Winter's Week

Our puppy has been quite the entertaining little beast for the past 4 months. However, this week took an interesting turn. Each day held its own little surprise.

Tuesday morning: Winter has routine spay procedure since she is 6 months old. Procedure goes smoothly and vet calls to say that Winter is awake and standing in the crate staring at her. No lying down long for this little doggie.

Tuesday evening: Winter comes home and sleeps a lot. (She also comes home with medication for skin infection.) She has a few episodes of, well, vomiting. Winter vomits every hour and a half from 2:00 am until about 8:30 am the next morning.

Wednesday morning: Return to vet. Winter gets a shot to settle her stomach and goes home with more medication and a bland diet to eat over the next day or so.

Wednesday evening: Winter perks up a bit. We need to keep her from running and jumping.

Thursday morning: Winter has her appetite back and we work hard to keep her from running and jumping.

Thursday evening: Winter jumps from back step onto driveway. I discover a drop of blood on our kitchen floor. Return to vet once again. Winter has 2 staples put in to keep her incision together and must now wear the lovely "cone" to prevent licking and biting at the wound. Oh boy!

Friday: Winter wears cone all day and runs into everything. We hate the cone!

Saturday: Pleasant start to the day. Winter behaves, so we remove the cone that evening.

Now here's where the graphic part begins . . .Winter didn't bother with her incision at all and it seemed to be knitting together. We let her lay in the front yard. I had checked on her and she was simply laying there watching cars go by. About 5 minutes after I looked out, I heard her barking excessively (unusual for her) and Sean went to see what she was doing. All of a sudden, I heard him say "Oh, God!" and I race down the stairs. Brace yourself . . . I ran out the back door only to see my puppy running in circles and yelping an unbelievable yelp of pain that I will forever remember. As I looked closely, I saw Sean trying to grab her at the same time I also saw that her intestines were hanging out of her abdomen. Her incision had completely come apart. We will never know what happened. She had just been laying on the grass, now here she was completely coming undone. Sean and I spring into action. I grabbed towels, keys and my phone from inside of the house as Sean somehow managed to pick up Winter. He in some way managed to slide into the cargo space of our car as I ran out of the house. Sean had her in such a tight grip against him. I jumped in the driver's seat and just took off, calling the vet as I went to get the pet ER number. We arrived in a matter of minutes. I'm not sure how I got there. I ran inside to get help. The vet techs came out wheeling one of those restaurant bus boy carts covered in a towel. I guess that is a pet gurney. As they put Winter on the cart, she reached up and put a paw on either side of the young man's face. That was the last we saw of her until after she woke up from her surgery. As we waited, I cried a lot. I truly lost it when Sean told me that as he sat in the back and her insides were on the outside, Winter looked at him and started to lick his face. This is the dog we love. After what felt like an eternity, the wonderful doctor got her all put together and stitched up. She was fine and we were elated. She did have to stay overnight. When Sean picked her up today, the nurse said it was a good thing because Winter was standing up in her crate and barking every time the nurse walked by. She wanted out. Our little pup also decided she did not like her IV and tore it out herself. She's a tough one.

Winter is home now. She is doing well. Her incision is stitched tightly together and she's back to her usual shenanigans. I do believe Winter is going to be just fine. Thank goodness!

Sean displaying our large and unexpected medical bill

Birthday Puppy

Winter is 6 months old today! She's been a great puppy . . . most of the time. I have to admit, there were many times that we second guessed our decision to get a puppy. She's a handful, but we love her anyway. How could we not love that cute face! As I type this, she is at the vet's office ready to be spayed. Poor thing. They told me that we'll need to keep her calm and not allow her to jump for the next 3 to 5 days. Yeah right! Do they know Winter? There's nothing "calm" about this dog. So happy birthday, Winter!

Winter at 6 weeks, the day we picked her out.

Winter at 6 months. Look how she's grown. She's 48 pounds.

