No more sticks!

A couple weeks ago, the kids and I were outside playing with Tyson in the backyard.  He normally plays with frisbees but I couldn't find one easily so I just had him pick up a stick for me to throw.  The way the stick landed it stuck into the ground at a weird angle and Tyson ran up quickly to get it and ended up puncturing a hole in his soft palette (upper esophagus).  Thankfully, Kyle was in town and was able to meet us at the Vet and then take him onto the Emergency Vet.  After an X-ray, 2 CT scans, and staying overnight for observation our boy was back home.  All those tests helped us know that there was no remaining stick in his mouth which would have caused a terrible infection.  He came home with about 5 different medicines to take but within a couple days was back to normal and we are thankful he did not need surgery!

Kyle visited him on his way home from work in the Emergency Vet to give him some loving:

After he was home... sleepy boy!

And all better now!

No more sticks for Tyson!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy 7th Birthday Tyson!

Wordless Wednesday: Me & Bubby

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet moments with the cats

Tyson to the rescue

I know a lot of people worry about how their animals will handle a new addition to the family, and I was to some extent too.  Even though we think Tyson is a great dog, he does have a couple faults!  He does not like getting pinched anywhere on his face, particularly his ears and gets really excited to go outside to play frisbee that he literally GALLOPS to the door knocking down anything in his path.

But I can now say that he is AWESOME with Emery.  Most of his days are spent laying on the floor right next to her while she plays, and he lets her roll, kick and grab anywhere on his body.  He also moves into the kitchen with us when I feed her baby food, laying right underneath her high chair just in case something were to fall (just wait till next month Tyson, you're going to be in heaven).  He walks up to her all the time and gives her kisses, and he has come to her rescue TWICE in the past month!

Our monitor does not give any warning before it dies, which stinks!  A couple weeks ago Emery woke up around 3 am but we didn't hear her right away, since our monitor was dead.  Next thing I know, Tyson is licking my face to wake me up, letting me know Emery is awake and crying. This has actually happened 2 times-- the only 2 nights our monitor has died from not being plugged in the charger!  So I guess what they say is true... labs are FAMILY DOGS!  What a sweet big brother he is to Emery!

Xanax to the rescue

Remember when I posted here about our new carpet upstairs?  We knew it would only be a matter of time before we were faced with this problem again from Elle.

Well about 3 weeks ago, it happened.  We came home from a trip out of town and unfortunately the second I walked in our room I knew she had peed.  Kyle rigged up a black light and we saw 2 different spots on the carpet... on our brand new carpet!!  (Thankfully we bought the padding with a moisture seal so with our carpet cleaner it did come out). We were both so upset, but Kyle was furious.  Not being a cat lover already, he had had enough.  He said it was time to find Elle a new home, and in all honesty I was on board because with Emery it's just too much to keep up with all the animal problems as well.  But before we went down that route I felt like we had to try one last option that I had been putting off for years... medication.

I took Elle to the vet, checked her for a urinary track infection (which of course she did not have... this is strictly behavioral) and then talked to the vet about what my options were.  He suggested trying Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, and promised me that she would not act drugged or loopy.  So we tried and IT. IS. AMAZING.

Elle is a completely different cat.  Instead of hiding under our bed all day, she is downstairs trying to lay on your lap at all times.  Instead of being skittish around guests she's jumping on them and trying to rub her cheek against theirs.  She is lovey and purring 24 hours a day now.  And did I mention that she loves Kyle too?  It is INSANE.  AND AWESOME.

So yes Elle is on xanax, and probably will be the rest of her life.  But the good news is that she'll be staying in our house and on top of that, our house that will have CLEAN carpets from here on out!

p.s. Did I mention that the vet assistant said to me that if the xanax didn't work on Elle that I could just take it? hahaha guess she could tell that I was a little stressed about it not working.

Such a sweet boy...

People always say that labs and goldens are the best family dogs and in our experience, it's completely true!  Tyson has been the best big brother to Emery, it's just so cute.  Not only is he SO gentle when he comes up to her but he actually gets up in the middle of the night with us!  He walks with me down the hall and into Em's nursery to feed and change her (he lays down by the glider while I do that), and then walks back into our room when I'm done.  How's that for sweet company!

The other day Emery and I were having play time on her activity mat and Tyson was of course with us.  All of us a sudden he got up, stood so he was almost towering over Emery then layed down with her in between his legs.  He literally got as close as he could without touching her, too cute!  Tyson is so interested in her now that she's talking and moving more. I just had to document it for Kyle.

 

I'm so grateful to have a dog that loves Emery like we do :)

Big Boy Bed

So remember when I posted here about how we needed to kick Tyson off the bed at night since we only have a queen, and I now sleep with 5 pillows?  I shamelessly admitted that we were letting our dog sleep on an air mattress at the foot of our bed, but we didn't care because we were sleeping so well.  Well, the air mattress started to become a pain so we had to come up with a new plan!

