Sophie and Kidney Diease

Sophie, our 14,5 year old pug, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease right before Thanksgiving. She was in stage III and the odd were not in her favor. She was really showing any signs. That previous Saturday she hesitated before eating and she did the same thing on Wednesday. I called the vet that day explaining she was acting weird and why. I took her I'm that day and they ran blood work an other wise she looked great. They called us back in the next day to give us the news and to start us on fluids. By Friday morning, Sophie wouldn't eat and she had until Saturday to perk up or we'd have to make a decision. She did perk up and we finally got her on the right path, om dec. 19 her levels were down enough she was in stage 1.  Over Xmas she got sick with a really severe case of the runs and she has had a difficult time bouncing back. She is now back on nausea meds, appetitive stimulant and antibiotics twice  daily. Her appetite is finally picking up and she is eating a more bland food, but her favorite is deli chicken. Her nausea medication is now down to one a day instead of 3. So, we are making progress. Her diet is boiled hamburger and rice, deli chicken and I've introduced baby food which she seems to like. Her appetite seems to be much larger in afternoon and evening, which is fine.

On Tuesday, she has her first acupuncture appointment!

School is out for Summer..lots of stuff going on

The summer didn't start out the best. We had to send our oldest pug, Pudgie, age 15+ to the Bridge three weeks ago. It really is a blessing that any dog can survive to that age, but it is still hard to make the trip to the vet that one last time. Ken took ole' Pudge in. This was the first time he did this and I knew it took a lot for him to do this. In all honesty, Pudgie was his girl, so for her final voyage, she would want to be with her daddy. (She wasn't always that crazy about me anyway)! We did receive her ashes back and she is resting with Zoe and Leo. I still haven't sprinkled their ashes in the flower garden. Until that time, they will all remain in their boxes.

I survived my first year as a school counselor! What a learning experience elementary school is, but I must say I love it! This is the first summer that I am not working or going to school. I think I will find plenty to stay busy with. I have a big list of summer reading (thanks to our local public library).

We have also done a lot of work on the house. We had California Closets come in and convert the dogs room to a "closet" of sorts. I love it! It has given us some much needed space, since that was a huge issue with me. We now have shoe bins, hanging space, drawers and even a jewlery drawer. One of my favorite things is the double bagger for all of the laundry. No more dirty laundry sitting in the laundry basket on the floor. We also had shelves added and a two foot bar for hanging clothing in the laundry area. I call it an area since it is a second floor laundry in the bathroom behind double doors. Space is very, very limited and the designer was able to really utilize this space so now nothing fall on my head and I have a place for towels! :) It really doesn't take much to make me happy! LOL We also had new carpet put in last weekend. We still had builders carpet installed upstairs so this was a much needed improvement. The inside of the house will be repainted, including ceilings, later in July.

Last weekend I went to dinner and a movie with a friend from school. We saw "Sex and the City". I had never seen the series before, but I loved the movie! It was a great movie to see for that girls night out!

Other than the above and the sweltering heat, there isn't much more going on!

Oprah's puppymill show - In memory of Zoe

It was all over the "dog" world that Oprah was doing a show in puppymills. All of us who are active in rescue were overjoyed and anxiously awaited the show which aired on April 4th. I was so moved, that I had to watch it twice and each time I shed a new bunch of tears. All of the video footage shown is exactly what we in rescue deal with on a daily basis, especially my friends who live in southern/central Ohio and actually visit the auctions on Amish farms in central/northern Ohio. I have been invited on several occasions to journey to "Amish country" to go to the auctions in hopes of purchasing dogs. I have always declined because I am not sure I could handle it. In all, we have been loved by three puppymill girls. Our first, Zoe, ventured to the Rainbow Bridge in August of 2007. What was seen on Oprah is exactly what we saw and dealt with in Zoe. She had the collar embedded in her neck. the swollen breasts with tumors along with a huge scar from being burned from a heat lamp. things that were not seen on Oprah was how some dogs come to you with bones that have been broken and never healed properly such as our Sweet Zoe.

