Hat's On For Miss Judi

Hi Miss Judi,
You don't know us, but a dear friend of ours, Mr Pip, invited us to join in with the rest of Blogville to send you our love and support. So here is Fudge showing off his 'Hats Around The World'.

Hi Miss, Judi, I'm Fudge. I'm a Portuguese Water Dog and these are the hats I'd wear on my world travels. Here I am ready for fun in the Caribbean Islands.

 Next stop is Scotland.

Ahh, on to Paree!

Finally skiing in the Alps.

I hope my virtual trip made you smile. My nine doggy housemates and Mom and Dad all send our very best wishes for your recovery. We're thinking about you.

Fudge and Mom

Story Time

Today is the birthday of Dr Seuss. 

Mom has two favorite Dr Seuss books. These two.

She's always saying what Horton says, "I meant what I said,
                                                                And I said what I meant.
                                                                An elephant's faithful, 
                                                               One hundred percent."

Today Dad read us a story.

We really like it when Mom or Dad reads to us.

You can see others who love Dr Seuss here on this blog hop.

Happy Birthday Dr Seuss!

But My Dignity!

Hi Everybody, Fudge here. She's done it again. My Mom is being unfair again. She think we should have our pictures taken wearing bunny ears. Can you believe it? What about our dignities?

Noah did it because Mom asked him to. Look how miserable he looks. That dumb kid of mine probably doesn't even know he isn't a bunny. He knows nothing about being dignified.

Please, do I have to wear these silly ears? I'm not a bunny, I'm a titled Portuguese Water Dog, descended from a long line of working dogs. I'll bet none of them ever had to wear dumb bunny ears. I bet my cousin Bo Obama doesn't have to wear stupid bunny ears.

What? He did what? Really? Just because his Mom asked him to?

OK, I guess if cousin Bo can do it, I can, too.

Your pal, Fudge

Leap Year Day

Some months have just 30 days;

The rest have 31.

But one month has a neat surprise!

In fact, it's kind of fun!

The days of February

Number only 28---

But add one more for leap year,

And we get to celebrate!

Have a happy Leap Year Day no matter how you choose to use it.

Answers?

Today's is a really quick post due to a lack of sleep last night. With two dogs on prednisone I expect to get up during the night for trips outside to pee, but I need to get them synchronized. It seems that after a trip out with Tsar I'd just get back to sleep when Samba would be at the side of the bed asking to go out. After the third trip out I never did get back to sleep and today I'm wandering around half awake.

Anyway, Tsar went to visit Dr B this morning and we now have a tentative diagnosis. The reason it's tentative is that we would need a spinal tap and MRI to confirm it and I've ruled that out. But here it is... Granulomatous Meningoencephalitis! It doesn't trip off the tongue so we'll refer to it as GME from now on.

His symptoms are those of the disorder and hopefully we can keep it under control with prednisone. He's showing a little improvement every day and we're going to proceed watchfully and make the most of every day.

Set Another Plate

What a difference a week can make. Last Friday I was considering taking Tsar on his last ride to the vet's office. Saturday he started on Prednisone and we saw some immediate improvement. Each day this week has been better than the one before, but he still has some serious problems. His front legs, especially the left, are weak and don't always go where he wants them to go. But the thing that has been driving me crazy this week is trying to get him to eat.

Tsar has never been a good, eager eater, but I really think he needs to get some nourishment into his body and it's been a struggle. As I've mentioned before, he refuses to put his head into a bowl of any kind. Many of you suggested a clear baking dish and I thought that was a great idea, but Tsar didn't. I presented his dinner in a clear pan on Wednesday and he walked over to look at it, then walked away.

Yesterday morning while I fed the Water Dogs in the garage, Rob prepared Morgan and Tsar's breakfast. Morgan gets her prescription ID in her bowl with a little Mighty Dog pulled chicken on top. The ID is for her joints, specifically her injured knee and the chicken is because she likes it. So there!

Rob put Tsar's kibble on a plate and covered it with soup. Then he put the whole mess in the microwave for a minute. Tsar doesn't like cold food. The kibble soaked up enough of the soup so it didn't pour off the edge of the plate.

He set it on the floor without a word.

Tsar came over to look at it and ate the entire thing and licked the plate clean.

We repeated this in the afternoon with the same results. Once more in the evening and again he ate it.

This morning after finishing his breakfast, served on a plate, he went into the back yard and barked at squirrels. When he came in, he asked for and ate a dog biscuit. He's feeling better and now that he's eating, I'm feeling better.

I have no idea why he won't eat out of anything with sides, but I suspect that his illness has left him with a vision problem of some sort. We'll mention it to Dr B next week and give him something to ponder.

Never Too Sick To Party

Fudge's birthday was last week when Tsar was so very sick. Of course, Fudge didn't know it. Today since the weather is warm and nice, we decided to have his little party. We invited Morgan and Tsar to join us in the back yard and they did.

We had valentine cupcakes because Fudge loves sprinkles.

This group is always ready for a party. No one is ever too sick for a party!

Rob handed out the cupcakes and everyone was very well behaved except Norma Jean who got left out and was trying to get his attention to let him know he'd forgotten her. She did get her cake.

Tsar liked his cupcake, which brings me to an update on his condition.

Tsar is doing much better, but he still shows weakness on the left side. His left front foot doesn't always go where he wants it to. Even on 40mg of prednisone a day, he's being very picky about eating. He'll eat chicken, cheese or turkey from our hands, but that's about it.

He acts almost afraid of putting his head in a bowl to eat. I'm thinking there's a problem with his vision that causes him to shy away from the bowls. Last night I put a combo of turkey, cheese and kibble on a plate and he cleaned it up.

I want him to eat other things besides chicken and turkey, so today I made his favorite soup with turkey, barley, sweet potatoes, carrots and green beans. I'm hoping to get some veggies into him, plus I'll mix in some of his kibble. I'm not sure how I'll get around the bowl thing, but I'll think of something.

As you can see from these pictures taken at our party today, he's not looking like himself. I have a hard time believing that a brain tumor would respond so quickly to prednisone, so I'm hoping that we're dealing with something else that may be controllable. Whatever it is, we haven't given up and he's improving a little each day.