Damn, She's Cute!

OK - maybe I'm biased, since she's our sweet baby, but how cute are these pictures?

Cuddling with Daddy

Ready for her close up

"Rub my belly!"

"Seriously, how can you resist my belly?!"

Yesterday, I met up with three of my freshman year (like, 1984ish!) college roommates in Temecula for lunch. It was really fun and hardly like any time had passed. (Although we did drink our adult beverages without turning it into a drinking game, so I guess time has passed...) [We went to Public House - thanks for the recommendation, Jim and Denise!] Anyway, while I was gone, Mike drove Abby up to the little park in our neighborhood. Apparently, they had a great time and he completely wore her out. They met a man with two Irish wolfhounds who fell in love with Abby and said he hopes to run into her again soon. 

Abby also took Mike to visit Mazli, who lives across the street from the park. Mazli is a friend that Abby and I visit a couple of times a week on our walks. We haven't been to see Mazli in ages because of, oh, the limping, the bone biopsy, the surgery, the recovery, etc. While they were there, Abby got three cookies plus a "chewie" rawhide treat, so she was in heaven. I know she missed Mazli - and the cookies and the chewies as well. After her outing, she was beat and crashed in her "deep dish deluxe" bed most of the evening!

Photo Gallery (& A Side Effect of the Side Effect)

Post-Bath

You can see where the wall's all wet

We took a ton of pics of Abby this weekend, so let's get to it. First of all, Abby had to have a bath, due to a side effect of a chemo side effect. We've been really lucky and it seems the chemo has only affected her appetite. She still has one, but it's hard to know what she'll eat on any given day, so we've been feeding her different, odd things everyday - wet food, salmon, cottage cheese, pasta, whatever she'll take. Unfortunately, that meant that when she went to do "her business" yesterday, there was a bit of the "business" on her leg when she came back inside. So into the bath she went. (Which she hates. Truth be told, this was only her second bath since we got her almost a year ago - although we do hose her down post visits to the beach. She's funny - she loves the water, but hates a bath.)

When we were done, she ran up and down the hall, leaning into the wall. Not sure if she thought she was drying herself off or what (maybe just paying us back for the bath treatment), but we had nice little wet streaks along the walls. We took her for a walk to air-dry a bit, so below is a photo of her looking oh-so-happy on her walk. I was rubbing her to facilitate drying, and you can see that I came away with a mohair hand. (If you double-click the pics you can see them full size and see the hair really well.)

I'll do a separate post of some super cute pics of her.  

Action shot: in mid-hop

My hairy hand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking the air to air dry

I Didn't Think This Was Possible

Just a wee post for today about the use of the doggy door. I really didn't think Abby would be able to use it anymore. It just seemed like it would not be possible on three legs - but as you can see in this very short two-second video, it's no big deal at all for her. The girl must have some serious ab muscles to be able to support her weight on just her back legs while shoving the front half of her body through the door. No biggie!

We went on a couple of short walks with her today, trying to build her stamina back up. Some people don't notice at all; with others it takes a while for them to notice. One family in our neighborhood who have never spoken to us before (we've lived her 10 years!), actually talked to us. "Hey, did that dog always have three legs?" Seriously - that's what he asked me. Even though I've walked past their house with her pretty much every day, twice a day for almost a year now. Like, maybe he just didn't notice before. Anyway, they were nice and sympathetic and Abby ate it up. 

So Far, So Good...

I hope I'm not jinxing us by saying this (and, yes, I'm spitting on myself...), but so far Abby has not had a bad reaction to the chemo. Yesterday, we did have to play a game of "What Will The Dog Eat?" but other than that, she's been doing great. 

Wednesday night after chemo, her appetite was fine. Mixed a little canned wild salmon in with her food, and she ate it all up. But then yesterday, she seemed to have little appetite. 

Opened some sardines. Nope. Turned her nose up. 

Opened a can of wild salmon, which she'd devoured before. Again, nope. 

Tried some of her dried food on a whim, but no way.

Got out the cottage cheese, which she usually loves. She had a few halfhearted bites, then gave up. 

So, other than a bit of cottage cheese, she didn't eat much all day. Same routine again for dinner - ran through all her favorites and she didn't want any of it, but then we were making ourselves some pasta, and Mike handed her a noodle. She devoured it. He offered some more, and she chowed it all down. We gave her a little pile of plain pasta and she was quite happy. I went back to check the paperwork the Vet Cancer Group gave me and it said, "If your dog refuses to eat after treatment, offer bland foods like white rice or pasta." Clearly, she had read the paperwork. I had read it too, but had forgotten. (It's the lack of sleep. Last night was the first time I slept through the night since the day she was diagnosed - Oct 25, with the exception of the night she spent in the ER.) 

Hopefully she'll continue to do well, although I understand it can take several days to react, so we're not fully out of the woods yet. 

Yesterday and today have been pretty good days. We are at our two week "ampuversary" today, and she seems a lot like her old self. Last night when Mike came home, she jumped on him... I mean, she sat like an angel and waited for him to be ready to pet her. Then she hopped up on the sofa and flung herself onto her back, so he could rub her belly, like she always used to. Then she was playing with her toys and chewing on her bone, just like her old puppy self. This morning she got in bed with us (yes, we still have our mattress on the floor) and I was able to grab her and pull her up for a cuddle with us. It was so nice!

Hopefully she'll have many more weekly and then annual ampuversaries ahead of her.

