First Snowfall

I told my Mom Sunday night that our first snow of the season would happen any time now. Monday morning we woke to heavy clumps of wet snow weaving a blanket over the autumnal ground. I was grateful for it, as I was quite grumpy and not into Monday being Monday at all. I was able to use on my creative outlets for the purpose of cheering myself up and getting myself out the door with the doggities.

Out we trekked, Butters seeing his first snow since he was, oh, 40 pounds smaller. I let him run off leash so I could enjoy his enthusiasm. A harness would be unfair. He didn't disappoint--running full speed ahead for the first time in weeks, scooping up globs of white in his lower jaw like a golden retrieving snow plow. He delighted in the cold slush on his belly and slid around ecstatically. It was enough to get me smiling and even giggling.

It is now Wednesday, the snow is melted and I am giggling less at the moment because my projects are backing up.

Photos on my flickr.

Butterball(s) of Energy

Now that Butters is thankfully better and regaining his puppy strength, he and Maggie have been inseparable. But not in a good way. They are impossible to separate from intense doggie fights and duels in which Butters gets awfully rough and Maggie inevitably gets bit. So she has found a weakness--Butters' stapled parts. His belly and his leg. She goes for these and he protests, and the duel intensifies. It is almost impossible to end these squabbles as they either a) do not notice I am there, or b) bite me too, obviously I want to join in the fun. And yet there seems to be nothing fun about it--it is not cute or pretty or funny like their usual fighting.

So I noticed one difference between pre-op Butters and post-op Butters... his manly bits seem to have been activated while he was incarcerated. Now, Butters was scheduled to have said manly bits snipped this week but he has been rescheduled due to the unplanned surgery last week. His hormones are raging and Maggie isn't liking it. Neither are any of the neighborhood dogs. And I'm not that thrilled either. He's got strong jaws.

So, I guess the good news is that he is a functional male dog despite his last drama. The bad news is that he is a functional male dog in the full throes of puberty. Help!

Maggie's Perspective

Lap Time
Originally uploaded by Kate Hamilton.

...of Butters' operation on her blog.

In the meantime, my ol' friend/ex-roomate/college buddy Michele finally convinced me to try Twitter. It was just a matter of persistence. I must say that I do not quite get it yet. You go to twitter.com, and if you have an account you have exactly 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing at that very moment. Or thinking. Or feeling. Or whatever you feel like typing in 140 characters. It may be addictive. I love my mindless addictions so I will give it a try. You can find me twittering over here. I will continue to comment on Butters' progress there because it is easy.

I would also like to blog more often, and so would Maggie. We didn't realize how much we missed it until this week's drama. It is therapeutic, an emotional outlet and an ego booster, at times, when we get comments. Like I said, therapeutic.

Hopefully this will all culminate in a complete redesign because none of it feels very coherent to me anymore. It's time.

Recovery

IV Bandage
Originally uploaded by Kate Hamilton.

After another night of vomit with the addition of complete unproductivity on the other end, we took Butters back to Dr. Brooks yesterday morning knowing he had to go into surgery. The x-ray taken on Monday showed enough evidence that there was something in there somwhere, plus his worsening symptoms gave us no choice. We dropped him off, shed some tears and waited to get the call. Around 1:30 pm our wait was over and the news was good; Butters had a successful surgery and an obstruction had been removed from his lower intestines. It appeared to be some kind of unchewed, balled up rawhide covered in grass, soil and gravel. Butters was being removed from the operating table and would be put back in his kennel for recovery.

The next question was, "when can we take him home?" I didn't expect to see him for a few days. But Dr. Brooks is not one to recommend unnecessary treatment, overnight stays or anything he wouldn't do for his own dogs. He believes that a dog is going to be more comfortable at home than curled up in a cold metal kennel all night. He said Butters was welcome to stay, but if we felt comfortable taking him we could pick him up at 5 pm. Andrew was stuck at work so I made the sixth consecutive trek to Granby to pick up my boy.

When I arrived he was asleep in a kennel. Dr. Brooks went over all the details I needed to care for him for the next 2 weeks. When the time came to leave, he helped me bring Butters to the car. Oh my God, he looked so pathetic--so unlike himself, still coming out of anesthesia and not happy about moving anywhere. His stomach was shaved and bejeweled with a neat row of shiny staples. His front left leg wore a bandage that covered the catheter from his I.V., still implanted in his skin. Outside he took the longest pee I've ever seen him take, and actually I was quite relieved to see it.

In the last 1000 feet of our 18 mile drive home we stopped at the intersection of Lion's Gate and Vasquez, and sat for a moment behind a car that was taking an extra long stop at the stop sign. Impatient, I looked around for oncoming traffic and found none--none except for the seven foot tall moose that was trotting across the road. The moose proceeded to gallop through the township building parking lot towards Main Street, and crossed over it, stopping traffic. I took this as a good sign. A welcoming party, perhaps?

At home Butters was difficult to maneuver and difficult to look at, eyes half rolled back and drooling. He wouldn't eat, he licked a few ice cubes and he spit out any kind of pill I gave him. We set up his bed next to ours and went to bed early, hoping for the first decent night of sleep in 3 days. After a few hours Butters became restless.

Three outside-visits in, Butters vomited. (I know, there's a lot about vomit in the past few entries here, but it's been my morning-noon-and-night for 4 days!) We tried not to panic or start thinking catastrophic thoughts and go back to sleep, but it was difficult. Every little sound Butters made became a reason to turn the light on, check him out, invite him outside. I think he was all puked out. Andrew left at 6:30 am for an early day at work and I went back to sleep, as did the B-man.

