Ups and Downs

Sorry about our extended absence. Things around here have been off kilter for awhile and we're slowly getting back to normal. First  a little about our Miss Morgan. After starting on antibiotics, she showed an amazing improvement. She found her appetite and began eating heartily, even gained a pound. She started sleeping comfortably thru the night and even started walking more steadily by herself.  She was awake and alert during the day and started following me everywhere, like a puppy. We felt encouraged.

Then on Friday, while still on the antibiotics, her leg started to swell again and I knew that the infection was winning. On Saturday she was running a fever and refused to eat. On Sunday she had difficulty walking without help. We knew it was time to let her go. Fudge went with us to say goodbye to his friend and we were all overcome with sadness. I had to keep reminding myself that she had lived a long and happy life.

 Dr B, Rob and I were all worried about how Fudge would react to the loss and paid special attention to him.  Being with Morgan at the end seemed to help him and he's doing fine. Mackey, on the other hand, had become quite close to Morgan over the last few months when they ate together and went outside together. Mac looked everywhere for her old friend and refused to eat for a couple days. She was unusually quiet and still goes each morning to wake Morgan up. We're paying extra attention to Mac's needs and she's coming around.

Over this whole time period Rob and I have been dealing with the flu. We discussed getting our flu shots early in September and just kept putting it off. We won't make that mistake again. This is a nasty flu that just keeps hanging on.

The day after Morgan died I had an appointment with a hand surgeon and we set a date next month for my surgery. I'm looking forward to getting it over with even though I'll be limited in my activities for the rest of the year. I'm in the middle of several projects that will be delayed yet again, but once this hand is working properly, I have some surprises for some of our blog friends.

Some of you know that we've been dealing with some issues with Sydney. As cute as she is, she has some mental disturbances that have caused  serious problems for the  pack and for us. On Friday she attacked one of the Portie girls. Sydney has a habit of making unprovoked attacks on the other dogs and this time I made the mistake of getting in the middle of it when the other girls came to join the fray. I got bitten and have 12 stitches in my leg. Syd and Bailey also were injured.

 This is not the first time this has happened with Syd and we've tried a number of things including several anti anxiety drugs, but none have helped much. I spoke with Dr B over the weekend and we decided that we had only two options left, Prozac or euthanasia.

On Monday we took Sydney to see the doc. He spent a over an hour feeding her special treats while watching her body language and eye movements. He says she is overwhelmed with anxiety and when she floods, she attacks the nearest dog without giving any advance signal. The other dogs are now all leery of her because they can't tell when she's going to attack. Rob and I decided to give her one final chance and we started her on Prozac. Dr B also referred us to a behavioral therapist who can help us determine her triggers.

It will be a long slow process to help Syd get thru this and we may not be able to. Rehoming her isn't really an option, as she would need to go to a home with no other animals, no children and one or two adults who were aware of her problems and willing to work with her. This is her last chance and I do hope the drug can give her some relief.

So you see, I haven't been able to post to the blog. Life has needed my complete attention. I'm hoping that things calm down now and the pack can get back to a more relaxed state and that I can get back to keeping up with happenings in Blogville.