Start from the beginning.

OK, so I have just started posting this blog's link and if you have just found it, I recommend starting from the beginning.  I have been blogging about our vacation with the dogs to the NC mountains, and we had some drama in the middle, so if you don't start at the beginning it will be confusing, and some of the pictures quite shocking.  It would be like missing the first half of a new series on TV.  But that's just while we were on vacation.  From here on, I imagine each day will be able to stand alone; as long as we don't encounter any more crazy drama.  Here's to hoping for boring.

Wednesday

A day of rest (for the dogs):

And a reunion with our kittens!

Buttercup

Wesley

Kitten playtime:

Tuesday

Check-out day.  Our somewhat relaxing, somewhat stressful trip is finally over.  Here’s a look at the inside of the cabin we enjoyed our week in.

 

One last sniff for Benny:

And when we got home, this was there to greet us:

Monday

Monday we had reservations to tour the Biltmore House, which gave Benny more time to rest.  It is actually easier for him to rest when we are away than when we are home.  See our dogs love to play when we are home, but when we are not, they sleep.  Not a toy moves while we are out. 

In our dogs’ absence, we did find another to take our picture with:

And although there are no dogs in these pictures, here is what we did while they were sleeping.

And of course we did the wine tasting too!  Look at the size of this grape vine!

Sunday Recovery Day Continued

Sunday Benny was doing fine.  He was a little drowsy but most people would never have noticed a difference.  But, Vixen was ready to play and Benny will never turn down a tug challenge.  So we decided to hike Mt. Pisgah, as originally planned, except Benny would stay home and rest.  This way we could wear Vixen out so that Benny could rest.  It was sad not having him along; he would have loved this hike.  It was very steep and rocky and Benny would have bounded from rock to rock with enthusiasm.  Instead, Vixen lead the way alone.

 

It got very narrow and very steep:

We got pretty sweaty, but we all made it to the top:

Then back down to get a much needed drink (of water.)

From the parking lot looking out at what we had just climbed:

Mission Accomplished: A very worn out Mr. Vixen (enjoying the whole backseat!)

A happy reunion:

Benny’s Battle Wounds (warning: graphic pictures)

Benny fought the bone, and the bone won!  But he is recovering well and acting like nothing has changed. 


Here’s where the IV went in his freckly arm:

And here’s where they cut him open, took out the bone, and sewed him back up:

Now if we can just keep the crazy man calm for a couple of weeks.  His stitches will dissolve, but we will have to have the staples removed.   We’re just so happy that he’s feeling fine.  But he won’t be going back to work for a couple of weeks.

 

The cause of all our stress- this is really biting off more than you can chew.

Sunday

Recovery day.  Benny was pretty close to normal this morning.  A bit drowsy, but hungry as ever and still wanting to hunt anything that moves.  After letting him sleep in the bed and doing our very best not to disturb him or make him move one bit, we woke up a bit sore.  Not to mention all of the stress from yesterday, so I placed Benny's bed by the spa and we started our day out relaxing.

Benny enjoyed the sunshine and watched the yard for anything that moved.

Then the dogs soaked up some sun on the back porch, where Benny continued to drowsily watch for any movement outside.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of Benny's stitched up belly and the bone that caused it.  Plus some more pictures of our day today.

Saturday

So Friday night, Benny puked up his dinner.  Vixen sometimes will puke, but Benny rarely does, so it was a bit disconcerting.  Then, he woke us up at 5:30 am puking some more, even more disconcerting; not to mention I was super sleepy and didn't feel like standing out in the dark with the dogs, but of course that is what I did (while JP cleaned up.)  And let me say, standing outside in the dark in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods, was a bit creepy.  So, we went back to sleep.  Now, Benny loves to sleep in the bed, and sometimes we let him, but many times we tell him to go to his own bed and he does.  But this particular night when I would tell Benny he couldn't get up in the bed, he stood next to the bed and let me pet him.  It was a slightly odd behavior that only a parent would notice.  So, when he woke us up at 8:30 am puking again, we started getting worried.  But what made matters worse, he was puking up blood.  So we drug our tired selves out of bed again and watched our baby boy wretch in the front yard.  And we knew why.  It was those bones that he ate so quickly and vigorously.  So, we grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and poured a little bit down his throat.  This is a safe and effective way to induce vomiting.  We were really hoping that the bone that was irritating him would come up.  But, it didn't.  It was an odd situation because his appetite was completely normal, his stools were completely normal, but the bloody puke was not.  We had a bad feeling that we knew exactly what the problem was- an obstruction.  So, 9 am Saturday morning I do a Google search to find the closest holistic veterinarian and see if they are open, and if they can take in our Benny.  The first place we called, Haw Creek Animal Hospital, is open until noon on Saturday and tell us they can fit him in.  So, we load up both dogs, with the hopes that we are being over-reactive and will get to walk them after.  We arrive at the vet's sometime around 10 am and begin our wait.  That place was a zoo.  The one vet on staff that day didn't get to see us until sometime around 1pm.  During the exam, she felt that Benny seemed very healthy but agreed with us that we should do x-rays as a precautionary measure.  When they called us in to see the x-rays, my heart sank, and I knew it couldn't be good.  If there was nothing to see, they wouldn't bring us back to show us, right?  So there it was, on the screen, a large piece of bone in our baby's stomach.  Fortunately, we caught it early and it was just in the stomach, not the intestines.

