The Newest Addition

Meet the newest addition to our family - Heisenberg!

Heisenberg is a rescue pup that was being fostered by a local company who holds adoption events every weekend in hopes to find forever homes for their foster dogs as well as local shelter dogs.  

Ever since Gypsy's passing I have wanted  to adopt another dog but with preparing for the move Chris and I thought it would be best to hold off.  Now that we're settled into our house we thought it would be a great time to give a second chance to another dog.  We happened upon the adoption event this past weekend while out picking up supplies for a holiday wreath and fell in love with this dog.  It didn't take much more than a walk across the street with him to know that he would fit in so well with our family.

Chris came up with the name Heisenberg based on the main character from Breaking Bad which is starting to sink in with our little dog (he was given another name between the time he was rescued from the sheltered and while he was being fostered but didn't respond to that name when we were checking him out so we figured it wouldn't hurt to change it up).  

He is a 1 year old dachshund/rat terrier mix who loves to fetch (still getting used to the drop part so that we can throw it again), give kisses and cuddle up as close to people as possible.  We lucked out as it seems that he was potty trained either at his original home or at his foster home (or we've just lucked out this past weekend with no accidents in the house) and he seems to really enjoy his new surroundings. 

Have you brought home a new pet lately?  

Christmas Recap

Another year, another wonderful Christmas spent with family eating, drinking and playing games!

Christmas morning drinks, Christmas Eve sandwiches and soup after church, Christmas Bingo

Like many of my fellow Dallas residents, we were a little surprised and happy to have a white Christmas.

The weather was awesome while we were inside and warm all day, but not as much fun later when we had to go out and scrape down the car so Chris could get to work the next day.

This year, we had the joy of having my brother's girlfriend celebrate with us!  She had so much fun cleaning house in the games, I know she'll be coming back!

After a couple of trips to the storage shed, mom and I were able to bring out the festive spirit of the season.

Christmas decorations and our traditional breakfast casserole

As Dennis and I have gotten older, our family Christmas traditions have evolved.  While we still do open gifts, most of our day is spent playing games with the family.  We all come up with games to lead, and everyone loves trying to win additional prizes.  This year in addition to Christmas Bingo, we came up with 2012 trivia, a version of Take It All, an old school Price is Right game called Hurdles (it didn't last too long on the actual show), Logo trivia and several hands of black jack, war and left right center.

Set up for Take It All

Working on Logo Trivia

Gifts galore! 

Dennis trying to get through the maze to open some gift cards

Great minds think alike - Danielle and I both got new Kindle Fire HDs

The guys checking out one of the posters I gave Chris for his future game room.  It's the periodic table of game system controllers. 

One of the most thoughtful gifts was a DIY gift from Chris.  Getting the idea from one of the projects I wanted to do out of the Young House Love book, Chris made a silhouette of Gypsy and her paw print ornament for our gallery wall.  I LOVE it! 

Although this week off has been going way too fast (can't believe that it's already Thursday), I have enjoyed some down time to get in a little reading, finishing off the first Harry Potter book (yes I know I'm late to the party) as well as Fallen by Lauren Kate.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday!!

I Love This Dog

I started this post this weekend and sadly after another 2 visits to the vet, Gypsy passed away yesterday evening.  She was an amazing dog and I will love her always.

One of the first pictures I took of Gypsy

Last Thursday was a range of emotions as my dog Gypsy loss consciousness. I was working from home, quickly called the vet to change the appointment I had already made for Friday and rushed her over to be checked out.

Gypsy is more than a pet to me.  I've had fish and hermit crabs and hamsters, but no pet has seen me through as much as Gypsy.  I adopted her from the local animal shelter in 2006 right before I moved into my first post college apartment.  Living with a roommate and another dog was OK, but when our 6 month lease was up Gypsy and I packed up and moved out on our own.  For a couple of years (before I met Chris and he moved in) it was just the two of us.  She was part of the first solo Christmas card I sent back in 2006.

She's been there during the entire duration of dating, engagement and now marriage to Chris.  He might not always admit it (especially when he has to cover my early morning walks with her), but I know he loves her just as much.  

Engagement picture from Lynn Michelle

So when she stumbled, fell over and then didn't move I freaked out.  We made it to the vet and were quickly taken back.  Gypsy has always had a heart mummer, but there wasn't really anything that we could do about it.  After describing what happened, coupled with her coughing up (similar to what I imagine a cat would sound like coughing up a hair ball) he took her back for an x ray.

And I waited.

The vet came to the conclusion that Gypsy has Dilated Cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart.  The only good news to come from the x-ray was that he did not see a build up of fluid in her lungs.  From PetMD:

"When the heart's ventricle does not pump enough blood into the lungs, fluid begins to accumulate in the lungs.  An enlarged heart soon becomes overloaded and this often leads to congestive heart failure"

He prescribed two different medications that she is now taking twice a day.  There isn't really a way to cure what is wrong with her heart, but we are trying to do everything we can to help her until there is nothing left for us to do.

She's had three more fainting episodes since we left the vet, which normally come after she exerts too much energy.  We've cut back the distance on her walks, and take it very slowly.  The two medications didn't seem to be slowing her heart rate any, so we were back in the vet's office for a third medication.  I'm hoping these will do the trick to reduce the 240 beats per minute this poor little dog was dealing with.

As a result of this discovery, I decided to do something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Using some of the left over white clay from the Carnival funnel, Chris assisted me in capturing Gypsy's paw print for an ornament that I will cherish forever. 

CatDog?

I think Gypsy may have a few extra cat traits in her.

She is a big fan of sleeping.  It seems like she's always napping.  This of course could be because she is getting up there in age.

She likes to groom herself, for a good amount of time.  It's even at the point that she stops licking her paws and just starts licking the couch.  Do other dogs do that?

She loves milk.  How did I find this out?  I made the mistake of not drinking all of the milk out of my cereal bowl and left it on the coffee table when I ran out for errands.  When I came back all of the milk was gone.

Please drop some food scraps

She likes to jump up on the couch and walk along the back.  She loves to nestle into a spot on the top cushion (which she then weighs down).

Catdog or not, I love little Gypsy and will never forget the day I picked her up from the animal shelter, almost 6 years ago.

Do your pets have any weird habits or traits?

Gypsy Goes Under The Knife

Gypsy is getting up there in age.  I adopted her back in 2006 from the animal shelter where they guessed that she around 3 or 4 years old.

She was there when I moved into my first post college apartment with my roommate (which did not work out) and was there when I moved into my first solo apartment.  Her life is pretty awesome as she has free range of the apartment during the day and is always spoiled when we head to my parents' house.

A while after I adopted her I started to notice this bump on her back.  I brought it up to the Vet who said that it would come and go but that she was in no pain so it was ok.  I left it at that, assuming that it would go away.  It never did.  

I always bring it up on her vet visits, and the story started to change.  First her thought that it was puss filled, so he poked it with a needle only to see blood come out.  Next visit I was told that it was non cancerous, but that the only way to get rid of it was a pricey surgery.  The vet advised to just keep an eye on it and if it ever grew to schedule the surgery.  When we returned from our honeymoon I noticed that she now had a similar but bigger bump right near her tail.

I worried more about this one since it was larger and near her tail, where she could easily get to and bite at it. On Thursday, I called my normal Vet in Allen but they did not have any openings until the following Monday.  After a quick google search I located another Vet closer to where we lived who also happened to be a graduate of the Texas A&M Vet school.  They had an opening the next day, so in we went. $51 later, I learned that it was the same non cancerous bump as the one on her back and this time surgery was highly suggested to removed both bumps as well as a little wart closer to her neck.

They gave me a breakdown of the cost (really, $110 for anesthesia alone??) and I promptly made the appointment for the next week.  I told Chris about the cost and he said that these types of sudden medical expenses are something we would have to get used to with kids.  After a pretty quick surgery and day of rest at the Vet, I was able to pick her.  She looked so sad with the shaved patches, but other than that seemed to be pretty much herself.

To prevent her from biting at her stitches, she was forced to wear the dreaded cone.  I always felt so bad about putting it on, but any time I wanted to give her a chance without, she would head straight for those stitches near her tail so back on it went.

Thankfully we were able to get the stitches out after 10 days and her fur is slowly growing back in those patches.  I'm so happy to have my lazy, trouble maker back to her usual self!