I had no idea haven't written since September! I need to post pictures of the kids just so people will recognize them again!!
In a nutshell, Thanksgiving was spent down in Oregon at Trent's sisters house. We had a GREAT time and plan on invading her home again next year! Hang on Renea!
Christmas was very relaxing this year. I told the kids we were going to stay close to home and not plan so much so that Mom isn't running around screaming most of the time.....no, I NEVER do that!
I received my all time favorite gift this year, an iphone...they really are all that.
Told you this would fit in a nutshell!
Fast forward to this last week (January and February were uneventful) and I'll tell you we had one hell of a week. We began the week (Monday) with Trent bringing home great news of being offered a permanent job at Clearwire in Kirkland. Nothing is set in stone but as the paperwork is being worked out I'll keep everyone up-to-date.
Tuesday we have our homeschool co-op were I found myself explaining to the ladies why I hadn't put our beloved dog, Lou, to sleep yet. You see, he has cancer and this cancer grew so large on his left leg that it outgrew the skin. Pleasant thought I know, but he didn't seem to be in any pain. Since he couldn’t stop licking or biting the unpleasant area he had to wear a "cone", always. This had been going on for several months. This is a dog that was still chasing balls, wagging his tail...not even a limp. So, here I was explaining why I'm putting up with the blood and smell since blood isn't the most wonderful smell once dried, when I decided that we needed to make a decision. I talked to my vet, who was at the table since she is also a homeschool mom and also one of my oldest homeschool friends. She gave me a name of a surgeon in Issaquah, the best with cancer. I called and made an appointment for Friday morning. You have to understand, if he could even operate, he would have to take all of Lou's leg. How do you do this to a dog? How do you make him understand that your doing this to prolong his life? We love this guy!
On Wednesday I took Lou to the groomers as he smelled so bad that I just couldn't stand it another day! Staci our groomer was great and when I picked up Lou he looked just like our old dog again! What a treat to be able to hug and kiss him again! That evening around 7pm or so Lou started crying and pacing. I assumed it was the antibiotics since they can upset a dogs stomach. We just loved him up and then went to bed. Around 4am he was so miserable that I just sat with him. I noticed that his stomach was hard as a rock so I called our vet and explained the situation. She new immediately that Lou's stomach had flipped and no air could escape. This is called Bloat and is one of the worst ways for a dog to die and he would die of this within 6 hours or so. It was strange to have something other then cancer be our wake-up call. We raced to the vet's within minutes and watched as our dog relaxed and fell asleep forever. He was never meant to loose a leg to cancer.....he will be missed.
