It never gets easier...

Today we said goodbye to this special little guy...

As you can see from my sidebar, we've been through this many times over the years.

It never gets easier.

For the past week, Jarrett has been sneezing a bit harder than normal. He's so low to the ground that when he sneezes, he bumps his snout on the floor (which for the past week has given him a tiny bloody nose - not a lot of blood - one swipe of a tissue and it was gone). We assumed it was maybe a seasonal allergy, but decided to have it checked this past Monday.

We were shocked to learn that he had an aggressive cancer on the roof of his mouth that had started traveling into his nasal passage. That was what was causing the more pronounced sneezing along with the bit of a bloody nose. The recommendation: euthanasia. Treatment was not an option. Especially for a 15 year old dog. I have no idea how long he'd had it. Other than the sneezing/bloody noses, he'd shown no symptoms whatsoever.

We brought him home so our two girls, who no longer live at home, could come and say their goodbyes. And the past few days while on the pain killers he was sent home with, he did really good. He stopped sneezing and getting bloody noses, a good thing .

We knew his days were numbered, and that his cancer was aggressive and not treatable, but while he was still wagging his tail and enjoying life (and food), I was not ready to say that final goodbye. 

But things changed suddenly, and Mr. J took a turn for the worse overnight. We rushed him to the vet's first thing this morning to face the inevitable.

"My little old dog: a heart-beat at my feet." (Edith Wharton)

Till we meet again, Mr. J, our sweet, sweet boy. You will always live on in our hearts.

Donna

The bed hog...

This scene is not uncommon at our house.

Baby decides to sprawl out...

... on the comfy dog bed...

... while poor Mr. J is left with nothing but the hard floor.

Does this look like the face of a cat who has even a shred of guilt? 

No, I didn't think so either.

Sometimes Mr. J does try to make himself comfortable on the old chenille scatter rug...

... but it's hardly as comfy as his thick, padded dog bed.

Mr. J is confiding to Lamb Chop that he saw mommy (me) watching a video on the computer that shows this same scene playing out, on a daily basis, in houses all over America!

(This video is sooooooo sweet!)

Mr. J has never confronted Baby over his bed, but be sure to watch these sweet pups who are very politely trying to reclaim what is rightfully theirs from the family cat!
(I highly recommend enlarging the video so you can really see these guys!)

And don't forget, Monday at midnight is the deadline to leave a comment here if you'd like to win (your choice of) a print from my Etsy art shop!

This week I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Donna

He's home!!!!

Thank you all SOOO much for your prayers and well wishes for our boy!

From Thursday afternoon until about 11 p.m. Saturday evening, he was at the Emergency Clinic recovering from an operation to remove his spleen due to internal bleeding. Before they could operate, he needed a blood transfusion because he had lost so much blood. As if that wasn't enough, Mr J has had ongoing problems with his right eye, and the surgeons thought it would be wise (if he was handling the anesthesia without any problems) to go ahead and remove his eye at the same time since it was going to continue to cause him problems - and great pain - in the future.

As it turns out, we are familiar with this procedure because our sweet Ms. Giz, who we lost several years ago, also had to have her right eye removed due to constant eye infections/complications related to her diabetes. And as you can see from this photo, she was a very happy little girl despite the procedure. 

So now our boy is home! We bought and installed a baby gate before we went to pick him up because he is not allowed to use stairs for quite some time. (It has been a LONG time since we've had a baby gate at the top of these stairs - our girls are now 24 and 27 years old!)

Mr J goes back to have his stitches removed in 10-12 days. In the meantime he is on pain killers and high blood pressure medicine, which he is handling just fine. We will know biopsy results early next week and are certainly praying that there is no cancer involved.

Mr J, shortly after coming home last night...

So as a recap...

Cost of original vet visit (well over $200).... 

Cost of 3-day emergency clinic (suffice to say, thousands upon thousands)

Cost of  baby gate... ($59)

Having our boy back at home, smiling..... PRICELESS!

Prayers for our boy...

As I type this, our sweet Mr. J is undergoing surgery.

This all happened so suddenly. He was fine yesterday, but this morning seemed lethargic. And then when he showed no interest whatsoever in his breakfast, we knew something was wrong.

This is a dog who LOVES eating. His eyes aren't locked on me in these photos. They are locked on a dog bone I'm holding up in order to get some good photos of him.

Our vet saw him this morning and after an x-ray they sent us to an emergency 24 hour animal clinic where an ultrasound showed possible internal bleeding and a mass on his spleen.

They first needed to stabilize him due to the internal bleeding.

They weren't sure what time they would actually start operating,

so I am sitting by the phone waiting to hear something.

 While we were at the emergency clinic, I spotted this little magazine from across the room. The dog on the cover looked like what I imagine our  sweet Mr. J looked like when he was younger, before his entire muzzle turned white. We didn't know him in the early years of his life as he came from a shelter at an older age.

I've been missing in action for most of this past month due to some medical issues of my own. It's been a trying month, that's for sure.

Hopefully I'll be writing again soon with some very good news about Mr. J!!!

