Scare

Whew. We can breathe sighs of relief today.
We had a little scare with Bucket last week.

Simon noticed Bucket had a funny looking mammory gland early last week. When I checked it out on Tuesday I got worried. It felt weird and I knew we needed a trip to the vet.

I saw the vet (thank you, Louise) on Thursday and we scheduled surgery for Friday. Bucket did not get spayed until she was 5 (when she was "rescued") and that meant we could be in for trouble (apparently if a dog gets spayed before her first Heat, she reduces her chance of developing mammory cancer by 99%). But we wouldn't know until the mass was removed and biopsied.

It wasn't the surgery that worried me, it was waiting for results. I hoped for the best but could only imagine the worst.

Today we got her results. And breathed sighs of relief. The tumor was NOT malignant. It is considered pre-cancerous. That means other growths will likely occur and will need to be removed. It also means we need to give her a thorough check at home once a week. But it's not Cancer and that's great news.

I need to add that Bucket's been a champ the past week wearing the lampshade. She eats, drinks water and goes outside with it on. She figured out how to climb on the furniture and go up and down the stairs while wearing it. The only down side is that I hear her moving around in the middle of the night when she's brushing up against the furniture. A small price to pay for her healing.

Ariel

This cute thing was called Ariel.
She was Simon's parents little doggie for 10 years.
And ours for almost 3 years.

When we moved to Maine in October 2003 his parents were moving into a condominium that didn't allow them to have a dog. We said we'd take her. Now you may think this is really no big deal. And it didn't end up being one. But you need to understand a few things about Ariel.

She was used to being the only dog in a household. She barked at any car that came into their driveway like it was Judas himself. Simon's mom couldn't use the weedwacker without putting Ariel in a contained area. She did not like other dogs.

We introduced Ariel to our 3 Graces during our second day at our new house. We thought the sooner the better. Simon picked her up from boarding and brought her directly to her new home.

I thought that Sunny was going to be the toughest introduction. If any argument was going to take place it would be between Sunny and Ariel. So Sunny would be last.

The Gentle Giant, Gozer, was first. We know she doesn't have a mean bone in her body and would not retaliate in any way. Simon waited outside with Ariel and I brought Gozer out of the house. When Gozer got close, Ariel lunged at her. Simon immediately corrected her with a forceful pull on her collar. Simon then started walking around the house with Ariel on one side and Gozer on the other when I went to get Bucket.

When Ariel lunged for Bucket she got a different reaction. Bucket lunged back and made contact. Thereby letting Ariel know that Bucket was the Alpha dog. By the time I introduced Sunny you would have thought Ariel had always been around other dogs.

I brought Ariel into the house. Let her smell the nooks and crannies. Showed her it was okay to jump on the bed. And believe it or not, she settled down.

There was a couple of scuffles involving food. Ariel promptly learned she could not go up to another dog's bowl when they were eating and try to eat from their bowl.

Her mannerisms were so different from the 3 Graces. I attributed that to the Terrier in her. She needed her own space. Gozer, Sunny and Bucket would sleep in our room at night and Ariel would sleep in Simon's office. If we were downstairs watching TV at night, she'd go upstairs for the peace and quiet.

She was used to being outside for short blocks of time. Gozer, Sunny and Bucket go outside, do their business then come back in. Ariel needed to patrol the land. So we left her out. The first Winter with us she figured out that when she was ready to come in she needed to climb the back steps and paw at the sliding glass door.

Ariel's behavior slightly changed this past Winter. She was never a very big eater, but she seemed to eat even less. She started to spend more time by herself. She urinated a few times in the house (thank goodness she always choose the kitchen linolium, bathroom rug or bathroom tile).

The newest habit that was irksome at first then turned into a game was "find the turd". Ariel would just drop turds. There was no rhyme or reason. Often it happened when she had just come back in the house from patrolling the land. We joked that her turds were so solid you could just pick them up and pop in your pocket until you got to the trash bin.

I knew the end was near when she wandered off our property in early May (I'll write that story in another posting). She was never the same when she was back home, safe and sound, sixteen hours after wandering off. Her spunk was gone, though she did still play "find the turd". She was eating even less than she did in the Winter.

I say it was her way of letting us know that her time had come to make the journey to the "rainbow highway in the sky". A term of friend of ours uses for animal "heaven". He says that all dogs and cats go to the rainbow highway and get to play all day and sleep all night.

We took her to our vet on June 1st. This is the first dog I've seen "put to sleep". The vet gives two injections. The first is a heavy sedative to calm the dog and basically knock them out. A lot of different things can happen before the second shot that deals the "final blow".

After Ariel received her first shot she had an adrenaline rush that had her uber alert and pacing for about sixty seconds. Then when she was slowing down, Simon laid her on her side. We told her to relax and said our goodbye. Immediately after receiving the second shot, Ariel gave us a BIG yawn (the vet said she's never seen that in her 20+ years of practice) that made the three of us smile.

Oh Ariel, doing it YOUR way until the end.

We miss you doggie.

The Three Graces

Bucket, Gozer and Sunny

June 2006

My brother-in-law, Matt, nicknamed our dogs "The Three Graces" a few years ago.

Each one has a unique personality.

Bucket is the oldest at 11. She arrived on Simon's doorstep in Chicago as a foster dog (his eleventh and last) through Midwest Lab Rescue in April 2000. She's the Alpha Dog. She has an uncanny self confidence.

Gozer is about 10 1/2. She also arrived on Simon's Chicago doorstop as a foster dog (his fifth) through MLRR in July 1999. She's the nervous one in the group. We think this has something to do with her abandonment by a previous owner.

Sunny will be 10 in November. I adopted her from PAWS Chicago in May 2000. She's the comic relief. And the charmer.

Simon once said their personalities are summed up with how they feel about a toy in their possession. Bucket loves the chase; Sunny likes to own it; Gozer is nervous with ownership of a possession.

Man and dog

This is my wonderful husband, Simon, and our beautiful Chocolate Labrador Retreiver, Gozer.



Gozer is approximately 10 1/2 years young (she's a rescue, so that's our best guess). A couple of years ago she got diabetes. She was overweight at that time and lost 20 pounds in the 6 months following diagnosis. With 2 shots of vetsulin (yep, you guessed it, insulin for animals) a day we've managed to keep her high blood sugar at bay. She's managed to keep all the extra weight off.
The worse effect of the diabetes is vision loss. We think she can see outlines of shapes but probably not much else. She navigates the stairs in and around our house without any problems. She does not bump into furniture. She can't see food if you hold it in front of her, but she sure can smell it. Her hearing and smelling have definitely helped to compensate for the vision loss.