12/12/12

Today Timber became an angel watching over me and her sister dogs. It was a peaceful end - beautiful really... she laid her head on her orange bumper and went to sleep. The lymphoma had taken over her chest cavity and she was not the same and feeling poorly. She was such a great dog and a true ambassador to her breed. She will be missed here at home and by her kids at Tremont School.

Art

I received this wonderful print as a gift - I just love it. Expression reminds me so much of Timber.

Late entry 9/29

Bark For Life dog walk was 9/29. Jillian and I raised over $400 for the event. Sadly, it was a down pour and the walk was called off but, the money still went to the cause! To bad as Jill was to lead the walk with a special jacket on as top fund raiser last year.

Cook Book

A fund raising cook book I worked on is done and printed. I've done REALLY well selling them so far. All the money goes to the lab rescue. Many family and friends gave their recipes. The book came out GREAT. Photo of the cover. Gonna give many away as Christmas gifts.

More mittens

Donated 3 pair of mittens to the top photo contest winners in the Life Is Labs day planner contest. I have made 2 and sent them along. Also donated 10 pair of mittens to our hospital charity craft fair.

November 2012

Timber is still enjoying life 14 weeks after her diagnosis of Lymphoma. She is coughing but still eating and having fun.

Drive thru treat bags

Got together with Dog Scout buddies (humans and dogs) to put together dog treat bags for bank drive thrus to handout during the holiday season. Tried to get a snap of the dogs together - Raya jumped out of photo. Took girlz swimming for the last time in 2012.

LLP

Timber and I went to Little Long Pond to pick up dog poop with the Dog Scouts. She had a great time running and swimming. This photo was taken by a friend and is a favorite. Love the water one too with the scenic back round.

Donated 10 pair of mittens

To North Star Lab Rescue. The auction brought in $450 for them on Facebook

Tim er said good bye to some folks at Tremont School

Timber's first mom came to see her

Has been 3 months since Lymphoma diagnosis - so making memories and taking pictures whenever we can.

Nov 2012

Tried to get some pictures of the 3 girlz with me... not many good ones - will have to try again

October 2012

Happy 10th Birthday Jill!

October 19

I was pleased to get this lucky shot of Rissa as she enters her 14th year. Happy and wagging.

puppy

This cutie moved to her new home just 1 mile from me. That's her in photo below at 5 weeks of age. Photos by Colleen Graves.

Sept 29th

Rainy day here cancelled the Bark for Life walk that Jill and I were in. I raised over $450 and our team raised over $2000. On another note - it is Rissa's 14th birthday! One of her dog pals gave her a birthday cookie - she did share it with her sisters after the photo op. This is the funniest picture!

9/16

We went to Bradford Mane to the girlz first kennel home today. They swam and saw their friends and relatives. Took some pictures of 2 litters of puppies there. Timber swam and retrieved as did Rissa and Jill. Rissa seems almost back to her baseline post FCE and Timber is enjoying everyday and feeling fine today. Here is quick snap of a chocolate puppy and a yellow pup.

Sept 4th

Timber got her staples out today and we listened to the options for chemo to no treatment. Decisions will be reviewed, discussed and decided upon shortly. I was going to take Timber swimming in honor of getting her staples out and thought now she could move her leg better and want to swim - BUT it is pouring rain so we will do a swim another day soon.

September 2nd

Day 3 - Rissa continues to take it easy, rest and do some short walks, no car rides. The booties and carpet really are helping - not falling and keeping her grip.

September 1st

Day 2 post FCE. Rissa is OK. She was slipping a lot on the floors and that is not good for her spine. "you want her to walk as normal as possible" I went and got some remnant carpet runners to put around the walk ways of the house. She follows me as I move to do something or clean and slips so the carpet helps a lot! Denise made another home visit and brought some rubber booties to help her not slip also. She agreed with the carpet runners. She also gave me some homeopathic treatments for her. All in all - we are progressing. this will be a slow recovery in a normal aged dog and will be more challenging for a dog at 14 years of age - she wants to do as she normally does. It just takes her longer to process what she is doing and she does have deficit on her right side. She is a trooper! Day by day...

