Still Growing

The little man has been doing great.  The girls haven't corrupted him into being a barker yet, and hopefully it will stay that way.  He's still just so easy - he's happy and easy and content.  Coulee is playing with him regularly now and the house has been quite chaotic because of it.  But it's nice to see them all having fun together.



We've started doing off leash walks these past few days.  He's been fantastic.  He stays nearby and comes running at full speeds when you call.  He loves to watch the geese when they fly overhead.

Poor dude managed to get Cherry Eye last week.  We'll be getting it fixed on Dec 16 - we felt waiting until his neuter was just too long.  His brother Oliver (aka Kermit) also got it and he's unfortunately got it in his second eye too.  We are hoping that Summit's second eye goes before the 16th if it is going to! I've been editing it out of most of his pictures because frankly I'd rather not remember him like that.  It's isn't too gross, but it isn't flattering either.  He is great at taking his eye drops which is great because we are doing them 4 times a day.

I still need to get a decent family photo but we've been practicing...

The girls are doing well. Lacey's recovered from her surgery and all the stitches have finally fallen out.  Her hair almost covers the scar and I'm sure once it is full length you'll never know.

Another Tumour

Lacey had her third Mast Cell Tumour removed the other week.  It was on her back this time so we could do the surgery locally and the recovery was so much easier - no bandage changes every few days, no trips to Calgary for check ups, no bootie every time she went outside.  We were able to go for walks again right away too and her anal glands (which get infected every time she has a tumour) seemed to bother her more than the incision itself.  With a little more hair growth, the scar should be invisible. We got clean margins so that was a relief!

Growing Up

I'd forgotten how much time a puppy takes up.  Thank goodness for Lacey - she keeps him entertained for most of his waking hours.  He's had 2 sets of shots so we've started leash walks around the neighbourhood.  We are having some trouble with traffic noises but he recovers very quickly so hopefully he'll figure it out.  He isn't noise sensitive to anything else that I've discovered.

He's happy to meet people and other dogs.  He's come to daycare for a few hours and did great.  He was more reserved than I expected but he was pretty happy the whole time.  He likes to sit back and watch the action before getting involved.

He is very polite and will patiently sit and wait for cookies and is also very polite with other dogs. I guess growing up with two crabby dogs has some benefits.  :)

Anyway, here is a summary of a month's worth of photos.  He's changing so fast!

One More

We've been fostering puppies a fair amount this past year.  Not because we wanted to find one to adopt, but because we find Lacey is much more comfortable accepting them and because I find them so much fun.  :)

Well we finally decided to adopt one ourselves.  Marlin really became attached to these two latest boys and when one of them got adopted we decided to keep the other one.  So may I introduce Summit.

When he first arrived he was very skinny and underweight. Within a few weeks we had him all fattened up.  We are still struggling to get him to eat enough and not have diarrhea at the same time but fingers crossed it all gets straightened out any day now.  :)

He is a pretty confident little dude.  So far new people and places don't phase him and when he does get taken by surprise, he is very quick to recover.  I'm determined to have a "bomb" proof dog that is comfortable around new people and new places.  I want a dog we can take places - to people's homes, on group camping trips and hikes, etc.  I think he has the temperament to do all this, I just need to not screw it up.  So every day we are doing something to expose him to new things.

• Friday - he went off to the family that ended up adopting his brother and spent the afternoon there.
• Saturday - we brought out the cat tunnel (which he instantly loved) and explored the upstairs for the first time.  (On Monday he learned how to do the indoor stairs and promptly went exploring up there over and over again.)
• Sunday - we went to the pet store, a drive through and the daycare.  He met Chewy and got exposed to studio photography lighting equipment - no fear at all of the flash or the umbrella - even when I put  it on the ground or spun it around in the air.
• Monday - we went out to Amanda's to meet her dogs, and explore her yard.  He had a great time with her new pup Siren.
• Tuesday - we spent time in the front yard watching the world go by.  We saw cars, a bus and a lady with a dog on the far side of the road.  The cars were no problem but the bus made him startle. The dog was hilarious.  He just sat and watched in awe.  I was feeding him kibble and he absentmindedly would open his mouth to take it but was often forgetting to chew.  
• Tomorrow we are going to hang out at the grocery store parking lot and then the recycling depot.
• Thursday if the weather is nice we'll go to the playground by our house and watch the children.
• Friday we are going to hang out at the front of the house again and try and catch the school kids walking home.  
• Saturday we are going to a puppy class.
• Sunday we'll probably try and find more people to meet or do whatever Amanda suggests at the puppy class.  :)

He is already learning to be a polite puppy.  He is learning to come when called and he charges over at full speed and promptly puts his butt to the ground for a cookie.  The only issue at the moment is that he is using me for a break instead of slowing down to a stop himself.  LOL.

