In my experience, it is never easy to say goodbye. I’m sad, yet relieved for Razz . I’ll miss her.

Rest in peace, Razzle Dazzle.
http://www.2-boots.com/Razz.htm

October 11, 1995 – July 27, 2009

Over the weekend, Razz began to have even more difficulty walking and even standing. Sunday was tough. This morning Pennie let me know that it was time to let her go. We’re bringing her to the vet this evening. I’m sad about this, but I know it is the right thing to do. She has lived to an amazing 14 years old, which is unbelievable for a Dalmatian. I can’t speak for her first 6 years, but she’s had a great 8 years with us.

The good news from Saturday is that the biopsy on the tissue removed with Finnegan’s spleen showed it to be benign. Hooray! He’s recovering very well from the surgery. If you didn’t see the pain patch on his leg or the shaved belly and the staples, you’d never know that he had just undergone major surgery late last week.

We’re not sure if it was due to not having to use the stairs for two days, but Razz had some serious trouble getting up the stairs to go to bed on Saturday night and also coming down on Sunday. For most of Sunday it appeared that she was having troubles standing and walking. She is an old lady, coming up on her 14th birthday later this year. That’s quite a bit longer than a Dalmatian normally lives. We thought that it might be her time. I expected that we’d be taking her to the vet today to say goodbye, but Pennie told me that Razz is doing quite a bit better today. She needed help to get up the stairs yesterday, but she made it down unassisted this morning and she didn’t fall. We will do what we can to make sure that she’s comfortable until it is her time, but it is not today.

Finnegan went into surgery Thursday afternoon at about 2 PM. His spleen and the mass were successfully removed and he was closed back up. We won’t know the results of the biopsy until Monday, but the prognosis is good as the rest of his organs were in good shape. Apparently, if it is malignant, the visual inspection of the other organs would reveal nodules or growths and his were clear. Our fingers are crossed. The most amazing this is that the vet told us that it was good that we did the surgery when we did. The mass had begun leaking and it was probably a matter of days or less before it would have ruptured and caused internal bleeding. Had that happened, the surgery would have been critical to save his life and it would have been much riskier. He came home shortly after 8 PM, wobbling around like a drunken sailor. The poor boy was pretty out of it from the pain meds, but he was doing very well considering he had major surgery only a few hours earlier! When I took all of the dogs into the yard a little later, he came along. When he squatted to pee he kept sinking lower and lower to the ground. Once he was done, I helped him over to a dry spot and he plopped down into the grass until everyone else was ready to go back inside. They all spent the night downstairs, with Pennie sleeping on the couch. They didn’t go crazy when I started the coffee at 4 am and got my breakfast together. They all met me at the bottom of the stairs when I went to have my shower and they met me again when I was heading out the door to go to work. I brought them outside at that point, except for Razz. She didn’t seem interested in coming out. Hopefully they were all good overnight and didn’t make Pennie’s sleep miserable!

Thanks to everyone for the good thoughts for Finnegan (and us) this week. I’m still amazed at the sequence of events that led to the discovery of this mass. Had he not gone to the emergency vet, had we not opted for the x-rays, or had the surgery not been scheduled so quickly, who knows what the outcome would have been. Certainly not good!

Finnegan went to the regular vet on Monday and surgery was scheduled for this morning. At this moment, he’s on the way to the vet. I’ll be anxiously awaiting word from Pennie, who will be anxiously awaiting word from the vet. The surgery will be to remove his spleen with the mass. Both the emergency vet and the regular vet believe that the odds are very good that the mass is benign. However, in the event that it is not and there are signs that cancer has spread to other organs, Pennie has instructed the vet to call her immediately and not wake Finnegan from the anesthesia. We’d rather not think of that possibility, but it is hard to put those thoughts aside. Since he is approaching 9 years old in less than 2 months, it doesn’t make sense to let him go through any suffering if it is cancer. I’m doing my absolute best to remain positive this morning.

