Student again!!!

I have always been fascinated by animal behaviour. It is my true passion in veterinary medicine. This spring I found a board certified veterinary behaviourist, Dr. Diane Frank, who is going to mentor me through my non-conforming residency. Yup, I am going to be a student again!!!!

For those of you who don't know what a non-conforming residency is, I will try to give you the short form of how I plan on accomplishing this. (The proposed program I sent to the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists was 26 pages long!) I will still be practicing general practice veterinary medicine at my hospital; however, Dr. Frank will be coming out once a month for three or four days at a time to oversee my initial cases.

Here's how my caseload works. She will be present for the first 25 cases and then she will be present for 25 of the next 50 cases. There will be varying amounts of supervision as we progress through my minimum of 400 cases. Not only will I be seeing dogs and cats, but horses, birds and zoo animals. This is going to take me about five years. If I were to go to a university with a behaviour residency program it would take about 2 to 3 years. The thought of leaving my patients, clients, work family and, of course, my patient husband, just doesn't work. As well, I will be writing a paper based on research I will be doing that will be published in a peer reviewed journal. I also will find the time to write three peer-reviewed case reports. Once I have completed my program, I will be apply to sit for the boards. This is a two day test (not stressful at all!). Upon passing, I will be board certified in animal behaviour.

Now, during this process, I will still be practicing veterinary medicine as usual. I would likely go absolutely mad if I couldn't. I will also continue to do general medicine once I am a specialist. Being able to help my patients to have a great experience at the hospital is so fulfilling as is helping my scaredy cats and dogs learn to relax.

PEI generosity

It is has been a bit of a roller coaster week and a half. I absolutely love being a veterinarian but I always feel so helpless when there is something going on with one of my Mom's animals.

Last Thursday my Mom had to take her assistance dog, Tag, to the Atlantic Veterinary College for neurological signs (one eye had started to sink into its socket and a tilt to her head). She ended up getting there later in the day and we knew that being able to find her a hotel room was going to be a challenge. It was Old Home Week on the Island and almost all the hotels were fully booked. On her way to my old vet school, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, my amazing office manager, PJ, did some calling around and found her a room at the Garden Gate Inn.

Mom finally gets there and over the next few hours, in between other emergencies being brought in to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Tag was examined, admitted and a game plan was determined. At nine her time, I received a call from the owner of the Garden Gate Inn. Joan Cumming was wondering if I knew when Mom was going to be arriving as she had to step out. Since I hadn't heard from Mom at that time, she instantly said it wouldn't be a problem. She was going to leave a note for Mom on the door telling her to look in the mailbox for the key to her room!! This is an example of the famous Island hospitality. Mom was at the hospital until 1 am and all she had to do was drive up the street and go to bed.

Through a few emails with Joan, we figured out that I'd worked with her daughter, Karen, when I was a student in Truro, Nova Scotia. Karen is an awesome AHT and taught me many things that I still use today. Joan is also the woman who directed me to the dress maker who made my wedding dress. Such a small world!!!

After six long days, Tag was finally able to come home. Mom will be taking her back to the AVC Monday (tomorrow) for the final test. The moment I found out that Tag was going to be going back for an MRI, I contacted Joan. With that kind of personal service, I knew Mom would be well taken care of during this trying time.

If anyone is ever going to be visiting beautiful Prince Edward Island, I would highly recommend staying at the Garden Gate Inn. I know you will be thoroughly impressed with the service. Thanks again Joan, you are an angel!

Yes, there is a Tim Horton's right beside the Inn! Yet another plus for this Tim's addict!

Yes, I can turn you away

Today was an interesting Monday to say the least. I know that people's tempers are a bit frayed from the continued state of emergency in High River. Here's the thing, it does not give you the right to be rude to my staff. They are my work family and I tend to be very protective of my family.

A lady called and made an appointment for her dog because it had a cut on its leg. Not a problem, the staff "made" an appointment (aka, we were fully booked and needed to find a place to squish her in). The fun started when she arrived. My receptionist, Belle, told her that she would take them into a room and I would be in shortly to do an exam to see what needed to be done. This person told her (in no uncertain terms) that the dog was not going to have an exam because the dog just needed to have some stitches put in. Oh yeah, she didn't want antibiotics either cause vets just like to over medicate the animals. Belle tried to explain that unless I saw the dog, I wouldn't know how to treat the dog appropriately. The person informed her that she should just get the vet.

