July 19, 2011

Votes & Something More Important

Abby's pic is up in the Union Tribune Dog Days of Summer photo contest. (Hopefully this voting widget thing works... You should be able to just click on it and vote for her.) It says you can vote once per hour, so have at it! Voting is open until July 29th.


As you can see, I went with the life guard picture. Counting the votes on the site and via email resulted in the watermelon pic edging out the life guard pic by one vote - that is, if Lou the Corgi's vote counts (which of course it does around here!). But (even though I personally prefer the watermelon pic) I thought this one would print up better in the paper. Not that it will actually make it to the paper... I was paging through the competition, just to see what sort of vote numbers others have so far, and some people are really cranking the votes. The dumb thing is that there is no official judging, so they may end up with winning pics that have no relation to summer. The photo I saw with the most votes is a blurry picture of a dog "driving" a car. What does that have to do with summer? Maybe if she was cruising the beach, but no, she's just sitting in the driver's seat. 

Anyway, more important than voting even is the fact that we need your crossed fingers/paws, good vibes, prayers, pagan rituals, whatever you are into so that Abby will have a good follow up x-ray tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about it. I hate sitting in the room alone while they whisk Abby to the back. Then I have to wait and wait, and then try to guess what the look on Dr. V's face means when he opens the door to have me come in the back and look at the x-ray with him. Last time he had a cold, and he sounded all choked up when he said "Come take a look" and I about had a heart attack - but it was just his stupid sore throat, and the Lone Met was still a loner. If it's still a loner tomorrow (oh pleeeeeze) we'll have a re-name the Lone Met contest. 

Will post an update tomorrow after her appointment. In the meantime, Abby got two new bandanas. She'd never worn a bandana before. Didn't realize she would tolerate one, but she looks darn cute in them! Especially the pink one, which was an 8-month ampuversary present from her cousin, Nick, and his girlfriend, Tee. (But really mostly Tee...) The other one is a "Tripawds Rule" bandana from the tripawds.com site. Stylish, eh?

Contemplating life...or maybe just a bug
Watching the sunset through the sage.
In other news, Mike brought home this ridiculously huge trophy the other day after winning the "first annual" badminton tournament at work. (Which is amusing because the stupid thing is bigger than the soccer trophy for the Women's World Cup and because he hasn't played badminton in, oh, about a decade or more.) 
Should have drunk champagne out of it while we had the chance.
Not quite the same, but easier to dust.
Luckily it turned out the BIG trophy will be a perpetual one, so it went back to the office, and we get this little commemorative one for home: 

Thanks in advance for the votes and the good vibes for Ab!

July 12, 2011

Dog Dazed

Well, not just the dog... but both the dog and I are completely dazed (and confused) that she didn't win anything in the Orvis Cover Dog Contest! [In case you are joining us here late, I blogged in Feb. about entering Abby in this Orvis contest, because she loves her Orvis bed. She actually finished on the podium - 3rd place out of almost 13,000 dogs - in the "Most Unique Voters" contest.] With all the votes from you guys, I knew we'd get her pic in front of the judges so she'd stand out amongst the 1000s of entries, and I thought we'd at least get an Honorable Mention. 

Newp.

We didn't even make the grade for the "Other Favorites." You can view the winners, HM's and Other Faves here. Geez, they couldn't squeeze a pic of an adorable tripawd in there?? Oh well, at least all your votes raised money for canine cancer research. And I suppose that is the important thing.

Nevertheless, we are undaunted. We are going to enter Abby in the local paper's "Dog Days of Summer" photo contest. I'd like to submit her entry by next week and I thought I'd ask your help first in selecting a photo. I tried to pick out some photos that say "summer" (or at least ones that say "hot dog"), so have a look and please comment regarding which you think I should enter:
Tripawd Lifeguard Girl

Just Another Fabulous Day at the Beach

Water Stop (this one doesn't even play the Tripawd card...)

Probably wouldn't really send this one, but I think it's cute

Nuthin' says summer like watermelon...

And more watermelon...

The "losing" shot from Orvis (might save this for the Humane Society calendar contest...)

Just included this one for your enjoyment
Once the pics are in, there will be a voting period from July 20 through the 29th and the top vote-getters will be published in the paper on July 31st and win movie passes. I'll remind you guys to vote next week. Don't really care about the movie passes since we never go to the movies, but it would be fun to see our lovely girl in print. We think she's so cute, we want to share her cuteness with everyone. So, let me know which pic you think I should pick??

