What a beautiful event for this dynamic duo! They have studied and prepared diligently for over two years. The mass was memorable and the boys did well.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Carly's Story
It was a hot and rainy morning on Sunday, September 14th, 2003,
when the phrase "I pick that one!" went down in history.
After moving to Texas in June,
buying a house, settling into our jobs, it was time to expand our family. We
both wanted a dog, but size was the only thing in debate. Scott wanted a small
dachshund, I aimed for a Great Pyrenees, hoping to end up with a Lab in the end.
We applied to a dachshund rescue group in Dallas, eagerly awaiting a response.
Nothing. So, we applied to DFWLRR, and got a call back that evening. Boy, were
we stoked! We went through the rest of the adoption process-- passed our home
study, got approved to adopt and meet dogs that matched our criteria-- young,
yellow females.
We drove up to Denton to meet a
sweet dog named Hailey, but she was not very energetic nor interested in us. So
we drove down to Dallas to meet another dog named Carly. After talking with her
foster, Mary Anne, we met the complete opposite of Hailey-- Carly was excited,
energetic and very interested in us. Scott was head over heels in love! We
decided to adopt Carly. She was indeed a pretty little who came from the Irving
animal shelter that previous Friday night. (Unfortunately, her previous life
was unknown, but we guessed she was too much for someone to handle.)
We brought Carly home to our
house in Richardson, and she was so happy to run and play! She was a constant
ball of energy and excitement. With both of us working, we crated her during
the day time, exercised and played with her from the time we got home till the
time we went to bed. Some of her favorite toys were stuffed animals, which we ended
up buying at garage sales for a quarter. She disemboweled them so quickly and
was on to the next. She also loved to tear up milk jugs and potatoes. She was a
challenge on the leash and we tried many different devices to get her to walk
calmly. (Little did we know it would take 13 years to solve that problem!)
She became my running buddy and we would jog the trails and streets in
our neighborhood. She loved to be out and about and quickly became quite a
fixture in Duck Creek.
Carly had her fair share of
bizarre injuries throughout the years. We often joked that they kept a spot
reserved for us at the emergency vet because when something happened, it was on
the weekend or after hours. Her first adventure involved a Chevy on Arapaho.
She slipped out of her body harness and made a beeline for Arapaho where she
was hit by a car. Amazingly, she emerged with just a few scratches. Another
time, she got stung by something on the nose in the middle of the night, which
required a 2am trip for a antihistamine shot. One holiday weekend, she cut her
paw when jumping into the water at White Rock Lake. Carly also had her ACL
replaced after years of activity. (Not one single event could be connected to
that surgery.) Another time she was checking out the dog behind the fence when
the dog busted through a fence board and nailed her in the nose.
Carly loved to swim. Without a
pool of our own, we would take her to parks with a long extend a leash and let
her swim in the lakes. She would attend end of season pool closings and swim
till her paws bled, spending the rest of the day in Scott's closet. She loved
to romp along the banks of the creek and chase balls in White Rock Lake like
nobody's business. She loved those soft, squeaky latex balls and was never beat
when retrieving it in water.
She was a funny eater. To keep
her busy, we tried all sorts of food containers to disburse her food or make
her find it. She would play "mind games" with our fosters and
eventually, just with Reese, eating one morsel at a time. We used to put gravy
over her food to entice her to eat.
Carly was an incredible foster
sister to 26 dogs, a venture we got into based on a bad football wager by
Scott. We kept her as alpha, letting her have full run of the house and sleep
on our bed at night. She enjoyed playing with the other dogs and we loved
finding homes for these pups. Our foster failures came with #20, Reese, and #25
and #26, Rosie and Jackson.
Carly loved to go to the dog
park in Plano. On Sundays, we would head up there. Scott would read the paper
and we would let her circulate around the park like a social butterfly. She was
so interested in people and other dogs.
We were very fortunate to travel
quite a bit with her, even if it meant her riding in the front seat with me.
