Catching Up: A Graduation and One Sick Pup

I can’t believe how the time slipped away from me since my last post…and me still not finished blogging about our summer!

For posterity, over the next couple of posts I must go back and record a few memorable things that happened the past couple of months.

:: :: :: ::

First, there was the high school graduation of my baby sister.

Here is little Boo Boo, peeking over my shoulder with her big baby blues, adorable as can be.

This photo was taken while I was home during Christmas break my Junior year of college.

I’ll never forget answering the phone in my dorm room the previous Spring and my mom saying, “Um, honey, you might want to sit down for this…” when she called to tell me that she and my stepdad were expecting.

My mom was keeping up tradition, after all.

You see, her grandmother, her mom and some of her aunts had done almost the exact same thing, having later in life babies or two separate sets of children within the same family separated by a big gap that had them fooled into thinking they were done with diaper changes and middle of the night feedings, and then "surprise!”.

But what a great surprise!

And just so you know, I will not be keeping up the “baby after 40” part of that tradition. The nearly 10 years apart was enough excitement for me, thankyouverymuch (although adoption is an appealing possibility…)

I remember ‘arguing’ that I should get priority on holding little Boo Boo while I was home on break because I lived so far away and didn’t get to spend the same kind of time with her that everyone else did.

None of us could seem to get enough of holding her.

I can still remember rushing off to the media center in college every time I’d get a package from home, because I was so excited to see the latest videos starring little Boo Boo.

The following summer was the frenzied summer that Jeff and I (and my sister J and her husband E) were married.

A couple of years after that, with a baby of our own, Jeff and I found ourselves living in my mom’s basement apartment and when mom was working, I got to watch little Boo Boo.

Rather, she got to help me watch Jericho. She was such a good little helper, and Jericho would coo and giggle and smile so big for his auntie.

I have a lot of wonderful memories of ny little sister during that time.

She was a huge fan of Toy Story, loved having me read Bible Stories to her, and helping me put Jericho down for his nappy-time before she went down for her own. She also loved ‘helping’ me bake, especially if it was cookies.

One of her favorite things back then was the old animated version of Peter Pan, particularly the character Smee.

She went through an all-things-piratey phase, and we often took her to play at a place we referred to as Pirate Ship Park. We kept a scarf and a fake earring and a toy sword in the car for her to play wtih whenever we took her there.

Here she is with her two oldest nephews, my sister’s oldest, T, and on the right, Jericho.

Little Auntie Boo Boo adored her little nephews, and they adored her!

Jericho would look at her so earnestly while she chattered at him. Here he seems to be replying, “Are you kidding me?”

And then…we moved far, far away.

It was like our lives had clicked into fast forward because all of a sudden, here she was graduating (as class Valedictorian, no less…little miss SMARTAY!).

And here she is now, my beautiful 'baby' sister, otherwise known around here as Auntie Alison. And she is every bit as beautiful inside as she is outside, and has a great sense of humor).

Sooooooo very proud of you, Ali! Looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for your future!

:: :: :: ::

Secondly, Parvo.

That dreaded doggie disease that usually affects puppies.

Oh, how we loathe it.

Years ago, when Jericho was in Kindergarten, we had a horrible experience with it…

(**cue wavy flashback effect**)

Mosely had wormed his wriggly self into our hearts from the moment we first brought him home, and we were all immediately and hopelessly attached to him.

How Jericho (and Jeff and I) adored that little pup.

Jericho wasted no time at all incorporating him into our family portraits.

Here, Cousin K is also pictured along with his pup Sarah, Mosely’s sister.

Mose was a fantastic and beloved part of our family. So much so that we planned to eventually breed him to carry on his legacy.

But it was not to be. Our beloved Mosely succumbed to Parvo at just over one year old (7 years in dog years).

Now I have cried over a few deceased pets during my lifetime, but never so much as our Mosely.

What made it particularly hard was that Jericho had just started Kindergarten a few days earlier, and while other children were happily chattering and excited those first few days of school, he was in mourning for his beloved puppy. To explain the whole thing to him was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do.

It didn’t help that during the previous school year when I would drive Jericho’s cousins to school in the mornings, Mosely would hop in the cab of the truck with us, so excited to ride along. After that, well, the drives to school just weren’t the same, and that reminder was with us for a good long while.

** end wavy flashback effects**

Fast forward nine years, and little brother Judah was weeks away from beginning Kindergarten.

One morning we noticed that our little Ticker began acting really mopey and sad. She wouldn’t touch her food.

At first, I thought it was just the ‘dog days of summer’, and that the desert heat was getting to her. I wondered if maybe she was just thirsty, because for some odd reason, our dogs’ water dishes kept getting overturned each day, and so for the umpteenth time went out and refilled the dishes with cool water.

But after keeping a close eye on her all day, she seemed to be getting worse.