Yes, our mutley crew is needy. We slept until about 7 today, which was good. After a little bit at the PC, I brought them upstairs to the main floor where they spent the day. I was working upstairs, so I figured that I could keep an eye on them. However, whenever I was out of Razz’s sight she would still start whining. We’re downstairs right now and she’s whining again. I think it’s because Ruby is on the couch in her spot. Yes, that was it. I moved Ruby over and put Razz on the couch and all is now well, I suppose. I was making a bit of noise upstairs today, so when I brought everyone outside, Lily didn’t want to come back inside. Since it was dinner time, it was easy to convince her that it was a good idea to come in. I forgot to pick up the water bowl last night before we went to bed, so Finnegan barfed up the water that he drank. Ruby didn’t chew anything up today, but she did bark at any and all noises that she heard outside over the loud music I had playing.

Contrast the above to the cats. I had to put them upstairs and they were fine with that. Once I brought the dogs downstairs for dinner, the cats had the run of the main floor again. I went back up after feeding the crew, I had my dinner and then spent about a half hour in my office. Both cats came in to see me and happily rubbed up against my legs and settled down on the chair and the pet bed on the floor. They had no problems with the fact that I had them upstairs for the day.

We’ll likely repeat the upstairs thing for part of tomorrow. I’m finally getting around to removing the popcorn from the ceiling on the stairs. I scraped it down today, used a few plaster washers to fix an area of the landing ceiling that was loose, and then put a skim coat of drywall mud on the whole ceiling. Tomorrow I’ll be sanding it down and then giving it a finish coat of drywall mud. I’m hoping that the shop vacuum sanding attachment minimizes the dust that will be generated by the sanding. I’ll put the dogs downstairs before the sanding with the shop vacuum – Lily hates the vacuum cleaner!

I skipped my workout today since I had been on my feet for most of the day, up and down the ladder and getting a good cramp in my neck as I held the hawk and skimmed the mud onto the ceiling. I figure that was enough of a workout.

Pennie headed south on Wednesday to spend time with Amaya. That means that I’ve got pet duty while she’s away. I left work early yesterday and will do so again today so that the dogs don’t have to spend a hideous amount of time in their kennels. I’m off next week, so that’s not an issue. So far the nights have been pretty decent. Last night Ruby was up on the bed part way through the night, and pressed up against my legs. I don’t much care for that since I tend to get warm at night. It woke me up way too early, but I still got enough sleep. The only issue that I’ve encountered so far is that Razz won’t stop whining unless I am downstairs with them. I think that they will be spending a fair amount of time upstairs this weekend and next week. I’ve got a few minor outdoor projects that I want to address, so they will be downstairs when I’m outside, but if I am at the computer for a few hours, I think I’ll just leave them upstairs with me. The cats will be fine on the upper floor.

I’m really looking forward to having an entire week off, even though I’m already setting up a bazillion things for me to accomplish while I’m home. I’ll do what I can, though, and will concentrate on resting!

Last night, and for the next two nights, Pennie is away to take care of 4 dogs while their owners are away. That means that our dogs spend the night with me. As soon as she left the house, Razz began her whining downstairs. Fortunately, I don’t hear it loudly in my office, but I can generally still hear it. I spent a little time downstairs with them while I was switching the batteries from the smaller battery backup unit into another one. That one didn’t work at all – no lights – so I switched out the batteries in a 3rd unit and that one is currently charging. The large unit was still showing low battery as of last night. This morning it showed a red light, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. It may also be failing or I’ve got bum batteries. I need to contact the place I ordered the batteries from. I’ve changed out UPS batteries before and haven’t had so many issues.

Anyway, we went up to bed at around 10 PM and everyone settled in. Well, Lily wanted up on the bed and she happily slept between Finnegan and my back. Ruby started snoring almost immediately after she got into her bed and Finnegan moved over to the middle of the bed, leaving Lily and I in about 1/3 of the bed. Tonight I’ve got to get myself into the middle of the bed first, I think!

