Thoughtful gifts, lovely surprises, a little mystery, and a blessed passing

Christmas came and went exactly as I had wished – and with a few little surprises thrown in.

Santa forgave Eddie and Allie their recent misdeeds, and all the critters found goodies in their stockings. Riley and Eddie found chew sticks and cookies, and Allie new catnip toys.

Told ya I'd been good!

A package for me from “Santa’s Critter Helpers” (who I happen to know live in the Okanagan and not at the North Pole) produced, among other treasures, the gift that made me cry in both sorrow and pleasure  – a Christmas ornament with my late sister’s picture on it. 

She is indeed the star on my Christmas tree. 

We ended up with a white Christmas here on Vancouver Island, though Crofton didn’t get much of it and it didn’t stick around long.  Still, it afforded a Christmassy walk in the snow sharing happy greetings with others in our small town.  And when we returned, I spied a piece of Christmas wrap sticking out from under my front screen door – and discovered a mysterious package.  

Attached was a note saying “Jean – can’t replace the one someone stole, but we hope it works. One set of dog lovers to the next.  Merry Christmas”.

It was a bird feeder.  You may recall mine was stolen earlier this year - Allie's 'reality tv show' taken in the dead of night. 

I have no idea who left it there.  I have racked my brain trying to figure it out.  I think it was delivered while I was walking the dogs,  but it could have been earlier in the day when Eddie was going mad with barking in the living room and my glance out of the windows didn’t reveal anything for him to bark at (in which case, dear gifter, I hope you didn’t hear me yelling at my noisiest-ever-debarked-dog to “Shut Up!” – a not very Christmassy sentiment!). 

I hope the giver is a blog-reader and now knows how very much I was touched by this thoughtful gift.  It will soon go up where the old one was – firmly attached to a pole which shall be rooted into the ground with rapid-post cement! 

A new bird feeder for Allie and me!

Another lovely surprise was a card and plate of  goodies the two little children across the street brought to me Christmas Eve.  Theirs is my favourite card of all I received:

Card by Pippa and Finlay

My granddog, Becky, enjoyed the gifts I sent her, and I love this picture of her with her new, soft, unstuffy stuffy – a rabbit I thought she might like.  She does.

Someone loves her new rabbit from Grandma Jean

  

My Christmas meal was thoroughly enjoyable.  Along with a small (hormone free, humanely raised) prime rib roast, I roasted fresh vegetables and even made Yorkshire pudding for the second time in my life – which turned out perfectly! 

I set the table with the Christmas china and poured the wine, and  I even put out a Christmas cracker just like my family has done my whole life.  And yes, I even wore the stupid hat. Well, I wore it for at least two minutes, before making  Sir Eddie wear it.  

If ah wear the hat, shouldn't ah get the roast?

(Funny story here:  I was trying to get Eddie to sit still for the photo, and opened the cookie jar to get him a bribe reward.  At the sound of the jar, Riley came running, eager for a treat.  When she saw me putting the hat on Eddie, she took off in the other direction!  Guess Riley has had enough of being photographed wearing silly Christmas apparel!)

Trifle for dessert, a coffee with Baileys, and then a gentle evening listening to music and reading “Ginty’s Ghost”, a gift from my daughter – it is wilderness dweller Chris Czajkowski’s newest release and every bit as entertaining and engrossing as the author’s previous books, which all sit on my shelf.

Lastly, I found out quite by chance this morning that Petey, the little dog I fostered from December 23, 2011 to June 14, 2012 passed away on Christmas Eve.  Petey was deaf, blind, and while in my care had extreme separation anxiety and chronic bronchitis.  I questioned his quality of life back then, but he went on to live another six months with another foster home.  For me, it is a gift and a blessing to know he is finally at peace.  Run free, Petey.  

Thoughtful gifts, pleasant walks, little surprises, good food, chats with family and friends, and a precious old dog now running free at the Bridge – I am content.  It was a very good Christmas. 

Musings on ageing dogs and ageing parents

But mostly on ageing dogs and the quality of life.

On Thursday, I delivered Petey to the rescue where he is to be placed with another foster home and be more accessible to potential adopters if he is deemed adoptable, and to vet care if he is not.  Today, I ran over to the mainland to visit my 93 year old mom in her care facility.  Two hours each way on a ferry give one a lot of time for thinking about their similarities, and the issue of quality of life.

