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October 7th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in UncategorizedMad Duck Disease!!
August 31st, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in PennyI have been swimming in the pond way too long with Penny. If you could see how infested the pond is with all things duck, and duck related, you would understand my comment. The only saving element is that there is water running into the pond.:-)
We tried to get Penny a big sister. I have “friended” Dog Deserve Better ~ WA chapter on FaceBook. They rescue dogs confined in small spaces and / or chained up ~ they do amazing work and find homes for these poor abused animals. There was one particular dog who really tugged at my heart strings. Her name is Gracie, and she lived in a pen, on a concrete slap, in the middle of a car scrapyard for 8 years. Only green water and mouldy bread to eat. She looked just like Monty…his same open face & trusting eyes. I just wanted to bring her home and spoil her rotten.
Our thinking was that an older dog would be a more mature influence for Penny, and not allow her to spazz off like she does. Gracie is experiencing her first ever “puppyhood”…which is totally awesome for her but a little too dangerous for our fragile girl. It was very sad because they totally took to each other big time & would have been a perfect match. Penny totally outdid herself, and Ed & I watched with our hearts in our mouths, waiting for the scream that accompanied the last time she ran and turned. Thank goodness it did not happen!! but we cut the date short when she started limping. Her hip displasia was very obvious watching her with the other dogs, and all her movements are aimed at getting her rear end & legs out of their way. Very sad!
Too soon, we think for a canine sibling…for her & us. Sad though coz Gracie is just the sweetest.
Us Girls ~ Tuffy & Penny hanging:-)
Things are moving along…slowly….
August 19th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Penny, SommerPilates and TRX are going well, as is the cycling. Still not losing weight but I think I may be eating too little calories…am on +-1200..so am looking in to that. It should be about calories in & calories expended but my body never does things the simple way. Still trying to do the vegan…the fruit part is easy and I have been experimenting with different veg. Poor Ed.:-) He has had 3 different versions of cauliflower in as many days! But the normal one in cream, cheese sauce has not & will not make it to the table. I have also been making Penny’s treats, which has been going down really well.
Her swimming at Aquadogspa is going great, but she does not like to be be massaged. Cindy says it is because her muscles are so knotted up from the stress of compensating for the non-working hips. Poor thing. We are hoping the more swimming she does, the stronger the muscles will get & the more she will enjoy the massage.
To that end, we are now swimming most days in the pond at Earthworks Park. The ducks don’t seem at all perturbed by Penny’s present and she is fascinated by them…but not enough to get too close to them though. She doesn’t like it when they suddenly turn around and started swimming to her in mass..lol:-)
Swiming in the pond!:-)
Starting from scratch…AGAIN! Sigh
August 8th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Penny, Running, SommerSo here we are…August 2010..I am still NOT a vegetarian, or a raw foodie, or a runner, or allergy free, or any thinner! Admittedly the vegan thing was thrown off the rails when my family came to visit from South Africa, as was the sugar thing..well, really the food restriction thing in general!:-) but things are slowly getting back to normal now, and I am slowly climbing back on the wagon!
Ed announced last weekend that he wants to ride the Seattle -To-Portland ride next year! I nearly fainted. When I had suggested we put down a century [100 miles in one day] on our Bucket List for 2011, he had laughed in my face….and how we are a few months later, and he is announcing to all on FaceBook that we are going to do 2 centuries and a bit, over a weekend next July!! Holy crappola! But then yesterday we canned our ride because it was “raining”…yip, STP here we come! Ha!:-)
Penny is doing ok since her final x ray. Her back hips & back legs are clearly damaged, and the hip dysplasia is very visible from behind. It is very sad. So I got her in to a physio program at AquaDogSpa [http://www.aquadogspa.com/index.htm] up the road from our house. She swims in a small heated pool, and Cindy massages and manipulates her atrophied hind legs, in the water, between swim laps. The first session was very stressful but now she is getting the hang of it, and even chasing her toys in the water.:-) I think it is going to help strengthen her back half & hopefully prevent futher injury…Let’s hop it works!
Massage with Cindy
Swimming & chasing her toy!