So, here we are at a random vet hospital in Asheville, on our vacation, on what was supposed to be the day we hiked Mt. Pisgah, and the vet is asking us if we want her to slice open our baby's chest and stomach and do exploratory surgery.  Now let me remind you that the vet hospital at this point is closed and we are the only people there.  This is not an after hours practice, so we are very lucky that Dr. Marchitelli, the weekend vet, was willing to stay and operate and keep some techs on after hours as well.  She had the practice owner on call. So, we sat in the lobby while Benny was put in pre-surgery.  The good news is that his blood-work came out perfect.  His liver and kidneys were functioning great.  She said that he was in great health and the risks were low.  We went next door to have lunch on the patio with Mr. Vixen while Benny was being put under anesthesia.  This was not the easiest time to eat, but we hadn't eaten all day, so we were able.  From the patio of the cafe, I could see the lights on in the back room of the vet hospital where I knew my Benny was laying with his chest open.  After lunch, we decided to go for a walk.  We found an Ingles (like our Harris Teeter) and bought S'mores supplies and some movies so that we could spend some time in.  Of course all the time worrying like crazy about our first son.  So much for a stress-relieving vacation.
When we got back to our car, we ran into a tech leaving.  He told us that the surgery had gone great and that she was stitching him back up.  He also told us that they removed a large piece of bone from Benny's stomach.
We knew that we would have a little time left to wait, so we went to the nearest pet store to get some extremely easy to digest food for our pup when he woke up- the raw diet, and some more freeze-dried raw food.  Raw is especially easy to digest as it has never been cooked, has no grains, and is already basically broken down.  If you're not familiar with it, it resembles uncooked hamburger.  We also stopped at a doggie bakery and bought Mr. Vixen a cookie.  
So anyway, we get back to the vet's as Benny is waking around 5:30 pm.  We got to go back and give him a hug and kiss while he was still really doped up.  He tried to get up and leave with us, but he could barely lift his head.  It was really sad, but we were really happy that he was awake.  It was terrifying waiting for the surgery to be over.  We still couldn't take him though. The vet wanted to let him stay on fluids a while longer, so she made arrangements to go and have the practice owner meet us back there at 10:30 pm to discharge him.
So, we rushed home, dropped Vixen off, showered, and had a quick dinner.  Then we stopped by a drug store for one of Benny's drugs, got some gas, and went back to the animal hospital (we chose one that is about 30 minutes away.)
Benny came running out to greet us, a bit wobbly, but happy nonetheless.  We are very grateful to the owner, Dr. Heather Sinclair and her husband for meeting us there to let us take our puppy home.
After a long, stressful, day we finally got back to the cabin with both dogs, and went to bed, with Benny sleeping between our legs.
    

Friday

We decided that Friday would be a good day for the dogs to catch up on some rest, so we set out early in the morning to go whitewater rafting on the French Broad River.  We had quite a good time, and were ready to take it easy ourselves by the time we got done.  These aren't pictures of the dogs, but here's what we did while they were sleeping.

 We are in the middle row- JP on left, me on right.

It was a fun and beautiful day.  We made it home before the rain!

Thursday Night

After our hike, it was back to the cabin for some R&R.  JP grilled up some very cheesy burgers . . .

 . . . and the boys got their bones to chew on.

Vixen got about half way through, before calling it quits, while Benny chewed away.  Notice Vixen behind the rocking chair.

 

Before we knew it Benny finished his and made his brother's disappear as well.  So then it was sleepy time.

Thursday

Thursday we set out for another hike, with the same potential forecast, so we decided to hike down instead of up.  We chose "Graveyard Fields Hike and Waterfalls."  This hike took us down into the valley and back out without any high mountain summits.  There was a good combination of steep and flat areas.

We started on the trail, but then we decided to follow the creek; we figured if we were going to get wet later anyway, we might as well have some fun.

  Vixen especially loves water!

 But Benny is still the leader!

In the wild, these two know no limits.  At home, Vixen avoids walking across the kitchen floor, but give him a rocky river and he's all over it!

We only let them look down these falls:

But we couldn't keep them from following me to the big ones!

On the way back, we found a nice grassy area where people often set up camp.  And there was only one thing for these wet doggies to do!

And before we left, one more attempt at a family photo:

The dry path back- we made it out with no rain!