No matter how many good vibes and loving snuggles I give my little honeybottom, he doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I really, really hope he’s going to pull through this, but I can feel myself mentally preparing for the worst.

At least I’m getting to spend a lot of quality couch time with him – that’s always been our thing, being all snoozy and lazy together. The very first time we met, he curled up behind my legs on the couch and immediately stole my heart. It was love at first spoon.

(Thanks to my digital Library of Memories, it was incredibly easy to find pictures of the two of us together. These photos span 2002-2009, but they were all in one folder, ready to use.)

Of course the second I started bragging about how happy I was, the whole Bobby thing happened and I was knocked down a few pegs. I spent Halloween feeling pretty down and worried about him, so I had a hard time enjoying the festivities – even though we carved our first pumpkins (ever! Halloween didn’t exist in Norway when we were growing up) and baked these magnificent finger cookies (eeew):

Bobby is doing better, but is still very lethargic and generally not himself – but he’s still enough of a gentleman to tell me to say thank you for all the well wishes!

Anyway, it was becoming increasingly clear that I needed some outdoor time, especially when the weather on Sunday defied the forecast and provided both sun and blue skies. We couldn’t leave poor Bobs alone at home all day and go for a real hike, so we drove to Tiger Mountain for a quick trail run with Wellie.

Once again we proved that the combination of sun/fresh air/endorphins is absolutely magical and beats any sort of drug, and once again I proved that I am in absolutely horrendous shape. Still, I loved it so much that we went running on Monday too, in the Redmond Watershed Preserve which is relatively close to our house. So much nicer than running on asphalt. Or a treadmill.

We didn’t want to carry our big, heavy lump of an SLR while running, so we decided to try our new compact camera, a Panasonic Lumix TS1 (yes it really is that orange).

I’ve been wanting a compact camera so I can take more photos when we’re out with friends and I don’t feel like bringing a suitcase-sized purse for my camera, so we figured we should go for a waterproof (good for photos of Wellie swimming) and shockproof (good for downhill skiing where we will inevitably take quite a few splendid spills) version. I’m underwhelmed by the results so far, but I guess I should at least attempt to read the manual and not base my judgment solely on photos from a dark forest before I talk smack about the camera. Either way I have to stop expecting SLR-type results from the tiny little thing.

Poor little Bobby – he’s really had the worst year ever. In March, he landed wrong jumping off the bed and broke a bone in his paw (and had to wear this ridonculous cast for weeks):

In April we went for a hike in Eastern Washington and he came home with a mysterious and rather evil-looking bite on the inside of his leg. The vet had no idea what it could be (it showed up too soon to be a tick bite, and the tick-borne disease tests the vet took later all came back negative), but sent him home with a bunch of antibiotics just in case.

Ten days later, he developed a high fever, diarrhea and vomiting, so we took him back to the vet. He had to stay overnight because of the fever and dehydration, but they had no idea what had caused it.

In June, he slipped off a log into Annette Lake and came up very grimy and green, and a couple of days later he was sick again. Same symptoms, another overnight vet trip, countless tests and no results.

After this he was healthy all summer (except for some random days when he seemed lethargic and warm), and then suddenly last week he got a high fever and a very enlarged lymph node on his neck. This time he had to stay at the vet’s for two nights, they ran all sorts of tests and x-rays and poked and prodded him all over the place, but they still have no idea what is causing all of this.

He’s back at home now (on two different antibiotics and a painkiller) and is slowly getting better, but I feel so sorry for him. I just want to find out what’s wrong so it won’t keep happening every other month. Before this year, he never had any health problems at all, but now it seems like his immune system has been compromised and any little thing (like falling into the lake) will set him off. We’ve decided to retire him from hiking, at least until we figure out what’s wrong.

I have known and loved Bobby for eight and a half years now (the little nose bear stole my heart the first time I met him, which was also the first time I met JK), and I don’t even want to think about not having him in my life.