My work was having a "fire sale" and I was able to snag the best deal out there, an extra large dog bed for only $5!!  This isn't just any dog bed either, it has a semi-water proof cover, which is awesome since Elle hates Tyson and will pee on his bed.  (Oh if you are wondering why our wedding and baby company would have dog beds let me explain.  We tried venturing into the animal business, didn't really work so they were selling some inventory cheap!).  I think it retails for around $150!  It's velvet on the underside, and so we flip it over at bedtime (spoiled yes we know).  Tyson loves it and sleeps there all night long!

Sometimes he sleeps with his head off the side like this, not sure why:

Sorry for the blurry pics but I had to share that Tyson now has his own BIG BOY BED.  We praise him every morning too for staying in it all night, haha ridiculous I know.

Two Wordless Wednesdays in one post!

Puck loves it when it we bring out our snow gear!

All the books I've collected during this pregnancy.  Looking forward to getting more this weekend!

Wordless Wednesday: We haven't turned our heat on yet... so this is how I stay warm!

The most spoiled dog on the planet

I almost didn't publish this post because it just shows how spoiled our dog is.  Ever since he was neutered, he has loved sleeping on the bed with us.  As I progressively get more pregnant though, the pillows are increasing and poor Kyle is truly getting kicked off the bed.  I mean look at how much of the bed Tyson takes up!

On a side note, I've been laying on our air mattress downstairs to watch tv.  I can get in a comfortable position and it's much better than our couch.  WELL we had the bright idea of carrying it upstairs for Tyson to lay on at night, instead of our bed.  IT IS AMAZING.  We give him a blanket and pillows and he sleeps there all night long!

And a closer look:

We just might be investing in a single twin air mattress soon for Tyson to permanently sleep on, that can be stored underneath our bed!  I also have to show how Tyson travels now.  He has officially taken over my old body pillow--- oh my gosh he is so spoiled. 

Meet Finn!

Chris and Kathleen just picked up their new Vizsla puppy last week, who they named Finn (cutest name ever).  Oh man I just love puppies: their breath, their nibbles, their lanky runs and pouncing on everything, but most importantly cuddle time!  

Sunday night we brought over dinner and visited with K&C while playing with Finn!  Thanks for letting us come over, he's such a cutie!

Wordless Wednesday: Who says Kyle's not a cat person?

Update on Puck

So many of you have asked me about Puck so I thought I'd do an update from the awful accident that we had here. As if that wasn't traumatizing enough, more events happened over the next couple weeks that have just been exhausting.

Stressful situation #2. Since Kyle and I had to go to Raleigh the next weekend after the accident, we brought Puck with us. Kyle leaned over Puck one afternoon to give me a kiss and squished his tail with his hand. Puck went into a crazy adrenaline rush and was foaming at the mouth and screaming. Over the next couple seconds he managed to rip off his entire bandage to get to his wound. Kyle had to leave for the ASU alumni hockey game so my brother, Nick, and I held down Puck and taped the bandage back on... with electrical tape. That was the closest thing we could find and I honestly can't believe Nick was able to get it taped to his tail.

Here's his bandage on his way to Raleigh, before we had to electrical tape another one on:

Stressful situation #3. Kyle and I brought Puck back to the Vet that next week to get the bandage off and get his stitches out. The veterinarian was completely sarcastic and kept giving me a hard time for 1) closing Puck's tail in the door and 2) taping the bandage back on with electrical tape. Now honestly, DO YOU THINK I WANT TO BE MESSED WITH at this point? It is NOT the time for sarcasm buddy.

Puck's tail was rubbed raw from the electrical tape so he said to keep it in open air for a while and it would heal. He was about to leave and we said "well aren't we getting the stitches out today?". With a "sure", he reached in a drawer and got suture scissors out and started to dig out the stitches in Puck's tail. It. Was. Horrible. I get so nauseous when I see blood, so I immediately started shaking trying to hold Puck on the table. Kyle ended up holding his head and shoulders while I held Puck's body. The vet technician held his whipping tail. He finally got the stitches out, Puck stopped bleeding, we paid the bill and then headed home.

Stressful situation #4. We get home, and I carry the pet taxi upstairs. Once there I open up the carrier door and put Puck's Elizabethan collar on him (so he can't lick or irritate the wound). Not one second later Puck whips his tail into the wall and the end of his tail BUSTS open... blood everywhere... on our carpet might I add. I immediately start screaming Kyle's name while trying to catch Pucks tail. Blood is flying everywhere, and my hands are covered. Between Kyle and I we finally corral Puck back into the Pet Taxi and head straight to the vet. You should have seen their faces when we walked in not 5 minutes later with blood all over us.

