Freddie on the Alert (for which I am thankful!)

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Dogs are pretty extraordinary creatures. Pre-Freddie, though I liked dogs and had grown up with a variety of them, I never could have imagined myself expressing my feelings for them in quite such extreme terms. Yet there it is. Blood sugar alerting aside, Freddie is an extraordinary little fellow, and Paul and I are very thankful to have him in our lives.

But alerting is the topic du jour.

Here we are, just about ready to head out for pecans (to go in that brussels sprouts dish mentioned yesterday).

Just need to test first, and ..... ok, you can't really see the number in this shot, but Freddie looks so cute I had to include it.

Here we go: 5.6 mmol/L. A good number ... but what'll happen after a bit of walking? (Which, strangely, can have a more dramatic effect on blood sugar levels than more vigorous exercise.) I chowed down a square of dark chocolate and a couple of seed crackers, and off we went.

Here we are at Greens Market, in Freddie's favourite department: meat! But Freddie is acting a little weird — not settling, looking worried ...

I sat down in the café area to test, and here's what Freddie did (this is a re-enactment; I don't generally have my camera out, on, and ready to shoot!). You can see here why Freddie doesn't play "shake a paw." Pawing is an important part of his job! When he gets older and better at this gig, he'll paw right away. Alerts away from home can still be a challenge.

I tested, and .... 4.1 (recall that Freddie's alert threshold is 4.2). Yay, puppy! Big treat party for you! Except — argh! — guess who forgot to bring along super-duper, "high value" treats? Gah! We had to make do with boring ol' dehydrated liver treats (I say "we" quite literally, as I always suck on Freddie's low treats, to give him an extra dose of the scent he's supposed to respond to!).

I had my icky purple-flavoured Dex 4s ...

... and thought about having coffee when we got home.

Before heading home, however, we went back to Freddie's favourite department and picked up some high value chicken wings. Freddie eats them raw (most of his food is raw), but don't worry! It's cooked chicken bones that cause the problems (because they splinter). Raw bones are fine — and the chickens he eats led peaceful, organic lives.

Practicing a sit-stay in the lane. Garbage cans aside, Vancouver's lanes are nice. Maybe that's why they tend to be called "lanes" and not "alleys."

May you have much to be thankful for in the coming year!