Friday, January 20, 2012

Our hearts are breaking again--a little update

Update--our vet talked to my oncologist and he said that Kinavet can be used for t-cell lymphoma. We already have 2 bottles of Kinavet so Bitey was started on it yesterday. We don't know how well it will work or if it's too late but we will try.There is no cure...but we can hope to slow it down.

My mom apologizes for so much sad news this early in the year but it seems to be happening all at once.


We lost Beau this past Tuesday. On Wednesday. my mom took his brother, Bitey, to be checked because he had a lump under his front leg. It came back positive for lymphoma, too.  Two brothers, same cancer at exactly the same time??

Bitey and Beau. 


Beau and Bitey were born on Labor day 1999. They plopped right out of Baby into my mom's hands. So they both are very, very special to her.

There is a treatment for lymphoma but it only buys a little time. Six months of chemo and you might get 2 more months after that. The problem with lymphoma is that it never really goes away. The next time the cancer comes back it's more resistant. It's very, very expensive, too.


The simplest treatment is prednisone which is what we are doing. We're feeding Bitey the same diet as me now--special stuff with lots of supplements. We had no warning at all with Beau but maybe it will buy us some extra days with Bitey. At least we know ahead of time which is priceless.

It is sunny today so we are outside. 60 degrees. And Bitey feels good, not a lot of energy for roaching but still able to!




Tuesday, January 17, 2012

RIP Beautiful Beau 1999-2012--updated

We wanted to update this post a little to include the beautiful graphic Alasandra made out of Beau's picture:


And to include a link to a video starring Beau. He is the first and the last doggie roaching in the grass to the Chicken Dance song. It always makes my mom smile: 



This is our Beautiful Beau.  He had to be put to sleep today. 
This year is already starting out bad for us.


 We don't understand what happened.


 He was going to have his teeth cleaned, some removed.


But, instead, we found out he had prostate 
cancer--even though he had been snipped long ago. 
It hit his kidneys in just days.


This is me & Beau snorting around the yard.


  
Beau must have found something good.



He was born in our house on Labor Day 1999. My mom had taken in a pregnant girl who had 5 boys. From that litter my mom kept two--Beau and Mighty Bitey plus the mama she named Baby.

Beau was only 12. We don't understand why this had to happen and it happened so fast. We are sort of stunned right now.

Beau was a quiet boy, always sweet and happy. We are really going to miss you, Beau-Beau.

Run free, sweet doggie boy.


Monday, January 2, 2012

2011--Goodbye!!

2011 was not a good year for us. We lost so many of our old hounds. But we did have a foster failure--new Daisy.

In December, we got a new Daisy.


In October we lost Georgia 1994-2011

  
In July we lost Belle 1992-2011


Also in July my mom lost her main job--the one with insurance. Jobs are extremely scarce for librarians, even ones with computer experience.


In May we lost Bailey 1993-2011


In March we lost Miss Daisy 1990-2011


In February I was diagnosed with a Mast cell tumor--this kind of cancer can appear one time or many times. Our oncologist was not hopeful for a year for me. But it is January 2012 and I am still here!

We are praying that this will be a great year for everyone. I would like to have another Christmas with my Mom, please. Miracles are possible!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Tragedy in DWB communlity


We were horrified to hear about the fire at the house of the Houston Pittie Pack. They lost 5 of their beautiful babies and their house. There is a Chip-In page for them to help in their recovery. The fund has reached its limit but that was set fairly low. Keep giving what you can. But the most important thing is to give moral support and many many prayers. Please let them know you are thinking of them.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Christmas Foster Failure--a New Daisy


Hard to believe...my mom has let dozens of baby beagles slip through her hands and be adopted, even babies that were born at our house. Here was  this little 14 lb. girl from South Carolina, one day away from euthanasia...nobody would take her because she had heartworms.

So along came the H.A.N.D. Foundation--Homeless Animals Needing Doctors. They said--the only thing keeping this beautiful little creature from being adopted is a LIGHT CASE of heartworms??? Here's the money to treat it! And they transported her to Tennessee to my mom who offered to foster.

My mom has not had a foster failure since...ME. 5 years. So an animal has to be really really special to stay forever here in this house of beagles.

Even though it means I'm no longer the baby beagle of the pack (everyone else is over 10 years old here) still, this new Daisy is a good girl. She's figured out how to curl up on the hollow of my mom's left shoulder (so my mom can still type around her) and not interfere at all with where I sleep by my mom (left arm of the big chair).

We lost our 22 year old Daisy in April 2011 and my mom said the house was JUST NOT RIGHT without a Daisy in it.

So, we have a new Daisy. She is a wild girl, runs shrieking out the back door to chase any possible bunnies that are dumb enough to come in a beagle yard. (they do, believe it or not but we've never caught one).

This makes my mom very happy so I'm okay with it.

Welcome, little miss New Daisy!


Friday, November 11, 2011

Happy Gotcha Day to me!


I am six now. My mom chose my gotcha day as my birthday which for humans is called Vet Day. Nov. 11. I came to live with her when I was one. It was the best day ever.

Thank you to everyone for your sympathies about Georgia. My mom is glad she had Georgia for 10 years.

My mom says I'm looking a bit grizzled--does that make me a grizzly?

