Homemade dog cookies

We made cookies for the dogs from a recipe on a book that I got as a gift for Christmas. We even got a bone shaped cookie cutter to make it more fun.

The Furminator

We purchased a new brush called the Furminator. Besides the funny name, it works pretty well.

Christmas gifts

I got an awesome Democracy Now care pack for Christmas.

 
Coffee, fun coffee cups and books!!! It doesn't get any better.

Bedroom changes

Well, we are starting a new project to change the bedroom. We are going to get rid of the current closet, build a walk-in closet on the other side of the room and move the door of the bedroom down the hall to leave the bathroom inside the master bedroom.

Christmas Dinner

We spent Christmas alone at home this year and cooked a nice meal.

Snowy for Christmas!!!

Despite the weather forecast, we are going to have snow for Christmas!

Our side of the hill is completely covered in snow. We had to shovel our way to the truck.

The neighborhood is all snowed in. The major roads around us are okay, but our streets is pretty rough.

I chained up the truck and went for groceries. It was fun driving in the snow!!

Negrita could enjoy the snow, but Sammy had to stay inside because we cannot take the risk of him getting hurt during the surgery recovery.

Still snowed in

I got out for a walk today to take some pictures. The streets around look drivable, but our driveway and our street is pretty bad. There's ice over soft and compacted snow on the streets. I might try going out for a drive later, but all chained up.

Snow in Portland

Today we woke up and found a lot of snow!

We took the dogs out to the backyard. They had a lot of fun, although poor Sammy couldn't roll in the snow as he wanted.

    

Dinner benefit for Iraq Veterans Against the War

We hosted a dinner for the Iraq Veterans Against the War. It was very nice and the food was excellent. We got to talk to our friends about the group and share the DVD sent to us with them.

I got the Steelcase chair

The chair arrived today and it's as good as I expected. I don't know why I waited so long to get it.

The packaging was very good and the chair was fully assembled. So, I took it out of the box and started using it immediately.

Sammy is doing better

Finally Sammy is doing better! He is sleeping more than 3 hours at a time, and so are we. He is still dealing with the elizabethan collar hitting my legs all day.



He does not seem to have any pain and the scar is healing very well. His hair is growing back, which is unfortunately contributing to the itching and discomfort. Only one more week and we are taking the collar off.

First night at home after surgery

Today is Sammy's first night at home after his TPLO surgery. He is still a little weird, but he's doing fine. He doesn't want to pee and he hasn't eaten anything, except for the hot dog we gave him with the pills he has to take.

His leg is pretty swollen and bruised, but it's normal after the surgery he had.

Today is also his first night in the crate we got for him. Until now, only La Negra has slept in it, but just because she loves the bed we used as padding for it.

Sammy back at home!

Today we got Sammy back. He is at home and doing great. He is not as sleepy as we saw them the night before the surgery, but he is still under a lot of medication.

We already made a chart to keep track of all the medicine we have to give him for the next week, and some for the rest of the 8-week recovery.

He has to wear a plastic collar to prevent him from licking his leg and get an infection. We also got a sling that we have to use under his belly to prevent him from making any sudden movement or stress effort with his leg. He is so good that we are going to barely need the sling, but it is very convenient and safe to move him around in case he slips or if he has to go up or down steps.

This is going to be a learning experience, but the result is going to be Sammy having fun and running in the yard again, so it will be all worthwhile.

Sammy's surgery day

This morning around 8 AM the technician called me from the clinic to let me know that Sammy was already being prepared for the surgery which should take place soon. The entire process takes 3 to 4 hours, so they would call me around noon to let me know how everything went. The informed me that Sammy slept well and he was doing great so far.

At noon, they called me back and let me know that the surgery went perfectly and Sammy was already in recovery. Sammy would be ready for a visit later, but they wanted us to check before going to visit him.

Around 7 PM I called to see if Sammy was ready for a visit, but they let me know that he was very sleepy still. So, based on our experience the day before, we decided to leave him alone, so he did not have to be taken out of his cage for us to see him in the visiting room. They told us that he was doing great and that they will take care of him during the night for him to be comfortable.

Visited Sammy at the clinic

Around 5 PM, I received a call from the clinic letting me know that they have already taken the x-rays they needed for the surgery. The excellent news was that they didn't need to put Sammy under anesthesia to do the x-rays because he behave perfectly just with some sedatives. I was so proud of my awesome dog!!!

At 7 PM, Julie, La Negra and I went to visit Sammy at the clinic. He was all drugged up and was falling asleep all the time. They took him to a visiting room where we could hang out with him, so I felt a little bad for disturbing him while he was already under medication. At least, he got to smell us one more time to be able to have a good and normal night at the clinic.

The surgery is tomorrow sometime during the morning. They are going to call to let us know how everything is going.

Getting ready for Sammy's surgery

Today we took Sammy to the clinic to do the blood work and x-rays to see if everything's okay for Friday's surgery.

I went there in the morning at 11 AM, we waited for a while and then in 15 minutes they got the blood for the analysis. I took La Negra with us, so Sammy would be more relaxed, so the three of us went to have lunch and use a free wi-fi access for me to check email and give work an update.

After lunch, we came back to the clinic. Around 3 PM, the technician met us and let me know that Sammy's blood work and chest x-rays show that he is in perfect health and ready for the surgery.

I left Sammy at the clinic, because they had to give him anesthesia to take the x-rays on the leg that they need for the surgery.