Must have been a cold night!

This is Linus’ special $200 “supportive memory foam” dog bed. We bought it for him after his spinal cord surgery to support his back. Lucky pooch- he has a fancier bed than Earl and I do! It’s really comfortable to lie on

Welp, I’m off to the pool for a swim in the sunshine! Gorgeous day here in SF…

Today we had our first outing to the beach since Linus’ underwent the knife for back surgery AND ACL surgery. So first time out at the beach since… August 2010. He was PSYCHED!!! He was so happy to be out there again, and honestly we were very happy to see him happy

Even though he mostly stayed on leash and we walked very slowly doing rehab exercises, I could just tell how excited and overjoyed he was to be out there on the sand, hearing the ocean, and seeing other dogs running around and playing!

All in all, we have been *very* happy with his progress from back surgery, although the rehab has been painful, arduous, slow and expensive. Linus walks well now with his rear-support sling, and walks poorly without it. It’s been cool watching him progress! Even little things- seeing him re-learn how to wag his tail (nub), or when he regained the ability to scratch with his back feet- are huge celebrations around these parts.

We don’t know 100% if he’ll walk without assistance ever again, and he could plateau at any time. Although at this point I think while we hope for continued improvement, whatever point he makes it to we will be happy with.

The rehab process, which effective, is both a huge pain in the ass and astronomically pricey. Honestly one of the reasons I haven’t been updating on here is the huge time-sink that it’s been to get Linus back and up on his feet! Every six hours, every day, we give him about 20 minutes worth of physical therapy sessions. Once a week I also take him to acupuncture treatment, with Holly who is wonderful. Also once a week I drive him up to a session with the Dog Physical Therapist, who is an hour and a half outside the city!! So that takes almost the entire day, with three hours of driving and 1 hour of appointment. Then in the meantime he’s been having regular interval checkups with both his orthopedic surgeon (who treated him for a bladder crystals/UTI- a cool $390 we weren’t expecting) and his neurosurgeon.

The exciting news is we saw his neurosurgeon on Wednesday and Linus has been cleared off of “bed rest” (crate rest) which he’s been on for the past two months. So he can now walk around the house! This is happy news for us, because mentally we don’t feel like we’re “trapping” him in his kennel all the time, and also we get to enjoy his company around the house while we get stuff done. It’s a very small thing, but it really makes me happy to hear the pitter patter of little paws underfoot zooming in to vacuum up crumbs in the kitchen while I cook! So funny how you miss those silly little things.

We are also cleared to start walking him longer and longer distances on our 3x daily rehab walks. We get to add one minute per day. This is GREAT because it means we can bring him to the coffee shop again! One of our biggest weekend or weekday routines was to walk over with Linus to Que Tal and sit outside with him on the benches while we enjoyed our morning. I really missed that with him! We would still go over to Que Tal, of course, but it was sad with no friendly faced corgi eagerly accepting pets, treats and attention from everyone who walked by.

Part of the reason I stopped posting for a bit was that I think I was suffering from caregiver fatigue. For the past two months, prettymuch my entire existence has been devoted to getting Linus back up and walking on his feet. We had to carry him everywhere, even in our apartment, up and down stairs constantly all while being terrified we would break his back again by holding him wrong! For the first month, every SINGLE time we walked him 3x a day it took the two of us- one steering the front leash and one supporting him with the back harness. Kind of served as a crash course in intensive relationship counseling “Go left, no go right, you’re going to fast, wait why are you letting him go over there? hey my head is hitting these branches woah watch out wait speed up you’re lagging” etc…

The other reason is that I have been extremely busy. We’ve been heading up to Tahoe to ski almost every single weekend, and then I also am doing school FULL TIME this semester! Yay I love it, but it’s certainly been an adjustment. I’m taking medical terminology, a basic entry level bio, a basic entry level math (to get me up to speed to test into a higher math so I can take physics, chem and whatnot) and yoga. Yes, yoga is a college course around these parts! It’s awesome- 2x a week and I even get 1 credit for it. Next semester Earl and I might take swing dancing together.

So that’s the update! Lots of dog stuff, lots of skiing, lots of studying. I hope you’ve all been well.