Cujo Cone Puppy Video

OK - here it is. The video of (a) why she needs to still wear her cone/collar and (b) her Cujo-esque reaction when I put the collar on her. The quality is not great at points since I'm holding my "camera" (my iPod Nano) with one hand and trying to get the collar on with the other. (This is a huge file and I apologize to anyone on dial-up. Uh... probably just Linda?)

As you can tell from the laughing, I am not-so-much a-feared of her "I'll rip your face off" threats. I should have continued to film, since right after this she was immediately back to her old lovable self. Toward the end of the video, you hear Mike coming over and sweet-talking her. Within seconds of growling at me, she was showering him with kisses and then I got in on the act and received some as well, so all was forgiven.

Will do another post later with an update on her chemo reaction thus far. So many things to tell... but apparently advice to bloggers is to make the posts short so I don't bore y'all. So I may have to parse some things out over the coming days. We are off for our morning hop around the block. More later.  

(Thanks to Terry for pointing out that I've been misspelling Cujo! My only excuse is that I never read it/never saw the movie...)

First "Real" Tripawd Walk

Abby went for her first "real" walk yesterday as a tripawd. It was funny to see how few people in the neighborhood even noticed. I did see some ladies in a car slow way down for their drive-by, looking at her and making that "Awwww" face. They waved and smiled at me, but I have no idea who they were. 

Then we saw one of Abby's neighborhood boyfriends coming along--Donovan. He's a Shepard mix and the same age as Abby. I just stopped to wait for his "mom" to notice. It took her a while, but when she did, she put her hand up to her heart, and said, "Oh no! What happened!?" It was a similar scene as with my hairdresser the other day - she threatened to start crying. But Abby had a huge smile on her face and was waving her tail back and forth, so I just said, "Yeah, but look how happy she is." 

This morning we went for another short walk with Abby's Aunt Terry and her cousin, Corgi Lou. (And Terry gets photo credits for today. I forgot to bring my camera along!)

A nice lady in their neighborhood gave them treats on our walk (which I guess is her usual M.O). She gave Abby an extra one for her troubles. (And so it begins - the milking it!) Lou, on the other, didn't cut Abby any slack--he showed her some teeth when she tried to give him a few too many kisses. She LOVES him and he tolerates her.

We went to Terry's to borrow a ramp from her neighbor. Here's Abby test-driving it for the first time. I managed to get her to come down it when we got home as well, although it took a lot of coaxing with a jerkey treat. It will be great if she can get used to it--don't want her to hurt herself jumping down! We also need to try it in our bedroom or maybe add some stairs for the bed. (Or... we need to train her to not sleep in our bed... That sounds a lot like tough love though, and, as I've mentioned, we-ESPECIALLY Mike-are not so good at that.)   

As you can see, she's still wearing a T-shirt. Mostly to keep her from scaring folks (although she's healing up nicely) and to keep her from bugging the incision.Yesterday she almost chewed off the tank top I had on her, because she wants at those scabs so badly! So, for the most part, she is still wearing the dreaded e-collar. I took a video of her illustrating the whole "need for a cone" situation, but Mike said not to post it as it doesn't paint her in the nicest light. You should see her show me her teeth when I put the cone on her! Cujo-puppy! So suddenly Mr. We Need To Show People Every Part of This is all "no, let's not show the nitty-gritty and put the puppy in a bad light." (I think it's understandable though - I'd be a might testy too if someone: took my arm; wouldn't let me go out and have fun for weeks on end; and then kept stuffing my head through a life preserver! Oh, yeah, I'd be showing some teeth!) 

If there's demand for the video, I'll post it. I find it amusing. 

Oh, and btw, no side effects so far from yesterday's chemo - although I guess it can take a few days. Wish us luck with that!

 

Chemo - What Fun!

We went for Abby's first chemo session today. She loved it. (She's so nutty.) It was the most excited I've seen her in about a month. She was bouncing all over the place and kissing everyone and hopping around. She loved it there. (We are going to the Vet Cancer Group, which is a different place from where we go for her regular vet care/where her amp was done.) The oncologist I met before, Dr. Vancil, was in a jury pool, so he had to go back to the court house this morning, so we had our appointment with a different oncologist, Dr. Rosenberg--the head of all of VCG (they have several offices in So Cal). She was super nice and sat on the floor with Abby and let Abby kiss her all she wanted.

Here is a picture of her looking oh-so-happy to be at her appointment. (She is checking out the dog and cat art hanging on the wall.)

Dr. R. said they would give her the 100% dose for the first go-round, since Abby looked so healthy and peppy. (I guess in some cases they ease into things, but with Abby we are attacking whole-hog.) She also said if Abby tolerates the treatment well, we might go to an every 2 weeks schedule instead of every 3. We'll see. (Although not right away because of Thanksgiving coming up.) 

The chemo is given by IV. Abby was so amped up, I asked how they would keep her quiet enough to get the drugs in her. Dr. R. said one tech would hold her and pet her while the other one put the IV in, and it would be done in a couple of minutes. When the tech came back with Abby, she said she did great and just lay down on the floor, like "OK, let me have it."

They gave me some nausea medication to bring home and give her, just in case. Within the next 24-72 hours we'll really know how she's doing. We go back in one week so they can check her blood - 7-10 days is generally the low point for white cell count, so they'll check to see how she's doing. If it's really low, she might have to stick close to home for a few days. But other than that, Dr. R. cleared her for all her old activities already! Walking! Dog Park! Dog Beach! HIKING even! She said Abby just needs to build back up her stamina. So, this afternoon, we'll try a little hop around the neighborhood. 

