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!

And Yet More Needless Worrying...

Abby had a follow up appointment at the Vet Cancer Group today with Dr. V. Sadly, her boyfriend Hank wasn't there, but she still had a fun time. They make a fuss and pet her and give her lots of cookies. Here she is sporting her pink bandage, which oh-so-smartly matches her leash and collar. 

I've been a bit worried about her because we had to finally give up on the Palladia. Before, she would only occasionally have GI issues with it, but it was getting to the point where she could only be on it for about 3 doses and then she would have major GI troubles. I was worried that the Lone Met would have a field day in her lungs if we suddenly stopped hitting it with the Palladia, but Dr. V. said not to worry. What we will do now is give her the Cytoxan/Piroxicam doses every day, instead of just T, Th, S & S. So, she'll still be getting a 'hit' of chemo every day. The Cytoxan is less likely to give her GI trouble, although it can lower the white blood cell count. So far, her white counts have been really good, so we'll start the Cytoxan daily and go back in 2 weeks to make sure it's not having any negative effects. As long as she seems to be handling that OK, then I'll also start to add in artemisinin, which is part of the half-holistic, or halflistic, approach I blogged about a few posts back. If you are interested, you can read more about artemisinin here on the Bone Cancer Dogs site, but basically it's an herb that has been shown to kill cancer cells in the lab (oh, and by that I mean the laboratory - not a Labrador retriever...). They have used it as an anti-malarial drug in Asia for decades, so there's a lot of info about how it works and potential side effects. Anyway, I don't want to get all technical, so I'll just post a pic of how it all works:

In related news, I have come to realize that the Palladia was actually making her less energetic. And, even with the Palladia, her energy was already akin to something like a toddler hopped up on cotton candy, so now it's really through the roof. I used to be able to wear her out for the day by taking her to Fiesta Island for an hour, but not so much now. By dinner time she is up and stealing napkins off the table and dirty socks out of the laundry and trying to chew on me, and just generally being her old terrorist puppy self. Here I thought she was just growing up a bit! But, no, it was the Palladia making her feel a bit, well, poopy. As a testament to her new-found almost-boundless energy, here are some (of the many) pics I took at Fiesta Island on Saturday. (Wish I'd taken my camera on Sunday too, as we met a cute Tripawd her same age named Mushroom and they actually played together! Hopefully we'll see him again soon.)

Abby loved this little dog, Enzo.

They wrestled for about 15 min, which is RARE for her now.

More wrestling. (Don't worry - he was not crushed.)

Here is another random dog that she raced after...

...and raced after...

...and raced after...

...and, well, you get the idea.

Love this action shot where she is fully airborne!

On a final note, the peaches are almost coming to an end! We've been making the most delicious peach sorbet with them! Abby loves it! (And so does Mike, which lets you know how good it is because he has mostly gone off sweets. Crazy boy.) We are going to miss the peaches so! But at least we have a freezer full of them still.
 

Tune in next time when I plan to blog about the Kill Barney Tour, which Abby very much wants to be a part of. (You'll just have to tune in ... wait, people don't 'tune in' on the web... you'll just have to click in for an explanation.) Type at you next time. Thanks for reading, or skimming, or whatever.