Life in BuddyWorld.

I am somewhat embarrassed to acknowledge that Buddy's skin issues were being exacerbated by my "treatment," rather than helped. By bathing him weekly, even with his special medicated shampoo, I was drying out his skin. And by have his coat cut very short, I was giving him access to chew his ass off (literally). When I finally sat down and thought things through, I quit the baths and let his hair grow to an unsightly length, then took him to a new groomer (recommended by my neighbor; she owns Jessica, Buddy's gal pal) who specializes in the Shih-tzu breed. As you can see, life is good at the present.

His anxiety issues come and go. For a couple of weeks, when I came back from leaving him home alone, he had clearly been lying on the floor over by the left-on TV when he ran to greet me and there were no signs of his having had snit fit. Of late, I've come back to find him barking, once still scratching that the front door and with his leash spread out on the floor where he knocked it from where it hangs. All in all, though, there seem to be no issues with the neighbors and I can only hope that Condition A is the new default and will eventually take over completely.

The end of Daylight Saving Time has thrown off his internal clock. This morning he got up at a normal hour, 6:30 rather than the 5:30 throughout the week, so I'm hoping he's adjusting. Dinner seems to be his biggest issue. I feed him around 5 and all week he's starting whimpering, coming over to paw at me and otherwise been disruptive from 4 on. We'll see tonight.