We woke up just before 9 am and when I greeted him, Butters' tail did a little wag. His eyes finally looked normal again and he stood up on his own accord. At that point I was so happy that we had him home rather than leaving him overnight at the vet. He was able to wake from his delirium to find himself at home in his own bed with familiar sights and smells. The worst part was over.

So today I've been following Dr. Brooks instructions of hourly feedings of 1 tablespoon of kibble, 1/4 cup of water, meds and frequent trips outside. I have gotten nothing else done, no work, no phone calls or anything I regularly do on a weekday. But it seems to be paying off because Butters' mood is pretty upbeat considering all that he's gone through since Saturday. His innards seem to be on the rebound and Maggie is respecting his space (most of the time). He barked at a neighborhood dog. He delighted in the fresh cooked ground beef I made this morning. He refined his technique for rejecting pills of all kinds, even if buried deep within a piece of ground beef or cheese. He's on the up and up.

So if I don't get any work done, oh well. I'm busy nursing my sick puppy back to health. Don't bother me.

Under Surveillance

Spoon Me 7
Originally uploaded by Kate Hamilton.

Butters was not relieved of his symptoms last night so we drove him to the vet this morning and left him there for x-rays, blood work and monitoring. We're hoping it's just an infection or virus that can be handled with external care. If there is an obstruction in his stomach, hopefully it will show up on film so there will be no doubt about it. I would hate for him to endure unnecessary exploratory surgery. I'd rather know it was warranted.

Photo taken during one of the few young weeks Butters was smaller than Maggie.

They Came, They Saw, Right On

Mom, Dad, Me, Bighorn Sheep
Originally uploaded by Kate Hamilton.

My parents' visit came and went like the summer itself--brief but beautiful and immediately missed. Mom and Dad arrived on a Saturday and left on a Wednesday. I had the honor of driving them to and from the airport, which allowed me an extra four hours with them, rather than letting some shuttle guy have the privilege. And in between those two trips we:
--enjoyed many cups of irish tea at the cabin
--hosted a bonfire/bbq with a few of our friends for them
--which included toasting marshmellows and making s'mores
--went to the ski resort, had lunch and enjoyed the flowers
--drove to Rocky Mountain National Park, saw some bighorn sheep (above)
--passed through Grand Lake for lunch and shopping
--had dinner at Devil's Thumb Ranch
--spent quality time with the doggies*

I think the highlight had to be the drive up Trail Ridge Road through the national park; it is such an amazing drive and pictures don't do it any justice. I had promised them elk herds but instead found the sheep in our last turns on the pass. My mom was amazed at the shadow patterns on the mountain tops and my dad was all about the trees. I loved sharing it all with them. Even more than that, I loved having quality time with the two of them without interference. Like I got to be an only child for a few days. Kinda weird but cool.

After their brief visit I felt very mom-and-dad-sick and it felt odd dropping them off at the airport. Like I should have been going along for the ride home to Pennsylvania too. When I had picked them up PA felt so close, and when I dropped them off PA felt very far away.

But there wasn't much time to ponder on it; in three days we were to have more visitors, our friends Ben and Stephanie and THREE beagles (two are theirs, one a foster). It was a chorus of howling and baying tri-colored dogs. I felt for Butters, being the only large red male un-neutered puppy dog in the house, and he was conspicuously shunned for it. Both Butters and Maggie slept very long and hard for the next night or two after the quadra-beagle adventure was over.

Speaking of which... my poor Butters, he is sick.


SICK AS A SICK DOG

On Saturday Andrew and I left around 11:30am to visit some friends in Evergreen. I had given them each a bit of turkey dog in their respective Kongs to keep them busy until my friend Rebecca would come visit and take them out for walks around 5pm. I also left instructions for Rebecca to do the same with the Kongs before her departure. The turkey dogs came from the freezer. I never checked the date.

When we returned home at 8:30pm, I immediately took each dog for a walk. The results were not pretty. First Maggie had diarrhea. Then Butters did. Then Butters threw up. Then he threw up again. Then Maggie had to go out again. So did Butters. And so on and so forth all night long.

Sunday morning I made some rice with chicken broth to feed them since they both seemed in good enough spirits to eat something. They were deceptive, both of them. Hour by hour I found myself cleaning more and more "issues" on the rug, and running them outside whenever I could intercept. I will not complain that we had steam cleaned the rugs free of Butters' old potty-training stains just 2 weeks before. I don't care anymore (though I did at first). All I care now is that Butters gets better.

Maggie recovered by Sunday afternoon. Butters did not. He was wretching and making messes all night. He slept in our room last night so when the wretching was imminent we could rush him outside in the darkness, taking turns. This morning he again seemed in good spirits, especially on our third walk. He was joyous to see neighborhood dogs and pulling hard on the leash like usual.

But even then, and now, he cannot keep fluids down and yet they keep pouring out of him. Andrew and I took him to the vet this afternoon and Dr. Brooks, always very matter-of-fact and candid, voiced his concern that Butters may have a foreign body lodged in his intestines somewhere. He sent us home with several kinds of stomach-settling medication (including immodium and pepto) and said to call him in the morning. If Butters stomach continues to reject food and water with meds we will be going back tomorrow for an x-ray and blood work. Please hope for the best.



Butters should be happy to know that when he gets better I am authorized to feed him more food each day. Apparently he's growing too fast for Candidae's feeding guidelines.

Oh dear, he's scratching the door to go out... gotta go.