Halloween Candy

Every year we tell the girls that we aren't "doing" Halloween. We were determined to stick to our guns this year, but, as usual, somehow they managed to talk us into letting them go Trick-or-Treating. They came up with their own costumes (Krista was a dog again, and Leah was Wednesday Addams), and they went out with a couple of friends. Unfortunately, they didn't get dressed in their costumes at home, and they took them off before they got home, so we didn't get any pictures of them dressed up.

They both got a TON of candy! Leah took hers straight to her room, but Krista dumped hers out in the living room and reveled in her treasure. Here are some pictures of her load. She had already eaten several pieces before we took these. Anyone who knows Krista knows that she was in HEAVEN!

Bristow was very interested in the candy.

She REALLY wanted some candy!

TGIF: Bristow!

I know you're going to think it's silly--and maybe it is--but today I'm thankful for Bristow. She's been bouncing around and barking and stealing chew bones from Bennett and Dakota just like she used to do before her close brush with death a few weeks ago.

She's not out of the woods yet (three small bald patches have mysteriously appeared on her body), but her ornery personality is definitely back, and we are lovin' it!

Here are a few photos of her and Bennett and Dakota last Saturday.

We took this photo to show the difference in her belly area - much fatter!

She loves to drink the water from the corner sprinkler

She really loves it!

All the dogs start barking when Gene blows bubbles in the pool - especially Bristow

And here's a video of the bubble blowing:

Bristow & Bennett

OK, as suggested by Rye, here's a photo of our two Jack Russell Terriers. Bristow is on the left and Bennett, the puppy, on the right. Bennett is about 10 1/2 months old, and Bristow is about 2 1/2 years old. Bennett is the most active of all three of our dogs, but for some reason, she is a little roly poly. She reminds us so much of Babe, the pig. We can almost hear her thinking "Baa Ram Ewe!" sometimes. So funny.

Cautiously Optimistic

Well, it's been exactly a week since we took Bristow to the vet, apparently on the brink of death. I truly can't describe the horrible feeling I had in the pit of my stomach at the thought of losing her.

But we painstakingly nursed her through the week, and today she is running around and jumping like her old self. The only evidence that she was sick is her thin, bony body that is in sharp contrast to Bennett's roly poly self--especially now.

So, while we don't feel completely out of the woods (someone threw up last night, but we don't know which one), and we still don't know what the problem is/was, we are indeed cautiously optimistic.

Here's a photo of Bristow as a puppy, just for the heck of it. : )

Bristow Angelina Andrews

My Sick Puppy

She's usually so lively and perky--always jumping and running. But Bristow had not been herself for a few days. She had been throwing up, and was extremely lethargic and pitiful. It was so sad. We figured it was just a little illness, and that she would be better in a couple of days. But after three days of throwing up and getting thinner and thinner, we had to break down and take her to the vet. The last time we took her to the vet it cost $265. She had gotten into some rat poisoning and had to have her stomach pumped and stay overnight. We really hoped it wasn't going to cost that much this time.

Imagine our SHOCK when they told us they had to keep her for a few days, take X-rays, do some blood work, give her some IV fluids, and monitor her progress, and that it would cost approximately $1400! Now, we love Bristow very much, but that was just out of the question. We told them that there was just no way we could do that, and asked what could be done for under $300 (even that was really going to be difficult to come up with). The guy left the room and came back with some "wonderful news." It was possible that we would only have to spend $1200 and we would only have to put half down and could finance the rest. - What?????

Needless to say, we had to tell them we couldn't do that either. So, we were left with a very difficult decision. Take her home and hope that she would recover from whatever this problem is or go even further into debt to try to find out what the problem was. The vet said that she thought it could be her pancreas, which of course didn't sound good. After a lot of discussion, we decided to let them inject fluid under her skin and take some X-rays to see if there was an obvious obstruction causing the problem. At least we would know something.

The X-rays were inconclusive, showing some gas bubbles, but no obvious obstruction. Somewhat reassuring. They injected fluid under her skin and we took her little limp self home. The vet told us to give her Pedialyte and chicken and rice and that if she wasn't better in a couple of days, we would need to talk about euthanasia. Oh my gosh! I had no idea that it was so serious! Poor Bristow. Anyway, it ended up costing us a little over $200. Here are a couple of photos showing the big lump on her side where the fluid was injected.

We have been giving her Pedialyte with a syringe and feeding her little bits of chicken and a food supplement, and she seems to be slowly getting better. But she did throw up again this morning, which is not good.

And . . . now Bennett is throwing up! Argghhhhh!

So, that's what we've been dealing with here. We love our dogs so much, so this has been an extremely difficult week. Hopefully my next post will have some good news. For now, I'm just going to get back to my sick puppies. Oh yeah, and work.

Bristow

Just a cute picture of Bristow. Couldn't resist.