There are some who would say it is wrong to send a blind, deaf, ancient foster dog to yet another home instead of finding a way to continue to provide care here.  There are some who would say that they would never put their ageing parent in a facility; that it is the responsibility of adult children to look after ageing parents.  There are some who will keep critters and humans alive at all costs until they are immobile, incontinent of bowel and bladder, and devoid of all pleasures in life.

I am not that person. 

The very elderly, be they human or canine, need 24-7 care. The caregivers at my mom's facility are far more competent and well trained than I am to provide her with the care she requires, even though I know she wishes she was not there. 

Dogs, however, pose a different challenge.  As a deaf, blind, ancient little dog who has obviously had a traumatic and neglectful past, Petey becomes very distressed when left alone.  I live alone, in a small village with two very small convenience stores.  Period.  If I need to do some banking, go to a doctor’s appointment, do a major grocery shop, pick up something from a hardware or drugstore, I am going to be gone at least two hours. Taking Eddie for his much-needed walks means Petey is guaranteed to be left alone for at least an hour twice a day.    I don't have an army of volunteers or any paid staff to tend to the dogs. And one can only call on friends so often – a situation I try to reserve for emergencies or at least very important family –related concerns. 

Taking Petey with me is seldom an option – he can't be left alone in the car, even if the temperature isn't too hot, and virtually no stores here (with the exception of pet stores) allow dogs inside -  not even the post office where I pick up my mail. 

Petey  is a very content dog when lying in my arms , and does usually nap peacefully in one of his many beds as long as I’m in the same room.  He even putters around the yard with me quite happily for a half hour or so at a time.  But his need for 24 hour care cannot be met here, and I will not see a dog in frequent distress with no chance of it being relieved in the current environment.  

A challenge indeed. 

And that leads to a bigger question:  At what point does one decide that a dog's quality of life is so compromised that it may be time to euthanize?  Only when a medical crisis hits?  Or is there a point at which a dog whose little ticker beats just fine should be helped to cross the bridge?  Petey's situation aside, I will eventually face that dilemma with my Sadie, who has insulinoma, an incurable cancer with a poor prognosis.  I will not see a dog become totally immobilized in its own urine and feces, reliant on a human to even get them from basket to door.  I honestly do not think a dog who has been ‘clean’ since puppyhood likes that feeling – even if it is contained in doggy diapers.  As a short term or occasional issue – such as post surgery, or the occasional accident – that’s okay.  But as a permanent situation – No.  When Sadie reaches the point where she can no longer get up, or where her occasional accidents in the house become a routine from total loss of bladder and bowel control,  I will opt to euthanize her.  So far, I have been lucky that all my many dogs have decided for themselves before reaching that point.

When I took on Petey nearly six months ago, I anticipated he may be with me for two or three months – while he had and recovered from his dental surgery and his eye surgery – and then he would be promoted on the website and facebook and find a forever home.  I was prepared to give up that much time, that much of my life – temporary responsibility is part of the reason I foster rather than adopt more dogs. For reasons that are complicated, and for which no one is as fault, this did not happened.  The decision on his eye surgery is still pending as far as I know;  and no one foresaw the incredible need he has to be with a human full time, nor the extent to which being some distance from the preferred vets used by the rescue would be problematic.

I have been blessed to have Petey in my life for these six months, and I hope I have been some comfort to him.  But I also know that I do not want to, and cannot, provide 24/7 care for a dog over whom I do not have full decision making power.  

The dogs I adopt will always be with me to the end.  But I am the one who decides when the quality of life is no longer satisfactory.  Sadie will never be given away or euthanized simply because she needs frequent care due to her insulinoma. But nor will I keep her alive once she no longer has what I consider to be a reasonable quality of life – once she can no longer walk, can no longer control her bladder and bowels, once her collapses can no longer be controlled by medications without significant negative side effects.  I do not look forward to making that decision, but I also won’t rush it.  

With Petey no longer here, I can once again leave the house for 4-5 hours at a time.  There may come a time when Sadie’s needs mean those outings are shorter.  But I am convinced that when it means she needs 24 hour care, seven days a week, her quality of life will be one that neither she nor I would consider acceptable. 

Perhaps others have greater tolerance than I for being away from the house knowing full well that one of the critters is barking and crying hysterically.  Perhaps others are home more, or have other family members or volunteers who can stay with a dog so needy.  If so, then Petey is better being moved to such an environment than staying here.  And if not, then it will be up to the rescue to make a decision regarding his quality of life.

I know what I would do.

And not everyone would agree. 

