Frankenweenie

It has become apparent that Dante has 37 lives.  He is a walking syndrome and we have taken to calling him the "golden dog" not because he is special in a gifted way but because at this point..he might as well be made out of gold.  Again, he became very ill a few weeks ago.  He wasn't moving, he wasn't eating and on Sunday a large mass popped up on his face.  We took him to the vet on Monday and they suspected either a tooth abscess or cancer.  Now let me say..Dante has horrible teeth..BUT we have gotten him a dental every 12-16 months for the last 6 years.  The last one was in January.  Bad breeding and poop eating has made his mouth  very difficult indeed.  So we suspected cancer, but they couldn't do an oral exam b/c his MMM/arthritis of the jaw make him unable to open his mouth fully without pain.  So we took him back on Wednesday for sedation, Xrays, dental, etc.  The end result..8 teeth removed, 2 large abscesses drained and no cancer found.  Now we have a very unhappy doxie with a mouth full of sutures and very few teeth.  The trick will be now to keep him from getting the incisions infected (a  month of antibiotics should help).  This was right when we got home..

 I want to get a photo of his mouth..but he his having no part of that now.  It looks like meatloaf right now.  And he is a 'whiner' so ..we are hearing ALLLL about it right now.  Pain meds are his friend. But he is eating great, acting like 'normal' and his face is no longer swollen.  We took note from the Park's when they had a lot of pills to give and now Dante's are organized for easy administration

We've had a few boarders over the last few weeks.  There was obviously a brindle meeting on the couch..Leelu, Cali and Belle

Jack hung out with us for a few days as well.  He is young and loves to chase his ball.  It was so hot that we didn't have a lot of energy to it much.

And I call this photo.."why we love greyhounds"  Tybalt gives us THE eye

It was very hot yesterday but I noticed a bubble floating by my window..when I investigated I found my neighbor blowing bubbles for her Boston Terrier, Bruin. Bruin is a good dog and has a lot of energy. So I captured some of his love of bubbles.

He was nuts over those bubbles.  

And it seems I have been ending my blog with tributes a lot lately..but two very special hounds passed away recently.  

We have watched Amy for 6 years and have become friends with her owners. She always held a special place in our heart.  She stayed here a few weeks ago and osteo had a very firm grip on her.  Her family let her go this week.  I took this photo while she was with us..we will miss her a lot.

We also lost our god-dog Jaime..she was such a trooper after her amputation from osteo.  I remember helping Kristen pick her up from her prior home and knowing she was going no where.  We spent 4 Beach Bound Hound trips snuggled in the bed and countless sleepovers with the Parks.  We will miss you, dear Jaime.

 Jason leaves for England this Saturday. I will go see him in late August but he wont' see Cali (except over Skype of course!)for over 7 weeks.  I'm not sure who will take it harder...

A Milestone

I'm very late in posting this but I wanted to get the vacation posts out of the way. But on June 11, 2013..Shane turned 14 years old.  I think that is a big deal.  I honestly don't know a whole lot about his first 13 years. But I do know more than I care too about the last 4..and they certainly were not good..deplorable actually.
So we figure this was his best birthday in a long, long time.  And to have a greyhound reach 14..that is something!
So Happy Birthday, Shane (belated).  He is a good boy with a great personality.  I wish he'd have had more of opportunities to be a "Meet and Greet" dog before his back legs became too weak to stand for too long.  He really does love attention!
So we are happy to have spent this birthday with him!  We think we've managed to shove in a lot of "the good life" for him in the last 6 months...

Happy Birthday, Shane!

Maine-ly Subarus

Two things were oddly noteworthy from our trip to Maine.  One, the sheer number of Subarus.  Not just a lot..but everyone owned one.  Easily two out of every 3 cars was a Subaru..and generally a newer one.  So we felt at home!  Also, the number of businesses who used the "Maine-ly" title.  Maine-ly used cars, Maine-ly sweaters, Maine-ly yarn, etc.  It became comical.
But..to continue out trip north!
Our first stop was Pemaquid Point and Lighthouse.  When planning, I had assumed this would be our least favorite. But it was by far the most fun.  The tide was out and there were rocks to climb on.  I don't know why we become 'rock climbers' on vacation.  But we do..find a rock..climb it.

