Blue

Introducing the newest member of our family... Blue the Beta Fish!  We picked him out at the pet store today.  When we were looking at all the fish he pointed at the one he wanted and said "So cute fish" so blue came home with us.

Blue eats beta fish food which Trevor calls "balls" because they are little round pellets.  And when we feed blue he says "Blue play ball" because Blue has a hard time sometime actually fitting the pellets in his mouth so he most times bounces it off his "nose" (umm what do you call it?) a few times before eating it.  Lately I've been chopping them in half so he can eat them easier.  Gee, I have a spoiled fish. 

Every morning when he gets up Trevor says over and over, "Say hi Blue, Say hi Fish."  Jayden likes to watch him and points at him and says "Zis" and acts like she wants to touch the tank but when I put her too close to him she whines and leans back.  She doesn't want to get too close.

"Meatball"

On December 2nd we added a new member to the family. We got a 1 year old guinea pig. His given name by previous family was meatball. I thought it was kind of funny but we decided to change it to Oreo. Trevor loves to hang out with Oreo. The first thing Trevor does every morning is to run up to Oreo's cage and talk to him. He talks in a really high pitch amost squeal type voice. This tone is reserved only for Oreo. We've never heard him "talk" like this at any other time. Trevor has stuck his finger in the cage a few times and Oreo's nibbles scared him a bit. But Oreo didn't bite hard. He now knows not to stick his finger near Oreo's mouth.

Sad Day

Today we had to put our dog Kodi to sleep. :o( He's been suffering from siezures for the last 2 years or so and it was a really bad weekend for him. He's had about 15 siezures in the last 48 hours or so. I'm going into alot of detail in this and of course it's not pretty. More for therapy for myself than anything else. So as a little disclaimer, if you don't want all of the details I wouldn't read any further.

I think the first times was the hardest thing I've ever had to witness. He had what was called Grand Mal Siezures. Really, really bad ones. Some of them lasting nearly 5 minutes from start to finish. That first week was a long one. He had them about 3 hours apart like clockwork. The vet doped him up with Phenobarbital and sent us home in hopes that they would stop when the meds kicked in. They didn't, so back we went and the vet doped him up with Valium that made him somewhat of a semi conscious state for about 2 days. The valium I guess in a way can work almost as a "reset button" for the brain and nervous system. I prayed that when he came out of it the siezures would stop and he would be our happy healthy dog again.

About 3 days later he was *nearly* back to himself and the siezures stopped. We continued the Pheno for 6 months 2 times a day, never missing a pill. After a check up the vet was hopeful that since he hadn't had a siezure in 6 months that we should back him off the meds and see what happens. We cut back to 1/2 a pill twice a day, then half a pill once a day and still no siezures. All was well for about 3 weeks if I remember correctly. Then the siezures started up again. So the vet said that Kodi would have to be on 1 pill 2x a day for the rest of his life. We had to be really carefull never to miss a pill.

Long term Pheno use can cause some pretty severe liver damage so we had to routinely monitor the levels in his blood to make sure we weren't causing him harm. There's also a whole bunch of other problems that it could cause from what I understand. He has occasionally had a siezure here or there. And sometimes when we woke up in the morning we would suspect he had one because his bowls would be knocked over or he would be acting oddly. It was something that we had come to terms with and were able to handle.

Fast forward to Saturday, Trav calls me at work and said that Kodi had a siezure. Then about 3 hours later he had another, and another. Gave me flashbacks to the first go around. He was having "cluster siezures" again. Cluster siezures can be very dangerous. His body wouldn't even be recovered from one and he'd start again. After he came out of siezure he was very unpredictable. Sometimes a little snarly and snappy, understandably so. I couldn't blame him. The vet had told us after a siezure there can be temporary blindness and hearing loss due to the lack of blood circulating to the brain. The vet had told us last time that every cluster siezure he has could cause damage.

Trav and I that night had a long talk and came to the conclusion that it was best for Kodi to end his suffering. It was a very tough conclusion to come to but the alternatives were potentially tough choices as well. If we up'd his meds any more it was sure to cause harm to him. He definately suffering. If he was upstairs with us he was whining and pacing the whole time. If he was outside or in the basement he was howling. We also had to consider the potential he had to harm Trevor if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time someday when Kodi came out of a siezure.

I haven't slept much the last 2 nights. I wanted to spend time with Kodi sitting and cuddling with him but all he would do was pace. He wouldn't sit still. :o( We had some valium left over from the first time so we gave him a few doses of valium on sunday. It wasn't enough to knock him out but it seemed to help just a little bit. Sunday evening he didn't have any more but he was still acting odd. Pacing and whining and doing the howling thing. It was erie.

So this morning I made the call to my Vet. He's a wonderful person and was very understanding. I just couldn't keep it together and choke out the words of what was going on. He understood what I meant even though I couldn't bring myself to say it. And he thought that we had made the right decision for Kodi. I told him that I wanted to wait until later that afternoon so that I could spend some time with Kodi today.

