Showing posts with label Ampuversary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ampuversary. Show all posts

January 29, 2012

Celebrating a Missed Ampuversary

Today would have been Abby's 15 Month Ampuversary. It makes us sad, as this is the first one since she passed, but luckily we have our funny little Bunny to help us turn the day into a celebration.

What would an ampuversary be without a trip to Fiesta Island? This is her second visit there. When we went last week, she barely got her toes wet, but today she was in there a lot. It looks like she might turn into a swimmer some day - which would have to be the shepherd in her, because I never knew a beagle that swam!

And what else would you eat on an ampuversary besides a Flying Dutchman??
Her first (that we know of...) Flying Dutchman!

It was a hit!

You got a little somethin' on yer nose there... (it's cheese!)

Pretty sure BunnyRita will be getting a Dutchman at least once a month in Abby's honor. She's a very lucky girl.


All this fun can be exhausting!
And, yes, for those of you who have been to my house, she is sleeping on the "good" pillows on the "good" couch - something even our oh-so-beloved Abby didn't get to do! Not sure what Angel Abby thinks, looking down on that!

Happy Ampuversary to our Angel Ab, and thanks to Bunny Rita for making us smile so much today!

December 29, 2011

Fourteen Months!

Today is Abby's 14 month ampuversary! And it is also officially one year that she has had lung mets. We are so happy to still have our girl with us. It's been a little rough since the H.O. diagnosis, but she is still a happy, hoppy girl.

Abby had a great Christmas here at home with her Grandma and two of her aunts.

"Hey, that dog looks like me!"
First of all, she got this very cute Christmas stocking specially handmade for her by her Aunt Kathy. She was very intrigued by it - even when it was empty. If you look closely, you'll see that the one dog on the right-hand side looks a lot like our girl! So cute!




Abby also got this very fine orange alligator in her Christmas stocking. My brother actually made toys for all the dogs in the family. He bought a gross of squeakers online (did you know you could buy squeakers in bulk?) and got some heavy-duty fabric and started whipping up dog toys on my sister-in-law's sewing machine. He is a very good doggy uncle. (He also made dog treats out of leftover grain from his beer making endeavors. She loves them.)
 

Her present from us was also an alligator, which (as you can see) she has already turned into a tripawd. (It was the very first thing she did.)

I did not think to squeak it in the store. Big mistake. I'd been looking at some other no-stuffing toys that had recycled water bottles inside, and I thought this was the same sort of thing. I thought it would just make that crinkling, cracking sound that empty water bottles make. Um, no. It makes these crazy noises, as captured in the following video. (Note: the *other* crazy noise is just my sister's laugh...)

"No one can see me..."
After opening her own presents, Abby thought everything was for her. Here she is perusing Grandma's presents:
"For me??"
 And she got a bone, that she tried to hide behind the Christmas tree.







The day after Christmas, we took her to the beach and walked/ran like we used to, where we run for two minutes and then walk for three. (We hadn't done that in ages because Mike's knees have been bugging him, but he was ready to give it another try.) Well, even with the cancer, the lung mets, the tripawdness, the H.O. - she still was kicking my butt running! She's such a Warrior Princess! Toward the end she started to slow down and I was able to keep up with her (which was kind of a bummer).

In other Abby news, we are sticking with the 1/2 dose of Masitinib. Her GI tract just can't handle the full dose. Dr. V. said he talked to some other oncologists who have dogs on the 1/2 dose, so hopefully it will still be in there kicking some tumor butt.

In other non-Abby news (there's non-Abby news in my life??)... On Christmas Eve, my siblings and I recreated a photo of the six of us from 1974. We haven't changed a bit. No, because "a bit" would mean minor changes... (Note that I had to crouch to try to better achieve the look of the original photo.) The funny thing is that while looking for that original B&W photo, I realized I only have two (!!) pictures of me and my siblings together. How is that possible? Now I have three. :)

In a final bit of news, my sis Terry and I have done some more felting, but I couldn't share the pictures until the recipients had their little felted friends in their hands. Now I can finally share the photo of our latest creations: my sister's Jean's one-blue-eyed Husky, Roxie, and my brother and sister-in-law's sweet Golden, angel Dannie. Now everyone in the immediate family has a felted friend. 

That's pretty much all the news that's fit to print. (There is other news re: the zoo -- we went the other night and the swamp monkeys were doin' it. But that is not fit to print.) Anyway, Abby and I already went to the beach today to begin her 14 Month Ampuversary celebrations. Not sure what else is on today's agenda. There will need to be a Flying Dutchman in her future, but that might not happen today. Soon, though, Ab! I promise!!

Happy, hoppy New Year everypawdy!! We wish you all good things in 2012!

September 29, 2011

Eleven Months!

Today is Abby's 11 month ampuversary! Boy, the time has flown! We went to Fiesta Island this morning and I told this old guy walking his German Shepherds that it was her anniversary. He was very impressed with her and gave her some loving and called her "amazing" and "a princess". That's for sure! We don't call her Tripawd Warrior Princess for nuthin'!

