DOGS RULE !!! To share all the good times for being dog lovers.

Yep, noth’n like hang’n out at the cric’ and tak’n a dip in the old swim’n hole…

When we first got Macleod and Mya he was 10 months and she was a pup. We took Macleod a week before Mya was old enough to leave home. Thought it would be good to let him adjust a bit before we throw a puppy in there to mix it up. In that week he and I went all around our house there’s a tree line two blocks away with hills and trails and the creek. The first day we got Macleod home I took him out walking around training and bonding with him. I let him lead the way and he walked up a gravel path I thought might be a driveway. Turns out it was… but it was also a service road that leads to a small ravine with public access that has a fare sized pond where it gets piped under ground. It was warm that day and he was thirsty so I walked him over to get a drink. He lapped up a hole bunch then started walking in… “watch out its pretty deep there”, I said. Right then his feet left the ground and started swimming around I had his flex lead still on so he paddled out till I had to walk out in the water a bit. Didn’t want to spoil his fun. He swam around for a few minutes, got out a shook off then went right back in… a couple of times. We had our selves a water lov’n Mal. We figured an arctic breed would tend to shy away from the icy water. Not Macleod, ever since that day he’s had a fascination with water, playing in it anyway. Can’t remember how many lawn sprinklers he destroyed. Every where we went he would head for the water. love’s it, the world changed for him when we took them both to the ocean for the first time, look at all this water… the taste was sure a surprise. He bounded around in the water doing belly flops smiling his face off. Mya would only get her feet wet and give him a wwwooowooowooo for being such a fool. One day I came across an old bathtub from a renovation I worked on, it was a normal tub but it was only 3 feet long. The inner hoarder in me said not to take it to the dump right away. One day we noticed Macleod trying to get into a small pool we had set up to cool off in the summer and I remembered the mini tub. I dragged it out, gave it a rinse and before I was done he was in it with all 4 feet splashing around. He would dig into the water so fast It turned up and splashed and bubbled.  “The Hot Tub” was born… We mounted it on the house next to the hose bib so it could be filled at a moments notice. That was nine years ago, its a little weathered but he still goes in in it daily. Even after that many years Mya would only get her front feet wet.

almost a week ago now we had ran out of the Artemisinin herb we had been giving Macleod and had to re order with only a few days supply left. After only one day we could see he was starting to favour his front lag a little, and it got worse each day. For 2 days now he has not been putting weight on it when he is sitting and has gotten a lot more restless. I couldn’t think that this one herb is fighting a war on its own but it appears to have a vital roll. The tracking # shows that its in Canada on Friday and being processed as of Monday morning, I can drive there in 45 min. so we hope it shows up Tuesday.

We had always seemed to drive some where else to go for walks and hadn’t gone back to the swim’n hole for a long time. He was sure excited when we went back there a few weeks ago. I think he may even prefer it over ice cream. Hopefully the meds get here soon and they bring the fight back to Big Rig. He’s been so excited and lively so its that much harder to see him hurting now.

That is his actual registered name. He was 8 months old when we first met and the owners had named him already. The name suited him and he recognized it so we thought of no reason to want to change it. He is Macleod and there is only one. He is such a large intimidating dog but deep down he is a big cuddly teddy bear, our gentle giant. He walks with a swagger like he’s John Wayne. He has a deep, very low, quiet growl that he uses to get your attention, and if that doesn’t work, Mya taught him the ear piercing YELP! or the donkey bark.

Macleod is a warrior, and he will have to be strong to the handle the waves of love that are pouring all over him. He can take it…

So we are not starting a new race because Macleod is already deep in it, just now our focus has turned. Our aim is to try and help the body do its job to fight the disease. Get rid of toxins in the body that will slow down the fight or assist and feed the cancer. Hopefully we were on the right track with starting on the CBD and Artemisinin a while back, vet wants us to keep giving them to him. He sure likes the new freeze dried food, he shook the bed this morning to wake up Allison. Today was her first time working with the food pucks, and Macleod went easy on her with little growls and the odd nose bump to say, “I’m waiting!!” Don’t think he’ll ever lose his focus, on food that is. Well its getting nice out so it’s time to venture out with ‘Big Rig’.

Geez, it took me 10 months to finally read the start up blog stuff and re-work the page…

He’s always waiting for the flash…

This morning was cold and dark and wet… outside was no better.

First thing that happened today was no wake up kisses 🙁  That’ll take some time. To get us up, Mya and Macleod would work as a team, Mya on the wet works, and Macleod would do a deep low growl. If we didn’t fall for it he would lean on the bed and shake it, if that didn’t work Mya would “YELP” really loud. “OK I’m up, I’m up”… This morning He didn’t wake us up. I think ALL of us needed to sleep, a lot. But we got a bit anyway. Breakfast was quiet(r) than usual, they would get each other going. Macleod is a food fanatic so it didn’t take him long to get excited again. I forgot to prep his morning meds so I had to do it on the fly while getting his bowl ready. Took a few minutes, he started yelling at me!!! (Wooooo!!)”come on hurry up all ready!” At least he’s still Macleod. He wondered in and out the front door most of the morning and kinda moped around the yard. I noticed he didn’t pee in their usual spot or try to mark over the spots Mya had been getting to, Hmmm. Holding on to her sent?? I used to say that her coat would sometimes smell like popcorn, Gonna miss that too.