Click here for some new photos of the beast . . . Winter
Click here to see what she was like at 6 weeks . . . Baby Winter

School's Out

Yes, another year complete! We said goodbye to the kiddos on Thursday and yesterday was a teacher day to finish packing up our rooms for the summer and tying up all of those loose ends. Now the summer is before me and I can't wait. I know it will go fast. It always does.

Huh?

We haven't blogged in a while.

We're just to frikkin' busy. So a big sorry to the 3 of you that actually read this blog.

We shall return soon, I promise, as soon as this all slows down!

Sean.

9 Days

9 days left of this school year! It's the last day of May and I'm wondering where time has gone. I remember as a child thinking that time tended to stand still and adults were silly when they said "time flies by." I must be getting older, because time does fly by. For me, at least, it seems to be going at rapid speed. So welcome, June and summer. I'm so very ready for you!

40 Pounds

That's how much the "puppy" weighs. 5 months old and 40 pounds. She still has about 50 more to go. Yikes! She looks more and more like a big old Sheepdog every day. But she acts all Puppy! Here's the latest proof of size.

Life

Life is crazy, isn’t it? It never stops and one just has to hold on for the ride. I have been reminded of this over the past few days. My dear, little Grandma, who is almost 84 years old, took a spill this week. The result of which has been some severe injuries to her aging body. I have had to think about how I take my youth for granted. I wish for slimmer hips and a tighter stomach, better defined muscles in my arms (you know, Hollywood leading lady arms), smoother skin and better hair. Yet, I have health and youth and energy. I am able to run 5k and probably still go for more (but am too lazy to push it). I have also been reminded about faith. My aunt and great aunt who were with Grandma most of the day in the hospital said that as she was in pain and all of the “stuff” of medicine was going on around her, Grandma still prayed with faith. I think I would have been laying there asking, “Why me? Why can’t I get a break?” She is such a good example of calm surrender, but active faith. I often think of her (and my mom) when I think of the kind of woman I really wish I could be. So, now I take her example and see if maybe, with God’s help, I can learn to have that peace and faith that Grandma has. Content in letting life take me on a ride, but knowing that God is there all along.

Massive beast

Our dog continues to expand into a massive animal. I took Marci to Rita's tonight for some ice cream. We saw a cute little German shepherd that was 4 months old, the same age as our puppy. Winter absolutely dwarfed this dog in size. She was at least twice his size. I got a cold shiver down my spine. A German shepherd is not a small dog.

She is cute though. Here is the latest pic. I'm not supposed to let her up on my lap, but I cant resist it. Included is a picture taken from only 2 and a half months ago. Yikes.

I guess all that organic, expensive dog food is really working.

Busy busy

Hi Folks,

Not much to update you on except that we have both been quite busy. Marci has had a bunch of school stuff going on, and I've been kept busy with work, rehearsals etc, etc.

Winter is now getting huge. We love her, it seems that the small puppy phase is slowly slipping away and we are approaching the adolescent years. She sleeps most of the time, and if I had doubled my size in 8 weeks I would be sleeping a lot as well.

I am being kept entertained by watching this circus we have now, called the government.

What a joke, and yes that includes republicans as well.

American idol? Hmm lets see, either Danny or Adam. I cant stand Adam, because everytime I see the guy perform I feel like I'm at a dinner theater. Anoop, sorry buddy, you just looked too much like any regular dude.

Ok, gotta go.

S.

New Car

Somehow Sean and I managed to get ourselves back into debt. We now have monthly car payments on a brand new 2009 Subaru Forester. Little did we know when we began this Easter weekend that we would be driving home a new car. Yesterday we started out with a little trip to the Subaru dealership to "just take a look." We were sold after a test drive and talking with our new sales-guy friend Derek. We did a little more comparison shopping today but still came back to the Forester. Lest you think we are impulse buyers, I want to assure you that we have been talking about a new car for a while. However, this weekend it all just came together. We got the price we wanted on the total package. So, happy driving!

Space for big doggie (and Sean's amps, guitars, etc). It's supposed to be my car.