Tuesday, August 4, 2015
We are fast approaching the one year mark of the removal of Henry's kidney (August 7, 2014).
I feel somewhat obliged to recap the last year in a modified time line.
- Henry lost his left eye to Glaucoma in April 2014
- Henry lost his brother Benny in June 2014
- Henry lost his sister Luna in July 2014
- Henry lost a kidney in August 2014
- August -October 2014 he was only able to complete 3 of his initally 6 prescribed chemotherapy treatments
- October 2014 Henry suffered a case of pancreatitis
- December 2014 Henry experienced a day of seizures and is later diagnosed with multiple brain hemorrhages
- January 2015 confirmation that sometime in late December the low vision that remained in Henry's right eye was lost
- Somewhere between June 2014-October 2014 he developed an extreme level of separation anxiety
- At meeting with neurologist in December 2014, neuro doc shared that a "worked up Henry will very likely lead to his demise" and advises us not to leave him unattended especially if that means he will experience stress (as stress will invariably cause him to stroke out and die)
- OBP peeps begin to work to ensure that Henry has the closest thing to around the clock care that they can manage
- February 2015 the OBP peeps begin rebuilding Henry from the ground up
Cut to now. Here we are almost at the one year anniversary of his kidney removal. He is in good health and we are constantly talking about how we are baby stepping him back into life. Well, the latest thing that he's been doing that is like his old self again is joining us on the sofa before bed time! The pugs of old would join us on the sofa for some TV time before bed. Well, all of that changed for Henry. As Henry's anxieties built he would start to stand by the door (beginning around 7:30) and ask to "go potty" only to turn around and come back inside over and over again. By 8:30 he would be done with this pattern and be most comfortable just settling for the night on the big bed. Little by little that routine got to be later in evening and less repetitious. He had the pattern down to starting around 8:30 and only going out 2x to go potty and on the second time he was fine going to bed around 9. Less pacing. Less milling. Less anxiety.
Well now Henry will go out once around 8 and then he's fine to settle with us on the sofa until actual bed time which is around 10PM. And at 10PM he will go out for a final potty and then up onto the big bed. So, again, baby steps, baby steps, baby steps.
It is weird how fast and yet so slow the year has gone by. The cancer doc said she saw no reason that Henry could not make it 2 years post chemo. At the time we were just holding out for one more year. Well, that one year is here and in no way is that long enough! Henry is just now getting his mojo back! So, this first year was just about walking him back into life slowly and my hope is this next year (and years to come) will be about enjoying the fruits of our labor! This means for Henry to embrace his life to the fullest. And we will be here supporting but not rushing him along.
#HenryIsOneToughPug #HenryStrong #HappyNoKidneyAnniversary #HenryIsTheComeBackKid #Don'tCallItAComebackHeNeverLeft
Monday, August 3, 2015
Ask OBP is our attempt at trying to better respond to questions we get asked. So, don't forget to post your question in the comments.
We start this week with out first question from Ann, who asked how old Mimo is. (And to clarify, Mimo is the name of the tree we have in our back yard. It is a mimosa tree and we just decided to name her Mimo.)
Good question, Ann. Mimo started as a seed. The seed came from a seed pod from a far away neighbor's home. We started to grow Mimo in very late 2006. The first attempt befell a weed wacker accident. So, early in 2007 we began trying again to sprout the perfect Mimo. And by April 2007, Mimo had made it from a paper cup to a pot. So, as of this writing, we can Mimo was "born" in 2007 and is about 8 1/2 years old now. Here are links to previous posts about Mimo. Planting Mimo, Enjoying Mimo and Mimo. Thank you for your question Ann! G'Pa calls Mimo a weed and not a tree and we can't say he is far from wrong judging by how quickly she grew!
The next question came from Christine, who asked why pugs?
This is a good one, Christine! My gut reply was "Is there any other breed? Because they are the coolest dogs EVER!" But it does go deeper than that and while we are both animal lovers, one of us could stray from the breed more than the other. But the fact is that I feel in love with a 2 year old pug when I was visiting my sister. When we still lived in Maryland and my sister was already living in Florida, I was on a visit and her boys were playing T-ball. At that game there was a pug. He was the cutest, silliest, spunkiest little dog I had ever met! I had never forgotten him and how he just instantly warmed my heart. Later I fell in love with the movie Milo & Otis (although re-watching it recently I did not really enjoy it). The pug in that movie also "talked to me" and after researching them and learning more about their quirks and temperament, I knew that pugs were right for me. I eventually shared my passion with my family and friends and now we share our pug passion to all the others out there that got bitten by pug love bug. Thanks, Christine! Glad you asked!
We also had some interest in OBP supplying readers with recipes. We will work on making that another post exclusively about recipes. And when we do that we will touch more on the portions we serve(d) our pups, too (that request came from Alayna).
Another question, from Chuckie, was asked about the interest in the featured pug pic. Chuckie is noticing a trend that this has not seemed as popular as it once was. We will leave this question up to readers. Are you all still viewing this but maybe just not commenting as much? Or are you getting bored of pug cuteness?! We have learned a lot about those who comment vs. those who lurk. There are about 10-20 people who lurk to every one person that comments. So, please chime in and give us some feedback while helping to answer Chuckie's question.
Our last question was about how Puppia brand harnesses measure. Can some of you all chime in on that, too and help Jen C? Since it has been years since we have had to buy a harness we are too far out of the loop to help on this one. Readers, please offer your knowledge!
All great questions. We will do our best to answer as many as possible. We also wanted to post a reminder that we are not veterinarians. If we post about medical things, it is from our experience and not training or other credentials. Thanks everyone! And keep the questions coming!
