Hills and Valleys

Life is full of hills and valleys.  We are currently in a valley but I know it will only be temporary.  Jason is home after a few weeks in Charlotte.  I am happy he is home as we definitely handle the rough patches better together.  They are doing a scan on his mom this coming week to determine how the chemo is working.  She has been through two rounds so hopefully we will know more shortly. 
While he was gone, I watched my mom's Shih Tzu, Truflz.  He is a funny looking dog...

While thinking about this blog post, I came across that photo and it made me laugh.  You take what you can get these days!!
My uncle was diagnosed with multiple myelonoma early February.  But after a long struggle in the hospital he was in rehab and doing relatively well.  Until the Streptococcus infection that hit last week.  The hospital can do nothing more for him and he is moving home in to hospice care.  I hope to be able to get to my parents' house sometime soon to see him. Definitely an example of life being too short.

And if that weren't enough, Shiloh had another attack of pancreatitis and stopped eating again. She is still only nibbling but hopefully we will pull her through this one again.
And Henry's hemangiosarcoma came back last week and one of his tumors burst. Jason found him literally in a pool of blood.  I rushed him to the vet on Friday afternoon and since they can't do full surgery, they cauterized it and put a pressure bandage on it.

I think it looks like he has on Spanx.  But this only lasted about 36 hours, he pulled it off after it bled through.  I re-wrapped it and will take him in on Monday to get it removed.  It is amazing to see how much blood this little tumor can produce..we never photograph it b/c honestly it is traumatic.  Even the vet and techs were astounded as blood pooled while we were trying to stop it.  And it wont' stop ..the cancer cells make sure of that! So we have ot remove it..we just 'hope' they continue to only be cutaneous.
I hope to get back in to the photography mood soon.  I know things will get better and healthier times are ahead. 
The fur kids have definitely been great therapists for me..

sorry for the downer post.  We have a lot of fun stuff ahead..the sun will come out tomorrow!  forever the optimist. ;-)

When the puppies attack

It has been a pretty normal Spring..laying in the sunshine.

Attending local festivals like Easter on Parade in our fancy hats

Driving to wine festivals in a Porsche caravan (fellow greyhound owner Bob travels with us in his Caymen S)

Stopping to smell the flowers at a local Southern States Earth day celebration

And then the puppies arrived..1 year old Petey and 9 month old Sakura were in the same yard for the first time.  True meaning of puppy power.
Petey has enough energy to run a small country alone

 But add Sakura..

 Of course, Cali can't stand dogs having fun without her..so she joins in

 The puppies played for hours..it just made all of us tired watching them!  We are also watching my mom's Shih Tzu, Trufflz.  Luckily, he is 10 years old so prefers to sit back and watch even though he maintains a permanent bed head.

Jason came home briefly but went back to Charlotte this morning to help his mom through the second round of chemo.  He will probably be there about two weeks.  For good or bad, this is a busy time of year for me so I will be able to keep Cali busy while he is gone.