Day 2681

There's nothing kind or convenient about death. I went to bed last night trying to prepare myself for the inevitable, but Dot woke up this morning with other ideas. She wanted a walk. Dot seemed in surprisingly good spirits for a dog that is losing weight at an alarming rate and has extreme difficulty eating. We let Dot rest instead of trying to get her up this morning. Janet walked Dash before she left for work and I stayed behind to watch over Dot. It wasn't long before she raised her head and gave me the sign that she needed to pee. After taking her outside I sat on the floor with her and tried to feed her tiny pieces of boiled chicken and cheeseburger. Eventually she managed to eat one third of a chicken breast and about a quarter of a cheeseburger without the bun. I had to pen Dash in the back of the house because it was driving him wild to see me hand feeding Dot the cheeseburger.

Dot seemed tired after what seemed like a monumental effort to keep from starving. She was hungry. When Dot went back to sleep, I ate my own breakfast. Before I finished, I heard her barking. She still wanted a walk. We made our way ever so slowly to the park and spent about twenty minutes sitting in the grass. Dot was alert and enjoyed the windy day and the surprisingly cool weather.

It's so sad that Dot really wants to continue, but her body won't let her. She doesn't have long, but she definitely wasn't ready to go today. How can you put a dog down who is eager to go on a walk? I worry that she isn't getting enough nutrition. The list of things she will try to eat keeps getting smaller. This morning she was willing to eat the burger and boiled chicken. This afternoon, she had no interest in meat. The only thing she would eat for the rest of the day were her favorite dog treats and a small amount of kibble.

I can't hide Dot's pills in anything now. She chews thing for so long that the pills inevitably fall out of whatever we've hidden them in and as soon as she bites into one, the bad taste stops her from eating anything else. Dot hates people messing with her mouth and even when she was healthy, she resisted being pilled. Unfortunately, that's the only way to get a pill down her now. I try to open her mouth and put the pill down her throat as quickly as I can and then follow it with something tasty to keep her chewing and swallowing. I know I'm going to get bit pretty soon.

A vet I've known for decades called me this evening to offer some moral support. The call mean a lot. There's not much more that doctors can do for Dot at this point, but I appreciated another opinion about how to handle these final days. We talked about the many dogs we have known and loved over the years and how hard it is to say goodbye. I felt a little better knowing that her clinic was nearby and that they would be expecting me if I had to call this weekend.

I wonder if this morning's walk was Dot's last? She didn't feel like walking this evening. We did finally manage to get Dot to take her evening meds, but it was a struggle. I have no idea what to expect tomorrow.

Bowser is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2680

It's time to begin saying goodbye. Dot may have a day or she may have a week, but she doesn't have long. It's so sad. The new pain pills we started giving Dot really do work. She woke up with more energy than I've seen in weeks. She actually got up by herself several times today and began walking around the house on her own. The problem is that she can't swallow. The paralysis that has been affecting her legs for months seems to have spread to her neck. If Dot can't swallow, she can't eat. The swallowing difficulty didn't happen overnight, but within the past several days it has become quite alarming.

I spent most of the day trying to get Dot to eat. I was able to hand feed her a small amount of boiled chicken breast this morning, but she wasn't interested in her kibble and can no longer swallow cheese or peanut butter. Dot is still hungry. She definitely hasn't lost her appetite. She will chew things but they just fall out of her mouth. Getting her to take her meds is almost impossible. She doesn't want you anywhere near her mouth and tries to bite you if you attempt to open the mouth and put a pill down her throat. Even the vet wasn't able to pill her yesterday.

This leaves us with very few options. After spending over an hour trying to get her to eat a tiny amount of boiled chicken breast, I gave up and let her sleep. Less than two hours later she threw up everything she had eaten in the past twelve hours. I couldn't figure out how she had thrown up so much, because she is still having normal bowel movements. Food is still passing through her digestive system. After several calls to her oncologist and her regular vet, we decided to give her an injection of Cerenia in an attempt to stabilize her and stop the vomiting.

