Molly

Poor Molly had a odd episode yesterday. She was out for a walk, and when she stopped to sniff a bush, she fell over, and couldn't get up at all. She flopped around, trying to get her legs under her. Sadly, she was on a rose bush at the time! I was terrified that she was having a stroke or something, so I scooped her up and carried her home. By the time we got back she seemed relatively normal. We kept an eye on her, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the rest of the day.

We took her to the vet today to see what she had to say. Fortunately, she thinks it was a petit mal seizure, not something serious like a stroke. She did say that Molly will eventually start having grand mal seizures, however. We've decided not to medicate her for this, since they might be infrequent, and with Molly's intestinal issues we prefer that she not take any medication unless absolutely necessary.

Hopefully it won't become a serious issue for her. In the meantime we have to keep a log of all her seizures. Given the frequency with which she has tremors, we could be writing something down every 30 seconds. That and since she's never upstairs, she could have seizures we don't know about. Poor old doggy, just another issue for her to deal with. The good thing is, she is still the same funny poodle we all love.

Next Visit

John's parents arrived on Wednesday, and are staying for a month. That should give us lots of time to do so fun stuff. Pauline & I have done a lot of shopping and errand running. We also bought new patio furniture for the front deck, and have been using that a lot, especially in the evenings. It's so nice to be able to sit out and read or work. I wish Molly was more of an outdoor dog though. She doesn't like to be outside much. She's too prissy!

Sean & Melanie suggested that we go to Whoop Up Days, so we all went, along with another friend, Trish. It was fun.

John, Sean & Melanie had their faces/heads painted, and people got a huge kick out of that. Then they got big buttons made of their pictures. There were elephant ears and corn dogs consumed, as well as many (MANY!) snow cones. We found a place called Maui Shaved Ice. They had the best flavours, and flavour combinations. John's Mom had a caramel apple one, and I had 2 Big Kahunas. I loved the coconut and pineapple the most. I highly recommend them the next time you are having a snow cone!

All in all it was a fun night. We sure know how to show people a good time when they visit!

Hickory Dickory DOC!

I had an email from Doc's new family. They love him dearly already, and everyone who meets him thinks he's great. He's doing well, although he still gets tired easily. I'm sure that'll improve as he gets used to his new situation.

They decided to call him by the name I would have given him had I kept him - Hickory!! I thought it was cute because it went with Doc. I found it hard to call him Doc because I felt as though I was calling him Dog! Hey Dog! It seemed wrong somehow. So now he has his own name, to start his new life with.

Although I miss him terribly, particularly his puppy noises, I was happy to hear that he is doing well, and that they love him so much.

More Doc

Well, today is our last day with Doc. He is going to his new home tonight. We've met the couple who is adopting him, and they seem really great. I'm so sad to see him go, but I know he'll have a good home now. Doc was at his most charming when they came to see him, and showed them that there is nothing he can't do. Three legs isn't going to stop this little guy.

Here are a few more pictures of the little guy. I love him so much!

Doc Update 3

Doc came back to us on Thursday. He was feeling a bit under the weather, as you can imagine. We took him to the vet here to see how she felt he was doing. She thought that his pain receptors were hypersensitive because of all the pain he's been through during his short life. She put him on some painkillers and anti-inflammatories to try to control it. He does seem to be better now. He cries and yelps when he's trying to get to sleep, or when he moves in a way that hurts, but I think another week or two and he'll feel a lot better. Getting the stitches out should help as well. He has 30 in his incision.

I love the little guy so much. He is meeting his prospective family tomorrow, and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. I'll be a mess when I have to give him up. I'm really attached to the little guy.

Here are some pictures post-surgery. He gets around well, and goes up and down stairs. Once he gets used to it I think he'll be able to do everything a 4-legged pup can do. Right now it's a bit sad, because he tries to do stuff with the missing leg, and hasn't quite figured out that it won't work. For example, he was trying to get a ball. He was standing on his 3 legs, and I could see his shoulder moving on the amputated leg, trying to move the leg forward. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't get the ball. It was sad. Apparently it will take his brain a while to figure out that it can stop sending messages to the leg. Then he'll be OK. It's quite a process for the little guy to go through.

Right now he's sleeping. He's snoring, and his big ears are jumping around. His ears don't know what to do right now. They are up, down, forward, you name it! It'll be a while before he grows into those ears.

I'll post again when he's adopted, and let you know how I do. I'm crying now just thinking about losing him, so I suspect it'll be really hard to let him go for good.

Peter's Visit, day 2

On Tuesday we decided not to ride, for 2 reasons. One, Peter was feeling that a day off the bike would be a good idea, and the wind was supposed to be quite high. So instead we drove to Waterton so Peter could see the park. It was beautiful day, but we were glad we chose not to ride. The wind was gusting to 60k, and heading uphill a lot of the time into the wind, none of us would have enjoyed that.

We went to Red Rock Canyon first, then to Cameron Lake. From there we had lunch in the town site. On the way out we stopped at the Prince of Wales Hotel to take some pictures of the view. We also went inside the hotel, and discovered that they serve high tea! I think we'll see if John's parents want to go to that. We might all enjoy that, I think.

I tried to take a few different pictures than when I was there with Mom, but I'm sure many of them seem familiar. Sorry about the repeats!

The most exciting thing that happened is that we saw a bear! We saw lots of deer, as always, but it was the first time we've seen a bear in Waterton. Peter & I both tried to take pictures, but she was too fast. She got across the road and into the trees too quickly. It was cool to see though!