Piper's Vet Visits - TWO, ALREADY in 2010!

The beginning of the new year has been a little traumatic for Piper (or is it just Piper's parents?). The third week into January, we noticed that Piper's eye was swollen! I mean majorly swollen! Then, there is the discussion...., here it is a SUNDAY - meaning extra $$ at the Vet's office. Now, don't get me wrong, we won't spare any expense to get our Piper medical treatment if she needs it. But, you know, you just have to step back and look at the situation and try and determine if there is anything you can do yourself to make it better. In our past experience, if we had come across something like this before, we probably would have handled it at home, but this, we had not. Her swollen eye just freaked me out, and knowing that it could possibly impair her vision permanently, opted that we just had to take her in, and J agreed, so we did. I took a cell phone picture before we took her to the vet so we could monitor it. When J & Piper were waiting in the Vet's 'inner' office, J took another picture of Piper's eye because the eye was swelling more. Here is that picture.

By the time the Vet came in, the swelling had subsided, so J showed the picture to the Vet, and his reaction was like ours... WOW! Since the swelling had subsided, the Vet's diagnosis was "Allergic Reaction". He thinks that maybe it was a spider bite. We're just glad that it wasn't serious! Money well spent.

Piper has certainly grown in the last couple of months. She turned 7 months old on Sunday, January 24th. Here is a current picture of her. She weights just about 50lbs!! I certainly hope that she does NOT get any larger!!!
Yesterday, Piper had another Vet visit. Poor Baby.... this time it was to get her spade. :-(
So, today, I am "dog watching". That's right folks, almost like bird watching, but with a d-o-g. haha... I crack myself up..... (or is that the fumes from the meds I'm giving Piper?)

Dog watching, in order to keep her still, and to keep her from LICKING her wounds (ha - pun intended - poor baby) - I swear, I am smelling some kind of fumes... but just where the heck are they??....
~~Anyway, y'all should SEE the Cone that the Vet's office sent to put on Piper!! I swear, you'd have to be an Engineer to put that thing together!! Luckily, J is an engineer! OH, but WAIT, he's NOT HERE!! So, I have to "Dog Watch". I don't mind, really, it's just that I can't lay on the couch, or sit down without jumping up to follow her around the house! Yes, I've closed off the rooms as usual, but since she's had the roam of the land, er, house lately, she finds a spot and sits down and licks, lick, licks.... Man, it's a good thing I have good hearing!

Piper woke up at 2:30 this morning, and up again at 7:30. All I've wanted to do is take a little nappy-poo. Finally, I got her to settle down and we both took a nap. So, I'm not supposed to let her outside without supervision, cuz she'll either lickity-lick, or run and jump, or lay on something rough that will irritate or rip her stitches, so I guess it is more like bird watching than I thought.... follow... follow.... follow.... Lucky gal, she is getting LOTS of treats today!
I'll have to post pictures of the cone later, cuz J took the camera today. I'll take before and after pics. Right now, Piper is snoring peacefully at my feet. Ahhh.......

Christmas Fun With Lil Gal & Piper & Bently

I Just wanted to let y'all know that we had a good Christmas. Alexis came down and it was so wonderful to have her and Bently here. Bently and Piper went at it like they were siblings. Haha... too funny. Piper would put that paw up in Bently's face and Bently would go berserk! After a while, we seemed to notice that they played just fine, as long as Alexis was not in the house. LOL! Imagine that! But, seeing as Piper's one paw is as big as Bently's face, it was a little annoying to Bently. They finally figured out how to be gentle with each other. Watching them was fun. :-D ~~~ Check out the play time video below.
~~~Dear Hubby surprised us with a 46 flat screen tv, so my surprise present "Wii" was ever so much more fun to play! We played some bowling and some tennis, and BOY, I can't believe I was sore! Oh wait! Yes, I can. That's the only form of exercise I've done in a while besides cleaning house! LOL!! That was fun! When I was in Austin, my SIL #2 and I played Mario Kart! Now, that's addicting! I'll just say this..... I'm SO GLAD that I don't drive like I do on the tv screen, in real life! I CANNOT for the life of me, stay on the road!!

