Wordless Wednesday - 9/28/2011

Winston and Amiee

"One Day At A Time"

Sniffs, The HoundDogs

A message to Cleo and Thank You's

Cleo,

It’s Momma………

It is so hard to believe that it has been one week since we helped you with your journey to the Rainbow Bridge.  Winston is having a pretty hard time with you being gone.  He looks for in all your little hiding places, he keeps wondering why I leave and you don’t come back with me.  He cuddles with your blanket every night so he can smell you.  He sits in the back yard and stares off to space and looks at us with such sad eyes, like he is saying “WTF have you done to my life”.  I tell him how sorry I am that you have left us, but you must have been needed really bad at the RB for your life to be taken so sudden from ours.   Amiee is being strong but she has a hard time in the mornings as you are no longer there for her to bark in your face, to make sure you get up and get things rolling for them in the mornings.  Amiee is much more vocal and really speaks her mind a lot more.  Neither one will eat right know, I just hope it is their way of dealing with you being gone and that will soon change.

The house is a very different quite with you not here.  What I would give to hear that annoying bark you use to have.  It use to drive me crazy but I miss it so much know.  Cleo we want you to know how much joy you brought to our house and so glad you were able to show us the true meaning of "LOVE A RESCUE".  You presented some challenges for us when we first brought you home that day in February 2006.  You were 18 months old and had a death sentence at the shelter due to your aggression.  What the heck, a basset with aggression NO WAY.........OH YEAH, but you soon learned how to appreciate the finer things in live and learned to LOVE right back.

I would have never imagined that within 15 months we would be from 4 fur-kids to 2 fur-kids.  When we lost Tabby a year ago in June, I never thought you of all my hounds would be next to get sick and sick you were.  You had some tummy issues that we were working on then the Auto Immune Disease and then finally that horrible diagnoses on September 1st that rocked our world to its inner core.  They said you had the C-Monster and it was so far advanced that we had limited time with you.  WTF are they talking about?  You were just outside in the back yard in the 100 degree days walking the yard looking for snakes, running and playing with Winston, going for walks and golf cart rides.  This could not be possible, not my Cleo.

I pray that we gave you the best 5 years of your life while we had you, it was 5 more years that you would not have had if our first basset Precious - ATB did not lead me to start volunteering for our Humane Society.  I pray that I was able to make your last days as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.  I pray that one day I will see the sign that you are okay and having lots of belly rubs, treats and wonderful sunshine to run free in everyday.  I pray that you have found Tabby, Precious, Elliot and all the other wonderful fur-babies that were taken from us to soon.  I would pray for you to come back to me, but I just know that is not possible. 

Oh and Cleo, you would not believe the support that I have received from our dear blogville friends.  Mango/Dexter but a very nice post about you crossing the bridge.  You even have some great Cat blogging buddies as well, as CB but up a very nice post as well.   And then our dear friends over at SAS created this beautiful memorial picture for you.

 I have been overwhelmed with the sweetest comments and have yet to respond to everyone, but I have read each one over and over.  I just can't get over the support from our blogville friends that have never even met us in person, but just from reading our silly stories.   It brings us comfort to know that you were so loved by so many and will be missed by so many.  You have lots of fur-ends at the RB so just remember to play nice and mind your manners.

Cleo, please know how much you touched our lives and how very much we miss you each and every day.   Until we meet again, we will love you to the moon and back and treasure our memories of you for a lifetime.

Until we meet again, my Sweet Cleo.

Love, Momma

Cleo - ATB

Cleo

2004 - September 20, 2011

 

 

 Run Free Cleo

Gone from our lives, but never from our hearts...

Love ya forever

Mom, Dad, Winston and Amiee

Note:  We will post more later but for know our hearts are aching.  HDM

This and That

Well it has been a little since we have posted any thing but Wordless Wednesday pictures.  We decided to not attend the 2011 Illinois Basset Waddle this year due to Cleo's illness.  We felt it would be to stressful for her and frankly last week we thought she was running out of steam.  But on Wednesday (Sept 14th), my birthday she perked back up and began eating again.

She is know taking her meds again twice a day, but she will only eat scrambled eggs and ham at this time.  She eats about every 2 hours to help keep the acid in her tummy down.  The vet suggested today that we add a little bread in between meals to help with acid control.  She does not appear to be in pain, but gets very tired when she goes out to potty.  She still greets you in the morning or at the door with her tail held high and waggin.  She is a fighter and holding strong.

So we have included a few pictures of Cleo enjoying some sunshine and just chilling with her fur-siblings.

I think I can, I think I can........

Is this not a girl with some Attitude or what

Okay, just this once I will share the bed with her

We hope you all are having a great weekend and enjoying some sunshine with your fur-kids.

Sniffs, The HoundDogs and HoundDogMom

Wordless Wednesday - 9/14/2011

Sniffs, The HoundDogs

It's Waddle Time

We have been total slackers on our fund raising this year for the 2011 Illinois Basset Waddle.  We have got to get busy and raise some funds for the homeless basset hounds.  Every year Guardian Angel Basset Rescue holds the Illinois Basset Waddle in Dwight, Illinois.  This consists of two days of fun activities for bassets and their humans September 17-18, 2011


Saturday is a day of fun filled events with games, basset races, basset socialization as there are about 200 bassets that are allowed off leash in the GABR Park for the day.  Then on Sunday we have costume contests, wagon contests and then we Waddle.  The bassets will lead the the Dwight Harvest Day parade off with about 1,000+ bassets waddling the streets of Dwight.  All in all the actual parade route is about 10 blocks, but the bassets actually have to walk about 5 blocks to their starting point, and then if they have it in them they walk back to the GABR Park.  Well we have done that in the past and have found out that is just a little much for them little legs to handle.  For the last 2 years know we have opt to get on the "Poop" out wagon for a ride back to the GABR park.  We really don't consider ourselves "Poop-Outs" because we actually made it the total distance, we are only getting on this wagon for our humans sake.