We were blessed with a warm, beautiful fall day and spent alot of time outside. He was *almost* back to his usual self which in someways made it harder, and in other ways better. Harder because it made me question if we were doing the right thing. Better because that was more how I wanted to remember him. He chased a rabbit and a squirrel while I was raking leaves. I threw the tennis ball alot for him to fetch. He chewed on a few sticks, played in the leaves, pretty much did all of his favorite things. He ate a rotten green tomato that was left over from our tomato plants. Normally I would have scolded him but I didn't see the point.

We took some pictures, he and Trevor played a little in the leaves. Trav gave him a big hunk of ham which normally would not have been something he would have gotten to eat. He got tons of treats and of course tons of hugs and kisses from me. I'm so glad it was a nice day.

When it was time to go I leashed him up and as always he picked up his leash and carried it in his mouth. He has done that ever time I've ever leashed him ever since the first time I took him for a walk when he was just a puppy. He was happy to go in the van which of course made me sad. Like any dog, he loves a car ride, no matter what the trip. The whole way there he sat right beside me and was such a good boy. Usually he tries to run around the car like crazy, but he was strangely mellow. I imagine he was sensing my mood.

Our vets office has a really nice little pond with a waterfall and a bench. We sat there for a bit before going in. I had pretty much started to lose it by that point. I'm really thankful that they got us in a room pretty much right away. We gave him a bunch more treats that were in the room. When the vet came in the room he had only kind reassuring words. Neither Trav nor I wanted to be present. Last night I was thinking that I did, that I owed him that to be by his side. And that I wanted to remember him peacefully going to sleep. But after spending the early afternoon with him, I decided that was how I wanted to remember him, bounding joyfully around the yard like he always did.

Walking into the house on the way home carrying his leash and collar in my hands the tags jingled like they always did when he was running around and it rattled me a bit. Walking into the house and it was completely silent, seeing the door to the stairwell left open by my brother in his rush to leave for work. No need to shut it since Kodi was no longer in the basement stairwell where we kept him when we couldn't keep a close eye on him. These things really made it hit home that he was really gone and that I would not see him again. I'm sure over the next few days/weeks alot of things like this will hit me. I'm sure unconsciously I'll think about letting him out, giving him his pill or feeding him.

~Sigh~ I know we made the right decision for him but damn is this tough to deal with. And of course I'm an emotional pregnant girl right now anyway. I have some other stuff to update and maybe I'll be back later tonight to do that, or maybe not. Anyways here's some pictures, puppy pics of Kodi and some taken today.

Some pictures and HAPPY ramblings

Saturday, May 06, 2006
Some pictures and HAPPY ramblings Current mood: bored
As some of you have noticed last night and today, I'm experimenting with getting photos in my blog... and today I have success!!! (FYI... to put photos in your blog all you have to do is copy and paste from somewhere... but first they need too be a smallish pic or they are huge in here. I uploaded to flickr and just use the the thumbnail picture to copy and viola!) Jeez this only took me about 5 hours of experimenting to figure out. Who woulda thunk that the simplest means would be what it took, I was trying html code and all kinds of crap.
Ok, so now that I know how to share pictures I'll share some of my favorites of what's been going on this past week.

The pictures above were taken Friday. Trevor discovered the stairs. He really seemed to enjoy climbing up the stairs and found his way into his own bedroom to get into stuff. His room is a big mess right now, pretty much covered in clothes given to him by Grandma B.

The 3 photos above pretty much sum up his personality recently. The first one shows his 2 new teeth that are coming in, though not very clearly. The 2nd is his favorite lounging position when he's in his high chair. He does that all the time. And the 3rd... he is climbing on EVERYTHING his swing is no longer a swing, apparently it's a jungle gym!

And lastly... those of you who "know" my dog will get a kick out of this. Kodi gets really hot in the summer (he has seizures and his coat is really thick.) Well we decided to shave him. I'm a DIY kinda gal and couldn't bring myself to pay $80 to get him shaved when you can buy clippers for $20. His coat must be pretty rough on the clippers though because they crapped out over halfway through. So now Kodi's sporting a Lion 'do. It's really funny, pictures just don't do it justice. His coat that is left is super soft and reminds me of a baby lamb. Hmmmm a cross between a lion and and a lamb. That's kind of ironic!

I just couldn't stop laughing once we got to this point. We exchanged the clippers to finish up but I'm kinda enjoying having a pet "lion" hehehehe he doesn't seem to notice. I suppose if it nice out tomorrow I'll finish it up. In case you're wondering Kodi is 1/2 black lab, 1/4 golden retriever, 1/4 Siberian husky.

Hehehehe and I have to share this picture. Our idea to shave Kodi came from Trav's mom last summer who shaved their dog. So this is Charlie sporting her new 'do. Sorry Jamie for scamming your picture but I had to... I nearly fell outta my chair laughing when I saw it. Poor dog looks like a cartoon. LMAO... I'm still laughing 3 days later. Trav said she looked pretty funny and I haven't seen her yet.

Well that's it for me tonight. Trevor's on a warpath tonight... what a crabby butt. Laterz
Oh and by the way Lisa... Trevor was born 8-24-05. So he's 8 months old