Monday Mischief - Better Late Than Never

Since we had a late Christmas with all that was going on, Fred was a little peeved.  Oh, he was worried about Emma but those unopened presents from our gift exchange buddies Wally and Sammy from The Chronicles of Wallace and Samuel, way over in South Africa, just ate away ate him and put him in a sour mood.

"Talk to the ear 'cause the face don't want to hear it Momma!"

Finally the week after Christmas I decided regardless what was going on, I had to shut Freddie up let them open their gifts.

"Come on Freddie.  You and Gloria can open your gifts from Wally and Sammy."

"Really?"

They both had no problem diving right in!

"What is it Freddie? What is it?"

"I don't know Gloria.  Get your big snout out of there and I'll see!"

"Rawhide!!"

"Okay, take it and buzz off Gloria and let me at the rest!"

rip,rip,rip

rip, rip, rip.........

"Ahhha! Finally, new toys!"

"Back off Gloria.  Don't you see what it says?"

They got three new stuffies!

Which Fred would not share.

"I don't care! I'm not sharing!"

And lots of yummy treats! Look, they're for Best Friends! Awwwww!

That were lick curling good.

So Freddie hoarded the toys.........

and Gloria hoarded the rawhide.....

and all was right with the world again!

Thank you Wally and Sammy for the wonderful Christmas gifts for Freddie and Gloria.  You're the bestest friends ever!
P.S. - The package we sent to South Africa for Wally and Sammy still hasn't arrived yet but we are holding out hope that their gifts will still arrive safely!

Update - We just heard that Wally and Sammy's parcel arrived in South Africa! Yay!!

A Parcel!!

IT'S HERE!!! IT'S HERE!!! ALL THE WAY FROM SOUTH AFRICA!!!!

Freddie and Gloria's gift exchange presents from Sammy and Wally!  I can't believe it came so fast.  We sent our exchanges early as the post office said it would be 4-6 weeks for delivery. I sure hope they get their parcel from Freddie and Gloria soon too!

"Momma, Freddie won't let me see!"

"Fine!  Here Gloria have a sniff."

"Oh, it smell really good in here Momma!"

Their box was filled to the brim with presents and treats and they each got their own card!

Look at the treats.  They are Slobber Chops! Wally and Sammy posted about them awhile ago.  You can read all about them here.

They are all home baked with natural ingredients and a percentage of sales goes to Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centers. Freddie got peanut butter and Gloria got biltong.  I decided to let them have the treats now and save the presents for Christmas.  

Gobble guts Gloria was right in there.

"Nom,nom,nom............."

Freddie Spaghetti loved them too! I had to monitor them so they didn't eat the whole bag.  Even though Freddie and Gloria are a little ticked at me because I'm making them wait until Christmas to open their presents, they still managed to get in the spirit of Christmas to thank their friends.

"Now Momma?"

"Yes, Fred."

"Thank you Wally!"

"Thank you Sammy!"

All's Well and Another Package!

Whew!  Blood work is good!  I was so relieved when the vet called us yesterday with Freddie's blood test results and said everything looked really good even his thyroid. How did Freddie wind up at the vets Tuesday?  Well, Monday night I was up most of the night with him.  He started around 10 p.m. shaking and drooling like crazy.  He was listless and couldn't walk very well.  I panicked thinking these were the same signs that our late basset Barney had when he had his seizures.  This wasn't quite the same, but of course I panicked anyways.  I laid on the floor with him until he finally made his way to our bedroom around 4 a.m. We covered him in blankets to try and stop his shaking. In the morning when he was still shaking and wouldn't eat, I called the vet when they opened. They checked him over thoroughly and found nothing, but wanted to do blood work to be sure it wasn't something else.  In the end, they figure Freddie was just in a lot of pain with his hips and knees as a lot of dogs will shake when they are in a lot of pain. With the change in air pressure, wind and rain we got from Sandy (nothing like our friends in the eastern U.S.) he was just plain sore! I felt so bad as  I should have given him a Deramaxx, but I just didn't know 'cause usually Mr. Dramatica is very vocal and moans a lot when he's achy.  He seems fine now that the weather has died down and he is eating again!  I am glad we had his blood done though as it's just a relief to know everything else is okay.  While he was there we had them check his "rusty" spots. They agree it is some sort of reaction.  Could be the glucosamine but unlikely. More than likely food.  So we will be trying a grain free diet. If that clears it up then I will put him back on the glucosamine.  We give him the liquid formula.

Now besides the good news on Halloween about Freddie's tests, Gloria and him got a package in the mail from our friends Marsie and Nosey. All the way from Kentucky!