We also understand how tight things are for some people this year and fully understand.  We just wanted to bring this wonderful event to your attention in case you have a $1.00 or $2.00 to spare and want to help a "Homeless Basset Hound" out.  This organization is near and dear to our hearts as our human transports for them.  She goes and picks them poor babies up and brings them for vet care or to their foster homes.  She has even participated in a few transports where she was actually delivering the basset to their fur-ever home.  She really likes those trips and are very near and dear to hear heart.  We always blog about our transports and I would say that 90% of the ones we have assisted with this year have been adopted.

Here are a few links to last year's blog posts
Friday - Setup Day Waddle 2010 
Saturday Bash Waddle 2010 
Sunday Basset Waddle 2010 


Here is a short slide show we created to show some pictures from the previous waddles.


Here is a link to our fund raising page if you want to help The HoundDogs out or you can also find our fund raising link on our sidebar.


Sniffs,
The HoundDogs

Wordless Wednesday - 9/7/2011

Wordless Wednesday

Winston

Cleo Update - 9/6/2011

First off, I would like to say “THANKS” to everyone for all the nice comments on our post for Power Of The Paw for Cleo.  I am sorry that I was not in a position to give more details that day, but as you read through our update you will find out that we were pretty devastated with the news that we were dealt last Thursday (9/1/2011).  Please bear with me while you read through my post, it was hard to right and sometimes I seemed all over the place but I tried to give you a picture of what happened since her last chiropractor appt and how we got to where we are today.

The week of August 24, Cleo had another Chiropractor appointment and also received Acupuncture as well.  She had held her adjustment from the previous time pretty well but had slipped out alignment in a few places.  She was adjusted then Dr. A thought maybe Acupuncture in the right areas might stimulate her Immune system.  Cleo does so well and just seems to melt in Dr. A.’s arms.  She pretty much rested during the acupuncture treatment.  Here are few pictures that I could snap before the batteries went dead.

You can see the little needles sticking out of her

The little machine that super charged her

Cleo had to lay still for 15 minutes while this treatment was taking place

Cleo held her own, began to eat like a horse (normal for them steroids), happy girl even was getting out for a few short walks on the cooler evenings.  All until Wednesday evening, when she decided to stop eating all together.  I had just gone to the vets on Tuesday and picked up a whole new case of I/D soft dog food for her, told the vet how she was a munch hound and seemed to be doing well. 

I did notice on Sunday/Monday evening when she would lay flat out you could begin to see her belly bulge; well this didn’t appear normal to me since she has lost so much weight.  Also on her left side there appeared to be a very distinct knot and when I would touch it Cleo would get up, like it hurt. As you can see in the pictures below what I am talking about, with the amount of weight Cleo has lost (12 pounds) we had not been seeing the "pot belly" effect until just late last week.

I really could not feel anything in her tummy, but that was just not right looking to me.  She had an appoint already scheduled for Thursday afternoon for blood draws so I thought we will just make sure that Dr. T checks it out.  Wednesday evening she said NO to food, meds, cheese, treats.  I did have some chicken in the freezer so I cooked that up and boiled that for and she did eat that, of course.  Well I went ahead and called Dr. T Wednesday before he closed and informed him I was bringing Cleo in first thing and not waiting till the afternoon.  I told him she wasn’t eating and something just isn’t right. 

Cleo got some very extensive testing done Thursday morning, blood draws, x-rays of her tummy, back, chest, pretty much her entire body was x-rayed Thursday (9/1).  Unfortunately, all these test have finally found the under laying problem to why she has developed the Auto Immune Deficiency.

Our family received the shock of our life Thursday (9/1) and our world was rocked to the core.  Cleo has been diagnosed with a very fast growing CANCER (Metastatic Hemangiosarcoma) that has been found in her Spleen, Liver, Spine and Lungs.  This form of cancer is usually so far advanced before it is detected, that there is little hope for any options after it is found.  We were told on Thursday that we may have 4-6 months left with her IF we removed her Spleen and started Chemo.    We have decided that that is not something we want to put Cleo through just for a few extra months with her.  We feel that her quality of life is more important to us right know then putting her through a surgery and drugs that would make her feel horrible for the remaining time we have with her.  We will have good days and bad days, but will enjoy every one of them to their fullest and we will know in our hearts when the time has come to let Cleo rest.  But for the time being we take it day-by-day and thank God for everyday that we can continue to enjoy her.

We at the The HoundDogs household, appreciate all our thoughts and prayers and continue to send us the Power of the Paw because we sure could use it about know.

Sniffs,
HoundDogMom, HoundDogDad, Cleo, Winston and Amiee

Cleo Needs the Power Of The Paw

Power Of The Paw, PLEASE

Cleo is needing some serious Power of the Paw right now.  Unfortunately, I am not at a place I can blog about it right know.  I hope to have my thoughts together for a post next week.

Thanks to everyone in blogville for sending Cleo good vibes and keepiing their paws crossed for her.

Sniffs,
HoundDogMom and The HoundDogs