So far so good no return of the Big C--still here and loving my life in the Big House of Beagles.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Angel Georgia 1994-2011

My sweet Georgia girl 1994-2011
 



Georgia came to my mom from an owner at 7 years old. We've had her ever since. I considered her my girlfriend although she could be kinda crazy at times. She loved me and loved people but was not always friendly to other girl beagles. It's especially sad that she left while my mom was on vacation. Our petsitter took her to our vet and they said nothing more could be done so my mom from far away had to let her go. Our petsitter stayed with Georgia to the end. It's very hard to lose her even though we know she is pain-free now and running around the Bridge. Goodbye my sweet sweet Georgia girl.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

10 things you don't know about my mom

My mom's friend, Cheryel Hutton, a great horror and romantic suspense writer, tagged me to write 10 things people don't know about my mom. Ha, my mom sez, not too many details

  1. My mom's latest favorite movie is LEMONADE MOUTH. You can see it on Netflix.
  2. My mom's favorite food is NY strip. (mine, too, yuh-um!)
  3. My mom loves me more than anything on the planet and universe...okay, maybe everybody already knows that so I'll add an extra thing on the end.
  4. My mom has a broken nose from a rock fight as a little kid.
  5. My mom's uh 'bird' finger on her right hand was broken in a softball game...when she was a little kid.
  6. My mom fell at work and her shoulder muscles pulled a chip off the bone. Can you say workman's comp? No matter. She says it hurts less everyday and work did pay for her care. Hmm, I don't know...am I sniffing a pattern here??? Like Fight Club kinda pattern???
  7. My mom loves cold, snowy wintry days. We can cuddle by our fireplace.
  8. My mom says she loves RED as her favorite color. I don't know. Everything is pretty much black & white to me.
  9. My mom had carpal tunnel (?) surgery which she says didn't help her hand and hurt like hay-ell.
  10. My mom wants a big ole honkin truck for her birthday...no one knows that but they do now!
  11. and finally:
  12. My mom intends to be a rich writer. Hah! Who knew??

We would like to tag a couple friends if they would like to do this: Khyra, Pedro, Daisy, and Beaglebratz.
Thanks for reading! My mom sez I haven't embarrassed her too bad!
River

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Sally the Wonderdog

RIP Sally the Wonderdog
We met Sally online on one of the dog cancer discussion groups. She had the same cancer as River -- MCT. We had hoped to have a long time to discuss our various treatments and hopefully successes with her family. She was 13 1/2 years old and the light in her family's eyes. You can see the happy smile she has. We were only able to know her for a month and then she was suddenly gone.

I wanted to write a little about her to celebrate her wonderful life and to let everyone know how generous her family has been to us. They sent us the supplements they had bought for her all the way from another continent. Supplements that I could not afford because I lost my job--so it is extra wonderful. River is doing well and with the supplements hopefully beat the oncologist's prediction for him (about 6 more months). Thank you to Sally for sharing, her family says she was good at sharing.

River's mom

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Bad news, good news part deux

Belle 1992-2011
Since the last post we lost Belle. We've lost Daisy, Bailey and Belle just in the last few months. It's been tough on my mom's heart. Belle was the first dog my mom adopted when she moved to TN. She found Belle at PetSmart. The local humane society was sponsoring her. Belle's foster mom needed to have her moved so my mom paid $30 and took her in. She was part of our family for 16 of her 18 years. I liked her. She was a sweet, shy girl, so gentle. My mom loved her so much she almost waited too long to let her go--she admits it...but Belle told her it was time to go to the Bridge and that she would wait for us.

Last week my mom's job went away, too. Librarians are seen as a luxury and she knew it would happen...but it was 1 1/2 years short of retirement...so close and yet...but she always plans for things. She has a consultant job on the internet that supports us just no benefits for her. Ha, it means she needs to stay healthy until retirement, like lose weight...just sayin', Mom.



Meanwhile, good news I am still here! This is me and Baby in the sun--wow, Baby looks like a little pig there and she doesn't in real life. I know that the future is uncertain so we really enjoy each day together now. They have not cured my bladder infection yet. We're waiting for a week without anti-biotics to get a better culture. Because my mom is not making as much money we cannot do chemo anymore. That stuff is expensive! There are other options--a good diet and prednisone. MCT type cancers are somehow related to overproduction of histamines so benedryl is a large part of the treatment and that's cheap. Lots of dog moms choose this path so it is not better or worse than chemo just different.

Don't worry...working at home lets my mom do her creative stuff which she really enjoys. She has her old book published by Random House up on Amazon as an ebook now. It is selling a little bit (it's for a small readership of historicals called Regencies).



MAID OF HONOR-ebook
Because she is a computer librarian she formats all styles herself and designs covers, plus designs websites (one way she makes money). She plans to have something like 4 more books up for sale before the end of the year. Her plan always was to write when she retired, we're just starting early. The plan is to supplement her retirement with a LOT of money from writing lol. Hey, just wait till she gets her YA paranormals up...and all her books have dogs in them so we serve as characters, too.


More good news--we took in a mama beagle named Rumor. She had her pups in the bottom of our bathroom linen closet. Here is a video of them at about 5 weeks. They made a LOT of noise:

They are all up for adoption. I think two are promised already but 4 are left. They are gorgeous little beagles. I know I probably looked like them when I was little bol.

Look for them on http://www.sosbeagles.org/. My mom often fosters for them. How did she end up not keeping all of them? She doesn't know.

And someone asked about the weim puppies. The mama, Luna, has been adopted. She was a goofy, funny girl. Selena, the girl, has been adopted. Her brother, Simon, had problems from the start--we thought maybe he had 'failure to thrive' but it turned out he had some weird problem with no bacteria in his stomach. He has been moved to another foster mom who has more time and experience to take care of him. He is thriving now and will be adopted out soon. So it ended happily for everyone.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer. It's finally gotten a little cooler here and the storms are not so scary. Yes, we had a tornado come by in May. It shredded our woods but did not hurt the house. Left our area without electricity for ages. We learned to live with little battery operated fans. Next year we're getting a generator so we can run a BIG fan. Or maybe we'll all go stay in a hotel with air.

I miss everyone very much but with my mom being home we will be able to keep up better!

River