The first night after Charlie came home from the vet, he would not sleep in his crate with the e-collar (the lampshade). He did eventually fall asleep but it was a restless sleep. He woke up at 3 a.m. The next night he insisted on sleeping on top of the bed with us. Even though it was easier for him to fall asleep, he awoke at 2 a.m.
Finally we realized that in order to keep our sanity, we needed to keep him in the crate and forego the collar during the night. He slept beautifully. Unfortunately, last night his wounds were extra itchy or bothersome so he kept waking up to lick he wounds. I kept having to stop him. It was a long night of battling with his urge to lick and scratch. Very tired...
On other news, I've been recovering quite well from the shoulder surgery. I have a pretty good range of motion and only wear the sling when I'm out in public and sleeping.
I wish I had more to say about our lives, but lately we've been busy with Charlie . Nothing really exciting going on. :(
Dr. Owen, Charlie's veterinary surgeon called me this morning. She said that Charlie is doing fine and he's acting like nothing happened. That's our Charlie. Completely oblivious. He's also quick to recover like me. That's my boy!
She said that he could have possibly come home today but after such a major surgery, she would like to keep him for observation for one more day. We're going to visit him tonight. He'll probably be able to go home tomorrow.
Just got the good news from the vet. Charlie is out of surgery and is now recovering well. The surgery went well and there were no complications. They even said he's walking about already. Unfortunately we can't see him today since they don't want to get him too excited.
The first opportunity we'll have to visit him is tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Our new dog Charlie is copying me. Tomorrow he is headed to the OR to fix a congenital defect. Michelle has dubbed us her "2 broken boys." His prognosis looks good if the surgery goes well. The surgery has a high survival rate but we're still crossing our fingers. We've become really attached to him. :)
We'll keep you updated.
On Saturday we made a trip out to Victorville to pick out another beagle puppy. Because of what happened last time with Amy, the breeder was reluctant to sell us a really young pup. He wanted to make sure to get us an older dog just in case. So he showed us two brothers born July 4, 2003. We picked out the smaller of the two (probably the runt) and called him Charlie.
On the way home Charlie sat patiently as we drove from Victorville. We made a stop in Ontario to eat and do a little shopping. Michelle needed to pick some stuff up at the scrapbooking store (which she loves). Charlie and I sat outside. He was a little curious and wanted to wander, so I had to hold him in my lap most of the time outside of Starbuck's.
After Ontario, Michelle had to run an errand in Covina so we made a stop there. While Michelle was running her errand, Charlie and I went to a park to hang out. He loved sniffing everything. After stopping by the park, we headed to Petsmart for a few supplies then headed to another park. I think he was a bit overwhelmed but he was very happy. At this point he was super hungry and kept trying to go towards the scent of BBQ's.
We finally made it home around 4 p.m. We spent the rest of the day and night playing with Charlie. He was able to take to the crate really easily. He slept right through the night without much complaint. Whenever he started to whimper I just reached over to assure him we were still in the room and he went back to sleep.
Sunday morning we spent some time at our local Starbuck's and took Charlie for his first vet visit. The vet said he looked healthy but has a slight case of kennel cough. So basically no play dates with any other dogs for a week. We then took Charlie to see my mom in the valley and to wash my car. He loved sitting in the dirt in my mom's patio. :)
That's pretty much it for our weekend. This morning was really tough. We had to leave him alone for the first time. He just howled and barked. I'm going to go home on my lunch breaks for the first few weeks to make sure he's doing okay. Hopefully he won't tear everything up.
Click here to open the Charlie's album.
dog
So Michelle and I have decided to try again with another puppy. We're going to try Mojave Desert Beagles again. They have some new litters coming soon so we may take a look. We decided that it was worth it to look again after Amy. We kept seeing people with dogs and imaging ourselves with one. We thought of all the stuff we would do with a dog like take walks and go to dog parks. Even the simple things like getting a cup of coffee would seem so much more fun with a dog. We'll keep everyone updated.
vegas
We're off to Vegas this weekend so hopefully the temps won't be that intolerable. Michelle's brother has happily volunteered to housesit and catsit while we are away. We're staying at a new part of Mandalay Bay called THEHotel. It's an all-suite hotel. Every room has a 42" plasma screen TV. Wooohooo! Ya know what I'm doing as soon as I hit that room. :)
Amy passed away yesterday. Although we only knew that puppy for one day, we were really heartbroken by her passing. She will be missed.
I just got off the phone with the breeders. They say that Amy is doing better. She'll probably have to stay for at least a couple of more days though.
At first they had to force feed her through a dropper but now she's successfully eating out of a bowl. She seems like she's more active too. The breeder says she seems to have a cold, which we experienced first hand. Amy kept sneezing on us and her nose would run. She's drinking water on her own too.
We'll call back in a couple of days to check-up on her condition but prognosis looks good.
Crossing our fingers.
albums and amyAdded 2 new albums to the album page. One is a set of pictures from Michelle's 29th birthday dinner and another is of our dog, Amy.
On Saturday we woke up at 8:00 a.m. and drove out to Victorville (a 1.5 hour drive). We arrived at Mojave Desert Beagles at 11:00 a.m. Donald Potts greeted us and showed us some 4 month old puppies and some 6 month old puppies. They were all cute. Michelle being the Social Worker felt sorry for the really quiet puppy. In the end we ended up taking one of the female puppies. She was really cute and loved the attention. We signed all the paperwork and were on our way.
