{25nov2011: Thank you}

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!
Darwin has some thanking of her own to do. Our friends Baby Rocket Dog and Hootie (and their mom) sent over a surprise package.
Any package that we bring home, Darwin automatically thinks is hers. This time she was right. She tried to open it herself, but wasn't getting very far so I helped her out.




A cool giant wooden barbell!

The water in Seattle is too cold now for Darwin to play in, but this will be great for the summer! Of course Darwin wanted it now.... 

But I've hidden it away so she doesn't gnaw it to a toothpick before she actually gets to try it out!
So THANK YOU Baby Rocket Dog and Hootie!!!!

{11nov2010: Thank you}

Thank you first to all the veterans and service men and woman for their courage and sacrifice.
Second thanks to everyone who commented on Pawcurious and posted pictures on the Pawcurious Facebook page for their Home for the Holidays Food Drive.  With everyone's help, Pawcurious and Iams will be donating 45,700 meals!

{18may2010: thank you!}

We got an award from our fun lab friends Mack and Mia!

Here are the rules:
Rule 1. Thank the person who gave it to you.
BIG thank you to Mack and Mia, the some of our funniest friends, and home of the infamous MACK ATTACK!

Rule 2. Share 7 things about yourself.
1.  Darwin has the same toys from when she was a tiny puppy... those stuffies she doesn't try to destuff, but anything new doesn't stand a chance, especially if it has plastic eyeballs.
2.  Darwin doesn't like her tail or butt being touched
3.  Darwin still has a gimpy butt*
4.  Darwin will not sit on the ground if we're out at a public place (bar, restaurant, etc)... she'll stand the whole time
5.  Darwin gets scared of anything she's not familiar with, even a plastic bag on the ground
6.  Darwin is a pro at walking up her ramp to get into the car
7.  Darwin has "gorgeous hips" (this according to her vet who reviewed her xrays)
 
Rule 3. Pass the award along to 7 bloggers who you think are fantastic.
1.  Ollie the tiny Yorkie puppy
2.  Ammy and the rest of the Army of Four (Ammy tells the best jokes)
3.  Miss M and Mr B the two pitties in the city
4.  Remi whom we'll hopefully see again soon
5.  Nala, Remi's sister whom we'll hopefully see again soon too!
6.  Murphy and his kitty sister Fergie
7.  Remington and his kitty brother Oz
 
Rule 4. Contact Blog award winners.


Thank you again to Mack and Mia!

*More news on Darwin's gimpy butt (it's technically not her butt, but I like calling her that).
We have an appointment with the neurologist next week Monday and I've been doing a lot of google researching on what it could possibly be.  I've found this page with information about Intervertebral Disc Disease in Dogs, and a few other pages on Cauda Equina Syndrome and Thoracolumbar Intervertebral Disc Disease but the last two seem to be problems of the Lumbar spine and Darwin's xrays showed compression in her Thorasic spine. 
She had an accident on the couch (again) this weekend, and I'm wondering if it is related to this back issue where she's becoming incontinent due to the compression in her spine.  She's still taking 1 Prednisone pill every day, and tomorrow goes down to 1 pill every other day.  I don't think her peeing incident has to do with the Prednisone (though her roid rage and dandruff may) as she doesn't even seem to know she had an accident til she stands up.
Ugh.  I just wish she was healthy or even that we knew what was wrong specifically and how to fix it.  

{27apr2010: Roid Rage}

Darwin's new nickname is Roids as in Roid Rage.  Ever since she's been "sick" and more so since she started taking all her drugs to treat meningitis Darwin barks at everything.  Any noise she hears, even if she's heard it a thousand times before, like the neighbors door opening or closing, or a bird, or any noise, she barks.  It usually starts as a low growl noise, then a soft grunt, then a bark and then another bark and then another.  She's even started barking at her reflection in the glass sliding door.  Sometimes she'll be laying on the bed or the couch and won't even lift her head to bark or grunt, she'll just lay there grunting at a noise. 
She also whines a lot more now.  She doesn't get what she wants... whine.  She can't get her food out of her bowl cause she's scared of the noise... whine.  She LOVES tomatoes and rice (besides apples) and so if we have some we'll put some in her bowl.  For some reason when she eats these things out of the bowl she bangs her bowl around and it scares her and she won't eat her food, but will stand there whining.  If she eats her regular food out of the bowl and it clangs around, she's fine.  But eating 
anything else out of her bowl becomes some big dramatic production.  See for yourself.

