Spring is in the Air!

What a beautiful end of March (even with the wind). :)

I got to work from home today so Taylor got to enjoy a bunch of time outside with his neighbor buddies. They enjoyed chasing the birds and playing in the wind. We even had a guest in our willow tree - our very first squirrel! I couldn't believe it when I saw it swinging in the windy branches.

Andre on the other hand, enjoyed sitting in the sun away from the wind. (yes, inside) He kept moving through the living room depending on where the sun was shining. It was funny!

Tomorrow we are headed to the groomer to clean Taylor up and Andre will get to relax in a quiet house for a while. Sounds like fun for them both! Happy spring!

Another Weekend Done

Looks like everybody else can sit somewhere else :)

It's the end of another weekend and we are all getting ready for the busy week ahead.

I'm starting week four of my business law and ethics class and tonight we are all reading this week's case. My jury here at the house is a bit tired and not providing much feedback. It's a good thing the Supreme Court already came up with a solution! :)

Taylor spent the weekend running around enjoying the nice weather with his buddies next door. Andre enjoyed relaxing inside. His eye is doing well and for the most part has accepted he will be getting a lot of eye drops for an unknown period of time.

The highlight of our weekend... UConn made it to the final four! Looks like my bracket strategy may work this year. My underdog philosophy got us to the final four for the first time. Three cheers, go Huskies!

It's Always a New Adventure!

Ready when you are... to leave that is!

Well, what can I say. Our boys keep us (and their vets) on our toes.

Andre had his follow-up exam on his eye this week. Well, we have another disease to officially add to his list. Glaucoma. Although his ocular pressures were lower, they will most likely need to be managed for life by medicine.



Do you think they see me under this bench?



Because he is already blind in his right eye, we aren't as worried there (pain the biggest concern). But, with pressures creeping up in the left eye... we want to protect his vision as long as possible. The funniest part of the whole visit was Andre's cornea in his blind right eye shifted shape a bit - a slight kidney shape. He's pretty good at making his specialists work for their bills. :)

But hey - we can do this! It's just three more drops a day. :)

• Dorzolamide (anti-glaucoma eye drops) - twice a day
• Latanoprost (anti-glaucoma and eye hypertension eye drops) - once a day until our next appointment** 

This is again added to the usual: Tacrollmus (tear production eye drops) - twice a day, steroid shots (for allergies) - once a week and Prednizone pill (for allergies) - twice a week.

Andre was excited to get home for the day and be greeted by his happy brother! Taylor gave him a look over to make sure he wasn't hurt or different from his visit and they began playing around the house. You can learn a lot from our boys, it doesn't matter what they are facing, they always seem so happy about it!

And now... we are ready for a weekend!

**But there was great news this week. Our (Andre's) opthamologist had him on Travatan last week because it's a bit cheaper than the other common drug Xalatan. Both are pretty expensive, making this disease in both dogs and people difficult. Well, here's the good news - our vet got the generic Latanoprost in this week and we got to be on of the first patients to take advantage of it! The best part is is saves us a ton of money in dog medicine! Three cheers for generic!

Do Not Pitty a Medically Challenged Dog

What a weekend, after all of our excitement on Friday the rest of the weekend seemed easy. We all enjoyed the sunshine and relaxed a bit. Taylor spent the day outside while we prepared the yard for spring and Andre hid under the bed sleeping. They were both in their element!

We can learn so much from our boys, no matter what they are going through - they are the happiest dogs around! :)

The End of a Long Day

Smiling for the dermatologist

What a day and our Andre was center stage.

It all began with a trip to Dr. Beadleston for our annual dermatologist check-up. We got to Denver a bit early so enjoyed a walk around what we fondly call Andre's Pond (we traditionally start here before our appointment every year). After a shorter walk than usual - Jim had predicted a warmer morning and we were all a bit chilly - we headed over to the vet clinic. Andre got a clean bill of health... well as clean as he can get, but we'll take it! We do have a mild ear infection to deal with but overall the morning was pretty uneventful. No complaints here. :)

After we got home, it was nap time for the family before Andre and I had to take off for an afternoon appointment with his opthamologist.


Then the fun began. I had scheduled an appointment for the opthamologist's office to take a look at a "shadow" in his good eye. We soon learned it was a pigment issue they have been watching. It seems although not great, but it isn't anything to worry about. The fun really started when they decided to use a tonopen to measure his eye pressure. They started with his blind eye and the opthamologist seemed concerned. They brought in another (and another) pen to make sure the instrument wasn't broken. I soon learned why she was concerned... Andre's intraocular pressure was 42! The preferred high was 10. (Andre's good eye's pressure was measured at 16)

Long story short... after quite a bit looking, testing, more looking and eventually some drops we were asked to come back in an hour for retesting (good thing I had taken today off). Typically the biggest concern is losing sight from the eye due to the high pressure. Since Andre's sight is already gone, our largest concern was his pain level. The vet was worried Andre had a horrible headache and was suprised he wasn't acting more uncomfortable. I had to remind her Andre doesn't show pain - he is SUPER tough!

After an hour, his blind (right) eye's pressure was down to 20 and the left eye's pressure was down to 11. Three cheers, the drops worked! We got our instructions on two new drops we need to use until our follow-up appointment next week. Thank goodness for pet insurance!


I'm done!



