2022 Howl-o-ween 5k
We had an extra fun morning watching all the costumed people and dogs parade through town.
Mommy & Maddox Tour Vermont
Spending time touring lovely New England scenery with my dog.
Maddox and I spend the day driving the meandering roads through the hills of Vermont. The weather didn't cooperate initially… I suppose the overcast skies lend a sort of gloomy mood. But the afternoon sun peeked out long enough for us to enjoy some walks in the woods and snacks on a blanket outside the Vermont Country Store.
Buttercream Falls
Horses graze at Jenne Farm
Jenne Road
View from Coolidge State Historic Site
Breakfast at the South Woodstock Country Store
Rock Candy at the Vermont Country Store
Maddox at Buttermilk Falls
Sadie’s Luxury Cruise
As an elderly lady, Sadie signed up for the all-expenses-paid luxury cruise lifestyle. She got to have the primo-fancy food (seriously - you could add breadcrumbs and serve it up as meatloaf), of course served in bed. Walks in the stroller, like her own princess-style carriage. Endless adoration. All of the cheese topping from Mom’s Panera danish.
As I knew it must, the time came for me to say goodbye. I spent the night snuggling with my little girl, trying to ease her suffering… but in the morning, I was certain of my decision. She had told me she was had had enough, and I needed to be brave enough to listen.
Good bye, my sweet girl. I adored you every single day. I love you more than I thought possible, and will continue to treasure your memory for as long as I live.
Breakfast in Bed (for 2)
Wall decal in the quiet room at the oncologist’s office.
She Is Gone
You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and lose your mind,
be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
-- Author Unknown
Poop on the Corner
Amenities for my furry friends and the humans they bring in tow.
I know how much it stinks (literally) to carry around a smelly turd on a hot day. Since my neighborhood is great for walking, I have a lot of friends who pass by with their humans in tow.
I decided to add a doggie amenity station to the corner of my fence: water, trash, poop bags. I had a small seasonal faucet installed in this corner when I had the irrigation installed... partly so i can easily water in my new plantings on this side of the yard... but really... let's be honest... partly for the dogs.
Tick Tubes
Let’s kill these little @$#%@#% buggers.
I enjoyed 7 years of tick-free frolicking while living in Seattle with dogs. This is one drawback of moving to New England, where ticks and anaplasmosis and lyme disease are real threats. The first summer I lived in New Hampshire, I would find 10-15 ticks on each dog every time we walked in the woods.
C'mon science... let's kill these little assholes.
It's simple: baby ticks feed on little critters, like mice. If you provide mice nesting materials treated with tick poison, ticks die before they can grow up and feast on big critters like me & my dogs.
Since I put out lots of them, I assembled my own rather than purchasing them online. It's neither complicated, nor expensive. Do this in April and July, to coincide with the nesting and mating patterns of mice.
- Collect the supplies:
- Save up your toilet paper tubes.
- Big fluffy cotton balls.
- I paid $22 for a 32 oz bottle of 36.8% Permethrin SFR solution from Amazon.
- Trash bag/drop cloth, or some container in which to spray
- Dilute the permethrin in a household spray bottle. The concentration of permethrin in tick tubes is 7.4%, so my dilution is about one part permethrin to 4 parts water.
- Spread the cotton balls out on a drop cloth. (Alternately, Organic Daily Post suggests using a closed container which can be shaken.) Spray cotton with the permethrin dilution and allow to dry.
- Stuff a few cotton balls in each tube, and place every 10 or 15 feet where mice are active. I put mine at the base of trees all along the hiking trails behind my house.
You can buy 6 Thermacell tick tubes for $25.
- Sawyer makes a fabric spray (makes your clothes insect-repellant for up to 6 washes), and their website has lots of good information about use and safety of permethrin.
- Organic Daily Post includes more detailed instructions and safety information.
After a few cycles of treating the woods with tick tubes, I now find one or two ticks a month. It's not none, so I still have to stay vigilant... but it's not nearly as disturbing.