(Postscript:  as of this afternoon, Petey is now listed on the rescue's Facebook  page as available for adoption. The rescue having made its decision, it is my sincere hope that he will find the type of home and 24/7 caregiver that he needs for his final months or years.)

What we did this week

What we did this week, 

By Sagacious Sadie

I dunno why my mama's not bloggin’.  There is LOTS to blog about, an’ here she hazn’t wrotten writed written a thing for nearly a week again. Sigh.  I guess that means I gotta do it for her again.  Sure wish someone wud invent a computer with keys big enough for PAWS.  An' cameras too, cuz my mom has hardly taken any shots this week.  I hadza take some for this blog, but they is a bit blurry.  Sowwy. Oh well, here goes:

First of all, our friend Georgi is here for a visit while her mama has deserted her gone on a holiday.  She came a WEEK ago, an’ haz mama written a thing about it? Noooo.  If Georgi’s mom is checking the blog, she’s gonna think we’ve booted her out to roam the streets all by herself. 

But no, she’s here, she’s fine, an’ we enjoys her company.  We had a laff  luagh  funnies the other day.  Petey stole Georgi’s cushion.

Petey, the cushion thief

So Georgi stole my cushion.

Georgi, the cushion thief

An’ I had to sleep on de floor.  But mama sez I’m a very grashus nice host to let visitors borrow my bed.  Georgi will be here for a few more days still.

Petey, Georgi, Sadie catching some zzzzz's

And on Sunday – DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED ON SUNDAY THAT MY MAMA DIDN’T BLOG ABOUT???

Guess who this is:

Guess who?

No, silly reader, that’s not Eddie. This is Eddie:

Ha ha, fooled you!

That’s our friend Taleah!  She's about the same age as Eddie, and the same colours, but much smaller:

Taleah and Eddie

She came to visit with her good buddy Riley. 

Riley

They also let their mamas Deb and Sharon come too.  Taleah and Riley haz been here fore, but Eddie hasn’t met them cuz he is the new kid on the block.  They stayed at the RV place down by the beach, an they waz here for three days!  

Eddie an Taleah and Riley and the humans went down to Osborne Bay Park.  I can’t do that walk anymore, but that’s okay – I caught up on my sleep.  The humans also got kicked out of a nursery  (the tree kind, not the little baby kind) - but I’ll let mama tell you that story.  Mostly I think the humans drank beer and wine and ate. 

But they did plant a tree in memory of my ol’ buddy Charley.  A dogwood tree.  It waz a gift from Aunties Deb and Sharon and Ellen.  An’ Deb dug the hole and they put the tree it in and told it to grow.  My mama doesn't seem to haz a picture of it yet (Auntie Deb took some pictures though!), so you hasta use yer imaginations. 

My mama also got a package of hundreds of ladybugs and they set them loose all over the flowers, especially the roses because the aphids is eating them.  But this pickshure  pictoor photo is of them on some yellow daisy things.  We broughts some of the ladybugs into the house on our furs!  Heh heh heh.

Ladybugs

And today – ya know what happened today?  My mama took me an’ Petey fer a long ride to Victoriaiaiaia.  And she drove to the POUND there.  And she LEFT PETEY THERE. 

(Sadie! You make it sound like I abandoned him!  One of the directors of Petey’s rescue, Broken Promises, works there and Petey is going to a new foster home down there so his quality of life and medical needs can be better assessed, and so I can get a bit of a life again.  The pound was just the meeting place.  Besides, you liked it there – you said hello to the chickens and bunnies and cows and goats roaming the fields.) 

Whatever.  He left wiv his sootcase  cardboard box of clothes and peepads and food and medicines and pages of stuff my mama wrote about his care.  An' he took one of his baskets and his favorite blankie.  An' he also took some other stuff fer Broken Promises – leashes and coats an stuff that friends had donated or that we don't need anymores.  I tell ya, that ol’ man didn’t leave empty handed pawed! 

Petey moves out

But now my mama sez it is very quiet around here.  She was able to get the lawn cut without any dogs crying or barking.  An' to have a quick look at some of the few photos she took this week.   If I can drag her to the keyboard, I’ll get her to post some more of them in the next few days – and Auntie Deb will send us some too! 

Anyway, that’s about it.  It’s a good thing ONE of us takes the time to blog and let people know we’re alive. I tell ya, one of us hasta be the responsible one.  I guess that's me.

Love,

Sagacious Sadie. 

What's wrong with this picture?