It took a while before I could fall asleep, but I slept well enough. I even woke up before the 4 am alarm. When I woke up and sat up the dogs were all ready to go, except for Razz, who would have preferred to stay under her blanket longer, I believe. I brought them downstairs and outside. The Roomba was sitting in the middle of the floor, so I moved it before bringing the dogs back inside. It turned out that the Roomba was complaining about the brushes needing to be cleaned. In reality, the brushes were clean, but fur and hair has apparently gotten into the mechanism that turns the brushes. I disassembled it this morning and cleaned most of it out, but I’ll need to spend some more time with it tonight. I had my breakfast while reading my email upstairs with the dogs downstairs, including the whining Razz.

When I got ready to leave, I put them in their crates and gave them each a cookie. They began howling the minute I closed the back door and stepped into the yard. The funny thing is that they settle down very shortly thereafter, but you’d swear that someone was killing them inside! Pennie gets to deal with that noise each time she leaves the house. I get to hear it only when she’s away or when we leave together. The fun part is that the greetings on returning home are as exuberant as the howling is pitiful on leaving.

This afternoon I’ve got a chiropractor appointment followed by my weekly Wednesday visit to my parents. I’m hopeful that it is an easy visit today.

 I recently saw this video via a Podcast from www.bestofyoutube.com and just loved it.

YouTube - Awesome Parrot Tricks
  

Finnegan doesn’t understand the concept of personal space when sharing the bed, it seems. We were fine on Friday and even the sleepless Saturday night, but last night he plopped himself right up against me, pushing me to the very edge of the bed. He seemed genuinely confused when I finally turned around and manhandled him into a new position on his side of the bed. Of course, that lasted all of 2 minutes. Once I rolled over with my back to him he moved right up against me again. Oh, well. The funny thing is that a King Size bed would not be the solution, except that perhaps you could start further from the edge of the bed. He will snuggle right up against you, no matter the size of the bed. When I physically moved him away from me, I laughingly informed him that he had more empty space to the other edge of the bed than the amount of space that my body was attempting to comfortably occupy. He didn’t comprehend that – I’m sure of it.  

The dogs can surely be a pain in the rear sometimes, but they are great dogs – all four of our mutley crew!

I will be happy to see Pennie later today because I’ve missed her since Thursday, though being able to have more room in the bed to sleep also makes me happy.

Poor Finnegan had have 4 teeth extracted. He was miserable when I got home after 7 PM and apparently even more miserable when Pennie picked him up around 6. He’s a bit better now, several hours later. His eyes are no longer droopy and he is able to walk a bit better, but he’s still a bit druggy. He should be much better by tomorrow, but he’ll be on soft foods for a few days.

Yes, this picture of Finnegan is a bit old – it’s still “Mr. Finnster.” He’s at the vet’s office today having at least one tooth pulled. Pennie noticed that he was drooling excessively on Monday and then saw that there was some swelling on one side of his snout. She suspected a tooth infection, but that gentle bear of a dog would never let you know that he was having any discomfort or pain. She took him in yesterday and they confirmed her suspicion. They were able to fit him in for today to get it extracted.

Pennie took him in before 8:30 today and expects to pick him up after 5. We had a bit of a scare, though, when the vet called to ask if they could take an x-ray as an abnormality had shown up in the EKG. They referred to it as “axis shift” and apparently this can be an indicator for heart disease. It turns out that the reason for the reading is that his heart is tilted, which is another reason for this “axis shift” reading. According to my quickie research, this is common in very thin people. I certainly wouldn’t call Finnegan thin, but apparently it is no cause for concern at this point.

I’m hoping that he doesn’t have to wear a cone collar when he comes home. He’s already going to be woozy after the anesthesia!

