Remi Update

Remington has settled into a nice little routine of being inside ALL the time, getting his medicine (wrapped in stick cheese), and sleeping on the floor with us. During the day he goes to My Dogs Heaven here in Tooele for doggy day care. He's made a friend in the kennel next to his and the people have really taken to his energetic personality. He's catching treats with no problem and seems to be using his one eye without any issues. His spirits seem high considering the events of the past week. I'm starting to wonder if it's harder on me and Keri than on him?

Keeping his "cone" in working condition has been a full-time job for us and the day care, he's figured out that if he pushes really hard it will bend enough to let him scratch his eye against the couches. I have some visual evidence of the damage.

Here's what his new cone I bought today looks like, pre-Remi:



And here's what he's managed to do in just a week of "normal" use...the lady at the doggy day care says he uses it as a battering ram.




It's now countdown to next Thursday when I take him to get his stitches out, and we can sleep in our bed again.

P.S.
With all the pictures we've been taking we finally broke down and got a new camera to replace my 7 year old dinosaur. Remi had the distinct honor of being our first subject.

Update

Remi is slowly getting used to his "Cone of Silence", he got a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Hendrickson on Friday night and was his usual, mischievous self. The biggest problem has been his inability to get comfortable enough to sleep with his satellite collar on (which means no one gets any sleep) so Friday night we setup a family slumber party in the front room. I'm happy to report he slept all night and was very content to just lounge the morning away with whichever one of us would lay with him.





Our next obstacle is figuring out if he can stay in his kennel while we are both at work on Monday. He seems determined to destroy his cone by running it into anything in his way, including people, garbage cans, door hinges, table corners and his kennel.

The Return of the Boy :)

He's Home!!

Of course I burst into tears at the hospital when I first saw him, but Mike reminded me that this is the worst it will look - so I will remind everyone else of that as well :) A big area above the eye was shaved so the doctor could work, but obviously that will grow back. Also, you can see an area on his leg where they shaved for the IV.

I am VERY happy to report that he is definitely acting like himself . . . .well himself on medication, but still it makes me feel a lot better.

So here is what happens when he starts to paw at his eye. It is not fun and we can already tell this will be the hardest part of the recovery. He can't see anything but the cone when he has it on so he walks around in slow motion and tries to get his head as low as possible so he can atempt to see something. He also wants to be close to us, so this makes it very difficult!!
For those of you that are curious (like me) I thought I should add this close up shot. I am sad that this has happened to our boy, but the process has been quite facinating. As the hair grows back and the stitches come out I am sure he will look more and more like himself.
Thank you again so much to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I can not even begin to express how much it means to us (and the boy!)

Remi....

Keri and I are so appreciative of all the calls and emails about Remi, we can't wait for him to get home tomorrow. I'm also a little surprised that some people are surprised that we are doing so much for "just a dog"? . I feel sorry for people who haven't experienced the joy of having a pet. We can't imagine our life without him, a dogs affection is absolutely unconditional. We are so lucky to have him. So many times after a hard day at work, all we look forward to is coming home to our boy and his wagging tail. We love you buddy, one eye or two.

Brave Remington

Here is how our day started . . . . Mike and Remi waiting for the doctor to come in and examine Remington's eyes. For those of you that do not know- Remi has had a white spot on his right eye for a few weeks, and we didn't know what it was so we took him to the vet. The vet referred us to an eye specialist, and we went to see her this morning.
She put some drops in Remi's eyes that turned them this creepy green color (if I wasn't so scared it would have been cool!) and they also did a tear drop test, but Remi HATED it so I don't have a picture because I was trying to comfort him. She did a pressure test, and looked at his eyes with some other machines (he was really good during this and I was impressed) finally she said, I have good news and bad news. . . . . . . .
He has a cancerous mass in his right eye. The good news is that this is treatable, the bad news is that the eye will have to be removed. I was thinking to myself - what was the good news?? (Mike told me later he was thinking the same thing)

Below is a picture of his good eye - Other then the green, I am sure you can see that it looks pretty normal.
This is a picture of the bad eye - The discoloration (you can see it in the shot with both eyes also) is the mass. The doctor said it is possible to remove just the mass, but it is only temporary, doesn't completely solve the problem and eventually the entire eye would have to be removed anyway.
Okay so the actual good news is that this surgery will completely remove the cancer and there is no chance of it spreading to his other eye. Other then some discomfort after the surgery, he will be completely normal and will be able to do everything he could do before. (yeah!)

Also, I am posting this after the surgery has been completed and can report that everything went as planned. The animal hospital is keeping him overnight to monitor him, and make sure he doesn't scratch at his stitches. I will post more pictures once he comes home so everyone can see that even with only 1 eye our boy is still quite handsome.

Keri in Vegas over Presidents Day

My niece Hannah (pictured above) loves Hannah Montana (shocking!) and while in Vegas we went to see the Hannah Montana 3D Concert Movie. Here are some pictures of me, Hannah, and Allison in our stylish 3D glasses!
We also went to the Mirage were they have set up an animal exibit with dolphins, tigers, lions, panthers, and more! Here is a picture of me and Hannah with a whitle lion making our best lion "grrrr" face - mine looks a little like a scary smile :)

The lions were HUGE and we were actually VERY close to them - this picture does not do it justice, but it was very cool.

Stay tuned for more exciting pictures from Disneyland!!

Almost 2 weeks and counting, I am very excited!!

Oh the Boy

So I finally convinced Mike that we NEEDED to buy
Remi this new doghouse. We have been having extreme wind
and I wanted the boy to have a safe, dry place while we were at work.
We got all the bells and whistles, pad insert (for his comfort of course!), a
door to help with wind and rain (not on yet in this picture) and after it was
all said and done, I was happy and felt we were good dog owners.

I even got in to show Remington how nice it was. We got everything done, cleaned his kennel, and put him out with his new house!

AND THEN . . . . . . .

Seriously - Honestly - LITERALLY 5 minutes later I looked out the window to check on him and this is what I found!!!!

I told Mike that we should have just given him a $50 dollar bill to snack on!!! When will we (and by we I mean me) learn that our boy is a male lab through and through and things like this will always happen??? So much for his new home with comfy pad :)

Good thing he is so cute and we love him (cause I was pretty mad!!)

Nice Facelift!!

Mike and I decided our blog could use an update. Well, let's be honest it needed more then an update ---- it needed ANYTHING. I am sure you will notice that Mike had a lot to do with the decisions, but it has so much more personality that I love it! Thank you to everyone else who has a blog becaue we stole many ideas from yours :)

Everybody loves Remi

Our niece and nephew loving up on Remi

How Spoiled is he...which one?

Keri's sleepy boys...yes Remi is tucked in under the covers.