Pence turns 11!

Hey there! It was another big week here in the Urban Mushers household!

If you hadn’t heard…PENCE TURNED 11 THIS WEEK!!!! Yep, you heard that right, she’s eleven! We tried to give her a little bit of vanilla soft serve ice cream from Culver’s to celebrate, but she refused to try it lol.

Don’t worry, she enjoyed her birthday walkies and extra cuddles instead.

Pence’s vet visit

Pence also went to the vet in Indiana for the first time! We weren’t sure how it would go, especially after the chaotic experience we had in the same vet office the year prior.

While we were in the waiting room, Pence parkour’d off all the furniture. She was panting, shaking, and couldn’t stand still.

We were called back into an exam room. Pence remained quite anxious.

A vet tech (I believe) took her back for her blood draw and she sat perfectly still for it. Good news - she was heartworm and lyme free! No other needles were needed that day since we had already gotten her vaccines out of the way earlier this month.

The vet came in to check her over. She noted that Pence’s teeth were quite worn down. We noticed that as well. When we first got her, we were told that she used to chew on rocks. Oh Pence…

As of now, the vet didn’t see any issues in regard to that, but it is something we will keep an eye on down the road if she starts experiencing any tooth aches.

We didn’t do a full blood panel on Pence, as she had just had bloodwork done before she was spayed back in January. I asked the vet to look over those results to see if she saw any issues because all we were told from them was that she was cleared for surgery at the time.

The vet did notice some indicators of potential kidney problems and/or dehydration. She wanted to run another panel since it had been close to six months since the previous draw. She was looking to see if Pence could actually have kidney issues or if it was just dehydration before surgery that caused some numbers to get a little out of range.

Of course to be safe, we did another panel. Unfortunately that meant they had to stick her again, but she was a perfect angel as always.

A couple days later, the results came back and Pence is fine! Her numbers are all in the ranges they should be, so she was given a clean bill of health!

“What’s that thing on the ceiling?!”

In other news, we have discovered a new fear of Pence’s: ceiling fans. It’s been so hot here lately that we’ve had our ceiling fans on occasionally. Whenever they’re on, Pence hunkers down and slowly crawls under them. I’m not sure if it’s the moving blades or the lights “flickering” through the blades on the walls and ceilings, but she is NOT a fan. (Haha…pun intended).

Pence and fireworks… Not a great combo

Over the last couple weeks, people have already begun lighting off fireworks ahead of the upcoming July 4th holiday. This is Pence’s first year in Indiana, and perhaps her first experience with fireworks. Again, she is not a fan. When she hears fireworks, she has been seeking shelter on the bed, which she previously didn’t spend a ton of time on.

She’s also become more clingy when fireworks (or thunder) are going off. She’ll sit or lay right next to us, but still shaking. Poor girl, I wish we could explain to her what’s going on. And the worst of it hasn’t even begun yet.

Fall Race Updates

We have an update on fall races for you this week as well. If you haven’t heard the super sad news, Doty’s Dusty Dog Dryland Race is CANCELLED this fall 😭. I know last year the race was briefly cancelled and then brought back a few days later, but the event organizers say there is “no chance” that the race happens this fall. UGH. It’s our favorite race!

We’ll share a bigger list of other fall dryland races in an upcoming newsletter, but for now, we are considering running the UP200 Dryland Dash October 12/13 in the UP of Michigan and/or Redpaw’s Dirty Dog Dryland Race November 2/3 in Pearson, Wisconsin.

We’ve never been to the UP race before, so that could be neat to check out. We’ve been to Dirty Dog once, but it’s not super spectator friendly. You can basically only see the start chute and finish line. We’ll keep you up to date as soon as we figure out our plans though!

I know we had a lot of updates for you this week, so if you’re still reading, thank you!! We’ll be back next week with an update on how Boo’s vet appointment goes. He actually goes to the vet this afternoon for his annual check up! Fingers and paws crossed that he doesn’t give the staff too hard of a time. He’ll get some happy drugs before he goes!