Donna

Just hanging around...

...waiting for the blizzard to start.

Schools have already been cancelled in anticipation of the possible 2-1/2 feet of snow we're expecting.

I'm more concerned about the high winds than the snow as 60 mph gusts are also expected. I'm praying that the power stays on and the trees stay upright (and off the house, unlike the freak October snowstorm we had a couple of years ago).

Our driveway and front yard back in 1982, shortly after moving into our little 'Enchanted Cottage,' (a.k.a. Split Entry). SCARY! We certainly don't want a repeat of this!

Those of you in the path of this snowstorm / Nor'Easter / blizzard, stay safe!

I also wanted to thank photographer/blogger Mollys Muses (her fabulous vintage Etsy shop is MollyFinds); she and I are members of ETSY's vintage Vestiesteam and she did a wonderful post today promoting the SWEET15 sale (15% off everything) that 60+ ETSY Vestiesteam members' shops are offering through February 15th.  Thank you, Molly, for including us in your fantastic blog post!

(click HERE to read Mollys Muses blog post about the Vestiesteam SWEET15)

Stay warm, everyone!!

Donna (who cannot WAIT to be sitting out in the yard watching hummingbirds... sigh....)

From the 60's to this in two days flat!

 Where did the beautiful, warm, 60 degree temperatures of Monday go????

 

Reality smacked us - hard - as we woke to typical January weather this morning.

(typical for New England, anyhow!)

 

Everywhere Baby and I looked was white, white, and more white.

Whereas my snowman flag looked ridiculous on Monday when temps soared into the low 60's...

...he looked right at home today in the midst of the snowy white landscape.

(Don't you love this whimsical little guy? My talented  friend, Jeri of Fiddlestix, is the artist!)

 

I see the plow is working up at the corner. I'm sure he'll be heading this way before too long.

And within minutes he had.

The view out back was much the same.

As much as I'm not a fan of winter, even I can appreciate the beauty of freshly fallen snow.

The backyard looks like a crystal fairyland with the heavy snow clinging to every branch.

Our new gate and fence are experiencing their first winter.

How I love my little heart gate, no matter what the season.

Snow clung to the diamond pattern of the deck chairs.

And look who heard me taking pictures and ventured over to see if I had my peanut basket

(which I did, of course, much to Sammy's delight!)

 

This is what Mr. J looks like whenever he comes in from the snow. He may be 12, but he's a kid at heart and loves to burrow his head and roll in it.

Stay warm, everyone!!!!

Donna

Mr. J announces The Night Before Christmas Winner!

Mr. J, mere steps outside the groomer's door ...

 

 ... is smiling his biggest smile and wagging his tail so fast it's a blur because he is announcing the winner of the Leonard Weisgard copy of The Night Before Christmas!

 

(Truth be told, it's also because he was JUST picked up from the groomer 

and is oh-so-happy to be going home!!!)

I had hubby do the honors of reaching in and picking the winner and he picked...

....(drum roll)....

 Ruth Kelly (Dian's Timpanalle blog). Congratulations, Ruth!!!

I'll be in touch to get your address! Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

 

Can you tell that Mr. J is counting the minutes until I take off his collar?

(Just look at the size of those big, flat paws!

We refer to them as muppet feet because that's just what they look like!)

 

I thought he looked absolutely adorable in his little 'elf' collar from the groomer. I think you can tell by the look on his face what he thought! The excitement of escaping the groomer's has been replaced by the reality that he's got some kind of contraption around his neck and, frankly, he's not a fan of scarves, bandanas, or (apparently) elf collars.

 

Oh, Mr J, if you only knew how CUTE you look!!

Mr. J was originally from a shelter who had him listed as a Lhasa Apso mix.

When one of my girls posted his picture on Facebook shortly after we got him,

a friend of hers responded, "Oh, you got a Shih-Poo!"

(which is apparently part Shih-Tzu, part Poodle)

 

Whatever you are, Mr. J, you are one handsome hound!

This was the last humiliating picture (taken in front of our still undecorated tree).

The collar came off immediately after this photo was taken, much to Mr. J's delight :)

 

I hope you all have a beautiful week!

 

Donna

My furry little helpers...

So last week I shared our little split entryway mirror/gallery wall makeover.

What I didn't share were photos of my buddies, who love to help me out

whenever I'm tweaking things or taking photos.

I snapped this photo of Mr. J through the mirror, as he lay in the hallway watching my every move!

Oh my gosh, he looks so guilty/sad in this photo for some reason. Cheer up, Mr. J!

That's better! Now we have a big toothy grin :)

Here's another pair of eyes watching my every  move.

I see you down there, Baby, even though you do somewhat blend in with the floor!

A few minutes later I found her hiding behind the open door in the entryway.

She loves to pounce out from hiding places to 'surprise' us!

And here's a short video of  Baby putting on a little show for me before I put the camera away.

Now I just need to teach her how to fix the curled up rug once she's done rolling in it!

The leaves are falling at a furious rate around here.

Hope you're all enjoying autumn!

I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday this week!

Donna