Monday, November 30, 2009

Seriously, Henry? Seriously???

Everyday Henry looks a little better! We're still concerned about a few issues, but we're starting to see our old Henry again. He's still hobbling around and has to take the stairs really slowly. I'm not sure which leg is causing the most trouble but his front legs are still a bit stiff and he has an open wound on the right one. He has not been eating well and I have no idea what to do about it. He doesn't like the wet dog food we bought him, so we started feeding him chicken and he seemed to like that for a day and then wouldn't eat it. We then fed him his normal dog food mixed with mashed potatoes and warm water to make it soft. He ate some of that, but then stopped. This morning I chopped some chicken up into very small pieces and he wanted to eat it, but his mouth was sore, and his lower front teeth are all broken which I think is causing him some trouble with getting food into his mouth. So, I spoon fed it to him and he did pretty well with that. One of the major problems we're having is that he won't take his pain meds......we have to wrap the pills up in meat, scrambled eggs or cheese and try and trick him, and occasionally he'll eat it without chewing and swallow the pills but most of the time he eats whatever treat we've given him and spits the pill out. Without the pain meds, he is hurting which means it is painful to eat, so he just doesn't eat. Which leads me to another concern.....he hasn't pooped since before the accident. It makes sense that if he isn't eating, he wouldn't be pooping, but he's had at least 1/4 to 1/2 cup of some type of food for the last couple days and still NO poop. I wonder how long this can continue?? Mostly Henry has been sleeping, sometimes in our bedroom, sometimes on the living room rug, sometimes on his dog bed. He has gone under our kitchen table once to see if the girls dropped anything that he might want to eat, and he now gets up and comes into the kitchen when we are cooking something both of which are very Henry-ish things to do. Tyson has been a very good boy around Henry. He sleeps next to him, and has been really gentle.

It's wonderful that Henry is healing but I seriously wanted to kill him this morning! The girls and I were getting ready to leave the house and go to the park. I had already got their shoes on, was rounding up sippy cups and my car keys and I heard the front door squeak open. I dropped my keys on the kitchen floor and RAN to the front door just in time to see both Tyson and Henry fly out the front door, down the brick steps and into the street. I yelled at the girls to stay on the front porch and I sprinted as fast as I could down our street chasing after the dogs. Thank goodness Henry is still healing and can't run very fast (normally he is super fast) and I was able to catch up to him before he crossed one of our busy neighborhood intersections. I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck on his back because he hasn't been wearing his collar since the accident and I dragged (slowly walked) him back home. As I was walking with him, his limp was worse than it was earlier that morning and he was wheezing from the exhaustion of his short run with bruised lungs. STUPID. STUPID DOG! I can not believe that he would do that to himself again. I got him inside, checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding anywhere and then went outside to wait for Tyson to come back. Without Henry running around with him, Tyson always comes back to the house after he pees on stuff. Tyson came home after a couple of minutes, I put him inside and checked Henry again just to make sure he was okay......which he was. I then gave him a stern talking to and told him he is grounded for the rest of his life. We bought a wireless pet fence the day Henry was in the hospital......apparently we need to get it set up a.s.a.p.......I never would have dreamed he would try and escape this soon after his accident while he is still in so much pain. Urgh!!!! Hopefully his wild run didn't cause him any more damage. What am I going to do with this dog?!? Spoon feed him I guess! :)





I've got a case of the Mondays

I'm not having a great day. Both Charlotte and I are sick.....again! I'm trying to clean up the post Thanksgiving mess that is my house, I have about 10 pounds of dog hair all over the floors since the dogs are now inside full time, Maddie has been majorly protesting sleep and I'm still dealing with a banged up, not eating, hasn't pooped in 6 days dog. I feel like curling up in my warm and cozy bed and telling the girls (and dogs) to look after themselves for the rest of the afternoon. Yeah right!

And for a little added fun-ness this morning, Charlotte decided the best thing to do with a found marker was to add some writing to Daddy's psychology text book......and her face.......and her hands.......and all over her pajamas. I'm all for artistic expression, but what is it with kids and writing on themselves? I couldn't get mad at her, it was my own fault for actually thinking I might try and get some of the dog hair vacuumed up while they were watching cartoons. I took the marker away, told her it was a no-no and went about trying to scrub the blue off her face and hands. Not much came off, and we got some weird looks at the park, but eventually it will fade.......something I've learned from the 25 other times my kids have markered themselves! I brought her over to the mirror so she could see her handy work, and she smiled this huge smile and said, "Pretty Char-yette!" So, there ya go!

Hopefully Dan wasn't planning to sell his book!




STINKER

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving: a photo blog

This year Thanksgiving was at our house. I was slightly nervous because I've never hosted an event that is as food/labor intensive as the big turkey day feast. But everything went really smoothly! I made almost everything the day before and all we had to do was deep fry the turkey, stick lots-o-casserole dishes in the oven and wait for family to bring the remainder of the food. Everything was really delicious, (I did eat too much!) and overall it was a really relaxing day spent in good company! I tried to take very candid shots so I would have an accurate portrayal of the day.........

Chris and Jen

Baby Norah

Grandma and Papa

The Moo

Kiddie table

Kellen


Poor Henry

Tyson

Hannah

Hailey

Dan Dan the carving man

The feast


Charlotte

Angela and Erin

Erin and the Dad

Feasting

Dessert with labels
(thanks Hannah, we might have been very confused!)

Dan's plate full of dessert

My pumpkin mousse parfait

One side of Chapin

Super Dan?

Kellen who sometimes looks like a serial killer

Sunny Maddie

The mom

After she wiped her nose she rubbed it on her head! :)

Erin doesn't like this picture, but I think it's lovely!