We kept our appointment today at Healing Paws, and met Dr. Maja { Mya } Kovacevic. She had reviewed some of our past reports and we brought the most recent with us. We talked for a long time and discussed some options, and she examined him. She agreed that Macleod would not likely fare well with amputation at this stage of his cancer. She prescribed a couple products, Cell Care and Immuno Boost by Naturpet, and we went the the local pharmacy to pick up some low dose { baby strength } vitamin D drops. All of which we add to meals 2x daily. We are also starting him on a “Biologically appropriate freeze dried dog food” made by Orijen. Beef, lamb, Pork, Bison in one type and Turkey, chicken, fish in another we picked up. Started with the beef one. Note to self, remember to pre-soak the “dehydrated” dog food before calling him for dinner. Oh the yelling… It takes 5-10 min to rehydrate the pucks. If I did my math right, {and I ain’t good at math}, he’ll get 10 pucks a day. It fluffs up and mixes really well, after a few min. We would normally feed them 2x a day but I think we will try 3 smaller meals a day. That fits with some 12 hour dosing on some of the new stuff we are taking. He sure seemed to love it. We have been giving them small freeze dried treats last few weeks, loved them too. And of course I asked the Doctor if she knew Maverick, the Great Dane from last week, ” oh I know Maverick very well”, she said. It seems, like we thought, that His case is a special one. It was very hard to confirm the osteosarcoma, in fact it wasn’t until they checked the limb after his surgery ( 10 months later) that they could positively identify the cancer. Similar to Macleod, BUT, I don’t believe Maverick had mets. in his lungs. So we will try, and try, and try, until Macleod says he’s had enough.

found some old favourites for a smile:

All gro’d up, she could almost fit that whole Kong in her mouth. Believe this picture was taken almost 9 years to the day.

It is with heart wrenching regret to say that Mya { Mrs. Kisses } passed away peacefully in her home today, April 21, 2017 at 5:45 pm.

She will be deeply missed by all who had the joy of meeting her. With her bubbly loving disposition and fearless will to move forward, I’m sure she will give our loved ones a run for their money on the other side of the bridge. She spent the day sunning in one of her favourite spots in the front yard and we had pizza and ice cream for lunch, two of her favourites. Macleod stayed near her all day and only left her alone when our vet came in the house, like he was handing off watch detail to the Doctor, now she was in good hands.

We want to sincerely thank Dr. Judith Seigert, Port Moody Animal Hospital, who has been amazing with all of our pets for over a decade. As well as all the Doctors and staff at Canada West Veterinary Services that treated Mya with her surgery and oncology over the passed several months. And to all the people here that lent an ear or a link to some info. Being able to come here and speak openly with people that are right here, in it with us, has been unforgettable.

Mya put up a tremendous fight since July 2016, When she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her right front leg. In late March she lost mobility in her rear left leg { opposite to the front amputation } and by the beginning of April she could no longer carry her weight. We would carry her out on a blanket and set her up in one of her favourite spots, usually the one under the tent { non stop rain lately }. She did a lot of crying lately { as did we } sadly we just got it all down to a science, her talking / crying that is. A few weeks ago we thought that was it, she cried seemingly all the time, we noticed she would quiet down when we had to move her in or out but shortly after would get restless and chatty. I would stare at her sleeping sometimes for hours and started to notice some patterns. She would squawk at dinner time sometimes loudly but a different tone. Every few hours she would get restless and cry but we weren’t sure why. The week before the Easter long weekend we saw her struggling to roll over, her bad rear leg was getting stiff and it stopped her from switching sides. ” We got this big girl” we scooted her on to the blanket {magic carpet} picked her up off the ground and rolled her over in the air by rolling the blanket. She even added a visual to our little list of signs, looking; at the water dish, the kitchen at dinner time, the drop spot in the yard for toiletries, and now she would roll on her back, as much as she could,  and turn her head to look at me upside down. Every time we did ” the roll over” she would go to sleep again for a good few hours. lost a lot of sleep last two weeks and we started to miss some pain med dosing but it seemed to be the bed soreness thing that was giving her the most grief, after we stabilised the constipation that is.

Macleod is looking pretty sad right now. Don’t think he cares to be the Alpha dog any more. We will keep the appointment with Healthy Paws on Saturday to see if the ES-4 we heard about last week can give us a little more time with Big guy. We are still in this fight.

Its already a little lonelier here and its only been two hours.

Allison wrote a poem for our dear Mya:

Close your eyes sweet angel

As we lay you down to rest

The place that you are going

Is of course the very best

*

High above the fluffy clouds

Where the grass is long and green

The meadows go forever

And the water is serene

*

Your free of pain so run girl run

Don’t ever turn around

You can’t believe how good this feels

As your paws don’t touch the ground

*

Your eyes as big as saucers

That smiles back on your face

The only thing that’s missing

Is for ‘here’ to be that place

*

Yet we know your always with us

And that we are there with you

Our love for you is endless

As our hearts have gone with you

*

Our love, best friend our baby girl

Thank you for all your love

We called you our “Earth Angel”

As you were sent from up above

*

To shower us in kisses

On each and everyday

The joy you gave to Dad and I

Was just your own sweet way

*

So thank you dearest Mya

For the hard battle that you fought

You lost your leg to cancer

But gave it everything you got

*

Our beautiful little Tripawd

Who hopped around the yard

She’d look at Macleod our other dog

And say “Hey this ain’t so hard”

*

But eventually that damn cancer

Just has to have it’s way

You did everything you could

To make it to today

*

Sweet dreams our precious “Mya”

Dad and I will see you soon

Meet us at the Rainbow Bridge

Under the brightness moon

*

Love you forever xxxooo

Mya blowing you all a kiss…

I,m usually insanely patiant sometimes to my and others disappointment. But i have lost all that latley. When i hear of a client getting all uppity about the cost of a nail clipping or that there was a few aggitated pets in a waiting room I wonder what planet i’m on… enough ranting for now…

We have a tentative appointment for both dogs this coming Sat, if they can squeeze them both in. Ill pay the consult fee in advance just to get the suppliments flowing quicker. I’m starting to sound like a disgruntled client… just come so far and have little time to get something going.