He's been wearing an activity monitor since we decided to keep him and is logging about 130 minutes of "action" a day.  He is by no means a crazy pup, but he definitely has his busy moments - he's definitely a morning dog!  Lacey enjoys playing with him - on her terms only of course.  Poor dude struggles some times to figure out why one moment she's playful and the next she isn't.  Not surprisingly Coulee is taking longer to adjust.  She took about 9 months to enjoy Lacey's company so we aren't expecting her to come around any time soon.  She generally just ignores him and grumbles when he is playing and she isn't.

We still need to get a decent family photo - this one isn't going to cut it. :)

Nothing Much

Not much is new or different....

Lacey's fur has almost all grown back in on her back leg.  She has a small hard lump at the top of her skin graft that I've been telling myself is scar tissue.  It hasn't changed in size at all so we are just keeping an eye on it for now.

Coulee is still on a restricted exercise diet.  Everything other than a 15 minute walk makes her stiff so we just go every few days for about 30 minutes or so.  We don't play any fetch at all anymore but will occasionally engage in a game of catch.  It isn't quite the same, but she still enjoys it.

I'm enjoying my summer off from photographing events.  Every time I see an agility photo I just smile and am thankful that I'm not spending weeks at the computer this summer.  I am however increasing my photography rates and sent my clients a notice about that, so I'm suddenly booking lots of sessions before the rates go up.  LOL

We have not been out camping nearly as much as I'd hoped yet, but we still have lots of time. We are still trying to figure out our summer vacation...  We can't decide what to do or where to go but we are brainstorming ideas.

A Slow Learner

This is a very slow learning process.  Good thing I have a patient dog.

Off Camera Flash

I went out yesterday fully equipped for the first time to take some pictures using off camera flash.  This is what I learned:

1. Carrying a lightstand, umbrella and speed-light in one hand and your camera in the other leaves no available hand to pick up poop.
2. There is a very small pocket of light that your subject needs to be in.  Coulee is fantastic at taking directions but she doesn't know how to move forward 2 steps or back 1 step... we have to work out a targeting system.
3. Umbrellas catch the slightest breeze and fall over - a sandbag, or something is definitely needed.  As is another arm to carry that with.
4. Putting her on something is a great way to get her to be exactly where you need her to be.
5. An assistant would really make things go smoother/faster.
6. I have a lot more to learn.

Winter's Last Fall?

I took Coulee out yesterday to enjoy what I hope was winter's last attempt to hang in there.

Update

We got the results last week - it was a grade 1 tumour that hadn't spread to her lymph node.  So it was the best we could have hoped for. We did not get clean margins (as expected) and it has a 12% chance of returning.  If that happens, we'll have to decide what to do then.  Our options would be to do radiation, remove the tumour again or take the whole leg.  We aren't going to worry about it unless it happens.

We went back this week for a bandage change and a recheck on the skin graft.  It's looking good.  She thinks it is still all alive.  :)

For the most part Lacey is doing well.  She isn't going too stir crazy, she doesn't pout in the cone and when I take it off, she doesn't lick at her bandages much. The stitches on her flank look fantastic and the ones from her lymph node are also doing OK.  She'll be in a cone for about another 1.5 weeks and then we'll get the stitches removed and she'll be able to go back to life as usual.

That's pretty much it. Life is feeling rather dull at the moment!

Backyard Snapshots

We brought Lacey home yesterday after her operation on Monday.  We don't really have much news yet.

Due to the location of the tumour, there was no way we could get clean margins (which is usually the goal of any tumour removal) without taking her entire leg.  We still might need to do that, but it will depend on the grade of the tumour.  Unfortunately you can't determine the grade of the tumour without removing it, and there was no point in removing it without taking as much as we could. If it is a low grade, it will hopefully be "good enough", at least for now.  But because of the location, it means they had to do a skin graft to seal up the area, which made things a little more complicated.  They took skin from her thigh and grafted it to her foot and leg.  She's gonna have a pretty hairy section if all goes well!  :)

They also took the nearest lymph node to determine if it had spread.  The node was definitely bigger than usual but that could have just been because it was working overtime to combat the tumour OR it could mean it's spread.

We should have results in a couple of days - hopefully by the end of the week.  The only decision we've actually made is that if it is a high grade, and hasn't already spread, we'll take her leg. I was really tempted to do it this time to save her a potential 2nd surgery but they really didn't want to do that if it was a grade 1 tumour.  Apparently for dogs that get Mast Cell Tumours repeatedly, they are usually all the same grade. As her first one was a grade 1 tumour we have high hopes that this one will be the same.

We haven't really figured out what we'll do if it has spread and we don't really know all our options yet either.  We are taking it one step at a time.

She's already feeling quite a bit better.  Yesterday she wasn't barking at anyone but today she not only barked at people in the park, but she picked up her favourite toy too.