(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

 Last week I took a trip down memory lane telling our new custodian about Defense and texting her pictures...

Oh, Defense....

"You were my favorite hello and my hardest goodbye" 

Last Friday (4/23) we made the heartbreaking decision to let our boy go....I have been trying to work on this post all week but it's hard to type through the tears...

The pain was too much for him and too much for us to watch him in it... I took the time to go back through the blog with all the post tagged "Defense" and I'm so happy for the posts back when he was younger... 

and it made me remember all the times when he was in the THICK OF IT! Or leftover evidence of where he had BEEN.....OH, Defense....

and then I just need to leave these here.... because I can't see my monitor anymore....

Defense, You were kinda a pain in the butt all the time buddy but you loved us and you took the best care of my babies.... we loved you right back aside from your personality some days ;) and I hope you felt our love everyday... from bringing you EVERY.WHERE., walks on the road and in the woods, to snuggling and putting up with your annoying paw to the lap so that you could check in to see if TODAY was going to be the day that we let you be the boss (too bad it never worked...) We miss how much real estate you take up, your moochy-self cleaning the kitchen floor and how your are not begging with your eyes every time someone opens the cheese drawer... 

Poor Discus is having a rough go because her built in home-alarm system doesn't go off anymore and she has taken to sitting in this window watching for you to come home which breaks all our hearts....

You were ours and I hope you felt the love.... 

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard" 

Winnie The Pooh

Saturday ~ Of the Weekend Report

On Saturday Husband had STILL (and has STILL not passed the stone) but was feeling well enough to be out and about. The gals have been BEGGING to go to Jordan's Furniture to do the ropes course. Miss B has been asking for MONTHS (probably as soon as it opened). Things like this are her JAM for sure! They waited patiently in line for about 30 min. and then they were OFF!

Pictures are not GREAT but man did they have a blast! While Husband and I sat and enjoyed watching them we chatted about going to lunch at Portland Pie because Husband had never been. We had such a FUN day together as a family, enjoying each other and laughing..... and then.....

We got home.....Minnie was in front of me on the basement stairs and the STINK hit us BOTH as soon as she opened the door... I KNEW... I KNEW.... he had done it again..... 

My bedroom was COVERED in dog diarrhea

 

splattered EVERYWHERE.....

Husband immediately left for Hannaford to rent this cleaner THAT DIDN'T EVEN WORK... I feel like we just made a wet, nasty mess... it still smelled so bad when we went to bed that I slept in Miss B's twin bed because I couldn't handle the stink.... :( We are PRETTY sure this time was because of the fish oil we are trying to give him to help with his joint pain but we stopped that REAL quick....

I texted Sky and SIL L.... if anyone is looking for me.....

DON'T. 

 

Wednesday (a week ago)

 So on Tuesday, when we left off, Defense was headed to the Vet bright and early Wednesday AM. Husband was still struggling with a kidney stone but was able to get him loaded into the back of the car. He really hates the ramp and he cannot jump in anymore :( 

I was a hot-mess express thinking about him and Husband called me en route to the Vet. He said that he was really not feeling well and had been encouraged to go to the walk-in clinic to make sure that his kidney function was still OK and to see if there was anything they could do to help.... I arrived at work and found what was basically a war room... we had a positive COVID case and we were trying to get parents notified that their kids were going to be remote learners for the next week and 1/2. At some point during the chaos of phone calls, contact tracing and material pick-up we found out that we had a SECOND positive case. Unfortunately the buses were already en route and we had to hold kiddos in their classroom until parents could come and pick them up. 

Around 1PM the Vet called confirming what we knew was the case... two torn "ACL's", major inflammation and no "cure" aside from major surgery. 

Thankfully, Husband's kidney function was OK but he was in no shape to go to track practice so I left work early to go home and pick him up to go get our big boy. Thank GOODNESS gals were at the CountryRents where we just zipped to pick them up and come home and crash. 

So just to re-cap, my pooch is getting bad news at the Vet, my Husband drove himself to the ER and we had TWO positive cases at school. 

Exhausted doesn't begin to describe it. 

Defense

The big guy has been not quite himself for several weeks.... the "incident" did not help matters and it got to the point where it was time to call the Vet... on Saturday, 3/6 I was at a conference and got home before my crew who was ice fishing all day... when I came in he didn't get up off his bed which isn't too different and about 45 minutes later Husband got home. Defense of course excited to see Daddy's truck got up quickly and it was all over but the cryin'. His back was arched in a NOT normal way and he was just crying crying crying. The crew in the truck heard it and thought it was an animal down the road. :( I wish. 