July 6, 2011

Another Good Check Up & Feeling Crafty

Abby had a quick check up at the Vet Cancer Group today just to check her blood and make sure she is doing OK taking the Cytoxan every day now. All went well and Dr. V. said her blood looked great - in fact, it was the best it's been. We go back again in two weeks for x-rays. Of course we are hoping the Lone Met will still be a loner, and once we have confirmed that he is, we will have the "Rename the Lone Met" contest. Don't want to have it now, just in case... So fingers and paws are crossed for good news in two weeks. 

We still haven't started Abby on the artemisinin (which I blogged about here) as she's had a wee bit of tummy issues. I'm certain it's from stealing green peaches off another of our peach trees which is not producing much yet. (We've caught her munching on the pits a couple of times...) She is almost back to being a "solid citizen" so we'll be starting the "arte" soon.

As for feeling crafty, I've been playing with my "Brushes" app on my iPad a bit more and did this e-painting of Abby. This is the pose you will most often find her in as she very much enjoys a bit of belly rubbing. She pretty much lays around like that, in the hopes that a hand will come by. (I hope you see this as "art" and not "puppy porn." Mike wanted me to incorporate a fig leaf, just in case anyone might be offended, but I know you guys don't offend easily!)
Slut Puppy        


Three Bunnies & A Rat

In other craftiness, my sisters and I get together every once in a great while for what we like to call "Forced Crafting." You must participate, no matter how much you suck at the particular craft we are working on. In the past we have done Christmas wreaths, beaded bracelets, little stuffed Easter chickies and bunnies made of felt, etc. etc. This time we tried "felting wool," in which you basically just get this special wool (called "roving"), form it into a shape, and stab it repeatedly (and yourself occasionally) with a special needle until it magically retains said shape. We made bunnies. (Well, they all started out as bunnies, but one ended up becoming a rat... And a darn handsome rat he is!)

After we made the bunnies/rat, I had to go, but my sisters made a very fine replica of corgi Lou, remember him from this previous post?, and a neighbor's dog, Marley. Too cute, eh? We are going to try again this week. I'm going to start slow and attempt a quadpawd first. Actually, I can't decide if a tripawd will be harder (tough to get it to stand/sit without falling over...) or easier (one less leg to make!). You can be sure that if they come out cute I'll be posting pics all over the place - the blog, Facebook, Twitter, maybe even a YouTube video! (And if they come out ugly, I will only post the pics here.)
Applying the Tail to the Rat
Lou!
Marley, next to his photo
Finally, I just want to say there have been some very sad posts on the BoneCancerDogs listserv and on the Tripawds' site the last few days about sweet pooches who lost their battle with this oh-so-shitty disease. We are thinking of you guys and hoping you are taking some comfort in the fact that your furry family members are now running pain free. Hang in there. 

June 29, 2011

Another Ampuversary & Begging for Barney

Today is Abby's 8 month ampuversary! Whoo-hoo! Normally, she gets a Flying Dutchman from In-N-Out to celebrate, but: (a) she just had one a couple of weeks ago to celebrate her daddy's return from his biz trip to Asia (commemorated in the photo here), and (b) yesterday she ate a bird. Yes, an entire bird. Luckily it was a small bird, but she ate it all - beak, feet, feathers, the whole shebang. (And it's the shebang that I'm worried about...) Not sure if she killed it or found it dead... She was rummaging around in one of our bushes and came out with it. We figured she'd have some tummy issues (to put it mildly) last night or today, but so far she seems fine. Anyway, we are kind of waiting to make sure her stomach is OK before loading her up with a Dutchman. In the meantime, she'll at least get a Frosty Paw.

Don't you want to kill him too?
I think Abby ate the bird because she is sharpening her skills in the hopes of participating in the Kill Barney Tour. (I heard once that birds are related to dinosaurs; I assume she heard the same thing.) I only just recently found out about the Tour on the Tripawds site, even though it has apparently been going on since January of 2010. Barney used to be one of Jerry's toys that he loved to hate. (Jerry is the original tri-pawwed pooch who's pack started the Tripawds site. In fact, you may have seen Jerry and not even realize it if you've ever seen the PBS Nature series episode on "Why We Love Cats & Dogs.") Anyway, since the tour began about 18 months ago, Barney has been to 22 different places. He's well-traveled, that Barney. You can even check out the Kill Barney Tour Map and see where all he's been. He's never been to San Diego, so I think it's about time he visits!

