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[squonk 41,118]

I forgot to mention, this pic was taken a year ago when I was confined to my recliner after back surgery. He was in my lap all day and night. same thing when I've been sick or these past 2 months when I've been out with knee surgery

 

[Alex175 784]

Forewarning, after reading back through my post before I submitted it, I decided to add a forward to my post. I realize it's a bit all over the place as I was processing a bunch of complicated emotions real time as I was typing.  I thought about cleaning it up, but decided against it, so with that in mind...Warning: Emotional vomit, overuse of the phrase happy and healthy, and plenty of cute pictures ahead.

 

Took my pups to the river on Tuesday after their visit to the vet, Finn our young pup on the left is doing well, just some ear irritation.  Our old girl Jenny in the back though is a whole other story. 

 

Early last year she had some problems going to the bathroom, so we took her to the vet.  Turned out she had a stomach bug which she got over quickly, but during the exam the vet found a mass on her spleen.  From there they pushed us to a local animal hospital for further testing where on top of the mass they additionally found that she had a grade 4 AV blockage in her heart.  So they told us they wanted to remove the spleen, but didn't feel safe operating on her without doing something with her heart, and they wanted to install a pacemaker as well, so two major surgeries on our at the time 11 year old pup (in a breed which lives to be an average of 11-12 years old) who outside of a stomach bug showed no signs of any issues and was as happy and healthy as she had always been.  I still think I made the right decision, but we chose not to put her through all of that surgery and pain for potentially a few extra months...maybe? And with the exception of one day since then where she had some fainting incidents, she has been otherwise happy and healthy, and I am thankful each and every day that she is still with us.  But that brings us to our visit on Tuesday.  Since the last visit she has also formed a few bumps on her head and neck, something we assume is the mass on her spleen spreading, something we expected but hoped wouldn't happen.  They took her in for her exam, and came back out to mention that due to the masses, they didn't feel it was in her best interest to give her any shots, because it will tax her immune system, and because with the growths on her neck they are fairly certain that she has lymphoma.  They offered to get a biopsy done to confirm, but they said if it comes back positive from there the only thing they can do is start chemo.  Again though, to this day she has still been acting completely normal, eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, so I just cannot justify putting her through chemo and making her sick when she is otherwise healthy and happy, and again for maybe a gain of a few extra weeks or months with her.  I would give anything I have to keep this dog healthy and happy and with me for as long as possible, but I cannot do it at her expense.  I want every day she has left with us to be a happy one, curled up on the couch getting petted, not constantly vomiting, and sore from the medication in the hopes that maybe she'll have a few good days at the end, when she is having good days now.

 

This is absolutely killing me to type, probably because for the most part I have been in denial the past two days, and this is the first time I am really taking the time to actual say all this stuff out loud and thing about it.  I apologize for the length of this message, and I am sorry if I bring a somber tone, to what is mostly a happy and uplifting thread.  Pets make us better people.  They provide unconditional love, and teach us to care.  I don't know how many days, weeks, or months I have left with my sweet Jenny, but so long as she is comfortable and not in pain I am going to appreciate every single one.

 

I gave this dog a home 10 and a half years ago, but in that time she has done so much more for me.  I will be a wreck when the day comes and for a long time after, but I know that she has lived a good life, and I will always carry her with me.

 

 

Now time for some bonus pictures through the years, to show the joy this dog has brought me. 

 

January 2010, just a few weeks after I picked her up.  She came from a shelter in Arkansas, and a transport truck brought her here to CT after I had adopted her.

 

Our first Christmas together, decided to lay down and take a nap on my aunt and uncles couch after a day full of festivities.

 

To my knowledge this was her first time playing in snow, I don't know if she experienced it before I adopted her, but she quickly found that she loved it, she still loves loves to bound through it, and bury her face in it, trying to sniff out what could be hiding in it.

 

When my then roommate got a cat, they became quick friends.

 

For fun I would always put clothes like hats and scarves on her, she'd tolerate it, but I would always get that look...

 

And there isn't much that she loves more than lazy days in bed.

 

Except maybe playing with her cousins.

 

Teaching me how to drive stickshift. and enjoying the view

  

 

Meeting her brother at the local Animal Welfare for the first time before we adopted him, and then he came home. Which after 8 years of it being only her and me, and then my girlfriend at the time (now wife) moving in and then us getting a puppy, she handled it all in stride.

  

 

The tradition of dressing up will continue on with her brother as well , he's already fallen prey.( I know all the other pictures were about her, but this one was adorable and felt I had to include it).  Also she hates helping build Ikea furniture.

  

 

I love this dog with all my being, she has nothing but love in her heart.  This whole thing so far has felt like a bit of tribute to her, which is odd since she's still kicking and hopefully for a while still, but it was extremely therapeutic for me.  So I am sorry for the size of this entire post, and I realize that my emotions and message are probably a bit all over the place, but believe me, that's how I was typing it up.  I wanted to go back and try and clean it up some, but I figured better to just leave it as is.  Thank you all for letting me work out my emotions through this post, I didn't even know I needed to until I started typing. I hope a few of the pictures give you some joy, and make sure to give all your pets an extra scratch on the head tonight!

 

 

 

[R Scheer 502]

Alex

 

Thanks for the reminder to love them while you have them, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow.  In the meantime enjoy the love and the laughter the she'll bring.  She'll let you know when it's time to say goodbye. 

 

And for the laughter, here's my girl when she knows she's not supposed to be on my chair.  You can almost see the fear in her eyes, or was that look saying "Who's chair?"