Hopefully she won't feel too nauseous over the next few days so we can start building up her stamina! So far, she seems fine-just tired from the excitement. She came home and wolfed down her breakfast (canned salmon mixed with salmon-flavored kibble), which she had ignored earlier (she never has much appetite in the a.m.). Right now she's napping.

In an amusing side note, I heard the gal working the front desk talking to Dr. V. on the phone. He ended up not getting on a jury after all and was calling to say he was coming back to the office. I heard the gal say to him, "Someone got off the jury by claiming an over-active bladder?" So, people - remember that line next time you want to get off of jury duty!

Glimpses of Her Old Puppy Self (& Incision Pics!)

Yesterday we definitely saw signs of our old pupster. My friend Louisa came over last night and Abby has always loved to jump on and nibble upon Louisa. (When she gets really excited, she starts out licking and then progresses to gnawing quite quickly. The puppy, that is - not Louisa.) On Saturday, when Louisa came by for our usual Saturday morning writing session, Abby was happy to see her and whined and told Louisa all her troubles and gave her kisses, but then pretty much crashed. But last night, she was like her old self, trying to jump up on Louisa and gnawing on her hands. 

Now, somehow, I thought the dog would magically stop doing all the jumping/gnawing after all this. I imagined something like this going through her little puppy head: "Wow, I've had a brush with death. From this day forward I'm going to be the best dog I can possibly be!" And she would listen to her mother and do everything she's asked to do. 

Silly me. I should have known that the bad habits she had before the surgery would still be around post-surgery. I thought, though, that it might be harder for her to jump up on people, post-surgery. But it was fairly stupid of me to think that, because of course she still has two big strong back legs to stand up on. 

Anyway, I was sort of happy to see the jumping/gnawing as she seemed like her old puppy self. Then she even went and got her new toys and started playing with them, which was nice to see since it's the first time she's really tried to play since her surgery on 10/29. Here she is trying to destruct the indestructible stuffed man that Aunt Terry brought her. So far, he remains intact. 

She's still having to wear her collar today. The second I take it off her she starts licking her incision, but I managed to convince her to stop chewing on herself long enough to take a couple of pictures to show how nicely she's heeling up. It looks way better, but for now I think we'll stick with keeping a T-shirt on her, so we don't scare the neighbors. (Oh, and I thought of another thing I want to have custom-printed on a T-shirt for her: IHOP.)


Tomorrow we have chemo at 10a.m. (Assuming the oncologist is done with jury duty! Please keep your fingers crossed that they won't have to cancel our appointment!) Assuming we get in, I'll blog all about it afterward. Wish us luck! 


Jean, I can't wait to hear what the 3rd graders think of all this. I practically had my hairdresser in tears this morning telling her the whole saga. Had to reassure her that Abby's doing great!

No More Staples! (But Still... the Cone...)

I took Abby to the vet today to have them take a look at a little pocket of fluid (officially called a "seroma") that had built up on her chest where her drain used to be. I knew from the e-book about tripawds ("Three Legs & A Spare") that I downloaded from the excellent Tripawds site that these sorts of things can happen post-surgery, but apparently they sometimes need to be drained out, so I wanted to the vet to check it. They said hers looks OK and should be re-absorbed into her body. While we were there they took her staples out. Hoorah! She's looking a little less like Frankenpup! (Wanted to take a pic to post, but she's all curled up asleep right now.) The bummer is that she's still chewing on herself, because of all the oh-so-delicious scabbiness, so she still has to wear the cone for a bit longer. 

She was so excited, once again, about going to the vet's office. And everyone there goes nuts when she comes in. "Abby!" they all yell. (It's even better than the greeting Norm used to always get on Cheers.) They all want to love on her, and she eats it up and wiggles and kisses everyone. They are all thrilled with how well she's doing and the vet was saying what a "cool dog" she is. He said they are all so happy we decided to go through with the amputation and chemo. One woman working there said Abby is a great illustration of how dogs live in the moment, since she holds no grudge against the place and people who took her leg. They told me I should write a book about her. Hmmmm. (Actually, I am working her into the novel I'm writing... but maybe she needs her own non-fiction book as well. We'll have to see how her chemo goes!). 

The vet also said I can start walking her soon - he said in a couple of days, but of course, her chemo starts on Wednesday, so that will probably delay the start of our walks. But maybe by the weekend! 

She is still experiencing a bit of what seems to be known as "phantom limb pain," which is the same thing that happens with human amputees. We've noticed the only time she really seems to whine or cry now is mainly when she "forgets" about what's happened. For instance, when she first wakes up, she'll try to stretch her legs like she's always done every morning. Well, apparently, her brain doesn't realized yet that the one leg is gone, so, as the Tripawds book describes it, the brain sends signals to the leg, and when the signals aren't received, there's a bit of a "panic" message that is interpreted as pain. It also happened last night when she heard something out in the yard and was trying to be her old tough girl, guard-dog self. She got all puffed up and started barking her Big Bark, but then started crying right away. Poor little sweetie. I'm sure this will subside over time - hopefully rather quickly.

