4/24/10
Eli decided to take his first steps and his first strolls while we were in St. Louis. Before that, all he did was stand on his own for a few seconds. He is now walking from his toys to the wall (we still don't have any furniture), to me, to Chris . . . pretty much anything he thinks will soften the landing because he can't quite figure out how to stop yet. He tries to walk to Monkey, but she usually gets out of the way when she sees him coming . . . smart dog :) Here is our first video of him on the go in St. Louis:
4/21/10
A couple of days before my mom came to Anchorage Eli had the worst day since we'd been home. He wanted to lay on the floor and cry, he wanted to be held while he cried, he wanted to climb on Monkey and cry . . . he was inconsolable. I thought maybe it was a lingering sinus infection or maybe another ear infection . . . teething didn't cross my mind. I'd been keeping an eye on his gums and feeling for any kind of hardness in there, but there was no swelling and he was all gummy so I figured it would be a while. I decided to give him some Motrin and to wait and see if it was just a mood. Well, his bad mood went as quickly as it came and only lasted about a day. So I thought maybe it was just a bad day for the little guy. When my mom arrived she asked if he had any teeth yet and I said "no, not yet" as I was sticking my finger in his mouth . . . then I felt it. The tooth:
4/17/10
If you've read the previous posts, I am sure you've picked up on how much I love my dog. Well, in order to drive through Canada with a pet you have to have a health certificate from a vet. Monkey's appointment was scheduled for the day prior to our departure. We went to the vet . . . everything looked good . . . I pointed out a lump on her chest that I noticed a week earlier . . . vet thought it was a cyst but I had it aspirated anyway . . . cancer. I was numb during the rest of the appointment, partially because I was fighting back tears and partially because I knew we couldn't do anything about it until we got to St. Louis. It is an aggressive form of cancer, so the vet recommended that we not wait any longer than necessary to remove it. We met with my old vet in St. Louis and scheduled the surgery. By that time I had found two more lumps . . . 3 total. We also agreed to have her spayed while she was under (she was too big to risk the surgery prior to this necessary one). The surgery took two hours and she ended up having 5 incisions. Three from tumors, one from the spay, and one to remove what appeared to be a wart on her face (biopsy pending). So she has an incision on her chest, one on her right leg, one on her left leg, one on her belly, and one on her face. 29 staples total. The type of cancer requires very wide margins to ensure that all of the cancer is removed. The biggest lump was about a nickel size, but the incisions are pretty big. This is a picture of the one on her chest.
4/17/10
Wow! So much has happened since my last post. I think I am going to do several different posts to get caught up. For those who don't know, we just wrapped up our move from Anchorage, AK to Bolingbrook, IL. We had a very short period of time to get it done . . . and let me tell you it was a process. We arrived home with Eli on Feb 23rd with absolutely no planning done for the move, and we had to be out of the house by March 31st (we had a renter who wanted to move in). So we had a month to plan a move, find a place to live, make arrangements for the vehicles . . . you get the picture. The time spent planning on any given day was limited. I only made arrangements during Eli's naps because I didn't want to take any time away from him. We ended up hiring a moving company to move everything (delivery takes 4 weeks . . . yay) and they picked up our stuff on March 31st. We had a court date on March 24th to finalize Eli's adoption in the states . . . YAY!! Monkey and I left on March 25th to drive down from Anchorage to St. Louis. Here is some scenery from BC, Canada:
