Feeling so blessed, a friend helped me driving to the vet as I was quite distressed, and in the evening another friend brought some delicious pork stew with carrots and radish specially blended for Luna to digest easily.
Absolutely delicious, thank you! This morning I've been wobbling round the block separately with Luna, and now we're waiting for Claire and Nobu to get back to have a hearty breakfast...freshly caught trout from the mountains, specially deboned for Luna. So much love and support coming our way, feeling truly blessed.
Fortunately with the garden, even if she's not up for a long walk Luna can wobble around outside rootling in the leaves and getting a breath of fresh air, and since she's got a very loose stool right now, it's great for her to be able to make a dash to the loo at her leisure. As you can see, she's still valiantly riding the waves of life, however scary things may be. Thank you!
Luna has had trouble with shallow breathing, flared nostrils, cold paws, white gums and wobbly legs for a couple of days and I was going to take her to the vet this afternoon after my dance class, only she collapsed this morning on the walkies up the hill to the park...one minute she was trotting along slowly, the next minute her legs were at an odd angle under her and she was down on the tarmac in a puddle of pee, which was fortunately streaming off down the hill.
I sat down with her, straightened out her limbs and clipped Nobu and Claire's leashes to my belt, and after resting a bit I managed to pick her up like a forklift and prop her on my chest to carry her home with Nobu and Claire in tow. So it was straight off to the vet's...where I was able to watch my Halloween Kimono national TV debut on Fuji's Nonstop programme in the waiting room, with a heavy heart for sure.
To give the bad news in a nutshell, Chiaro di Luna is getting worse, not better, and is borderline euthanasia...I'm not ready to let her go that way yet, there's too much life and enjoyment in her eyes and body, she still wants to be with us, if only a short while longer...
Although she has put on a little weight, after a battery of tests, it is clear that she has
- incipient pulmonary edema (not quite enough to warrant invasive treatment)
- cardiac arrhythmia - occurring every four beats or so
- large splenic mass- affecting the entire spleen
- huge numbers of bubbly mass in the soft tissue of the abdomen
- suffering from anemia with low HCT (33.6%), hemoglobin levels (11.2g/dl) and red blood cell count (5060,000/dl)
- white blood cell count off the charts ( 52800/ul)
- elevated platelet count (PLT)
Just having her keel over like that is such a shock, although she's quite happy to laze and doze away the day with me nearby, and still loves her food: clearly she is having trouble breathing in between gulps, but she does love her tidbits and is fully involved in life with the family yet.
The vet gave me some strong pain-killing rectal suppositories for when the pain gets too intense, she'll be gasping for breath and you'll know, he said. The side-effects are bloody diarrhoea, so I'm not looking forward to either her pain or the side-effects...never easy, this business of dying...
Nothing like a Halloween hat...who wears it better, Claire or the wain?
Making the needed adjustments...
Important to get the angle just right, just so...
Don't move now, Claire, this is a work of art...
I think I need one hand to steady it, just so...now to pose, the two of us, together, smile please for the camera Claire...
Getting colder in the early morning and nights, so I stocked up on some warmer clothes for Granma and took advantage of the sunlight to go for a walkies...the setters are used to the wheelchair, although Luna sometimes gets in the way.
Granma
is not eating or drinking much, but clearly enjoyed seeing the dogs,
although I couldn't coax a smile out of her, she's retiring into her own
world in preparation for the long journey.
I am
sad to think she may be taking Luna along with her, Luna's breathing is
shallow and erratic and she's getting quite wobbly at times...birthing
takes 10 months of hard work preparing, and passing seems to be an
equally intense process. 
Completely oblivious to the dogs, the pigeon simply didn't fly away, so I was able to creep round with my cellphone and take some adorable shots of the babies on point. Bit of a Halloween pigeon, very scrawny and with beady red eyes...obviously not so good at using the zoom function, the pigeon's all blurry...
I keep dreaming of going to Hakone to see the Susuki grass with Mount Fuji in the background, but in face of family and work pressures, simply can't make the time to get away...and so we enjoy the susuki in the local park.
Meanwhile in Europe
European Photos by Lelantos
So much on my mind, so much to look back on and let go of, walking with the babies is the healthiest way to remember that life is good and moves forward. Here and there as we walk the flowers share their selfless beauty.
Luna almost looks like she's smelling them, only of course cosmea don't have a scent.
The Japanese beautyberry, Murasaki Shikibu, is at the fork in the road where we turn to the park...lots of stray cats around here, so Nobunaga is too distracted for photos.
Breathing the autumn air, time to gear up my brain with oxygen for work...
I wake up at four or five am to let the dogs out for a morning wee in the garden, and fall asleep again on the couch as I wait for them to come back in. Chiaro di Luna spent the night on the couch, so we ended up snuggling under the covers together. Luna's second rescue anniversary today! What a miracle, the vet said she
wouldn't live out the spring, and here she is roaring into autumn and a
second anniversary. Little Moonbeam Princess!
It's getting colder mornings and evenings, and the dogs are beginning to enjoy the down covers and the rich warmth of the futons. Meanwhile in Europe the dogs find snuggly places too...
Photos by Lelantos
Japanese granny loath to eat or drink, so we took her out for a wee walkies in the autumn sunshine and managed to coax her to drink about 100cc of yoghurt and some mandarin jelly. After a wee massage, she was able to smile and enjoy the conversation of a friendly Yorkshire Mum, who was happy to share the cuddly joy of her dog.
Meanwhile in Europe...Yorkies seem to be a popular family doggie option too...
Autumn is the time for exploring, and there are still some corners in this neighborhood I've never been before...climbing up narrow stairs and gullies, trying to get into a woody area at the top, we hit on a grand old piece of property with their own little statues below the house and garden. Next time we'll have to try and access from the top of the cliff behind the woods, not going up from below...Meanwhile in Europe dogs blend seamlessly into the hustle and bustle, much like at Motomachi here in Yokohama...even joining the parade! No English setters though...
Good job with the souvenirs, nothing like a bit of European duck for a change.
The dodo squeaks but duck has a twoot twoot honk, very realistic. More European dog stuff coming up...