He's been crying when he gets to the top 2-3 stairs. He is fine when he goes down the stairs and fine when he is playing around outside but any sort of incline causes crying.  I called the vet that we went to this summer because I just have not had a great feeling with the one we've been using. They were able to get him right in the next evening... even accommodating Husband's and my work schedules AND letting us BOTH be in there with him. The vet came in and evaluated him and said that she is fairly certain he has torn both "ACL's" (or the equivalent of what dogs have) and has built up scar tissue but not enough to support his size.  

 

Now he is at the point where sometimes he gets up in the morning to turn around on his bed and he is crying... we have him on anti-inflammatory meds and last week we started him on pain meds. We were trying to do right when Husband wakes up and then again as soon as he gets home from school but we didn't feel like it was cutting it. The vet called again to check in on Saturday (so nice of them to keep following up) and over the weekend we added an afternoon dose. Sweet Heather was going to pop by today to give him his lunchtime one. 

We have another appointment on 3/31 for the full work-up of X-rays and checking to see if there is anything else that we might be missing. 

We know he's a big doofus but we sure do love him a lot and HATE HATE HATE the crying in pain. It's just too much for everyone :( 

What's Been Going On...

I will do a follow up post specific to this guy... but he has been all consuming our thoughts....

Not much as been going on....one random chicken nugget diner night with friends

and a PB pie in honor of PI day...

Stay tuned for the post about Defense... and while things have been quiet for a couple weeks we are gearing up.... Husband should be cleared to have a Track and Field season, I am organizing a virtual 5K to raise money for the 5th grade class and there is talk of perhaps a spring soccer season... all of that feels a little overwhelming and really nice at the same time....

 

Rangeley

What "sort of" started out as a beautiful couple of days.... turned crazy stinky when the "issue" that Defense was having back on Tuesday night... got progressively WORSE....we made a couple of stops on the way up for him.... as we headed for our destination....

This time we stayed at a colleague of BIL Leon's AND we got to bring Sky! :) Good thing.... SOMEONE had to figure out the TV! :) 

While not on the lake... the views from this living room were INCREDIBLE.....

That is a mountain range that the sun is setting behind.... That long steep driveway in the picture above is where Defense went potty no LESS than 26 times in a 24 hour period. Husband was up BOTH nights ALL night (again I say... marry well) it did NOT get any better... we called the vet, they told us to have him fast for a night... and then he went OFF ANYTHING we tried to feed him :(

We stuck with our plans of snowshoeing the trail system on Thursday AM...

we just had to take him with us because he couldn't go more than 45 minutes without going potty and you can't have THAT in a place you are renting... yikes!

Gals had a blast and the groomed trails were beautiful....

We ended up at Saddleback lake looking up at the mountain and enjoying the view...

it really was less than 2 miles but with snowshoes on part of this crew thought that was a bit much ;)

When we got back Sky, Minnie and I took off for town... Husband stayed back with Miss B and Defense... in my FAVORITE (never buy anything because it is too expensive) shop we found OUR COZIES!!!! We took pics for MIL because literally this is OUR MATERIAL and OUR POCKETS! With the fancy label on it they charge $129.... how about THAT!?!? ;)

I called to see what was shaking down the road (literally 1/2 mile between the two camps) and Sky and Minnie ran down the road... Sky and I dropped the gals to sled and hang out....

and then everyone came back for a sleepover! The all wanted to sleep in the loft but with a construction grade ladder the only way down we didn't REALLY feel comfortable with that decision ;) they all slept in the basement and sweet Sky gave up her bed to have her own room ;) 

Gal was UP and had all the basement beds stripped and in the washing machine before I even had my first sip of coffee... we were cleaned, beds remade, washed (some of us) and ready for the trek home by 10:40... I have said it before and I'll say it again... EVERYONE needs a SKY! :) We had to stop twice for Mr. Poopy Pants and by the time we got to the town next to ours we were NOT getting him out and back in again... he was WAY too weak to jump and it was a struggle the two times before we had him out to get him back in the car... we all made do and it was absolutely BRUTAL. I mean think of fish butt mixed with poop... times 1000.... gagging yet? Perfect. 

As SOON as we got home we unloaded the car and Husband raced to the Vet and to Hannaford to get him meds and SOMETHING to hopefully make his belly feel better.... FINALLY on SUNDAY he turned the corner and was allowed BACK in the living room after being barricaded to the kitchen for two days.... 

I feel like at SOME point I'm going to have to pick a new "favorite" place.... there really have NOT been some of my BEST memories there....