Paws for Diabetics

When we first came home as little puppies, Mum was newly diagnosed with diabetes and struggling to get it under control. When the sugar monster gets angry she can get really sick very quickly, and the humans were worried and trying to figure out the best ways of helping her. Our neighbour told Dad that Chinese Crested are particularly known for being excellent and often natural Diabetic Alert Dogs, so even though the humans were a bit sceptical they started doing some research and Dad started tracking our behaviour.

He noticed that I (Ella) would nibble at Mum's fingers and paw at her face sometimes. Jack would sit on Mum's chest and make little whimpering noises and nudge her mouth with his nose. If Mum didn't pay attention to us, we'd run and harass Dad until he followed us back to her. Clever Dad started stabbing Mum's finger (she says he takes far too much pleasure in this!) to check what the sugar monster was doing whenever we did these out-of-character things, and he realised that her Blood Glucose Levels were out of range every time! He started calling us her little Nanny Dogs, because we're so good at bossing her around and making sure that she's ok, often before she even starts to feel the sugar monster roaring around!


Mum said that we were her clever little muppets, and she and Dad started to make a big fuss and give us nom noms whenever we alerted to the sugar monster misbehaving. Now we put our paws on Mum's shoulders periodically and demand that she breathe at us so we can check her breath for any nasty messages the sugar monster is sending. If it's behaving we give a satisfied little snort (let's face it, her breath isn't always peppermint fresh) and go on our way, but if not we tell her by smacking her in the face with our paws or nose! The sugar monster can make humans sleepy and their thinking a bit clouded, so we give her one more chance and bite her hand a few times (no, we don't leave teeth marks, but I will increase the pressure until she responds, Jack just gets progressively more hysterical), if she STILL ignores us we dibber dobber to Dad or whoever else is around.

Mum and Dad tell us that they lucked out in the extreme finding us, since we didn't even need to be trained to alert. In fact, before they figured out what was going on Mum used to tell us to stop annoying her, the nerve! For the people with diabetes who haven't cosmically acquired two pawesome sniffers like us,  there's a wonderful program in Australia called Paws for Diabetics Inc. They are a non-profit that trains Diabetic Alert Dogs, and Mum and Dad think they are totally awesome! Check out some of the lives they've helped to save and/or improve if you get a chance.

Helping Mum head in the right direction - forward!

Smooches and Wags
Ella (with Jack 'helping' over my shoulder)

Tricky Treats

I am not a thief! I mean, look at me with Daddy, butter wouldn't melt in my mouth, right?!

Mum is accusing me of climbing the lounge and side table to get the pack of treats below. She didn't see me, so I'm not admitting to anything. Those teeth marks are probably part of the marketing campaign. The nearly empty packet? Well, everyone knows those tricksy companies mostly fill the bag with air. And the piece that she pulled out of my bed was probably planted by Jack. The bit in my mouth I was just helpfully disposing of so she didn't have to tidy up. In summary, Mum's case against me is entirely circumstantial. Owwwwwww, gotta run, the belly is gurgling again.

Smoochies
Ella

Wordless Wednesday - Wet

Cutie Booties or Froggy Legs

Hmm, blogger is playing silly buggers. I will instruct Mum to put up a post tonight if we she doesn't fall asleep in her armchair like a little old nanna.

Smoochies
Ella

Prepared

Jack here. Ready to report on all the latest news for Crested Chorus. Don't you think this photo is perfect for my byline?

Ella says:  Where's the cute photos of me, Jack? You like sharing the limelight about as much as you like sharing your piggy ear! I'm gonna tell Mum that you're hogging the blog!

Bored

Jack here. I'm uploading a picture so that there is evidence of the ongoing neglect of innocent dogs that is going on in this household. The humans continue to pat the stupid phone things instead of us.

It's friggin Sunday! We go on adventures on the weekend, yet it's almost midday and here we sit. Bored. Sigh.

Just because they took us to a bakery and two new off-leash parks yesterday they think they can slack off. And I don't care if Dad played a gig last night so they didn't get to bed until 3am! That just means that he should be sucking up to me even more for leaving me.

Patting the wrong toy

Mum and Dad have new toys that they keep patting instead of us. This is just not on! All their pats belong to us! They keep carrying on about 'androids' and 'smartphones' and how 'tech' is making their lives easier. If we meet any of these characters we're going to bite them, grr.

In fact, we may be forced to live up to the name of this blog and start the famous (infamous?) Crested Chorus up.

P.S. Mum said that would be awesome cos she could record us for the blog! Hmph!