David called me a few days ago and said that Maggie was doing better...
the vet and David decided a lot of what was going on was just the fact
that she's on her third home, plus a long hospital stay. They've put
her on Clomicalm and it seems to be helping, though I guess it takes a
couple of weeks to really kick in (trying to remember back when we had
Toby on it). She's still as sweet as ever, but not as hyper and not
pooping in the house.

He also said that the vet had *finally* cultured Buddy's urine, which
he'd been after them to do for months, and we think we've found all his
problems with the soft stools, diarrhea and such...he has a bacteria in
his urine that is normally only found in people who have been in the
hospital for an extended period, and none of the antibiotics he'd been
given would touch it. He's on Baytril now and in only about five days,
his stools have returned completely to normal.

The vet was completely astonished to find this, since apparently neither
he nor anyone else he talked to have *ever* seen this particular
bacteria (and I'm after David to find out the name of it, but he keeps
forgetting to ask) in dogs. Now we're trying to figure out where Buddy
could have gotten it.

Buddy is ecstatic to have Maggie around, even though she's definitely
assumed the boss dog position. They play for hours. The top floor of
the house in North Carolina is one big room, and at the moment there's
almost no furniture in it. David says they'll go up there and chase
each other, hop on and off the bed (the only furniture that is up
there), slam into each other in mid-air, etc. They'll pass the same
Nylabone back and forth, taking turns with it, but with other toys they
play keepaway and hey, that's mine! They do that some here, too, but
there isn't quite as much room, although we have cleared everything out
of the center of the living room to give them some tumble room.

So some positive things, for a change.
--
Kevin Michael Vail | a billion stars go spinning through the night,
| blazing high above your head.
. . . . . . . . . | But _in_ you is the presence that
. . . . . . . . | will be, when all the stars are dead.
. . . . . . . . . | (Rainer Maria Rilke)