August 31st

Rissa had an event - stroke like to me last eve. I was here when it happened. It was awful to see, she was in pain, had no clue where she was or what was going on, blinded, could not walk... I did get an aspirin into her within minutes and sat with her. just so scary. I had help and moved her to the living room so I could sit with her. Eventually she calmed and wasn't in as much distress, her pupils became less dilated, she had some vision but was leaning and did not seem to recognize her right side. I would have brought her to the emergency vet to be put to sleep if she was suffering. She seemed to improve as the night went on - still could not walk. I knew that I would have to take her if she could not walk. I dreaded making the call and just as I was about to dial the phone - she got up and walked to me, went out to pee.... I was in shock as I had tried to walk her with a sling just 30 mins before. A friend that is a PT and has a side passion for animal PT was able to piece together and came up with a diagnosis.... something called FCE (fibrocartilagenous embolism) a doggie stroke but it is not vascular like humans - it is in their spinal column... AND - they can make a full recovery... wow... and how close was I to euthanizing her?? Mega support from friends and my Facebook community of lab folks during the first 24 hours. Denise (the PT/friend) made a home visit to see Rissa at about he 24 hour mark. She was very happy with her level of functioning as some dogs are paralyzed for days to weeks. I got some instructions and gentle exercises to help the nerves start up again, raise her food bowl etc...  What a week!

August 29th

The pathology report came back on Timber... Lymphoma stage 1. I said "No treatment" she is 12.5 and I want her not to be sick and enjoy her days. The vet wanted me to open as there are good drugs and the goal is remission not cure. We are to discuss it Tuesday 9/4 when we go have her staples out. I have done a little research and will make a plan on Tuesday after I hear what they have to say. My guess is they think she is prime to take chemo since she is stage 1 and - the one nose involved is out - which isn't typical - you don't surgical remove lymphoma but in her case it was. The vet also thought it was an unusual presentation - it was so large, yet encapsulated without spread. So... we'll see on Tuesday.

August 28th

Timber got a box from Amazon.com... I wondered if she had been shopping on line in her down/quiet time?? She got a get well gift from her doggie pal Ivy. She loves it - it honks!

August 27th

We headed to the vet unexpectedly today. Timber's incision started leaking serosang drainage - A LOT of of drainage... she drips all over the house. The vet wanted to check it to make sure her wound had not dehis'd and it was just a seroma. In the mean time - Rissa has been off all weekend and continually nudging me as if saying - "I don't feel good" - I don't know if the abscess needs more antibiotics or?? so I took her with us to the vet.

Timber's incision is fine and I will keep hot packing it and she will be on antibiotics for another week. Physical exam showed nothing on Rissa. We did lab work - all WNL - just as she was in April. X Rays of tummy and chest. No tumors or heart failure... a puzzle. Thoughts ? nerve pain, ? old age?

August 21

Timber had surgery today on her tumor. The vet said "it was nasty" - she meant looking - it appears to be some kind of round cell tumor. She did say it was encapsulated and she did not see signs of spread. Pathology report will be 5 working days. Her incision is quite large. It looks great. The tumor was large, went under her muscle, wrapped around her neck and was resting on her carotid artery. Good thing it was removed and after recovery (2 weeks) she will be able to swim and run. she was difficult to get out of the car. She did not want to walk on it. I got some pain medicine in her and at about midnight - she got up on her own and was walking. Need to have her take it easy, hot pack it as she more than likely will get fluid accumulation since the tumor was large and that area is now vacant.

August 11

Jill did the honors today at BBV. We saw the folks on the assisted living floor and the memory unit floor.

August 7th

Found a lump/tumor on Timber's shoulder and we went to vet today. They aspirated and found no abnormal cells BUT - the vet could not say it was just a fatty tumor as she was suspicious of where it was and the feel of it. It is on her right shoulder - which is why she didn't want to use that leg and run and retrieve. We decided to have it removed as she is not comfortable and active and then they can run pathology on the tumor.

