DRUM ROLL PLEASE

Today the little man has become a fully paid up member of the Taylor pack and will now be known as ELMO. Did you notice I haven't referred to him as Cane for a long while LOL. Last week's scare over the tumour that was actually this

a piece of plastic, calcified as it has been there for so long made us realise just how much we love him and so there you have it! Not quite a greyhound even if you squint but we love him.It's been many many years since we haven't had at least 3 greys and here we are with 4 hounds and not one a proper greyhound LOl. Maybe fate will sort it out for us.

We must be totally mad to adopt a poopie who chews, jumps, steals etc etc but the flip side is he makes us laugh and he doesn't have a bad bone in him! ......... and this house needs to hear laughter again!

Elmo is fully recovered and his wound that wasn't stitched is healing amazingly fast.

A few finish projects, finally the cover to My journal your Christmas

Layout of Ben's 's birthday

Layout of Harvey's birthday

Both shown here as digital but they have become hybrid in real life as I prefer them to have extra depth in real life.

I'm back guys!

Poopie came home and cried all evening, probably the GA making him feel odd, slept all night and is firing on all cylinders this morning.

 Have to bathe his wound which wasn't stitched in the end,  with hibiscrub 3 times a day and he has antibiotics and painkillers, back on Monday.

Vet gave us the offending piece of plastic, hard to tell what it is and is about an inch long. Shall have to take a photo of it if he ever goes to sleep this morning LOL.

He's not HP with me as I've been doing the bathing bit and it stings.

Alfie and Mojo were really out of sorts yesterday so guess they missed him LOL.

Hoping for a nice quiet scrapping day with my friend, well one can but hope and as it has been a really strange week I think I deserve a play day LOL....

and little man says thank you all for all your good thoughts xxx

GOOD NEWS!

The vet has just rung and it's not a growth or tumour !!!!

It's a piece of plastic that had become wedged in between the molars, must have been there a very long time as it has caused extensive damage and the operation was much longer than expected. Poor boy also has a nasty ulcer and inflamed tonsils. Vet was surprised that he was still able to eat.He will need a course of antibiotics which will also cover his wound which she decided not to stitch in the end as sometimes it causes more problems in sight hounds because of their thin skin.

Vet said what a fabulous dog he is and what a testament to his character that he had made no fuss at all. I feel quite guilty as normally our hounds have full ear and teeth inspection by us each week but because looking after Jim then Lucky had become so time consuming the weekly checks fell by the wayside and so we didn't have any idea what was going on other than wondering why one side of his face looked different when he first arrived.

I cannot even begin to explain the relief.

How I've longed for a few quiet hours since he arrived, well now I discover it's way to quiet without him and I can't wait till we can collect him at about 6pm. Suspect he's going to be very sore for a while so lots of TLC.

Sometimes good can come out of bad !!!

Life one week on!

So in the last week my brain has been mush!, I've cried a lot! eaten a lot! slept a lot! cooked a lot and eaten more. I'm ashamed I haven't been to all the lovely people who left such kind messages about Lucky but as I said brain AWOL. But I do thank you all xxxx

After Alfie's collision with Gangley she had to go back to the vets as her face just didn't look right even after the swelling had gone down. Seems she has suffered a trauma to the nasal passage and tear duct, not as serious as we feared just some eye drops and paws crossed.

I've been to hospital and had my pre admission tests done ready for the 22nd. Have to stop all meds on Tuesday and don't get to start them until two after op. So looking forward to all of that Not!

Alfie has been very quiet indoors but outside has become very dominant when the boys are playing, as he is now senior by the length of time here, maybe he feels he has to be top dog, Jim used to tell him off when he got to dominant before but neither Mojo or poopie can do that. Mojo was very unsettled but seems to be more less okay as does Gangley. Poopie well what can I say, he was super for a few days, very quiet sensing we our sadness etc but the last few days he back to his normal mad self. If anything is missing I can guarantee you will find it under the willow tree where he is gathering his stolen bounty LOL. He has also decided having thought about it for a few weeks that yes he will go into the fish pond as and when he wants to despite my pleas of NO, DON'T YOU DARE etc etc... poor little mite has hurt himself today, he was out playing on his own (so glad Alfie wasn't out otherwise he may have got the blame) I guess he's taken a corner to tight and has a nasty gash in his side. I cleaned it up but when Eric saw he said he needs to go the vets. Great so embarrassing when you break a foster dog! He has also learnt, SIT, DOWN and PAW but not get your **** out of the fish pond! He has also had two visits away from the pack, one with our son whilst I went to hospital and 1 with my parents whilst we went to the dentist, he cries  little when we go apparently but soon settles down. I think it does him good to be away and then come back but poor Mojo is now the one who gets all his kisses when he returns. It did used to be Lucky, Mojo's face is a picture and in his best Eeyore look he says "Oh no you brought him back home" LOL. We had worried how little man would settle at night as he always snuggled up to Lucky and tried to persuade him to sleep in our room with all the other dogs but it seems he still prefers to sleep in the lounge.

