My day with Kathryn!

I took Miss Kathryn to the zoo last week (Alex had duty so he missed out!) She was so funny- and such a ham for the camera! Dressed to a T- Head to toe PINK... all picked out by her- despite Jon trying to convince her otherwise! We did circles between the barnyard and inside the barn for about an hour! She told me all about the Flamingos, talked with the owls, and playing in the wishing well! Then she used her cute face and we ate lunch in the cafe! We both had a lot of fun!

getting back to normal

Ned is healing up nicely! He is now allowed short leashed walks! It's not much... but it's something! He is still not using his leg fully, the walks are supposed to help build up the muscle that he's lost so that it's easier and more comfortable. He's definitely feeling better and wanting to go-go-go- 3-legged! But all in all he's been really great through all of this! We're still carrying him up and down the stairs- and are looking forward to his recheck with the surgeon in 2 weeks!

Fun in the sun!

Last weekend was gorgeous! We spent all day Sunday outside in the sun!
We have some fabulous trees in the yard that are all flowers right now!

Fresh Veggies!

We've planted a veggie garden!
We've wanted one for a while now- but with the dogs and our limited sun space we never got around to it. So the other weekend we moved all of our calla's and other plants from one of the few spots that get sun all day and planted out vegetables! We've got a bunch of different kinds of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, leeks, green beans, carrots, sugar snap and snow peas! Everything is still small.... but definitely growing!Mr. Ned was LOVING being out in the sunshine! (Hanna stayed up in the shade!) He seems to have adopted this corner of the garden! We've only planted small ground cover there- so hopefully it will survive!

Ned's knarly scar!

Hanna stays right by his side- and has been pretty protective!

He seems to be doing better today- more alert- still uncomfortable though, but he has started walking around a little bit. He's definitely milking it for all its worth!

We're Back!

So Ned, Hana and I made it back from Redding this afternoon. Turns out that the Doc out there says Ned didn't actually tear his ligament, but was having an issue that his knee (cap?) would dislocate when it was fully extended. He said its fairly common in little dogs but pretty rare in larger breeds, but happens due to injury which makes sense with us thinking he hurt it initially in the snow.

On the up side the surgey he ended up doing wasn't as invasive or expensive (still more then our tax return) as the TTA we were originally planning on; but he'll still be confined/restricted to doing nothing for at least 3 weeks.

We'll see how hes doing tommorrow morning but as of tonight he's been passed out but otherwise doing well.

Saying Good-bye to Our Tax Return!!!

So about a week ago Ned finally went completely lame in his left rear leg thats been bothering him. He now puts near zero weight on it and hops around on three legs instead. Funny thing is he's still almost as quick and agile on three legs when he wants to be (and we aren't looking to yell at him). The vet confirmed that he now displays the "drawer sign" which is a test for a torn craniate cruciate ligament (CCL) which is the canine equivalent of the ACL in humans. He also told us that the standard surgery he does wouldn't be a good choice due to Ned's size/strength/activity level and refered us out to see a specialist for a different type of surgery.

It turns out that in the dog knee surgery world there are two main types of surgery's that work for a dog like Ned, and there is HUGE debate as to which type is better for the dogs (both cost $2.5-3K). One is called TPLO (you can search if you want the full name) and the other is TTA, both involve physically cutting the bone of the knee to realign the bio-mechanics to remove the shear force that normally goes to the CCL and place that force on something else. TPLO cuts the top of the bone (tibia I believe) and turns it to realign the force down the load bearing structure of the bone, and a huge plate is put in to hold the bone together. The TTA cuts the very front tibia just behind the patella tendon (the big one that attaches to the quads) and moves it foward slighlty with a small plate/cage to hold it in its new position but doesn't affect the load bearing portion of the leg. This removes the shear force by alligning it with the forces already on the tendon and quads.

After much research and hemming and hawing Nell and I decided to go to the only vet in driving distance that does the TTA type. We have an appointment Wensday with surgery the same day if Ned is indeed a candidate (if his knee isn't a gd candidate we'll be forced to do TPLO). We'll be taking donations for the "Don't let Ned go Insane" fund following the surgery. Doggey biscuits/stuffed kongs/chew toys or anything that will keep him (and us) sane for the follow-on 4-6+ weeks of home kenneling, confinement, & activity restriction that he'll go through will be received with glee.