Everyone agreed that if Dot continued to reject food and vomited up what she did eat, she wouldn't last very long. She couldn't take the Cerenia in pill form, so we drove her to the vet for a shot. The nurse was very nice. She came out to the car when we arrived and gave her the shot. We didn't even have to take Dot out of the car.

As the day progressed, Dot got a little better. She hasn't thrown up anymore and although I wasn't able to get her to take her afternoon meds, we did have a little success at dinner. The thing that saved the day was a leftover cheeseburger that Janet brought home from an office lunch. We had more success hiding her pills in the juicy cheese burger than anything else we've tried so far. After dinner tonight I went to the store and bought some ground beef to make hamburgers with and some American cheese slices in an attempt to duplicate the burger that Janet brought home from work.

Dot was able to take her evening meds with our hastily made cheeseburgers, but this is not a long term solution. Despite spending most of the day trying to feed her, she only held down less than half of what she usually eats. Dot has some of the best vets on the planet and none of them could offer me a solution. We may have run out of options. If Dot's throat is becoming paralyzed, we will need to make a decision quickly.

Dot is calm and resting peacefully now. She made it through the day. We'll see how she does in the morning.

Brady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2172 - Thanksgiving

Today did not go as planned. Dot threw up during the night. She pooped in her bed too, but it was the vomiting that was alarming. She threw up a lot of liquid and it was completely unexpected. She didn't appear sick when we went to bed and she isn't the type of dog that eats garbage or gets into things. I was surprised. I did my best to clean up the mess and we went back to bed. Just before breakfast, she threw up again. Dot didn't have a fever and her gums were nice and pink, so we let her rest instead of making a trip to the emergency vet. Within an hour, she was acting completely normal.

We took our morning walk and fed her a small amount of food when we got home. Again, everything seemed normal. Then, about an hour later, when we were finishing our own breakfast, she threw up again. Dogs can vomit for hundreds of different reasons and most of them are fairly benign. Dash is known to eat crap in the yard when we're not looking and this is usually the reason he throws up. There were a lot of harmless reasons why Dot could be throwing up too, but I was worried that this may be a sign that her cancer has returned.

We canceled our Thanksgiving brunch reservations and stayed home with Dot instead. Since she still appeared hungry, I went to the only open vet I could find and got a few cans of bland Hills I/D wet food to feed her. When I described Dot's symptoms to the nurse on duty, she said she thought it was safe to just keep an eye on Dot and take her to our regular vet tomorrow. She didn't have a fever, her gums were pink, she wasn't dehydrated, she still had an appetite, and she didn't appear to be under any undue stress. These were all good signs. It's always a bit alarming when your pet has an emergency on a holiday. You are pretty much on your own. We could have taken Dot to an emergency clinic, but this didn't appear to be an emergency. I did feel better after talking to the emergency nurse though.

Since we had been planning to go out for dinner, there was almost nothing in the refrigerator. We were both hungry and started looking for a restaurant in the neighborhood so we could go pick up some take-out. Not surprisingly, almost nothing was open. We finally found a little sports bar that has pretty good burgers, so I picked up our Thanksgiving dinner there. Apparently the only people who eat out on Thanksgiving evening are lonely men. There were five men in the restaurant when I arrived and they were all sitting alone, watching the Cowboys lose on a big screen TV behind the bar.

We fed Dot a small amount of the Hills I/D food and so far she has held it down for about three hours. This is a good sign. I think I set a new record for doing laundry today. So many parts of the house are protected now, but Dot managed to target an unprotected area every single time she threw up. There is still an eighteen inch wet circle on the carpet right near my desk in the office. Dot could have picked a better place to vomit. After scrubbing the carpet and applying liberal amounts of the Nature's Miracle enzyme, I can still smell vomit. There are days when I feel I have lost the battle with the house. It has really taken quite a beating recently.

