Bad News

Yesterday I heard two bad news things.... The first was a message in my fb inbox from a friend of mine now living in England, who had seen on fb, that the principal of the pre-school that both Wendy's daughter and mine had gone to, had lost her son.  How does one handle that? We bring our children up, teach them, laugh with them, chastise them, go through the horrible teenage years with them, and then just as they are finding their feet, and become ready to face the adult world out there, something like that happens. 

How do you face each day without him in it anymore?  How does a mother face losing her only child? I cannot even begin to think of an answer to that question.


The second bad news was that a really good friend of mine, has been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer.  She will have to have a full hysterectomy, and hopefully they will get it all out in that operation.  Here's hoping, Elsa:)  I'm not even going to think anything negative about this.  She will have the operation and will be totally 100% after that.

Tila's bandaged leg

Tila's leg all bandaged up.. she had a Grade 3 luxating patella.  It was a catch 22 situation because she is still a growing puppy, and so her bones are still growing, and yet the rotation was quite bad and we couldnt wait.  We have to hope that her bone doesn't continue to grow crooked and she ends up having to have another op done.  Her left leg is a Grade 1, and hopefully that one will just stay at a Grade 1, otherwise Raine will never get a car !!!

Visiting Tila in the "ward"

Tila had her operation and according to her surgeon, it was successful.  He mentioned he had added a anti-rotational pin, which I think, comes out in a few weeks.  She had a firm bandage on, but it has been removed today, and just has a dressing now.

Raine and I went to visit her last night because we couldnt get there during "visiting hours" in the middle of the day.  She was very excited to see us; couldnt wait to get out of the cage, and I am sure she thought we were coming to take her home

When she is nervous or unsure, she likes to climb right up onto our shoulders.... and that's how she was last night.  We managed to take a couple of pics of her very ungainly leg, and had a good kiss and cuddle with her before putting her back in.  She wasn' happy at all, and we felt terrible leaving her behind.

Here she is telling Raine ALL about it !!!

Luxating Patella

We have the most gorgeous little Toy Pom - five and a half months old. About a week ago, we noticed she was limping and favouring her back right leg. We initially thought that Codie, our older Toy Pom was playing rough with her and didnt worry too much about it, but we kept an eye on them playing together

Over the next few days, the limping became more pronounced, and she would hesitate to run up and down the stairs, lie down a lot more, and not jump off the bed as frequently (she's still too little to jump onto the bed her own). On Saturday afternoon, when Raine, my daughter, and Caitlynn and Callan, my grandaughters, wanted to take the two dogs for a walk, Tila wouldn't go ! She just lay down in the middle of the road and Raine had to bring her back, and leave her behind while they took Codie.

So after much deliberation, we decided it was time to take her to the vet.  The short version is Tila is having an operation this afternoon.  She has a luxating patella, or "floating knee" as some call it.  The op has to be done by a specialist - no more just normal vets anymore... there are vets like gps and then there are "specialists."

So - sitting here on the edge of my seat and watching the time pass by.