Our first camping experience was to Inks Lake State Park and day trips to
Pedernales State Park. Anxious in the car, we tried to give her Benadryl, but
she fought that tooth and nail. Instead of anxious or calm dog, we had
something like a drunk and drugged dog. We also ventured out to Colorado Bend
State Park, and a rainy weekend in Caprock Canyon. We drove to Florida with
her, stopping at FSU and UF with our girl. She swam in Scott's parents pool and
was intimidated by the dogs and cats at my mom's house. She loved the beach and
got to swim in the Atlantic Ocean. We also made two trips to Galveston with her
where she quickly learned not to drink the salt water. She took two trips also
to Beavers Bend, OK and enjoyed hiking and swimming up there as well.
When she wasn't traveling with
us, she enjoyed various pet-sitters-- Tina, Lori, Uncle Casey, Glen, and Wendy.
Our first pet sitters taught her how to "talk", so there went her
barking for attention trick.
Claire was born in 2007 when
Carly was five years old. Carly took it all in stride although she wasn't crazy
about this two-legged little noise maker until Claire started eating solids,
and then it was game on! Family pictures were harder to come by with Reese and
Carly and a baby, but we loved snapping pictures of everyone together. The
twins arrived almost 2 years later when Carly was 7, and I'm sure she thought,
"Whaaa???" No, she was good with the kiddos, but when she had her
fill, she would up and leave. Jude was born in 2012 and Carly was almost
10 years old. By now she was a completely seasoned "mother" dog and
enjoyed another food thrower.
Life was good when the children
were young and she and Reese were aging. Our activities outside the home may
have decreased some, but Carly and Reese had each other. They loved to wrestle,
play "mouthsies" and beat each other out the door in the backyard.
In 2014, we bought a new home
and transitioned everyone and everything over there. With a pool of our own,
Carly would leap into the water and chase those squeaky balls. She loved
exploring the terraced back yard. When we built a tree fort, that was her
favorite place to watch from. She still slept on our bed at night and was constantly
with me during the day while the kids went off to school. She was my co-pilot,
dropping kids off at school or picking them up from sports practices.
She lost her brother, Reese on
May 10, 2016, and with him went a piece of her spunk. Almost 14 years old, she
started to slow down-- just a bit. People would still ask, "How old is
she?" at the park and asked for clarification when I said, "13 years
old." She was content to lay around the house on dog beds, and of course
the couch.
In August 2016, she picked up a
little bit of a kennel cough that we treated with antibiotics. It mostly went
away, but then the cough came back in January 2017. It was odd, antibiotics
weren't working, so we went to a specialist to, worried it might tracheal or
something else. It turned out to be a mass in her lung, hidden behind fatty
tumors. We had it biopsied and lo and behold, it was not cancer. It was an abscess
of some kind-- rare to be lodged and encapsulated in the lungs. We biopsied
again and found it to be fungal-- even more rare. The fungus came back as
sporotrichum, another very rare fungus, slow growing and not very responsive to
antibiotics. We tried some flucanzole and it helped a little bit. But what she
really needed was surgery to remove the abscess; unfortunately, with its
location, she would have to undergo open thoracic surgery, At 14 year old, it
was not something we could do to her-- the healing process alone was so hard to
fathom. The cough was annoying but she was staying steady.
In early April, a strange
auto-immune infection began attacking her joints and causing a fever. It fortunately
responded to the prednisone, but of course, the steroid had its side-effects.
Carly was always drinking lots of water and having to go pee. Fine, we could
manage, it was just a middle of the night bathroom break for us. She would jump
off the bed, we'd let her out our bedroom and then she would come right back
in.
Knowing our senior girl was
getting up there in years and not knowing when the end would be, we created a
Bucket List for her. The kids and I put together some ideas, and started
checking them off.
