Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays everyone! Apparently Xsara was a good girl this year, so Santa left her something under the tree. Her gifts were ordered from our favourite online store for agility enthusiasts :) She knew it was for her right away, so she jumped on the package and started to unwrap it - with our cat closely monitoring her every move. With one move she opened the gift and the baggy of natural treats for active dogs, so the treats fell out of the baggy and it took us some time to clean up the mess. Then we proceeded with the other present: a tug toy with real rabbit skin. She went crazy over it, so this year Santa really got her the most perfect presents ever. We also celebrate New Year in Slovenia, so next week we're expecting another nice old man with a bag of gifts. We call him Dedek Mraz (Grandpa Cold).


Today we had a very relaxing morning after a real drama. Xsara's sister Sena ran away two days ago, chasing an animal in the woods. We spent an entire day looking for her, we even went there in the middle of the night in case we would be able to hear her in the silence. Xsara helped us as much as she could, but she got very nervous in the woods so after a while we took her home and went to continue searching for her ourselves. We were soooo worried about Sena, it's really cold outside and she had been out for 24 hours! But then her people called us and told us that someone found her and saw a poster of her missing, so she was reunited with her family on Christmas Eve. She is very tired, but otherwise she's fine. I hope Santa gets her a GPS device so she won't get lost again :)

Xsara's Personal Chef

We had another vet appointment yesterday. Her blood work and ultrasound are a lot better, but some parts of her intestines are still inflamed. She cannot digest processed food well, so we will probably have to cook for her. We can try different brands of kibbles and cans to see if there is any formula that suits her, at least for our shows abroad it would be a lot easier. It will be a little complicated, but with the right diet she'll be totally fine. We just need to find out what the right diet for her is, and that might take a while. It seems like she's always had sensitive digestion, so it's not stress related. I never considered her to be under stress, so this diagnosis makes sense to me. I'll be more than happy to learn how to cook for her, if that will make her feel better.

We can slowly start to include our normal routines back into our life. Since her intestines are still a little inflamed, we will start in baby steps. We will go to a trial as spectators on Saturday, where she'll be able to see her friends. But we won't stay there for too long. I also ordered a theraball DVD to learn some easy exercises that will help her to regain muscles before going back on course. And after consulting with our vet I also decided to try an Ayurvedic medicine that is supposed to help with digestion. When we will go back to training, I will reward with tug games and balls more than food, and I will try out some home made treats recipes that will be even more tasty, easy on her digestion and chicken free, as she is allergic to poultry. If you have any recipes to share, please let us know. We would really appreciate it!

The Greatest Wealth Is Health

First of all big thanks to everyone sending us "get well" wishes and the first Christmas cards. It's nice to know that there are so many friends who think of Xsara and wish her all the best. We really appreciate the support!


Our girl seems to feel fine most of the time, but mornings are still a bit of a problem. She wakes up at 5 a.m. feeling sick, throws up a little bit of gall and goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. She then wakes up again at 7 a.m. feeling great. This started two days after we switched to soaked kibbles, so our vet says it's most likely related to the change in diet. Which means we're back to cooking. I normally never cook for myself, I always make things explode or I hurt myself in the process, so it's really best for everyone if I stay far away from the kitchen. I even managed to cut myself with cheese two times (no knife, just cheese), so you can see it's clearly not the best idea for me to cook. But somehow I never mess up when I cook for Xsara (OK, maybe I got a little burn a couple of times, but nothing big). And to be honest, I like cooking for her. It's something I can actively do to make her feel better, so it's comforting for me as well. Being such a nice little girl as she is, Xsara loves to help out in the kitchen. As you can see, her job is to do the dishes.

Health Update

We are just back from the vet. Xsara is better, although she is still a little paled and she lost more than 1kg (2.2lbs). It's understandable considering she's on light food diet, but it's not the best news. The good news is that she can be taken off antibiotics and will only continue to take gastric acid inhibitors! Our next vet appointment is in two weeks, then we will decide how to proceed. Tomorrow we can try changing her diet to soaked kibbles and see if she will digest them well. We still need to divide her meals into many small portions. And, of course, she still needs to rest and cuddle a lot, and she can play and run if she doesn't get overly excited - but she cannot train yet.

Last week we got a little bit of snow in Ljubljana. She really liked that and she was so cute running around like a little puppy. But it started raining a couple of days ago and all the snow melted away. At least for now! It seems like after two years of practically no snow, we will have a real winter this year.