Happy Birthday Ophelia

My dog turned 11 today.  That is pretty old.  She didn't get a birthday cake but we sang happy birthday to her and gave her a special rawhide treat. 

Ophelia & Dexter

Since we moved to Virginia Ophelia has become my dog.  She sleeps with me every night and always follows me around to play games with me or eat whatever food falls her way.

Bosley however is afraid of me and always leaves when I come close to him. 

Recovery

Ophelia is getting better every day and I am helping her, she is my dog after all.  (Bosley is Daddy's dog and Mommy has no dog)  I have been very gentle around her and have given her extra soft hugs and kisses.  In return she lets me wear her cone!

Ophelia Surgery

Today Ophelia had surgery for the mass on her back leg.  She has had this for about 6 months now and it has been drained a few times but finally got to the point where it needed to be surgically removed when it swelled so much it busted the skin open and started to drain. 

She went through the surgery just fine but her leg is obviously tender.  Hopefully she will be back to normal soon.  I think our biggest challenge will be to prevent Bosley from licking the wound.  We might have to put the dog cone on him instead of her!

They sent the mass off to the lab, we will know the results next week to see if it was a cyst or tumor or what.

More dog walking

Now that the weather is improving I get to practice my dog walking skills more. Which is really good because when my daddy is gone May-July I will need to help mommy walk the dogs. I can now walk both dogs at the same time for about 2minutes before I get tired of being twisted around in different directions and ask daddy to take over one of the dogs.

Chores

I have many chores around the house. I have to put away my plates and bowls. I have to walk the dogs every night (when its not too cold to walk) and I have to help feed the dogs.

Normally I feed them in their bowls, but tonight I thought it would be fun to just throw all the food around their room!

Dex & Dog Video

Dexter loves Bosley!

Boy's best friend

Bosley is my best friend!

I am a good dog walker

This is not my best video - its dark out & there are random noises in the background but I feel like I haven't posted a video in a while so here goes.  Our evening walk is a great family time for us.  Normally Dexter would be pushed in a stroller or carried in a backpack.  But over the past few weeks we have let him walk with us.  The first couple walks were slow and off-track but lately Dexter has really become a great walker with us.  He is also in charge of walking one of the dogs, normally Ophelia but sometimes he tries to walk Bosley.  Dexter is becoming pretty good at walking the dogs also, he turns around or changes the leash to the other hand if the dog walks onto his opposite side.  Dexter understands the concept of staying off the road (but not off people's "lawn") and actually keeps a good pace now with only a few wonders off during our 30 minute walk.

Anyway, enjoy the video :)

Me & my doggy

I love Bosley, and I love hanging out on the couch with him.

Walking the dog

Ophelia lets me walk her when we go for our night time walks! I love it

Dogs are fun!

Homework

Mommy's homework assignment from photography class is to capture something in motion. So during our walk today we tried to get the doggies running. We might try again tomorrow because mommy wants to get one with their ears out (like they dont look funny enough!) Nice one inch elevation they got there.


During the walk I just wanted to eat something - stroller will do. I have been eating everything in sight this last week - I am up to 3 solid meals & 1 snack a day and my milk intake is 5 bottles of 6-7 oz. Mommy really hopes its a growth spurt because she is running through the frozen milk stash to keep up with me.

Fun with Dogs

I love to crawl. I love my doggies. I love to crawl over my doggies.

Dog Emergency

Tonight we came home from dinner to find that the dogs got into a Sam's club sized bag of trail mix. This is full of chocolate & raisins which are both very toxic to dogs. Unfortunately they are both now staying at the vet for a few days while they get IV Fluids and have their lab work monitored. Hopefully everything will be ok - say a little prayer for our dogs today if you could!

Bosley

Ophelia

Hey who is the baby here?

Ophelia seems to think she is the baby. Silly dog

Cole's Visit

Who's having more fun in this picture - Cole or Ophelia?

She is just the perfect height for sitting on!

Mold!

So for the past year or more we have been dealing with Ophelia and her ears. Her chronic ear infections just don't ever go away despite several different treatment ointments, liquids, powders, hypoallergenic diets, shots, you name it. We have easily spent a couple thousand dollars at the vet this year trying to get her better. Finally the vet suggested blood work to figure out exactly what she is allergic too. She just called us with the results, Ophelia has a severe allergy to mold. Now we keep our house pretty clean so we started searching for possible areas of mold on the inside the house. After looking all around we discovered the problem. In our water heater/furnace closet there is a PVC pipe that is supposed to drip water into a little grate thing. Well the PVC was off target and dripping onto the floor. There also seemed to be a huge area of mold on the platform the furnace sits on. We never noticed this before because it was hidden by a floor safe we kept in there!

So the treatment is we need to figure out how to clean up this area - not sure if we need to rip out some walls or just treat the surface or what. As for Ophelia she is going to get a series of shots in an attempt to desensitize her to mold.

No word yet...intermission

Dan's CT Scan was today, he has an appointment Thursday at 9:30 with his oncologist. Unless we hear earlier we assume we will get the results at that time.



This youtube video reminds me so much of Ophelia right now. Pretty much since we moved to Ohio she has been getting ear infections. Just Sunday she went to the vet for a steroid shot and a ear cleaning. She is now on once a day pill, twice a day ear drops and hypoallergenic food. She is allergic to Ohio, she never had any health issues when we lived in Florida!

Pet Therapy

Dan and Bosley getting some quality male bonding time.

Monday starts Cycle 2. Bosley is ready..are we?