As I mentioned, this Tripawds ebook has been really helpful. (I wish we'd had it from the beginning. It's the only place I've seen that really warns you how scary your dog will look post-surgery - with color pictures and everything.) But... it says you shouldn't baby the dog during the recovery period. Um, but what if you've been babying the dog all along, like... from the second you originally brought it home from the shelter?? 

Here are some of the things it says we should not do, but which we've totally been doing. 

• Don't sleep on the floor (We still have our mattress on the floor, even though she's hardly slept in the bed with us. But we want her to have the option and we don't want to have to worry about her jumping out of the bed! I think we may have to look into some sort of stairs or a ramp for her so we can get our mattress back up where it belongs!)
• Don't bring them their food/hand feed them (It's really the only way I can get her to eat - and since she needs to take her pills with food, well... Of course the one exception was the Flying Dutchman, which she most definitely did not want me to touch!)
• Don't run to assist them at any sign of discomfort (Oh, yeah, we totally run over to her at any sign of pain! "Oh honey! Are you OK???")

The book says we should be "tough loving" her - but anyone who's ever been to our house during any time when we had a dog knows we are not so good with the tough love. Dogs don't call our house "The Spa" for nuthin'!

Better sign off - my writer-friend Louisa is coming over tonight for a writing session (and for pizza eating) while Mike is at a work dinner. Gotta get ready. Abby LOVES Louisa, so she'll be happy to have another visitor. 

Will try to post some updated incision pics tomorrow. (Oooo, isn't that something to look forward to!?)

Home Alone (& A Classic 4-Limbed Video)

Today Mike and I decided to go for a little hike, since the weather is so nice. I felt guilty about leaving the pupster home alone, but needed to get some exercise in since I haven't been walking/running ever since my little cardio partner came up lame. She really wanted to go along when she saw us getting ready, and dashed out to the car to try and hop in. Poor pup! We had to coax her back inside with treats.

We decided since we didn't have her along to go to Torrey Pines State Park. Since dogs aren't allowed, we hardly ever go there. We did some hiking and a bit of running (to test Mike's post-surgery knee out), and went down to the beach where we saw a seal bobbing in the water. Should have taken the camera because it was gorgeous down there today. We weren't gone too long, so luckily Abby wasn't too irritated with us when we got home. In fact, we even got a few welcome home kisses. Only, not as many kisses as she gives to visitors these days. (I think she's annoyed with us, not because she realizes we are the ones responsible for the absence of her limb, but because we never take her out beyond the confines of our yard anymore!)

Anyway, speaking of visitors, my brother, Jim, and sis-in-law, Denise, came by for a little visit with Abby yesterday. She was very happy to see them - especially since they brought her a new toy, seen here. Was trying to get a pic of her playing with it but none of them came out well. Instead, she is kinda crashed with it here. I'm trying to give her less pain meds today and see how that goes, since they are hard on her system, so to make up for the decrease in pain pills, I gave her 1/2 of a sedative. You can see she's looking verrrrrry sleeeepy in this picture. Got a little of that "third eyelid" action going on. 


Last night she was a wee bit standoffish again - slept most of the night out in the hall, but she did come in this morning and hop in bed with us. (We are still sleeping with our mattress on the floor. It feels mildly reminiscent of camping, although way more comfortable!)

Due to popular demand (okay, really only one person asked), I'm including below a video from a couple of months back before all her troubles started. She'd gone to Terry's for the day as a 'practice' dog-sitting session since she'd never been away from home before. She was so busy pestering her cousin, Corgi Lou, all day long that she came home exhausted! I'd made some popcorn - one of her favorite foods, even though she is not much of a chow hound - and thought for sure she'd wake up to share some with me. Here's what happened:

A Night Out (!) & A Hoppy Video

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we went out last night to a fundraiser at The Farm House restaurant. The charity is called "World Bicycle Relief" and last night they were specifically raising money to give bikes to kids, especially girls, in Africa so they can get to school. (I think that is kind of a funny name for the group - sort of sounds like they are trying to relieve the world of the scourge of bicycles.) Anyway, it was a fun night and lots of nice people. There was only room for 40 but even in that small group there was an interesting mix of folks--or at least a mix of ages, from probably 20s to 80s. The food was incredible: lobster tortellini starter, delicious butternut squash soup, truffle-crusted black cod on a bed of pumpkin and chestnut risotto (to die for), and beef cheeks for the main course. We had never eaten beef cheeks before. Mike asked which cheeks they were... Wherever they came from they were darn tasty - a lot like short ribs. Then there was a cheese course with these heavenly bits of cheese; one of them was baked into this little cloud of pastry. Yum! Then for dessert, a little cake made with stout ale and served with maple ice cream and candied bacon. I love this restaurant. They candy bacon. So yummy with the maple ice cream! AND we each got a little box of homemade chocolates to bring home. 


And here's the horror part: I FORGOT to bring my box of chocolates when we left!!! I didn't realize it until we'd driven away. What the heck???? I blame it on the lack of sleep for two weeks running. Anyway, my hubby says he will share his box with me. He is a good hubby.


For most of dinner we were seated with this very nice couple who are also dog people and who like to travel, so we had a good chat with them. Then halfway through the meal, Mike's acupuncturist - who was seated next to Chris Horner (top 10 (!) in this year's Tour de France and teammate of Lance Armstrong) - came over and said he and his wife would change seats with us so we could talk to Chris. We were a little shy to do it, but switched with them - and Chris was super nice and easy to talk to. It was fun to get some inside stories about this year's Tour, especially Stage 2 which was so rainy and slippery that guys were crashing everywhere. Chris said he was actually passed by two riderless bicycles at one point!