Happy Dog:-)
July Update
July 27th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Penny, SommerOnce the half marathon & Penny’s 4 week x-ray were done, it was a mad dash to clean the house for my family!! and trust me it took elbow grease & time ~ 2 cats, 1 bunny, 1 dog & 2 humans make a lot of mess!! Holy cow!!:-)
My sister Bev, my bro-in-law, Hannes, their twin sons, Blaine & Clinton, and Clinton’s better half, Shelley, arrived on June 30th! It was AWESOME & of course Penny thought everyone was here for her!! We left the next day for Lake Tahoe & had a wonderful 4th July up there.
At the beach for 4th July fireworks - it got really cold!
Sunset
Really cold!!
Penny loved having so many people to love on! We were really worried that she was overdoing it & that her 8 week xrays would be bad.
"I own them:-)"
Then time was up and the twins & Shel had to go back to London.:-(
We headed up to Canada, and had a wonderful time in Victoria & Vancover. Hannes especially loved the seaplanes ~ next time we will actually get him in one!!
Back home for a couple of days and then we had to say goodbye to Bev & Hannes.
@ the South American restaurant, when dessert arrived!:-)
Winter Olympic symbol 2010
Penny had her 8 week x-rays on 21 July, and the result was “good”. What a relief….she really had pushed her luck when the family was here, so we were really worried!
So now we start physio in the form of leashed walks for the next few months.
And we start saving for “Juba’s 60th Brithday Bash ~ South Africa 2012″! lol:-) Hopefully we would have paid off this vacation by then.:-)
"Pink drinks"
June Update
July 24th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Penny, RunningWow, time sure has gone by fast! I won’t bore you with the details but here is a quick catch-up:
Penny passed her 4 week x-rays & so we were able to make plans to leave her with our Dog Sitter, Linda, [http://www.luvpetslife.com/], for the 4th July weekend, when we were going up to Lake Tahoe. We were worried about her being home alone with the fireworks, so Linda picked her up every evening & she spent the night there. Don’t know what we would do without Linda!
It was not easy keeping a 1 year old puppy entertained for 8 weeks, in the house. Yes, her birthday came & went, and along with it about 4 stuffed dog toys…sigh. The 8 weeks of house arrest were very expensive indeed, and that is not including the surgery & x-rays!
Dead birthday toy #1!
Then it was half marathon time! I had stopped going to Pilates just after Penny broke her knee, as my right knee was not a happy camper ~ sympathy knee!!:-) Plus Penny & I were, of course, no longer walking for 2 hrs a day, and so the fat just started piling on.
By 26th of June, I had serious concerns about my knees making it through 13.2miles, [hell, my whole body!]without medical intervention. Instead of being lean & trim, I was fat and flabby! But we did it, and made it in under the cutoff ~ and have photos and medals to prove it! Am super proud. However, the goal of a marathon by January seems really far fetched now.:-)
"trying to sleep"
With Ed @ the starbucks stand +-2 miles before the end.
My medal!:-)
Sunglasses & Running
July 24th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in RunningWritten 13 June….
So today I went to the cheap place…..and I found a couple that would work for my normal but they had an extremely limited sunglasses line. Mainly those huge filmstar, cover half thy face, kind. Nothing sporty, with grips or anything.
So then we went to a slightly more upmarket place. Frames tripled but so did the lenses. I found a pair of Ray Bans for normal wear, and a pair of Maui Jims…actually a nicer pair for $159, and a pair of Oakleys flak jackets that I TOTALLY fell for…also round $159.:-) But then we started on the lenses…and the medical aid only pays for the basic lenses, and of course their lenses started at 4 times above that! So we left.
Then I went online, thinking I’d just order them there @ cheaper, and be done with it….but that doesn’t work either. I don’t know my face size and for some reason my PD which is 30, is not an option.The sunglasses are the most crucial as they are a script over 5yrs & my regular glasses are 3 yrs. Try explaining to a 20yr old that you need frames that take away attention from how bad your skin is, but needs to be big enough to hide the wrinkles at the corner of the eyes! lol and then mention you need “sports” sunglasses coz you cycle and run!lol:-)
Ahh, the good old days when my friend Mish, would say ,”Nope those look crap…yes, those are great”! 