Thats about all thats new out here, hopefully Ned recovers well and quickly so we can enjoy spring and summer when it hits.

Nevada side of Tahoe

This past weekend we got to go back to Tahoe! Twice in about a months time!- Nice! This time, however, we were on the Nevada side- in Incline Village! Charlotte's boss owns a house there and let us use it for the weekend! It was fabulous! and it was really great to get to see C & B again (and Matt too!)
Alex and I left Thursday night and stopped at Bobby's place in San Fran. Went out with him and Steve for some awesome sushi! Then got up early (although I was not ready as early as Alex would have liked!... oops) to drive out and get some skiing in before we met up with everyone! We went to Alpine Meadow's and the view of the Lake from the top was awesome!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out- having some drinks- and making good food! Saturday was beautiful so we headed up to Mt Rose and did some snow-shoeing!These airplane seats were in our room! Stuart like planes!Diego ready to brave the rain.... or stay in my jeep and not come out! LOLThe drive home took us 10 hours!! it decided to switch from rain in the AM to snow about the time we were ready to get in the car- which made for a very packed, very busy, very slow drive through Donner Pass! It rained on us for just about the rest of the drive as well.... not fun!Thanks again guys for an awesome weekend!

an update on Mr Ned!

I never followed up with Ned's leg... After his first vet visit they said that they did not think he tore any ligaments- only strained them. He was given an anti-inflammatory and we were told to keep him to only short leashed walks for a few weeks. I went back a few weeks later for a follow up and was given the go ahead to ease him back into exercise! after a few more days of taking it slow Alex brought them to the beach. Well apparently it was too soon, because I came home from work that day to find a 3-legged dog! He couldn't put any weight on his leg! I thought for sure that he had injured it worse and would need surgery. By the next day he was back to being able to use it and we noticed over the weekend that when he first wakes up in the morning and any time after running around he favors it.

So we made another vet apt yesterday and they took Xrays and checked everything out. Doc says it is not torn-and Ned is in better shape then most dogs he sees (he saw no imperfections in the spine or in his hip or knee joints) They gave us a few more weeks of the ani-inflammetory and it looks like we'll just have to keep the excercise to a minimum for the enxt month or 2!

Too much snow!

Did you ever think you'd hear Alex say THAT! Well he didn't either! But this past weekend there was too much snow! We drove over to Mt Shasta with a few friends for some skiing. There was a lot of snow! It dumped 2 feet Friday night snowed all day Saturday- Dumped another 3 feet Saturday night and was still snowing all day Sunday (they actually got another foot and a half Sunday night too- but we were already home because I didn't have off on Monday)Skiing Saturday was great! Lots of soft fluffy powder! The boys had a blast tearing through the trees dong somersaults down the mountain! I did a few runs with them and then headed over to the other side of the mountain with one of the guys who was still getting the hang of his snowboard! Sunday was a totally different story with about 5 feet of fresh snow! We were about an hour or so late getting up to the mountain because of some folks who did NOT know how to handle driving in snow! No accidents or anything- they just blocked the driveway out of the hotel all morning! It ended up not mattering to much.... because of all the snow so quickly they were having some power problems that affected the lifts and it took a while for them to figure everything out.
Once they opened up the lifts we took a run down an almost untouched slope! Boy was that an experience for me! I'm still learning to ski in powder (I'm used to the east coast) and it was just so deep! Everywhere you looked there were people trying to dig themselves out or digging to find their skis! There was basically no base! At least not one that you could find- Poles were of no help to get you standing back up- they just sunk in and never hit the bottom!The pups loved romping around in the snow! And Hanna, the crazy dog that she is, was happy just curling up in a big pile of snow!Ned looked pitiful on the way home so I caved and let him come up front on my lap for a little! Once we switched drivers, though, he didn't last too long on Alex's! He is a little big to be a lap dog.... but he begs to differ!
that was our fun adventure filled ski weekend.... next weekend... it's off to Tahoe again!