The haircut we gave to Grover: We have our dogs shaved fairly regularly because they get too hot in the summer otherwise, they bring in WAY too much dirt, and it cuts way down on the dog hair. Why not get some clippers and try it ourselves? How hard can it be? I think the sides are fairly ok, but the back, how do they do it? It’s long hair that lays flat so the clippers won’t touch it. You can’t go against the lay of the hair because, well, the clippers just won’t go that way. So Grover has a funny looking and incomplete shave. We didn’t even want to get started on Sage.

My scooter lights: I haven’t been riding the scooter because the headlight hasn’t been working and it’s been dark when I leave work. I spent a couple of afternoons two weekends ago looking for what I figured was a burnt out wire from when smoke started pouring out of the front when I was installing new batteries. I looked at the old parts scooter for how things were wired up and found a few burnt wires there as well (yay for cheap Chinese stuff?). I found the burnt wire and put in a new one, still no headlight. I followed more wires and found two more burnt out. More patches and still no headlight, but now I see the battery level go down when the headlight is on which means there’s a short and it’s definitely not good. I look but I can’t find anything else so I pack it up to look for the problem later. Now thanks to daylight savings time it’s light when I leave work and headlight isn’t an obstacle. So I ride to work today but I notice that when the turn signal blinks there is a major draw on the battery gauge so the short is more serious than I thought but should be easier to locate and now I’m down to hand signals.

 

Grover had his final cancer check up this morning and is now declared to be free of cancer! We didn’t really expect anything to suddenly to pop up at this point but it’s still nice to have the official word. Now we just need to get the weight off of him and Sage.

 

Grover had his latest cancer check-up this morning and was again pronounced all clear. In addition to the poking and prodding he had a chest x-rays and blood drawn. We’ll find out the blood results tomorrow. Our only cause for concern is he recently started having partial seizures on the left side of his face when he’s relaxing or sleeping. They seem to clusted a few in a 24-hour period and then they’re gone for another week or so. It wasn’t the kind of tumor that spreads and if it did it’s very likely to have shown up in the lungs, but the x-rays showed clear on that. No ear infections to cause facial twitches, normal nerve response in the face. Bloodwork will show any abnormalities there. He might just have epilepsy… resting/sleeping seizures tend to indicate that and so would his age to the manifestation time. We just have to wait for more information and see how things progress.

 

Not Grover, but her reflection. For years we’ve noticed that Grover seemed to be able to use the mirror to look elsewhere in the room and recognize the real world correspondence. Sage never was interested in the images in the mirror, almost like she couldn’t see anything.

A few weeks ago when Nicole was getting ready in the mirror that goes to the floor, she suddenly saw herself and started barking at her reflection. Then she would move to the side and peek around to see the other dog doing the same and would bark more. Then at night she saw teh other dog in the glass sliding door, and if she caught sight of herself in the mirror during the day she would have to start barking again.

I was petting Sage in front of the mirror to assure her that it was ok but that got her really pissed, seeing me pet that other dog!

We looked for ways to make Sage accept the other dog and only found one suggestion which was to give the dog treats next to the mirror so they would associate it with good things. Nicole put peanut butter on the mirror and Sage ate it all. Then Nicole put the mirror in a place where Sage could look at both sides and after a lot of investigation between the front and back seems to have made her at peace with the dog in the mirror. She still goes to check on the other dog but now it’s allowed in her territory.

 

Grover had his checkup with the oncologist this morning. After feeling around the doctor said it all felt good and the radiated area looked good. So next checkup is in a month, then 6 weeks, then a few at every other month and then every three months. He didn’t say after that but I’d imagine every 6 months after that. The longer things look good the the better his chances. There will be periodic x-rays in there too to make sure it didn’t spread.

 

Grover has finished all his radiation therapy and he didn’t get sick at all during it. He did seems a little uncomfortable for a few days but for the most part he was fine. And the groggy dog routine was always funny after a treatment. They painted a target on him that they had to redraw a few times:
Grover's radiation target It wraps around across his belly.

Next week we have the follow up appointment with the oncologist to see if the radiation really did the trick or if something else (surgery) has to be done. They seemed pretty positive about his response to the treatment so we think it will be good news. Yay!

Here’s a picture of Grover in a hat (not because his hair fell out but because he’s patient enough to pose for a few seconds)

 

of her cast. Terry signed it this past weekend as you can see here
Sage's cool cast signature but that only lasted a few days as the vet came today to free her. The brown thing on the end is duct tape which I had to apply since she wore a hole through the bottom. I actually had to put on a second application of duct tape on Monday.

Anyway, the vet said that it was healing well but that she still can’t run full out for another few weeks. He also said he’s going to keep track of Grover’s cancer treatment progress and that we shouldn’t be surprised if he does get a little sick from the radiation. He thinks Grover will come through well since he’s young and strong. Yay!

 

Sage’s log of a leg, courtesy of linkaloo
Courtesy of linkaloo

 

After consulting with the oncologist and being given the option of another more extreme surgery and 4 rounds of radiation a week for 4 weeks, we decided on the radiation. The surgery might change his gait and will take a few weeks to recover from and leaves the radiation as the only future option. The radiation has about the same success rate and leaves us with more options in case of future relapse. Grover starts his radiation therapy on October 10.

Yesterday when I got home Sage was refusing to put any weight on her front left leg and the left leg was pretty swollen. From what we can tell, she and Grover were rough-housing and she got hurt. Off to the emergency room with her since we thought it might be broken. They examined her and thought she might have hyper-extended the joint but x-rayed it just to be sure it wasn’t broken. There didn’t appear to be a break but a radiologist will examin eit on Friday. In the meantime they mummified her leg with the plastic bandage stuff so she can’t bend it and she has to wear that for two weeks and not be very active during that time. She was doped up from the sedative for the x-ray so she could barely stand with that thing on last night. This morning she can walk on it but it makes a lot of noise on the wood floor. It’s like she’s a walking drum stick and the floor is a giant drum.

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