I didn't expect to have a take-out burger and a small pear salad for Thanksgiving dinner, but we did the right thing. It turned out to be a nice family meal and we have a lot to be thankful for. Dot is calm now and seems to be holding down her food. I'll try to make an appointment at her regular vet tomorrow and see if we can find out what is going on. Although it rained a lot today, there were no thunderstorms to further stress the dogs. The washing machine is still working and I'm running the air conditioner to keep the humidity down. If Dot can make it through the night without any further incidents, I think we're going to be OK.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1801

It's nice to feel caught up on things. I've finished this week's writing assignments. My websites are up to date. The vet bills at the cancer center have been paid. Even the trash has already been taken to the curb for tomorrow's pickup. I'm sure there are still a lot of loose ends, but everything seems reasonably tidy. I like a tidy life.

I continue to be pleased with Dot's progress at her physical therapy sessions. Our vet cautioned us not to expect miracles, but now that we've been doing this for over a year, I can really see a difference. Even after her battle with cancer, she is still stronger than she was a year ago. I would highly recommend physical therapy for anyone with a senior dog. I'm sure physical therapy is equally beneficial for people, so I ought to consider finding a good therapist myself. With the proper care and exercises, my shoulder might actually begin to heal.

The temperature has warmed up considerably, but I'm still dressing as if it were below freezing. Consequently, I felt hot for most of the day. I definitely overdressed for this morning's walk. I always have this problem, because I don't respond quickly to change. I'm inclined to wear my Winter clothes all Winter long, but you can't do that in Texas. You always have to be ready to put on a pair of shorts one day and a parka the next.

Once again, I had a choice between going to the grocery store and picking up some take-out at a nearby restaurant. I should have gone to the store, but I took the easy way out and brought home a burger for dinner instead. It was just one burger and an order of fries, but I feel so full. When did restaurant portions get to be so huge? I never eat like this at home. I have a feeling that diabetes, heart disease, and a half a dozen other ailments could be cut in half if we just quit going out to eat so often. A special breakfast once a week is fine, but I think this is where I should draw the line. If I ate out more frequently, I'd gain ten pounds before you could say do you want fries with that.

Much to my surprise, people are actually buying my pictures on Shutterstock. Unfortunately, I only uploaded ten images to my account before I lost interest. If I can make a little money with ten pictures, just think of what I could do with a hundred, or a thousand. I need to get serious about uploading more pictures. I've certainly got plenty. Who knows. Maybe even some of my blog pictures might get accepted.

There was another package from Klout in the mailbox today. This time it was a big box of dog biscuits for Dot and Dash. They could smell them before I even opened the box. My influence seems to be limited to dogs and thermostats, but I can't complain. Free stuff is fun. Hey, with a cheeseburger in my belly and an empty to-do list for tomorrow, I'll have to admit that life is pretty good.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1787

It was nice to see the sun again. The skies were clear this morning and the temperature was a brisk 65 degrees. The dogs love this kind of weather, so we started the day with a long meandering walk. After a leisurely breakfast on our return, I reluctantly acknowledged that it was still a work day and turned on the computer.

It wasn't a terribly busy day, but there was enough to keep me busy until it was time to take Dot downtown for her weekly physical therapy appointment. I've grown to look forward to these vet appointments because they're about the only time I chat with people anymore. Janet frequently leaves for work before I get up and by the time she returns, it's time for bed again. I'll talk to the dogs during the day, but they don't listen unless they hear the words dinner or treat. It's not much of a conversation.

It's time for my annual physical again, but I keep postponing making the appointment. I guess I've just grown tired of doctors and blood tests. I suppose I'll need to go soon though, since the renewals for all my prescriptions are linked to these yearly visits. My doctors always say that they'll never prescribe something for more than a year at a time because it is important for to review your meds periodically. I'm sure there is some truth to this, but I've always suspected that withholding prescription renewals is just a clever way to make sure you return for a visit. I'm probably like most people. Even though I believe that preventative medicine is a good thing, I don't even think about going to the doctor unless I feel sick.

Dot seemed to feel a little sick this morning. She kept acting like she was going to throw up, and then when I took her outside, she just sniffed the air and did nothing. We repeated this routine several times and then she calmed down and went to sleep on her dog bed. The rest of the day, she was fine. Maybe she just had a mild case of heartburn or an upset stomach. When I asked the vet about this odd behavior, she said it probably meant nothing. She did say that if Dot started experiencing reflux or heartburn frequently, I should probably take her back to the cancer center for another re-check. So far, so good though. Dot did very well on the underwater treadmill today and seemed to have plenty of energy on her evening walk.

