Just about 11 years ago, this little heartthrob was born:
That tiny, fuzzy rat grew into a very handsome boy named Bobby, and I fell in love with him and JK at the same time (some might say that JK lured me into his arms using Bobby as bait).
After we stole him from JK’s parents, Bobby became our furry (well, not that furry) son. He even came to our wedding:
Bobby was a perfectly healthy, happy dog until last year when he got very sick with meningitis. He somehow managed to pull through, and for these last two months he was like a young dog again. JK and I were amazed by how energetic he was, so it came as a complete shock to us when he suddenly collapsed and had a seizure in the dog park last Friday. We drove as fast as we could to the vet, but it wasn’t fast enough. Our beautiful little boy passed away in my arms.
I am so glad that both JK and I were there, that Bobs was so happy, and that he was in a place he loved so much, the dog park. Even so, I am absolutely devastated. Bobby was my constant companion through so many years, and I miss him so much.
Thank you for keeping us warm at night, and for keeping me company through some very tough and lonely times. Thank you for going on walks with us, even though some of them were very long. Thank you for being so patient when there was suddenly a little brother in the house. Thank you for being the best little dog in the whole wide world.
I’ll miss your weird little growl and how good your ears smelled, and that cute sound you made when you yawned. You were the most loyal friend anyone could ever have. I love you.
Thank you so much for all your well wishes! Bobby is doing so much better; he’s eating up a storm and getting lardier by the minute. I think he might even be ready to go on some little walks around the neighborhood soon. He’s our little Christmas miracle!
Speaking of miracles, I have fallen in love…with a vegetable. I’ve had an aversion to spinach ever since a regrettable episode four years ago involving me, a salad, and some slightly soggy spinach that had been in our fridge just a tad too long. Did you know that when spinach is past its prime, it tastes like fish? Nas-tay.
Well, after reading about green smoothies all over Bloglandia for about a year now, I decided it was time for me to grow up, get over my gag reflex and give the Wonder Green a chance. That’s right - I’m putting spinach in my smoothies! I’ve adopted Angela’s term for the concoctions, Green Monsters. The most shocking thing is that they taste good, and after having them for breakfast a couple of days, I actually started craving them. I usually only crave chocolate and potatoes (in various shapes and forms), so this was a welcome surprise.
My basic recipe is:
Green Monster
2 tbs frozen berries (you can add more, but it will make your smoothie look very…brown)
In order to mix it up once in a while, I use different greens, add some extra stuff like parsley or cucumber, and I also made a very good holiday themed Green Monster where I used pumpkin instead of berries and added cloves and ginger. Mmm. I’ll have to make that one again for Christmas. For your first couple of smoothies you can use more berries and less spinach so you can get used to the taste.
I’ve been drinking these for breakfast for about a month now, and it feels great to know that I’ve consumed about 326 servings (ballpark figure) of veggies before the day has even begun. I’ve also had much fewer headaches and migraines even though I’ve been fairly stressed out these last few weeks, which makes sense since I am finally getting some nutrients into my body.
Even Bobby likes Green Smoothies - when he was at his worst and wouldn’t eat any of the tasty things we tried to give him, I caught him licking the leftover smoothie in my glass. After some quick googling (sorry honey, “binging”), I found these pet safe green smoothie recipes and started making him a mini Green Monster every day. Whenever I used the blender, he would come up to me and wag his tail! It was pretty much the only thing he would eat before he got his medicines and his regular appetite back.
Hopefully eating all this spinach is going to make both of us as strong as Popeye (but without the unfortunate medical problems):
Since our regular vets couldn’t find out what was going on with Bobby, we ended up taking him to a neurologist. Diagnosis: canine meningitis. Eeep! At least now we know what it is and what to do about it. Bobs will be taking steroids for a couple of months, and then hopefully he’ll be all healed.
He actually started doing significantly better within 24 hours of his first dose (and after three days I caught him trying to hump Wellie - must be the ‘roid rage)! It’s so good to have our old Bobby back - and it’s such a relief to see him eating again. As you can see, we definitely need to fatten him up after a month and a half of being sick.
Part of Operation Lard Dog was to make our annual batch of holiday gingerbones for the dogs. Bobby and Wellie (and certain other stout friends of theirs) love these, especially the ones shaped like Italian Greyhounds. If you want to make them for your pups, you can find the recipe here (it’s from an old issue of The Bark magazine).