Andre's medicine count after our two visits today:

• Mometamax (ear drops) - every 24 hours for 7 days
• Dorzolamide (anti-glaucoma eye drops) - twice a day until our next appointment
• Travatan (anti-glaucoma and eye hypertension eye drops) - once a day until our next appointment
• And the usual: Tacrollmus (tear production eye drops) - twice a day, steroid shots (for allergies) - once a week and Prednizone pill (for allergies) - twice a week.

Now our tough Andre is happily sleeping and recovering from his busy day. He is such a trooper!

While we waited for the drops to start working, Andre and I went and visited with Granny for a bit. On our way out the door she told me "Andre was lucky to have me." I disagreed and responded, "I'm lucky to have him!"

It's Dog Madness!

This time of year while the rest of the country is in March Madness - it's Dog Madness at our house!

Every year we participate in a family bracket... every year I select my teams on colors and mascots. Now last year the mascot selection wasn't so great - but this year - let me tell you it's a dog eat dog tournament!

So our choices are in and the boys and I have a lot of faith in our final four:

• Dubs and the Washington Huskies vs. Jonathan and the UConn Huskies
• Jack and the Georgetown Hoyas vs. Spike and the Gonzaga Bulldogs

So who did we put all of the dog biscuits on? Well, the boys and I think it's Jonathan's year at UConn! (Although we think Jack, Dubs and of course UGA win the cutest mascot contest!)

At our house we'll be crossing our fingers and paws that our strategy for the underdog finally works. We'll be proud of all of our canine (and longhorn) friends that make it through the dance.

Pretty Please?



It looked and smelled like peanut butter ice cream.
This is the chopped up version - what fun! Taylor was excited!



So there aren't many people that would debate that the boys are spoiled... I love to diversify their taste buds with new (dog appropriate) foods and stimulate the senses with new toys.

This weekend was no exception... imagine my delight when Jim and I were selecting our Ben and Jerry's (gotta love the FroYo Cherry Garcia) and I saw some Frosty Paws near by! It's a soy based ice cream product - even better - it came in those cute paper cups. I was so excited to get it home and see what the boys thought.



The verdict (sorry the law class it getting to me):

• Taylor - a huge fan. This is funny because he is our pickiest eater and often approaches food like we are trying to poison him. He's going to love the other ones on hot summer days!
• Andre - well, not so much. He gave a couple of the cubes some licks (I had chopped it into bite sized cubes) and then looked at me like "what else do you have?" What a disappointment! But, you can't win them all.

So, I made up for the frozen treat that resulted in a hung jury and brought home some sweet potato treats on Sunday. The vote was unanimous - we had a winner! :)

Law of the Land

Aww, isn't he cute while he sleeps?!
What a study buddy.

With economics done, we have moved on to business ethics and law... and I'm the judge of this house!

The boys and I have been reviewing court cases in the evenings preparing for my weekly paper. They seem to be enjoying being lawyers better than economists. At least Taylor is sleeping better through this subject - I guess my voice is soothing and relaxing to him. :)

Andre and Taylor have been doing great.

• Andre is headed to the dermatologist in a couple weeks for his annual check up with Dr. Beadleston. It's always an exciting trip, we try to get their early and go for a walk around a nearby lake to ease the stress of the visit. That is, after a Starbucks stop for me. :)
• Today, we received the monthly newsletter from the CSU Cancer Center - its always amazing to read the latest in animal cancer treatment and all of the wonderful survivor stories. I always smile and think of our Taylor - we are so lucky he continues to do so well.

On that note, we've just about had it for the night. All we can say is... stare decisis - let the decision stand!

Project Freedom

Wild America continues in my backyard... I came home from yoga this morning to have Jim show me a mouse stuck in our window well. What a cute, fat and furry mouse - he reminded me of Gus from Cinderella. Well, Jim had plans for Gus, but before he could do anything I hopped into the window well with a shoe box and relocated our new friend to a near by wild space. Don't worry - after our experience with the hawk the other day, I made sure he was safely in a covered area.

Spring is in the air! We took the boys for a walk this morning and saw a bunch of spring bulbs sprouting up and getting ready to bloom. My orange crocuses are already blooming just a bit and the tulips are right around the corner (now if the rabbits will just let them bloom this year).

Three cheers! We are all excited for warmer days. Especially the boys, warm days equal more time outside and weekend walks! :)

Life is a Zoo!

It was really as crazy as it looked!

WOW - what a week and it's only Wednesday!

To start, on Tuesday we took Andre and Taylor to the vet - at the same time. :) I could tell by the look on Jim's face, this was the first and last time we took both of the boys to the same appointment. Neither are big fans of these types of trips, and for good reason... but they both got pretty stressed out and fed off of the chaos. It didn't help that our appointment was 45 minutes late because of a very inconsiderate pet owner who was before us.

But it all paid off with a happy Dr. Burns. Andre's teeth look good after his cleaning. More exciting, Taylor got a clean bill of health 6 months post cancer surgery! We don't need to go back for another 6 months - three cheers!

To help recover (and celebrate) we all stopped at Starbucks for a treat!

Then, that afternoon it was Wild America in our backyard. I was working from home and looked out the window to see a neighborhood hawk defeathering and eating a poor little finch on our fence post. Talk about trauma, I still can't get those images out of my mind. Now, I get the circle of life - but in my backyard - really?! I may be scarred for life.

Oh my, what a week! :)