Wordless Wednesday: Does Your Dog Have a Spot?

I don't mean a spot of color, or a favorite spot to lounge in. I mean a spot that when you itch it, you can count on their leg to start involuntarily scracthing along in time with your hand. That kinda spot.

Monday Mischief: Hold On To Your Pups, People!

We love the Tour de France. And we love dogs. But the two don't mix. Folks who go to watch the Tour should hang on tightly to their pups, lest they cause some brief heart-stopping moments like this which happened on Sunday morning during the 2nd stage of racing:

(Not the best quality as I just videoed it as it played on our TV, but you get the idea - and hopefully they won't mind me showing 10 sec of their coverage - it's a PSA after all!)

That little terrier or whatever he is just misses getting trampled by the peloton, and he probably would have brought down a dozen or so riders. Yikes!

Monday Mischief: Cats Cookies for People for our Pup

I realize that title probably sounds a little confusing. Let me 'splain. 

Cats Cookies for People! And/or Pups...

About 6 or so months ago, Rita started having these brief episodes of head tremors.

Canine-related Creative Endeavors

As you know from previous pics I've posted of our felted wool creations, we generally like to felt dogs, such as Casanova, pictured here in his "gladiator suit":

In fact, here is our latest project: spirit Gayle, a beautiful, inspirational Tripawd who was "sister" to my friend Charon. We miss you, Gayle! As Charon said, we know Gayle and Abby are together having a great time at the bridge, gossiping over margaritas.

In other endeavors, when I draw, I generally like to draw dogs, like Lou or Abby.

The other day, I even made a sculpture out of dogs. (My Facebook friend, who is a creativity muse, posted a challenge to quickly craft a "sculpture" from things around the house.)

"Plethora of Pups Pyramid"

And when I write, well, I don't always write about dogs, but I do include them in my stories quite often. Which brings me to my big news (which most of you already know), that I e-published my book, What the Dog Ate, this week! It's available via these links on Amazon and Smashwords.

I'm very excited about the book finally getting out to readers. That is my friend Ellen's tripawd Charley on the cover. Isn't he handsome??

Now, just so you don't think I am a crazy dog-obsessed lady, I also like margaritas and professional cycling, and neither of those things involve dogs. (Although those things aren't "creative endeavors"... well, unless you feel more creative after a couple of margs...)

Of course, having said that, I remember several times when dogs have been involved with the Tour de France, such as this instance below. It's usually not pretty when a dog gets involved--at least for the rider who goes down--but this time wasn't too bad:

That led me to wondering about dogs and margaritas and a little search turned up this:

Yep, it's the Bark-a-rita dog food bowl...

Rest assured that I am not ordering one of those for our own little 'Rita! But I hope you will consider ordering What the Dog Ate -- it costs less than a box of dog biscuits!

Flashlight Madness & Swimming Bears

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Not too much has been happening with Abby, so there hasn't been a whole lot to write about. She's doing well, after that little scare she gave us (in my previous post) with the combined tummy trouble/toe problem/heat issues. We've been taking her to the beach and she runs like her usual nutty self. Her energy and appetite still both seem to be really good, so we are pleased about that!

"Woah, it's dark out there."

You probably all heard (and some of you lived through...) the Great San Diego Blackout of 2011. Well, we missed all the excitement. We left town that day at exactly 3:20, missing the traffic chaos by twenty minutes. Whoohoo! We went to spend the night at my sister's, so Abby stayed with aunt Terry and uncle Jon and cousin Lou, the Corgi. We called that night to check on Abby and to see how they were doing in the blackout and heard a LOT of barking in the background. That was when I remembered that Abby goes nuts for flashlights. She has "a thing" for lights and reflections of any kind (sort of an Overly Attentive Light Disorder), and flashlights especially make her crazy. Apparently so do candles. :) So my sis and brother-in-law had the fun of trying to keep her calm with all the flickering lights and flashlight beams!

"Aunt Terry, the flash is too bright!"

Exhausted from the blackout madness.

On the plus side, Terry said they had a lovely walk at dusk and everyone was out and about in the neighborhood (cuz there was nuthin' else to do). Abby was apparently quite the topic of conversation with neighbors they had never met before. Ah, three-legged dogs... bringing folks together. (In that picture to the right, she is resting on the daybed that she's not supposed to sleep on without a cover on it, but she gets away with a lot since she is the sweet cancer puppy... Besides, she looks cute on it!)

In other non-Abby news, but in cute-photo news, Mike took Tuesday off and we went to the zoo. I was a little worried it would be boring since it was mid-morning by the time we got there and sort of warm, but the heat was a good thing since we saw a lot of animals in the water, even some of the elephants which was very cool. The best were the polar bears, so we watched them for a long time. The one bear had a bone that she was totally batting around underwater, like it was a volleyball.

