Cammy's close call

We love our dog. She's just as insane as the rest of us. We got her this time last year (when this pic was taken), from the Humane Society just around the corner. She arrived with the first truckload of what has become many from a "kill shelter" down south. From what we've heard, there are not strict neutering laws in many of those states and they become overrun with stray animals. Therefore, they euthanize after a set period of time. Here in the northeast, we don't have as many dogs and we have lots of families wanting to adopt. The folks from the Humane Society have said that whenever they get a truckload of dogs, they're all adopted within just a few weeks. Cammy came to us as Selina...the HS folks said it was ok to rename her, so the kids did. She was found at approx. 4 months old wandering the streets in Alabama. We figure she's now between 1 1/2 and 2 years old. We assigned August 15th as her birthday, at best guess. Her breed is also a "best guess" situation. She was advertised as lab/shar pei mix, but the vet wasn't buying it. She's going lab/shiba inu mix. I recently saw a shiba inu at a pet shop and I think the vet's guess is right.

So anyway, Cam-cam is a nutty puppy. She's now about 50 pounds. She's getting better about jumping up on people...and stealing food...and chewing stuff. She's NOT getting better about barking at passers by, other dogs and the kids. It's an excited thing, not a mean thing. She's very scared of just about anything, but barks at it anyway. She has a super-cute one ear up, one ear down thing going on.

Another key to this story is my desire (not necessarily ability) to pretty-up the front yard. Last fall, in an attempt to put in some low-maintenance, self-spreading ground cover I got some lily-of-the-valley from my aunt. Sadly, only one little sprig seemed to survive the harsh NH winter. The other day I noticed the lonely little sprig in the vast bark mulch had been munched.

Fast forward to 9:00 or 10:00 that night. Cam was acting a little funny and panting a lot, but it had been an unseasonably warm day. Then she THREW UP a TON out on our back porch. Horrified and gagging, I got her back inside and checked her over. She seemed ok, but did puke a tiny bit more a few minutes later. I blamed Megan for donating several food items to her that particular day. I figured she had a belly ache and ate the grass-like thing to relieve it. It wasn't until the next morning that I decided to look lily-of-the-valley up on-line. Yeah, poisonous! After calling the vet and HUMAN poison control, we decided she is probably in the clear. She only got a few leaves (no flowers or berries had developed) and it looked as though it had all left her system.

Needless to say, I pulled the sad excuse for a plant nub up by its roots and will seek other beautifying methods. Maybe tacky, cement lawn figures. The neighbors should enjoy that!