Joyful

Here I am, making the sofa my castle. Mum was so good as to hoover, change the towels and straighten things out, so I had a perfect blank canvas to begin digging and arranging things just the way I want. I take care to drag up the towels so I can sit on the gobelin fabric, and then drop the backrest so I can climb on top and throne there. Three spots available, so they all have to be redone, the left and right wings of the stately manor, if you have it. Good thing the air conditioner is on, life is good on steroids!

Morning Snapshots

 It's 5am walkies lately, so hot and muggy, but some good friends are awake for treats along the way...

Daily Blessings

 The meds are working, a daily dose of antibiotics and steroids, wee Sherlock is drinking like a fish and peeing copiously and continuously, flushing out poisons and getting back to his happy usual self.

 He's wearing a t-shirt hand-me-down that grandma saved for the grandkids, but Sherlock needs it right now, and it fits perfectly, so who could say no. Lovely soft cotton, and lovely soft blankets, air-conditioning when it's hot and the best tidbits for me, he says. The leakage from the ulcerating tumor (aka fungating wounds) is slowly abating,  two or three changes of t-shirt a day suffice. Sherlock teaches us grace in face of death. I know they say Cerberus guards the gates of Hades, and it is always seen as such a scary thing, but Sherlock shows me that passing is full of angel light and goodness, and the underworld is nothing to fear, but that every moment together is precious, radiant with love and joy. So be it.

Photos by Lelantos

Some Days are just...

Yesterday was one of those days...Sherlock has been the star of the blog for a while, relaxing in all his beauty, but a couple of days ago he seemed a little off color and wasn't eating. I didn't think much of it, it's been such damp miserable weather and walkies are short and limited so you don't really work up an appetite, and I was kind of distracted by the mammoth task of getting my courses online and now finally writing the final exams, answer-sheets and instructions...so what should happen, but Sherlock refuses food and walkies for the second day running, and then fell off the sofa and couldn't walk, shivering and peeing in a panic...and so naturally I got quite worried and decided to take him to the vet on Wednesday morning, although the exams were in the early afternoon to evening.
Just as I'm getting the car organized, the growth on his chest burst open leaking blood and fluids, and he can't walk...so I have to carry him to the car, the wee fat thing, heavy beyond description, having spread pottie pads everywhere. Nobu refused to join us, which in some ways was a good thing, so he stayed home to watch the house.
Turns out Sherlock was running a high fever...my beloved vet helped carry him in and worked to massage out a lot of the gunk, and then they asked me to please wait in the car (COVID procedures) while they took Xrays and whatnot and gave him fluids and a shot of steroids and antibiotics and more whatnot. The poor wee pup is in the final stages of a metastatized cancer, we knew it was coming, but he is so cheerful and jubilant, spreading love and sunshine and happy smiles every day, he just never let you feel it until now. I'm not into all the life-prolonging stuff, right now my priority is to get a load of used soft cotton t-shirts and keep changing them when they get soiled, and helping him enjoy the best tidbits, and massages, and family space. i have a battery of meds to support the process, steroids and antibiotics, painkillers, and fortunately some delicious tins of wet cat food have tempted him to eat today. He's able to pop off and pee in the garden at will, so life is kind of back to normal, only of course his regimen of morning walkies has ground to a halt under the circumstances. Every day is special, some days are just...full of tears and sadness, i guess.

Happy Setter

Photo by Lelantos

Mother's Day Pupdate

Nobu had his annual summer trimming session at the inimitable Inuya. The gifted owner trained in the US so he knows his stuff with regard to setters, and is such a dog lover he's very reasonable. Nobu loves the jacuzzi! 
Meanwhile life goes on in lockdown with masks and avoiding everything along with some hospital stuff inbetween. Fortunately we are blessed, if things seem fragile, precarious and transient. Yea though I walk in death's dark vale...

By the time the parks open and we're allowed to go to the beaches it may be too hot...today is already summer temperatures. This is a wee jaunt in our local park, which the friendly neighborhood seniors keep abundant with flowers throughout the year. Take care everyone, stay safe and stay well.

Photos by Lelantos

After the rain

 We've had a couple of days of freezing weather and continuous rain, so today i'll be busy washing towels and the pile up of clothes, but i definitely want to pop out to the park cherry blossoms with the dogs today. Sherlock hates the rain, hates getting his feet wet, hardly wants to go out to pee, so he has to be coaxed with treats and lavished with praise. He prefers to wait it out, only of course that's impossible when it rains all day, funny wee guy. At any rate neither pup wants to go walkies, you can tell the mood from the morning, it's like, what? walkies are off, of course, don't make me, mum. I'm fast asleep, look at me resigned to sleeping on the sofa all day...

Sherlock's wearing my new mosaic scarf designed by Arella Seaton, an Estonian knitwear designer now in the UK. It's a testknit, so the pattern should be coming soon. It's called Loojangulinnud, and there are lovely birds in the pattern. The gorgeous colors are courtesy of Chappy Yarn : she's a wonderful Japanese indie dyer living in Hongkong, and these are her new 2020 semisolid colorways. Huntsman, Kawasemi, Meteor Shower, Ink blue, among others...
Now to fry up some cabbage and chicken for a doggie breakfast, they need something gentle on the stomach with all this damp cold weather. Be aware that some rescued setters have delicate stomachs and intestines...with two dogs that means wake you four times in the night as each in turn feels the need to pee...and again...and you get ready for breakfast by washing out the vomit on the blanket in one of the cages and wiping down the surfaces, before you can change the water, and make up a breakfast dish...and then pop into the garden to scoop up goopie poop in the wet grass...part and parcel, as it were, not that in any way this diminishes the love, and the joy of having the furbabies in your life. Setters rule supreme in my book.