We wish all our wonderful blog family an awesome holiday season and a wonderful 2023 New Year celebration.
Mom is having eye surgery this week and will not be blogging again until next year. Hopefully, she will be seeing her way to more posts in early January. (Get the pun, ‘seeing her way’ – Bark Out Loud)
Thank you for following and commenting and just being our blog friends. We appreciate you and hope to ‘see’ you all in the New Year.
Noel (the Christmas cat), Charles Mugwump, Stella, Mini Cooper, Jolie, & Mom
Charles here – I am interrupting the Caturday post to bring you an update on my bladder surgery:
Everything is going great. The first day was hard and no one told Mommy to have ramps and things for me to get up onto the bed and couch and boy, did coming up the stairs hurt, But you know me, Mr. Biter, I would not let anyone carry me, even though the stairs were really tough.
I was not very impressed with the ramp Mom made from pillows, but Joile thought it was a hoot!
I am making Mom crazy with going out a great deal, but maybe it is because I am just getting used to not having that big bladder stone anymore. The Doctor called and said that it was a CALCIUM OXILATE stone. That is what we thought and there is not much we can do but stay on the special urinary diet we are on and hope no new ones grow.
Mom says I am licking myself too much and she is going to the store to get a baby onesy. That sounds awful.
Charles here: I just wanted to let you know that I am Ok and did very well with my surgery. The Doctor said I am a real trooper.
It is going to be hard for a few days until all the stitches heal but I should be as good as new, for an old guy. They aren’t going to get rid of me so fast. At 14-1/2 years old and 14 pounds, I plan to be around for several more sun rises.
The Dr said that the stone was so big and green and odd, that they are sending it to a lab to make sure it wasn’t some alien from outer space. Then maybe we can know what we can do to avoid more in the future.
I am having trouble with the stairs and don’t want anyone to touch me, so I am trying to bite people to leave me alone. It’s not that I don’t love them. Mom made me a ramp to get up on the bed cause I can’t even do my dog stairs. But hopefully I’ll be OK soon.
Mr. Charles is having his cystotomy today. The date was moved up because he is starting to have issues. A cystotomy is a surgical opening created in the wall of the urinary bladder. This procedure allows the surgeon to look inside the bladder and remove the giant stone that he has. Beat your drums for a quick and pain-free recovery. We will keep you posted.
We shall never forget! Here is Mommy at the 9/11 North Tower Memorial pre-opening in 2012. Mommy grow up in NY so the devastation hit hard for her home state, but we live outside of Washington, DC now, so when the planes crashed at the Pentagon, the devastation directly affected our friends and family as well. May we never have to experience this terror again. – DogDaz Zoo
There are almost no words to express the deep pain that we feel after the loss of Louise last Friday, June 17.
She was such an excellent soul. Quiet and gentle; the cats all wanted to be her friend; the dogs all looked up to her. She never complained even at the end when I knew how much her back must hurt with a compressed or ruptured disk that made it almost impossible for her to walk. Stoic to the end – she did not like me helping her to get around and especially not to go to the bathroom. What is weird is that, since the oral cancer diagnosis last December, we thought that was what would take her from us. But, I guess, the powers that be had other ideas.
We want to believe that she is running free in that big meadow in the sky over the rainbow bridge with Sofie and Nine, and her big brother Squash, who left when she was only a puppy. Now I hope she is with her best friends Mojo and Amy, who she missed every day since they too left this earthly plane, and whom she never stop sniffing for.
Go softly, my sweet Louise. Your memory will always be a blessing to us. Thank you for letting us be your family for 12-1/2 years.
It is with great sadness that I must tell you that Sofie Bear, my little Soda Pop, left this earthly plane on Friday, March 18, she was 11 years old. The pain is almost unbearable because she was my heart. We never expected to lose Nine, the cat, on March 10 to cancer and then lose Sofie ten days later. She had significant hip issues and could no longer get up the stairs or walk easily without pain. These issues only exacerbated her aggressive behavioral issues, where she was attacking Charles and the cats, and biting Louise in the neck and mouth.
Sofie was always my troubled furchild. She suffered from behavioral problems which started when she was about 2 or 3 years old. It has been so long that I can’t remember her without them. Her anxieties were off the charts most of the time. She had night terrors. She had noise and thunder anxiety. She had separation anxiety. She ate through 3 doors and the wall-to-wall carpet. She had to nibble on a lovey all the time and then protect it (resource guarding). Yet, I guess, I thought my love, commitment, training, and medication would help her. I had trainers, behaviorists, tons of vets, tons of meds, to the point she was taking 6 different medications and herbs at the end with every meal and in-between. I had several vets tell me that anyone else would have ‘put her down’ years ago. But, to me she was worth fighting for.
I know that she is out of pain now and not scared of anything. That is what I wanted for her. I hope she is chasing sheep in the meadow beyond the rainbow bridge waiting for me along the road with Nine and all the others. The back door picture above was taken on the day she left us. It looks to me like she was prepared to be out of pain and to be in a better place. The sun shine was perfect to show the warmth inside her when she could quiet for a moment or two.
I might not be able to blog for a while. This one-two punch has knocked me for a loop.
Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there.
I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there.
I did not die.
DogDaz Zoo 