![Day at the [Indoor] Park with Wendell](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58cb29d4d482e91781bc0952/1521770725979-6VUNWEWNXIYMD0907T1O/Screen+Shot+2018-03-22+at+10.02.59+PM.png)
Day at the [Indoor] Park with Wendell
Our black lab friend Wendell came over to play. This was his first time being exposed to agility equipment, but he seemed to take to it like a champ.
Wendell 1 (0:37)
Wendell 2 (1:02)
Wendell 3 (0:36)
Wendell 4 (1:42)
Full Moon Window
It’s hard not to join in the howling when the moon glows this beautifully through my living room window.
Maddox’s Bed
My little girl tousles her blankets like a teenager.
Maddox makes her bed like she’s a teenager: messy. I straighten the blankets out - fully intending to keep the dog hair at bay - and she fluffs them up to suit her better. She probably can’t figure out why I keep messing with her perfect nest.
Silent Protest
On glucosamine pills:
Maddox: “I reject the lump of disgust you’ve so rudely heaved into my bowl.”
Sadie: “Can I have hers?”
Post-Radiation
Sadie's last day of radiation was on August 7th, and I knew that much like a sunburn, it would get worse before it got better. I took these pictures so I could get a better sense of the progress.
Sadie's last day of radiation was on August 7th, and I knew that much like a sunburn, it would get worse before it got better. I took these pictures so I could get a better sense of the progress.
8/13 (6 days after her last treatment): whitish flesh (mucositis) inside her lip...
... and sloughing later the same day.
8/16 (9 days later): fat lip is still a little cracked, but healing.
8/17 (10 days later): pink & looking more supple.
8/25 (18 days later): inside her cheek returning to normal...
... and a little fur missing from her cheek.
9/4 (28 days later): smooth & healed inside cheek...
... and more obvious fur loss on her muzzle.
Babies enjoy homemade applesauce & peanut butter frozen yogurt on a hot day.
Happy girl allowed to swim in the local pond once again!
Followup December 7, 2017: Sadie's last chemo visit was today, so she has 14 more pills and then she's done. We'll keep monitoring, but for now, her chest x-ray and abdominal ultrasounds showed no signs of spreading cancer. Fingers crossed! Here she is relaxing on her small couch, showing off the patch of white fur that grew back in at the radiation site. I call it her Angell Kiss.
Bird Feeders
Miss Sadie, Protector of the Realm, Defender of the Bird Feeder, and Chaser of Squirrels
Angell Animal Medical Center, Boston
Leaving at 5 am to battle traffic into Boston is well worth it for the chance to keep my little girl healthy.
This my morning commute for the next few weeks.
Angell is located in Jamaica Plain, Boston... about an hour from my house if there's no traffic. Which means I leave at 5:15 am to get there at 6:30, or face the hoards of people heading south during rush hour.
They are a FANTASTIC facility with state-of-the-art technology and amazingly talented staff. After our initial visit with her radiation oncologist Dr. Kubicek, Sadie was tended to by a number of oncology personnel, especially Stacey (client care coordinator), Cheryl (radiation therapist), Kayla (radiation assistant), Amy (radiation anesthesiologist), and Jillian who greets patients at the front door.
This hospital has been pioneers of veterinary medicine since the early 1900s, and frequently makes headlines with their groundbreaking advancements. I feel very lucky to have such an incredible facility nearby.
Sadie sports her tie-dye #CancerChamp bandana, while Maddox offers solidarity with luck-of-the-Boston-Irish green.
Mack's Apples to Adam's Pond
Short, sweet, and local... this hike is a lovely place to wander the woods and take a dip with the pups.
Treat yourself to a magical wander along this wildflower-lined, dog-loving trail. My favorite is to park at the edge of the U-Pick orchard (#1), walk up the east side to the narrow little boardwalk path lined with wildflowers in the spring and Concord grapes in the fall, and then spills into the forest at the corner of this tiny lake. When we're pressed for time, we park at the edge of the forest trailhead (#2) and shortcut to the lake. When we're extra energetic (for a pack of old ladies, anyway), we park at the pumpkin patch across from Mac's Apples (#3) and walk the 3/4 miles through the forest to the lake.