I’ll try and post time photos of the rocker therapy balance board Earl and I made for Linus last weekend- it’s a wobble board that he stands on and you coach him to balance while you rock it back and forth. It strengthens his core (which is a lot of what we’ve been working on). Also, I took some great photos of him in the hydrotherapy tank underwater treadmill which he’s been doing once a week, so I’ll get those up soon too. Miss you all Thanks for reading! Cheers.

… says Earl.

I was decorating the tree last night and found Lucy’s elf costume. All cats should have an elf costume

Can’t you tell how much she just LOVES wearing it? heh heh

The funniest part of her wearing this is that immediately after I put this on, we both went downstairs and got distracted doing something else, so poor kitten ending up wearing an elf costume for about three hours. Lol. She was curled up in an disgruntled ball with her back to everything when we found her!

Both trees are up, and the stockings are hung. I haven’t hung any outside lights yet, mainly because it’s been raining, raining, raining almost every day here (or, at least raining on all of my days off!), so I may have to skip the light hanging this year. I’m a little freaked to climb up on the roof and be nailing stuff into the house if it’s at all slippery… give it another week and see if I can find a nice sunny day to attempt.

Finally had the time and enough of a clear head to write out a full post detailing exactly what happened yesterday.

Yesterday at about 11:30am (my day off… thank GOD I was home/around), due to the rapid deterioration of what had previously been our dog’s slight limp, I rushed him to our Orthopedic surgeon vet. It came out of nowhere… it was almost like he was getting worse by the minute. By the time we were at that vet he was completely dragging his back right foot (not the leg he’d had ACL surgery on).

The orthopedic surgeon, who had repaired dogger’s ACL just five weeks ago, quickly assessed and determined this was neurological, spinal related issue and referred us to his colleague, the Neurologist Surgeon Vet at the Specialist/emergency pet hospital clear across town. He called his direct line and got us right in. We headed over. I did my very best to use every rapid but gentle code 3 low g-force driving maneuver I had in my arsenal because poor puppeh quivered and shook in pain with every single bump and turn.

After a very detailed assessment the surprisingly (!!) young and handsome Neurologist informed me that the dog needed to have surgery that night, asap, and he could hopefully repair him to full function. He gave us a 90% odds of a full recovery. “Recovery” in this case meaning the dog would be able to walk and urinate on his own. The alternative to the surgery is that the dog would be paralyzed, not able to walk, urinate or defecate on his own, and would most likely have to be put down.

By this time Linus couldn’t even walk with EITHER back leg, he would just drag them behind him… sadly all askew at odd angles and folded over onto each other all mangled up looking

It was getting late (3:30pm). The neurologist had scrubbed out from supervising ANOTHER surgery to see us. He would have to go finish that one 1st then call in his Emergency Night Surgery Team to work on our pooch- they would start at about 8pm through midnight or whenever they were done.

“I’m going to give you a few minutes to decide what you want to do.”

Fucking hell.

The projected cost was 6k. Have I mentioned that you have to pay the entire cost up front?

He’s 7 years old. We’ve only had him 2 years. He’s a HUGE part of our lives… a beloved member of our family. But 6k isn’t mere pocket change to us. It was really tough decision.

Particularly when your significant other is at his office, ducking out from a meeting to have this conversation over the phone, can’t look each other in the eye or give each other a hug, and you both feel totally blindsided because this decision just came out of absolutely no where.

Remember this cheesy but kinda nice 90′s song…?

Specifically, the part where it says,

“The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind: the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.”

…. seems pretty darn accurate right now.

We decided to do the surgery.

In a nutshell, our rationale was basically, “he’s been a good dog.” Linus has been nothing short of incredibly loyal to us. We would be loyal to him.

Could you say no to this face?

Sticker shock?

itemized breakdown:

Back on the homefront, kitten (sportin her OWN post-op cone of shame) swooped in to enjoy her newfound status as Sole Possessor of All Beds in The House:

Today we sat on tenterhooks for call from the surgeon about how it went, and if he’s walking yet. I was participating in (trapped in!) this all-day mandatory training session with these tough macho Paramedics and firefighter-type dudes. Didn’t know many of them that well. Was the only girl at the meeting. Every time my mind would drift off protocols and wander to Buddy, wondering how he was doing and if he was gonna pull through… my damn eyes would start tearing up. Not exactly the best environment to bring on the waterworks!!! Tried to play it off like allergies and my sniffles like a cold. Don’t know if I fooled ‘em. Freaking sucked.