A day or two before I’d noticed that our entire bed of flower bulbs (100+ bulbs) had been decimated. Dug up completely, bulbs scattered all over the back yard like so many green onions.

Then, I discovered she’d been sick, and it was evident she’d eaten some of those bulbs.

I was concerned that some of the bulbs might have been toxic to her and was kicking myself for not writing down somewhere what all I’d planted so that I could look it up.

I remembered my sister’s family having had a very sick dog years before who had eaten something toxic and was staggering around the yard in agony, miserably sick. After talking with her about it, she mentioned that the first thing their vet did was to pump that dogs stomach full of charcoal, and within 24 hours, that dog was back to her usual self.

It happens that we keep a supply of activated charcoal in our medicine cabinet in case of the flu or food poisoning and have even used it to knock out a bad sore throat that wasn’t responding to the usual gargles and echinacea. (It works by taking toxins out the other end, if you know what I mean). Good stuff, that activated charcoal.

Well, it couldn’t hurt to try, I thought. I sprinkled the capsules into a clean bowl of water, and after sniffing it, lo and behold she guzzled down a good amount and managed to keep it down.

However, she was still not her normal wriggly, excitable self, and rotated between sprawling herself out on the cool of the concrete or lying in her doghouse looking pitiful, her usually wet nose dry.

She looked pitiful…I’d only once before ever seen a dog look so sick, and that was--

…Mosely.

Dread filled my heart.

Not Parvo! Not just before Judah goes off to Kindergarten! Oh, Lord, please not, I prayed. We immediately gathered around as a family and prayed over our little puppy, and then decided that a trip to the vet was in order.

Our backyard neighbors to the right had a couple of pit bulls which had recently given birth to a large litter of 9 or 10 puppies. Puppies that had been whining and whimpering for the previous couple of weeks while we were trying to sleep at night and at the first light of dawn each morning.

At that time, the puppies were only 3 or 4 weeks old (too young to be weaned and given away), and I remember thinking how odd it was that they suddenly began to disappear one by one until there were just two remaining.

Of course, I didn’t think of any of this until we found ourselves in the Vet’s office…where we'd just learned Ticker had just tested positive for Parvo.

One of the longtime Vet assistants who had administered that test said that science has confirmed that it’s highly contagious (she likened it to touching wet paint, and then anything you touch after that gets paint on it) and can be tracked around on the soles of shoes, and the germs can remain in the soil for up to a year or longer in infected yards. Because of this, even indoor dogs can get it.

We would need to be especially vigilant to sterilize our patio area with bleach solution and also have designated backyard shoes and be sure to keep the dog messes picked up in the yard to try and keep it from spreading to friends and family (and possibly neighbor dogs) that came over. And so far, so good on that score, thank the Lord.

She also commented that it can be spread by nose to nose contact through fences, but that they always see a huge surge of cases as soon as the weather in our area turns hot and the flies come out. Because of this, she had her own suspicions that flies were carriers, landing on infected messes in one yard then flying over the fence and landing on a bowl of dog food in another. It’s just that contagious, dastardly virus that it is.

The Vet made us no promises, but said that it boded well for Ticker that she had not begun the lethargic drooling stage nor did she have any bleeding out the other end. We’d caught it early, which meant a greater chance of fighting it off.

He also explained that what usually deals the final blow to a puppy is not the Parvo itself, but a secondary infection to the blood marrow that can be aggravated and hastened by the dehydration brought on by the Parvo virus.

Long story short, they sent us home with an IV drip bag that contained a strong antibiotic to head off that secondary infection.

We had to administer it twice a day (by IV) into the skin at the scruff of her neck. Thank God Jeff was there to do that part morning and night while I held Ticker still, because injecting her with the IV needle made me a little woozy. This procedure gave her a temporary camel-back, as the fluids would leach into her system through the muscle tissues. We were thankful they gave us that option, because it saved us a bundle (hundreds of dollars) on overnight E.R. care.

The following morning, Jeff was up at the break of dawn getting the IV bag ready and thought, “I wonder how Ticker is doing?”

Just then, he looked out in the yard and saw Ticker loping around with a stick in her mouth, whipping it around in her usual playful, wriggly way. That fast, she was on the mend.

By God’s grace, even though she did get Parvo, it didn’t get her…nor did it affect our other dog Raisin. After seeing all those other neighbor puppies disappear one by one, we truly believe it was a miracle and a direct answer to our prayers.

And there was much rejoicing in our household!

On a side note, we also figured out why the dogs water dishes kept getting overturned.

A week or so after she was completely well, I saw her dip her entire head into one of her deep water dishes then rear back and shake off like she’d just come out of the water from a swim, tipping the big bowl over in the process.

Our desert-dwelling Lab/Retriever mix was trying to communicate to us in her own way that she needed a small pool to play in (those instincts for water play run pretty strong in these breeds!)

