wind was blowing a whole bunch, so the wind chill was 8 below zero.  I went out and peed, but I could not stay out long enough to poop.  I had to wait and do that later in the afternoon.


This morning it was even colder!  The temperature went down to TWO, and the wind chill was MINUS THIRTEEN!  Mom made me wear a sweater to bed last night, but as soon as I got up this morning, I took it off.  I also showed Gabe how to take his sweater off, so now we are more like normal, naked dogs.

Here's a picture that Mom took of me a couple of years ago.  She calls this picture "It's too snowy for my butt" because I was trying to avoid sitting down on the snow.  Of course, anybody would avoid sitting in the snow.  That is only common sense.  But Mom thinks this picture is very funny, for some reason.

Gabe has been wearing a sweater every day to keep warm.  We have many dog sweaters at our house, in several different sizes.  This tan sweater looks really good on Gabe, but after Mom bought it last year, she realized that it is not designed properly for a boy dog.  This is because if a boy dog is wearing the sweater and then he lifts his leg to pee, well, you might have to wash the sweater afterwards!  


On Tuesday morning, Mom did not give us dogs any breakfast, and then she took Mel and me to Dr. Patricia's office.  Mel had to stay there all day because he got his teeth cleaned.  I didn't have to stay very long, though, because I just had to give them some blood for a thyroid test, and also I had my toenails trimmed.  Then I got to go home with Mom and eat breakfast.


When Mel came home later with clean teeth, he started licking his leg where the needle thingy was.  Mom tried everything to get him to leave it alone, but he just kept licking it.  So Mom went in the basement and got the Cone of Shame, and she put it on Mel.  Then Mel stood around looking like maybe his life was over because he couldn't even walk without running into stuff.  And he couldn't lie down or go out in the yard or anything.  Mel was very, very sad.  But then Mom remembered that she could just put the basket muzzle on Mel instead of the Cone of Shame.  So she did that, and Mel has been wearing it ever since.  Well, except when he's eating, of course.


This afternoon, Gabe is going to visit Dr. Kiel, who is an eye doctor for animals.  She's very nice, but the first time Gabe went there, he tried to bite her because he was scared.  He didn't try to bite her the second time, though.  Gabe has to go see Dr. Kiel sometimes because he has PRA, which stands for Progressive Retinal Atrophy.  This is a fancy way of saying that he might go blind someday.  But he might not, either.  So far, his eyes have not gotten any worse, so maybe he won't go blind at all.  I hope not, because I don't want to have to lead him around everywhere, and I think he would look funny using a white cane.

But the reason Gabe is going to the eye doctor is because he has a bunch of eye goopy all the time.  This is what Mom calls it, anyway.  Mom thought Gabe had this because of his allergies, and that it would go away when it got to be a different season, but it has not gone away, so Mom made an appointment with Dr. Kiel.  And also it was about time for Dr. Kiel to look at Gabe's PRA again.


So I guess that's all I have to tell you today.  Oh, but did I mention that it's REALLY COLD outside???