Hambone and the Countess

We had several Thanksgiving celebrations this year that were all wonderful, but cleanup was not so fun (more on that later). The first celebration was at my new job, the VA PRRP (post-traumatic stress residence rehabilitation program). Larry came up and met my co-workers, and we had great barbeque. On Wed night we celebrated with the Northern side of the family, had turkey and terrific comfort side dishes and desserts that we all love, and learned a new card game called Erkle (or something like that). We all love cards and board games!

On Thanksgiving Day, my sister and her family were going to come, but cattle (all are ranchers) and other things conspired together to prevent them from coming, so it was Josh, Robin, us and the 2 cats and our Corgi named Countess Chassis (because she has a 'low body' like a car), and call her Chassis (pronounced 'chassie'). We had ham, and as Larry sliced the ham, he decided to give the huge ham bone to Chassis. I tried to persuade him otherwise since she never gets scraps and ONLY eats Science Diet small bites, but he was sure she would love it. It was HUGE--about 4 inches in diameter, and he left chunks of ham on it for her to enjoy. He gave it to her outside, so of course we didn't see her for a LONG time. She DID love it!

Chassis sleeps in our room in her own little 'couch' at the end of our bed. On Friday morning Larry stepped in an unexpected puddle in our bathroom--very unlike any of our pets, and the next morning I found a small pile of poop in the shower! On Monday morning, we found several small piles in the other 2 bathrooms--on the bathmats. By this time we strongly suspected Chassis, because she acted very guilty when I tried to get her to come with me to one of the bathrooms, whereas Charlie (our orange cat) only acted mildy curious (our gray cat, Captain, sleeps outside). Now, you have to give Chassis credit--she DID choose to go to the bathroom in the bathrooms! And the bathrooms are spread out all over our house, so it took some running around to get from one bathroom to the next...

Monday night we put Chassis' bed in the shower/bathtub room, picked up all the mats, and shut the door. On Tuesday morning there was poop everywhere! Poor Chassis, she hadn't eaten in several days, so Larry took her and a ready stool sample to the vet. The vet gave her several medications and instructions, stating the medicine was for 'dietary indiscretion.' Needless, to say, ONLY dog food in the future!