July 2012

Strange month with visits to the vet for Timber and Rissa. Timber had a gum abscess which cleared with Clindamycin ( 2 rounds of treatment) Rissa had a tooth abscess which she had to have anesthesia and have the tooth pulled. She had antibiotics too and it cleared. Jill made the visits to BBV this month. Timber doesn't seem to want to retrieve  or jump in the car anymore - I wonder if old age is creeping up on her at 12.5 years of age?? Strange behavior for her as she is so athletic.

June 28th

Jill and I went to the volunteer recognition celebration for MDI Hospital. A nice light fair spread  was enjoyed by many. Cirra went too - we both visit at BBV.

June 15

Timber had the honors of accompanying me to BBV for pet therapy today. Timber does not usually go on visits - she does great and had fun. I think it wouldn't matter what Timber did as long as she had was out and about with me.

DEDS 6/14

June 14th Jill and I went to Jordan Pond House for lunch with the dog scouts. Had a yummy pop over and met new friends. The wind was just enough to keep the bees away from the jam :)

June 2nd

Took Jillian to BBV for pet therapy visits. All the girlz went in the car and after BBV we went to visit cousin Ivy and her new lil brother Andy. Andy is a 13 week old soft coated Wheaten terrier. So cute. He ran with the big dogs and loves his sister. Ivy is a great dog mom to him.

May24th

I noticed last night that Timber's muzzle didn't look quite right. I found an abscess or growth inside her lip from the gum line. She ate and was acting normal. Took her to the vet today and a quick smear didn't show any cancer cells so we are treating it as an abscess and if doesn't resolve - it will be biopsied. She is acting fine tonight and was running more than she had in the past few days. Paws crossed it is minor.

BBV May 18th

Pet therapy visit at Birch Bay Village. They always love to see the dogs.

Bangor Discovery Museum May 11

Jillian and I were invited to the Bangor Children's Discovery Museum to talk about READer dogs and have some kids read to us that attended the Raising Readers event there. We had fun and Jill was so PATIENT with the kids. I even made her a RR scarf out of an old tote bag with the RR logo!

Here are some pics from the final at Tremont School Idita Read-a-route program the dog scouts did. The program was a huge success. 70% of the kids read over the 1100 minute/mile goal and rec'd paw print medals. All kids got a book and certificate. We had a fabulous cake too. Many parents attended the program too.

Getting ready for the final Idita read a route

Certificates we are giving the kids with a book. More tomorrow on the final!

Red Idita Read team with Timber

Nice honor

Jillian was mentioned today in the obit of a woman we visited at Birch Bay Village. How very special our visits made some of her last days brighter.

http://fenceviewer.com/site/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=73377:priscilla-a-marsh&Itemid=940

Blue Team Idita read with Jillian

Jillian got to go to school today and read with some of the blue team top readers. The kids were excited and even the older kids loved reading to her. Here are some of my favorite pics.

Happy Birthday Timber!

Some dog turned 12 on 3/18. She got to go for a swim on her day - an unusual event in the middle of March in Maine.

Idita Read continues

Rissa read this week with the green team members ( she is their mascot) Happy girl and did great hanging for 2 hours with the kids. Didn't know how she'd do at 13.5...

Idita Read A Route Kick Off

Th girlz and I went to Tremont School for the Idita Read kick off. Kids were so excited! Rissa is a green team mascot. Timber is a red team and Jillian is on the blue team. They were all well behaved and so sweet! I'll be taking them each one week to read with kids on their color team!

https://webmail.myfairpoint.net/hwebmail/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmdi.villagesoup.com%2Fplace%2Fstory%2Fdowneast-dog-scouts-sponsoring-idita-read-teams%2F486908

February 26th

I gave a community chat today at the Down East Dog Scout meeting on READer dogs. We had one woman come - she was very nice and seems interested to pursue this with her golden retriever. Timber accompanied me to the talk. Timber is also the featured canine in the Downeast Dog newspaper this month.

READer dog at Swan's Island

Jill accompanied me on the ferry to Swan's Island where we did a READ program for school kids on vacation. They have a beautiful new library. Jill and I sat in front of a roaring fireplace and had the kids read to her. Ben read 6 books to her. Nice day and Jillian is such a sweetie and easy to take anywhere.