Anyway, it was a very fun night - and just so nice to get dressed up and go out. I realized while I was getting ready that I hadn't gone out for a fun reason since we found out about Abby's cancer. My sister, Terry, came and stayed with Abby until bed time (bed time for both Abby and Terry that is...), so it was nice to go out and not worry about the pooch being home alone. And Abby was also only too happy for a little change of pace. She's clearly sick of hanging out around here with me, as evidenced by the disgusting display of over-the-top kissing and tail wagging that went on when Terry arrived!

Also yesterday, my other sis, Kath, came by to visit Abby. Again, Kath got way more kisses than Mike or I have been getting lately. Kath brought Abby some cookies, like this one that says "Superdog," which were a big hit. (And kinda tasty, I might add...)

Some of you asked how Abby's getting around, so here is a very short video of her. The oncologist said the getting around part would be easy for her, but the hardest thing for her would be re-learning how to sit and lie down, so in the video: she hops! She sits! She lays down! (Riveting stuff... I should really get this up on YouTube so it can go viral.)

A Short Update

Abby seems more like her old self today, just an amazing 7 days post-op. She wags her tail more and gives kisses. She even hopped over and begged a little yesterday when my friend Michelle came over and we were enjoying our Rubio's burritos. Was never so happy to see her beg. She was very happy to see Michelle. She loves visitors. 

We actually slept pretty well too. Only got up once in the night and she even curled up in bed with us for a bit. I think we are getting there.

Here she is loving on her daddy when he came home from work.

Tonight we are going out so my sister, Terry, is coming to babysit, at least until Abby is settled in for the night. We are going to a fund raising dinner for World Bicycle Relief at The Farm House restaurant. The money raised will go to buy bikes for kids in Africa who have to travel ridiculous distances on foot to get to school. And the menu sounds amazing! It's like 7 courses. Plus Chris Horner, who was 10th in this year's Tour de France, will be there. We are such cycling geek-fans. I hope we (referring only to myself, really) don't act totally goofy in front of him. 

Oh - and to follow up on yesterday's post, that strange fruit - the sapote - was indeed a little strange. It was very soft and smooth and had a very mild flavor. It was like eating vanilla pudding, but someone forgot to put the vanilla flavor in.
 
And, now, for your enjoyment, here is a beautiful flower - with three stems:

Needless Worrying

As is my usual way, I did some worrying for nothing yesterday. You'll recall from yesterday's post I was worried about how I was going to get Abby up to go to the vet appointment. I was also worried about getting her in and out of the car. I decided we'd start leaving for the vet extra early, in case I had any troubles with her. But that was all for naught. All I had to do to get her up was pick up my car keys and open the garage door. From her many trips to the park and dog beach, Abby loves to ride in the car. She was more than ready to get the heck out of this boring place and head somewhere else. 

Well, then I thought she might be extremely bummed to see that the "somewhere else" we were heading was the place where she wound up sans-limb. But no, as soon as we pulled into the vet's parking lot she was ready to jump out of the car. With the help of my little handmade sling, I got her out of the car, and then had to trot alongside as she hopped happily to the front door. Personally, if it had been me, I would not have gone so willingly into that house of horrible things. You'd have had to drag me in kicking and screaming. But not sweet Abby. She went in, all smiles and wagging tail. Everyone there was SO happy to see her. And she was so happy to see them. She's such a love. They all thought she was doing great! 

Hurry up, Hair - grow back!

It turned out the surgeon who performed her update-to-tripawd procedure just happened to be there, so they asked me if I could leave her with them until he had time to see her. They wanted him to have a look at her and do the drain removal. She was happy to stay and I was happy to leave her for a bit, since it gave me a chance to run back to the grocery store for a few things I forgot (like cheese! How could i forget cheese??!) the other day while Terry was dog-sitting. When I went back to get her the drain was gone (again, Hoorah! No more towels and rags laid out on all our furniture!) and they told me the surgeon was very pleased with her progress. Here's a new pic of her incision. It's healing up pretty nicely. Just can't wait til the staples are gone, which will mean no more cone. (Hopefully they'll come out next Wed. at her chemo appt.) 

"Wish this e-collar thing came in 'camouflage'!"

While I was there, I asked about her aloofness (which continues, as shown in this photo of her "hiding" in the jasmine again this morning). They said it's normal after surgery and is most likely due to some continuing discomfort. As some friends and family theorized (you guys are so smart!), it is believed to go back to their wolfy instincts, where, in the wild, a hurt animal will go off on its own in an attempt to hide its weakness. Along those lines, I'd heard before that it is a dog's instinct to hide its pain, not wanting to be the weak one in the pack and all that. So if your dog shows signs of pain, he/she is probably in some fairly serious discomfort. Or just a great actor, like our childhood family beagle Barney who, when put out back while the family was inside, would sit at the sliding glass door and pathetically raise one paw. "Hey, I'm hurt out here. Doesn't anyone care?" Of course we cared! So, open door; enter beagle. Job done; pain magically all gone!

Strange fruit

In a bit of non-dog-related news, our box of veggies that arrived Monday included these strange green blobs. (We get a box of produce each week straight from an organic farmer. It's fun because we get new things I never would have bought.) Well, this week, we didn't even know what these things were. The farmer emailed the next day to say they are sapote - a fruit common to Mexico. He said we needed to let them ripen a few days. I think they look like muppets or little pucker-faced alien babies. They seem soft enough, so we'll try one tonight. That will likely be the highlight of the day. I'll let you know if they are any good.