I've been doing a little crafting, two layouts of Lucky, here in a digital form but they will become hybrid layouts when I scrap Friday and go to crop Saturday. All that really means is some of it is printed direct and other bits printed separately then layered up

 

Oh well that was a long waffle! I did say brain was MUSH to be fair LOL

Sue x

So I was just about to hit publish post when Eric and poopie come back from vets, Yes his wound needs a few stitches ans they would have done it there and then except Eric mentioned one side of his face has always looked different to the other ever since he arrived, we assumed a wonky tooth but oh no he has a suspicious growth that has been there so long it has become calcified and needs to removed immediately and sent off for biopsy. I am shaking like a leaf and cannot believe this is happening.

.

Lucky's story

Thank you all for your kind words, it really does help knowing people understand the terrible saddness we feel at losing Lucky. This is Lucky's story.

Lucky

26/9/2001 – 22/2/2012

In July 2005 Lucky came to us with Dick and Tammy, an emergency had arisen at the kennels we helped out at. Eric spent the night making a large kennel in the garage and an outside run for them.

We already had Sandy and Jim our own greyhounds plus little Rocky and Rulu. In addition we had just that week got Mac our  (then but of course he also stayed) foster dog from Greyhound Gap! Eric was immediately smitten with Lucky. For a greyhound bitch she was huge and covered in scars and cigarette burns plus she had been labelled  “not small dog friendly” as she had allegedly attacked a JRT in her previous home.  To our knowledge she already had 3 homes that year and each time been returned, once because she didn’t like being left alone, the second time for eating a sofa and lastly for attacking the Jack Russell. In her defence she had gone to that home weighing a healthy 35kg but a month later was returned weighing 26kg. Straight away it became obvious that she was not a typical greyhound.  Usually they love to spend their days lazing around NOT Lucky she had so much energy, and was oh so smart.  At the end of their stay when she was due to go back to the kennels Eric asked me if we might also foster her and try and deal with some of her problems so she would be easier to rehome.

And so Lucky came into the house, muzzled and on a house lead which meant she was at all times attached to one of us just in case. Did she ever return to the kennels NO ……

Lucky quickly settled down in the house and never showed any signs of being small dog unfriendly, in fact she decided little Rulu was her Mum and as Rulu was my lap dog it followed Lucky must also be a lap dog, albeit a rather large one! Every day at 12.30pm I would take her outside and throw her ball and off she’d go, running circuit after circuit of the garden until she was exhausted. Whatever demons were in her past she was never able to play or run with the pack and always just watched from the sidelines. It saddened me so much that we never overcame this for her, but in her own way she was happy to have her one to one time.

When little Rulu passed away so suddenly, Lucky was inconsolable to the point where for 18 months she never came and sat with me or played our lunchtime game.  Gradually Lucky came back to us and went back to being such a happy cheeky little girl, if Vikki came to visit she would be so pleased she would nip Vik’s bottom and when Eric would start getting the hounds ready for a walk she would jump backwards the full length of the kitchen and then take up her position. This routine never changed. 

Lucky had a magically way of making everyone who met her feel special! She would gently lean into them and so many people had a huge soft spot for Lucky ducks.

At the beginning of December 2010 Lucky became lame and we immediately took her to the vets, neither the vets nor us could quite believe that like Dill, Mac, Sandy, Jim and Ranger she too had bone cancer BUT it was in the very early stages or so we thought! However Luckys cancer was different and was so aggressive that we had to decide to amputate her leg on the 23^rd December. We also had decided to follow up with chemo, which started 3 weeks later. All seemed to be going so well with Lucky getting stronger each day and then out of nowhere she became very poorly in the early hours of Monday 20 Feb.  Eric had to rush Lucky into the vets as she was struggling to breathe. Tom her lovely vet was able to X ray Lucky without sedation and discovered the cancer had spread to her lungs. We struggled on for a few more days hoping the anti biotics would help but they didn’t and Lucky’s quality of life was so poor we felt we had to let her go.

Losing Lucky is the end of an era, our last greyhound, all links with the original pack gone, words can never really come close to expressing the heartbreaking loss we feel at the passing of each hound. We can only be grateful for the happy times, the wonderful memories they leave us with and hope they are all reunited in a pain free place waiting for the day we are all reunited.

Lucky ducks the little lady who just wanted to love and be loved.

And boy did we love you sweetheart xxxx

Lucky

Thank you all for your kind words, sadly Lucky has not improved and is now very weak so we have made the heartbreaking decision to let her go later today xx

Lucky

Lucky became quite unwell yesterday and at 4am this morning Eric had to rush her to the vets.

They have x rayed her chest and found it to be full of tumours, which weren't there in December.

So despite the chemo the cancer has spread and is very aggressive.

Lucky is back home but the vet doesn't think she will have much time left, maybe a week.

We had hoped and prayed the chemo would buy her good quality time as the stats seemed to indicate, having lost 5 other greyhounds to Osteosarcoma even we are shell shocked at the speed of this.

Sue