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.)
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.
Poor Bobby has been suffering from various ailments (intestinal issues and broken bones) all year and hasn’t been able to hike much, so now that he has a clean bill of health we wanted to gently reintroduce him to the mountains. With 19 miles RT and only 1550 feet of elevation gain (according to the book, but it felt like more - possibly because it’s been a while since I carried a full pack. And possibly due to all the laziness and fatness. Ahem.), Spectacle Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness seemed to fit the bill.
We took it easy on the way in to make sure Bobby was doing ok, and stopped after 4 or so flat miles to have lunch by Pete Lake. I have never heard anything positive about Pete at all, so I was pleased to find a very pretty little lake nestled below some impressive mountain scenery.
Bobby seemed happy and energetic even in the heat, so we carried on towards Spectacle Lake. After 7 miles or so we got to the double creek crossing where a ranger was hanging signs - apparently the bridge is out on the alternate trail via the PCT, so you have to ford the creek either way. It wasn’t deep, but it was pretty damn cold - here’s a video of the first half of the crossing:
We hiked onward and (finally!) upward with the ranger for a bit (hi Billie! ) until she forked off towards Escondido and left us to battle the dusty switchbacks up to Spectacle. The first view of the lake from the ridge is amazing, I fell in love instantly. Unfortunately the local mosquitoes had similar amorous feelings for us, so we hurried down and along the lakeshore to find a good campsite.
JK eventually spotted a great site at the very tip of the little peninsula, and we wasted no time getting the tent up and hiding inside. JK went for a quick swim, but apart from that and eating dinner, we pretty much spent the whole evening in the tent, reading and snoozing. Stupid little vampires.
We were hoping it would be better the next day since it was supposed to be windy, but by then the mosquitoes were bad enough that we elected to have breakfast in the tent, something we never do. We spent a couple more hours reading before deciding to just give up and hike out.
We cleaned off some trail dust in Pete Lake (heavenly!) on the way out and hurried out the last four miles to the car. I need to either grow thicker skin or be more liberal with the DEET. We spent a month in India for our honeymoon and the mosquitoes were NOTHING compared to here in the Cascades.
I might have been less pissy about the skeeters if the little buggers had been polite enough to avoid my face, but noooo, I had to walk around for the next week with a face full of what looked like giant, bulbous zits.
Here’s a clip from JK (and Wellie’s!!) swim in Pete Lake - it’s a wee bit long since I haven’t found a video editing program yet.
Hopefully I’ll be able to go back here later in the season when the little bloodsucking monsters have died.
…we have desert too! JK had another all-weekend class with the Washington Alpine Club this weekend, so I tagged along with Tom, Dani and their morbidly obese (sorry, “stout”) dog Jasper for a hike in the Umtanum Canyon. Eastern Washington really is a different world…I approve of all the sun they get, but not so much of the snakes, spiders and ticks. Bobs ended up getting some sort of weird bite on the inside of his leg, but according to the vet he’s totally fine. Poor little Scabnose, first the broken toe and now a bite dangerously close to his genitals!
Wellington is doing great by the way. I’m still amazed by how dog-like he is for an Italian Greyhound. Here he’s chewing on a stick (Bobby would never even think of acting so…canine) he found on the hike:
…and here he’s nursing Bobby back to good health after the vet appointment:
Alrightyroo, short post (I have to run) but at least it’s a post. Ok, so it was just an excuse to post the cute photo of Wellie with the stick.
Doggie update: Wellie is fitting in perfectly with our family - apart from a couple of little snafus (all involving feces, hooray!) the first weeks, he is doing so well. He’s even bringing Bobby out of his shell! We keep catching them snuggling on the couch…
…and, *shock* playing!! Bobby never plays with other dogs, so this is a big breakthrough.
Unfortunately Bobby broke a bone in his paw two weeks ago, so he’s been wearing a humongous cast and has been unable to play or run around. We’re going back to the vet today to hopefully get the cast off so he can go back to doing all his happy dog things.
Luckily for Wellie, he has another new playmate while Bobby is off-limits - we’re dogsitting little Rocco! There is officially too much cuteness in our house!
