And Pug makes Five!

A couple weeks ago Casey sent me a message that a friend posted on Face Book. They had a friend who needed to find a home for his Pug. She was practically perfect, but he was moving to a new apartment that didn't allow pets.

So you know what we did, we offered up our home. I talked to the guy and straight off the bat let him know that she would be #5 for us, but we had plenty of room in our house, yard, and hearts for her. Especially Alex...

She showed up yesterday with her owner, we let her mingle with the other pups and Alex, while us "adults" chatted it up. Come to find out we had all met years ago at our mutual friends house. He spent about an hour with us, said that he felt Prissie would do fabulous here and went on his way after a pause that held so much love and emotion. It wasn't an easy decision you could see that in his body language when he walked away, we all felt for him.

But now we are adjusting to life with a Pug. She is FULL of character. Has wooed Buddy. Has made Archie very protective of me. And the Big Girls just like having another girl around. She has a special bond with Alex since he likes to snuggle her and give kisses. But the Casey man, she loves for the treats and smell of BBQ that lingers around him.

It is nice having two house muffins again. I hope that Archie warms up to her so he has an indoor buddy again. He has been lonely since Betty passed away. It funny how 5 feels right. :)

Training wheels

2 months and 1 week since I last posted. Let's make this first post a test post... let's see if I still have words and stories and ideas to share with you.

• Alex finished 5th grade and his time in public school. We have him in tutoring for the summer to bring his knowledge up to 6th grade private school levels, so it is like school never ended for us. But it is exciting for everyone. Alex is gaining a sense of pride ( in his work and knowledge), we are gaining a sense of confidence that we can all handle the new curriculum ( Abeka, notoriously Challenging), and we have made a great friend and mentor in Alex's tutor, Mrs. Gail.
• I have been working A LOT, spending 3+ days of the week out of the house, and have wrangled through a couple 5 day weeks in the last two months. It's long and tiring, but the paychecks are satisfying.
• The house has therefore fallen into a general state of mess, not that it was perfect with me at home most of the time, but it sure wasn't mass chaos. We are working on systems, but they are slow and lazy due to summer temptations and the call of the pool most evenings.
• Dogs are fabulous. Buddy was recently groomed where we discovered that he has an allergic reaction to the chlorine in the pool. Poor dude doesn't get to swim with us, which has become a favorite treat for him and Bella.
• Steve the Hedgie has been ACTIVE, more active then I can remember him ever being. I think the heat drives him out of his house for long cool water breaks through out the day. I find him most mornings sleeping on his wheel soaking up the AC that blows right there into his cage.
• Crafting: I have been stitching a lot lately, making a large panel of little birds. Love it, it's like magic. Sarah, has feed my desire by sending me a stash of patterns that I have planned for smaller, quicker projects. Enabler! :)
• We had a string of three guests over three weeks, each coming and going independently, fabulous to see them all, but whew, it is tiring playing guest all the time.
• I have been trying to do one thing each week that I have put off for months/years. So I finally hung the mantel mirror and put on the knobs to the bathroom cabinets upstairs. Neither one was hard, but I just never "got around" to it. This week, I want to finish up the touch up paint around the fireplace.

Okay, time to go work on Fourth of July treats. More to come... something special tomorrow!

The Final Walkabout

It has taken me a little while to be able to write about Betty. I miss her, I keep spying her out of the corner of my eye, in nearly every room. I even heard her for the first week and would reach down absent mindedly to stroke her head. She has been gone for three weeks now. It only took us an hour to see the huge puzzle piece that was newly missing from our life. She was a large part of our daily living, especially at the end when she needed so much medical care. I selfishly think to myself that I could have gone on cleaning, disinfecting, wrapping, and praying for her. But Betty couldn't have, she was miserable enough at the end.

She took one long walk about around the yard with all of us, people and pups. She explored the watermelon bed, crunched through the falling leaves, rooted her nose into Bella's legs to move her along. She stopped by Alex's heels, licked a hello and wandered on. She followed Penny and walked shoulder to shoulder with Archie.  She drifted into Casey hand and rub. She kept her face down to the ground, inhaling all the scents that make up our home.

I like to think of her in that last hour on her walk about around the yard, instead of the true last hour of her life. She went blessedly quick, with my arms wrapped around her and Casey and Alex's kisses lingering on her head.

She is truely and deeply missed.

One Bit of Bright - Our Final hours with Betty

We made a very tough decision yesterday, Casey and I. Alex was at my parents house for the night and our friend who has been helping us with Betty came down to help change her dressing. It was very bad and I knew within a heartbeat of removing the wrappings that she was suffering silently and that we couldn't do this to her any more. Kim and I cleaned her up, bathed her in bacterial killer to try and stop the stink/infection, and wrapped her tumor back up. I looked at Kim when I removed the dressing and just started losing it, she looked at me when we were done and she lost it. It is just so sad to see Betty in the condition that she is in. it doesn't seem fair.

She is still happy to see us, still wagging her tail ( but not like she use too), still eating, still searching us out to sit at our feet. All these Stills made me blind to the fact that she is miserable. She hasn't done her happy rolling around on the ground dance in weeks. She sleeps all day long. She doesn't give kisses. And we haven't seen her do her spunky downward dog "Let's play" move in forever.

So I made the call and got an appointment for this afternoon to end this misery. I am heartbroken and have hide in the bathroom to cry into a towel, and then sucked it up and wiped my tears to get back to whatever I was doing.

I told Alex when I picked him up from my parents house what we were going to do this afternoon and we both broke down in the car, both of us miserable about Betty's suffering and having to say goodbye so soon. Casey and I exchange glances every time she does perk up a bit, like she did today when she came in from a walk about in the yard, she was frisky, playful and we had a spark of hope. And then her playfulness slowly turned into a manic need to rub her tumor on the ground, to scratch at it, and grunt in pain or irritation. It takes so long after one of those sessions to calm her down and help her get rid of her stress. She has been sleeping for hours in my office, and I am dreading 3pm when I need to wake her up and send her outside for one final time before we go to the vet.

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We like to believe that our pets are waiting for us in Heaven, it is comforting to imagine Twain and Yuki waiting to show Betty the ropes, to think of her being there waiting for our someday. This comfort is small but bright in the midst of this misery.

Serious Situation - Betty

Things are not looking good for Betty. She has had a tumor growing on her neck since Spring. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, and after consulting with out vet we decided not to do surgery for a slew of reasons. First Betty is very old somewhere around 16 years old. Second, we didn't think she would survive surgery because this big tumor is one of 7 that would need to be removed, it would be too much for her body. Third, she didn't seem to be bothered by it or in any pain, never flinched or made a peep if we touched it or moved it around. But the damn thing just kept getting bigger until finally about a month ago the skin split on it. So we have been keeping it clean, disinfected and coated in Neosporin, all of which kept infection at bay until about a week ago. We knew things had gotten worse when she started smelling very very bad. So we stepped up our doctoring under the direction of our vet all with the idea in mind that we would be putting Betty to sleep when things because painful for her.

A couple days ago we were cleaning as usual and the damn tumor degloved, if you know what that means then you know how horrible, gory and messy it is. If you don't know what it means and you don't want to gross yourself out, do not look it up, just trust me when I say things went from bad to worse in an instant. We immediately had a problem with bleeding, it would not stop bleeding for anything and Betty would not stop scratching at it. We had to unfortunately put her in the garage while we regrouped and talked to our vet, which stressed her out, not a good thing.

Enter our fabulous friend and neighbor who is a fabulous nurse and fellow dog lover, Kim. She came down after a long three day stretch of shifts with a bag of nursing goodness late late at night. We bandaged Betty up, stopped the bleeding and hoped for the best night we could.

 Here is Betty's tumor bandaged up. It is as big as a tennis ball and just hangs off her neck. And yes that is blood in her fur, I waited to clean her up till she was a bit more calm.

 You can see how bad Betty's cataracts are, on top of this she is all most completely blind and littered with tumors. But she is still one happy dog, sweet girl.

It has now been all most 48 hours since we bandaged her up and dosed her with pain meds and antibiotics. She sleeps alot and has started to smell again. Not a good sign that stink. We have been prepping Alex for the fact that we will be putting her down soon, it is just such a hard decision when she is still so damn happy and spry! She has had only one episode of pain and stress, the first afternoon/night when the tumor degloved, so we are very hesitant to take her in to the vet to be put down.

Damn, this caring for pets thing is so hard when they are so old. I feel so helpless, and just try to make her as comfortable as possible. Which I know that I am able to do when she gives me little licks and nuzzles.

Sweet Betty girl.

I promote Co-Dependence

This muffin, Archie, is completely and utterly codependent on me. It is rare for him to not be at my heels or prancing in front of me. When I am cooking he sits on the kitchen mat watching my every move. When I am on the couch he is snuggled right up in what we call "The Pocket", that are of space at our hip, perfect for him to snug himself into. When I am sleeping he is on the bed by my head if he has been good or in his dog bed on the floor next to my side of the bed if he has been naughty. When I leave the house he waits by the door. When I take a shower he sits on the bathmat waiting for me to come out.

If I dare to separate him from me, like I did the other night while trying to catch a glimpse of our nightly kitty visitor, he goes bonkers and spastic in his efforts to get to me. Whining and soft barking, expending energy that would make a toddler jealous, all to be back at my side.

And I love it.

I love having a puppy buddy who loves me to bits and shows it every second he can. It makes me love him and spoil him that much more.

Betty Watch

Our sweet Betty girl is not doing well at all. Casey found her laying down in the yard in the pouring rain. She is much more lethargic then she normally is, and that is saying something about a dog who normally naps 20 hours out of the day. She isn't eating, rarely drinking, and vomits bile frequently. Our sweet girl is in the end of her days. Now we are just trying to keep her comfortable till it's time to take her in.

Finally! Some Pampering

Today is THE day, I go for my mega massage in 2.5 hours followed up by my mega relaxing facial! My parents gave me a spa gift certificate for my birthday and my FIL followed up with birthday cash, so I combined it all into one mega treatment just to relax. I have been waiting till after finals and on a relaxing week to have my pampering. I can hardly wait!

These pictures have nothing to do with my massage except they do a great job documenting the mayhem and Archie suffering that we deal with each week. That dog has such a "tough" life. Balancing dog toys on his head really wears him out. Of course I had to include the picture below so you could see Alex in all his directorial spaziness. And Archie revolting of course. :)

Penny Girl Time

Don't mind me Mom, I am just sun worshipping all by myself because everyone else is outside in the wind because they were being brats. *sigh* I love the sun.

What?! You need me? Do you need some help with your Native American Emergence Reflections? Or is it the Classification Essay Peer Review you want me to do for you? Anything, lady, this dog is smart, just give me a chance to prove it!

Oh, no? Nothing? Well then, can I have a cookie? Yoda girl wants a cookie.

Is it cold yet?

Penny wants to know when it will be cold. Me too Penny, me too.

Betty Watch

We are on Betty Watch here at home.

We shaved Betty early this week, shaved off piles and piles of fur to not only cool her off but to get a good look at her body. Sweet Betty has so many new growths on her, down her back, more on her belly, and huge growths on her leg and neck.

In just 5 days she has lost weight, had many episodes of bloody stool and vomiting. She sleeps all day, with small periods of happy Betty time. She shakes and shivers, and has a hard time calming down before sleeping for hours on end. The vet says that she is not in pain yet, but we will have to make a decision soon. Sweet Betty, we love you.

The Reality of Living with Dogs

Yeah I am going "there"! This is the contents of today's vacuuming session. The majority of that is dog hair from our Cockapoo Betty and black Lab Bella. Those two are lucky we love them so much. :)

Penny Medicine

Casey hurt his back this week, hurt it enough that he spent an entire day in bed, flat on his back with as little movement as possible. I found Penny giving him a dose of her loving.With Bella down below close enough to lick any hands or elbows that came close to the edge of the bed.
Archie and Sammy were running around like the loons they are.

And Betty was just trying to figure out if we had gone downstairs yet.

A Public Service Annoucement

Wild Archie

We DVR'd all the new Discovery Channels Wild Pacific shows. It's not just Alex and I who like to watch them.



He will sit for the entire hour watching the TV like this.

An Ode to Betty

Dear Betty, sweet sweet Betty,

We love your curly black fur and how it ends up all over the house. You are adorable in your persistent habits to get our attention, which we happily give when you are having your "awake" time. Your wet nose to our cheeks and ragged tongue to our ankles are your loving calling cards. Which always make us smile and giggle and fall to the floor to be close to you.

You have been aging quickly this past year, something that we have been keeping an eye on since the quick passing of Twain. You sleep most of the day, rarely rousing while the house is going crazy around you. You have your snug spots by the couch, upstairs in my office, in the yellow bed in our room. We know that we can find you there pretty much anytime. Unless you are doing your flipping rolling wiggling dance downstairs. We love to watch you amble around the yard on your walk abouts. How you can smell something new even though you can no longer see it. We love your Brontosaurus Betty move because it is always delivered with love. We loved teaching you how to climb stairs and that the couch was the best place to be. We love that you always know when there are treats especially if it is a sandwich. Your nose is a force to be reckoned with dear Betty!

We have been worrying about you and trying to make each moment of the time we have together full of love and pets and small treats. Thank you for peeking out at Alex when we were at the Shelter. Thank you for opening up to us after other people had been so horrendous to you. Thank you for trusting us enough to let us love you. You, dear sweet Betty, have been Our Rambalam Black Betty, and we love you.

With Cheetos and Salami,

Your Boyles Family.

Dog Bed

What's that?! Me? No, I am not napping. I am not snuggled up to Daddy's pillow for an afternoon nap. No way, you must be mistaken.
No really, I was just warming it for him. Because he is on his way home you know!

Where you going? I thought we were talking about a nap?

Hey Mom, I have a problem...

I use to have two beds to choose from...

And they were somewhere over here...

At least this is where they have always been...

But now they are gone. Where did they go?

Yeah, where did they go? Are you washing them??

Aaww, Mom you are washing them! You sure we can't just sleep on your big dog bed tonight?

No way doggies, Mommy has a date with Daddy in the big bed tonight.

T Minus 2 hours till departure

Two days ago I gave Archie a much needed bath. With the lack of rain the yard was dusty, grey, and very dry. Archie, who is in need of a grooming session, pretty much has dust mops for paws right now. And because he sleeps on the bed with us, and us noticed the dusty puppy smell, it was bath time.

So into the tub he went, out of the tub he came, the dryer was pointed in his direction, the towels were scrubbed all over his body and then came the flea treatment.

Apparently this time I either got water in his ear(s) or a flea crawled in one because he went nutty yesterday. The dog who sleeps about 14 hours a day was incredibly restless. I timed him, he couldn't sit still for more than 10 seconds. He paced, he tossed his head, he bit at the air, he rubbed his face on the carpet, he twitched, and he even growled a couple times. He was miserable. We were miserable.

I think he finally passed out around 1:30am only because I rubbed his ear for a good ten minutes until his breathing evened out. And then Casey came to bed. And Archie was up again and again with the twitches.

So none of us slept well last night except Alex and Betty. Both sleep through the crazy tornado weather we get here too.

Starting 15 minutes ago, I am settling in for bed. I am blogging, cleaning up the kitchen, tucking in Alex, taking a bath, watching the news, and then plan on being in bed reading by 8:45.

Because I am SO NOT A NICE PERSON when I am tired.

And because Archie is better today, mostly I think he is too exhausted to be another other than mellow.

Where our visitors go to hide.

Mom, Mom!!! Someone came to play with us?!?!?!
But they won't come down from the tree! Does she look like fun?!

I have to much to tell you, why don't you come down for a spell?

Really, we just want to play and talk!

See we even have a nice little place to play!

Needless to say, our Squirrel guest didn't come play, and I had to give her some time to escape the girls. Oh, but the excitement level was HUGE!

Paws. Paws. Paws. Paws. And then there were four.

I have been meaning to post for a while, but I haven't been able to shake myself out of this funk. But I wanted to say that we now only have four dogs.

We found homes for the puppies and Jenna. Yes, we decided that Jenna wasn't a good fit for our family, and it was such a hard decision for me to make.

Last night we said good bye to half of our pack, and then I promptly went to the garage and cried my eyes out on Bella's neck.

Is it more manageable? Yes. First time in 2+ months that our garage hasn't been covered in poop in the morning.

Am I sad?

Yes, very much so.