I am glad he is better and home to rest. We went thru that with our husky, who lived until he was 17 years.

Sounds like a lot of relief at your house tonight--along with love and affection from both sides. Recover well, Eliot!

Westies are such smart, independent, loving dogs. I'm happy to hear that yours is doing better.

That's great, Chisue. How smart of the vet to do the teeth at the same time. Oski and I send hugs and wishes for a smooth recovery from the surgery.

Peeka and I send best wishes for a quick recovery!!!
{{gwi:2139576}}

Wow, what a resilient little man!

Smudge (Maine Coon) is 15 and he has full hearing and vision and mobility. He and Bud have some real running and boxing matches. We dread the time when something will happen with his health.

I'm so glad Elliott is doing so well, and he will be pampered to death for the next few days. I can relate how he felt when he didn't get to clean your cereal dishes. Smudge and Bud have to have a little bit of milk or lick our yogurt dishes.

I'm so glad to hear he's doing well. He's lucky to have you, as you clearly love him very much. Our sweet pets are worth it! :)

Smiles for Eliot

Glad to hear the good news about Eliot. Dogs, even older ones, bounce back pretty quickly after surgery. El will be ready for a little extra milk in your cereal bowl and a nice squirrel patrol by tomorrow. Today was probably harder for you than him. I'm always on pins and needles when our pets are having surgery.

So glad Eliot's doing well! Please give him a little belly rub for me! (I also can't believe the bill wasn't so much higher!)

That's great news! A good nose comes in real handy when the other senses start to fail.

I have always liked Westies, but working at a vet, I learned that in FL, anyway, they have a lot of issues with their skin.

Is he a cuddler during the cold winters you get up there?

Glad to know your fur baby is home and doing well.

Sadly, our dogs never seem to get that old. One strangled to death, another got cancer at age seven. We currently have one dog (Wheaten Terrier) and two cats. We love them so. Glad your little guy is doing okay.

I am so happy to hear that Elliot came through the anesthesia so well! It is a blessing to have our sweet babies home and near us.

Eliot is delighted with all your good wishes! Thank you. (Hi back at you, Oski, my fellow-Westie!)

We chose the breed when we were newlyweds. My dog needs to fit in a laundry tub, and my DH didn't want to walk a frou-frou puff ball. I was familiar with an aunt's Sealeyham from childhood.

Fifty years ago Westies were not as popular as they are today. We see them in ads all the time now. There's a Westie mascot for the canned dog food "Cesar", and there is one on the smal size Milk-Bone box

#1 Westie Charlie loved everyone, but died of cancer of the tongue at age nine. (I believe a lesion was created when he rescued my engagement ring from going down the drain while I washed him; he brought it back up weeks later. I've never wanted a new diamond.)

#2 Westie Rosie was an out of control demon we got too late in her life. She escaped across a nearby highway many times...until she was killed.

#3 Westie Pip was a champion and a sweetie too. He was the first to have skin troubles, but they went away as he grew older. He was a hard act to follow. We were without a dog for a few years after he died at almost 17.

#4 Westie Eliot is no champion -- a Westie Rescue who is 'not made right' inside or out. He was so undersized when we got him that we shaved his name to only five letters. No skin troubles, but an acid stomach, providing us with many 3 a.m. adventures in our bedroom. Now he takes a little bit of antacid mornings and evenings. He still has to eat small meals of a special diet three times a day.

Nicole -- Is that a cat or did Santa bring you a lump of coal with eyes? Peeka is such a cute name.

Jannie -- Eliot's two best pals are a male and a female Wheaten who live just down the street. The female bosses both 'boys' around!

Awww, I'm glad all went well and Eliot is in the pink again!

Chisue, I love hearing about all your Westies. I've see a Westie pictured on one of those sticky-tape roller things to pick up lint, dog hair, etc. It's such a ridiculous choice because Westies hardly shed at all! They should have chosen a lab!

Oski has no skin troubles (knock-knock) but seems itchy from time to time, don't know why. I've wondered if it has to do with humidity.

Do you cook for Eliot or has he always eaten commercial food? I'm trying to figure out his secret to long life; maybe it's TLC! Or all that cereal-milk.

Socks -- I did cook for Pip for the last three or four years of his life -- just rice, hamburger, cottage cheese. I asked our vet about cooking for Eliot. Because of his excess stomach acid, she prescribed Hill's i/d Low Fat GI Restore. I buy it from Chewie's (great name, eh?). It's almost $30 for three cases of twelve cans, delivered to our door. He also gets an antacid morning and night -- and Tramadol when I can see his arthritis is hurting him.

I didn't believe El would still be here when we made our Maui plans. However, he sleeps most of the time now, and should be fine staying home where everything is familiar with our usual sitter.

Oski is lucky 'Grandma' picked up the slack when the grandchildren arrived! Does he enjoy the kids when they visit? Eliot always *loved* little girls; I think he liked their squeaky voices.

So glad Eliot recovered quickly and you got everything done now instead of worrying thru the holidays. I'm sure the vet ran bloodwork before surgery so you know you have the peace of mind of knowing there's no hidden problems lurking. Eliot sounds like quite a character!

Maybe Oski is lucky, but I'm lucky too because he has filled a spot in my life and heart, for sure.

The relationship between the kids and Oski is a bit tentative. He is excited to see them, is very frisky and sometimes jumps up a little. They are a bit afraid, but it's getting better as they get older. I am with him and them when they interact, and I've never seen him snap or grumble at them.

This post was edited by socks12345 on Mon, Dec 15, 14 at 9:00

Glad Eliot is healing back home. He sounds like a great little guy.

The only Westie we knew as a 'problem' was Rosie. She would NOT be tamed. She'd been crated most of the time at a breeder's -- supposedly highly reputable breeder, but... I know more now. One of our DS's friends had a younger brother who re-named her, "Rosiebites". She didn't actually bite, but she would jump up on his legs, and his mother was going for the English Schoolboy look -- short pants.

I remember one cold winter morning with a foot of snow on the ground. Rosie ran out the door when our DS went to fetch the newspaper. We chased her around our cul de sac for an hour before finally giving up. She came back to our door harassing the mailman.

She was an escape artist. She took off one fall day around noon and returned hours later, dragging what I first thought was a turkey carcass. It turned out to be a bleached out cow's skull that a neighbor had positioned beside a wagon wheel as an Old West- themed decoration. That was *some bone*. No wonder she was gone so long.

Maybe we should start a new thread with "Dog Stories"?

I've chased Oski around more than once when he refused to "come." Of course, I realize that chasing him just makes him run more, but all that can be done is to wear him out, and then he drops down and surrenders (laughing). To him this is as much fun as can be had in life! He has gotten much better about coming when called.

That is so funny about the cow skull. She really found a treasure.