Isa's Story

It was not what anyone would call an early start but it was an absolutely perfect day both for a road trip and for playing in the river. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do the two-hour drive to our favorite spot, there are plenty of excellent spots between  here and there. In the end it was so pretty I just kept driving – there are far worse things. And I am calling this a major victory in the “be more dog” category. My to-do list generally reigns supreme over my weekends.

So here are a couple of videos:

I went a little nuts with the video – I tried to restrain myself with what I posted and at least they’re short.

Oh that water was so, so cold! My feet hurt standing in it but eventually acclimated, give or take. Any idea I entertained of going for a swim myself disappeared quickly. Instantly. I’m not that tough.

A beautiful young GSD (quad) stopped by for a swim too. His human threw rocks for him to swim after … I stifled an inclination to smack the guy up-side his head. Isa watched for a while and started to swim to the splashes but lost interest when she saw there was nothing floating to bring back. It’s all about the successful return, whether ball or stick.

Isa had enough sense to get out when she got too cold. At the end of our stay, we just sat on the beach, side by side, and watched the water. Well, I watched the water. She insisted that since I was clearly not doing anything productive, I could scratch the important spots. She laid her head on my shoulder once or twice, buried her head under my chin. We sat that way until I realized she was shivering, poor thing. The wind had picked up and soaking wet was sub-optimum. So we loaded into the car and dried her off. Out of the wind, she was fine.

In Sally’s honor, we stopped for ice cream, then headed home. So close, so close to home and the tire went. I was able to get us to the shoulder, fortunately there was a shoulder, and call for help. I elected long ago to play the girl card and not change tires. Isa loved it, the cars whizzing by at a million miles an hour. Scares the daylights out of me. The only time she noticed anything going on was when the guy jacked the car up. She turned around at the movement but that was it. Never, ever, stopped smiling. She’s much better adjusted than I am but we knew that.

She was definitely sore on Sunday, grateful for some massage, and still very tired having missed nearly all of her Saturday naps. Sunday, while she got caught up on her naps, I went to the tire place and bought a new tire. Evidently the dead tire came off the rim in two pieces. I did a good job on that one!

So there you have it – a near-perfect dog day at the river.

Taking our cue from Meg-a-Star, a three-month ampuversary portrait was in order:

Our neighbors stopped by to say hello and got sucked into helping. This picture is damn near miraculous. We’re both looking at the camera, a certain party is NOT wiggling and it’s a decent picture of me. Who knew any of that was possible?

This is a nice one of her Halloween costume:

and this shows how we’re still waiting for her top coat to grow in:

gotta love that ruler-straight line!

All’s going well here (thank dog!) Happy Halloween!

Well my goofy girl has now bounced back from the last round of chemo. She greeted me at the door last night, bouncing. As in hopping up and down, both front legs off the ground. Not as high as when she was a quad but still. Has to be good for her core. She knows better than to jump up on people so this has always been her alternative to express her excitement.

Then we went on our longest walk to date, post amp. When I decided we should turn around, she sat down and refused to budge. I had to force her to turn around (as in physically lift her by the handle) and head home. For the record, I was right. She was toast by the time we got back to the house. And Wallee accompanied us for the entire walk.

Then later, after dinner, we had a good tug of war session. Something she’s not been interested in since long before diagnosis.

As a side note, when I talked to the vet yesterday about the additional chemo, he said they were so used to Isa being around the office all the time (there’s an understatement), he didn’t know how they’d handle her absence and that I should give her a pet for him. The irony is last week, while we were waiting for them to take her back for chemo, the vet walked through the lobby to talk to another client. Isa took one look at him and headed for the door, stuck her nose in the crack between the door and the jamb, willing it to open so she could make her escape. He may be fond of her but it would appear the feeling is most definitely not mutual. Cracked me up.

So there you have it – good news! Something I know is always welcome around here.

Peace

Purely for entertainment value.

This is the present/bribe my sister brought when she was visiting last week. Look at the size of that bad boy, it’s as big as her head! She was so happy – for a while. It was a little too rich for her and upset her tummy so she only gets possession for little bits of time now.

Her Halloween costume! She’s hard to photograph – never holds still long enough. The blurry one is a better shot of the wings. The look on her face in the other – once again I am judged insane. I have wandered through the Halloween pictures here on the site and she really should count her blessings. It could be sooo much worse!

This is from four or so years ago, when we first moved to New Mexico.

She does love her pillows. And clearly, looking at her expression, my insanity issues are long-standing.

This is us at the Rio Grande about a month before her amp. Best thing in the world playing with the ball in the river! She loves to drop it into the current and watch it flow downstream. We’ve lost any number of balls that way. She also jumped out the (parked) car window on this trip, she was so excited to be at the river again.

She’s doing well. I cancelled our rehab appointment for Wednesday so I need to get us moving with the new place. And it looks like her elbow is starting to heal and harden up. So we’ve got that going for us.

Happy Monday!