Got off work, met up with nerdlove and beelined to the good meat market where we stocked up on thick cut, high quality bacon. Cooked it up and off we went to visiting hours at what is basically the doggy ICU.

He’s not walking yet, but he’s alive and his ears perked up when he saw us.

Rear legs still sadly draggin. They psuedo-carried him out to us in sort of a rear end hoist, with him walking on his front legs only.

ze coup de grâce:

If he doesn’t walk within 2-3 days, we’ll know the surgery was a failure. Can hardly bear to write that out, it’s deeply troubling just to contemplate.

I guess… if he doesn’t make it and after all this we still have to put him down… (not like in that case we would get reimbursed for the procedure!) I won’t regret it. Ultimately I guess it’s good to err on the side of your heart when making a decision like this, and not your wallet.

3 days. 3 days to walk on his own.

Please send vibes for Linus!

Walk, Linus, Walk…

PLEASE FUCKING WALK, dammit.

good dog.

Making a run for it:

This is Flea, our neighbor’s cat. She was hanging out in the sunbeam on the railing of our porch when I went out there this morning to water the plants.

She’s a little stand-offish, but sometimes friendly (I believe Earl warmed her up with some Kitty Greenies before). This morning after I saw her and grabbed my phone to catch a shot, Linus loped over to her spot beneath the railing, butt wagging, and attempted to dopily make friends. Flea rebuffed his advances, hissed, and made this speedy exit to a neighbor’s fire escape.

She’s a handsome girl, though… another time I will have to try for a better shot!

I know my keyboard is crinkly and my laptop is located in the sunbeam, however NO SITTING ON MY COMPUTER, Confounded Feline!

Just look at that guilty expression on her face! She knows she is not supposed to be there!

*yawn* I just got home from a 24hr shift this morning, took a nap and woke up. Now off to walk the dog to the park, run some errands and then attend a lecture series tonight and the gym. Computer will be closed and relocated out of the sunbeam to make it less enticing to cat butts.

Woke up this morning to the following email blast from my SF Corgi listserve:

Some of you may have seen the news about an early morning fire at the
Berkeley Humane Society shelter. They fire destroyed a significant
portion of their facility including their cat shelter and all of their
offices.

They are heartbroken to have lost a number of cats during the fire,
but about a dozen cats and all of the dogs were saved.

They are in need of emergency assistance both in the form of
individuals who can temporarily foster animals, as well as immediate
financial donations. Once the situation is further stabilized they
will need volunteers for cleanup and recovery.

As their offices were destroyed and their utilities cut, their phones
are out and they are coordinating all efforts from their website.

www.berkeleyhumane.org

Thank you!

So sad! Heartwrenching to think of the cats that perished in the fire

I just emailed them to help volunteer with the cleanup and we may also temporarily foster (if they have a dog or cat who would get along with another dog and cat!). Perhaps you would like to help out as well? They are looking for people to help clean, temporarily foster animals and also monetary donations. I’m sure spreading the news of their situation on your website, twitter or facebook would help too. Find out more updates and how you can help here on their website: www.berkeleyhumane.org

Here is hoping they get back on their feet quickly and back to helping animals in need!

Aww, man. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get out of bed to go to the gym when you’re taking a nap and the cat crawls up on your chest, takes perch, and purrs up a storm?

It was like she was physically holding me down with her paws and lulling me back into snooze with that hypnotic purr. I’ll admit- I txt’d E to bail on the gym and fell back asleep for another two hours. ZZZzzz. *yawn*

…. dogs so funny lookin when they pose upside down?

I reckon it’s the goofy expression:

Tried on cats. Doesn’t work.

(also, based on my sample size of one, cats seem far less inclined to pose upside down and must be bribed with chin scratches).

Curled up with a dog, a cat and a good book.

Not to mention unending boxes of tissues.