Poor old Puff has just about everything wrong with him right now, and it's really painful to be in a state of denial mixed with rage. It is not easy having to lose a fifteen year friend, and Puff's death will mark the end of a particular dynasty of dogs I bred myself beginning back in the mid 1970s.

While I was away last week I boarded the dog for a 24 hour period when no one could be around to take care of him. Puff, of course, was outraged to be locked up, and made it very hard on the vet and his staff by barking, relieving himself in the cage, and utterly refusing to cooperate in any way. The vet called and told me that he thinks things have now reached the point where I should seriously consider putting him down. His point is well taken, but I think he was also misinterpreting Puff's stubborn -- but typical -- refusal to cooperate as part of his health problems (when in fact it's more indicative of his still-strong life spirit). Bear in mind that this vet has never boarded him before; Puff's regular kennel is a long drive out in the country, but the woman who runs it thinks he's too old to board there and she's right. Puff is now a canine patient, and not a normal dog.

While he can't walk, and has lost more and more of his functions, Puff continues to have a remarkably good time with Coco -- as you can see in this short video clip (filmed this past Saturday):

I have never attempted to stream video directly in this blog before, and I want to thank Trey Jackson for technical advice at BlogNashville (and for having an intuitively user-friendly web site allowing me to configure this myself). Figuring out the conversion to wmv and the blog streaming html I had to manage myself -- so if it doesn't work blame me.

TECHNICAL NOTE: To play the above, press the Start arrow on the lower left. Windows Media Player required, and there may be a slight delay in loading.

MORE: Here's another clip (shot with the $79.00 $69.00 video camera) of Puff and Coco playing just a half an hour ago.

If it won't stream, the file is here.

UPDATE: I see that the price on the AIPTEK video camera has dropped to $59.00, and as low as $49.00 if you buy ten or more. (At prices like that, you could end up paying more for memory than the device itself!)

UPDATE (05/13/05): In light of Glenn Reynolds' remarks about videoblogging, I thought I should point out that the above two video clips were shot with two different cameras: the first [top] one with a Toshiba PDR-M700, the other (as well as this riot footage) with the much cheaper AIPTEK. Obviously, the quality of the former is superior, but the price of the latter makes it a throwaway, and the quality is at least passable. (Something riotbloggers might want to keep in mind, as well as bloggers facing potential camera "confiscation.")

MORE VIDEO: Here's a party which was filmed inadvertently, which was never intended to be seen by human beings:

Please do not watch the above; it is for my own internal viewing only.