When I didn’t have to worry about having a little color to deflect the redness of the veins n my skin!! Or looked for sunglasses that were trending as opposed to ones that would hug my face dripping in sweat!! lol
Ed got these online for me for under $300!!:-)
2 Weeks in, 6 to go!
June 8th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Penny, SommerSo we are two weeks in to Penny’s blown knee ordeal. TWO very long ass weeks & 18 days since she actually injured herself. House arrest is pulling a number on both of us, big time! Her because she cannot understand why she cannot play or go outside. Me, because I don’t have to go for an hour walk everyday & actually LEAVE the house!:-) I never realised before how much that long walk every day saved my sanity!:-) She has been super sweet though considering she is only 11 months old, and has a ton of energy! Her stitches come out tomorrow, but we will still be under house arrest until the 23rd, when she gets her x-rays. Hopefully the x-rays will show that the pins and wire are still in the correct place & that everything is healing according to plan.
We were outside doing some business, when I ran in to answer the phone [wrong number ~ go figure], and in literally 30 seconds, she had a mud bath!!!
"Mud?? No, I ain't seen no mud!"
"It was the bunny...she throw mud down & I stepped in it!!"
"Umm, it's chocolate round my mouth..."
Ed is really good at playing on the floor with her, so that she doesn’t jump, run or use her back legs. The couches are turned to face the walls, so she cannot jump on them, so a normal evening in our house, is all 3 of us lying on the floor!:-) We are so weird!lol:-)
My Uncle Ron, in Liverpool, fell a few weeks back and fractured his hip. then last week, he slipped in the hospital bathroom and fractured his back. The poor man has had nothing but heartache and pain for the last few years & he is the nicest man in the world. Please keep him, my Aunty Marge, who is in the Alzheimer facility, and my Cousin Sharon, who is looking after both of them, in your thoughts and prayers.
Penny Update
May 31st, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in PennySo we are one week & one day into the 8 week ordeal! I swear we both have whiter hair, but Penny is still blond!:-)
She popped the Elizabethan collar on our rose bush, so we promptly went out and got her a bigger one ~ did not go down well.! Then we discovered…shock & horror, that she can still reach her stitches. She contorts her body in such a way that her leg stretches over her head…bingo! And the latest one this morning ~ pretend to be cleaning your privates, then casually head to the stitches! So we now have a cone for her…its a nice one, not one of those huge plastics things, but a soft material one. Even more unimpressed.
The only good thing to come out of this, is a kind of friendship with the cats. Well, mainly with Tuffy, who loves to make sure everyone is ok, and she now comes & sits downstairs and watches. Unfort. as soon as she moves, so does Penny & then it is a chess match until Tuffy makes a run for it!!
Tuffy & I
The river where it happened:
Green River, Auburn
Exploring...1 minute before I blew my knee
Dad took this one on the beach as it happened.:-( Such a nice beach!
Just before surgery!
I have been sleeping with her every night, to make sure she doesn’t move much. Plus I have to get her in and out to go potty. She is not allowed to move fast or put any pressure on the leg at all. Easier said than done!!
Saturday & Sunday nights, Ed slept down here with her!!! First time in all these years that he has done that for one of our animals…in his defense, Scott used to do it with me, so there was no need for Ed to volunteer! But how wonderful to get two nights of sleep in my own bed! THANK YOU, THANK YOU OH WONDERFUL & AMAZING HUSBAND!!
Knee Surgery….
May 26th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in PennyPenny had her knee surgery today. They put in 2 metal pins and a wire. Plus +-25 stitches…poor baby! She is calm at the moment…a little gassy & vocal from all the morphine. So stitches out in 2 weeks…6-8 weeks of NO running, playing, couches, stairs, socialising or any excitement what so ever! Yip, like that is going to work with an 11 month old puppy! Going to be a long summer!
Front and back legs shaved
Ouch!
Morphine eyes
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