The vet said that we had 2 options. 1) To bring Puck back home and put him in a room we don't care about and 2) board him there. SERIOUSLY who has a room that can get blood all over it? AND who could ever be okay with their Pet bleeding that much? (p.s. I thought we were going to have to replace our carpet but Kyle googled and found that Hydrogen Peroxide takes it right out!! It's a wonderful trick if you ever need it!)

Stressful situation #5. The vet was open until 9:00 that night, so we went by later to give Puck some loving and drop off his food. He was in a metal cage, completely drugged out (they gave him pain medicine because of everything he went through that day). Brought back so many memories from his 13 days in ICU at Quail Corners. I held it together to pet him a couple times and as soon as we got outside I just LOST IT.

We were leaving that next day for Cory and Mada's wedding in Charleston, SC so we decided to board him until that following Monday (Yes just add it to our tab).

Here's what his tail is looking like now. Noticeably shorter-- hopefully will look better once fur grows!

So if you actually made it to the end of this post now you know what we have been through with Pucky. His tail is healing up, growing back his fur and is back to his normal self. The things you go through for your "babies"...

Happy 4th Birthday Tyson!!

Can't believe our boy is 4 today! He is truly SUCH a great dog, I don't know what we'd do without him!

Wordless Wednesday: It's a bird, It's a plane... It's TYSON!

(one more time! one more time!)

Pucky

Sunday night around 9:30 pm we headed upstairs to get ready for bed. Puck was doing his normal "hungry routine" of running back and forth between the laundry room (where they get fed) and our bedroom (to tell us he's hungry.) Almost every night I close him in our room for a couple minutes so I don't have to hear him constantly meowing. Well this time when I slammed the door to keep him in our room, he decided to try and run out. His tail got caught in the door, but he kept running. I can't even explain the feeling that I had when I opened the door and saw the pile of fur with a little piece of his tail in it...

We rushed to the emergency vet clinic about a mile away from our house and they took Puck back immediately to check his vitals. (What's crazy is that Puck didn't even get that his tail was hurt, he kept running back upstairs to beg for his dinner). We waited in the vet for over 2.5 hours before the doctor came to talk to us. She finally came in and told us that Puck needed surgery to cut off the exposed vertebrae, which in essence would make his tail about 2 inches shorter than it normally was. We gave her the green light, then headed home to get about 2 hours of sleep before we could pick him up.
Kyle let me sleep (I have a cold and took NyQuil before everything happened) while he picked up Puck around 2:15 am. The surgery went very well. When they got home I sat in our bathroom with Puck for a while. He was so drugged he kept running into everything, and those Elizabethan collars are just terrible. I finally couldn't fight the NyQuil anymore and went back to sleep for 30 minutes. The next 4 hours were spent getting out of bed every 30 minutes or so-- trying to calm down Puck and putting his Elizabethan collar back on.
I ended up staying home on Monday to make sure Puck was okay and didn't try to take off the bandage (I have completely given up on making him wear the collar). We go back to the vet Tuesday afternoon to get his bandage changed, and then in 10 days to get the stitches out. After everything he has been through and now this, he definitely wins the award for 'toughest cat'. You can't imagine how terrible I feel that this happened, just one of those freak accidents that we'll be sure never happens again...

My little helper

Tyson LOVES routine... he's just like his mommy :)

Okay so here is the background... I always place things at the bottom of the stairs during the day that need to go to our room. We carry them up at night when it's time for bed. I started getting Tyson to carry something up every night... and he LOVES it. His tail wags so hard once he makes it upstairs-- so happy to have helped me. (Not to mention I act SO excited and praise him a lot once he makes it up there!)
One night I gave him my iphone, and he carried it gently in his mouth all the way upstairs. It seems to have stuck as he won't take ANYTHING else but my cell phone now. If I forget and start walking up before him, he runs a couple steps in front of me then blocks me from going up any further until I give him it. Absolutely hilarious, but the dog whisperer is right... DOGS LOVE HAVING JOBS!!!
(As you'll notice in the background of this picture is our lovely Elle proof landing. She actually hasn't peed AT ALL the past week and a half, and the only change is that Kyle is gone :( So I guess we know the problem haha. She's a girls girl!)

Wordless Wednesday: The animals have been filling up Kyle's space in the bed NO PROBLEM!

Wordless Wednesday: Tyson Art

(Okay so maybe this one won't be wordless. These drawings are from Kyle's bosses kids about Tyson! Their sweet family is always willing to watch Tyson for us when we go on vacation. They absolutely love him and we are so grateful! Thank you Nortons!)