 We went to the top of the lighthouse.  You can see the rocks that will be conquered.

 And then a look from that far point back towards the lighthouse

 We were climbing fools.

 It was beautiful from that vantage point however
Then we went to Marshall Point lighthouse which is famous for being featured in Forrest Gump.  It was the 'end' of the East coast run for him.  They had a book showing the filming and such.  It was neat

 The lighthouses were all run by volunteers, so we were able to chat with them.  The final lighthouse was Rockpoint which had a long breakwater.  I will be honest..we were exhausted by this time. so we walked a little ways..but it was too far!  It was still pretty!  That is the lighthouse on the right (white dot) and the rock in the center of the photo has a sea lion basking on it.

Then we hit our final destination. Hartstone Inn in Camden, Maine. 

 Camden is a very cute little "mayberry' type town.  It was just a block away from our Inn so we walked around a bit.

 

Mayberry with a harbor

But we made it back in time for evening cocktail hour!

 The next day we were supposed to take a boat ride on the schooner Surprise.  But Hurricane/Tropical Depressioin Andrea had different ideas.  it wasn't raining, but the seas were too rough.  But I had chatted with the captains a while, so they asked us to come visit the boat and hang out a bit. 

We had a little more time to kill so we drove up to the top of Mt. Battie. it is the tallest 'hill' in Camden and allows great views.

 That afternoon, Jason participated in the Chef for a Day with Chef Michael Salmon.  This is WHY we did this trip.  Chef Michael is a great chef who opens his kitchen up to anyone who'd like to learn.  So Jason spent the afternoon cooking for the evening's dinner.  This Inn is ranked in the top 10 fine dining B&B's in the world and top 10 overall B&Bs in the USA.  So he was very excited.

 

 The kitchen was small but there were 2 sous chefs, the head chef and Jason in it.  I snuck in and out and took photos.

One of the sous chefs talks to Jason about making the perfect risotto.

Dueling whisks

I was so busy taking photos, I didn't even notice they were offering me a taste of the dessert.  I found this photo and laughed.  I guess we were both in our elements!

 I love this photo.  All four chefs busily working.  Jason spent 1PM-5PM with the team making a wonderful dinner.  They were all super nice.  Chef Michael is a great person with a lot of patience. 

 After a shower, we had dinner.  A bad slice of quiche at lunch prevented me from enjoying it completely...but I was very proud of him! 

 The next day we went north to Acadia National Park with a stop for lunch in Bar Harbor.  The Tropical Depression had hit and the weather was less than desirable. So we really didn't see much.  We want to go back so we can see more..this park would have been incredible on a pretty day.  The one place that was photo worthy was "Thunder Hole".  on the other side of the railing is a 'hole' that the waves hit and makes a loud clap.

 More Rocks!  So wish the sky was blue!

 the weather was perfect for 'wave watching'..so we just sat on the rocks and enjoyed the crashing waves.  All the other lookouts were blocked by fog/clouds. 

Thunder hole

If you are ever in Camden and want an excellent Inn run by wonderful, caring people..go to Hartstone Inn.  We rarely/if never stay the same place twice or even go back to the same place..but we have plans to go back here and see more of the area. 

 This was our 'big' vacation of the year beyond a few long weekends at greyhound events.  But in a strange twist, Jason will be going to Chester, England for 7 weeks (August/September). So suddenly, I'm planning a vacation to England and Scotland in August.I feel sure Cali will go in to a terrible funk without Jason around for so long.  But we did get a lot of practice last year with holding down the fort while he was away for weeks at a time. But this will be the longest.  But very exciting!!