What I did today:
Walked the dog, did five loads of laundry, picked up the new kitchen sink and faucet for the renos,  met with the kitchen designer, mowed the grass, took garden refuse to the dump, bought a composting bin, went to the bank,  raked the grass, sorted stuff I brought back from my sister's, cleaned out a cupboard to make room for stuff I brought back from my sister's, met with the guy who is pouring my new patio,  talked with the guy doing the drainage work Monday, boxed up something my daughter needed, went to the post office, picked up groceries, checked out the paint for the kitchen, and read (but haven't yet replied to) 33 emails.

What the dogs did today:

Eddie

Petey

Sadie

In my next life, I wanna be a dog!

One Photo

Salmonberry flower - or maybe thimbleberry.  I forget.

From the Elder College walk around Chemainus Lake this week.  It's all I have the energy to post tonight.  It has been an exhausting few days.  The new roof is on, but Eddie was so beside himself at all the noise and kerfuffle that I had to sedate him.  Sadie has had two collapses this week - one a possible seizure in the middle of the night, and one not long after eating - so the prednisone is no longer doing its job.  She is currently lying in the hallway barking at the shadows.  Petey has developed what the vet believes to be bronchitis, and coughed for fifteen hours straight last night and this morning, and has just started up again.  Unfortunately, we have to take him off his metacam for several days before administering the meds he needs for the bronchitis, so he is also whining and being a big suck. Kinda like me.

A bit of this, a bit of that while waiting, waiting, waiting

(A long ramble of life around here while I wait for late delivery people to show up with materials for my new roof.  I hate waiting. Poor Eddie wants his morning walk.)

Outings:

I missed the Elder College hike last week (they went to Kinsol Trestle, which I described in an earlier blog post here), as Sadie was not stable enough to leave. But on Thursday, Gail and I took her Sadie and my Eddie up to Crofton Lake. It was a great day for being outdoors, and we met several other people with their dogs on a trail where I seldom see anyone. Judging from these photos, I'd say Sadie B and Eddie had lots of fun:

Sadie B runs up the bank with a ball

Off Leash Eddie trots happily along the lake trail

Other Dog Stuff

Eddie is a smart little boy and VERY food motivated. I have been using a treat ball for him for some time

Eddie and his treat ball

as well as a clamshell, and recently added a tug-a-jug to his food dispenser toys as the others were just too easy. He figured out that one in about 30 seconds flat.

Gail loaned me a Nina Ottosson canine memory puzzle - a canine version of Go Fish with treats attached! The dog watches you hide a treat under one of the nine bones, then must remember which one it was and touch that bone with his paw (or nose). Too easy for Eddie - he got it in a second. I put treats under all the bones, then as he pawed one I gave him the treat and replaced the bone. He touched ONLY the bones with a treat underneath, and never once pawed at a bone where the treat was no longer there. What a smart boy!

Eddie knows just which puzzle piece hides a treat!

After a couple of peaks and valleys, Sadie seems to be doing okay with the help of Flagyl. I've started moving her back to her regular diet, even though she still has somewhat colourful, soft poop. If it doesn't return to normal this week, we'll consider more tests - though with palliative dogs one always has to ask the question "how might the results of this test change our protocol?". Clearly, Sadie is not a candidate for surgery, and she is already on the drugs she needs for her insulinoma, so will knowing whether the liver and pancreas is deteriorating even more change anything in the way she is being treated? If not, is the money better spent/saved for other more critical vet care? This is always the challenge in caring for senior or special needs dogs - the drive to have as MUCH information as possible sometimes blinds us to what will actually be USEFUL information. Fortunately, the vet I deal with most for Sadie understands this and we will weigh the pros and cons of putting her through more tests (even blood tests stress her out). For now, we just treat the symptoms.

Ah'll just snooze on the couch, thank you.
Mah mama made me a box so I can still get up here.

Petey was chilly the other morning so I put his warm jacket on and covered him with a little blanket and he settled down for a snooze on one of the dogbeds. A little while later I looked down the hall, and there I saw this:

SuperDog!

Silly Petey, trailing his blanket from his shoulders as he waddled down the hall to find me.

Garden stuff:

The crushed gravel is now all shovelled into its rightful place alongside the carport - no more putting passengers at risk of a broken ankle due to an 8" drop off onto large round rocks!. And hopefully no more blackberries and other weeds trying to wrap themselves around my car.

New and improved side of carport - two yards of crushed gravel
and a sore back later.

I'm working on the front garden bed - the one that was all weeds last year - trying to salvage a few plants in there, planting lavendar and rosemary which should do well in this hot, dry side of the house, and using some 6" rock and smaller beach stone as cover and hardscaping.  Only 25 more feet and a half yard of large stones to go.

A small section of the new bed
(and why didn't I see that dandelion before I took the picture?)

And other stuff:

I have drainage guys developing a plan for the back yard so we can reduce the muck and eventually landscape,  and I have roofers coming to put a new roof on the house on Thursday (which is why  I am sitting around waiting...waiting...waiting for the materials to be delivered today).  I have firmed up a contract with a kitchen design/reno company - a complete gut and re-build (that should be fun!) that will likely begin around end of June. I have hikes, dogsitting, a trip to the Okanagon for my sister's Celebration of Life, and several other things scheduled for the next couple of months. And of course the usual book club and writing group and newspaper column and dog care stuff.  Oh, and Petey will be having his eyes removed as soon as I can figure out a date that will work to get him to Victoria and back. Life is busy. Too busy. I think I am a wee bit overcommitted.  Oops.

Ah, but the flowers are blooming,

Blossoms against a blue spring sky

Wee daisies cover the ground

Yellow skunk cabbage adds cheer to swamp

The eagles are calling,

Eagle on tree along seawalk

Spye, the pigeon who began showing up daily (now twice daily) a couple of months ago is in love - or at least bringing a friend to dinner:

Spye and friend dine on birdseed

The campers are arriving

Crowded RV park along Crofton shoreline
(Shudder!  Not my idea of camping - but good for the local economy!)

The kayakers are cruisin'

Kayakers pass a barge from the pulpmill

And the sunrises are spectacular:

Easter morning sunrise from my backyard

Life is good.

(And I hear a big truck pulling into the driveway - talk about good timing!)

Portrait of a Carrot Thief

WANTED FOR CARROT STEALING
Petey, aka Gutsy Grabber
Weighs less than ten pounds. Has grey curly hair.
Deaf. Blind. Fearless.
Will steal carrots from dogs four times his size.

On Sunday, I was working outside. Eddie was happily munching on a good-sized carrot - over an inch thick and about six inches long. Suddenly I heard Petey's distinctive growl - more like a warble - and looked up just in time to see Petey grab Eddie's carrot from under his nose and take off with it. Eddie looked flabbergasted, but to his credit did not fight with Petey about it - he just ran to me and whined instead.

It took me a few minutes to take off my work gloves and muddy boots in order to run in the house for the camera. By the time I came out, little Petey had that carrot gnawed down to a 2" stub, which he protectively kept a paw on and polished off in less than two minutes.

Eddie got a new carrot - in the safety of the mudroom.

Sumbody Save Me!

By Petey

Ah dunno about my foster mama.  First she takes such nice
photos of me to show my transformation



An' then she sticks me in this dorky hat she found
at some thrift store on the mainland.



Do I look happy?



Sumbody adopt me and save me from this humiliation!



The Metamorphosis of Master Petey

You may remember how Petey, my foster dog, looked when he first arrived at the animal control shelter:

Broken Promises Rescue took him under their wing and soon he was looking more respectable:

Then he came to me, where I tried to keep him from shivering by dressing him up, but the result made him look like a little old homeless man:

Where's mah shopping cart?

Yesterday I gave him a bath and decided to try for a more flattering picture of him. He's not the most cooperative model, and many of the two hundred photos I took (thank goodness for digital cameras!) ended up like this:

or this:

or even this:

But eventually we got a few that I think show him in a whole new light. Drum roll, please.....

I'd like you to meet the new and improved  MASTER PETEY:



Is this what you want, Foster mama?



This is kinda boring.

I think this is my coy look.

Here's my serious look.

Will this photoshoot EVER end?

But I think my favourite one of all, albeit a little out of focus, is this one:

Even an old dog  needs to take time to smell the flowers

Now doesn't that look like the kind of dog who will make someone's life complete?

If you are interested in more information about Petey, you'll find these four posts most helpful:

http://mylifewiththecritters.blogspot.com/2011/12/charleys-will-peteys-inheritance.html

http://mylifewiththecritters.blogspot.com/2011/12/little-dog-that-could.html

http://mylifewiththecritters.blogspot.com/2012/01/three-dog-night.html

http://mylifewiththecritters.blogspot.com/2012/02/petey-wonder-dog.html

For adoption information contact Broken Promises Rescue.