I think this is an adequate representation of how I feel when I go to the vet and Stan ends up with some new condition that we weren't expecting.

Sometimes I think this has to be a joke.  How can one adorable little puppy have so many health problems?  Here's the laundry list of things Stan has dealt with in his 9 years on this planet:

What a crazy few weeks. As you know we found out that Stanley had bladder stones a few weeks ago. Couldn't have been worse timing since I was just about to move into the final few weeks of my semester, chock full of projects, papers, and presentations. However, it was important to me that I would be able to be around during the day while he recovered, and since I'm starting my practicum in a few weeks and would be out of the house, and since his bladder was FULL of stones, we decided to do the surgery as soon as possible. 

Hey all!

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."  -Benjamin Franklin

For a few weeks I've noticed that Stan has had a little bit of urinary incontinence.  Specifically, I witnessed it one day when he was getting up out of his bed to grab a toy, and a little bit of urine came out onto his dog bed. Knowing that this could be a sign of pretty much a million different things, I took him to the vet.  Interestingly, Dr. Nancy K had a blog post about Urinary Incontinence in Dogs that same day.

A few weeks ago Scott and I took an impromptu trip up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, just to get out of town for a few nights.  Since it was a last minute trip we needed to find pet friendly accomodations.  I turned to GoPetFriendly.com for some advice, as well as just searching area hotels.  We finally decided on the Residence Inn in Downtown Portsmouth, a Marriot hotel.

We are so excited to present our first guest post!  Tyson is a recently disabled dog who uses a wheelchair to get around. Lori, his mom, tells Tyson's story below—how he lost the use of his hind legs, and how a stranger's kindness changed their lives and perspective on life with a disabled dog.  If you have a dog or other pet who has recently been disabled or injured, you can learn a lot from Tyson's ordeal.  And now, Lori tells their story...

In January 2005 my son came home with a puppy.  I was totally against getting another animal as six months earlier he brought home a kitten to keep me company when he went away to college.  This time he told me that he was at my brother's house and the 18 year old guy across the street had a littler of pit bull puppies, Tyson being the smallest.  I guess Tyson wasn't pit bull looking enough and was going to be taken to the shelter the next day. So, my son took him home.  It didn't take long to fall in love with him!  He was so tiny.  We took him hiking, the beach, everywhere we went he followed.  He turned out to be the best dog we ever had—well behaved, can take him anywhere, loves kids and people.  The only thing he didn't seem to like was stray cats in our yard.

I know for a fact there are a lot of disabled dogs out there, and tons of people who love them. Where are you guys?!

I love finding new products on the internet for special needs pets or disabled dogs.  Everyday it seems like a new product is hitting the shelves (or internet) to help pet owners care for disabled dogs or other pets with special needs.