In the past couple of months, my mom and I have been going to Clear Creek Trail in Silverdale early Sunday mornings for an extended walk with the pups. Since we started going, most of the trail down by the skate park has been fenced off, so we have stayed on the shorter, one way, paved path. Much to my surprise when I went out there Friday after work with my friend Holli and her children, the fenced off portion was open and packed with families and dogs! We completed a one mile loop, which is definitely on the shorter side of the many loops and paths you can do but it felt nice to get some fresh air. Of course Bruce didn't get to make the journey this time, but when he is back to normal I think he will love the new territory to explore! I need to get out there more often considering I have a 4 mile run I need to get in shape for by July!

Some people find this ugly, I think it's beautiful.

When you are on the trail, you don't even realize you are in town!

Run Cailyn, run!

Hannah Montana went for a jog with us as well! ;-)

Update on Bruce

Here's a quick update for those of you who want to know about my baby Bruce Wayne.

He is feeling pretty well considering and the first evening home he wanted to be on us or on the couch next to us cuddling with anything that had a scent of home, which we were more than happy to let him do. We decide it was better for him to sleep in a crate for a while to keep him confined and out of trouble. My mom brought over the crate she had purchased for her dog a while and it was plenty big for Bruce to have room to wander around.

Sleepin' on the couch.

He was drugged out, scared, and upset that he was in this big box. I put the crate right next to the couch (where I would be sleeping for the night) with the TV on so he wouldn't think we were just shoving him out here alone, and that just didn't go well. He must have though since I was next to him if he cried enough I would let him out.

poor puppy - he HATES the cone of shame.

HOURS went by and his cries never lost steam. I tried putting a blanket over his crate at about 1 AM so that it was darker and he might just go to sleep. Imagine my relief when he did stop. I finally started to drift off at about 2 AM. Just as I felt myself falling asleep, the crying started up again. I climbed into bed at about 4:30 AM with earplugs to try and get a few hours of sleep.  

He was totally giving us dirty looks.

Wednesday I stayed home from work so I could monitor him. He was on medications which gave him a false sense of "everything is great!" and he was jumping up on the couch, running, standing, basically anything they tell you not to let them do, he was doing. It was a beautiful day and he loves the outside, so I let him out on his lead to enjoy the sunshine. It's a short lead so he can't really run or jump on anything out there.

He looks so funny with that cone. It's like a cheap lampshade!

By the end of the day, his incision was definitely agitated and swollen. We made the tough decision to keep him crated for 80% of the time, only coming out to get some extra lovin' if he stays calm, food/water, and potty. It's been pretty tough because he is definitely sad in there, but it is what's best. Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, I looked at his incision and it was worlds away from what it was the night before, which thrilled us. Bruce doesn't understand why he is not given free range of the house like normal and doesn't understand why he can't stretch up and look at the window and to be honest I felt really bad for getting after him for things that normally wouldn't have been an issue. The crate has provided us with the sense of security and safety for him and us.

I realize he looks aggressive here, he wasn't. He just
doesn't photograph well I guess!

He was able to come out for a little while last night and wanted to play. I played with him very gently and just kind of let him "mouth" a toy ring without having him play tug of war or anything with it, and I think he really enjoyed the "play time" even if it was really subdued. He cuddled with the toy ring later that night in his crate :-).

The crying for the past 2 nights has subdued somewhat, I think mainly because he knows we are going to get him out through out the day, but it's still tough. He goes to the vet's office tomorrow to get his pain patch off his leg and they will check him out and make sure everything is healing as it should - fingers crossed!





Oh Bruce Wayne.

UPDATE-- Bruce is out of surgery is doing really good. They did tell me that they didn't find any additional objects besides the one he passed this morning, so Ricky and I are going to have some serious questions as to why they elected to do the surgery anyways. I've read up on the "exploratory adominal surgery" that apparently is quite common and most of the time comes back negative or inconclusive. The vets do it simply to err on the side of caution and to rule out other problems becuase if they dont and they miss something, it could easily cause death. We are frusterated that this whole thing is gonna cost us $1400 (or more, final cost is not in yet), and is causing lots of discomfort and pain for Bruce, and still didn't tell us anything. When it's all said and done, all I want is my furbaby back to normal, healthy, and back at home with us.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------

So, if you are friends with me on Facebook {if you aren't you should be!} I am sure you have noticed I've been posting about Bruce and his "emergency" trip to the vet. I've had a ton of people ask me what his status is, what happened, etc so I'll tell everyone here.



Yesterday morning, about 6 am I took him on a walk outside like normal. He vomited a little on his walk which sometimes he does if his belly is full of water and he runs around. I got him back to the house, and he continued to vomit off and on. Nothing he was throwing up was solid though, it was a white frothy/foamy liquid. He was walking really slowly and obviously did not feel good. We thought he just ate something that didn't agree with him and he would be fine. I went to work for a meeting I had to attend, and then asked to go home and check on my dog, which was fine by them. When I returned home, at first I couldn't find him. Usually he greets me at the door jumping up and down, but he wasn't there. I called for him and he didn't answer. My heart sank. 