So Belle came and got me. I came out and asked what the issue was. I sure got an earful!!!! Can I tell you how much I love being told how to do my job? Here's the thing, without examining the dog and coming up with a treatment plan, how do I know what needs to be done? Does it have a small cut that can just heal on its own? Is it a large laceration needing a general anesthetic? The person flipped out when I mentioned a general anesthetic as her vet never used an anesthetic and would just take the dog out back and throw in some stitches. I finally figured that no matter what I said, it would start another argument.

I took a deep breath and told the owner that we had obviously gotten off on the wrong foot. She nodded her head in agreement. "So, with that in mind, Belle, would you mind calling X veterinary clinic to see if they have any room to deal with this patient?" After picking her jaw off the floor, she stormed out with the poor dog in tow.

This is my dear Reason who is now 14 years old. Just added her picture as a reward for reading my little rant.

Things I learned today

Well, I have learned a number of things about myself today. I can still run in my heels. I can almost get myself stuck under a car. I can climb around the engine block to get a scared cat. Yes, I learned this during business hours!!!

Let's start at the beginning. I was having an informal meeting with another vet, Dr. Leicht, when one of the staff said they needed help catching a cat in the parking lot. Out we all went to find the cat which was now hiding in the engine block of someone's Mazda. Easy to find the car as there were a number of people surrounding the cat. Luckily, the vehicle owner was found so she popped the hood. Before the two of us on top could move, it darted down, dove past everyone stretched out around the car and took off. I went running to the sidewalk in hopes of keeping it from going on the road.

Our group gathered around another ....... Mazda. If you want to see a well protected engine, go look at a Mazda. I tried to get under to have a peak and almost got stuck. So there we all are, standing around the vehicle. I joked that it would be a good idea to get the owner's attention by setting off the car alarm. I hit the car and son of a gun if it didn't go off! I may never be able to hear quite the same again. That didn't bring an owner so my girls and Dr. Leicht went to the different businesses to find an owner.

It took a bit, but finally the owner of the car came out. He popped the hood for what turned out to be the first time since he'd owned the car. The girls were ready underneath with the fishing net a kind young teenager had offered to the cause. The others were placed strategically around the car. As the hood opened, I jumped on top of the engine and almost grabbed the cat by the tail. The cat poked its head down under then aborted mission and hid on the other side of some part of the engine. Luckily my arm was just long enough to reach the scruff and I held on for dear life. My Mom would have been so proud. Dr. Leicht had the cat carrier ready and in she went.

So, this scared little cat is in our quiet cat room. We will look for identification once s/he has settled. If you know of anyone who lost a cat in the Walmart parking lot today in Okotoks, it is safe with us. Oh yeah, the current nickname is Mazda!!!

Something so tiny........

I recently performed dental surgery on the cutest little cat. During her yearly physical, we found that Button (as in cute as a button), had fractured one of her incisors. Since the pulp was exposed we needed to extract it. It did turn out to be an eye opening procedure as we found something we weren't exactly expecting.

My RAHT, Kelly, took a great picture of the cavity on the canine tooth. The green arrow is pointing at the tiny little defect that was so painful that her mouth chattered when it was touched under the general anesthetic. If you've only read one of my dental blogs you know the next step was a radiograph.

This picture did not give me the warm fuzzies cause the root sucked! (Yes, that is a professional and medical term!) The picture on the right is from my dental book to show you what a normal root is supposed to look like. Needless to say, we extracted that tooth as well (after tracking Mom down at her dental appointment across town, LOL)!

Dental surgery = use the bloody dental radiograph machine!

I have given myself a couple of weeks before sitting down to write this particular blog; however, from the title, you may sense that I am still pretty frustrated. This whole thing could have been avoided and the dog would not have been in pain.
So here is a picture of the poor dog. It doesn't take much imagination to see there is a swelling on the side of its face. As well, the dog had ALREADY had dental surgery to remove tooth 208 (the big carnaissal tooth) to help with the swelling. Hmmmmmmmm. The owner had taken the dog back to the original vet concerned because the swelling hadn't gotten any better post-surgery. This person said it would take time to go down so the owner came to see me for a second opinion.

I was able to get a copy of the medical records and no where did it say that the dental radiograph machine had been used or that bloodwork had been performed on this senior dog. Needless to say, we did bloodwork (normal) and radiographs to see what was waiting for us as this tooth has three roots. Gee, that looks like a root to me! Brought out my drill and got it (and some pretty gross abcess material) out in short order.

The next radiograph showed..... the blue arrow pointing at the second root that was left behind (that means the vet only took out one root of three). The red arrow shows a tooth root abcess starting in the tooth in front so it had to be extracted as well.

After taking a final radiograph to make absolute sure there was nothing left, we sutured her up and let her have a well deserved, pain free nap!

So folks, should your dog or cat need to have dental surgery, make sure the facility has the ability to take radiographs so this sort of thing does not happen. Thank you for putting up with my rant!!!!

Quality of Life

I was having a fairly routine afternoon of annual physical exams, vaccines, ear infections when I entered Toby's room. This sweet gentleman of a dog was a dream to work with. His Mom told me that he'd been having some issues with his hind end and his right hip tended to bother him the most. Toby was certainly uncomfortable when I palpated his right hip but all he did was give me a look of "well, if you have to". At that point I was simply thinking he had arthritis.

It wasn't until I checked his proprioception in his legs that I started to get quite concerned. When we check for proprioception, what we are actually doing is checking to see if the animal knows where their legs are in space. It is a very easy test in that all we have to do is turn the foot upside down and wait to see how long it takes them to right it. A dog with normal reflexes won't even want you to do that. Toby didn't move his right hind limb until I moved it back to normal for him.


In this picture, Cardinal is my foot model and he is demonstrating the upside look with his foot.

Now, it isn't common for our dogs to get proprioceptive deficits from hip dysplasia. I've only ever seen it twice in my past thirteen years of practice. Generally, there is something else going on. I proceeded to do a rectal exam. Its not the glamorous part of my job, but important. I was not expecting to feel a mass the size of a very large kiwi on the right side of the pelvis!!! The poor boy has cancer that is putting pressure on his nerves.

Our main goal is to make sure we can make him comfortable in the time he has left with his Mom. Quality of life is something that both his Mom and I agreed on immediately. Due to his age, he is not a good candidate for the invasive surgery and chemo that would be required to buy him some extra time.

Barking mad can be good!

I have gotten into the habit of leaving my patio door open at night for a couple of reasons. One is that my five year old yellow Lab, Cardinal, likes to go scope things out at odd times and won't hesitate to get me up to open the door. The other is that my 14 year old black Lab, Reason, is a senior who needs to go out on an irregular basis.

Last night, I got everyone settled in for the night and we all fell asleep. That is until I leaped out of bed because Cardinal was making such a ruckus outside. I was sure that someone had attempted to get in and he now had them cornered. I ran to the back door to find a very satisfied looking Cardinal standing beside Reason. Apparently she needed help getting up the patio stairs in the dark. The moment I got her back inside, he raced up and took my place on the bed.



Not going to lie, I was pretty proud of Cardinal getting me up to help Reason, but it did take some time for my heart rate to go back to normal so I could get back to sleep!

The Other Side

I was recently on the other side of the exam table and I cannot say that I enjoyed it. I had gone home to do a seminar and visit with my mother, Heather Logan. I hadn't been home to visit in about five years so I was pretty excited. My husband, Troy, went on a photography trip with a friend of his to Trinidad. I had one of my girls staying at the house to take care of the dogs. I really didn't expect to have any problems.

I did get concerned when the housesitter texted me to say that Jazzy wasn't eating well. Normally, Jazzy eats with the enthusiasm of a Lab. As she still had a good attitude and was drinking, I advised her to keep a close eye on her. Well, by Sunday morning she still hadn't eaten so I told her to take Jazzy into the Fish Creek Pet Hospital.

It turns out that Jazzy was much sicker than she looked. The bloodwork showed that her kidney enzymes were elevated so she was put on IV fluids immediately. The radiographs did not show any areas of concern. As the day progressed, she was not improving. The next morning an ultrasound was performed and the kidneys were normal. At the end of the procedure, she had bloody jellylike feces. Not a good thing! I gave permission for the specialist, Dr. Clarkson, to go forward with endoscopy. Since she was stable and well hydrated it would still be safe for her to go under general anesthesia. Her esophagus and stomach appeared normal. Apparently, the large colon was a bit interesting. The analytical side of me enjoys interesting cases; however, I don't like being the owner of one!!! The lining of the colon looked a bit angry and she oozed blood more than normal from the biopsy sites.