Edited June 26, 2020 by R Scheer

[Cvans 1,009]

Daisy taking me to town to get some more dog treats. 

 

And after receiving the call that my mother had passed away. 

 

[ebinmaine 67,507]

This is a we little jumping spider that's been hanging out on the kitchen counter for a few days.

We've decided his name is Edgar.

 

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,318]

2 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

This is a we little jumping spider that's been hanging out on the kitchen counter for a few days.

We've decided his name is Edgar.

 

I am not a fan of spiders! Especially one with the word “jump” in their name  . He wouldn’t last long if found on any of my kitchen counters 

[ebinmaine 67,507]

6 minutes ago, Sparky said:

I am not a fan of spiders! Especially one with the word “jump” in their name  . He wouldn’t last long if found on any of my kitchen counters 

Not here either, normally....

But I like spiders slightly more than mosquitoes.

[troutbum70 857]

Hello Edgar  No mosquitoes in Maine right?

[ebinmaine 67,507]

Just now, troutbum63 said:

Hello Edgar  No mosquitoes in Maine right?

Actually not this year....

It's been sooooooooooo dry.

Officially in a drought as of a couple days ago.

 

During a normal year we get absolutely INUNDATED with black flies for about 3 weeks.

Then Skeeter season hits.

Anywhere there's moving water there's black flies.

Anywhere there's standing water there's mosquitoes.

Lucky us, we usually have both. 

[troutbum70 857]

I know EB I remember the skeeters and black flies very well, I used to spend a couple days a week in Maine pedaling Certainteed insulation to all the little mom and pop building centers.

[Stormin 9,981]

 Spiders don't last long here. S.W.M.B.O. hates them. So I have to deal with them.

Some years back I got bitten by one and got septicemia in my left arm. Luckily doc' treated me more or less straight away. Had a friend who ended up in hospital for 3 days after a spider bite.

[ebinmaine 67,507]

@Stormin

One of the things we like about Maine is the lack of animals that are poisonous.

Spiders and insects abound but can't do any real harm for the most part.

[Stormin 9,981]

1 minute ago, ebinmaine said:

@Stormin

One of the things we like about Maine is the lack of animals that are poisonous.

Spiders and insects abound but can't do any real harm for the most part.

 

More or less the same here, Eric. Only really poisonous creature is the adder. A snake. Don't know how big the spider was that bit me. Never saw it but had two small puncture wounds just below my elbow, on the inside of my left arm.

[Dan.gerous 2,696]

This is Finley our little buddy, he keeps me company when working outside, and generally buzzes about the farm checking on his piglets - he is very protective of them.

 

We got Finn from a few miles up the road, about half an hour south of Glasgow.  In an interesting twist the lady who was selling him and the rest of the litter used to be our baby sitter back in the Falkland Islands. She has also moved to the UK and married a farmer - it can be such a small world!

 

 

[Stormin 9,981]

 No better dogs than Border Collies.

[Dan.gerous 2,696]

39 minutes ago, Stormin said:

 No better dogs than Border Collies.

They are amazing little guys, and so intelligent.

[Pullstart 62,887]

Here’s Lynx.  Lynxy Bud, Lynxy Poopy, among other names... I caught him maybe 6 or 7 years ago in a factory warehouse... with some fried chicken.  He was black with carbon shot dust and didn’t like getting package taped into a cardboard box to get him home... but he’s a cool dude now.

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,507]

4 minutes ago, pullstart said:

......didn’t like getting package taped into a cardboard box to get him home

Imagine that...

 

[Pullstart 62,887]

This one is younger than Lynx, and also came to us in a slightly unorthodox way.  You see, our German kid Jil brought her sister Kim to visit us on her third or fourth trip back.  We all went to a pumpkin patch / petting zoo / farm across town and there was a big stacked pyramid of hay bales for kids to play on.  There were a bunch of barn kittens around and a rowdy bunch of elementary kids were stuffing the kittens deep down into the cracks of the bales.  Kim rescued him by capturing him from a little boy and stuck him in her jacket.  The girls were too young to know better, so Kim named him after her “Great Grandpa Bruno Mars”, or Bruno, Buno, Beeno, etc.  He’s the hunter of the family, bringing in rabbits, mice, moles, chipmunks, squirrels, etc. home and he and Lynx get full bellies.  He’s been known to travel 1/2 mile across the field at night hunting sparrows or whatever birds land in the field to rest.

[ebinmaine 67,507]

Bruno gets bored you send him out here.

We could use some chipmunk relocation assistance.

 

 

[Andy N. 2,154]

My wife is allergic to everything with fur so we have a rhinoceros iguana (Cyclura Cornuta). The cyclura iguanas are different than the green iguanas. They are commonly called rock iguanas since they are more terrestrial than the greens and hang out in the rocky jungles of the West Indies. Here's pics of our rhino Sterling. She is almost 4 years old, 13 lbs, and about 4 ft long (including tail).

[tunahead72 2,412]

[953 nut 55,237]

15 hours ago, pullstart said:

Here’s Lynx.

[Pullstart 62,887]

@Andy N. your kid’s got quite the muscles for eating salad all day!  Any protein in their diet, or are they veggies only?

[Andy N. 2,154]

2 minutes ago, pullstart said:

@Andy N. your kid’s got quite the muscles for eating salad all day!  Any protein in their diet, or are they veggies only?

@pullstart ours is a veggies only reptile. In the wild, they will eat some protein that is opportunistic to them, but the wife's not going to let that happen in this house.