Thursday, August 14, 2014
A few weeks ago, I got a small tattoo in remembrance of Benjamin. At the very last minute, I changed my mind and went with "Benny" instead of "Benjamin" for the text inside the bone. "Benny" just felt right to me because that is what I always called him.
A tattoo for Luna is in the works. I am just finalizing the design and figuring out where I want to put it. I'm debating on putting it near the tattoo I have for Sol.
Friday, June 13, 2014
I am very sad to say that Benjamin passed away yesterday morning. Wednesday night he had another one of his breathing/coughing/panting episodes. This one began shortly after dinner. We gave him one of the special shots we have on hand for emergencies like this, but it did not work like it did last time. The first time we gave him the shot, it took 9 minutes before he was calm and resting easy. Last night, it took 43 minutes for us to start to see any relief and the relief was only mild and not long lasting. As the night progressed it became more and more clear that this was going to be a long lasting episode. We did our best to keep Benjamin as comfortable as possible throughout the night and took him to the vet first thing in the morning.
While we knew Benjamin's trachea issues and other maladies were progressing, we were not expecting to get to this point so quickly. And although we anticipated summer being a struggle, we still thought we had a few more months at least.
Amidst the whirlwind of emotions and throughout conversations since Wednesday night, one prevailing theme has risen above all others and this is how happy and positive Benjamin was in life. He assumed the best in everyone and everything. He touched everyone he met and made them feel loved and left them with a smile.
In the spirit of Benjamin, I want to take this time of enormous sadness and remember all the joy that Benjamin brought to our lives. If you have a moment, reflect upon a favorite story or Benny-ism and post it in the comments for us all to share. I can't think of any better way to celebrate the pumpkin bread loving, pillow king that was the luxuriously wrinkly and most handsome pug we called Baby Benny.
On a side note, I expect we will take a hiatus from posting next week to take some time to process everything. We will return soon.
Monday, June 9, 2014
With so many dog beds I often wonder why the pugs pick the bed they do. My office is one of the rooms with the most dog beds. I like to give the pugs options since when I am in that room it is usually for large amounts of time. Last week I had a work from home day and I got a chuckle out of Benny passed out on the dog bed in the farthest corner of the room. Is this the comfiest bed? Quietest corner? Least drafty spot?
I think it might have to do with it being a double dog bed stack. You know Benny loves his pillow piles!
Friday, June 6, 2014
From the looks of it, you might think that we run a tight ship around here and insist that the pugs line up in size order - smallest to tallest.
While this doesn't happen frequently, I have caught them in this order before. I wonder if one of them has OCD or something.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Poor Benjamin and Luna had a very rough weekend. Both of them have collapsed tracheas so there is generally a chorus of coughing and goose honks echoing throughout the house. However, this weekend was extremely bad.
Benny got so bad on Sunday, that we sent a video to our vet to get his opinion on Benny's condition. (Our vet totally rocks! He was crazy enough to give us his cell phone number and we text him or send pictures and videos to him from time to time to answer some of the many questions we have while caring for a group of senior pugs). After viewing the video, our vet suggested that we give Benny a shot we have on reserve for Benjamin in case he gets too worked up. We had the shot on hand for quite some time now and unfortunately on Sunday, we needed to use it.
Benny took the shot like a champ. I think it was harder on us than it was on him. We tested our strategy (how we would hold him, etc) for administering the shot on Henry since he was nice and calm at the time. Henry was a good sport, but he did look at us a bit like we had lost our mind. If he could talk, I'm sure he would be saying, "You have the wrong pug!"
While were aren't 100% sure what caused Benjamin and Luna to have such a hard time this weekend, we are pretty sure the weather was the culprit. It was disgustingly humid this weekend. With summer looming, I'm hoping this weekend is not a preview of what's to come.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Benjamin has been having some eye issues of late. He frequently has mucus in his eyes and in the morning he has been waking up with lots of crust around his eyes. To top it off, the whites of his eyes have started to be red and irritated looking.
We decided to take Benny to the eye vet. The same eye vet that Luna has seen for years and who just did Henry's eye surgery. (I guess Benny was feeling left out of the eye exam club). Benjamin had his exam and much to our surprise they diagnosed him with dry eye. It was surprising to us because Luna suffers from a very bad case of dry eye and her eyes actually look dry. Benjamin's eyes, on the other hand, are always moist looking, almost too watery. But it turns out that the quality of Benjamin's tears is poor. So even though his eyes are moist his tears aren't able to properly refresh his eyes. So just like Luna, Benjamin suffers from dry eye.
We left the eye vet with a course of eye drops for Benny that will help with his condition (all different from the drops that Luna takes of course). We have been giving them to him for a few days and have already seen a some progress. He no longer has the crust around his eyes in the morning when he wakes up. Hopefully Benny will be feeling better soon.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
The other day I posted a picture of Henry and how he rides in style to the vet. Well, this is how Benny chills in the car when he is going to the vet.
Last week, we took Benjamin to the eye vet for a checkup (more on that to come) and this is how he rode on the way home. His eye exam really tuckered him out.
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