Good Riddance January!

I could not be more grateful to have January coming up in the rearview mirror! What a month it has been. I am hoping that February will be a better month at our house. 

To start, many, many thanks for all the good and healing vibes for Todd. 

He has healed well and uneventfully and the stitches have been removed. **And I'll add for newer readers, who may not know, Todd at almost 12 years old, belongs to us and is not a foster dog - We've had him since he was a 12 week old puppy. ❤

~Stitches out - the healing continues~

The past month has been filled with trying to find and get back that balance. Yes, the dogs appear to have moved on from everything, but I'm still stuck back at that moment I arrived home at the start of January. Friends that have unfortunately found themselves in a similar situation, tell me that just as it is with Todd, something like this takes time to heal, and I think we are. 

~Milo makes any day better~

Life continues whether I wanted it to or not, and in the rain, snow and cold, I still had to go to work. 

~On my way to work on a snowy morning~

Vet appointments made weeks ago still needed to be kept. 

Marley saw the ophthalmologist for a follow up. The higher dose of the eye medication, (tacrolimus) is making a difference and his eyes are looking better. He'll have another recheck in 3 months to be sure.

~A tired Marley on his way home~

Iva was also at the vet for a skin infection, and hot spot. The good news for her is that her weight loss journey is getting results. She now weighs in at 88 pounds and has lost a total of 32 pounds. Yay Iva!! As you know, she is a foster dog, and the journey also continues to find her forever family, that I so hope comes soon. 

Lily also saw the holistic vet. She's so nervous when taken anywhere, that I decided to add Marley as a comfort dog for her. Wholistic Vet has such a dog friendly office, and she and Marley were totally comfortable and relaxed during the visit. 

~Marley, left playing the roll of comfort dog for Lily~

We now have a plan for Lily going forward that doesn't cure her cancer, but hopefully will slow down its progress. She's now taking 3 Chinese herbs and we've added CBD oil to help alleviate her anxiety. 

~Lily, as relaxed as she can be~

And as I have already said, and as we all know, somehow and someway life goes on and I know it needs to. And a good cup of hot chocolate shared with a friend really helps with that. So, onward we go. 🖤

How Fast Things Change

For the most part, things have been going pretty well at our house. Despite a few things, the dogs have all been in a pretty good place. But we all know that things can and do sometimes change quickly.  

With that I'll start by saying that we've not had any real issues that felt like I was totally being knocked off my feet. That is not until this past Tuesday. 

When I arrived home on Tuesday evening from work Iva was outside barking, and inside it was chaos because Carl was trying to get Todd back into his crate -- The rest of the dogs were equally upset barking and running between me and Carl. A few minutes before there had been a fight between Todd and Iva, and Carl was trying to see how badly Todd had been injured. We got him into the office, but were not able to handle him without his whining, crying and snapping at us. This was not good. We finally got Todd into his crate to settle him down, and for a moment turned our attention to Iva. 

Thankfully we found no injuries on Iva except for a scape on her muzzle. It was a totally different story for Todd. We knew he needed to see a vet and after a phone call to an urgent vet, Carl was quickly on his way. Of course I wanted to take him, but we felt that Carl taking Todd was better because the dogs needed to be fed and settled down and I was best to do that - Also, not knowing how long he'd be gone, Carl could take the next day off work, where I can't as easily. 

So, I got everyone fed and settled and I waited for news from Carl. He would arrive back home at about 2 AM with Todd who'd had emergency surgery. He has several stitches, and 2 drains in his neck. 

The drains were removed on Friday and for the most part, aside from some swelling, the vet said his injuries are healing as well as they can. Todd is being crated most of the time, and is allowed to interact with most of the dogs when going outside, except Iva.

~Inside the urgent vet on Friday~

Unfortunately we don't know what caused this fight. Todd and Iva were the only 2 outside together, as they have been many times. In the more than a year that Iva has been here, there have been no issues between the two of them. What happened and how it happened is only a guess. But my thought is that it was maybe a tennis ball. Carl plays ball with the dogs every evening, Todd plays ball by himself, and one may not have gotten picked up outside. Which is where the fight was.  If one of them had found a ball that had not been collected, and the other wanted it and didn't want to give it up, I think that's why a  fight may have started. I only say this, because later Milo had a tennis ball, and I don't know where he found it - But all this is just a guess. 

I am still reeling emotionally from this. I am at a low and feeling heartbroken, discouraged, sad, depressed, guilty and so many other things for so many reasons. And I am worrying about what's ahead as far as Todd's recovery and he and Iva co-existing together. I just hope with some time we will know the answers and can go back to those days we were having, even a week ago. I just hope .... and hope .... and hope some more.