First and foremost in this post, I want to apologize if I sounded self absorbed in my post on the 16th. It had been a long day and a long night prior, and I suppose it all mounted up into one big ball of exhaustion.  I’ve been dealing with so many things, including Grace-A-Rue’s illness, and was consumed in such.  I was a bit sad, as well, and it all poured out into one mopey blog post. So, if it was too negative, I am sorry, indeed.

A quick update includes a trip to the vet for Preston.  He is on the brink of a urinary tract infection, so I wanted to nip it in the bud before it progressed.  He enjoyed himself, minus the scale…he was terrified of the scale…all 109.1lbs of him. It took 3 of us to get him in position so we could weigh him!  LOL!  He did very well, however, once we got into the room and was a champ for his exam.  He’s now on medication and on the road to recovery.

I still continue to struggle with Rue’s Megaesophagus. I am trying everything, including new medications tonight.  This is such a grueling and hateful disease…yet she still has such an incredible attitude. Rue and I have visited Dr Shrum every Monday for the past 3 weeks, hoping to make progress and keep her comfortable and able to keep down her food.  She’s lost 15lbs thus far, and I have to watch her for dehydration.  After much manipulation and adjusting, we finally have her sitting in her Bailey Chair for her feedings.  I had hoped it would solve our problems (if not simply most of it), but she still continually regurgitates and vomits.  This new med will hopefully assist her in keeping her food down.

I’ve been very depressed as a result of her illness and missed a great deal of sleep, as well.  I am on a Yahoo group for Megaesophagus and so many people have done so well with the disease, and I’ve felt like such a failure.  It seems nothing is working, and I haven’t handled it well…I don’t like my efforts not working…I want her comfortable and well.  I wake up to her spewing her food and it’s heartbreaking. I felt certain the other night it was time to let her go, but by the time we got to our vet appointment she was happy to get in the car and to ride.  It just wasn’t time, and we needed to try the new meds.  I was so thankful for her cheery attitude because I was crying inside.  So, meds have been administered, dinner is finished, and we’ll see how things go tonight. Everyone cross those paws!!

We had a good meeting the other night, myself and two other board members (my brother, Jonathan and my mother, aka: “Grandma” to the furkids).  We focused on new ideas for fundraising and came up with “sooner and later” things to work toward.  We have some dates at Barnes and Noble for gift wrapping, and I’m praying we’ll do better this year than last.  We also have a fundraiser with “Mimi’s Cafe,” a lovely restaurant that is giving a portion of the night’s income to us.  Those interested in a nice dinner will simply take the flier we’ll pass out, hand it to their server, and enjoy their dinner…that’s it!  How great is that??  It will be a rush, as they say we won’t receive our fliers until the 30th of October, and our night is the 5th of November, but we can pass out as many as we can…so if you’re in the Greenville area and read this, let me know if you’d like to enjoy a dinner at Mimi’s and I’ll send you a flier as soon as I get one!

We have several other ideas that we have to work on more, and they’ll take time, but hopefully in the end they will end up as fun events that everyone will enjoy, or simply a lucrative fundraiser.

On a good note…Doc said my back is looking great!  Yipee!!!!  That was SUCH an incredible blessing to hear.

The puppies continue to grow like weeds, and Poppy is playing more and more.  Will wags his tail as he currently lays beside me, and Toffee’s ear is covered in slobber and dirt from playing so hard.  I’ve noticed Alli and Casanova have both gained significant amounts of weight, and Nicholas is…er…tubby. 😀 Cute, but tubby!

Off to settle everyone in for bedtime. Despite it all, they still make me smile and keep me going, even when I get discouraged, whiny and tired of cleaning. 😉 What would the world be like without them? I’ll never know…. 😀