This was a short version of how she usually carries on and I know I probably shouldn't give in and hold her bowl for her, but if I don't she'll carry on FOREVER.  Any ideas how to help her get over that?
We're a few days away from finishing up all the main drugs and will start the process of weaning her off the prednisone.  Hopefully that'll help with her excessive thirst and eating (and peeing and pooping as a result) and the barking roid rage.


Thanks to everyone who's voted so far for Darwin!
If you haven't done so yet, please check out this post and vote for Darwin so we can win a trip to the Oregon coast! 

{18mar2010: Sorry Nala!}

Bed rest must be getting to Darwin.  While she's been pretty good about not being a total nut and actually has been pretty mellow since last week, she must have some pent up energy that she needs to get out somehow.
Too bad she's decided to take it out on her new toy she just got from Nala.
This was the toy Tuesday night:

Cute pink intact piggy.
Darwin loved it!  She's been playing with it non-stop.  
This morning I woke up to a mess in the living room.... no not a poop mess, but a pink pig mess!
Darwin's hate of eyeballs in new toys struck again!  This time with a vengence.

Poor piggy:

{must remove the eyeballs!}

{is there something on my face?}

{mom, but look how cute i look and it makes my back feel better... really...}

Sorry Nala!  She thoroughly enjoyed the gift!

{16mar2010: oh crap}

Literally.  
(skip the next paragraph if you're not up for a poop story)
We came home from work today and as we approached the door Jason said, "why does it smell like poop?".  I told him to keep his voice down in case it's the neighbors cooking.  We walked in and what did we find?  Poop... 2 piles in the kitchen.  Seems like the Rimadyl was making her have diarrhea.  Gross.  At least she did it on the tile floor and not on the carpet in the living room.  I took her out again where more poop came out, this time with a little blood in it.  So we called the vet to tell them about the diarrhea and the blood, and they told us to stop the Rimadyl, bring in a stool sample and they'll switch her medication.  Hopefully her fecal float test comes back negative for any worms or any other problems, we'll hear from them in the morning.  Oi.  
So Dar is on Tramadol (still) and she now has to start taking Metronidazole.
We're still hoping her walk will stop looking so gimpy and the W word will be ruled out.


In less poopy news, I must say our blogging friends are the best!  Besides all the fingers and paws that are crossed for Dar and the well wishes coming our way, our blog friend Nala sent Darwin a get well gift!

Darwin was quite eager to get at what was inside.

A piggy bottle buddy, Zukes treats and a sweet card!  I was trying to take pictures, but Darwin really wanted to play with her new toy... 

 {ooooh, I love it, I love it}

Thank you Nala and Amber!  Hopefully Darwin will heal up soon and be able to have a play date the next time you guys are back in Seattle!!

{12feb2010: thank you!}

You seriously "meet" the nicest people here in blogland.  Over on my personal blog (that I don't update often enough) I have a list of goals I hope to accomplish before turning 30... giving me 2.5 more months to finish.  Anyway, Baby Rocket and Hootie's mom, Cassie, found my personal blog and my list and saw that one of my goals is to knit a scarf.  She had a simple scarf knitting kit that she's never used and offered to send it to me to help me cross one more thing off my list!  How sweet is that?!
Cassie and the dogs also sent over a toy for Darwin!  Even sweeter! 

Darwin will love her new toy and hopefully soon I'll have a new scarf!  
Thanks again to Cassie and Hootie and Baby Rocket!