On Saturday evening, I decided to go back to the greenhouse and close it up overnight since it was getting pretty chilly and the orchids are still out there. I did this while I had the dogs outside for their evening constitutional. I closed the gate securely behind me and headed out to the greenhouse, which is behind the fenced area of our yard. While I was closing it up, Ruby started barking like crazy, but that isn’t unusual – she almost always barks up a storm at anything while outside. I headed back to bring the dogs in and was horrified to see Ruby and Finnegan standing in the driveway behind my car with the gate standing wide open! Obviously, it wasn’t securely closed. I suspect that Ruby jumped up against it when she saw or heard something, which caused the latch to pop. I got both of them to get back in the yard and I closed the gate while looking into the yard to see if Razz and Lily were in there – they weren’t. I looked out onto the driveway and spotted both Razz and Lily wandering around in our neighbor’s yard, sniffing things on their patio. Note that this is only about 30 feet from the gate, so they didn’t get far and they had no intention of running. This was a great adventure – to sniff what they could only see through the slats in the fence before now, unless they were on a leash, usually on the way to the car. I rounded both of them up easily, got them in the yard and praised all of them for not running. Needless to say, the latch will now always be pinned, in addition to be securely latched!

I was expecting to share the bed with Finnegan and Razz last night. Lily wanted up, too. Yes, Lily is kind of tiny, but 3 dogs on the bed didn't make for much room left for me! I slept okay, though.

Today was pretty much a normal Saturday otherwise, except that Pennie isn't here.

The dogs miss her, too.

This is a picture of our Molly, just over a month before she left us in 2004 due to cancer. She was truly a sweet and happy dog, right to her last days. I still miss her today, on the 3rd anniversary of her passing.

On dial-up, it's painfully slow to load, but this is the absolute best!

Pennie tells the story best on her blog today. The dogs were due for their licenses from the town today, or should I say we had to pay the extortion to the town for the fact that we have pets, and this means that their rabies vaccines have to be up to date. Peanut needed her shot, so Pennie took her in. Poor Peanut had an allergic reaction to the shot.

Every evening I take the dogs outside to do their business between 8:30 and 9:00. When we come back inside, I open up the magic cabinet, a pie safe that Pennie brought up from Virginia with her, and take out some cookies for the mutley crew. Finnegan gets his cookie first, then Razz, then Lily, and finally Ruby. Unfortunately, giving a treat to Razz was always an adventure since she loves to eat. I would repeat, "easy" over and over a few times, but she would still manage to snap and get my fingers a little. Usually this isn't a problem, but sometimes it would hurt! Anyway, last week I went to the pet food store, Mike's Feed Farm, and picked up cat food and more cookies. I commented to the girl working that afternoon that I was glad they still had a few boxes of the natural biscuits in the larger size cookie because the smaller "Bite Size" cookie was going to be much harder to give to Razz while keeping my fingers intact. She told me to give it to her by holding in in my hand with the cookie cupped in the palm and bring it up to Razz's mouth, making her "work" for the treat. She said I might get slobbered on, but she wouldn't snap. I tried it and she's absolutely correct! I can't wait to thank her the next time I see her.

I tried to snap a photo of the cats together under the tree for the past few evenings, but wasn't successful until last night. Each time I got the camera out and approached the tree, Severina would come out from under the tree to greet me. Last night she stayed put. Don't they look comfortable? I don't know what the attraction is - the quilted tree skirt or simply being under the tree. Whatever attracts them to it, I'm amused by it!

I didn't sleep well at all last night. Even before I fell asleep, Ruby was on the bed and curling up between Finnegan and me. Lily and Razz were on Razz's bed and under the blanket, but they were both up on the bed during the night. I woke up several times throughout the night, starting at about 2:30, probably when Razz and Lily made it up to the bed. I finally succumbed and crawled out of bed at 6:20, brought them outside and then I went up to make some coffee. After I felt a little more awake, I went back down to give them their breakfast.