12th Birthday!

Kansas is 12 years old, today. I took her in to the veterinary opthamology specialist on Friday for her vaccines. They don't really broadcast routine veterinary care, but the do perform some of the usual tasks, and since we've seen so much of them lately and the staff has gotten to know us so well, I felt more comfortable just taking her there, rather than to the neighborhood vet we'd originally selected. Plus, the price was right, $50 for the rabies and 5-way vaccinations, no office visit fee, and I can order heartworm meds via the clinic's website without needing a new prescription.

I really like this vet. She is perceptive. She is the only one who has ever noticed/ asked about Kansas having eyes that are two different shades of brown. I know she was asking because a sudden change in eye color can be a sign of some not-so-great issues, but, in our case, yes, Kansas has always had one brown eye that was more chocolate brown, and the other more golden brown. I used to stare at her for hours, making sure it wasn't just a trick of the light, or that her used-to-be black eye patch wasn't creating an optical illusion. But, knowing her mom was an Aussie and they can genetically have bi-colored eyes, I was always pretty confident I knew what I was seeing. I've had a few friends/relatives confirm and concur, over the years, but no vet we've ever seen has ever mentioned it. We really lucked into finding this one. She misses nothing. She even asked about Leo's broken tail, which he was born with, and probably suffered in utero, but still, she asked when he'd broken it, how long ago...

Kansas received a shot in each hip, and seemed to maybe be a little bit sore Saturday morning, though it could also have been the snow and wet, cold weather that day that appeared to be slowing her down.

In all, she seems to be doing well. Her eye looks really good, and she's definitely been happier, and perkier than she has for the past year.

I also think moving out of the two-story house helped quite a lot with her bad hips and mobility issues. She's actually engaging her canine housemates in play, for the first time in a long time.

She still slows down when walking uphill in the neighborhood, and quite often is sore because a certain canine sister has been dragging all of us along, walking too fast for the older dogs' ailing bodies.

She weighed 54 lbs back in November when she went in for her eye surgery, but while I said that was a couple of pounds higher than normal for her, the vet wasn't concerned at all, and said she looked really good.