Well, the last month has been kind of up and down. Tate was sick for a good part of it and there were so many things happening at once, we weren’t sure what it was. First, the new puppy completely disrupted Tate’s kingdom. Then, he had his third chemo treatment (CCNU capsules, which he’s never had a problem with) but the doctor added an antibiotic and gabapentin because Tate still had an open sore at his incision. The very next day, he starting vomiting and had poop problems. This went on at various levels of severity for over two weeks, with a fever of 105o thrown in for good measure, plus an assortment of new meds trying to get this controlled. Poor little guy, and through it all he had this monkeybutt little sister biting his ears and his tail at every turn.
Finally, the vet said, “Take him off everything.” So the poop problems subsided but in the meantime the weather turned blistering hot and he started barfing whenever he drank water. Now he gets his water in a little bowl instead of a bucket, but he really is much less able to take the heat. Used to be he’d rather be with us no matter what but now he stays inside with air conditioning more often. So he’s back in reasonable health and the sore has finally healed. (Whew! What a relief that is!) He had his fourth and final chemo treatment with only minor effects. This is a normal we can live with. We’ll see about putting him on a low-dose chemo next time we see the oncologist but certainly not if it makes him miserable or even uncomfortable.
Thanks to our own personal Tripawds Puppy Advisory Board (Ge’Lena, Shari and Charon), Little Sister Sam is now under control. She cries at the back door to go out, she stays out of the kitchen, she sometimes drops the rock or whatever on the “out” command (even a robin one time), and most importantly, she lets up on the “be nice” command. Then she licks his head and ears. We don’t leave them alone together very often, and Tate’s getting plenty of time with us away from her. So enormous gratitude to the T.P.A.B., your wisdom and willingness to share it saved the day! Tripawds is the best!
Along the way, a number of friends have celebrated ampuversaries in the double digits and I realized, I’d been starting to count on Tate joining their ranks. Lucky for me, I had a reminder from an Angel that every day is precious, things can change quickly. And so my priorities are back in order…even if the garden is full of weeds.
A special note to all the Angels out there – you don’t even know the blessings your blogs spread around the Tripawds community and I’m sure to even more guests that we don’t even know about. So an extra-special thank you to each and everyone one of you.