Adah Update

We've had our little dog for three months now and she's doing really well. She's still very much a puppy, very curious and playful. Having grown up with a Cattle Dog I knew what we were getting ourselves into. Adah has shown many Cattle Dog tendencies, she's very smart but also has a stubborn streak. She loves to eat and can often be found in the yard scavenging for snacks. Despite the fact that she doesn't hear very well, she is learning commands quickly. We mostly use hand signals, she knows sit, stay, come, lay down, roll over, kennel, go over there and speak.

The best thing about Adah is she is very sweet and loves everyone. We are hoping to use her as a therapy dog when she is a little older. She is great with kids, at Christmas she met our five year old niece and our twenty month old nephew. When Tyler would see Adah he would say "puppy, woof woof". It was pretty cute although I don't know how much Tyler enjoyed the slobbery kisses.

A couple of weeks ago after climbing and touring New Belgium Brewery we noticed Adah was acting a bit odd. She seemed very lethargic and was swaying from side to side. We got home and kept a close eye on her but she kept getting worse. Her gait seemed off balance, she wasn't responding to us and she was very scared. When she began falling down and struggling to get back up we decided it was time to take her to the vet.

The vet at the CSU animal hospital suspected anti-freeze poisoning although we didn't think she could have gotten into any. They asked us lots of questions about where we had been all day and what she usually eats. Another vet examined her and said he thought she looked like she had eaten marijuana. John and I where both pretty surprised, but told them to go ahead and run the test. Shockingly, the test came back positive for THC! The best guess we have as to where she got a hold of pot is that she found some while we were climbing at Horsetooth reservoir.

I guess it makes for a pretty good story and some funny nicknames (pot-head-pup, cannabis canine...). We also joke about what a horrible drug dog she would make, you don't want the dog to eat the evidence! We are glad that it was something relatively harmless, she was treated with activated charcoal and an IV. A couple days later Adah was back to normal. I guess we will have to keep an eye on her next time we go climbing.