Hey, Simon, watch where you’re pointing that thing.

(Yes, we will go for the low joke here at Coyote Mercury.)

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

It’s important to provide an animal with a stimulating environment.

Here we see Simon in the house cat’s natural habitat surrounded by Scotch and good old Dickens. The finer things are all they ask, really.

Simon hasn’t been on the blog in awhile. He tends to scratch it and then try to knock it over onto the dogs. Besides, I worry he might go for all the birds.

Still, he let me take a picture of him and his spirit the other day. Maybe it’s his daemon, but then it probably wouldn’t look like him. He’s still trying to come up with an explanation for this obvious supernatural occurence.

Update: Be sure to visit Simon’s fellow felines at the 194th Carnival of the Cats at Bad Kitty Cats.

Just a typical day in the central Texas summer of ‘07.

(Later, we did have scattered patches of sun.)

Simon has it pretty good, no?

Yes, yes, we know it’s Monday, but when you’re a housecat like Simon, it’s always the weekend even if you are manning (catting?) your battlestation with its view of the birdfeeder.

It’s good work if you can get it.

It looks like all three dogs will survive eating the latest recalled pet food - Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice dry dog food (their Venison & Green Pea dry cat food was also recalled, but Simon wasn’t eating that).

The pups all seem to have recovered from kidney failure thanks to the efforts of the excellent doctors at the regular vet, emergency vet, and specialty vet hospital. Phoebe and Daphne are home with a clean bill of health, and Joey will come home tomorrow. His doctor says he is being a pest and that that is a very good sign.

Hopefully, they’ll feel up to some weekend - or should I say weakened? - hound blogging.

My wife has more on her site.

The details of this little adventure be found here, here, and here.

Check out Itchmo for more on the recalls as they happen.

Thanks again to all of you who have expressed concern and best wishes for the dogs.

After eating several bowls of a poisonous batch of Natural Balance’s Venison & Brown Rice, I am happy to report that it looks like all three hounds will pull through. Daphne and Phoebe are at home again tonight. They have to go back for one more day of subcutaneous fluids, but they will be fine. Joey will remain hospitalized on an IV until Friday, but he will also be fine, and he’ll get to go home on Friday afternoon. His vet says he’s doing great and expects a full recovery.

Thanks to all of you who sent good wishes, thoughts, prayers and nice words for our hounds. There are much worse things in the world the past few days than some blogger’s sick pups and so we appreciate it all the more.

As to the food… well, we’re beyond angry, but very relieved that this wasn’t fatal for our dogs. Sadly, not every pet owner can say that as you can see if your read the (very long and often depressing) comments section on this post at Itchmo. There is also another post at Itchmo regarding more suspect foods that are not yet under any recall. In fact, Itchmo seems to be more on top of this mess than anyone else.

For all you pet lovers reading this, please consider making your own dog or cat food, at least for the time being. Ours really liked the kidney friendly food we made for them last night.

After 36 hours on a kidney flush IV as a result of eating the recalled Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice dog food, Daphne and Phoebe’s levels have returned to a normal range.

Joey’s, however, are still very high. Higher than they were originally. We had to take him to a specialist in south Austin, an amazing veterinary internist who treated Morrison’s diabetes, and in whom we have total confidence.

Joey is producing urine as well as monster turds, one of which he left in the lobby for them, and he seems to be feeling well. These are very good signs.

The vets are optimistic about Joey, but he will have to remain hospitalized and on an IV for the next few days. The girls will go back to the vet tomorrow for observation and to have some more fluid injected under their skin. Phoebe got this today and came home looking like a camel, but her hump has since gone down.

It seems the contamination in the pet food - melamine - is once again the culprit in this latest pet food recall. This time, however, it was found in the brown rice, not wheat gluten. And, once again, this is from food imported from China.

Despite the fact that Joey isn’t out of the woods yet, I’m feeling very fortunate. Yesterday, we wondered if we would have any pets by the end of the week.

Tonight, we cooked up a giant batch of homemade food from a recipe for a kidney diet we got from the vet (courtesy of Hill’s Pet Products):

¼ lb ground beef (not lean ground chuck)
2 cups white rice, no salt
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
3 slices white bread, crumbled
1 tsp calcium carbonate (ground eggshells)

It was the finest meal they’ve ever eaten.

We’re trying to find something for Simon.

I just can’t pour kibble into their bowls right now.

As for Joey, we’ve always said he’s an optimistic dog, and so we will follow the way of the Joe monster and remain optimistic as well. He will - hopefully - come home before the end of the week.

Thanks to those of you who have wished them well. We really appreciate it.