~~~~ So, J tells me that one day when Piper came in from outside (Poo duty), that she had her ears down, was acting weird, she ran in the door and just ran from room to room. So, J finally caught up with her to check her out and noticed that she had .... wait for it...... she had poop hanging from her butt via a Christmas tree icicle!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

Oh I do wish he would have taken a picture of that! I know, gross, right? But, OH SO FUNNY!!
That's what she gets for eating a xmas icicle! I wish I could have been here to see it!
She was SO relieved when J pulled it from her! Ahhh..... I'm just ROFLMAO!!
~~~~~~New Years Eve was good. It was good to be with best friends to bring in the new year. I hope that everyone had a super time bringing in the new year!

OMG! It's already at the End of January 2010!!!!

Hi Folks!
So sorry I've been gone for so long. I've been home one week now. I just haven't had much time to write, until now.
We went to visit our folks up in Austin after our BIG New Years Night! I KNOW!!! Just whose Crazy Idea was that??!! Of course, my Dear Hubby (DH)! Although, I have to admit that I was caught at a "weird moment" when I agreed to travel on January 1st! - New Years Day! - You know, day after New Years Eve??!! That was a FIRST! Thankfully, my DH let me sleep late! Anyway, we arrived there in the late afternoon and traffic was amazingly pretty good! Well, what do you know? Think most peeps were sleeping in? - Uh, I mean Sleeping it off?? LOL I thought I would sleep, but ended up finishing up the first book in a new series of books I'm reading. The "Twilight" series! Heard of that? (more on that later.)
~~~So, when we arrived at my SIL & BIL's home (cool peeps), we walked in with all of our luggage (Piper included - taking several trips) - right into a house FULL OF IN-LAWS!!
Well, what do you know? They were all there waiting for us to eat a New Years dinner!! What a HUGE Surprise!!!!! I wondered -- no, expected - that DH knew all about this and decided it best not to tell me. Hmmmm...... grumble... grumble..... - No Wonder he pushed for me to agree to go on New Years Day! -- All I wanted to do was settle in and relax.
NO SUCH DUMB FREKEN LUCK!
EVERYONE was dressed up, dinner was ready to sit on the table... and we had to run in and clean up our travel dust/dog poo(uh I mean smell) - and whatever travel smells have... And,
I had to quickly freshen up, greet every single person there, and then have a lovely meal. Oh Yeah! Also, since xmas presents were being given out, we had to hand out the xmas presents we had brought with us, but NOT to the peeps we didn't know would be there! (Thanks for the notice all!)
~~~ OH I always thought I liked surprises.... I suppose it depends on what the surprise is. So, the evening was long. After everyone had gone home, the 4 of us settled in to watch a movie (or is that the 7 of us? - 3 dogs). My brother #2 calls me at 10p.m. to tell me that our mom fell down the stairs in her home at 6ish (that's when we arrived!). She is married to her 2nd husband - none of whom we are thrilled with. It turns out that (Let's call him the JERK) the Jerk, decided to call only ONE of our brothers, Bro#1 (the one who is doesn't have a clue about him) & the Jerk decided that Mom did NOT need to go to the ER!! Mom turns 80 in April. And, Bro#1 didn't even argue with him, OR go over to see mom!
Bro#2 and I were FREAKED! At this point, mom was already in bed, so we decided to run over there First thing in the morning and take mom to the ER. Bro#2 & I wanted to arrive first and told Bro#1 & wife to WAIT for us to get there, since we had keys to the house and didn't want mom having to come down the stairs (Jerk was already at work - hours are 4a.m.-12noon), Bro#1 didn't wait, and rang the doorbell and made mom come on down to answer the door. That's just how he is folks. Now you know why he and the Jerk get along. We pulled up 5 min after he did.
Ah, you know family... after we talked to mom, we got into it with Bro#1, as to why he didn't call any of us... THEN, we quickly dropped it - saw it causing mom stress. AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!
~~~~~We all took mom to the ER and I stayed with her in her room. I finally called Jerk, just before he got off work to let him know where mom was. After explaining exactly which hospital she was at, he said he would just meet us at home since we were all there! Just like him.
Then he called back 10 min later and inquired again which hospital?
The Dr had ordered a cat scan, and xrays. When Jerk got there, the Dr had just reported: no broken bones - possible hairline tailbone fracture, and would be sore for a few months. When the Dr. reported this, then the Jerk said "Yeah, that's just what I told her, she didn't hurt herself...." The Dr interrupted and said "YES" your wife did hurt herself and IS hurting. That's why she is here. (HOOWA!!) He shut up. But, I don't even think it phased him - no clue. Next was for insurance paperwork and discharge.
Jerk said he would take mom home. I told him that he would not take mom home; that mom could NOT climb up into a truck; and that we would be taking her home. So, he said he would see her at home; and he left. No questions about payment - discharge papers - Dr's orders - prescriptions, nada...... Again, just like him.
I decided to stay and take care of mom for the week, then ended up staying 2 wks, since she was still not doing that great. Bro#2 and his wife were going out of town, so at least I could be there for her. I stayed at their place while I was there. They have stairs too, so at least I got some exercise! lol
Mom is doing much better. She saw her Dr on Friday - 15th, and he told her that it would take about 4 months for her to begin to feel normal again. He gave her a Handicap sticker for her car, as she is walking pretty slow, and still gets dizzy (but has meds for that). I know she wants to drive herself to church on Sunday, but we'll see.
I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve/Day!