Puppies like a nice bed too

What a softy I've turned out to be. When I got Bud, it was all about rules and discipline, but now I'm just as happy as he is to have him up on the bed. This morning he put his paw on my face and moaned a contented 'good morning,' Following it with a long, low bellowing that I understood to mean: I much prefer this mattress to the hard ground.'

Then again, it was probably just me transferring my own thoughts to a dog.
Thanks again for that shampoo, Cindy. He's a lot nicer to sleep by when not reeking of sewage and carrion.

The wanderer

Cross off one more state for Buddy. He's successfully made it across the Dakotas and now looks forward to the new scents of Iowa. Already in the first couple of hours, he's spotted several rabbits and a deer. Not sure when he's gonna be up to the task of pushing me around, but there's always hope.

Crossing into Iowa

Buddy's life would make a good children's book

As I was going through pictures today, it occurred to me that Buddy's typical routines would make a great ESL reading book for young learners:

Buddy can swim

And Buddy can run.

Buddy likes to blow bubbles

And have lots of fun.

Though this probably isn't his idea of it.

Deer valley

Seems like everywhere you turn out here there's some kind of John Deer equipment. We took a break next to this tractor and Bud crawled right in.

A new lease on life

The pup's back at it, finding new and interesting things to put in his mouth.

Initially I was a bit hesitant about making these videos available, but since there's been a marked improvement in Bud's attitude after each encounter, and because he seems elated to still be able to catch prey, I figure he ought to have his interests represented on his own blog.

As a disclaimer, bird enthusiasts probably won't enjoy watching the following. However, as one who likes to see his dog happy, I'm thrilled Bud's got himself a hobby.

Antibiotic backlash

Well, Bud's finished both courses of medication and the incision seam is coming together nicely. However, he's been fighting what appears to be a viral bug for the past five days which means he spends most of the time sleeping. There's a white mucus like discharge coming from his nose and he's become quite listless, probably due to fever.

Buddy's Bed

So, I'm getting some extra exercise carting him around. I'm not too worried about it since it's pretty common to come down with secondary infections when your immune system has been demolished by antibiotics.

I'm just hoping he'll be able to get over this soon. We're spending a day of rest in Jordan toay at the Garfield Motel. Then tomorrow we'll be back on 200 moving farther east.

Sometimes it's as if he's laughing at me, like he's thinking, 'Ha, ha! Look who's smiling now.'

A thrilling step toward recovery

We're getting back to it tomorrow, but before leaving Lewistown, I wanted to post this.
I never figured he'd do this again, but yesterday evening he put my doubts to rest.