Doberkids

A Ginger Update

Ginger’s Huge Lumpy Lump

There was some blood on the tile and futon recently.  I use vinyl fitted sheets to protect the futon and bed, so it didn’t seep through to the mattresses, but having to wash sheets everyday wore me down.  I had some detective work to do, as I was looking at paws, where no blood appeared.  I noticed it would show up on the futon where Ginger and Bouchard napped when I wasn’t home.  Then one day recently, Ginger was sitting in front of me and while we were having a conversation, blood droplets appeared.  Mon Dieu! That’s when I figured it out.  Ginger’s lump had sprung a leak.

Ginger’s Dimpley Smile

I have been using t-shirts and towels to absorb the blood.  No stopping it whatsoever.  She has an appointment on Wednesday to have it debulked.  That’s a lot to debulk.  She is still in good spirits otherwise, and I hope that she comes out of this with the same. The cancer is in her arm pits like hard little rocks.  But she can’t live with a bleeding grapefruit-sized lump hanging off her like that. 

Keep her in your prayers.  Wednesday is the day when she’ll need them most!

Helen

Baby’s 11th Birthday Today!

Oh my gosh! My 11th birthday is here!
It’s my 11th!

Look at this! My birthday cheeseburger with a sprig of mint. Yummy!
Cheeseburger!

See it and weep…so beautiful. All mine!
Gorgeous!

“Peek-a-boo. I’ll eat you!”
Time to eat you.

Scrumptious!
Chomp…chomp…chomp

Good to the last morsel.
The crumbs are good too!

We should celebrate our birthdays more often!
We love celebrating us!

Helen

Birthday Girls (7 and 11) at the Birthday Park

Baby and Leissl’s birthdays are one day apart. Today we three went to the birthday park for a cool Sunday walk around.

Here we go!

First we went to the big fruit field.

Let’s see what we have here!

Well, this is no fun.

No fruit picking?

Time for a break on the bench for a picture with Dobermom and Baby, who will be eleven tomorrow.

Helen and Baby

Leissl is seven today.

Helen and Leissl

Leissl sang to herself.

Happy Birthday to me…

Then she sang to Baby.

Happy Birthday to you, too…

When she finished singing and stood up, well, we found that nature has a purpose for everything – even birthday girls sitting down for a sing. Leissl walked around the rest of the Birthday park and deposited the seeds she had collected while singing her birthday tune.

Leissl collects seeds to disperse elsewhere in the birthday park.

We went to the black forest (schwarzwald) and Leissl’s ears have never looked like this before. I don’t know what she was listening to. But Baby’s got a little odd-shaped too. So we took a quick picture, and scrammed in case there were lions, tigers and bears hiding out!

Posing pretties

We went to Iguana Lake next. Here, Baby showed her curly tongue talent as she talked to the Iguana nearby.

Cool spot by the lake

Here is the Iguana. Baby chased it into the lake.

Baby’s Iguana

Then she laid by the shore to be sure it didn’t come back. That’s Baby.

I’m a good Iguana warrior.

While Leissl and Baby took a moment…

Phew!  Time to rest!

…a hunk on a bicycle stopped to say he was a “Dobermann man” and wanted to know where he could get a Doberboy pup. I said, “R-E-S-C-U-E-Z … that’s how Dobies come to thee.” I sang. If Leissl can…so can I!

Then we were asked to leave. (OK, I was asked to leave.) We got a drink from our Thermos of water and jumped in.

Bye-Bye!  Till next year!

Then we hit the road to go home.

The Road

Till next year, Birthday Park!

Helen

I smell like vinegar. How about you?

At lunch, I was making a big bottle of a concoction that always blows the lid off the gallon container I mix it in, if it has a chance.  It’s my secret dog pee shampoo for the ground.  Well, I guess it pretty much happened as the minutes ticked by and I was getting later on the leaving home part and going back to work part, so I did a quick turn of the bottle to mix it, and when I flipped it over and flipped the lid so it could breathe, MOG!  That’s when Fort Doberdale had its first volcanic erruption. Would’ve been nice if it smelled better.  Lots of foam.  And vinegar fragrance.  Yes, one of the secret ingredients IS vinegar.  Uh huh.  That is why I sit at my desk at work this afternoon smelling like a Ceasar salad.  I’m trying to be a hermit.

On another front, last night Leissl the Wubba player…

 Leissl and her red Wubba

…cut her paw and I do not know how.  What I do know is when you have a few paws around, it’s not as easy as one would think to track the dog and paw that’s leaving bloody imprints all over the white tile floor.  When I did, eeegads, it was ugly! 

I cleaned the paw with peroxide, put some Qwik Stop on it, cotton and gauze.  After that, I washed the blood off the floor.  Later, I found more blood spots.  Leissl’s bandage was leaking blood.  Mon Dieu!  This was some time around 11:30 on the p.m. dial.  Bandage was blood soaked, so I had to remove it, and get out the liquid Qwik Stop.  That stuff stinks.  And so does blood.  I don’t like the smell of either.  I bandaged Leissl’s paw again, and this time, I put her in a crate so she would be still all night.  Went to bed.

During the night, I heard what I now believe is a paw boomerang.  This is when Leissl would hold onto the end of the bandage, pull her back paw away while clamping onto the bandage.  When the pull outweighed the grasp, the paw would go flying against the side of the crate.  Bang!  This went on during the night, and by morning, the bandage was off – it was just sitting in her crate like a complete and whole cast.  Yes, she pulled that off in one piece. 

When I let her out in the morning, Leissl had her back leg in the air and her toes were contorted.  Imagine my surprise!  I’ve seen a lot, but this was special.  Mind you, her back leg was shaking as if it was having spasms.  I have about one hour to do everything I need to do in the morning, and I knew I was in trouble with this fine mess.  So I hauled Leissl’s hiney inside, gave the paw a peroixed bath, pulled off the caked on Qwik Stop, (yuk!), and slathered some Neosporin in the paw crevices, wrapped lightly with gauze, put a sock on, wrapped top of sock with gauze (hot pink), and put a no bite on her.  Then I fed her and the FDSP breakfast.  She actually ate! That was a relief.  Though I’m not sure if she did so in order to have amunition to poop out later in the day so I will have something to come home to. 

At work, I called my vet’s office to be sure I’d have a slot to take Leissl in this afternoon should we need it.  But when I went back home at lunch to see how my poopsie woopsie was doing, she was much much better and there were no gifts on the floor.  She was standing on her socked paw, wiggling butt, so I took off the no-bite collar and let her be free.  When I left, though, I re-collared her because I know her.  She’d have taken the sock off by the time I got home, otherwise.

Let’s see what surprises await me when I get home tonight.

Helen