I never got around to going to the grocery store today, so I just went to Chili's on the way home from mailing some letters at the post office and picked up a cheeseburger to go. I very rarely do this, but the burger was certainly good. Another forbidden pleasure. I would probably be ten pounds heavier if I ate like this frequently.

I have several writing jobs waiting for me tomorrow and I need to remember to make reservations for Thanksgiving dinner as well. Those things can wait though. As always, the first thing I'm going to do is enjoy a great breakfast at my favorite restaurant.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1531

Dot and Dash had a great day. Our mild Springlike weather continues, making it possible to give the dogs several long walks, in addition to the trip to the dog park they'd both been anticipating. It was beautiful today. The redbud and dogwood trees are already starting to bloom, and if you looked closely, you could see tiny green buds on most of the other trees as well. I hope all this early growth isn't cut short by a final hard freeze, but it usually is. That's just the nature of things in Texas.

When the dogs had finished smelling every tree at the dog park, we came home and I finished the writing assignment that threw me a curve yesterday. It all seemed to go smoothly this time and within an hour I was ready to go to the gym.

I think my shoulder might be as good as it's going to get. I was able to go back to my old workout routine this afternoon and everything seemed fine. The shoulder still hurt, but it hurt before the injury too. The important thing was that it was able to bear weight and wasn't falling out of the socket anymore. I'm more careful now and try not to do things that would pull my right arm away from my body. All in all, I think it is better to stay active. If I babied the shoulder too much and did nothing, it would probably be worse on my body in the long run than what I'm doing now.

Janet fixed cheeseburgers for dinner. I did eat a kale salad as a token gesture to good health, but that was about it. There are few things better than a good cheeseburger and fried onion rings. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but you could do a lot worse. Good lean beef, artisan cheddar cheese, some fresh heirloom tomato slices, and a little arugula on a freshly  baked whole grain bun. That sounds healthy doesn't it?  There's got to be more to life than oatmeal and kale. If I can ever get my liver working properly again, I might even enjoy the ocassional glass of wine with dinner again. That would be nice.

Tomorrow is the big day. We can't feed Dash anything after 10 PM tonight, since he will probably have to be anesthetized for his CAT scan tomorrow. I'm trying to keep an open mind, since almost anything could happen. Depending on what the oncologist finds, he could come home with a bottle of pills to take for a week and be good to go, or he could be rushed into emergency surgery. I don't know how parents with small children handle these situations as well as the do. We've had a lifetime of different Dalmatians, and I always remember the medical emergencies the most vividly. Spot had a tumor inside his spinal cord and I thought he might be paralyzed for life. It was a long, tough surgery, but he bounced back to lead a normal life. Much later, he was back on the operating table again with intestinal cancer. A six inch section of his small intestine was removed and he survived that as well. Petey almost died after he got pancreatitis from eating a duck's foot he found in the park. Greta did die after liver surgery failed to completely eliminate the cancer that was growing there. I'm hoping for the best with Dash. He had a very tough life before we rescued and adopted him. We promised him that things would be better now, and we'll continue to do our best to keep that promise.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1138

I went to see a nutritionist today. I've got to get beyond feeling good about myself for having a nutritious Kale salad one day and then going out and having a humongous bacon and chorizo omelet the next day. Consistency and discipline have never been my strong points. I need to clean up my act though. The team of hepatologists I saw earlier this week has put the fear of god in me. I definitely don't want to wind up on a transplant list.

It's too bad that eating unsalted nuts and fresh fruit isn't as appealing to me as a cheeseburger and a beer. Some people I know love to eat raw, unprocessed foods. Personally, I'd much rather have a pizza, or barbecued ribs. I have a feeling that those days are gone though. I'm going to have to learn to love something new.

This is the longest string of foggy days I can remember. One foggy day is a photo opportunity. A whole week of foggy days is just lousy weather. Although I have professed my love of fog many times on this blog, I'll have to admit I'm getting tired of it this week. I'm ready for a little sunshine.

