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Today we had to let Logan go. She was experiencing more difficulties related to her liver cancer, and we decided that it was time for her to go before it got any worse. It was really, really hard, and right now we’re back at home lavishing attention on Brodie, who seems slightly confused but not averse to all the love. Here’s to Logan, who was an awesome dog.
Last weekend we had some sunny patches, and it came in at just the right place so the dogs could enjoy it during their afternoon naps.
In the photo above, you can see Brodie’s funny habit of stretching his legs straight out while he sleeps. You’d think he’d relax enough to let them go. Of course when I went over to take photos Logan perked up a little. She’s still hanging in there, though this week has been rough for her. She doesn’t have too many days left, I don’t think. All the more reason to spoil her while we can.
You can really see the Cushing’s showing in her skull now – the shape of her head has definitely changed. You can also see her spine standing out in this shot. Look at those lovely eyes, though. She’s such a good girl.
And, so we don’t end on such a downer note, here’s Brodie again. You can’t see it, but he was totally sawing logs when I took this shot.
Logan‘s been having a rough time of it lately. She’s about 16 and over the past few years she developed canine Cushing’s, which means that her adrenal gland produces an excess of cortisol. She has luckily not suffered from many of the negative side effects of the condition, for which we’re quite grateful. In the past few months, though, her appearance has really changed and you can see the Cushing’s showing itself in what we call her Logansaurus Rex backbone. Most recently she was diagnosed with liver cancer. It’s pretty advanced and any treatments we might pursue would cause her a lot of stress and pain, and would be unlikely to have much impact, so we’ve decided to let her be.
We’re seeing some signs that the cancer is affecting her, but she isn’t really bothered by them, so we’re trying not to worry about them. She’s definitely not in any pain (she’s always been vocal about expressing even minor discomfort). When she had the x-ray and ultrasound that confirmed her cancer, her liver was three or more times as big as it should be, so along with the Cushing’s, that means that her torso appears to be huge compared to her back end. She’s still eating well and enjoying bellyrubs, though. Even though her liver is ostensibly squishing all her other internal bits, she doesn’t seem to notice. She also has what K refers to as Dogsheimer’s – she’ll zone out just standing around for increasing lengths of time. She’s also started to show another symptom of Cushing’s, hind end weakness, over the last week or so. She isn’t confident enough to get up the stairs on her own, though going down the stairs she’s fine. Despite that, though, she is pretty spry and comes around begging for petting just like she always has. She adores the uber-stinky liver treats we’ve been giving her (vet’s orders) for the past few months. She can smell their disgustingness from the next room and still comes running when it’s treat time.
She is such a great dog! We’re so happy that she’s hanging on and hanging out with us for a while longer. I highly recommend the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue, through which I got her back at the beginning of the aughts. So, the other day it was an adorable little bunny I found in the yard, and today it was two dead moles. Blech!
They weren’t next to each other, and they were just laying on top of the straw near the new raised beds. I could see a few places where the straw and ground were disturbed, so theoretically that’s where they came up, I suppose. I know that Logan snuck back there a few nights ago (it is fenced off but with plastic chicken wire, so she managed to sneak through), but could she really have dispatched these two guys so efficiently and then come right back inside the house? Back at the old house in Mount P., she killed three possums on separate occasions – and they were much larger than these moles (which are about the size of my palm – same relative size as the cute bunny the other day) so I suppose she’s capable of having done it. My other theory is that some neighbors put out poison and the moles for some reason decided to come to our yard to die. Anyone know anything more about moles? It was gorgeous yesterday so when we were both home from work, K and I took the dogs for a walk and I spent a few minutes snapping some photos of the crocuses, which are now blooming. I planted these along the front border of the front garden (nee front yard):
They’re so tiny but so satisfying. The tulips under the red maple tree are also sprouting more by the day:
I suppose I should probably clean up these old leaves sometime soon. In the back yard, I noticed that there’s something sprouting in the AC unit garden. I think it might be daylilies? They seem to crop up in this area every year, though I have been moving them to another bed:
While we were hanging around in the back yard, Logan was keeping close by me. She’s such a lovey dog, but she can be slightly camera-shy. She didn’t want to look at me, but I did manage to snap a nice profile:
More photos at Flickr. I was struggling with what to be for Halloween this year, and it was suggested to me that I dress as Coraline. How perfect is that?! So I started putting together a costume. For reference, here’s what she looks like:
So my list includes: yellow slicker I’ve had quite a lot of good luck so far:
Now I need to find some tights and pick up some blue hairspray. I have a reddish brown corduroy skirt in my closet that will work unless I find something better. It’s all coming together! Bonus follow-up to yesterday’s pirate dress post: Logan making a pirate face:
I returned from ALA to find that the veg gardens are growing by leaps and bounds! So are the weeds, of course, and this morning I spent some time listening to podcasts of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and clearing out of a bunch of those.
I was thrilled to find cucumbers and squash:
There are also some green tomatoes, which I didn’t manage to take any photos of. I ripped out the remaining pea vines and gave up on the beans (I planted some seeds left over from last year, and they never got any taller than about eight inches).
I’ve also got garlic and lettuce and potatoes that are ready to go or will be soon. Hooray for growing your own food! Finally, look how cute Logan is:
Awww. More photos on Flickr. I managed to get some more gardening in today before the rainstorm came in (seems like we have one a day lately) and I put in a bunch more veg seeds, including celery, two kinds of lettuce, three kinds of carrots, broccoli, and cabbage.
While I was doing that, K was mowing the back yard, which had gotten very tufty. It’s mostly weed grass which seems to grow extremely rapidly.
The dogs love the freshly cut grass, despite the multitude of bumps and lumps in the yard (we theorize that the previous owners buried bodies back there). Logan especially took advantage:
She’s so coy, as if it’s possible to resist her pleas for a bellyrub anyway. I also planted some sunflowers, corn, and potatoes (K helped!) in the fence-side veg bed.
All of this before the rainstorm! I’m feeling pretty good about having gotten this stuff done today, though I’ll be even happier when things start sprouting. The sun is shining today and it is beautiful! I spent most of the day at work focus group-ing, but the sun is still a-shinin’! I got the car washed and the ice that has been covering our street is melting. The amaryllis is still going like crazygonuts, too.
There are new blooms coming in in the middle of this cluster:
The dogs are enjoying the sun and being able to take their time outside. Inside, they’re taking full advantage of the sunny spots.
So sleepy!
More pics at my Flickr, as usual. It snowed a crapload today, bleh! I am so tired of winter already. At least with two of us, Karl and I only had to snowblow the driveway once each. Still!
The dogs were not amused, especially when the snow got up to the same height as Brodie’s belly (some time after the photo above was taken). He had to stomp out a little area to do his beezness at the back of the yard. He was, as you can imagine, pretty tired after that.
Logan was jealous so I took her photo, too.
Of course she refused to actually look at me. |
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