Location (Google Maps)
Foster's Pond
A short loop around a lovely pond. My favorite spot is the peninsula mid-way through the walk... I can sit and read while the girls wander the shore and sniff and wade and drink.
My hands-down favorite local haunt. Beautifully maintained, with feeder streams to wade in and lap up all along the way. The real gem is the small peninsula about 1/2 way around the lake that is home to a stand of tall pines, some toads, and a few herons. It's a perfect spot for the pups to jump in the lake for a swim.
- Location (Google Maps)
- Waking in Windham brochure (1998) - see page 6
Yellow-to-Blue Trail at Kendall Pond
Forest and creek not far from town.
This cute little trail is a little close to a busy road, so plan on practicing your perfect recall, or keep the fur babies on a leash. Fortunately for my kids, the interesting smells are on the water side, so I let them run loose. Beaver Brook is cool and clear, and only 3/4 mi from the trailhead.
When you're done, stop by PetsPlus just around the corner and stock up on yummy treats... our favorites are the small heart-shaped Darford cookies. Sadie sticks her head right in the bin as soon as we walk in the door.
Diggin' Dog
I added a special dirt-box to my yard so the girls have a place to get their digg on.
My girls Sadie & Maddox like to eat dirt. They find a really good patch of dark, organic, earthy goodness and bite right into the ground... it's pretty funny to watch. Their bowels are now part of the geologic process, pooping out little rocks.
The trouble is... I don't want holes in my lawn. I got this idea from my Aunt Betty when she lived out in Sequim, Washington. If your dogs have an insatiable urge to dig that can't be trained away, the next best thing is to give them an appropriate spot to sink their claws. Make it neatly edged, loaded with a mix of clean pool sand and yummy dirty organic topsoil, and be mindful (if it's near the fence, like mine) that they can't tunnel underneath. Throw in a few fun finds (Kongs, bones, etc) for your inquisitive friends to unearth. Every time they start to dig in an undesirable place (like under the barbecue), redirect them to the digging box and praise them when they start to dig there.
Mine is a simple 3x5' box made with pressure treated wood. (If your dogs chew on wood, you may opt for a non-PT option.)
The digging box sits at the edge of my yard, in the semi-circle of mulch designed for the dog agility equipment & other play things.
Happy girls going to town in their new digging box!
K9K8 Year In Review: 2016
Multiple interpretations of the word “bed”
Beau cools his belly in the puddle
Mountain Goat Maddox
My Sadie girl had a tumor in her eyeball. A melanoma distorting the lens, so she’s already blind in that eye. I suppose her surgery will be a bigger adjustment for me than for her.
Ramp for Sadie
Repurposing hand-me-down constructs from the neighbors to help my Sadie manage stairs.
She doesn't necessarily need it right now, but I love re-purposing leftovers. As my girls get older and more arthritic, this will allow them to bypass the stairs.
Pirate Sadie
Minus one eyeball. Plus lots of adorable character.
I noticed some redness in Sadie's eyes, which is typical of allergy season. I tried the typical tricks (eye rinse, Benadryl), but only one eye reduced in redness. With a closer look, I noticed a small discoloration to her iris. With one stop at our regular vet, and a second at the veterinary ophthalmologist, I learned that she had a tumor inside her eyeball.
The choice was simple: it's a quick surgery to remove her eyeball, which was likely to have contained the cancer (which biopsy revealed to be melanoma). My poor girl... although she doesn't seem to have noticed. Distortion of the lens meant that she was already blind in that eye, and its removal likely eased some discomfort. In hindsight, I recall her rubbing her eye with her paw, and being startled by my outstretched hand reaching to pet her... like she didn't see it coming.
Post-op, minus one tumor-filled eyeball. Her face is shaved, bruised, and swollen.
She seems to be getting around okay.
Sadie must be feeling better- she's bossy for treats again.
Too soon for the costume?
New Plates for the DogMobile
New license plates for my dog-mobile.
New license plates for my dog-mobile.