This is how I found my baby.

I eventually found him in between the wall and the elliptical machine by the door. In the almost 3 hours since I had left he had gotten much worse. He was drooling like crazy (which he doesn't do at all normally) and from the small piles of foamy liquid all over the floor, he had not stopped throwing up.  I called the vet, they had an opening for 3 pm so I took it. During this time I tried to get him to drink water because I was pretty sure he was dehydrated and I made him plain rice and he wouldn't take anything, which is really unlike him. His condition worsened pretty rapidly and at about 12:30 pm, he was yelping every time he moved and then it turned into yelping while he wasn't moving too. I went to pick him up to hold him and felt his stomach was expanded and hard as a rock. When I held him in my arms he was basically completely limp, his upper body kind of hanging out of my arms like he had no strength to hold himself up. I grabbed my keys and ran out of the house immediately. I got Bruce in the car and he just laid on the backseat like he could care less where he was or what he was doing. I started crying of course because I thought, well this is it. He is gonna die. I drove to the vet's office and asked them where I should take him for an emergency visit because I thought he wasn't gonna make it to 3pm. They gave me a referral and I was gone. By the time I got back to the car Bruce was up on the armrest of the front seat staring at me. I sat in the car for a few minutes and watched him. He was walking around, still obviously sick, but would lay down in one spot for a few minutes, move and then lay there. He wasn't screaming out in pain anymore, so after talking with Ricky and my mom, I decided I was just gonna drive around with Bruce in the since he was more comfortable in here.

Laying on the front seat floor board.

My mom told me to go to Starbucks, get a coffee and wait it out, so I did. Bruce always wants to drink my coffee so I got a little cup of ice water for him. I let him see the cup with the lid on because I was trying to trick him into htinking he was getting something he normally would not. it worked and he started drinking the ice water.

He didn't drink a bunch, but he was drinking it. I decided to avoid a $3000+ emergency pet hospital bill and wait it out until 3, but keeping a close eye on him the entire time. I got to the vet about 2:30 and they took him right in. The vet pretty much knew right away that he probably had an obstruction of some sort, and they sent him for xrays.

The xrays showed he actually had two blockages, one in his small intestine and a larger one in his stomach. He needed surgery because of the risks of the foreign objects in his body and how sick he was.

We had to leave him overnight at the vet;s office so he could have an IV to get him hydrated as well as get some pain meds to make him more comfortable. I spoke with one of the nurses this morning right before 10 AM and she told me he actually did pass the object that was in his small intestine, but the large on in the stomach was not budging so they needed to take it out. We also elected to have him neutered at the same time to avoid anothoer surgery/recovery time.

I will update as soon as I hear he is OK. The vet told us yesterday it could take 3-4 hours and we are rapidly approaching hour number four. Needless to say my stomach is in knots.

Crafty Time!

I've got quite a few projects on my plate, mostly of the sewing breed waiting to be started, finished, or somewhere in the middle. A couple weekends ago I finish two projects in a matter of about a day, both for my dear friend Holli.  First up was simple panel curtains with the tab top for her girls' bedroom makeover. We found some super girly pink ballerina fabric, which fit perfectly for the purple room and got to work. From the measurements Holli gave me I basically got that much fabric (plus a few inches for a foldover seam) cut it in half and hemmed all four side of each panel with darker pink.

We also found some sparkly pink fabric for the tabs to add some contrast! Very easy project, and I think it looks pretty cute!

I also made Holli an apron *kind of for her birthday... just way late. :-(* She loves zebra print and red, and that is pretty much the common area of her home's theme. So, I grabbed some of the cutest red/white polka dot fabric and some zebra and got to work! I chose to use red thread when sewing the zebra waist line for the contrast, which I like. I also used some red bias tape to clean up the hems.

Added a little ruffle and the top and finished! The zebra waistband is extra long so she can tie a fluffy bow in the back. Adorable! I am not the best sewer *yet* but I am givng it a try!



I'll admit it.

Ok, so here's the truth - I have baby fever. Bad.

The end.

Just kidding, not really the end of the post.

I have to admit, that I am currently "suffering" from the baby fever. It's my own fault. The blogs I read (aside from my friends' blogs) are mostly crafty type blogs and they are always posting the most adorable little outfits to make for their kids. I am drawn to all things little, wrinkly, and newborn. No, that's a lie. I think currently my temperature is so high I am drawn to any child under 5. I can't go to a store because there are babies everywhere and I am easily amused by them and if their parents would let me I might be tempted to remove them from the cart and walk around with them myself! Disclaimer: I wouldn't steal someone's baby..... I'd ask for permission first ;-)

Reading Minds

If you could read minds for a day, would you? I saw this post on the The Daily Post, a post a day/week blog sponsored by Wordpress. Obviously,  I blog on Blogger but I used to use Wordpress and I have a few friends who do. I am going to be following this blog for inspiration from now on, that way I am not just blogging about myself, Ricky or our dog. Change things up a bit :-)

So, back to the question :

If you could read minds for a day, would you?