Dropped the bone and had to dive for it.

 

This big ol' polar bear grabbed a mouthful of carrots off a rock and then sat in the water right in front of the window eating them. If you click on the pic and see the bigger version of it, you can see what a slob he is -- there are carrot crumbs all over his tummy. I can relate to that. Although, with me it is usually something more like cookie crumbs...

That's about it for news around here. Abby has a follow-up appointment on Friday. It shouldn't be a big deal - no x-rays this go round - but keep fingers and paws crossed please that when Dr. V. listens to her lungs and heart everything will sound good!

Photo Gallery (& A Side Effect of the Side Effect)

Post-Bath

You can see where the wall's all wet

We took a ton of pics of Abby this weekend, so let's get to it. First of all, Abby had to have a bath, due to a side effect of a chemo side effect. We've been really lucky and it seems the chemo has only affected her appetite. She still has one, but it's hard to know what she'll eat on any given day, so we've been feeding her different, odd things everyday - wet food, salmon, cottage cheese, pasta, whatever she'll take. Unfortunately, that meant that when she went to do "her business" yesterday, there was a bit of the "business" on her leg when she came back inside. So into the bath she went. (Which she hates. Truth be told, this was only her second bath since we got her almost a year ago - although we do hose her down post visits to the beach. She's funny - she loves the water, but hates a bath.)

When we were done, she ran up and down the hall, leaning into the wall. Not sure if she thought she was drying herself off or what (maybe just paying us back for the bath treatment), but we had nice little wet streaks along the walls. We took her for a walk to air-dry a bit, so below is a photo of her looking oh-so-happy on her walk. I was rubbing her to facilitate drying, and you can see that I came away with a mohair hand. (If you double-click the pics you can see them full size and see the hair really well.)

I'll do a separate post of some super cute pics of her.  

Action shot: in mid-hop

My hairy hand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking the air to air dry

First "Real" Tripawd Walk

Abby went for her first "real" walk yesterday as a tripawd. It was funny to see how few people in the neighborhood even noticed. I did see some ladies in a car slow way down for their drive-by, looking at her and making that "Awwww" face. They waved and smiled at me, but I have no idea who they were. 

Then we saw one of Abby's neighborhood boyfriends coming along--Donovan. He's a Shepard mix and the same age as Abby. I just stopped to wait for his "mom" to notice. It took her a while, but when she did, she put her hand up to her heart, and said, "Oh no! What happened!?" It was a similar scene as with my hairdresser the other day - she threatened to start crying. But Abby had a huge smile on her face and was waving her tail back and forth, so I just said, "Yeah, but look how happy she is." 

This morning we went for another short walk with Abby's Aunt Terry and her cousin, Corgi Lou. (And Terry gets photo credits for today. I forgot to bring my camera along!)

A nice lady in their neighborhood gave them treats on our walk (which I guess is her usual M.O). She gave Abby an extra one for her troubles. (And so it begins - the milking it!) Lou, on the other, didn't cut Abby any slack--he showed her some teeth when she tried to give him a few too many kisses. She LOVES him and he tolerates her.

We went to Terry's to borrow a ramp from her neighbor. Here's Abby test-driving it for the first time. I managed to get her to come down it when we got home as well, although it took a lot of coaxing with a jerkey treat. It will be great if she can get used to it--don't want her to hurt herself jumping down! We also need to try it in our bedroom or maybe add some stairs for the bed. (Or... we need to train her to not sleep in our bed... That sounds a lot like tough love though, and, as I've mentioned, we-ESPECIALLY Mike-are not so good at that.)   

As you can see, she's still wearing a T-shirt. Mostly to keep her from scaring folks (although she's healing up nicely) and to keep her from bugging the incision.Yesterday she almost chewed off the tank top I had on her, because she wants at those scabs so badly! So, for the most part, she is still wearing the dreaded e-collar. I took a video of her illustrating the whole "need for a cone" situation, but Mike said not to post it as it doesn't paint her in the nicest light. You should see her show me her teeth when I put the cone on her! Cujo-puppy! So suddenly Mr. We Need To Show People Every Part of This is all "no, let's not show the nitty-gritty and put the puppy in a bad light." (I think it's understandable though - I'd be a might testy too if someone: took my arm; wouldn't let me go out and have fun for weeks on end; and then kept stuffing my head through a life preserver! Oh, yeah, I'd be showing some teeth!) 

If there's demand for the video, I'll post it. I find it amusing. 

Oh, and btw, no side effects so far from yesterday's chemo - although I guess it can take a few days. Wish us luck with that!

 

Chemo - What Fun!