The phone call to tell me that she was going to need at least two plasma transfusions did not give me the warm fuzzies. The plasma would provide her with the factors of the blood that would allow her to clot better. Three different antibiotics were also started. By the time I got home three days later, she was ready to come home. I got off the plane and the first stop was the hospital to get her.

Not going to lie, I could barely see her through the tears as they brought her up front. She crawled into my arms and I didn't let her go until I got home.
This is one of my favorite baby pictures.

We are still waiting for the biopsy results but it is looking as though she had an overgrowth of bacteria (most likely a nasty type of E.coli) and became toxic from it entering the blood stream. I really appreciate all the staff at the Fish Creek Pet Hospital for saving my baby girl's life!

Giggling while using the gigli wire

After we closed on Saturday, I was sitting at my desk going through my stack of files. One of my clients called to say that his dog had got the bone she was chewing stuck in her mouth. I told him to come right over. I was picturing that the bone was caught in the hard palate. I hadn't pictured this. There was no way that the bone was coming off while she was awake.

So, under a general anesthetic she went. This way, I was able to use my gigli wire to get it off. The gigli wire is a surgical wire used to cut through bone smoothly. I was able to slide it through and start sawing. Her Dad, provided counter balance. It only took 10 seconds to saw through. I popped it off and woke her up. Another successful day at the office!

Years of Searching

Today was the day I found my paper!

COX, M.G., ANDERSON, D.M. and RYON, J. 1997. Comparative digestibility by wolves (Canis Iupus) and Coyotes (Canis Iatrans) fed feedstuffs of animal origin. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 77:560.

Doesn't it look official?!!? My first(long story) maiden name was Cox and I was thrilled when I got to work with the wolves and coyotes at the Canadian Wolf Research Centre in 1996-1997. This was during my final year at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (now known as the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus) and everyone in their last year had to do a research project. I was told later that the project I worked on could have qualified for a Masters program!!! What I also didn't know was that this project was going to take me out of class so much. When my professors wanted to let me know that I needed to study for a test, they would come find me in the lab where I basically lived for about 4 months.

Over the years I have looked for this paper as I have many fond memories of working with the animals. It was bitterly cold that winter and yet I had fun getting to know the animals. This is also the only time in my life that I was actually interested in picking up the scat (poop). Mom always had to nag me to clean up after the dogs and my mutterings about how I felt about it were not exactly positive!

Here is one of my test subjects. He looked forward to me coming with the food everyday. One day, he actually nipped at my butt to get me to move faster towards the area where I would place his food. I don't think he got the reaction he was looking for cause I started laughing so hard. Here I was, alone in the 1 acre pen with a wolf trying to herd me.

If you are bored, go to this link and find page 20. There you will find the abstract. Woohoooooo!!! I am published.

Panda hugs

Another item on the bucket list checked off! I got to go to China. We had been told by our fantastic travel agents, Dave and Arlene, of Pace Setter Travel, that we would be able to see the Pandas. I never dreamed that I would ever get to hold a Panda. Absolutely thrilling to put it mildly.

You can imagine the surprise when the Panda was brought in. I had been under the impression that we would be holding a baby. The baby basically dwarfed me.

I was exposed to the most extraordinary example of positive reinforecment while I was there. Panda bears are not the friendliest animals on earth. However, the way they are handled at this facility, they are completely comfortable with humans. Who wouldn't be when you have the association of sitting on an excited person's lap while eating your favorite bamboo shoots, honey and apples?

Not more anal glands!

Anyone who thinks that being a veterinarian is a glamorous, fun job where you get to play with puppies and kittens all day is delusional! Fun, yes but after your first run in with an anal gland, no glamor! I seem to be having a run of patients needing help regarding their anal glands. With this in mind, I took a picture of one of my most recent sacculectomy cases to show off.

Let's go back to basics. Anal glands are the scent secreting glands located just inside the internal and external sphincter muscles of the rectum. There is one on either side of the anus between 3-4 o'clock and 8-9 o'clock. Normally, when the dog (or cat) defecates, the anal glands are self expressed. Problems occur for a number of reasons. Some of these include when the material becomes too thick to easily be expressed, the ducts leading from the glands to the anus become blocked, the area becomes inflammed leading to blockage of the ducts, the glands become infected or rupture of the gland. The list goes on.