So, Abby and I entered our plea on the I Want Barney blog on the Tripawds site. You can read the specifics of what we said here if you are so inclined, but basically Abby offered to show him a good time, let him sink into a false sense of security... and then kill him. I, on the other hand, offered to sew him up so he can go on to the next tripawd who wants to rip apart that insipid little dinosaur. I think we have a shot, but there might be one or two other tripawds who have called dibs ahead of us. If we get Barney, I'll certainly be blogging about it here!

In doing a little research for this post, I found that there is an entire "Anti-Barney Humor" page on Wikipedia. I also learned there that the folks who are behind Barney can't come after you if you use his image in parody. They tried to go after the San Diego Chicken for his attacks of Barney (gotta love YouTube - you can view one such attack here) but lost. 

Finally, I posted a couple of videos of Abby on YouTube, including this one of her playing with her friend, Lola, at Fiesta Island. We went to F.I. today but I didn't bring my camera along. Too bad, because Enzo was there (the little cutie from my previous post) so Abby had a great time wrestling with him. Enzo and Lola are pretty much the only dogs Abby likes to wrestle with anymore, so she was happy to see him today. They are so cute together. Hopefully next time I'll have my video camera!

Thanks for reading everyone. These 8 months have flown by!

June 22, 2011

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.

June 12, 2011

To Grandmother's House We Go

A puppy in the poppies at Grandma's
Abby and I just got back from a visit to Prescott to see my mom. We didn't do a whole lot; mostly ate, played Scrabble (me and my mom that is, not me and Abby), read and relaxed. Our one "big" outing for my mom and I was a visit to a quilt show (really more of a "fiber arts" show) at the Prescott College Art Gallery. (If you are in to that sort of thing, Betty Busby was our favorite artist there, and this quilt in particular, on sale via Etsy - a great site for jewelry by the way! - was my favorite piece.)


As for Abby and I, our one big outing was a little trip downtown to the Courthouse Square. Here is out outing in pics: 

Abby is a connoisseur of fine grass and the grass around the courthouse is flop-down-in-it worthy. (Of course, I wish she had flopped down somewhere other than right next to some strange man - see him there in the background? - who also apparently considered the grass flop-down-in-it worthy.)

While waiting for the dog bakery to open, I discovered the Prescott "Greenway Network" - practically in the heart of downtown running along Granite Creek. We went down a ramp and there was a lovely little trail down below sidewalk level. I had no idea it was there and we enjoyed our nice shady walk along part of it... until a rent-a-cop suddenly popped down onto the trail and looked around like "Now where did that bad guy go?!?", then dashed off again. He did not offer us any sort of warning, but we decided it was time to leave.


By then the bakery was open anyway, so Abby was happy to leave the trail behind. The bakery is also a full pet store, so Abby perused the toys. Poor deprived girl didn't get to take home any of the toys, but she did get three peanut butter cookies and the woman threw in a bag of assorted free cookies that was even bigger than the bag I paid for.
Like a kid in a candy store...
"I like this one, mama!"
When we got back to Grandma's, Abby was beat. (Here she is with her month-old "tuff shark" which, other than having his innards torn out and his mouth turned inside out, is actually holding up pretty well!) 

Back home in San Diego, our peach tree had exploded:
I picked this beautiful basket of mostly peaches and a few plums. The peaches are small, but so juicy and sweet! The plums are amazing! Aren't they all gorgeous??
 I weighed the basket: 9.8 lbs! (not 98...)

Today I sliced 5 of the peaches onto my cereal for breakfast. For lunch I had about 12 frozen ones whipped up into a smoothy. For dinner... well, I'm not sure I can think of a savory dish with peaches. Oh wait, peach salsa! Off to epicurious.com for a recipe! (And off to pick more peaches...)

June 3, 2011

What We Do All Day

I'm pretty sure the hubster thinks Abby and I lay around all day, kissing each other and sometimes having naked pillow fights. I thought I'd document the sort of stuff that does in fact happen around here with Abby and me:

First of all, we get our cardio in:
Daily walks, especially at Fiesta Island

We cook:
Here we are, deglazing a pan.
We read:
World news, of course!
We clean the house:
"You missed a spot here, Mama!"
Sometimes we work in the yard:
If you've seen my plants, you know we don't do this very often...

OK, I admit it; sometimes we nap:

...and sometimes we play a little Angry Birds...

We also do yoga, but unfortunately it was impossible to capture us both Downward Facing Dogging at the same time. And, finally, sometimes I write. When I do that, Abby gets bored and does this: