My friend, Karen, put together an Oscar-worthy short film to celebrate Abby's fourteen month ampuversary. You may recall that I refer to her first two lung mets (a.k.a. "lung mints" on the Tripawd's site - hence the film's title) as Boris and Natasha.
Okay, Oscar voters - here it is; for your consideration, I give you: The Mints
Isn't that hysterical?? I think it is the best film ever made. Karen found the Boris & Natasha ornaments while going through some old family Christmas stuff, and of course she immediately thought of Abby's lung "mints."
In other news, my nephew's girlfriend graciously offered to do a photo shoot with us. (Thanks again, Tee!) Of course, Abby came out looking great in all of them. She's not a super model for nuthin'. Here is my fave shot of the three of us. (As you can see, the weather was terrible here on New Year's Day!)
And here is another one that I think is super sweet: (Abby LOVES her some tummy rubs!)
I'm so glad we were able to get the pictures done. That would have been a big regret of mine, if we didn't manage to get a really good picture of the three of us together before it's, ya know..., too late...
In other BIG news, next week on the 11th, Abby is going to get to meet Wyatt Ray - the official Tripawd's spokesdog. Wyatt Ray belongs to the folks who started Tripawds. They lost their beloved Jerry (the "original" Tripawd and reason the whole Tripawd's site was started) to osteosarcoma, but now have Wyatt. Wyatt is a back leg amp. He does not have cancer (Hooray!) but is a tripawd due to the mean people (I just want to interject here that mean people suck) who left him tied up and never paid attention to him. Luckily that former life is way behind him. He is livin' the good life now! We can't wait to meet him. He is actually coming to Fiesta Island to meet Abby!
We are also going to meet this guy maniac. Isn't he cute frightening?!
We are excited trepidatious. If we survive, I'll post pics next week. :)
Hope this holiday season finds you done with your shopping, done with the wrapping, and able to kick back with your favorite Christmas movie (Scrooge, in my case) and favorite Christmas beverage (tip: a margarita with a little Chambord takes on a nice pink tint, close enough to call "Christmasy red"!)
Abby is defiinitely ready for the holiday. Here she is, dreaming of flying with Santa and his reindeer.
"I could be Vixen..."
That holiday cheer don't spread itself. Exhausting.
This afternoon we went to visit our 86-year-old friend, Mazli, and delivery her Christmas present (which of course was Abby-related. She got the Tripawd Heroes book, which has 2 full pages of Abbyness!). Abby wore her antlers, which were quite a hit, as you may imagine. When we got home she was exhausted. It takes a lot out of a girl, spreading all that holiday cheer. (Mazli's present for Abby hadn't arrived yet so we'll have to wait until after Christmas to get that.)
It's just as well that Mazli's present wasn't there because Abby has been quite spoiled lately with gifts. First, she got a dragon from her aunt:
Because every princess needs a dragon!
Removing a limb...
And then she got a squeaky ball and a Sock Monkey Monkeybutt from some very nice friends via the Tripawds "Angel Exchange." Sadly, tripawd Daisy recently earned her angel wings, so her pawrents were nice enough to offer up her old harnesses. They sent us one - along with these very unexpected but very-much-appreciated presents! (The harness has a little handle on the back - I think it will come in handy if Abby gets really tired at the beach and needs some help.)
Of course there are more presents for her under the tree, so she's going to be even more spoiled by the time the week is out.
As for us, we have our gift - we are just happy our girl is with us this Christmas!
Merry Christmas from Abby and us to you and yours. Hope you spend your holidays surrounded by friends and family!
Today is Abby's hopefully LUCKY ampuversary #13! So far we haven't done too much to celebrate, as she is still having some lameness in her front leg.
In my last post I mentioned we went to see Dr. V. last week fearing the cancer had spread, but she was vastly improved by the time we got to the office and it seemed like it was just an overuse injury. Well, Tues and Wed last week we went on our little approved 10 minute walks and she seemed to be doing really well. But then Thanksgiving morning she was lame again (because these things ALWAYS happen on a holiday or weekend). At first I was afraid it was a bad reaction to the new pills we'd started (the Masitinib), but we went through the whole long weekend keeping her off the pills and she is still hobbling around - which isn't super easy on only 3 legs.
So, at this point it's either just a nagging injury, or the cancer has in fact spread. We are going for an X-ray tomorrow at 12.30 and then we'll know for sure. Please keep a good thought - or poke a cancer voodoo doll - for our girl. On the plus side: she still has a good appetite (in fact, when we went for the office visit last week she was the heaviest she's been since her amp - over 48lbs! Although their scale is a bit wonky, so not 100% sure that's right...); she gets up and goes outside to do her biz on
her own; she still wants to play with me now and then and will go to her basket and pick out a toy; and she follows me into the
kitchen after dinner at night to "help" with the clean up.
This weekend, to cheer her up, I got out the remaining Barney. You may recall that when we ordered Abby her very own Barney to kill, the nice folks threw in a spare "Beanie Barney" for free. I haven't really wanted to give him to her since he is full of beans (I mean that literally and not euphemistically), and I figured she'd destroy him, like she always does with her toys, and there'd be wee Barney beans everywhere. So far, though, she's been very gentle with him. When I first gave him to her, she got hold of his hand in her mouth and just hung out there with him like that for a while.
