Everybody Is Having One

We're celebrating lots of birthdays lately. Last week was our friend E's  birthday. E is Brody's mom.

Then there is our friend Midge who is Freya's mom. They're having a giveaway at their blog to celebrate.

In two days it'll be Jo's birthday. She is Stella's mom.

But today is a special day around here. First it's our vet tech Becky's birthday. Happy birthday, Becky.

But the very best part is that today is both Morgan and Tsar's birthdays and that means a party!!
Morgan is twelve years old today.

Tsar is ten years old today.

 Oh boy, those are donut holes covered with sprinkles. Yumm!!!

Because Morgan's leg isn't strong yet, Mom thought she and Tsar should celebrate on the deck without the rest of us around. Morgan was happy to try the new treats.

Tsar wasn't so sure. These are something he's never had before and he doesn't like new stuff. He always thinks someone's trying to trick him.

Mom told him it was OK and he should try the little cakes. So he did.

Then it was time for the party guests to have their treats. Look how nicely we're all sitting.

And where were the guests of honor during all this? Tsar had gone inside, but Morgan watched from up above on the deck.

Happy Birthday to all our November friends. We wish you could all join us for cake.

Six Weeks

It's been six weeks since Morgan tore the ligaments in her knee. We've tried to keep her very quiet during that time and we carry her up steps. She's had a reduction in her food to try to drop a few pounds. A lighter body means less stress on the joints.  She's been doing well and I've been able to cut her pain medication in half.

Yesterday I took her to the clinic to have Dr B assess her progress. He was pleased with what he saw. She's putting about 75% of her weight on her leg again when she walks. He examined her and when he stretched out her leg then bent it, I winced, but Morgan showed no overt signs of pain.

We'll be starting therapy now and she'll only take pain medication at night to ease her sleep. As I've stated many times, Morgan is a tough little girl. Here she is resting among her stuffed animal friends.

Signs Of The Season

It hasn't been a very beautiful autumn here. Due to the summer drought many of the trees just dropped their leaves without a change of color. We're had a lot of wind lately and a few rainy days, so most of our leaves are now on the ground. But inside I have a definite sign that summer is over and it's time to prepare for the holidays.

The Christmas cactus are in bloom. The younger one has a lot of buds, but only a couple have opened so far.

 The 'old girl', she's pushing 40 now, is in full bloom and adding a lot of cheeriness to the dining room where she resides.

These two will bloom from now till May if their usual pattern holds. I really look forward to seeing them flowering each fall.

It's For Us

Guess what happened here today! A big truck came to our house.

We know that those big trucks bring special things to us. Sometimes we get toys or treats or even new beds. Sometimes they bring stuff like shampoo or clipper blades and those aren't so good.

Today Mom carried in a box and said, " It's for you".

What do you think it could be?

Mom opened it up and let us look inside.

It's treats!!!

Oh boy, these came from the Lapdogs.

Open them, Mom.

Oh boy, these are great. 

They sent two flavors. These are brown rice and beef. The others are sweet potato and chicken.

What a good surprise on a cold, windy day.

Even Tsar thinks they're good and Tsar is very picky.

Do you know the Lapdogs? They're Zeus, Tut, Lola and Sophie and they live in cold, snowy New Hampshire. Their Mom does reviews on lots of stuff. Sometimes she reviews books or knitting stuff that our Mom is interested in, but she does lots of great dog stuff, too. And she has giveaways like this one. We got a new soccer ball from her last year and we got some other treats before, but these are delicious. 

Let's have another round in honor of our Lapdog friends. This is us doing a happy dance because we had a super treat delivery today.

Phooey

I had such good intentions and I was off to such a good start. Then....

I've been busy knitting every spare minute. I've made several dog sweaters for the winter holiday season. here are some of them.

I think this one looks boyish.

There are several fancy ones for the  girls. Some have ruffles.

Some have glitz.

And some have both.

Some are in Christmas colors.

Monday evening I started knitting a pair of Christmas dolls when I started feeling some pain in my right hand. I took an aspirin and went on knitting. Tuesday the pain was worse, but I continued knitting. Yesterday I finally gave in. I recognize that I have tendonitis in my hand and the knitting is aggravating it.

So, the knitting needles have been put aside for awhile and I'm resting and icing my hand. I'm increasing my vitamin D and B complex. I'd like this to settle down so that  can get back to my knitting. In the meantime I'll try some crossstitch and see if that gets around the pain.

Catching Up

It's a new month and a new season and it's time to get started on new projects. First I thought I'd catch you up on some things I left hanging.

First, the Blues Brothers are settling in well. They eat a lot and play with the cage toys and make a lot of noise. As soon as I started calling them that, the names were obvious. The darker, noisier one, in the back, is Elwood and the lighter quieter one is Jake. They just polished off a bowl of diced apple, pumpkin and banana without throwing it to the dogs.

Holly is doing much better. She's come out of the corner, is eating and spends most of her time watching and hissing at the new noisy neighbors.

Morgan is just the sweetest little dog. Today she brought her ball to me and stood wagging her tail. How do I explain that it's going to be a long time till we can play ball again? Her leg seems to be healing pretty well. I've been able to cut back on her pain meds and she's walking now putting a little weight on the injured leg. She hates being carried and tries to beat me to the steps, but so far I've been able to grab her and lift her up the stairs.

Dr B thinks she's on schedule and this weekend we can start her physical therapy which consists of walking up and down the hill on leash. Going down is no problem, but walking uphill forces her to stretch out the muscles and work the leg a little.

Finally, my girl Samba. The MMM is currently under control and we've cut her prednisone back to a maintenance dose. She's using her jaw almost normally.

We've been unable to get rid of the kidney infection. I was given an option of using an injectable drug that would probably wipe out the infection, but I couldn't accept the side effects which include possible kidney damage and deafness. For now we'll continue to test regularly and possibly repeat the antibiotics.

As if all that wasn't enough, I discovered a large swelling on the tip of Samba's tail. At first I thought it might be a spider bite, but it didn't go away. I took her by the clinic and one of the techs thought the tail was fractured, but Dr B says it's scar tissue from an injury. Samba loves to bang her tail against doors and furniture and anything that makes a loud noise. Over the past few days the swelling seems to have come down a little and we're left with a crooked tail with a bump in it. We can live with that. As you can see in the short video above, Samba never stops wagging that tail.

So, on to a new month and we're going to try not to get any new injuries or illnesses.

Silver

Last night we turned off the lights, secured Morgan and Tsar in the bedroom and turned the volume up on a station showing old reruns of 'Law and Order' to drown out any outside noises. Then Rob and I left the dogs home alone and went to our favorite restaurant for dinner. To surprise me, Rob had invited our good friends who are also our neighbors and we all had a special dinner.

The reason for our night out was that today is our 25th wedding anniversary. Wow, 25 years is a long time!

This is my favorite photo of my husband. This was taken Christmas day in 1997 at my Mother's house.

I guess I never expected to be married for 25 years.

But, how can you not love a man who helps your dog learn to play the piano?

Now on to the next twenty five.