When deciding to go forward with surgery, you have to weigh the pros and cons seriously. Pros: no more smelly glands that can become infected or ruptured (takes 7 - 9 weeks to heal and are much more likely to rupture again). Cons: fecal incontinence, infection, inflammation, dehiscence of the incisions. This is not a surgery to be taken lightly.

So when we have a case where we need to remove them, I want to avoid a particular complication at all costs. Fecal incontinence is no fun. The dog is just walking along, feces falls out and s/he has no idea it happened. I have only had one case where it occured and it resolved in two weeks.

One of my tools is coloured wax. Who knew that Crayola crayons would have so many uses! It can be a bloody surgery and having a contrasting colour really helps. During the surgery prep I infuse both the glands with the colored wax. This allows me to make my incision just that much further away from the anus; thereby decreasing the chance I will tick the nerves to the sphincters off.

Back to the picture. I made an incision over the gland so you could see how thick it was from the chronic infections. At the bottom of the picture you can see the duct. Since I didn't place a ruler by the gland, it is difficult to have perspective on the actual size. Small, but large enough to be a pain in the......well, you get the idea!

Dental surprise!

One of my patients, Tazo, was having a hard time chewing her food so she was brought in for an exam. Her 108 (really big upper molar had some gum recession and purulent (abcess material) along the gum line. We scheduled her for surgery.

Well, today was the day. We took a radiograph to see what was going on with the bone around the tooth and to see if there were any tooth root abcesses. I was not expecting to see this picture. The entire back root was gone, as was the bone from infection. It also usually takes anywhere from 20-40 minutes to remove this tooth but it only took half the time. The biggest problem was getting enough gum tissue to cover the sockets once I got all the "debris" out of them.

Here is the after picture with the area sutured close. No more wiggly, painful tooth! Plus, her breath doesn't clear a room out now.

I saw red!

This week, we got a call that an emergency was coming in and they were just a few minutes out. Dog versus horse. That is about as heart warming as reading a Dean Koontz book.

In came Soda with blood coming from the right nostril and the right eye trying to leave its socket. The picture kind of tells the story for me.

Everything was bloody. The anterior chamber (area of eye in front of pupil was full of blood, the sclera (white of the eye) was bulging and the entire eye was being pushed out by the hematoma that was likely bleeding behind the eye itself. The swollen eyelids were basically holding the eye in place.

I was so proud of my staff. We got things happening pretty quickly. Stephanie drove to Troy's clinic to get non-absorbable suture (I only had absorbable), Kelly, PJ, Claire and Caitie got her pre-meded and under a general anesthetic while Jac and Belle rearranged my schedule so we could do the procedure.

The procedure is pretty neat when you don't think about what would happen if you accidently poked the eye with the needle............You basically use the eyelids as the bandage. The eyes stay lubricated and by suturing the eyelids closed, it stops the bleeding. To make sure the eyelids don't rip (well, if you don't like gross stuff, you should have stopped reading sooner!) I used small pieces of IV tubing as anchors. We will remove the sutures in 2 weeks and see what is happening. There is a chance she may be blind in that eye but as long as she is comfortable, that is the most important thing!

Adrenaline rush

There are a number of emergencies that can cause an adrenaline rush in a veterinarian. A hit by car, cat straining to urinate, seizures and a GDV (gastric dilation and volvulus) aka bloat.

A young Golden Retriever, named Harry, wasn't acting like himself. He was fine when he'd been fed around 6am but at 9am he just wasn't himself. He was retching, vomiting and eating grass hastily (98% of dogs eat grass just because they like the taste of it, just ask all four of my dogs).

I was relieved when I felt Harry's abdomen. His stomach was quite large but it wasn't hard like a basketball. His intestines were also pretty gassy feeling. I was also happy the history included vomiting up grass. Classically, GDV dogs try to vomit but nothing can come up. Off we went to take a radiograph.

What I did not want to see was a twisted stomach. If you look closely at this picture you will see the typical look of GDV. It looks like Popeye, the sailor, is flexing his biceps. When this is what you see, you either fly into surgery or perform humane euthanasia. Once the blood supply has been cut off from the twist of the stomach on itself, you have a very limited period of time before the stomach starts to die.

