Ranger has made great progress integrating with our family. After a couple weeks of separation anxiety issues, we’ve found a great system of crating time with two days of “Doggie Day Care” per week does the trick keeping him happy and healthy. In the picture above he’s lounging on our brand new deck that just finished last weekend: the original deck was rotting and becoming dangerous to use.

We’ve had several medical issues with Ranger; so much so that we were pondering whether it was the right decision to keep him. First of all he was seemingly eating everything in sight. One day, he got into the kitchen trash can, and within a few hours he was acting very lethargic: not eating or drinking. That resulted in a trip to the veterinary ER to get his GI system X-rayed to rule out any stomach or intestinal blockages. Then a couple weeks later Ranger sliced his paw DEEPLY on some metal landscape edging in our backyard and he needed several stitches. That required the “cone of shame” for several days.

Enjoy a video of Ranger playing with one of his favorite toys: a metal water dish (sigh…)

We love that Ranger can handle longer runs and hikes with us.