We had Zoe for almost 7 years and she died a the age of 14.5. No one believed she would have survived as long with all of her medical problems, but she showed us what a survivor puppy mill girls can be.

RIP Zoe and I'll meet you at the Bridge.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!! Since today is Easter Sunday, we visited with family (in-laws). We ate at the The Palm, which is located at the Hilton/Netherland Hotel in downtown Cincinnati. They have a HUGE buffet which is wonderful! Needless to say, Ken and I pigged out. We were certainly aiming to get our money's worth! Jared is back up for the week again after a week long spring break. He drove up yesterday and we ventured to Kenwood Towne Center in Cincinnati. Before that, we ate at Dewey's Pizza, a Cincinnati original. It was fantastic and gave us just the right amount of "pep" to go shopping. Ken left work right after we arrived and met me at Macy's. We had not heard from Jared for 1.5 hours when he finally called. He certainly found enough stores to fill the time in! We left soon after since we had dinner plans with friends.

Jared stayed home, but we had dinner at The Knotty Pine, a little "hole in the wall" place in Kentucky. It has a slanted floor so you have to be careful of you feel like you are falling over! It has wonderful food and a great atmosphere since it sits right on the river.

I have a short work week this week and begin my spring break on Friday! I am so excited an feel that it is time for a much needed break.

Winnie Loves Bandit

Our Trip to the Vet

Jared and I ventured to the vet yesterday with Bandit and Max. Did I mention that Bandit was in the hospital for most of last week? Well, he decided to lunch on two nylon kneehighs (which I just found out today was actually a pair of really nice tights..he just chewed them off to the ankles. Imagine my surprise when I went to put them on and they had no feet!) so he visited Dr. Angel for four days. He is doing great, back to his ole' thieving self. He ate two Clorox wet wipes (used) on Saturday. I can hardly keep up with him! So, due to this, we had to take Bandit in for a recheck and Max in for his eye (yet another doggie tale). I've worked with Bandit on the basics (come, roll over, sit, lie down), but he isn't good on a leash. I know this and I always anticipate the worse, but this took the cake. Since he isn't good on a leash, I keep a tight grip on him. He hardly had any slack since I was forcing him to my side (in an attempt to heel..yeah right!). I barely turned around to see if Jared was behind me and even though that doggie didn't have much room to lunge forward, he knew he had enough room to jump upwards! We were walking past a huge truck and the driver had his window rolled down with his arm hanging out. Before I knew it, Banit was face level trying to give this poor guy a slobbery kiss! I was horrified. I ended up running into him in the waiting room when we left and I appologized profusely and he said he was just worried about Bandit scratching his truck. I had never even thought of that! Thank goodness that didn't happen.

I thought I'd attach a picture of Bandit and Winnie. These were taken last summer. Winnie is our blind pug who adores Bandit (I guess someone has to! haha) and he adores her just as much. It is truly puppy love!

Do We LOVE Blizzards? (I'm not talking Dairy Queen!)

Above are pics of the "blizzard warning" we have been experiencing since last night. I took these at 4:00 p.m. and the snow has finally stopped. The news said it would end around this time, but who knew they could actually be right?! Now for the hard part...digging out of this mess. As you can see, our street has not been plowed yet. When I was trying to take pictures, I stepped into a snow drift and didn't realize it would hit above me knees! Yes, it was cold!

What have we been doing today? Well, nothing! Ken has been working on taxes all day (I got up at 7 to feed the dogs and he was slaving away). I washed some towels, made some chili, and goofed off around here. So much for adventure. Jared (poor guy) has been braving this with us. I am itching to get out (as I am sure he is), but that is a no go. I am hoping we can at least travel down the road tomorrow! ha.

Now the big question is if we will have school on Monday. From the looks of things, I am guessing "NO" since the temps will not get above freezing until Tuesday.