Of course we got her one, and now, not only has she quit tipping over her water bowls, but this is what we see off and on during the heat of the day:

Ahhh, yeah…that’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout! Niiiice and cool. Now if only there were some fish to chase around being that I've scared off all the local pigeons…

And so, there was a wonderfully happy ending to this particular tale.

Judah continues to churn out his own artistic renderings of our dogs.

Ticker is the happy-go-lucky dog pictured at the top of this drawing, and the one below is our grumpy old dog Raisin…but, that’s a story I’ll save for another day.

Puppy Love

So a couple of weeks before Easter, we took Judah out to our friends little hobby farm in a neighboring rural community to 'see their animals'. Their kids are in 4H and they have pigs, goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.

Such a thing is always a treat for little Judah, as mama isn't ready we aren't yet set up for our own goats and chickens.

What Judah didn't pick up on right away was that this was really a covert mission for him to select his very own puppy from their almost-ready litter. He has been yearning for his very own puppy for ages.

I regret to say I have no pictures of that day, as my trusty, seven year old camera was on the fritz.

The mama dog is a papered, purebred Golden retriever whose owners had high hopes of breeding her next year and selling the puppies.

Unfortunately, the gate was left open one night, and half of the puppies in her littler bear a striking resemblance to a neighbors black lab.

It mattered not to us. They were all roly-poly, cuddly and adorable, and in the end, one of the pups chose Judah.

Here is our adorable little puppy Ticker.

Judah named her all by himself, saying, "Don't 'ticker' off or she'll bite ya!"

Just his kind of pup, apparently.

She can take it just as well as she can dish it out. Judah has got scratches all over his arms and legs to prove it (though he is known for using every possible excuse to get to wear a band-aid).

Ticker is an adorable but wily little thing, sneaking indoors at every opportunity.

Her cuteness is in her favor, because after my bulb bed was decimated, the tops strewn about the back patio like discarded green onions...well, Ticker really ticked ME off.

She has since buried and unburied the remaining few bulbs a half-dozen times, each time coming to the back porch looking very dusty and oh-so-guilty.

It's really hard to discipline and train such a cute little thing.

The day after the decimation of my bulb bed and her subsequent trampling to death of all the bean sprouts and young squash plants in another of my garden beds, I was seriously reconsidering the whole idea of puppy ownership.

Wouldn't you know that was the very morning that Judah's Sunday School teacher told Jeff she was glad to hear Judah had finally gotten a puppy of his own. Apparently that had been our boy's heartfelt prayer request each week for months.

The choice was clear...we simply HAD to keep her.

She continues to dig up the backyard, has chewed the basketwork off the leg of one of my wicker chairs out back, gives Raisin a real run for her money and consistently attempts to play tug-of-war with any loose article of clothing on anyone entering the backyard. I had forgotten all about the damage that a puppy's milk teeth will do to kids clothing.

But then, I see my boy holding his beloved puppy and my heart melts into a puddle.

And I find myself crooning, "Oh, my little Ticker-Wicker-Woo" (a name that stuck long before she began teething on my wicker chairs) to her all over again, all her past offenses forgiven.

It probably helps that when the boy 'sneaks' her inside, she always finds her way to me.

Isn't that how it always is? The one member of the family that wasn't keen on the whole idea of a new puppy to begin with, and she makes it her mission to win me over?

Napping under my desk

or on my foot

or in my hands

She's pretty much wriggled her way into all our hearts.

Well, except for our older dog Raisin.

"You have usurped my throne...you will pay!"

It's not all sunshine and roses around here.

In fact, the advent of a new puppy has resulted in some rather strange behavior from Raisin.

In an apparent bid to be as endearing as possible, the old girl has suddenly reverted back to puppy-like antics, gnawing on every puppy toy or bone she finds, frolicking in the yard, and racing for the glass sliding door every time it's opened lest she miss out on some offered treat.

When she thinks we're not looking or listening, she also growls possessively when the back door opens, as though to say, "Get away, Ticker...they were my people first!"

It's shameful, really, to see such overtly jealous behavior in a dog of her years and supposed maturity.

Being 49 (in dog years), we had recently begun giving her a Glucosamine Chondroiton supplement to help with the stiffness she seemed to have after sleeping curled up all night in her dog house. We even went so far as to bring her indoors on nights when the desert temperatures dipped into the teens over the winter.

Judging by all the exercise Raisin has been getting since the puppy joined our family, I'm beginning to suspect that either the supplements have worked a miracle or the 'arthritis' was all a big ploy from day one.

I am such a sucker!

Little Ticker, sensing Raisin's disdain of her, has turned her cute puppy charm on the old girl and I believe has finally begun to wear her down.

Begrudgingly, but they're sharing nonetheless.

It's a start, I suppose.

Of Mice and Birds

The temperatures in our desert have dropped considerably this past week. We had 90+ temperatures in Early November, and were still getting tomatoes off our vines. But we've dipped into the high 20's at night, and I've actually (finally!) packed up all our summer clothes and flip flops, and have brought out the down comforters so we can all be nice and cozy inside for the winter.

Outside, our beloved dog Raisin has a cozy new bed inside her dog house.

Everyone in our household is snug, warm and ready for winter.

Things would be great...except for one thing.

Birds.

Thieving little birds that think they are entitled to Raisin's food, when it rightfully belongs to her as she is the one who has earned it patrolling the perimeter.

It has gotten to be costly (we currently buying twice the dog food we used to).

It has also gotten to be troublesome to Raisin.

Especially since they have taken to brazenly looting her bowl in broad daylight.

She's taken to lying on her sunny spot bed and keeping watch all day long.

Here she is on full alert status.

She even drug one of the boys toy rifles over to the bowl as a show of force.



It did nothing to deter the birds.

Apparently they are 'onto' the whole meaning of the 'orange tip on toy guns' thing.

They don't seem to worry too much about the dog, either.



"Do you see what I'm dealing with here?", Raisin asks, appalled that things in her little corner of the world have come to this.



But she has not taken this sitting down.

She's finally begun chasing them away with a deep-throated growl.

In fact, she's caught two birds already. And the one mouse.

Yes, our beloved dog has crossed the line from from good citizen dog to serial bird and mouse killer.

When she ran up to Jericho all proud of her conquest with the first bird, he said in disgust, "Get away from me, bird breath!" (In much the same manner as, "Get thee behind me, Satan!")

When we saw that first bird fluttering in Raisin's jowls, I was worried little Judah would be traumatized and warned him to stay back where he couldn't see it.

I wasn't quick enough, however, as he moved to the front of the crowd at our glass sliding door and yelled excitedly, yea even proudly, "She's a hunteen dog now!"

Ahhhhhhh, Spring! (Part 1)

Before we could go have fun on our Spring break, we had to take care of some very important business.

Landscaping.

Oy, was that a job!

Jeff and Jericho had been working for a while in the afternoons to rid our property of some overgrown bushes and a couple of small trees that were threatening to invade the septic.

Jericho worked at chopping down the spindly massive tree in the yard, while Jeff cut back and then wrestled the Oleanders out of the earth.

And they hung on, let me tell you, clinging for all they were worth.

But, by the sweat of his brow, Jeff won.



Jericho, too. See that long stick trunk there behind the root balls? That's his tree.

This flurry of activity began to prepare the ground for a rose hedge, and to take back the lawn.

Here are some blooms from a couple of the young rosebushes which we bought to add to our collection.







Oh, the lovely fragrances of Spring!

And you simply can't go to nursery after nursery without being tempted by all the fruit and nut trees you see there, especially when they're blooming.

Naturally, we came home with a few of those as well, which will soon be added to our little orchard out back.

This is one of the two dwarf Empress peach trees.



Here is a gorgeous Red Baron peach tree. The flowers are the most incredible color (the photos don't do the actual color justice)...imagine a hot pink mixed with salmon and a bit of red. Beautiful.



While I have vague recollections of picking hazelnuts as a child in Western Washington, I don't ever recall seeing an almond tree up close.

Here are what baby almonds look like.



Aren't they cute?

They look kind of like fat little mice trying to climb down into the blossoms though, don't they, lol?

Our beloved Raisin enjoyed spending time with us in the yard.



Here she picks her way across the freshly tilled soil to get her ears scratched by me.

I know this because nearly every time she sees me, she does this...comes up to her 'mama' snuffling and doing this "Shrek" thing with her ears and acting all affectionate, all while doing her best to look adorable so that I'll scratch her ears and rub her jowly, wrinkly face and croon to her like I did when she was a puppy and she imprinted on me. (Don't let scientists try and tell you that only feathered fowl do such things...Raisin did this, too. She knows who her mama is.)

Why is it that even the dog comes to me for such things? My boys are just as bad...crawling into my lap all affectionately just to ask, "Mama, weow you squatch my back?" or coming in the room to say, "Hey, mom...could you get that itchy spot right between my chicken wings?" and turn around all expectantly.

Ahem. Anyway, getting back to my story...as far as the boys were concerned, the best part about all this yard work were the large holes which remained where trees and bushes had been.

Jericho and Judah made good use of these foxholes while Dad finished tilling the soil.











Yes, it was quite a productive couple of days.



Judah fancied himself quite the farmer after all that hard work 'helping' daddy work the land, and went and dug out his cowboy hat and spent the evening riding his horse around the farm yard.

They were having so much fun, they gave no thought to the fact that we'd mentioned a special surprise for them the following day...