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04:35 Jun 29 2011
Times Read: 680

This morning, I put my hand on Maddie's shoulder and felt her heart pounding along. And I mean POUNDING. I called and got an appointment with the Vet.



Maddie has moved from Grade 3 Heart Murmur to a Grade 5, in 3 days. (Level 6 is fatal) She is on meds, that we hope will help.



Vet told me simply. If these meds work, I can see her surviving for at least another 2 years. If they don't, she won't last a month.



I burst into tears in the office and Maddie immediately jumped up to lick my face. I looked down at her and told her, "I know that you are a tough girl, but it scares me that I might loose you." She buried her head onto my shoulder, giving me her version of a hug. And people say dogs don't understand.



*cries*

03:42 Jun 25 2011
Times Read: 692

LordV and I have been dealing with a sick little puppy. Maddie, is our 11 year old, dachshund/beagle mix. She had what we were told, was a fatty tumor on her hip with a Mass Cell Tumor under it. But that seemed to burst open and the wonderful, smelly yellow gunk came out.



Trip to vet, included instructions to use a hot compress with Epsom salts, to get it to drain and antibiotics. We learned it was a sebaceous cyst, kind of like a pimple. After a week, it was still leaking, so I continued the compress.



After another couple of days, I noticed a soft spot that seemed to be fluid filled. Blood blister. As I did my best to avoid it, it still burst and now poor Maddie had two holes in her back.



Vet told us surgery was the only option. She went under the knife this morning. I got a call from the vet, telling me that they found that she had a heart murmur (grade 3, a grade 6 is fatal). The Vet believed that it was being caused by the infection, so we opted to continue the surgery.



Thirteen minutes later, Maddie was out of surgery and already standing and whining her displeasure of her ordeal. At this time, she is still mad at me. Not cuddling, giving me her back, but I will survive, because now she has a chance too.



So after a stressful 3 weeks, hopefully our dog is on her way to recovery. *Fingers crossed*

00:44 Jun 15 2011
Times Read: 719

For Morrigon. Here is my desktop. It alternates between this picture that I took of Mt. St. Helens and pictures of LordV and Maddie dale.

21:00 Jun 01 2011
Times Read: 754

Ok, now for what we did with LordV for his birthday. Once he came home on Friday, his parents had one request. They don't have a Jack in the Box near them in Chicago, so they wanted some tacos from there. LordV learned his love of photography from his father, so to give him and his father a chance to take some pictures, we visited the local grist mill and covered bridge.

That was the end of day one. Saturday morning, we got up early and went for an hour drive to visit Wolf Haven International. This is conservatory dedicated to saving endangered wolves and coyotes. Most the residents are too use to people, to ever be safely put back out in the wild. It was a very simple walk, as we stopped at each pen, the wolves would come out and watch us.



First pen we came too, was London's. Born in 2005, he has been a resident of wolf haven since 2009. He is a grey wolf and was initially to be a Hollywood wolf, but he refused to be tamed or trained. Go figure. Gorgeous isn't he???







Next we were introduced to Ruby. She was born in 2006 , in Glen Rose, Texas. She is one of the few red wolves in the Species Survival plan, which is the red wolf breeding program.







This Handsome man's name is Caedus. Born in 2007, he was owned privately until his owner was deployed to the Middle East. He is called a black phase wolf. Grey wolves coloring is from white all the way to a black.







Below is Caedus and LadyHawk. LadyHawk was used in the game Nancy Drew in the White wolf on Icicle Creek. She is a 11 year old grey wolf, who was owned privately before she came to Wolf Haven.











Last but not least are Diablo and Gypsy. They are Mexican Grey Wolves.







The tour is in an circle, as we hit 6 pens with 10 wolves and 2 coyotes. The most thrilling and eerie sound, is when they all started howling. We didn't have video, but this was found on Youtube, of LadyHawk howling. You can hear everyone else howling too.







After that, we went a visited Mt. St. Helens and we were done for the day. Sunday, LordV and his father went up the Gorge and to see the Oregon version of Stonehenge. Monday, we went to the coast, visited a the octopus tree, rock formations including Haystack rock and a lighthouse. If you want to see those pics, you will have to contact me. They are too numerous to post.



To say the least, we are recovering now. We had a good time that is what was important. Yesterday LordV bought himself some presents. A 75-300mm lens, the filter and a larger tripod. He intends to go back to Wolf Haven to take better pictures of the wolves, with the longer lens. Apparently the longer the lens, the chain link fence will disappear. *Shrugs* I'm just glad he had a good time, enjoyed himself, spent time with his father taking pictures and learning new things.

02:46 Jun 01 2011
Times Read: 723

For the past 5 weeks, I have been keeping a secret from LordV. You see a couple months ago, LordV tried to get his mother and father to fly out. He even offered to pay for the tickets. They told them no, they had school or didn't have the time.



He was real frustrated, to the point of tears. He wanted to show them the house, how good he was doing and just to see them. When he made the statement, "They won't take the time to even see their only son." I knew I had to do something.



I sent a note to his mother, explaining that the only thing that LordV wanted for his birthday, was them. They told me that they were planning on coming, but it depended on a settlement they were expecting.



May 1st, I get the note, that they are coming and what the plane arrival and departure was. Their only request, is to surprise him. To somehow be in his house, sitting in his living room, when he got home. The same way he did, when he surprised them last Halloween.



So the internal stress level I lived with for 5 weeks, was immense. After about 2 weeks, Josh started asking what we were doing for his birthday. When I told him that I hadn't planned to go anywhere, that I didn't have the money, he got more depressed and sullen. He complained to his parents and co-workers that we weren't going anyplace. He was even more frustrated.



So, I sent a note to RedQueen and asked her to help me out. She is only 6 hours away, up in Vancouver, British Columbia. I asked her to help me, convince LordV that we were going to Canada for his birthday. I asked her to let it slip that she couldn't wait until she saw him for his birthday. So, she sent the note and LordV turned his laptop so I could see. I acted mad that he had found out, that RedQueen had told him, but he was grinning like crazy. It worked!!!



For the next 3 weeks, he threw himself into planning. He worked it so that he was off from Friday, May 27th thru Wednesday June 1st. He called the credit cards to see if there was a fee for the exchange rate, if the cards were used in Canada. He stopped our mail. He found on a website that he needed proof of car insurance when crossing the border. So he went and got that. He planned the places he wanted to go and see, talked with RedQueen about what we would do with her.



I was so certain that he would actually be angry, that we weren't going to leave town, I could only hope. As time got closer, I had to start to figure out, how to get his parents, without him knowing. They were suppose to land on Friday May 27th but LordV had the day off.



On the Monday before they were suppose to arrive, he was asked by the local fire department to come and take pictures of the 9/11 piece of steel, that they were dedicating that Friday. I was partying. It was at noon, I was suppose to pick up his parents at 11am. My chiropractor was helpful and in front of LordV, told him he wanted to see me on Friday before we went on our "trip".



So, that went off without a hitch. He came home, to find his parents in his living room, his father taking pictures of him. He refused to look at the camera, but was grinning ear to ear. The only thing that he said to me, was that I was a "brat". I guess he liked the surprise.





I will post where we went and what we did in another journal entry. I just wanted to say, Happy birthday LordV. I love you. Hope you enjoyed your surprise and this weekend.