I think I speak "dog" better than Miles. He was wanting to play with her and was in a perfect play bow and he was making eye contact with her. The body language was all good. But, as he typically does, he was barking and growling. When he gets like that he really sounds like he wants to tear someone's head off. To me, Missy looked very puzzled. But, after a few minutes of his antics she decided maybe he was really trying to play and they began racing around in the back yard. Yeah! Miles' favorite game! They also started playing tug of war. Miles won one and Missy won one. It was so good to see this!
Missy is such a love. She loves all people. Friends have come to meet and her and she greets them with a tail wag and a bouncy disposition. As I've said before, she is very good with all the little friends my girls bring over.
Below is a video of my girls sharing some love with Missy. Ignore my girls and their trash talking with one another. Ah, sisters. One is telling the other that she smells. And, I do believe she's talking about my daughter because I've caught the girls taking showers in the past without getting the soap wet at all. How does that happen? A shower and the bar of soap stays completely dry? Amazing!
Missy continues to drink more water than normal. As I mentioned before I took her to the vet and her blood tests and urinalysis were normal. The vet suggested another test, a water deprivation test, which would help identify whether this might all just be a learned behavior or or something physiological. We did the test this week. Well, the test showed that Missy can not concentrate her urine. As the test goes on the dog's urine should become more concentrated throughout the day. Missy's urine stayed the same. So, what does this mean? Well, it means that her kidney function is not normal. Her blood tests were normal so it's not severe kidney malfunction but they don't work as well as they should. As a result, she needs plenty of fluids (hence her desire to drink) and then of course needs to be able to relieve herself. I work from home and she's been just fine with me letting her out a few times a day. For me, really her needs are no different from any other dog. Since we don't know her history we don't know if this is just how she's been or whether it's something that's progressed. I can say in the weeks we've had her...it's stayed the same. We control her water throughout the day..she gets plenty...just not too much at once and then we also stop her water about 1-2 hours before bedtime. The vet said this was fine to do.
Despite this Missy is a happy, playful, smart and loving girl! She's one big curly love of a girl.
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| Holly and Missy taking a nap. I don't know why we always end up taking pictures and videos in the kitchen...but we do :-) |