56.5 lbs
24.5 Inches tall
All baby teeth have fallen out. All of his adult teeth are in, though those middle ones are still just barely crowning.
This morning's walk was interesting. We opted to avoid the park, because a neighbor had warned us of a pair of "aggressive" dogs he'd just encountered while walking there. Instead, we took the weekend route, up to the elementary school (where we had to turn around because they were spraying the grounds with whatever), past the pasture with the pair of cows (after pausing to observe for a bit). We tried the park on our way back, but had to turn around in an attempt to avoid a pair of off-leash dogs (one yellow lab, one smaller, black mix with a greying muzzle). Avoiding them was unsuccessful, they left the park and crossed the road to "meet" us. Kansas was at home, thanks to a lame leg (courtesy of her psycho brother), so that made the meeting easier. The dogs were excited, but friendly, and wanted to play. Airlie got kind of fed up with the excessive sniffing, and Kal got a little scared, but the dogs eventually went on their merry way and we headed home.
That's when we encountered our first box turtle (in Oklahoma), in the middle of the street. Airlie is always on the lookout for turtles, having found several box turtles during our walks in Houston, she thinks every turtle-sized rock or leaf might be one. She sure can tell when it's a real turtle, though- even from far away! She kept trying to bite at this one, and I didn't think to get a photo of her with it until we were well on our way (having moved him/her out of the road and positioned him/her facing the same direction they were headed). I read Anne Allbright Smith's excellent book a while back, about monitoring eastern box turtles in NY with the help of her two cattle dogs. It's a fun and interesting read, and her Facebook page is also excellent. I'd messaged her about her book a few months back, and I'm subscribed to her newsletter. She's always asking if we've found any box turtles yet here. I was excited to be able to email her photos of today's find, and surprised we'd found one at all. Mid-July is late in the season.
Today, we also determined that the raised welts all over Kal's torso are hives- most likely from his bath on Sunday. For some reason, I opted to use this shampoo, when we normally use this one. I'm surprised it made such a difference (though I've used it before to wash his irritated ears and I do recall it seemed to make things worse, rather than help). Ironic the shampoo we normally use has fewer ingredients, but the specially formulated one caused the problem. Tropiclean is what I always used on Leo, for his sensitive skin issues. It's marketed for pest control now, which his why I decided to try the Theraneem one, purchased years ago at the excited proclamations of a pharmacist, but never used. So, now it's Benadryl and wait. At least Kal doesn't seemed bothered at all- it just looked bad. And I brushed him, thinking that might help, but it only made things worse. I mixed up a batch of itchy coat spray, too, and some essential oils to apply to his collar to help repel insects. At first, we'd suspected bug bites... or a grass allergy... but, no. It's my fault. He actually was lying down in the bath tub while I was bathing him, so one side of his body got more of the suds-ing than the other, and it's obvious that it's the shampoo, because that side of his torso is really bad, while the other side is barely affected. Plus, I washed his ears, which were fine prior to the bath, but are now red and bumpy.
Lastly, Leo's floppy dog is now sans ears. Kal decided that Friday night was a good time to chew them both off. It's frustrating, because it's an old dog toy and I did give it to him to enjoy, but... it was Leo's, and while Petsmart still sells a similar item, the ones they sell these days are smaller, and not as good a quality (I mean, we've had 3 of the originals for 10 years...). He'd already chewed off the nose a few months ago, and I've had to mend ripped seams several times. I found some scraps to make new ears out of, and am in the process of deciding what to use for a nose.
This morning, he ripped open the giant yellow plush Peeps bunny from Easter and unstuffed that.
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