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Henry LOVES riding with head out of the window. When we approach a fun killer (a red light or stop sign) though, he gets annoyed and comes back inside. We have also recently caught him lazily enjoying his ride with his head inside! You see, he has to stand when he hangs his head outside the window. When he tires of standing, he will plop back on the pillowed lap of the passenger. When the fun killer turns green or when it is safe to proceed, then he typically stands back up and resumes his head out the window stance. But here we see him still enjoying the ride, with the window down and he's sitting! He calls this being flexible! We call it lazy. 
<#HenryTakesInTheSmellsFromAllAngles #CarLovingPug #HenryStrong,
Thursday, July 30, 2015
I know I sound like a broken record sometimes when I recap our routine, but I am not sure if we have a new lurker out there who may be reading for the first time. Anyway, each morning Henry's routine is: wake up, meds with breakfast, car ride to City Center, walk the park, car ride home, doggie xanax and a treat, hang out while I get ready for work, final potty, get doused with lavender oil and get settled in a camera friendly spot so that his peeps can monitor him through the day until Grammy gets there.
The past week though, Henry has had a proclivity for settling in the bathroom. In the bathroom. Where there is no camera. Grr. Henry definitely likes to be on a mat with his head on tile. Usually the kitchen is the place that he likes to settle in this fashion. But now, he's loving the bathroom rugs with his head on the floor in there instead. This forces us to just listen to Henry rather than also giving us the ability to watch him. So, now the routine is that the last peep in the house texts a photo (to peep 2) of where in the bathroom Henry has settled. Peep 2 will then monitor the closest camera (listening for when he wakes up). Goal time is for him not to wake up until 11:30am but he can pop up as early as 10am on rough days and as late at 11am on better days. Depending on the state of his wonkiness, we will alert Grammy as to his needs and how much of a rush she needs to be in to go down and soothe the old guy. She typically gets there around 11 whether he is awake or not. On really bad days, she will put on her cape and go save the day as early as 10.
Henry is getting better at being able to recuperate from a tantrum and is working on resettling himself should he lose his cool and melt down. We still have good and bad days but the bad days are not as bad and the good days are pretty decent. If we could only figure our what makes the difference we would just do it. But it is never the same thing that seems to help. In any case, we believe that Henry knows him going off camera makes us a little nutty and that is why he's been playing a wise guy for the last week or so. With his health rebounding, his smarty pants attitude is also snapping back (in more ways than one)!
Henry is too smart for his own good.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
We have 2 cars. One is a Subaru Outback. The other is a Toyota Corolla. Henry's preference is the Outback. This is especially true when there is a passenger in the seat that helps him hang his head of out the window. So, when we have to take Henry somewhere solo, taking the Corolla seems kind of weak to him. He starts off with excitement but then that can turn into dud time.
The other day Henry had to go in the Corolla sans passenger. He was getting a little restless as he tried to settle in his usual comfy position. The usual position is on the driver's left leg with face buried in the AC vent. When his usual position was not working out, he started to try to use my arm as a chin rest. Uh, Hank, I'm kind of like driving with that arm, buddy. But at the next red light (or as Henry calls them "fun killers") I grabbed a towel from the back seat and propped him on his own pillow. It definitely made for a tight space but he seemed content and allowed me take back my spare driving arm.
He's not TOO spoiled, is he? #BlindDogDemands #HenryIsParticular #StillAGoodBoy
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
No matter where we go, it seems like there are cops everywhere. We live in a safe neighborhood (and I guess the presence of police helps make it such). But this is not a commentary on the state of policing these days, so please let us not tangent into that topic. We are just here to keep it fun and pug like.
Whenever we see the 5-0, we tell Henry, "Play it cool, pug. Play it cool." And fortunately he has indeed played it cool. But that Henry, he is a risk taker. He parked right next to the PO PO parking space and dared the fuzz to find him not playing it cool.
Henry is such a prankster.
Monday, July 27, 2015
We have been receiving some emails and seeing some questions to us in the comments section of the blog. Sadly, we are really not that great at responding to emails (and not really in a timely fashion). So, we thought for some general questions, we would answer reader's questions.
Here is how it will work. Post your questions in the comments section below and we will pick a few of those of questions and answer them on the following Tuesday.We will write a post with the question asked and give our best reply. Since we are not sure how much interest we will have in this, we will start slow. If it really takes off, though, we don't want to promise that we can answer all questions. You can still feel free to email us about more private issues and we will do our best to write back but please be patient.
Now is the time for you to ask that question you may have always wondered about. I will give 2 quick Q&A examples here (questions we get asked A LOT).
Q: Do you realize that your home is pug colored? (Like a fawn pug)
A: We not only realize that but we planned it that way. It helps the pug fur be less noticeable. Our guest room has black carpet. Pugs are allowed in there but only for short time periods. LOL.
Q: I have heard you cook for the pugs. What do they eat? Why are they on that diet?
A: Their staple meal consists of pumpkin puree, veggie of the week, high fiber cereal and ground white meat turkey. The boys had such tummy troubles as pups that when we spoke to our holistic vet she recommended this diet and we have stuck to it faithfully. (We modify it here and there. Sometimes fish instead of turkey. Sometimes sweet potato instead of pumpkin. But overall it has benefited them all very well.) Also, cooking human food for them has allowed us to dodge the riskiness of canned or bagged food that may become tainted. It all started with pumpkin that has been a miracle in regulating their poop. (Not too firm, not too soft.) Sorry if this is too much information.
So. go ahead and ask some questions and hopefully you like this Tuesday switch. We may go ahead and keep the Caption This and move to Fridays if we are seeing that it is missed.
#askaway #OBPanswersyourquestions
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