exciting news for us!

So..we're moving away for the summer - just Hope and I. I'm quitting my job(last day is this Friday). We'll be back in September....


Can you guess where? Hope doesn't think you'll ever guess....

cutest work-to-eat in the whole wide world.

Hello! We've been very negligent and for that I apologize. Life gets busy. We said good-bye to our 16.5 year old dog and have had some other issues health-wise for Hope to deal with.

We went four weeks instead of three between groomings and a rash bloomed around what someone told me is to be called the "fortune cookie" aka her vagina. Needless to say, it was unpleasant for us ALL to deal with that. We did cream, powder, and oral antibiotics. So far so good, but we'll never wait 4+ weeks again.

Hope has always jumped off the couch on her own and I have continually cringed when she does it because it is so far for her - she is so tiny. She's been very reluctant to stand up on her hind legs or take the outside stairs up - I suspect injury. It is hard to see because she "bippity bops" around so fast but she is definitely favoring a leg. I am giving her a boost here and there to encourage her to rest her hips/knees and hoping it helps heal whatever is going on there.

Never ends! We won't even get into the self-induced puncture wound on her neck that is healing from one of our other dogs(she started it).

Now, pictures of cuteness that relate to the title of this post!!

We'll have some exciting news in a couple of days...

hopedate!

I just love her, don't you? Look at that little face.

We're doing much better now that the eye meds aren't oil based. Her skin has cleared up nicely. She is also on OSTRICH for food now. She hated the Duck we tried. She loves the Ostrich. Bravo! makes an Ostrich that has Ostrich necks, meat, and liver - perfect. I don't have to fuss trying to get her to eat turkey liver(which she dislikes).

All in all, good things. She gets another haircute on Sunday - just to clean up her face and bum(at her Papa's request, imagine that). Wonder what color bows we'll get this time? :)

we are rockin'.

that is all.

more meds and a haircute!

So last time we checked in we were a yeasty beastie. Dr Ringle switched our eye meds(haven't arrived yet) to a water based solution to prevent more yeast growth. He also suggested we do a MONTH of the Fluconazole. Hope actually seems to like this medication(not so much she'd just take it but enough to suffer it well) so it isn't horrible.

The horrible part is the diarrhea it is giving her. Awful, hourly diarrhea blasts. They are really lovely in the middle of the night. God bless her little heart, she gets up and walks to the edge of the bed to cry "Need to poop, Mama!" Needless to say I'm a little sleep deprived today.

Her face itches her fierce so we're back on the Temaril-P as well. She also started some Pepcid. Will it ever end?

As for Hope's fur situation....I decided to get her groomed today!! I have been hesitant to do it because A. Hope has been ill, cut open, and healing B. She is naughty and bites people. I happened into a shop called Fins & Feathers in Red Bank, NJ to drop off birds for rescue earlier today. I discovered the shop also does grooming. They were having a special on grooming($15 off!) so I inquired about it. I spoke to the shop owner's daughter first. She told me they don't advocate leaving the dogs there all day for appointments because it was too stressful(bonus point #1), they don't use cage driers because they are dangerous(bonus point #2), and that they actually owned a chihuahua who bit them all the time - which she shrugged off with a laugh (bonus point #3). I promptly made an appointment.

I found Hellen, the owner and a groomer there, to be very knowledgeable and kind. I told her about ALL of Hope's issues, medically and behaviorally, which she was familiar with. She was also very gentle with Hope and did not hesitate to handle her despite 'her rep'. Hellen sited that she wanted Hope to enjoy being groomed and not hate it so it would therefore, potentially, take up to 3 hours if Hope needed breaks during her time there. Bonus point #3. To quote her, "I could have 3 people hold her down and shave her but what good would that do her or me? I want her to like being groomed." At that point, I could have kissed Hellen right on the lips. I knew Hellen was the groomer for us.

Hope looked this like on the way to the groomer:


And 2 hours later, they called and brought out this cute creature.. we weren't sure who's dog it was...


Hellen said that Hope was better behaved than the other Maltese that was there earlier. WOW, that dog must be truly horrible if Hope was "good" compared to it.



I mean, how cute does it get? Of course being groomed was still stressful for little Hope. She was all tuckered out on the ride home.



Yes, those are BOWS in her hair. GLITTERY BOWS!!



There was discussion of Hope's breed. Prior to actually grooming her, Hellen said she was a Maltese. After spending 2 hours with her she said that Hope definitely had Chihuahua in her. We figure she is a Maltipoohuahua. :) She is special, that's for sure. Of course, not everyone got by unscathed by Hope. She was very adept at removing the muzzle at the groomer and did manage to nail Hellen once, but no broken skin.

At least she is a polite miscreant.

dun dun DUNNNNNNNNNN...bathtime!

Hope has had some weird "crust" around her eyes. I spoke to Dr Ringle, her eye-guy, earlier this week about the problem and he thought that it might be YEAST from her cyclosporine. Yuck. He told me to have Hope come in to see Dr B and check for yeast.

Guess what... it was yeast!!!!!! So, MORE meds - big surprise. We're giving her 1ml of Fluconazole once a day for 14 days. It smells like oranges; Hope wasn't impressed.

We're going to have to reconsider her cyclosporine also. It is currently oil based and we might have to move to water based.

You might notice in the picture of the meds the LAXATONE. Yes, that is the stuff they give cats for hairballs. In fact, the only instructions on the tube give CAT dosing. Ladies and gentleman, my DOG gets hairballs. Hope hacked up a hairball on our bed, at night, 3 nights this past week. For the first 2 nights I blamed the cats(sorry, cats) but on the 3rd I actually saw her do it. Yuck. The laxatone will hopefully help her "move it along". We're going to have to consider some OCD meds if this keeps up. The licking thing is getting old. Thankfully, she LIKES the taste of this so it was super easy to give her.

Hope also got the dreaded B-A-T-H today. The skin around her eyes, from the yeast, was super irritated with the water but we moved some of the crust out. Yes, she still has to wear her "mouth mitten".


She would have rather been 90 other places, obviously, than in the bath tub. I was super happy because this was her first real bath since the surgery. P-U.

After her spa treatment - complete with blow-dry at no charge - she looked like a little white cottonball. We can say that proudly now because, hey, she has fur and stuff finally.


We'll recheck next week to make sure the yeastie beasties are vacating. Say a little something I don't get the nightly hairball upchuck tonight.

the ideal diet? maybe.

As I type, Hope is sitting between my legs obsessively licking our couch. That is her favorite hobby, licking things. She has a borderline OCD with licking things, in fact. She licks whenever it is time to 'settle down'. At night, she licks for at least 10-15 minutes. She will lick the sheets, blankets, couch, my laptop, my pants, my arm - you name it. If you try to prevent her from licking by distracting her, she cries. I am not sure what to do there quite yet. One thing at a time.

Hope is very attached to me - and I to her. With her recent diagnosis of the "Big C" we are prepared to go the long haul with her. We haven't actually spoken about it, but Chris and I both know that this is destiny. It is extremely hard to adopt out a dog that bites, let alone one with health issues - let ALONE one with CAN---. We don't really speak the C word in the house. Mommy gets very upset.

On another note, I would like to share what Hope has finally decided is "her diet". We are feeding Primal Buffalo Grind(hearts, organ meat, bone) - .2-.3oz in the morning. Yes, .2oz is right. She also gets 1oz of ground buffalo meat three times a day. She isn't as boney as she was when we got her and the weight she has gained is what I would call "good weight". The last weigh in on Friday at her at 5.4lb!!

To prepare these tiny amounts of food we use a scale. I line it with waxed paper and then wear latex gloves to handle the meat to avoid contamination. I then spoon little 1oz portions onto the scale, check the weight, then transfer it to a cookie pan lined with clean waxed paper to freeze in smaller lumps. For the grind of organ and bone I fork pieces onto the waxed paper in the same fashion but then I drop it onto the cookie sheet and smash it with a fork into a flat cookie type form. This is a little time consuming but I can get a lot of lumps and cookies out of a chub of frozen raw food so we don't have to do it more than once every 2 weeks. It's also a "zen" process for me.

The supplements that Hope is currently on are pictured here:

We follow the 1/4 1/4 1/4 rule - 1/4 teaspoon of each of these tubs, twice a day. I've mentioned them before - B-Natural's Berte's Immune Blend and Herbsmith products. I'd testify to the effectiveness of any of these. They have really helped Hope a lot to overcome her mange.

Final dish before smashing the supplements in:

We rarely have an issue getting Hope to eat at this point. Sometimes she will balk but heating it up a little bit more usually does the trick for her. It is MUCH easier than 99 kibbles, canned foods, etc that she eventually refuses.

We heart raw.