It didn't take Fred and Gloria long to tear into it either.

Will you look at that!  Dog treats a basset card with a lovely note inside, a beautiful picture of Nosey and a split heart charm.  See what it says? Partners in Crime! Fred and Gloria each get to wear half on their collars since they really are "partners in crime!" lol

 Look at those treats.  They are special ones for hip and joint support!  How thoughtful is that?

Freddie Spaghetti just loved them and didn't believe they were also good for him

And Gobble Guts......well she could have eaten the whole bag!!

We even got a couple of Marsie's business cards. You can check her out here.

Thank you so much Marsie and Nosey!  How great that those treats came right on Halloween!

Not only are Marsie and Nosey great friends but they're famous too!  They were on Fox19 where Marsie talked about how to have fun with your pets on Halloween and made pumpkin dog treats that Nosey was waiting to sample in her adorable bumble bee costume!! You can check it out here.

Now for Freddie's plug.  I've entered three of Freddie's pictures in the Purina "Wonderfur Winter's Gift Pack Contest" and would like everyone to please go and vote.  You can do it here. Just type Freddie into the search box and his pictures will come up. You can vote on all three if you want!  Thanks.

P.S. - I probably won't be around until next week as I am going in tomorrow for a bit of surgery. But don't worry it's just day surgery so I will be home laying around all weekend eating bonbons! lol  Have a great weekend everyone!!

The Consultation

"I, Freddie Spaghetti have been violated."

Our consultation went well, sort of. There was good news and bad news. After going over Fred thoroughly  and looking at his x-rays the surgeon  figured Fred is doing pretty well in the state he's in right now.  He can still walk and run without acting like he's in pain most of the time and he still has good muscle tone. So they recommended to carry on with medication and physical therapy until he reaches a plateau or hastily declines. He also suggested Fred lose some weight and we add fish oil to his diet.  Since they can't tell how fast his hips are actually deteriorating, he recommended a follow up in a few months to do a comparison x-ray.  This should help determine what rate it's progressing at.  He could have months before something needs to be done or (fingers crossed) he said he could have a few years.  He said it's a little harder to say with bassets as their legs are screwy anyway. 

Next problem.  Fred apparently has small bones and he doesn't know if Fred would even be a candidate for hip replacement later.  When the time comes they would take radio-graphs to see if his bones are big enough to hold the hip replacement. He felt we need not put him through the radio-graphs now and we agreed. If in fact his bones are not big enough to take a hip replacement, he said he would be a candidate for FHO surgery even though he did weigh in there at 67lbs.   He said Fred could have his play time.  Running in our contained yard for a bit was fine.  He was not to keen on him and Gloria wrestling and definitely no stairs.  So, no more going downstairs to the rec room watching dogs with jobs on the big screen from his my Detroit Lions chair. For right now we have a reprieve. We felt a sense of relief just knowing a little better where we stand so we are just going to take it one day at a time and try to go on normally.  That is the "sort of" good news.  

The bad news.  Apparently both his back legs have bad knees.  His worst one is the right knee which is the same leg that's hip is worse (the one that clunks).  Again, bassets have screwy legs anyway so it's hard to tell if a lot of it is just his legs or if it's the disease in the knee.  They are not that severe now, one is a grade one out of four and the other is a grade two out of four, so we are not going to think about that right now.  

So there you have it in a nutshell. Freddie is allowed to play (supervised) and when he's in pain I will give him medication and we will see how far this will take us for now.  I again want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all your positive thoughts prayers and well wishes for Freddie.  It really means a lot to us!  For right now, as far as we know there will be no surgery in the spring so I see no need for a chip-in at this time. It still overwhelms me to know that everyone was right there for us ready to help out.  People really are good!  Our house will keep the Freddie Fund going for on going meds and appointments and hopefully we have lots of time to build up a substantial fund for when the time comes that Freddie needs surgery and I know help is there if we need it.  That's enough for me!

I apologize for the long post but here are some pictures of our day.

We had to rig up something quick for Fred as his seat belt wouldn't fit when we went to leave.

He got to look out the window before we left town.

This is the Small Animal Clinic at Guelph University.  They also have a Large Animal Clinic and a Cancer Clinic.

Freddie was not impressed with having a thermometer shoved up his butt.  He was totally humiliated!

They had lots of treats there but he just didn't care.

I made these ones Wednesday afternoon to take with us for his reward.  I got the recipe from Wag The Dog.

Freddie checking out the pee mail after we left and believe me he left some hate mail himself!

He was ticked at me the whole way home.

Ahhhh!  Home sweet home after a very long day!