Lainey: 3 Months Post Op

This has not been an easy road...for Lainey or for us!  Today we are officially 4 months out from her ACL surgery.  According to the paperwork, Lainey should be exercising like "normal" and running, jumping and rough play should gradually be introduced until at a normal level.

Unfortunately, she is still not even walking on that leg yet. 

We had another visit with the surgeon last night and he took another set of x-rays (assuming the artificial band had snapped), but everything looks as good as it did the day he placed it in there.  The metal plate is even still in the same spot (he said sometimes it can shift a little). 

He did notice a lot of fluid around Lainey's knee and mentioned that she is in a lot of pain.  He tried touching her knee when she was under anesthesia and she reacted to it.  He said only patients who are in severe pain will react to anything while being "under".

We will be dropping Lainey off at the surgeon's office tomorrow so they can aspirate the knee and get some of the fluid off.  They will then send the fluid to a pathologist to run some tests.

For now, we are back on pain meds and antibiotics.

I JUST WANT MY DOG BACK.....MY PUPPY!!!

I knew this was going to be a loooong process, but knowing that we are 3 months post op and she is healing at about 20-30 days post op is so frustrating.  We have done everything that is expected and it still seems to be one thing after another.

I pray that here is where we will turn the corner....After handling this fluid issue that is around her knee, we will (finally) be headed in the right direction.

No Regrets

I am one of the few women who never wanted children.  I adore my nephews, but even as a young adult I had no intentions of having any of my own. 

But then I met a handsome fella and we got married, bought a house and joined our 'families'.  He had 2 children already (who were teenagers when we met), but I started to want my own. 

Due to the fact that my husband is a paraplegic and I had had cervical cancer, we decided to see a specialist to discuss our options.  Soon after that appointment, the so-called "urge" was gone, so we decided not to move forward.  I enjoy our life and for many reasons I don't care to discuss here, we cancelled all future doctor appointments and have never really discussed the topic since.

But, every year around Christmas I get a little depressed.  I tend to think of all the things I won't be doing this year.  I won't attend any Christmas programs at school, I won't make anything awesome from Pinterest for my child's teacher, I won't be able to play Santa, and most of all, I can't pass along the Christmas family traditions that I grew up knowing and loving.

I've learned that the best way to cure this feeling is for me to spend some extra special time with all the little ones around me.  I've got a special date with one of my nephews tonight and I can't wait!

I don't regret the decision my husband and I made, but that doesn't mean I can't dream every now and again of what it would be like to some day be called "mommy"!

Lainey gets Sirius

Poor little Lainey has a mama that is obsessed with cute dog collars.  I would venture to guess that in a one week span she wears at least 5 different collars.

I've been trying to curb my addiction lately, but as soon as I saw that Sirius Republic came out with a new holiday collar I jumped on it.

Seriously...I just can't get over the cuteness of these sock monkeys!

And not only did she get a new collar, she also got a Sirius Republic snood. It slides right over her head and I can even use it to keep her ears warm.

(You can always tell how tired she is by the redness of her eyes...
On this particular day she had skipped her nap)

Am I the only crazy dog mama with an addiction to collars and/or leashes?

Christmas Cards for Dummies

I have never sent Christmas cards, and this year I really wanted to start.  I originally wanted to get all the pets dressed up in their holiday gear and take a picture, but after Walker passed away the excitement was no longer there!  

We had family photos taken with my in-laws back in November and the same day that the photo disc arrived...so did a coupon from Shutterfly for 10 free cards!  Perfect timing! 

I have used Shutterfly for my prints and have made dozens of photo books, but it never crossed my mind to use them for our Christmas cards!

I'm happy with the end result...what do you think?

(P.S.~ There was a back-side to the card also, but I wasn't sure how to embed that.  I guess I need Blogger for Dummies!)

Wishing You Merry Christmas Card

Customize your Christmas cards this season at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

http://www.shutterfly.com/

Welcome Home Dasher

During the first four weeks after Walker passed away, my husband kept dropping hints about wanting another cat.  I, of course, was not ready to give my heart away again and was worried that I wouldn't be a good mama to another cat by expecting him to be just like Walker.  We agreed that we would wait until I was ready, but I had no idea how I would know when that time came.  Not to mention, I was enjoying the special one-on-one time I was getting to spend with Tucker.

There was a big cat adoption event scheduled for Saturday & Sunday last weekend and my husband really wanted to go, but knew that if I wasn't ready he wouldn't force the issue.  I knew we weren't going based on the fact that a week prior, I had stopped into our local Petco and there was a small local group doing an adoption event.  As I entered the store a small, black kitten made eye contact with me and I broke down in tears.  I wasn't even 5 steps into Petco and I was crying.  After explaining my tears to one of the girls working the event, I left the store totally humiliated.  I got to my car, buried my head in my hands and cried. 

Periodically, I log onto petfinder.com.  I like to keep tabs on the pit bull counts at our local shelters so we can donate needed items, visit with them and be the best ambassador for the breed that we can be.  Last Thursday, I was doing just that, when I found myself doing a search for black cats in my area.  I scrolled through dozens of cats (mostly kittens) when I stopped on the profile of one particular cat named "Six".  I stared at his profile picture for what seemed like an eternity before I opened it.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much information listed.

I quickly realized what I was doing and reminded myself that I'm not ready for another cat and exited the site immediately.  But, as the afternoon dragged on I could not stop thinking about this cat named Six. I knew that even if I was ready for another cat, that I would want it to be a kitten and Six was clearly not a kitten from the looks of his profile picture.  This didn't stop me from obsessing over him for the next couple hours.  Before I knew what I was doing I was on the phone with the animal shelter. 

I was told that Six had been in the shelter since April 1, 2011 and that nobody had showed any interest in him the entire time he had been there.  They take him to every adoption event, but have never had any luck finding his forever home.  She explained to me the stigma around black cats and gave me some numbers on the percentage of black cats that are adopted in the US and my heart broke.  I told her my story of Tucker & Walker and explained my love for black cats. She said Six was about 2-3 years old, very friendly and would get along great with other pets.

Mere seconds after hanging up from her I called my husband and told him about this cat named Six and how he already had a piece of my heart.  I cried over the thought of any animal living in the shelter for that long.  My husband I agreed that we would make a trip to the shelter over the weekend and pay Six a visit.  

Ironically, my husband I both had the same idea.  Within a 1/2 hour of hanging up from him, I left work and was in the car headed to the shelter.  I called him when I was about 20 minutes away from the shelter and told him what I was doing.  He laughed and explained to me that he was already at the shelter and holding Six in his arms!

I arrived at the shelter and met my husband in the parking lot.  I was talking a mile a minute and asking a million questions about the cat.  I was still nervous about the thought of another pet and my stomach was in knots.

Long story short....We adopted Six the very next day!  After 20 months of living in the shelter, he is finally HOME!

The name "Six" was not suitable for us and the shelter said with that many cats living together at the shelter that he didn't answer to that name (or any name) and we could change it if we preferred.

Meet Dasher (named after Santa's reindeer, of course)

And here is Tucker and Dasher meeting for the first time.  They were rubbing on each other and my heart melted.  Another confirmation that we did the right thing by bringing "Six" into our lives.