On the way home, Amy, as we named her, got a little woozy sitting in my lap. She proceeded to throw up twice in my lap. Not the greatest of smells. :( We stopped by the pet store and showed Amy off to Michelle's parents. She piddled on their carpet... oops.
That night was extremely difficult. Amy did not want to be left alone in her crate. She finally settled down but she was very restless. She went diarrhea in her crate and I spent most of the night tending to her.
The next day she was very sleepy. She slept most of the day on my lap. When I brought her up to the roof patio, all she would do is follow me around. She was able to successfully pee twice on her walks though which was a good sign.
Things were not all good. Amy just kept sleeping and was very lethargic. Not typical puppy attitude. We were so worried we took her into the vet. The vet diagnosed her with Parvo, an intestinal virus... very serious. After calling the breeder, he insisted that we return the dog so that he could put her under his care. We did that. We drove all the way back out to Victorville and dropped her off.
At first I thought it had to be Parvo, but now that my head is on straight I was able to do some research. The Parvo tests can give false-positives if the dog was given a recent vaccine. Amy had just gotten shots that day. I'm not sure if the vet took this into account, but right now I'm going to trust the breeder.
I really miss that dog. I'll update this site when I have more information.
For months now, Michelle and I have been throwing around the idea of getting a dog. We are really partial to beagles. People say they make great family pets. I'm sure Michelle is a little biased since Snoopy is a beagle. Tomorrow we're going to go up to Mojave Desert Beagles to take a look at their current available puppies and dogs. Michelle swears that I won't leave there without a dog. :)
Our aquarium suffered its first loss today. One of our neon tetras went belly up. It was looking pretty sick for a while. It had lost most of the color in its body. I fear it was Neon Tetra Disease which is a fatal, non-curable disease. I had to remove the fish yesterday to prevent further contamination. I didn't want all the other fish in the tank to suffer the same fate.
I had hoped his color would return but he became so listless in the tank. He started swimming near the filter output. The output water would push him down to the bottom of the aquarium and he would float back up. He would then end up back at the filter output, get pushed down again, and repeat the cycle. So I made the decision to isolate the little guy in a separate container. When I first removed him he went belly up right away. This was probably from shock to his already weakened body. He recovered though and actually made it through most of the night.
This morning I awoke to find him belly up in the container I placed him in. I flushed him. :( It was for the best though. I'm going to keep a look out but I'm hoping it was isolated case.
Linus and Sally are the names Michelle gave our two new fish. Yesterday I picked up two Otocinclus Catfish from Aquarium Center in Van Nuys. It's a really nice store with some great fish. All the local stores in West LA did not have Otocinclus. We needed these fish to help clean up the algae.
Here's pic of Sally (with a broken left fin). She was on the glass so I couldn't get a great pic:
Here's a pic of Linus. He's planted himself on one of the onion plant leaves.
We really don't have any clue what sex Linus and Sally are, but I guess those names will stick. :)
So far so good. It's been over 30 days and the aquarium is still going strong. 10 neon tetras are still alive.
You may not be able to tell from the picture, but I moved some things around in the aquarium. I put in a piece of drift wood that I bought from a local fish store. It really adds a nice element to the tank. I planted some java fern in the wood. The guy at the fish store said that once the fern takes root, it should start spreading across the wood. We'll see I guess.
I was noticing that some of the tetras started developing what looked to be ich. I've been treating them for the past couple of days and it looks like the ich is gone. I will keep treating the tank for another couple of days to be sure.
Wanted to post some more pics of the aquarium. Lucy has become quite enthralled with it. She sits in front of it for hours at a time.
So have I.
The fishes have finally started to eat. They seem to like the food but only if I crumble it and let it fall into the tank. They don't seem to pay any attention to the food that floats at the top.
FISH! There's fish in the aquarium now. Last night Michelle and I made a trip to Apex Aquariums in Culver City and picked up 10 Neon Tetras. They are cool fish and hopefully they are resilient enough to survive. I read somewhere that the first fish you put in the aquarium need to be sturdy enough to survive the initial build up of ammonia until the "good bacteria" are able to get a foothold in the aquarium.
Crossing my fingers for these fish.
The aquarium is still up and running. I received a bunch of supplies from Petsmart.com and DrsFosterSmith.com. I also received a batch of live plants from LiveAquaria.com.
One of my onion plants died already but I'm convinced it wasn't my fault. It arrived with barely any roots intact. Luckily I was able to get a refund over the phone.
Michelle and I are probably going to pick out some peaceful community fish later this week. :)
Michelle bought me an aquarium for christmas. It's 26 gallons and has a built in filter. As with most things new, I have become totally obsessed. I am now in the midst of building the perfect aquatic environment. On day one, I filled the tank and added the right chemicals to neutralize the pH and chlorine in the water. It is now day 8 and I anxiously await the delivery of live aquatic plants from LiveAquaria.com.
I hope to get the plants situated before we head off to Whistler on the 8th. With each new development I hope to post pictures and updates. I hope to have fish in the tank by the middle of January.
Michelle and I picked up our new kitten last night. Check out the "cat" page to see a live webcam of the kitten.