Carly's Bucket List
Go through an ice cream drive-through
Celebrate her half birthday
Go to the dog park
Take pictures in the bluebonnets
See her foster mom Mary Anne again
Ride in a convertible
Have hamburgers at the McDonald's
drive-through
Ride in the back of daddy's truck
Take a walk around Duck Creek/see the old
Baugh or shoot
Go through a car wash
Get a doggy massage
Eat at an outdoor cafe
Attend a Girl Scout meeting
Watch a sports practice
On Tuesday, April 25th, the
same routine happened-- she got up at 4am to use the bathroom, I let her out,
brought her in and put her back on the bed. Unfortunately, something happened
between the hours of 4-8am. I called her out for breakfast and she didn’t come.
Not too odd, since she didn’t hear well. We got the kids off to school, and I
went into check on her. I lifted her off the bed and immediately her legs went
out from under her. I tried to right her, but her legs kept slipping. I carried
her outside and she peed all over me on the patio. I took her down by the pool,
and she was barely able to stand. I sat down with her and held her in my lap. Her
gums were white and her ears were pale. By that time Scott, returned home, and
we brought her back inside and laid her on her dog bed. We ran to an
appointment, and when we got back she was still resting there. I had tried to
feed her, but she didn’t eat her breakfast. I took her out front to enjoy the
beautiful day, and laid therein the grass while I talked with the vet. I
brought her back inside and she lost control of bowels. It was all black. That’s
when I knew something was wrong. I called the vet, loaded her in to the car and
drove over there with Jude.
I anticipated Dr. Rae saying that she was declining and maybe we
had 48 hours. But when Dr. Rae examined her, she was shocked. Carly’s heart was
racing and barely pumping blood to her body. She had possibly thrown a clot or
the auto-immune disease was coming back aggressively and attacking her red
blood cells.
Scott came and quickly as he could and we held our girl tight. We
talked to her and thanked her for being the phenomenal spark in our life. She
had run the best race she could, but now it was time to let her body rest.
Heaven gained a beautiful angel in that moment, but down on Earth,
there were many broken hearts. I can’t wish for one more day or one more week,
because we were already on borrowed time, but I still wasn’t ready to let her
go. I know truly, madly, deeply that we gave this girl the best life possible
for 13.5 years. We are now left without her, and the pain is overwhelming. She
was my special girl, my constant wild card, and she will be greatly missed.
Carly, 9/14/2003 |
The kiddos, 10/31/2016 |
My girl and me, 4/3/17 |
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Avery earns his green belt!
This boy is moving right along! The green belt stands for "growth" something we've seen a lot of in Avery over this past year. So proud of him!
Friday, February 10, 2017
Problems with the blog
My apologies. The app that I use on my phone to post to the blog wasn't been updated and therefore using it was impossible. Totally fell off my game with updates for December and January.
Highlights from December (in no particular order)... Christmas. Gran visits. Fostering Jackson. Adopting Jackson. End of the school semester. Time at home.
Highlights from January (in no particular order)... back to school. 14 year anniversary. Science Fair. Science Fair Regional. Science Fair 1st place winners for their grade. June the guinea pig died. Friend's son died. Friend gets sick with leukemia. Freeezes. Summer weather. Winter. Spring. iPhone reformatted.
Highlights from February (thus far)... basketball games. Pinewood derby. Uncle Casey visits. Carly gets diagnosed with lung cancer. (See new blog-- carlycounts@blogspot.com)
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Santa 2016
It's amazing how things change over the years... but good to know they still all embrace the Christmas magic!
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Rosie
6 months ago, our beloved Reese left a hole in our hearts that we never imagined could be repaired. We will never forget him, but we are so happy to welcome Rosie, an 8-month old, yellow female into our family. She is a happy, loving, and goofy girl who will keep us on our toes and the adventure alive!
Rosie was an owner surrender. The family told our rescue group that they were moving and couldn't take her with them. Truth or not, Rosie shows fear and flinches with outstretched arms and fast movements. She is a sweet dog with lots of potential.
Rosie was an owner surrender. The family told our rescue group that they were moving and couldn't take her with them. Truth or not, Rosie shows fear and flinches with outstretched arms and fast movements. She is a sweet dog with lots of potential.
Monday, November 14, 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)