State of the Perceval!

Yeah, Percy has been a source for a little concern, but he's really no different than he was before we took him to the vet. We knew he had a heart problem and so we've been saving up all the money to do the tests. Our holistic vet told us if we got all the scans done, then the vets would know which valves were damaged and give us the appropriate medication. What's cool is that our holistic vet works together with Percy's heart doctor. The heart vet is a riot -- a gay man who thinks that all males -- including humans -- should be castrated. The first time we saw him he gave Percy a treat and then ate one himself. I was surprised. I thought I hadn't seen things right and said "Did you just eat a dog treat?" And he said "Oh yeah. I like a little
cookie too every now and then." Right now Percy is on Chinese herbs for his heart, as well as a diaretic, which, actually, I think is very good, if not the best thing for him. His heart was leaking liquid into his lungs and he developed this awful cough from it. But the diaretic cleans that sop up, so he's not exhausted from coughing all night. It was really quite bad before all the medicines. And then he's on another medicine to make his heart work a little better. What the doctor said though, that with those two drugs dogs in Percy's state usually live 6-12 months, but given Percy's generally good "Chi" (that's what he called it), and the fact that there is another drug that is fairly new and safe, he most likely will live longer. He said that as a doctor he only had statistics to say 6-12 months, but that as a person he thought he would live longer, mostly because of his
spirit and also because we were doing alternative medicines and there was also that second drug for when things got more serious.

We talked to the dog communicator today. A nice lady in MA who called and spoke telepathically with Perceval. We wanted her to ask him how he was feeling. He said his mouth was bothering him a little bit (he's got rotten old man teeth) and his butt was bothering him, but that he wasn't aware of anything with his heart. (He still has a ton of energy and the doctor couldn't believe how much Percy exercised.) We asked him if he could stop trying to bite his doctors because they were
trying to help him and last time he scared his heart doctor so badly that the man's hands shook. Percy replied, "He SHOULD be scared. I AM going to bite him."

Percy also asked us if we were "pleased" with him. He said he knew we "loved" him, but he wanted to know if we were "pleased" with him. Of course, we said yes. The communicator then said she hoped that we didn't want to ask him to change any of his behavior too much, because, although he was polite, he didn't want to change any of this ways.

He's on this new homemade dog food for cardiac patients which he absolutely loves. I've never seen him eat with such pleasure. And when he started talking to us today the first thing he told the communicator was that he really loved his food and all his beds. She said that he was very happy that he had so many beds around the house. The communicator told us that he was very interested in luxurious living. That explains all the massages he demands. He also said that he didn't want to go to the groomers any more and that if he had to go, could we get his hair cut very short each time so he didn't need to go so often. But he preferred the groomers to the baths I gave him. Oh and he said that he used to be very fat and that he didn't want to be fat again, but that he would like a little extra food since it was so good. That was the last thing he wanted to tell us.

He is just the way we imagined him.