Mindy is such a sweet wonderful dog. I adore her. We were outside in the yard this morning taking photos. I just love when she looks up like this. So regal.

She’s got such lady class!

After the rain stopped yesterday afternoon, I took Mindy and Lexi outside to run around in the yard.

She must have been very thirsty, because she kept chewing on all the wet plants. I snapped her chewing on one of the pink flowers and she got some tiny petals on her forehead. So funny!

Mike and I were taking the dogs out to the side yard yesterday morning, and Mike noticed a cute little toad in the brush. Yay, I ran into the house to grab my camera and macro lens.

Mike had to pick him up and move him to the middle grass area. Lexi and Mindy were curious. Before I could snap many photos, Lexi grabbed him in her mouth (lightly) and Mike grabbed her and took it out. Poor little toad. I only got to snap a handful of shots, when Lexi started to act a little funny. Her mouth was foaming and she was trying to spit out the foam, shaking her head and mouth.

Eek, I then remembered that I heard something about toads being poisonous. Oh no. I grabbed Lexi and ran into the house. By the time we got inside, she was acting normal again. I think she just got a bad taste from the toad, and/or maybe the toad secreted some icky tasting stuff in self-defense. Thankfully, Lexi was okay, and she acted fine for the rest of the day.

Mike noticed what we think is a scab on Mindy’s left (back) shoulder last night. It is a little un-nerving because I don’t know what caused it.

I thought maybe it was a tick, and we took a real close look at it tonight under the bathroom lights, and it appeared to be a scab. Mike started to pick at it a little to make sure it wasn’t a tick, and I stopped him, because it looked like it might bleed.

We have her Frontline up to date, I just applied her monthly spot at the beginning of the month. She is clean, although we haven’t given her a bath in a little while. Her food is premium (Nutro Ultra) and I don’t believe it is a food allergy, unless it is due to the new treats we have given her.

I remember Mike also noticed a little scab on one of her back legs, where the joints meet in the middle area. It was a very small scab, but we didn’t think anything of it.

We will be watching her very closely now, it really makes me nervous because I don’t know what could be wrong.

UPDATE 10-17-05: I think this might be from a bug bite. I remembered that Mindy had one of those bright red round bites on her while we were camping on Columbus Day weekend; the same bite marks as in the spring (from black flies we were told by the Vet.) I wonder if somehow the bite was irritated by scratching or perhaps her harness. It does seem to be healing okay, so I am hoping it will be an isolated incident.

I am giggling as I think about Mindy and her stalking prowess. She is outside on the lead in the front yard, and there was a dragon fly bug on the walkway. Mindy sees it, and like a cat, was hunched down hunting it slowly.

Of course the dragon fly flew away as soon as she got too close, and I laughed and went into the house to write this entry.

Saturday was probably the worst night for us! I was trying to feed Jack, and he ended up flying around the room a couple of times, with Mindy chasing after him.

He was back in his cage, and I gave him a fresh batch of seeds, and tried to move him onto the bowl. He ended up flying out of the cage again, and onto my desk chair. Mindy dove after him, and before I could even turn my head, she must have grabbed him. I saw Jack was down. I SCREAMED and ran over.

I grabbed Mindy and she had feathers in her mouth. Somehow Jack ended up saving himself and hid under the side table next to our sofa. Mike was in terror, seeing Mindy with the feathers in her mouth, he thought Jack was in her mouth. He was extremely angry. He came over and screamed no! and attempted to grab her head. (all this while she was in my arms) I cried, No, that she didn’t know it was wrong, and to get Jack! He was under the table. Mike looked towards the dining room table; I told him the other table. It was such a ruckus and panic that I am so foggy on all the details.

He did get Jack. He hopped up on his finger, and all his tail feathers were gone. I said to put him in his cage, and he told me to get Mindy upstairs. this was the time we needed to make sure Jack was okay, and not Mindy.

I put her upstairs in her crate, and came back down…..the shock of seeing the batch of feathers on the floor sent me into a panic again. I picked up the feathers. Partly for medical reasons, if we needed to show how many feathers Jack lost, and partly for personal reasons. I wanted to keep them to remind me of how horrible this night was, and to never let it happen again.

Anyway, the good news is that Jack seemed to be fine. I don’t think Mindy could have bit him or grabbed him with her paws. I think that she jumped up, grabbed the tail feathers, that brought him down to the floor, I think I remember wings flapping and that might have saved him. He must have flapped his wings and she couldn’t get a grip on him. By that time, I was running over screaming, and Jack somehow winged his way a few feet to under the side table (by the wall)

Jack ended up taking a fly spin around the room and he seemed to be able to fly okay at that point.

And now on Monday, he seems to be okay….still not totally steady with flying. Last night, while Mike was outside with Mindy, Jack took a spin around the room, and kept flying and flying around the room (too many times) – I have a feeling he couldn’t stop. I held up my arm like I normally do, but he couldn’t navigate to it somehow. He ended up gently touching the wall mirror and coming down on the love seat, then floor. I grabbed him, and comforted him gently. He seemed fine.

This morning, he is ringing his bell and chatting a little. He seems fine, Thank God. It was a real eye-opener — We can never let Jack loose with Mindy around. It is just too dangerous.

Oh and Mindy must have known something bad happened. When I did take her downstairs from the crate on Saturday, she was curled up inside (like she does when she sleeps). There was no complaining or barking while in the crate, which I thought was unusual.

She somehow seemed hesitant when she came downstairs. Mike got over his anger, but he really was mad at her. I reminded him that I knew that we would have this problem if we got a Rat Terrier breed. It is in her blood, and nature. She would never hurt a child, another friendly dog or us, but she doesn’t think that Jack is part of “us” or her family. She would never hurt her family.

I don’t think I will ever publish this publicly. It is too painful to share. I will keep it private.

EDIT: 2009-Feb-5, I decided to make this post public after all. Time has passed, and Jack has also long since passed (not due to this incident).