The Schultz/Smith/Watkins family (I don't know Chapin or Jen's last names)
Poor Charlotte is not visible :(

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Henry is home

Henry is home! He made it through the night and his breathing didn't get any worse. They did discover that his jaw was broken and had to put him under anesthesia for surgery. They took x-rays, wired his jaw together and had to remove his broken tooth through his nasal canal. He's still a little doped up and he's bleeding and limps when he walks but he's home! He just ate some dog food and Dan has taken him out to go to the bathroom. He can't be unsupervised for the next two weeks, and can't go outside except to eliminate and he has to be leashed. He's not supposed to be around Tyson, but we are ignoring that rule and Tyson is being really gentle. He has pain meds and antibiotics to take for the next few days. Hopefully he'll heal up quickly because it's really hard to see him like this, but I'm so thankful that he's home.....just in time for Thanksgiving!!

It's worth it

Just in case you were debating whether or not to have children close in age, I have posted photographic documentation below of my opinion. My girls are 19 1/2 months apart. Yes, it's hard especially when Charlotte was first born and Maddie was basically a baby herself, but in a lot of ways it's easier! They are best buddies, they are interested in the same things, they play well together and maybe we just lucked out, but they are mostly very kind and loving to one another. They look out for one another. I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to spend 24 hours with just one child. At first it was really nice.....only one mouth to feed, only one little person to diaper and bathe and only one child vying for my attention, but as our time together wore on, I found myself having to constantly entertain Charlotte. She followed me around endlessly and I found that I could get nothing else done. She missed having her sister to play with! I missed the distraction that Maddie provides and the squealing and giggling that fills the house when the two of them are together. It is often a difficult balance having two girls so close in age, and for sure it is more work in terms of daily maintenance. But, the benefits greatly outweigh the challenges! I love that they are growing up together, that their memories of childhood will be the same in the sense that they will be doing the same things at the same times. There was a very large gap in age between my brothers and me, and it was like we were in totally different worlds throughout childhood. It wasn't until I was in my 20's that we had anything in common and that gap leveled out. If I was given the opportunity to go back in time and change my decision to have my girls so close together, I wouldn't change a thing.....in fact I might have had them a little closer in age! It's worth it!










Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Pray for Henry!

This morning I was jarred awake by Dan telling me that Henry our dog was hit by a car. I shot out of bed, grabbed Charlotte and joined my husband, 4 police men and animal control in the search for our injured dog.

Dan was leaving the house this morning to take Maddie to preschool and in the shuffle of getting the kids and jackets and sippy cups out the door, Maddie opened the front door and both dogs ran outside. They have been known to escape on occasion but normally they stay in the general vicinity of our neighbors yards and then make their way home. Dan took the girls to preschool and on his way home he saw a police sheriff out on the highway near our house looking around the woods. I'm not exactly clear on the following events, but eventually Dan saw Tyson by the woods.....Tyson wouldn't come to Dan so he walked over to where he was and saw Henry laying on the grass panting. As he got closer, Henry stood up and hobbled to get away from Dan. Thus ensuing the chase for Henry. Our poor dog was limping and bleeding and he didn't recognize Dan, or how to come home even when we were standing in the front yard and calling for him. He eventually gave up the chase and ended up on our neighbors backyard deck. Dan and the animal control lady lifted him on a blanket, put him in the back of our car and Dan drove him to the animal hospital.

The sheriff told us that he was driving down the highway and saw the entire thing. Henry darted into the road and an SUV hit him.....the vehicle made contact with Henry's head and right side. The driver of the SUV slowed down slightly and then just drove off. What kind of person hits a dog and then drives away without at least seeing if the animal is okay? If I were ever to hit an animal with my car, I would do everything I could to make sure it was okay or find the owners. Heck, I even try and take care of healthy animals that I find......I can't tell you how many times I've brought animals I've found home with me. Dan never lets me keep them, but I always do my best to take care of them until someone else can take over. I truly hope that whoever ran over Henry has a guilty conscience and trouble digesting their Thanksgiving dinner!!

When the sheriff was getting ready to leave our house, he asked me if our dogs have been together for a long time. He told us that Tyson wouldn't leave Henry's side the entire time. He was trying to protect him, and Tyson is the reason we even found Henry hurt, and lying in the grass in the first place! What a good boy Tyson is! 5 years ago, we got our dogs as puppies a month apart and from different litters, but they are brothers through and through. We've always known that our dogs would protect us if necessary, and it's so amazing to see it first hand......brother's protecting each other. This information from the sheriff brought both Dan and I to tears. We have phenomenal dogs!

Henry is staying at the animal hospital overnight. They have him hooked up to an IV with fluids and pain medication and they took x-rays. He has a fracture on his pelvis which they aren't too concerned about and he lost one of his teeth.....they still have to determine whether the tooth came out completely, or broke off. If the tooth is broken they will need to pull it out. Our biggest concerns are that the x-rays showed that his lungs are bruised which is causing breathing troubles and the fact that his front legs are stiff and won't bend without force which could indicate spinal trauma. Hopefully both of these issues will resolve themselves with rest and constant monitoring. The doctors have said that if there are real problems they will manifest within the first 24 hours, so we will have a better idea of what we are dealing with tomorrow. Initially we were very concerned about the fact that the SUV hit his head and were hoping that there wasn't any internal bleeding, but we were told that everything appears to be where it is supposed to be internally and they didn't find bleeding. Praise the Lord!

The hospital has visiting hours tonight from 7-9 and I am going to visit Henry and bring him his dog bed so that he'll be more comfortable and have something that smells like home. I don't want him to think that we just dumped him off someplace and aren't coming back for him.....we need him to keep fighting. We need him. Tyson is depressed and has been moping around the house whining for his Henry. None of us are ready for life without Henry, so he has to get better and come home! Please pray for our dog!




County McCounterson