Ketchup

I feel the need to play catch up. I'll do my best to keep it short and sweet.

- Hubby came home on R&R in September, for 2 weeks. The boys were all ready for a dog-I was not so much. We adopted a 10 week old heeler mix from a local shelter. She has a neat rescue story, I will tell it sometime. We named her Maggie.

  This was taken June 14,2013 around her estimated 1st Birthday

- My Dad was taken to the hospital on December 15th, after spending 2 and a half days on the floor in his home before getting up and out to get help. We are still unsure what happened. When he was admitted he was dehydrated,had necrotic wounds on both feet, had pneumonia in his right lung, had a blood clot in his right leg,  had cuts on his right knee that were infected(from his knee down to his foot and up his thigh was bright red and hot and swollen) He had surgery on his feet twice(debridement of both wounds, they went all the way to the bone on one foot and even cut off some of his 5th metatarsal bone-Dr said even the bone was infected), the 2nd time he had surgery on his feet they also did debridement of his knee. He was on several antibiotic I.V. Meds. Nearing his one month mark in the hospital insurance was trying to kick him out so he was moved to a diff hospital for a week and then into a skilled nursing unit at a nursing home where he spent almost 4 months there. 

Don't want to get too far ahead chronologically...    

- Hubby arrived home on the first of January. Oh Happy Day!!!

- Jan- April was a mix of working full time( due to not having another work half), dealing with my Dad's bills and overall affairs, working on cleaning up his hoarded home, and trying to balance my home life with the 3 boys and my hubby. Crazy, stressful time!

-April 28th my Dad had to leave the nursing home, so he came to stay with us. For 2 weeks I changed his dressings everyday. At this point I got another work half and was able to take him to appts.

May 12th we took him home. I went with to the Dr appts I had scheduled for him. Went back the following weekend to change his wound dressing and to refill his am/pm pill box.

- May 21st I received a couple of phone calls about my Dad being confused at his dr appts. He was sent to the hospital(his clinics being right by the hospital) he had a 103 temp and was admitted to the hospital for 1 week. I continue to drive an hour and a half one way, once a week to do his wound dressing change and refill is pill box. Sometimes more than that to go to Dr appts. Yes, there are services/ home health care nurse that could do those things so I don't have to but even though I worked hard on his home it is still not to a point where a home health nurse would step foot in, plus there is nowhere to sit, no cleared off flat surface, nowhere to change his dressings. I do all of that at my Mom's.

Things are starting to get better, or maybe I have just adjusted to this crazy, stressful new norm.  

I may or may not do a few backdated posts so I can look back later and remember. What I really want to get to is documenting our adventure in adopting a 2 yr old shelter dog. It's quite different than adopting a puppy. 

Not as short and sweet as I had hoped but there it is. 

Day 89

A week ago I was told that Luke is no longer in remission. I didn't even know he was in remission. So 8 weeks, was how long the "best drug protocol" worked for him. We are currently trying a different drug protocol.

I have run out of hope.

I am trying to come to grips with the reality that I'm not able to buy as much time as I had originally hoped. 

I live in a constant state of worry. Always on high alert with any noises,movements, his eating habits, his bathroom habits... I'm so tired.

I already live in a constant state of worry about my husband. It's really hard to put that on a back burner. 

Worry is one of those things that is pointless, useless. What will be will be. 

Knowing that, doesn't help me stop worrying.

Day 57

My birthday weekend ended in my dog Luke not eating his food. Which led to multiple trips to the vet and multiple tests. On February 1st he was diagnosed with lymphoma. On February 1st what tiny piece of dental floss I was still clinging to was ripped from my hands and I was left to grasp at air while I fell through the nothingness. To say my life was flipped upside down would be an understatement!

I had already felt like my world was crumbling around me, that my life and myself were unraveling.
I have officially come undone.
I have been taking Luke to the college town,30 minutes from me, to the Vet Med Hospital once a week for Chemo treatments.
The 2 full days I work, I now come home during my 30 minute lunch to let him out(just in case. plus he was put on a steroid that increases his appetite, drinking, and frequency of urination ) and also to make sure he is all right.
I am yet again faced with finding a new normal.
Luke is doing much better. He is responding to chemo well. A week after his first treatment the Vet said his lymph nodes were back to their normal size!!  He is back to being himself. He has gained back all the weight he lost during the 5 days that he didn't eat a thing!
This can't be cured. We are just buying time. So far, I can safely say that it has been worth it! There is still a very long road ahead.

Luke Feb. 18th, 2012

But with this face, how could I not walk down that road with him? He is my furry son.

Sibling Window Love

No denying they are related.

Neko

He was my baby before I had any kids.

My Mom recalls when I walked into her place of work carrying him, wrapped in a blanket. He was the size above when I did that.

He chewed up my undies when he was a baby.

Thankfully he outgrew that!!

He loved playing tug of war with a rope bone but never chewed on it.

He loved going for walks.

He loved playing in the snow.

He loved getting his belly rubbed.

He bit my firstborn.

5 years later they were best friends

Come to think of it, he bit all 3 of my boys.

When my Mom took care of him while we lived in Germany he got out of the fence just once, he hid under her porch and tried to attack the mailman.

He really wasn't a viscous dog, just extremely protective of his pack.

He enjoyed eating kitty roca, and feminine pads.

Popcorn and carrots were his favorite people food.

He loved a party.

He was our hoover, our garbage disposal.

He was afraid of thunderstorms.

He is missed terribly.

We love you Neko. Thank you for blessing our family for 13 and a half years.

R.I.P. Neko

December 8, 1996 - July 19, 2010

The Dog's Wish

I had been taking photos and sat down to change some settings and accidentally took this photo. I know it's not the best, not totally focused.

I'm sure you can see how sad and pitiful he looks. It's almost as if he is saying "I wish someone would play with me." Like he's just waiting for it to happen. He's blocking access to the backdoor. "To get through, one must play with me."

He got his wish.

I've had this post sitting in draft since the beginning of February. There is NO snow on the ground right now. I have a daffodil blooming and the tulips keep rising from the earth. Lilac bushes have tiny green leaves. SPRING IS HERE!!

The Dog's Advice

Luke doesn't want you to forget...

Take time to play! How could you say no to that face anyway?!

Q&A with Kaytabug Part 1

Late last night I posted my Blogiversary post. The questions are still coming in. If you haven't asked your question yet get on down to this post and ask away. I have decided not to clump all of the Q&A's into one post. I will be trying to make a post out of each question when possible.

Today's Q&A is brought to you by the letters W and T. He asked, "Ok, here's what I want to know, what was your first pet's name, and what kind of pet was it. If it wasn't a dog, what was your first dog's name and what kind of dog was it?"

Well WT, my first pet was a dog. I was 3 years old when my Dad brought home a tiny little puppy. I named her Annie after Raggedy Ann, she was my favorite doll at the time. Annie was aBrittany. My Dad said he got her for me, that she was my dog but he bought her to hunt with. He trained her well and she loved going hunting with my Dad. She loved playing fetch with me, and loved having her belly rubbed. What dog doesn't love a god belly rub?!! As a bonus, WT gets pictures to go with his answer! Click on them to enlarge them. This last one I took approximately a year before she died. She lived 15 wonderful years. I loved her very much. It wasn't long after she passed away that my Mom's friend bought a male Brittney for me. I named him Andy. My Mom ended up being Andy's owner. I tried to keep him once I finally had a place that allowed me to have pets but he literally climbed the fence. I couldn't figure out how he was getting out so I watched him one day and saw him climb the fence with my own eyes. I never would have believed it if I hadn't watched it happen. Andy only lived 7 years,he got sick and had to be put to sleep. I know I will always have a soft spot for Brittney's. So as not to end this on a downer I was given a Husky mix in 1997. I named him Neko, he's still kickin'. We bought a Yellow Lab October 2006. We named him Luke, he will turn 2 at the end of August. That's my dog story and I'm stickin' to it!