We went for Abby's first chemo session today. She loved it. (She's so nutty.) It was the most excited I've seen her in about a month. She was bouncing all over the place and kissing everyone and hopping around. She loved it there. (We are going to the Vet Cancer Group, which is a different place from where we go for her regular vet care/where her amp was done.) The oncologist I met before, Dr. Vancil, was in a jury pool, so he had to go back to the court house this morning, so we had our appointment with a different oncologist, Dr. Rosenberg--the head of all of VCG (they have several offices in So Cal). She was super nice and sat on the floor with Abby and let Abby kiss her all she wanted.

Here is a picture of her looking oh-so-happy to be at her appointment. (She is checking out the dog and cat art hanging on the wall.)

Dr. R. said they would give her the 100% dose for the first go-round, since Abby looked so healthy and peppy. (I guess in some cases they ease into things, but with Abby we are attacking whole-hog.) She also said if Abby tolerates the treatment well, we might go to an every 2 weeks schedule instead of every 3. We'll see. (Although not right away because of Thanksgiving coming up.) 

The chemo is given by IV. Abby was so amped up, I asked how they would keep her quiet enough to get the drugs in her. Dr. R. said one tech would hold her and pet her while the other one put the IV in, and it would be done in a couple of minutes. When the tech came back with Abby, she said she did great and just lay down on the floor, like "OK, let me have it."

They gave me some nausea medication to bring home and give her, just in case. Within the next 24-72 hours we'll really know how she's doing. We go back in one week so they can check her blood - 7-10 days is generally the low point for white cell count, so they'll check to see how she's doing. If it's really low, she might have to stick close to home for a few days. But other than that, Dr. R. cleared her for all her old activities already! Walking! Dog Park! Dog Beach! HIKING even! She said Abby just needs to build back up her stamina. So, this afternoon, we'll try a little hop around the neighborhood. 

Hopefully she won't feel too nauseous over the next few days so we can start building up her stamina! So far, she seems fine-just tired from the excitement. She came home and wolfed down her breakfast (canned salmon mixed with salmon-flavored kibble), which she had ignored earlier (she never has much appetite in the a.m.). Right now she's napping.

In an amusing side note, I heard the gal working the front desk talking to Dr. V. on the phone. He ended up not getting on a jury after all and was calling to say he was coming back to the office. I heard the gal say to him, "Someone got off the jury by claiming an over-active bladder?" So, people - remember that line next time you want to get off of jury duty!

Yes, just what the world needs. Another blog.

OK. I'm starting a blog, which is something I've been thinking about for a while. After all, I'm supposed to be a writer. (OK, well, I am a writer if you consider that I sit around and write at least a little bit almost every day - but I'm an amateur writer at the moment since no one wants to pay me to be a pro - yet.) Some people say writers need to have blogs. I don't necessarily buy into that line of thinking. After all, people might love your books, but hate your personality, so maybe your blog would be a detriment to your writing career. So, I'd been resisting the whole blogging thing. Even though my family is suddenly sprouting bloggers left and right: like my niece and her excellent fashion blog, Waitin Round 2 Be a Millionaire, or my sister and her fun blog about Garage Sailing, or my brother and his amusing Gumbatarian blog which is mostly about food. These folks have a passion, and they blog about it. But what was my passion?? And how did that relate to would-be writing career? 

Of course the subject of dogs occurred to me. I'm a big dog lover and most of my writing includes dogs as main characters. I've had dogs for most of my life, and I volunteer every Monday at Helen Woodward, a wonderful animal shelter where I play with the adoption dogs. But I didn't know what I would say about dogs. I mean, a weekly post about how much I love dogs? That would probably get old...

Unfortunately, the subject matter presented itself this past Monday, in the form of the dreaded "C" word. That was the day we found out our dog Abby, a mixed breed pup that we adopted from Helen Woodward the day after last Thanksgiving, has bone cancer. 

We were shocked, angry, devastated. We'd just lost our twelve-year-old beagle only a year ago to cancer. How could our 15-month-old puppy, so full of energy and spunk (don't you hate that word?) be sick?? And not just sick, but dying. How could that happen?? She'd started limping a few weeks earlier. We thought it was just a sprain at first. But after two weeks of sedative-induced rest, it was no better. In fact, by then we could see the lump on her leg. The vet biopsied the bone one week ago today, and warned us it might be a week before we'd know anything. But by Monday he already had the bad news: osteosarcoma. A wild two days later, spent researching, calling the vet multiple times, meeting with the oncologist, etc. etc. and we already have her booked for an amputation of her right front leg. She goes in for the surgery tomorrow. Oh how things change in a week.

I'll post more on the whirlwind 48 hours that it's been later. For now, just wanted to get started. 

Thanks for reading.