Benadryl, Bear Claws and Burnt Eggs.

Karen and Cherelle at Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming.

(No dogs but Service Dogs are allowed on trail.)

As promised in my previous blog here is something about some of the daily stuff of traveling with a Hearing Dog.

Benadryl? Some of you may be wondering what does that have to do with Cher? Those of you who have had to give medication to a dog may have a pretty good idea where this next bit is headed. 

Like many Labs and Lab mixes Cherelle is occasionally plagued by allergies. One of the things that I like to avoid, because she has public access, is a plop down in the middle of aisle 5, fur flying, scratching fit from her. And at a restaurant........ Well you get my drift. The fairly sudden change in geography has triggered allergy issues for both of us. Cher's veterinarian has suggested giving her Benadryl when she seems to be uncomfortable. In the past I used some of that cheese stuff that spurts from a can to cover up the pill. Worked for quite awhile until she got wise to that and became adapt at sucking the cheese off and spitting out the pill. Round one Cher, me zip. Next I purchased those little pouches of doggie yumminess called "pill pockets" and voila problem solved! Joke is on me as it turns out because that was a temporary fix. I discovered this the other day. I took the pill shoved it into the "pocket" rolled it around in my hand to thoroughly hide it and with an excited voice said "Yum Cher a goodie!"  She snapped it up started to chew, swallowed and, yep, spit out the pill. Round two Cher, me zip. Stubborn is my nickname, so I tried again but this time I held her head up slightly thinking that would force her to swallow the pill. Crafty girl that she is, she slid her tongue back as I tilted her head and after quickly chewing and swallowing the tasty pill delivery system proceeded to spit the pill out with such force that it hit me in the forehead! Cher three, me zip and wondering how to win this Benadryl battle. An idea formed. They make this stuff for kids right? Kids hate medicine so it comes in yummy favors. Why don't I try giving her the allergy med in children's form? Off we went to one if those grocery/pharmacy stores, bought the medicine, returned to the RV, measured out an appropriate dosage and..........success. She sucked it right down and seemed to be looking for seconds. Cher three, me one, until?

Bear claws. Those sugary, deep fried dough blobs of goodness we buy at our favorite pastry shop. Yum! Nope. I am talking about those long wicked looking things on the ends of the paws of a bear. Those very big furry creatures that get into garbage cans and raid picnic hampers. What!  Here is how it went down.

Larry and I and Cher, in her role as Service Dog, went to the "Buffalo Bill Center of the West" in Cody, Wyoming. Wonderful place by the way. I highly recommend visiting it. The audio for the displays that have narration are captioned!  Anyway, when you first enter, a Park Ranger does a short presentation about the bears one might encounter while visiting the various parks in Wyoming. I think it is an attempt to keep the tourists from getting nibbled on by the different bears that inhabit the area. FYI, those would be; brown bear, black bear and grizzly bear, oh my!  There is also a bear skin with claws intact, for people to touch and marvel at. I went up to look and touch and marvel and so did Cher. She smelled the fur, she smelled the paws, she smelled the claws and then she began to give them a little taste. At that point, especially since the Ranger was watching all this, I told Cherelle to "leave it", which she did. The Park Ranger was amused and said that there have been other dogs that have checked out the skin and that most of them want nothing to do with it. Trust my girl to try and snack on it! Other than that Cher behaved like a lady the rest of the tour and was not phased by all the wild animal sounds that were recorded and played in the nature section of the center or I might add all the various taxidermy creatures. She even tried to work some of sounds when people would push the buttons to activate the animal calls. 

The final "B". Burnt eggs. I have now learned that unless a smoke alarm is involved Cher will not alert me to burning food. I was boiling a few eggs in preparation for potato salad. I forgot to set the kitchen timer to remind me to check on the status of the eggs.  The next thing I am aware of is Cher tapping me with her nose and leading me to the kitchen section of the motor home. Not because of the eggs but because my husband was calling my name. He had discovered the, by now char boiled, eggs sitting in a dry slightly burning pan!  I have no doubt that had it gotten to the flame stage Cher would have decided that it was something I should know about, but obviously she is of the "don't sweat the small stuff" frame of mind.  A few scorched eggs. No big deal. Think about it. It wasn't bad enough to set off the smoke detector. 

Next state on our travels. South Dakota. Until then........

Warmest wishes from me and tail wags from Cherelle (aka Cher).