Wordless Wednesday - Monty Edition

A Sam update and Fawkes Harlow

First of all, a long overdue update on Sam.  Right now our boy is doing a lot better than he was a week ago.  His testing last Monday revealed the lump to not be cancer, and in fact, to not be anything other than a very well developed muscle in Sam's shoulder.  The new theory is that Sam has an inflammed shoulder joint due to either valley fever or bacterial arthritis.  So, Sammish is on Prednisone, Tramadyl and Clavamox in the hope that one of those will defeat whatever is wrong with him.  Sam is getting around much better with only a slight limp.  We have a sneaky feeling that there is still something that isn't right and hasn't been covered by this diagnosis, but we are taking it one day at a time.  As long as Sam is happy, then we are too!

Thank you, everyone, for thinking of me.

Now, our timing has always been wacky, but in the midst of worrying about Sam, we added a new family member....

One... two... thr... wait a minute!

Originally, her name was Libby, but she didn't seem to respond to it.  We renamed her Fawkes Harlow, or Harlow for short.  She is a 9 month old female Golden Retriever.  Our boys are absolutely smitten with her.

I shall teach her everything I know.

Of course, Harlow is all girl and needed a very girly collar:

After all, what girl doesn't want to dress up in pearls and lace?

Harlow needs some work on her basic manners and potty skills, but she is incredibly smart and wants to please.  She also thinks she is Super Dog.

I'm sure I have the position right, but how do I get off the ground?

Did I mention she's not spayed, either? 

Monty at times acts horrified about her, although, we think he is pleased to finally have someone to play with.  Harlow pesters him to death, and Monty has stoically adopted the role of big brother.  Of course, if you ask him, he will deny that he likes her.

Dis isn't what it seems.  I was framed!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday - Sam Edition

I love Sam's lopsided little grin...

An update on Sam...

Friday morning I took Sam to see a specialist.  After much poking, prodding and smooches from Sam, he finally declared that he doesn't think the problem has anything to do with Sam's brain.  He said Sam's reflexes are great (as evident by Sam swatting him every time he tried to test Sam's blink responses), he has good function in his legs (Sam showed him his awesome Ninja kick - the boy has ticklish feet...), and Sam has excellent strength (it took two interns to hold him still).  After eliminating all of those worries he brought in a second vet for another opinion.  After her examination, they both agreed on what is the cause of Sam's issues.  There is a mass pressing on the nerves that control his front left leg.  The bad news?  The mass is hard and they both believe it is cancerous.

Sam was happy to make new friends at the neurologist.

Monday I bring him back for further testing.  As you can imagine, we are very anxious about the news.  We've been trying to keep from thinking of it, although it is impossible to not do so. 

Taking my stallion, Baron, out.  My sister, Kathy, is on her Clydesdale, Baie.

We are so appreciative of all the kind words and thoughts our boy is receiving.  Knowing that Sam has so many friends in the world is helping us so much right now.  We are still hopeful that he will fully recover and I can feel silly for being so worried.

We is worried too!

In the meantime, we are letting Sam just be happy and do what he wants. 

Feeling the wind in his snooter...

Snoopervising the pool fill-in.

Wordless Wednesday - Walkies

Sam is not doing well

Our Sam isn't doing well.  He had been slipping on the tiles but we thought at first it was just that, he was slipping on the tiles.  Then it turned to stumbling.  We brought him to the vet, but she is puzzled by his symptoms.

I is not feeling well.

 He has an odd head tilt and almost a paddling gait.  Almost as if he is swatting with his front paws.  It's more noticeable on the left, but it is both paws that are affected.

Everything is so slippery.

Our vet thinks he either has a pinched nerve or, even worse, a tumor growing in his brain.  As you can imagine, this has been a bad week for us.

Is very tired.

Sam knows something is wrong, although he keeps trying to be Sam.  He wants to play and eat and get treats.  It's breaking our heart to see him stumbling when he moves around.  The vet gave us some medicine to try, although it seems that he has gotten slightly worse this week.

He still can be an imp...

Must tear this paper up...

We are holding out that it might be vestibular disease, which a friend of ours mentioned on Facebook.  I think we could really use some POTP, and any lucky rabbits feet you might have lying around.

Mom and Dad love me.

Wordless Wednesday - Monty's Toothy Grin...

Our Sunday - the Chalk Edition

Sometimes I like to buy things just to see how the boys will interact with it.  Today's find was a box of 15 large pieces of chalk for 99 cents.  How could I pass it up?

Here are the boys doing a "What's this?"  I took this picture about two seconds before Monty took off with the box of chalk.  You can see him starting to steal it here.

What's dis stuff?

 After chasing the boy through the yard, we got back down to work.  First off, the boys got to choose their colors. 

Blue for me, Mom!  Could I have orange?

....and we got to work!

I'm not in the way, am I?

Due to the day being bright and sunny, we kept losing Monty to his sunbeams.  Sam didn't mind helping all the way through.  Finally, it was time to get both boys to pose.

Mama's little helper...

You can tell Monty wasn't ready to give up on the reflections yet... 

I love these boys!

We hope you all have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday - Sam Edition