There will definitely be an In-N-Out Flying Dutchman in her near future to celebrate. She's been having just a wee bit of a tummy issues (not a 100% "solid citizen" as my brother-in-law would say) so we probably won't do too much in terms of food celebrations today - but there will be lots of loving and tummy rubs. (Luckily she is not that much of a chow hound, because in my personal opinion, a celebration without special foods is like a day in Abu Ghraib.)

"I'm not thrilled about this..."
In addition to her tummy issues, she's been having a problem with one of her toenails. It's sort of torn, way down near the quick and she's been licking it like crazy, so we've been trimming it a tiny bit at a time (she hates having her nails trimmed!). I put some neosporin/pain killer ointment on it the other day and then taped her up in a little, old slipper-sock of mine. She was not thrilled about the sock - but she looked pretty cute sock-hopping around here.



In other anniversary news, it was our 15 year wedding anniversary last week, so thought I'd throw in a pic of us from that day, back when we were so much younger/cuter. Oh, and we both had a lot more hair back then! Darn... just had an awesome idea... we should have tried to recreate this pose for our anniversary. Hah! Oh well - maybe next time we are in Flagstaff, or for our 20th anniversary...



Not much else going on around here, so I'll just end with some cute pics of our girl. Here she is, waiting by the garage entrance door because she heard Daddy coming home:
"Is that my daddy??"


And here she is loving on Daddy. She's such a ham. They were being all lovey, so I got my camera, and when she heard the camera she turned toward me. She's always ready for her close up! [Oh, and if you were wondering... No, he does NOT care if he gets dog hair all over his nice work pants. Much to my chagrin. I have to chase him around with the lint roller!] 







August 29, 2011

Double Digits!

Today is Abby's 10 month ampuversary - that's right, she has made it to double digits! Whoohoo!

Unfortunately, we are not having a super celebratory day... Normally we would have gone to the beach this morning, but yesterday she gave us a little scare. We took her to the beach for a walk/run, like we always do on Sundays, and as we were running down the hill at the far end of the beach, she face-planted. She got up and immediately face-planted again. That second one was a little more worrisome. Then she acted a little strange at home – hopping around quite slowly and just not seeming like herself. (She didn't even terrorize me at night like she normally does - chewing my toes while I try to lay on the couch and relax.) But... yesterday was pretty much the hottest day we have had here yet (it's been a cool summer at our house until just the other day) so I'm hoping it was just that the heat got to her and that she maybe tweaked her leg a little when she took the tumble.

Of course, as soon as I decided today that she should stay home and take it easy, she started racing around chasing a fly – so I'm assuming the leg doesn't hurt or she wouldn't do that, no?? Anyway, it is supposed to be hot again today so I think we will just take it easy and hopefully be back at the beach tomorrow.

I can't help the sinking feeling that the cancer has spread to her good front leg… I keep looking at it seeing (imaginary??) strange swelling, but hopefully that is totally not the case (and is just my paranoia). And hopefully Boris & Natasha are still all alone in there…

We will at least break out a Frosty Paw to celebrate making it to DOUBLE DIGITS!!! Whoohoo! This was a big one – I really wanted to hit those double digits… Now our next BIG goal is ONE YEAR. Come on, Ab, you can do it!

On a brighter note - Friday was a great day. It was National Dog Day so we went to the beach for an extra long time. I took a lot of pics of her:
"I ran with some big dogs...

...and a little dog that kinda looked like me."

"I looked for my friend, Gopher, like I always do."

"Mom took a gazillion pics. She likes this one best."

Abby also got a Frosty Paw that day. It was a good day to be a dog - but then, every day is pretty much Dog Day at our house.

November 19, 2010

Three Week Ampuversary!

It's Abby's three week "ampuversary" today, and as illustrated in the pics and video posted yesterday, she's doing really great. Just a few updates today:
  • We still have our mattress on the floor. She really likes sleeping on our bed during the day now, so if... I mean when...we put the mattress back up on the box spring, I'll probably have to start keeping our bedroom door closed. Don't mind her jumping up there to sleep, but the jumping down is no good, and there's not enough room for the ramp that we borrowed. Could try stairs, but I bet she'd jump over them!
  • Speaking of sleeping on our bed during the day, she is still sleeping a lot more than before all this. The oncologist said it could partly be the chemo, but I'm guessing it's also just the fact of still recovering from everything, and her stamina is not yet what it used to be. Maybe she just gets more tired out now when we walk, and this is how it's going to be from now on? Not sure... We'll see.
  • Thought you all might be interested to hear the weight differential from before and after the amp/first chemo. They weighed her at her follow up appointment this past Wed, and she'd only lost about 4.5 pounds. I was pretty surprised by that! I mean, she has very skinny front legs, but since they also took her shoulder and all the muscles around it, I thought she'd lose more. Plus, with all the variety in her diet since the chemo, I've had no idea if we're feeding her enough. 
This weekend is going to be busy, with a party tomorrow and going to Santa Barbara on Sunday, so I'll probably post again on Monday. Mike will be in charge of her all day Sunday. I'll tell him to take some pictures if she does anything super cute -- but what do you wanna bet he'll forget? I told him he can't take her to Fiesta Island while I'm gone, because I really want to be there to witness her first time back! Maybe we'll take her together on Thanksgiving morning - that would be pretty appropriate, I think.