Remembering

Duke's story in my life starts long before I ever met him.  I was moving out on my own for the very first time in my life.  The move to an apartment would be too much for my childhood dog, so I adopted a cat from the shelter.  We visited the shelter a few times trying to figure out what to pick, but it was the large, buff cat whom kept sticking his arm out and grabbing me whom I fell in love with.

We named him Reginald, and he was affectionately known as Reggie.  For the time I lived alone (which wasn't long) Reggie was my constant companion.  We bonded almost immediately, and he was unlike any cat I had ever known.  I could talk with him and he would answer with little meows, and he followed me everywhere.  Just six months after becoming his owner, Reggie was hit by a car and passed away.  I was a mess.  I had loved him so much and just never expected him leaving me so soon.  He took a piece of my heart away I'll never get back.

A day or two later, my mom said she saw an add in the paper for "cute mix puppies".  We went with my sister to go look at them.  The car ride was long, and it was cold and rainy out.  Upon arriving we saw a gaggle of tiny, short, fluffy black puppies playing in a wet patch of grass.  They were adorable.  It didn't take me long to pick the little puppy getting picked on.  The lady said he was a schipperke min pin mix, should be about 20 pounds fully grown.

A month or so later, we took a "little" 30 pound Duke to the vet for shots and a check up.  The vet told us Duke could easily weigh 100 pounds fully grown.  Needless to say we were shocked.  As Duke grew, so did his personality.  He quickly went through what I call the adoption phase...as in the stage you want to give your dog away because they are taxing to your patience!  He was ornery, but I slowly fell in love.  Once he got past that stage we bonded immensely, and he is the greatest companion I've ever had.

Last year at this time we took Duke to the vet because he had been limping.  He was diagnosed with a torn cruciate.  Basically one of the ligaments in his his knee tore.  It was scary.  I thought I had lost the happy dog I had.  I was scared he would no longer run, no longer jump, no longer be able to play with his sister.  We had hoped to do a more expensive knee surgery, but when they said it would cost 3200 dollars, it just wasn't  possible.  Instead we went with a less expensive surgery that everyone said was best for smaller dogs.  His surgery went well, and we brought home a bandaged and limping dog.

With only leashed walks, no stairs, no jumping, playing, running of any kind for about a month, Duke was finally released to go back to "normal" activities.  It was a time of a lot of uncertanty as we knew physically Duke may never be the same.  That thought tore at me, how can you give a dog a good life if they can't do what dogs love to do?  The day he tip toed on his foot delighted me, when he started using it occasionally gave me hope.  Time slowly passed, and his knee healed.  If you saw Duke today outside, running, playing, swimming, you would never know he had surgery.  He's completely normal, and very happy.  After a long, hard day of playing he may limp a little, but other than that he is doing great.

I started out writing this because it was just about a year ago we found out what was wrong.  I just wanted to recount the story, but there is one thing that has kept popping into my mind the entire time I've been writing this.  God loves me.  He cares about me.  He wants me to be happy.  He also knows what is best for me.  When I found out Duke couldn't have the more expensive, more scientifically logical surgery, I could have throw a fit about it.  I could have cursed about it, I could have blamed God.  (I do admit I did worry more than I should have!)  God knew what He was doing, and everything turned out just fine.  I hope in the future this will remind me sometimes you just have to trust God.  It may not make sense, but if God closes a door, there's a reason.

Finally, Snow!

I hope I'll finally be able to get back into doing some writing.  Things have been...busy lately.  Some family drama that I think is doing better, thankfully.  The most exciting thing that has happened is that we finally got snow!  I love winter, and I love snow, and so far this has been a really depressing winter.  Only a dusting of snow, nothing like last year.  Rob and I took the dogs out on Monday, and I thought I'd share the pictures with you!

Right outside the door.  I love how pure, fresh, and beautiful everything looks.

I bet your thinking these are our dogs paw prints, right?  WRONG!  Coyote tracks, they were quite a bit smaller than Duke's paw prints.  One of my favorite things about snow is the ability to see animal tracks.

Our dogs LOVE snow.  It's just their type of weather.  Dutchess is eating the snow like it's going out of style.

Duke going after Dutchess, they were having so much fun!

Here is Duke waiting for Rob to throw a snowball!

I. Love. This. Picture!  Dutchess is airborn, trying to get a snowball before Duke does.

Another priceless picture of Duke.  I love seeing an 80 pound dog airborne.

They loved snowball chasing.  Duke's new favorite game is actually fetch.  Didn't work so well with snowballs though!

This picture is not only adorable, but also breathtaking.  Duke had knee surgery just 4 and a half months ago.  He's not back to how he was, he may never be, but he is doing SO good.

And finally, another one of Duke.  Isn't he handsome?

I hope you enjoyed our snow filled adventures!!  Do your dogs like snow?

Thankful.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently!  I've been trying to get some video tutorials together and have had quite a few issues.  I'm hoping by the first of next week I'll have a step by step by step tutorial for making headers (two ways!) and a step by step by step tutorial for creating a blogger button!

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November is a month in which people tend to reflect upon what they are thankful for.  It didn't quite inspire this post, but I though it would be fitting to share now.  Not quite two months ago I posted about how we found out Duke had a torn cruciate.  We struggled greatly making the right decision as to what treatment would be best for Duke's leg.  I was so scared we would settle for a lesser priced surgery, and have a dog that couldn't walk.  A dog that hobbled, and was unable to do what he, as a dog, loved to do.

It's been a fairly slow process, and as of this coming Monday it will have been 7 weeks since surgery.  Not quite two months yet.  Duke avoided using his hurt leg about 90% of the time before surgery.  Now...he uses his leg probably 85-90% of the time, and is literally using it more every day.

When we go outside, and I see this...

 ...and this...

To see him standing on his leg, just standing there makes me so thankful.  Honestly, words don't can't describe how thankful I am that Duke is using his leg.

He is able to jump into ponds again...

Here Dutchess is in the pond...

Now Duke has joined her, and she is running out of the water at 50 mph...

And there goes Duke, going a whopping 50 mph as well!

 And of course, I'm thankful for Dutchess.  She is such a sweet heart.  Since starting her on joint supplements with Duke we have had no problems with her leg! (Praise the Lord!)

Dutchess offering me her stick.

Here is a super, super, super short clip of Duke and Dutchess running after a stick.  Watching it, watching him run, just fills me up with gratitude!

Fall Is Here!

Just wanted to do a picture post and show you some of the fall sights around here.  We've had some warm days recently, but it's cool at night, and getting cooler by the day!  Great weather for dog walking and chai lattes!

Look at all those leaves on the ground!

My butternut squash, he got cooked, and is going to be turned into yummy bread!

This is one of the prettiest trees around here.  It's so vibrant!

Such pretty leaves!

This is the church next door to us.

Duke happily munching on a bone he found.  He's very unhappy about having to be on a harness and lead all the time, but hopefully he'll be cleared for normal activity at his next vet check up.

Dutchess munching happily on her bone.

Duke wouldn't let Dutchess lay by him, so she grabbed her bone, ran around him for a bit, then laid behind him and chewed her bone!

It may be fall, but the sky has been beautiful lately!

Fire in the fire pit...

so beautiful, and such a fun thing to do on a cold night!

What are your favorite fall activities?  Are the leaves changing, and temperatures dropping where you live?

I'm Back!

Wow.  So that was an unexpected break, wasn't it?  I've had a few breaks over the last few months, this one was a little more unexpected.  It came from a few different reasons.  I felt overwhelmed, uninspired, and just in general stuck.  I know most bloggers can relate to struggling to figure out what to write, and I struggled with that and a few other things.  During this break I got a set of blogging goals defined for myself, along with what I want my blog to be about.  You may notice subtle changes, more consistency, and being more active in the blogging "community".  Another big change though, that will go unnoticed, is my decision to organize my life and home.  Blogging takes quite a bit of time.  The writing part kind of depends, sometimes it doesn't take as much time, but reading other blogs and commenting takes time, joining up to linky parties, takes time, and for me, working on tutorials or blog design takes time.  I've struggled keeping priorities straight, and I think I may have developed a better working system!  Now, let me give you an update on what's been going on...(you should have seen it coming!)

• Last Sunday we dogsitted/stole my mom's dog Teddy for a sleepover.  We thought Dutchess would throughly enjoy playing with someone, being as playing with Duke has been off limits.  Teddy and Dutchess had so much fun!!  However, we were all outside together when Dutchess cried loudly, and fell to the ground.  She tried to walk but couldn't.  Her left back leg was hurting her (the same leg as Duke). We were so scared!  She seemed to walk on it weird for awhile, and when we looked at it I was rubbing her leg and it poped and went back to normal.  She was completely fine afterwards, and we've had it happen one other time briefly till I massaged her knee area.  Since then she has been fine, and acting normal.  We're going to keep record of when she has problems, and see if it's something that persists or not.
• Duke is doing really good!  We went in last Monday to have the staples removed.  The vet said we should do physical therapy exercises with him in which we extend his leg to the ground, and push it back up.  He said we should do that several times a day.
• On the same day the vet told us to exercise his leg, Duke decided to start using it more!  He went from just using tippy toes, very, very, very occasionally, to just walking around on it during our walks, or when he gets excited inside, or at other random moments.  We also started glucosamine and chondroitin plus msm, which I think is really helping.  On a side note, does anyone know where you can get that stuff for cheap?!
• You know the post I wrote awhile ago, about finding a huge pumpkin plant?!  Well, God has a good sense of humor because it's actually a butternut squash plant!!  Have no fear though, you can definitely make butternut squash taste like pumpkin, AND who said you can only use pumpkins to decorate with?!
• Fall is being ornery here in Missouri.  We had some glorious cool fall days, the leaves were hinting at yellow and orange, and then BAM! it's 80 degrees and hot outside!  The leaves are turning, and are quite beautiful, and thankfully today is our last day in the 80's for awhile.  What does fall feel like where you live?
• I've actually made a cleaning schedule for myself that I think will work!  I've struggled greatly with getting and keeping a clean half way clean home.  Previously I've always cleaned the entire house at once.  Then I'm so burnt out and hating cleaning so much I decide to not clean the next day, and sometimes the next day.  Then I have to reclean the ENTIRE house.  Now I'm deep cleaning a specific room each day of the week!

I hope everyone has been doing well, and I'll be posting again tomorrow about something new and interesting...freezer cooking!

Anniversaries and Tippy Toes...

First I'll start with a puppy update!  Duke is doing really, really good.  He seems much more back to normal, and not in as much pain, which is WONDERFUL!  We went in on Saturday for them to re-wrap the bandage but they just took it off instead!  We were so excited, and so was Duke.  They advised us to get a e-collar for him to keep him from licking his staples, but we didn't.  Duke is pretty amazing at listening when it comes to things like that.  He's licked it a few times, and we've told him no, and he then starts taking big huge licks of his ankle!  Or if he's feeling particularly ornery he will take his whole ankle into his mouth and bite on it.  I'm not sure what he's imply by doing that just yet.  Over the last few days Duke has been holding his leg lower, so where his knee was at a 90 degree angle almost all the time, now his paw nearly touches the ground when he walks.  Yesterday we took a little longer walk than we have been.  I figure it won't hurt being as he isn't actually using his leg and he is, at all times, on a lead.  While we were out he really stretched his leg a few times, and at one point took two, itty bitty tippy toe steps with his leg!!!!!  And he would also "fake walk" he moved his leg as if he were using it, without touching his paw to the ground.  We go back to the vet October 3rd to get  his staples out, and I'm assuming we'll have another follow up after that.  I would share pictures, but like I said, he's back to being difficult!!

Yesterday was Rob and I's two year anniversary!  It's hard to believe we've been married two years!  This time two years ago we were on our way to South Padre Island for our honeymoon!  It's been a wonderful two years, and I have no doubt that there will be many more.  I thought I'd share the card Rob got me for our anniversary.

Rob is the best card picker outer ever.  He always just gets the perfect card.  I don't know how he does it!

Soul Mateys!!

"Here's to where we've been...here's to where we're going...here's to our life together under this big blue sky of sunshine and stars.  I love being in the same boat with you."

How long have you been married?  Have any marriage advice to share? Feel free to leave it in the comments, or just say hi!

Challenging...

Duke's recovery is coming along, but not without challenges.

Duke is a stubborn, willful dog by nature.  It's just who he is.  It's who he has always been, and I love him despite his ornery side.  Yesterday morning we woke up and he had pulled his bandage down his leg.  It was exposing one of his staples.  ((On a different note the staple and wound looked exceptionally well.  It looks like they kind of turned it over and stapled it.  Smart move on their part as far as I'm concerned!!))  The part I think was really bothering him was they had super, super sticky adhesive wrap on his skin.  And this adhesive was on his long hairs and all in his short hairs.  I know how irritating that must have felt.  I got new bandages and an ace bandage and wrapped it the best we could and called the vet.  They said as long as we corrected it it should be ok.  Throughout the day yesterday though it just kept getting bunchier.  Last night we took the outter wrap off, cut down the gauze pulled it up and re-wrapped it.  We also went ahead and called the vet to make an appointment to have them re-wrap it.  I am secretly praying (and so can you!) that they'll say it looks soooo amazing they won't put the bandage back on.  Since yesterday everytime we got outside Duke is being ornery. He doesn't want to get up and walk because his bandage bothers him.  I know it's his bandage.  He tells me it's his bandage.  Yes I know I sound crazy!  When you live with a dog it's entire life you learn what they are trying to tell you.  He stands up, takes a big lick of his leg and looks at me.  I know he's saying, "Mom, I'm fine, take this off, please!"  When we get outside he does this...

He just stands there.  I know FOR A FACT he HAS to go potty.  But he just stands there.  And then...

He lays in the grass.  Just plops down and lays there.

Eventually we started walking, he eventually went potty, but the entire time he was pulling, trying to go where HE wanted to go, and generally ignoring EVERYTHING I said!  I can tell he is feeling better, but he's just challenging everything and I know it's probably because he doesn't understand why he has to be on a lead, or why he can't go out and run.  He is also donkey kicking with his bad leg!  Which is good because it's nice to see him flexing his knee a little, but I'm just scared it could hurt him.  This morning I also noticed he got his little foot down to the ground and was standing on it.

Not much else is going on around here.  I've been trying to catch up on any cleaning that needs to get done.  I still have some more to do today.  I've also been working more on a blog design.  Which as been a little more time consuming than I thought.  It probably doesn't help that I'm a wee bit of a perfectionist!  I've tampered with doing some blog designs for awhile now, but have been hesitant.  If I'm making something for someone I want it to be as good as I can make it!  In high school I took a web design class, and seriously considered going to college to become a graphic designer, but didn't.  It has, however, been something I've worked with a lot since I graduated, but haven't done much in probably the last year or so.  If there is anything in specific anyone wants to learn about bloggers features, or design questions, feel free to ask!  I've learned a lot in just the last few days.

Ok, I'm going to get lost in some HTML! (lolz, funny joke, eh?!)

Duke is home!

After the worlds longest 24 hours, Duke's surgery is done with, and he is home!!

I thought for sure when we went to pick him up he'd be mopey and groggy like he was last time.

However, he was happily dragging the vet tech towards us using only three legs (very impressive!)

He is shaved and all bandaged up and looking ridiculously cute.

We had some issues going down the steps, but I think with a little help we should do fine.

We have to restrict activity and him playing with his sister for 21 days, and then hopefully we'll be getting back to normal.

Here are some pictures!

Happily, and hungrily eating on his soup bone.

The worlds cutest shaved, bandaged leg.

Dutchess was super happy to see her brother, and after a few minutes of laying apart she brought her bone over, and ploped herself right down next to him!

Thank you to everyone who prayed, offered support, or kind words.  It has really meant a lot to us!