Thank you to everyone (e.g. Kath) who resisted the urge to make fun of yesterday's post where I said the dog food looked like chocolate "mouse" instead of "mousse" - luckily I noticed later and fixed it.

Is it just me, or does this remind you of those John the Baptist Head on a Platter paintings?

"I vant to be alone..."

Abby is continuing her aloofness and spent a good part of yesterday and this morning channeling Greta Garbo in "Grand Hotel".

Where's Abby?

I'm pretty convinced it's a side effect of feeling funky on her pain meds, but plan to talk to the vet about it when we go see him today to have her drain taken out. (Hoorah! That thing is just icky. I realize it's there for a good reason - but it's still icky and it bugs her.) 

The worst thing about the aloofness is that once she plants herself somewhere, it's next to impossible to get her up again. (Hopefully I'll be able to get her up for today's vet appointment!)

There she is! Under the fern.

For example, last night was no fun at all. It started when Mike came home from work. Normally they run to the sofa together and she wiggles and kisses him and then flops over on her back so he can rub her tummy. Last night, I heard him pull in and she was sound asleep on the sofa. I started trying to wake her up, so she'd be ready and not overly excited out of a sound sleep. Well, she wasn't quite awake yet when he came in, so I guess she forgot about the mess she's in. She tried to flop over onto her back when she saw him and started yelping. So awful. (And not at all a good greeting for poor Mike.) We managed to calm her down with a good helping of Newman's Own organic canned dog food. (More on this below.) But then she wanted out, so Mike took her out on the leash. Several minutes later, dinner was ready and still no sign of them, so I went to investigate. 

Abby had flopped down in the jasmine in the yard with the stick-to-itiveness of a speed bump. She wasn't going anywhere. And Mike, on the other end of her leash, was also stuck out in the yard. It was dark and starting to get a bit chilly, so we didn't want to just leave her out there, but no amount of coaxing, begging, or gentle tugging on the leash would budge her. I brought out some of the Newman's Own; I brought out cheddar cheese; I brought out some of the plain ground turkey I'd cooked up for her while making our dinner. She would eat any and all of it if we held it down to where she was planted, but wouldn't even lift her head to take a bite as soon as we tried to use it as a "carrot." Eventually, we had to just leave her there and keep the front door open so we could keep an eye on her. After about 2 hours she finally got up and we got her inside and up to bed, where we spent another not-great night, up every few hours checking on her and giving her more pain meds. But at least she stayed in the room all night and even got in bed with us for a bit this morning.  

Here she is this morning, hanging out in the backyard. 

"Perhaps a swim, since I've got my life preserver handy..."

At least through all this, her appetite almost never fails her. We're taking that as a good sign that the pain is not unbearable. As I said above, the Newman's Own is a huge hit. The other day when Terry dogsat her, I didn't want to take the time to go all the way to the pet store for more of the Blue Buffalo Backyard BBQ or Turducken (yes, turducken!), so instead figured I'd just get some food at Vons. Well, the selection was not great - everything was "meat by-products" (gross) and grains, and I read that dogs with cancer need a low-grain diet. But then, I found a brand that I love anyway: Newman's Own. Got her a few cans of the organic beef and beef & liver flavors. The ingredients are: organic beef, org. beef broth, org. liver and some added minerals + vitamins. That's it! Well, she totally loves it and gives it a "dew-claws up!" rating. But it's SO gross looking. I was expecting it to look chunky, like the Blue Buffalo canned foods, but no. If you saw it from a distance, you might mistake it for chocolate mousse - it's so . . . fluffy and light. Seriously, you could probably add some seasonings, pack it into a little terrine and then pass it off at a party as paté. (Note to self: never serve paté at a family party, so as to avoid cloud of suspicion.)

Gotta go. Daddy's coming home to visit at lunch and then it's off to the vet to have the drain removed! Yah!

Ups and Downs and an Omen

I can't believe we are only on Day 4, post surgery. It seems a lot longer. Probably because of the lack of sleep. I think, on the whole, we are having more ups than downs, but still, the downs are not fun. 

On the "up" side:

• She gets around pretty well (except for the stairs - see "downs" below!);
• Mostly doing OK with sitting and laying down (as evidenced by yesterday's cute pic of her sitting);
• Her appetite (which has never been great her whole young life) is surprisingly good - at least most of the time (probably due to the fact that she is being hand-fed canned dog food, cottage cheese, provolone, peanut butter, dog-jerky treats, salmon patties and Flying Dutchmen, instead of her usual same-stuff-different-day dry kibble);
• Her incision looks like it's healing up OK;
• We had our first post-op poop (although it was a fiasco...) and she seems fine with the whole 3-legged squatting thing.

