Happy Gorgeous Fall!

Oh what a health scare we have had! One should never be too congratulatory about the awesome shape that one's dogs are as they advance in age. It's a known Chinese superstition never to brag about your own health. Miss Thistle at 13 was doing awesome, but we do have to remember that there is always the possibity that the cancer that was visible in her spleen could manifest elsewhere, and also that chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) can lead to other problems later in life, even when it is under control (as it has been for the past three years). Well, it seems she had another very bad flareup last week, so bad that I even prepared to say goodbye. She had horrible watery poopsplosions, she could not keep food down. We took her to the urgent care vet on duty, and her bloodwork came back with no red flags. The markers for IBD weren't elevated. They also did an ultrasound to make sure that there was no blockage. She had actually been due for an ultrasound to follow up on the cancer thing, and yup, no tumors, so yay? But why was she doing so poorly then? Anyway, she was put on IV fluids with anti-emitics, as well as gut motility drugs, and kept overnight. The next morning, they called and said she had eaten some food, so if she kept it down that afternoon, we could bring her home. She did, and we did. From there, she has been kept on this suite of drugs:

And gradually recovering her strength, as she continued to eat and keep it down. At first she would only eat salmon and rice:

But after a few days, I was able to blend some of her regular kibble in. The vet also gave us some canned foods to try, but she was back on kibble before we bothered. Look! Shiny bowl!

And her turds have been solid, and she's comfy again:

And her seesters hang out with her:

And she wants to take her spot with the other sous-chefs again:

Mmmmm bok choy stemz!!

Yeeeeesh bok choy stemz!!

We love bok choy stemz!!

Look! I, too, fit on this couch!

Mornings lately have been beautiful!

Until today, I kept Miss Thiss to shorter walks, and then we continued on without her. It's very weird. She is our leader, and we feel rudderless without her. :( But the other girls need more exercise:

Gorgeous morning light:

Today, Fall's beauty seems to have exploded:

Raven sometimes pesters me for an afternoon walk, and lately the other two girls have been joining as well. Today, Queen Thistle also wanted to come, so she must be feeling quite a bit better!

Happy gorgeous fall!

Embark Results

I never thought I'd care much about my dogs' breeds, and I still don't, but I was really curious about Raven, the village mutt. So I so did an Embark test, and here is what it came back as:

I am only surprised that she has no Alaskan husky, but the rest matches her appearance and personality! There is also this good news:

She's a really great mutt! :)

And a cuddly one, too. I was pretty impressed with the Embark profile. It also pinged her color (said she was very likely to be black and almost certain to be solid colored), her size (said she was between 45-55 pounds, which pretty much nailed it), her coat type (they said not long and not short, which is exactly correct), and that she had rear dew claws! Amazing. Anyway, here is a squeezy photo. We went to visit DL at his lab, and a colleague who is also a Sirius volunteer was there and snapped this. Sweet girl!