Gobo

This past weekend my little baby, Gobo, was sick. he seemed constipated and eventually decided he really didn't want to eat. When we did get him to eat, he'd eventually just throw everything back up. So yesterday he and I went to see the vet. I was hoping they'd find a blockage or something that could easily be "fixed" though deep down, I suspected something more. We spent 3 hours there yesterday while they ran blood tests and tried to collect a urine sample to test that. Unfortunately, we got our answer. My poor little boy is dealing with kidney failure. He was born with several obvious birth defects and we always kind of wondered if there might not be some internal issues he'd eventually have to deal with as well. We never expected this, at least not his soon. He is 4.5 years old, barely out of puppyhood and kidney failure this severe and sudden is very uncommon for one so young. Because things have already progressed as far as they have, and as sudden as this all was (he really didn't seem at all sick or have any sudden changes in habits until this past weekend, though he has lost nearly 3 pounds since last year's visit..) there really isn't much we can do for him except wait and try to keep him comfortable. He has managed to keep some food down since yesterday, so that is good.
At this point we are just hoping that he can do ok and keep going for another 2 weeks at least. Tom would really like the chance to get to say good bye. The last 2 dogs we had that passed, both went while he was away and very suddenly. This time we at least have warning and can prepare, though that just means my grief has already started to set in. They figure he probably has a few weeks, maybe even a few months. Any treatment we could do would be very expensive and, even then, maybe only give him an extra month or two, if it did anything at all.
I really do wish there were more we cold do for him, but at this point, there just isn't. The numbers from his tests were insanely high, several were well beyond the parameters, they were literally off the charts.
I'm loosing my baby and it's tearing me to pieces..

Tom's Crazy Suit

I forgot to mention in my last post, so it's it's getting it's own, and perhaps it needs it...

Last week we were browsing through a local thrift store for sweaters and other things for a few projects, when Tom found a suit, well, he found 2 suits, one a very shiny brown that fits him nicely and the other, well, it kind of defies explanation. It also fits him well, though I needed to replace the buttons and still need to hem it properly. Any way, this second suit was only $5.50 which knocked it into the "OK, we HAVE to get this and embarrass the kids with" range..

As you can see, it is also very shiny. And off white. And plaid. He decided to go with his purple shirt and tie because the outfit needed some color. We will likely be getting several more brightly colored shirts to go with this thing.


He did wear this to Church last Sunday, with the boyfriend who was visiting and we still didn't seem to manage to scare him off. We've told Tom he needs a hat to go with this suit to really finish it off. I did replace all the gold buttons (some were missing anyway) with silver ones and we didn't have time to hem it, so it was just pinned up, but I will need to do some hemming on this, as the pant legs were extremely long. The whole things seems to be made of polyester and was made in Korea. And is now a proud member of Tom's closet where he will be making all sorts of use out of it. Future weddings, halloween costumes, formal events, whatever he can come up with, I am sure.

4th of July

Ok, it has been a crazy month so far. Girls are here, and Tom is home, yay! Bree's boyfriend came up from Washington to visit us for a week and was here for the 4th. Most of his week here was spent with Bree dragging him all over the state, but for the 4th, we had a relatively quiet day at home. Bailey, Caleb and Gaia came over, as did our defacto substitute son Chris, so the whole gang was pretty much over. Tons of food was had (I made the BEST slow cooker boneless short ribs, and we grilled chicken and moose steaks and burgers for the younger ones who wanted burgers, plus there was pickled potato salad, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, quinoa salad, several kinds of mini pies and a cake. Then Bailey brought masked potatoes and biscuits. Everything except the biscuits and the burger buns was Gluten Free and so yummy. We still have tons of left overs and they are still so very, very good....) and we followed it up with a game of Risk. I actually won, which was a first. I haven't played it too often, but everyone was surprised, especially since I started with basically just basing myself in Europe. Apparently that's not usually successful.. worked for me though, so, yay!
No fireworks for us this year, apparently all the big shows had been the night before and outside of the shows, fireworks are illegal in most of the state due to risk of fire. Not to mention it really doesn't get dark enough in the summer in the part of the state we're in. It would be like most of the lower 48 wanting to set them off at 4 to 5 PM, so we just never bother with them. The big shows up here are for New Year's.
Our guest seemed to enjoy his time up here, and seems a decent sort of fellow. He certainly fits right in with our variety of insanity.

In other news, my garden is doing very well. I've pulled a few squash out already, and the pumpkins are just started blooming. My bell peppers are going like crazy, and I've got a fair number of little tomatoes started, and the jalapenos are starting to go crazy as well. We've pulled the first carrot, which wound up being a LOT shorter then we expected, but was still very good. And the peas.. oh those were good, so sweet.. it will be hard letting them all sit out there while we wait for enough to do anything with to get ready. I could so easily just go eat them right out of the pods..

And my brother has announced that, at long last, they are expecting a boy. He's got 3 girls out of nearly 10 years of marriage and they are finally having a boy. They've been trying for a boy forever and have had several miscarriages, so this is exciting news for them. My new little nephew will be due later this fall.