You can imagine how happy I was to see that the stomach was just significantly enlarged. There is another radiograph showing the gas extended right back to the rectum. We put a stomach tube down his throat to remove some of the gas and then admitted him for observation. We needed to make sure that if his stomach started to torse that we deal with it immediately.

He was taken on regular walks (helped to air out the treatment room as his gas was a nasty smell of success)! His folks also came to walk him a few times as well. By the end of the day, he was starting to act like his goofy normal self! The radiograph taken prior to him going home made us all so happy. The stomach was normal in size and only the large colon was gas filled. Yay Harry!!!!

Belly Ache Time

I had a rather long feeling day today and looking forward to yoga made it a bit easier. Did my first handstand ever and was on a bit of a high as I walked back in the door at home.

The problem was that I was only greeted by three out of four dogs. I followed some interesting sounds into the kitchen to find the fourth. Yes, that is my special needs boy, Kodak, sitting on the counter. What you can't really tell is how large his belly is from all the food he'd eaten.

I rethought my dinner plans (spaghetti) as I tried to figure out how he got up there. It wasn't until I went around to the other side of the counter that I discovered the key. Yes, I have now separated the boxes from the stool so his "steps" are dismantled.

Currently, he is laying around like a beached whale that has a cute little wagging tail.

Slab fractures

I was informed by one of my volunteers this morning that I have been rather negligent in my blogging lately. Luckily she told me this as I was about to start my dental surgery so I took pictures as I went along.

Recently, I had a dog come in for its yearly physical exam and vaccinations. I found that it had a slab fracture on its carnaissal tooth (if I'm going to use fancy dental charting - the 108 was fractured). It had occured long enough ago that the pulp was black. The thought of walking around with a tooth like this makes me want to cringe but our animals don't often tell us when they are having tooth problems.

Today was the day to take it out. I am holding the "slab" part of the tooth up. One thing you should never see is tissue between pieces of the same tooth. Yup, there is the infected tissue. Would you like to know what it smelled like? Nasty! There is a positive about a fracture like this, it exposes so much that it makes it incredibly easy to figure out where to do the drilling to isolate each of the three roots.

This is one of the three roots and all of them had granulomas on the root tip. Basically there were small abcesses on the tips. If you are having a hard time orienting yourself, the nasty tip is pointing to the left. The other thing that is missing from this root is length. The infection has eaten away at the tooth so it is now shorter. I won't bore you with how long I cleaned each of the sockets so I could feel comfortable about closing it properly. At least I know she will enjoy the pork liver flavored antibiotics!!!

Puppy and kitten brain mush

I have a confession. I absolutely loose all ability to be professional walking into the appointment room when there is a kitten or puppy. I can't tell you the amount of times the staff have reminded me that I am supposed to walk into the room, greet the owners and introduce myself while looking them in the eye and then greet the puppy or kitten.

Here's what goes on in my brain. Ok, this time, I'm going to be professional. I can do this.............I open my mouth and out comes cooing baby sounds. I pick up (possibly grab puppy or kitten out of the owner's arms) the little one and tell them they are going to have a good time with their auntie Bourque. I am sure that many owners would have no idea who I am except for the fact that I wear a white smock and wear a name tag.

I have been doing this for as long as I can remember. I would fall asleep with the litters of puppies piled on top of me (honest Mom, I was doing my homework, I just couldn't move and disturb the puppies). I think that when the day comes that I can't completely enjoy these little miracles, I'd better hang up my smock.

I only vaguely remember this picture being taken one Sunday morning after we'd completed the assessments for the new dogs coming into the PALs program. One of the volunteers brought in their puppy for a little socialization and this is what happened.......

Quirky night

My evening last night was rather interesting. Not only did I get very lost on the University of Calgary campus after being stuck in the wonderful traffic jam on Crowfoot, I got to meet Bob from Quirks and Quarks. I had been asked to come answer a question for the Quirks Question Roadshow. Dogs peeing isn't the sexiest topic to talk about but it was so much fun to be there. I wish that when I'd been asked about the fire hydrant, I'd said something along the line the dogs were urinating as "reply all".

Here's the link if you want to hear about this and other interesting topics: