Friday, July 15, 2005
Today the boys and I are anxious and nervous. The boys’ sister, Cupid the cat, is having surgery to remove a stone found in her bladder.
The stone was discovered yesterday after we took her to the vet because we noticed blood in her urine. After doing an ultrasound the Dr. found a 7mm, free floating stone in her bladder.
Once the stone is removed, Cupid should be feeling much better. In the meantime, we are sending her positive energy to help her get through the day.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Last night we made a run to McDonald’s for dinner. We always go to the drive thru and bring the food home so that the boys can go with us. Drive thrus are one of their favorite places to go in the car.
Last night the boys were riding in the back seat using their new seat belts and the back windows were down about 3/4 of the way. We got to the drive thru, placed our order and pulled up the first window. We paid the lady and were about to pull up to the next window when she spotted the boys peaking out of the car trying so hard to catch a glimpse inside. She enthusiastically screamed, “Oh, puppies!” and tried to reach out to pet the boys. The boys of course were loving the attention.
When we pulled up to the next window, there were about four people standing there waiting to say hello to the boys. Again the boys were loving the attention and stretching as far out the window as they could. The next thing I know someone hands a napkin out the window to us. Inside the napkin is two chicken McNuggets. The boys’ eyes lit up when they saw and smelled the nuggets. We let them eat the McNugget in the car and everyone watching from the window, including two managers, got a kick out of watching them eat the McNuggets.
Needless to say, that really made the boys’ night. It will be interesting to see how they act the next time they go to McDonalds. I’m sure they will be anxiously waiting for their next McNugget!
Friday, July 8, 2005
Henry has really been enjoying swimming lately - I would even say that he is enjoying it a bit too much. He is completely confident in his swimming abilities (over confident in my opinion), so he has moved on to other more difficult water related activities. His latest is jumping in the pool. He loves to belly flop into the pool swim to the other end, climb out of the pool and then jump back in.
His other new favorite activity is going underwater! I have no idea why he likes to do this, but while floating on his raft he will just stick his whole head underwater. I think it first started because he was trying bite and fetch the logo that is silkscreened onto his raft (you know he has a fascination with fetching everything in the water). Ever since then, it seems like he enjoys sticking his head under the water.
I don’t really think that him going under the water is that good of an idea. I fuss at him whenever he does it, but I don’t really think I have gotten my point across to him yet. And I guess if it scared him or if it hurt, he wouldn’t do it so much!
Regardless, it is safe to say that Henry is definitely an odd bird!
(Oh, and incase you can’t tell that orange blob in the picture is Henry in his lifevest completely under the water)
Saturday, July 2, 2005
Our long holiday weekend got off with a bang, when we headed to the beach early this morning. We weren’t planning to get up at 6:30am this morning, but everyone was a little restless so we decided to head to the beach and beat the crowd. There were a few other people there, mainly fishing, but the boys enjoyed their early morning swim and then relaxed on the beach a bit. To show his patriotism, Benjamin proudly display his stars and stripe dog tag while watching the boats.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Recently, we have been eating a lot of Chinese food. No matter what we order we always get wonton soup. One night the boys were looking paticularly cute so we let them have one of the crunchy noodles that come with the wonton soup. We had no idea what we had started, but it turns out that the boys think these crunchy noodles are the tastiest things ever.
So, we decided to use these noodles for good and see if they could help us get the boys’ toenails cut. Usually, the boys get a small treat when they let us cut all of the toenails on one paw (or in Benny’s case, since he puts up such a fight, he get a treat for each toenail we cut). Well, it turns out that these noodles really have some pull with the boys. They were the perfect gentlemen while we were cutting their toenails. I had never seen them behave so well while getting their toenails trimmed. So, after their toenails were cut, we held up our end of the deal and gave each one of the boys a handful of the crunchy noodles. They loved it!
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
I am very sad to say that Lou C., the family rabbit, passed away this weekend. He had just come back from a visit to the vet, where the vet said that he was in great shape for being nine years old, but that he was a few years past his prime. We were all very distraught hearing the vet’s news and he died the very next day. He was 9 years old.
Lou C. lived a very full and interesting life. His life began as the classroom pet for a room full of pre-schoolers. For the first five years of his life he was free to hop around and play with a room full of 20 4 year old children. The children initially named him “Lucy” because everyone was under the impression that he was a girl. However, when he went in to be fixed everyone soon discovered that “Lucy” was a boy. So his name was changed to Lou C. - with C being the first initial of his last name.
After 4 years of teaching he finally retired and that is when he came to live with us full-time. He quickly became good friends with Cupid, our cat, who was the only other pet we had at that time. A few years later we got Benjamin & Henry and the boys learned to get along wonderfully with Lou as well. Since he was litter box trained Lou enjoyed free reign of the house. He was free to hop around anyplace he liked, although he usually never left carpeted surfaces. He enjoyed being outside nibbling on the grass and spending some time in the sun.
Even though the vet had said that he was past his prime, his death on Saturday was unexpected. Everyone, including Benjamin, Henry & Cupid, keep looking around expecting him to be right there under our feet. The cat and dogs keep going into his room to look for him and even when I pass by I still can’t believe that his is not there.
Lou C. was loved by us all and he was dear part of our family. He will forever be missed!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
It is hard to believe that last week was the two year anniversary of Henry’s knee surgery. When Henry was about six months old and went in to be fixed, the vet discovered that he had hip dysplasia. While hip dysplasia can be debilatating for larger breeds the vet assured us that if we keep Henry at a trim weight that he would never need any type of hip replacement surgery. It was at that point that we became fanatical about watching what both the boys ate because we knew the heavier Henry was the less comfortable he would be and the less he would be able to exercise.
The six months following Henry’s diagnosis were great. He was a happy puppy that loved to run around, go for walks and go to the dog park. Shortly after his first birthday, we went to Florida on a little vacation. While in Florida the boys had so much fun going on walks to new and exciting places, going to the beach and running around the pool. Henry was just as active as usual, but towards the end of the trip he kept holding his left hind leg up. We were very alarmed knowing that he had hip dysplasia. We called our regular vet from Florida and scheduled an appointment for the day after we returned from our trip. The vet examined Henry and quickly determined that he had luxating patella, which basically means that his knee cap was sliding in and out of place. The luxating patella was likely caused by the extra pressure put on his knee from his hip dysplasia. The vet recommended that we take him to a specialist and we were able to get an appointment for the very next day.
The specialist confirmed what our regular vet had diagnosed and recommended that Henry have surgery on his knee as soon as possible. We agreed to have the surgery and talked with the specialist on when the appointment would be. After looking over his calendar the specialist said that he had one spot open for surgery the next day and then after that he did not have a spot open for at least another month. We couldn’t imagine Henry suffering and limping around the house for another month, so we decided to schedule surgery for the very next day.
The specialist was about 40 miles away from home and Henry needed to be back in his office by 7am the next day. It was already 3pm when we finished his appointment and the specialist said that we could leave Henry at his office to save us a trip in the morning. I thanked the specialist for his offer, but politely told him that my boy was going to be home with his family the night before his big surgery.
On the car ride home, I think we were in shock. We had been home from our vacation for less than two days and our baby boy was going into surgery the very next day. It was all happening too quickly.
Surgery day came and we dropped him off at the office with tears in our eyes. We went home to be with Benjamin who was extremely nervous (this was the first time, since he was a pup, that he was not with his brother). Later that evening the specialist finally called and let us know that everything went well with Henry’s surgery and that we could pick him up tomorrow afternoon after a short meeting to discuss his physical therapy requirements.
When we picked up Henry that next day, nothing could prepare me for how he would look. The vet tech walked him into the room and his left leg and thigh was completely shaved. He was holding his leg up and the incision on his knee looked puffy and very sore. His eyes were watery and his nose was runny, I could tell right away that he was in a lot of pain. Despite his pain, he was very happy to see us and gave us a very warm greeting.
The specialist came into the room and then showed us his physical therapy exercises which basically consisted of bending his knee. He hated these exercises and whined the whole time they were performed, but the specialist insisted that they must be done.
When we arrived back home Benjamin was very happy to see his brother and very curious to find out what happened to his leg. We precisely followed the doctor’s orders to make sure Henry would have a complete recovery. It took about ten days for Henry to begin to put weight on his leg. Those ten days were very nerve wracking because the specialist said that many dogs learn how to get along on three legs so well that they never want to put weight on their sore leg again (that is why it was so important to do his physical therapy). After he started putting weight on his leg he was able to go up and down steps again and he was even anxious to go for small walks. Little by little he got back to being his normal self.
Now, two years later, he is completely recovered and never favors his left hind leg. His surgery scar has faded, but is still pretty noticeable and while he sits a little funny due to his hip dysplasia he doesn’t let it slow him down. He is a healthy, happy little boy!
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