Yesterday I took her to the park to just get outside and enjoy some fresh air. She had a good time, but it was unfortunately short-lived as the Parks Dept. people showed up and started spraying pesticide. Nice.
Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend. Although I caught my bro's miserable cold, we had a nice Thanksgiving at his house eating way too much yummy food and playing with the "Santa Hat" app on my sister's iPhone:
In other news, we've been felting again. This time we made a Rio for one of my friends from Tripawds.com.
This was my first attempt at adding a mouth/tongue.
Such a good girl to not eat the mini-Rio!
I'll let you know what happens with the x-ray tomorrow. We are worried but trying not to freak out.
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!
Downs
OK, so... it's been a bit of a stressful week. In my last post I mentioned we took Monday off from the beach because I was worried about Abby's leg and lack of stamina. Well, Monday night, after having a bad bout of tummy trouble, she was suddenly her old self - racing around, play bowing, jumping on me, etc. She seemed totally fine, so we met up with her buddy, Dakota, at the beach on Tuesday like usual. She was OK at first, but then started stumbling again. We turned back way early but she still was stumbling and breathing a little heavy and laid down several times, which is NOT normal. I was very upset the whole way home and imagining terrible things…
Ups
While I was waiting for Dr. V. to call back, she started furiously licking one toenail and then she jumped up to race around and chase a fly! So, I figured either she is the most stoic dog ever, or there's no spread of cancer to that leg (which is what I had imagined)… Dr. V. thinks it is just a combo of things all hitting at once: the heat sapping her energy, bit of a tummy issue (maybe ate/drank something funky at the bay) also sapping her energy, plus a problem with her toenail and/or a strained wrist. I think she may have slightly torn a toenail at the base, which if you think about it, would hurt like crazy on the uneven surface at the beach - not to mention the sand and salt water getting in there. So the last two days we have just done short walks in the neighborhood and she's done OK with that. Tomorrow we will attempt the beach again, but plan to take it a little easy.
Monkeybutts
It's been a rough couple of days, but as usual the folks at the Tripawds.com site help you through these things. One of things I love about the Tripawds community is that there are some darn funny people on there. (Gee, using humor to deal with adversity... who'da thunk it??) Well, one of the funniest folks on the site made Abby a special video for her 10 month ampuversary, which I've included below. But before you watch it, I have to explain about Monkeybutts...
Monkeybutts (Latin: canis monkeyanticus familiaris OR canis lupus jealousicus) are other dogs (or cats or ferrets, etc.) who live in the house with a tripawd and get up to all sorts of antics due to their jealousy over all the special attention tripawds get - like car rides! (trips to the vet) and treats! (pills hidden in food). The Monkeybutts try to stir up friendly trouble with the AMBF (the Anti MonkeyButt Forces) on the Tripawds site. Abby is a proud member of the AMBF! The Monkeybutts' leader is this little tyke pictured to the right: Rocket, aka "Monkeybutt-Bunny Vampire Pirate". He is the one who made the video for Abby - which is why (as you'll see) it is not the...er, love message you might be expecting.
Abby explained to Monkeybutt that she saw the hidden message in the video... Just like god backwards is dog, she figured out that NOT backwards is TON and that Monkeybutt-Bunny was really trying to say that he likes her a TON! (I may have left you all with the Barney song in your head a couple of posts back; now just try to get this ditty outta your head!)
One More Little "Up"
Today Abby and I went and got sandwiches and then hijacked Mike from work and took him to the park for a wee picnic lunch and a nice stroll/hop in the sun. It was very nice.
And One More Big "Down"
Hate to end on a sad note, but I wanted to mention to please send good vibes out to Chili Dawg's family. Chili Dawg was the tripawd golden that we sent Barney on to. Sweet Chili didn't make it. (You might not want to click this link unless you have tissues handy...) He had an appointment with heaven that he couldn't miss. He didn't even get to have much fun with Barney, and had to let his monkeybutt brother, Finchy the boxer, try to kill Barney. The Tripawds folks are all very sad about the loss of Chili, a great Tripawd Warrior.
Thought I would take a short break from the actual events of this stop on the Kill Barney Tour(KBT) to 'splain a little bit more about Barney and what the KBT is all about. I explained it a bit a while ago, but folks may have missed that, and also I didn't explain what I think Barney means to the Tripawds community.
The very same Barney that we are now hosting once belonged to Jerry, who is now known on the Tripawds site as Spirit Jerry since he's no longer with us in the flesh. Jerry was the Original Tripawd--the dog that inspired his pawrents to start the Tripawds site. Jerry has been gone since 2008, but his spirit lives on in the Tripawds community, which has been a really amazing place to go for support and answers during all of this. Everyone on there is very nice and very helpful - and some of them are damn funny.
Which brings us back to the KBT. If I'm counting stops correctly on the KBT map, we are the 25th house to host Barney. Barney travels with a journal and everyone who has hosted him writes about their tripawd pooch and a little bit about Barney's visit. Here is what one woman wrote, which I think sums up nicely why we are all spending time doing silly things with a stinky purple dinosaur:
"I cannot begin to express my gratitude over this Barney. I believe he carries strength from all the tripawd and quad-pawds he's visited. He has been a great source of comfort to us during his visit."
Here's what I'm planning to write in his journal:
"It’s been an honor to host Barney. The Tripawds family has been so great and supportive and it’s nice to have something tangible we can all share that brings a good laugh along with it. Barney is a great symbol for sharing our strengths, our hopes and even a laugh in the face of tough times."
So hopefully that explains why a grown woman is playing with a stuffed dino. It's nice to bring a little silliness to the sucky roller coaster ride that is canine osteosarcoma. I mean, really, how can you not look at something like this and at least crack a smile?
In other news (many of you will already know this from Facebook)... remember this drawing I did of Abby?
Well, the Tripawds folks are putting it on T-shirts and gifts and such, and you can customize the items with your own caption. I ordered a bunch of stuff today, most of it with the caption: Tri to relax. Can't wait to get it!
...including carrying around a stinky stuffed dino in a backpack and whipping him out every few minutes for a photo op. My sister, Kathy, went with me to help me take the pictures. We had a good time, giggling as we set up our shots. I think Barney had a good time too - even though we kept stuffing him back in the bag and were generally embarrassed to be seen with him. He seemed oblivious to all that though. (I think because he is a few fluff balls shy of a full bag of stuffing!)
Anyway, here he is at the zoo.
First stop: the flamingos
Barney loved the hippos. (Same body type.)
The leopard totally ignored Barney...
...but I'm pretty sure the polar bear wanted to eat him.
Barney thought the polar bear wanted to eat him too and attempted to flee the scene
Later he found solace with this sloth
...and found a little something with this elephant statue as well...
He needed some water after that.
And he demanded another massage. (Spoiled!)
A giant eagle tried to fly off with him!!
But Kath intervened just in time and saved him. Phew!
The irony of the dino skeleton on this little Ranger Rick guy's jacket was lost on Barney. (Is it any surprise that Barney doesn't get irony? I don't think so... He's basically a complete moron.)
We also stopped at the gift shop and let Barney pick out some items for the box that he travels in. (There are lots of mementos from his other visits.) He selected a nice picture frame and a panda bear pin. He saw these guys while we were shopping and had to stop for a moment; he said they were his "peeps":
We had such a good time at the zoo that afterwards we took him to Balboa Park as well.
Hanging at the Lily Pond
Chillin' by the fountain
"Look, I'm Godzilla! I'm going to knock down the Bell Tower!" (He thought that was hilarious. Such a tourist.)
Last time I posted it was the day before Abby's 2nd birthday. Before we get to the Big News, here's a quick run down of her extended birthday celebrations in photos:
On her bday, she got a new toy...
The next day, she got ANOTHER new toy - this one from her Aunt Terry...
...and she did not want to give it up!
The *next* day, she got a new bone.
Have to be creative when chewing these!
THEN... she got a box full of goodies...
...including Barney!
Yes! The Kill Barney Tour has arrived in San Diego! A shout out to the Oaktown Pack for sending Barney our way, and especially to Codie Rae (who is a star tripawd and seen in a real live music video. She is kinda a Big Deal and is Abby's idol.) You may recall I blogged back in June about how we were Begging for Barney, [and if you don't recall, you may want to check that post out because it explains all this Barney stuff...) and now he's here!
Barney has been to see a lot of Tripawds and he's getting a bit...odiferous. Abby gave him a very thorough sniffing.
She sniffed him ALL over.
And then she started to eat him.
Now, it is the KILL Barney Tour, but I have plans for him first... so I had to get him away from her:
Then I had to put him up where she couldn't get him:
He travels with a box full of goodies - some memorabilia from all the places he's been, plus a diary that journals his travels. There is also a stamp pad to add your tripawd's paw print into the journal. Haven't done that yet.... Should be interesting. Anyway, the stuff he travels with is getting pretty stinky too, so here is Abby looking for Barney - in vain - amongst his accoutrement:
Here's the thing... I don't think we should just leap right in and kill him. I think we should lull him into a false sense of security. And THEN kill him. Remember that scene in Marathon Man when Dustin Hoffman THINKS he's being rescued by William Devane... but then William Devane just drives him right back to Laurence Olivier for more torture?? Well, think of me as William Devane, Abby as Sir Laurence, and Barney of course will be playing the Dustin Hoffman roll. Is it safe, Barney? Oh yes... he thinks it is!
Here he is having a recovery nap after the Oaktown Pack had their way with him.
Here he is unwinding with a nice massage
And the ultimate in relaxation: a nice long steam shower
He's resting comfortably in the other room right now. Next: we continue to lull him into relaxing and completely letting his guard down with a trip to the zoo. (Heehee. He thinks he's just here to unwind in San Diego; see the sites! Little does he suspect...)
