It's been over a week since our Maddie dog went to doggie heaven. She went peacefully last Tuesday 8/31/10. I felt she was comfortable until the very very end. I did end up (with Riley's help) taking her to our vet to "help her pass" but as soon as we got her on the table she literally "died" = just like that. Riley proceeded to fall apart and sob, which caused me to sob. I haven't decided whether it is good or bad to fall apart like that in front of your children but I didn't have a choice. Gosh I loved that dog. Best dog EVER!
And since I seem to attract nothing but chaos in my life... we added to our little furry family the very next day. Millie (awful dog - which I promise to stop calling her that. I'll tell you why in a minute) trotted up to the deck a nano second before my butt hit the Adirondack chair with a Maker's Mark and water. She proudly displayed a very alive baby squirrel - holy cats! I took the critter- placed him in the tree house - just beneath his nest and squalling mother - and waited. No mommy squirrel came down after a few hours. So we took him inside - after Scott listed all the horrendous diseases he said we'd get from him - and placed him in a box. He looked to be about 5 weeks old and his eyes were still closed.
Let me tell you, this lifted everyone's spirits (except maybe Scott's, he was fearful of Typhoid at this point). So a week later and after a trip to SC for Labor Day Roscoe the squirrel is alive and well and his eyes are open! And he is now contained in a cat carrier. That I pray he does not find a way out of because that would NOT be a good thing. I now understand how they stick to trees upside down and race along power lines. They can stick to your clothing and yes, your bare skin, in the very same fashion.
Roscoe is pretty cute, makes weird squirrely noises and loves his fake mommy squirrel milk replacer. Best of all he has eased the pain and sadness a bit of Maddie passing. God knew just what we needed and saw an opportunity for us to help this little guy. Put our grief to work in a positive way I suppose. We'll keep caring for him until we can't handle him or until he is able to be released in a few weeks - whichever comes first.
As for the kids, Denton loves high school. I'm kinda surprised that the transition was so smooth. No drama at all. I think we made more out of it possibly? She has practiced with the golf team and has played a few times in the past few weeks too. This week we'll start having her play more often.
Riley loves middle school as well. She gets to walk to and from and thinks it's the greatest. She does have more homework but seems to be getting into a routine. The not so great thing is that she doesn't have much time to ride after school. Although, much of that is due to Scott's car being in the shop for many many weeks!!! I was his shuttle service and picking him up at 5:30 cut out any chance to ride since Riley gets out of school at 4pm. So now that the car is back that can change. Plus we are FINALLY having cooler weather!!! WooHoo! I've had enough with all the heat index of over 100 stuff.
As for me, I am going to try to reinstate my Respiratory license - I have an intensive review in October then I'll submit for a renewal. I haven't worked in respiratory in 17 years, whew! That, my friends, is a long time.
I promised I'd get to Millie - who used to be known as awful dog. Now that she is alone and guarding our kingdom we have noticed a change in her, I wonder if she knows Maddie died? Or does she think we gave her away? Or worse, that we are letting Maddie live inside and making her live outside and in the crate in the basement at night? Either way there seems to be a calmness about her now. Well, not all the way but not that crazy insane-o thing she was doing just a week ago.
To make things worse she has tested positive for heartworms. We are pretty sure she was positive, but it wasn't showing up yet on the test, before we got her. Anyway, she has been on HW preventative since last year in October and she will start her 1st treatment next month on the 5th. Followed by another treatment a few weeks later. After that, all should be fine.
She is in the very early stages and doesn't show any outward signs of HW disease. So right now she is on Prednisone (anti inflammatory), Doxycycline (antibiotic), Fish Oil (for heart health) and Prevacid for tummy upset from all the previously listed items. So far she looks great. And while in SC last weekend she ate an entire bag of cat food at my parents house and didn't even vomit - you gotta love a Lab's "tummy of steel". This goes with the baby bunnies and frogs and cicadas ect... that we see her eating in the back yard - yummmmm!
As I said, we traveled to Camden last weekend for Labor Day. It was the opening season for Dove's hunting. For the ride down we enjoyed listening to Millie licking and chewing on what I thought was a plastic water bottle. It wasn't - it was Scott's Lands End boots (oops) and now he has only 1/2 a "tongue" on one boot. We also had to feed Roscoe the squirrel a few times. Mobile squirrel feeding is not for the faint of heart.
McLean's birthday was celebrated on Saturday after we shot my dad's field. We had a party in the field at my dad's little hunting pole barn/lean to thingy. My 97 yr old grandmother even made it out.
Our travel to SC was fun for all. Got to hunt, saw family, friends, lots of good food (fish fry, quail legs, fish stew, slaw from CiCi's and birthday cake) I got to spend a lot of time with my mom on Sunday as well, which was really nice.
The trip back was smooth except that the squirrel's eyes were now open and he could see all the outside squirrely fun world he'd been missing. Can I just say how grateful I am that I put that little bugger in the cat carrier for the trip. When we left he still was blind and stayed put. But once those eyes opened..... feeding him in the car on the way back was - challenging-
I also mentioned that Millie consumed an entire 20lb bag of cat food on Sunday. I wondered why she wasn't real hungry Sunday evening (she did eat her chow though, just slowly). Plus she looked like a helium balloon was trapped in her belly. I am just thankful I didn't hear barfing noises or -worse- explosive poop noises from the back of my truck Monday. I'm pretty sure Scott would have pulled over, given me the keys and walked back to Charlottesville, all the while plotting ways to kill me - then moved out.
*Just kidding honey, I know you try hard to understand - even though you don't :-)
*So far - I can't complain too much and shouldn't be complaining at all - I'm blessed.
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