I keep hearing on the news that stores are going to start adding and additional 4% to your bill for credit card transactions starting tomorrow. That sucks. I hate carrying cash around and use credit cards for virtually everything. I wonder if stores will actually try to pass on their transaction charges to customers, now that they're allowed to by law. It could go either way. Competition could keep prices the way are are currently. Or, the stores might get together just like the airlines have and try to stick their customers with every additional charge they can get away with.

I can't find anything on TV tonight. Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to get U-Verse. There are dozens of channels filled with dumb shows like Storage Wars and Duck Dynasty. There's absolutely nothing that I want to watch though. You'd think with 500 channels, there would be at least five good ones. I find myself still watching old Seinfeld episodes because the new shows are so terrible. Sometimes I just stare at the NASA channel, watching astronauts floating around in the space station. It's not very dramatic, but at least it's not irritating.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 670

The day started with a big breakfast and ended with cheeseburgers. That's all I need. It's amazing how my appetite is returning, now that I'm feeling better. I must have been in a lot worse shape than I thought I was when we went to Las Vegas a month ago.

Now that things are getting back to normal, I'm starting to tackle the yard again on weekends. I trimmed more dead limbs off bushes and trees this afternoon and added them to the pile at the curb for big trash pickup. I was a little worried when I dragged the old mattress out to the street the other day that I'd gotten the pickup day wrong again, but I noticed other neighbors taking their trash to the street this afternoon. I must have gotten the date right after all.

After mowing the grass, I upgraded my iPad to iOS5. This seemed to go more smoothly than it did when I upgraded the iPhone yesterday. Maybe I just knew what to expect this time. Unfortunately, my desktop computer still can't access the iCloud yet, so all the automatic syncing features are kind of pointless. I still have to upgrade to my desktop computer to Lion before it even realizes that there is a cloud out there waiting to suck up all my information. I don't know why these inevitable upgrades have to be so complicated. I still need to check about 50 applications to make sure they're compatible with Lion, and even though iOS5 claims to have added over 200 new features, I'll probably never use 195 of them. All I want is for my regular work related applications to work flawlessly both before and after any upgrade, but unfortunately it's never quite that simple.

Just in case you were wondering, the dogs did get to go to the dog park this morning. Unless there's a tornado headed our way, or some other sort of disaster, they always get to go to the dog park on Sundays. Dot and Dash both had fun today. The weather was perfect and there were lots of playful dogs at the park. I had a pretty good day myself. I got a ton of work done today and my neck still feels fine. Things are looking up!

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 384

I hope my accountant is reading this. He'll be very happy to know that I'm finally retiring my ancient accounting software. I'm probably the only person on the planet who is atill using MacMoney to run their business. This software is so old that when I begain using the application in 1988, I had to install it from a floppy disk. Ever since then, this simple, but reliable program has been keeping track of the good years and the bad. For 23 years MacMoney never crashed or lost any data. It's kind of a shame I finally have to ditch this old workhorse, but it only runs on OS 9 and I'll never be able to get rid of my old computer until I say good bye to the even older software that resides on it.

I went to the Apple Store this afternoon and bought the latest version of QuickBooks. If you're going to change accounting systems, it's best to do it in early January so you don't have to manually enter mountains of information. If you're thinking "why doesn't he just import all his old information," you've got to remember where the information is coming from. Absolutely nothing can import data from MacMoney.

It didn't really feel like a work day today, but it did feel like the holidays are over. We took the Christmas tree down and put the stockings away for another year. When I went to the Apple Store, the mall seemed empty compared to the crowds that packed the place last week. It's sad the Christmas season is over so quickly. Back to work! I did get a few requests for website changes today, but a lot of people are still on vacation. Things probably won't get busy again until next week.

Janet and I went out for burgers tonight. It's been ages since I've had a cheeseburger. A bacon cheeseburger, no less! It all felt kind of decadent. I certainly couldn't eat this way everyday, but it's nice to forget about calories and cholestrol every once in a while. Tomorrow, it's back to reality.

Dalmatian of the Day

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