Quiet because all is welllll.....but now OLIVER

OK, guess my litte cat was jealous of all the attention his sister got and now he has his own aliment....DIABETES. WTF???? So, let's play catch up.

Cheddar has been amazing. Really. Perfect. She gets around beautifully and nothing gets in her way. She can run and play. Her life is great! She did so well, that we were able to go on our long scheduled vacation for two weeks and leave her with our friends, Uncle Steve and Colby (our nephew-vizsla). She is so fantastic that she is normal. Truely remarkable. In fact, she is more social and happy as she can be. Hooray!!!

WELLLLLL....Oliver isn't. He has been a super healthy guy forever. He was found in the marsh by a friend of mine surviving on a bag of Funyons (really) twelve years ago. I have affectionately called him Baby Fish Mouth because his only health issue has been terrible nasty little teeth. That is it. My white trash kitty. Solid. Sweet little man that you can snuggle like a teddy bear who is potty trained. Yes, he uses the toilet. He is dreamy....that is dreamy, until now.

When we got home from vacation, he seemed kinda scraggley. His normally sleak thick coat was really scruffy and he was shedding like crazy. Gradually as he has matured, he has gotten thinner, but now he looked skinny. Because he uses the toilet, we often hear him going and laugh. During the course of watching t.v., I heard him pee 3 times within a short period and I thought about it...his water bowl was going dry quickly. That was it. I took him to the vet.

We put him on Purina Dietic Management food and he bounced right back. Within 48 hours, the excessive drinking/peeing stopped.Whoohoo...just a bump in the road. Fast forward a few weeks.

It seemed like Oliver wasn't drinking as much...until, I realized he was drinking out of the toilet. ick. Back to the vet for more tests. After two days of insulin, he seemed more his little funny vocal self.

Bottom line. Don't feed your pets corn. Don't eat corn. Corn sucks. Nobody digests it. Especially little carnivore kitkats. :(

SO, today we start the injections of insulin ourselves. Gotta go get schooled

Darcy & Bart

Things are good. Cheddar is great other than incessant whining and being a spoiled little punk. She was headed down stairs for snacks from our receptionist and I barked at her for whining. She solidly managed to turn around in the middle of a flight of stairs and come back up to me. Not too shabby for a 3 legged girl!

I mentioned Barty the Wonderdog and his WonderMom, Darcy, earlier. Bart is a 4 yo Male that won a hunting title 4 months after a front limb amputation and 18 months of chemo. Wowza! Darcy is so dedicated that she is schlepping Barty all over the place so that he may gain his Master Hunter title. He is a superstar!

We were lucky enough to find these two crazies on the internet just by googling "Vizsla amputee." Having the support and resource of someone having gone through this madness before has been invaluable...especially with a Vizsla. They are special!

This weekend, Cheddar and I are taking a roadtrip to meet our new friends down in Nowhere, Florida. The Tampa Bay Vizsla Club is holding an event/tournament and we are going to watch our comrade rock it and drink a few cocktails in the woods. :) More to come.

Almost "normal"

Well, as "normal" as Cheddar can be. Most days are good ones with the occassional "not so good" one thrown in. We continue to see her gaining strength and stability. Her front leg has really turned a corner in strength and that makes everything easier.

Strangely, she will have days where she seems more tired and stumbles a bit. I don't think I will ever get used to seeing her fall. I react with a wince and try not to verbally respond, but it is really hard.

The dumb dogleggs product sucked! We tried to work with it, but he seemed to impede her more than help. In fact, I don't know what I did, but one day her little foot puffed up with that damn thing on. I even checked it each time to make sure I could get a finger underneath it. I don't know. Whatever. The docs said hold onto it...maybe we will need it in the future, but for now we will just monitor her.

The skin thing has improved, but we are still on antibiotics. Each morning, she is getting a little breakfast of sweet potato so that she can tolerate that evil medicine. Sweet potato...mmmmmm.....

It isn't a leg warmer

D is saying Cheddar looks like she should be in "Flash Dance" with her new leg warmer.

This is the "Dog Leggs" product that is essentially wet suit material and big strips of Velcro. Wish I came up with this idea! Well, it definitely changes how she uses her foot. I makes her have to kick the leg out further, but she does place it down straight instead of side ways. So, my m.o. is to have it on her at work or during activity and take it off at night. We will see how it goes. If anybody knows a doggie orthopedist, ask them what I should do. (thanks) My Vet didn't give me an answer.

Just thought I would throw this next shot in because it doesn't get much sweeter...

Sawing LOGS....damn.

Cheddar is snoring so loudly that she is distracting me. I just peeked at her (she works with me everyday...if you can call what she does work) and she is curled up in a ball on my old Bert and Ernie comfortor with her paw over her nose. Sooooooo cute.

We are still working on this darn skin thing, but she is looking great. The antibiotics they prescribed most recently, erythromycin, is upsetting her belly. They wanted her to have it 3x daily at 500mg. That is a lot. She barfed after the first night on the way to work in the back of my car. Hot dog barf. Nice way to start the day. Poor kid. We backed off to 2x daily starting last night. So far so good.

I will get the video of her from this weekend posted. I will. I will.

Just before she settled in for this nap, she was nesting around on her blanket using her paw. Pretty cool stuff!

She is doing so amazingly that I we are relaxed now. I can even shift gears and start getting excited about our big trip to Greece.

Triumphant Return

Before her surgery, we tried to get Cheddar out to her "doggie paradise," Cumberland Island, but it did not work out. Our dear friends live there and we are lucky enough to visit with Cheddar. Cheddar's was practically raised with her best buddy, a Basenji named "Hobbes," who we don't see very often now that he is one the island full time. Over the years we have watched Ched and Hobbes develop goofy little games and behaviors. With this visit, we weren't sure how things would go.

Cheddar knows exactly what is up when we head in the direction of the marina and is a fantastic little traveller. Upon on arrival Cheddar would practically skip around the island. We typically do a lot of relaxing, walking, and eating on our visits. Walks in the woods and playing on the beach are some of Ched's favorite things to do. Since her surgery, we haven't taken any long walks, so this was all uncharted territory.

Well, our trip was perfect and our little inspiration did beautifully. She got extra attention from the other folks on the boat, but other than that, she was the perfect little sailor...even getting so excited as we pulled in to dock that we had to hold her back. Just like the 4-legged days.

Hobbes and Cheddar got along just fine. Now that he is older, Hobbes, is a grumpy old man set in his ways, so we were concerned that he might be extra ornery or pecky with the 3-legged girl.

After a chilly boat ride, we arrived and it was obvious that Cheddar was thrilled to be there and Hobbes was too. It brought tears to my eyes to see my kid so happy and not missing a beat.

I could go on and on about Cheddar chasing an armadillo, eating oysters, walking all the way to the garden and back, but the bottom line is she had a wonderful visit and owned it!

The only accomodation we made for my 3-legged doggie was driving to the beach when we would normally have walked. It was great. She ran around like an idiot, got her tootsies wet, and even attempted to dig. I say attempted. That isn't fair. She did dig...sand was moved. She dug! I will post photos and video.

Dig it!