 On the "down" side:

• She has screamed or cried a couple of times (which is so horrid and pitiful), like yesterday when I wrote about trying to help her off the bed. Because of that, we put our mattress on the floor last night, so that we could be next to her bed. (Crazy, huh? Unfortunately, it also had pluses and minuses: the pluses being she got in and out of bed with us very easily; the minus being she got out of bed at 1 and wandered off. More on that below.)
• Getting up and down the stairs is literally a pain. Last night when we were trying to go up to bed, she started crying after the first step. We can't pick her up, but I used my little sling I made and we took it very slowly, with lots of resting in the landing of the stairwell, and eventually made it up. Can't wait til she can cruise up and down more easily!
• The last 24 hours or so she's been very aloof, e.g. instead of cuddling on the sofa with us last night, she went and flopped down on the tile floor in the other room, which is kind of crazy because it had to be very cold. But then, maybe it felt good on her boo-boo. (She sleeps on it a lot, which I find surprising. I mean, if you had your arm cut off, do you think you'd be laying on that side right after surgery? Yowzaa. I think not.) Then there was the whole thing last night with her getting out of bed at 1 and sleeping at the farthest possible corner of the hall. Couldn't coax her back to bed (we ran out of provolone!) so had to just leave her there. Checked on her at 4:30 and still no go. Finally I think about 6 I was able to get her to come back in bed with us, and she laid there shivering like crazy, poor silly little thing. I'm assuming the aloofness is from the pain and/or the meds. There's a discussion board on the Tripawds site, so I posted a question to see if others had the same issue. 

To end on a good note, I forgot to mention earlier the good omen we had the night of her surgery. When we moved her from the vet's office to the ER for the night and were waiting to talk to the vet there, this woman came in with a little tripawd dog. It was very wiggly and happy and ran up to us (ignoring other folks who were there) to say hi. We took it as a good sign that Abby will soon be wiggly and happy. 

The little Tripawd was wearing a T-shirt that said: "Missing Leg 1-800-CALLME!" We are thinking of having one made for Abby that says: "It tasted like chicken." I know the other day Patricia suggested a "Bad to the Bone" shirt. Any other suggestions for custom made T-shirts?

Tomorrow: the drain comes out!

A Rough Night, Chaotic Morning, But Great News!

OK - let's start with the great news. During the surgery on Friday, the surgeon took one of Abby's lymph nodes and they sent it to the lab for a biopsy. Got the news back already this a.m. that there is no sign of cancer in the lymph nodes!! Hoorah! 

Last night, however, was a bit of a rough night. She started out in her cozy deep-dish-deluxe-pizza bed, but at midnight Mike heard her up and walking around. We let her get up in the bed with us, but that didn't last very long. She normally comes into our bed anytime during the night once she gets cold, and then she'll sleep curled up by our feet the rest of the night. Well, last night in the wee hours, suddenly she wanted down. We can't let her jump off our bed as it very high up and would be too much stress on the incision and on her good leg. So, I tried to pick her up and help her down. I would swear I wasn't even touching her gigantic boo-boo, but she started screaming! Oh - it was so awful. She sat there trembling for a minute, then hot-footed it down the hall and curled up in a ball. We didn't know why she got up in the first place - we thought maybe to go out and potty, but she wouldn't get up to go outside, and wouldn't come back to bed with us. Finally Mike got some provolone, and with that we were able to coax her back to her cozy bed. What a friend we have in cheeses! Anyway, when I talked to the vet about the lab report I told him about the screaming, and he said it may just be emotional and from the drugs as well. He said it's possible I didn't even touch it, but she was just kinda screaming "don't touch me there!"

Then this a.m., Mike went off to work and I was left alone to take care of her. Around 8:30 she wanted to go outside again - after already going out for a potty at 6:30 - so I thought, OK, this could be the big moment - the first post-op, three-legged poop! Success. A big ol' poop! But then... what with all the hopping to get turned around to head back in the house, she stepped in it! Gooshed it really well all in between her toes. Fabulous! Then she starts hopping back to the front door, leaving little poopy-paw-prints along the front walk. 

I remembered I had a rag right next to the front door for drying off her feet after Saturday's rain, so I thought, OK, I'll grab that and clean her off before she goes inside. But, no, the front door is locked! So I tell her to stay, and run around to the back. Of course she doesn't stay, she follows me, leaving little poopy-paw-prints across the back patio. I run inside, slide the door shut in her pathetic little face and run to get some rags and wet one of them. Now, wiping her feet is usually not a problem. We started touching her feet as a little pup, so she wouldn't mind them being handled. But, the poor kid's already down one leg, so she didn't want me picking up her foot and leaving her with only two to stand on, even though I was supporting her. I'd pick her foot up, and she'd stamp it back down. Of course, one of those stamps-back-down was right on my foot, so my shoe got all poopy. Oy! Finally got her cleaned up and back in the house. We were both exhausted after that and she crashed. 

Also this morning she had a visit from her aunt Terry. Terry stayed with her while I went for my chiro appointment (threw my back out yesterday taking care of the dog). She brought Abby the little Charger-colored blue & yellow stuffed man in the picture.

You can see in the pic she's really bundled up. She was shivering this morning, which I'd never seen her do before. I'm so dumb, I thought maybe it was from the drugs or maybe a sign of pain. I asked the vet about it, and he said, "Is it cold in your house this morning?" Anyone who's been in my house in the late fall/winter, knows how frickin' freezing it always is in here, so I sheepishly said, "yes." He said, "She's just cold." I put a blankie over her and she's been fine.   

Wanted to also throw in this pic of her sitting up, in her cute little tripawd stance. The oncologist said she'd be fine with walking and running, but would have the hardest time with sitting/laying down. But she seems to be doing great with everything! The only hesitancy is going downstairs, but I use my little homemade sling and help her down and that seems to work OK. (She's back in the cone of shame here, rather than the big blue daisy, because I think it's actually more comfortable for sleeping. The daisy is too stiff.)

Next steps: 

1. Get drain removed from her big ol' boo-boo, probably Wednesday. In case anyone out there reading this would ever be going through the same thing, the drain is pretty gross. I guess they have to put it in, or else the fluid would build up in her body, but every time she gets up and hops around or gets excited, it starts to ooze a thin bloody fluid. That's partly why we have her in the T-shirts all the time. We have towels and old raggedy blankets laid out all over the place. The vet said it will gradually be less everyday. Can't wait til the thing comes out!
2. Schedule first round of chemo - possibly as soon as Friday.

Flying Dutchman!

You may be wondering what a legendary ghost ship has to do with our Tripawd's recovery. Well, it turns out the Flying Dutchman is what you ask for when you want a beef patty for your dog from In-N-Out burger. It's actually 2 patties and 2 slices of cheese. Here she is enjoying it last night. At first she picked it up all in one piece. I was afraid she was going to inhale it in one gulp, so reached out to help break it into smaller pieces. Apparently she didn't trust my offer for "help" - she growled at me! Normally, I'd be a bit annoyed with her growling at me, but we were happy to see some spunk! 

She made it through the night pretty well, although we didn't sleep great, listening for her. At one point she got out of her bed and we let her up in the bed with us. This morning we are laying around. She's sporting a new T-shirt - pink for the cancer fight. Here she is in full tripawd stance, and also watching TV with Daddy.

 

To answer the question posed in the comments from the last post, no she will not be wearing her Chargers shirt today. She is very disgusted with them and says they play ball worse than a two-legged dog! (Also, her drain is still oozing - and we don't want to ruin the shirt, on the off chance they would ever start to play well again... I know. We can dream.)


The one bad bit of news is that I threw my back out this morning, trying to run around and keep up with her and keep her in her sling while we went out to potty and have a bit of fresh air. I took a muscle relaxer and have her doped up, so she and I will lay around while Mike goes for a bike ride. 

That's all the news from this morning!

[If anyone is a blogger expert - I can't get the Followers "gadget" to work. I can see it sitting there in the "design" view. I've tried removing it and re-adding it, but it's still not showing up on the page. A few folks said they tried to follow the blog, but got error messages. Don't know what the heck is wrong. Very frustrating. Any ideas?] 

Just In Time For Halloween

[Warning - posted pics not for the squeamish]

Our little Frankenpup is home, just in time to scare the neighborhood children. Excellent.

Mike says we should post a pic of her. I thought maybe it was a little too gruesome, but if my bro can post a pic of my nephew, Jake, from the ER the night Jake broke his face in half in June '09, then I guess we can post a pic of Frankfenpup, Abby. (In case you view the scary pic of Jake, rest assured that just a number of weeks later he was looking practically like his young handsome self again and was recovered and ready to go off to college as planned by the end of the summer. Young kids - they heal fast. Hopefully young pups do too.)

Before I post the pic, I just want to say, when you talk to the vets and look up info online about folks who have tripawd dogs, they all say how great they do on three legs. They do not say how scary the dog is going to look when you first pick him/her up. We were expecting a big ol' bandage, but they said she didn't need it. So, here she is in all her stapled up glory.

In the pic, you can see under her the sling I fashioned for helping her get around and go out to potty. I took an old blue bath towel, cut it down to size, and then sewed it up with some handles. The handles are made from a dog collar a friend gave us when her dog Buzz passed away. The color was a little too muy macho for a collar for Abby, but it worked great for the handles. (A little shout-out of thanks to Buzz in doggie heaven.)

She started trying to lick her scary incision, so we had to put her in her new fancy-schmancy soft cone. I'm not sure if this is an upgrade from her usual plastic cone of shame or not. She looks like a giant blue daisy. She didn't look super comfortable in it, so we just put a t-shirt on her instead. Since we got her home, she has mostly just crashed, big time, in her new bed we got her. So glad we ordered it! It's a cozy, comfy little spot for her. It has a big label on it that reads: Deluxe Deep Dish. For some reason, every time I walk by it, I have a craving for Chicago-style pizza. 

Here she is below, in happier days in her brand new bed. So hard to believe that is a mere 10 days ago, back before we knew about the stupid cancer. The other pic is her, sleeping in her t-shirt, in front of a piece of cheese.

She's actually done pretty well with eating. Had almost a whole slice of provolone and had several big spoonfuls of Blue Buffalo's Backyard BBQ. (Really, to me it doesn't bring to mind BBQ. There's no red sauce, no corn on the cob. I think it should be renamed Sunday Night Family Pot Roast.)


You cannot believe how fast she is already getting around. When we picked her up at the overnight ER, we hadn't even brought a leash, because we thought we'd be carrying her to the car. The "nurse" said, "No, she's way beyond that already." She loaned us a leash and out we went to the parking lot, Mike manning the leash and me on the sling. Damn! She bolted for the grass and I couldn't even keep up with her! She face-planted when her back legs got caught up in the sling. Poor thing! But now we know. She jumped in the car on her own, like it was nothing. (Although getting out at home was a little more unstable...) When we got her home, I took both the leash and the sling and had to trot alongside her to keep up with her. 

I think in a few more days time we may have a hard time keeping her quiet! Supposed to only take her out on the leash for pottying for the next 13 days!  


Tonight, we are planning to spoil her with a burger patty from In-N-Out. :)