Walgreens just lost my business

I think I might be on a roll for companies that want to loose my business. First it was Bank of America Credit Cards, then Bank of America Banking (almost), and now Walgreens.

So, you all know that our dog, Sebastian, has cancer. When he was diagnosed in January, the vet in KC wrote a prescription for Morphine, 15 tablets.

Here it is April, 4 months later, and we are out of Morphine. We've used 15 pills in 3 months. Our new vet wrote us a new prescription last week, we took it to Walgreens tonight. The same place that filled it in January.

We dropped it off at 6 pm. Our vet closes at 6 pm. He doesn't open again until Monday. The pharmacist didn't "feel comfortable" filing the prescription, and said he would call the vet on Monday. I said, our dog has cancer, 15 pills have lasted 4 months, he needs a pill.

No deal.

Now mind you, my husband and I both have monthly prescriptions that we get at this place. Sebastian got 15 pills in January. We obviously ARE NOT abusing the morphine! My dog has cancer in one leg, and a laceration that is healing on the other leg! He needs his pain medication!

We asked for the prescription back, drove across the street to Dillons, and 20 minutes later had his morphine.

I really don't understand what the guys problem was at Walgreens. But I will be in the store on Monday, talking to a supervisor and explaining to him why we will no longer shop there.

Snow and ears

I love his ears!!






The poor trees!
What every puppy house needs. A good beer and a bottle of spot shot!

Look at that ice! So glad I didn't put the plants in the garden last weekend. I spent so much time pulling weeds and getting a sunburn, I didn't get a chance. Those poor trees look so sad. Like me. I don't like snow. But, it is fun to watch the dogs in it!! All these pictures were taken in the comfort of my nice warm living room.

First play date for Fearghus

A friend of ours has a Malamute, Takara. She loves to play and this was a great visit.

On Thursday we started puppy class. I forgot my camera :( but will take it next time. He did really good with the training part, but the playing part was not so good. He hid behind the chairs!! I guess we've got a shy guy.

I got a blog award!!

Sheri, over at A Novel Menagerie, gave this to me today. Here is her post.

This award also goes to all of the bloggers who put their hearts, mind and soul into their blogs and give us a glimpse into their worlds. They are positive and may not realize it, but are leading by example. They inspire with their words, educate and inform. They entertain and uplift with their humor. They are welcoming, helpful and friendly and no one is a stranger, whether you’ve commented once or a million times. They are ever so wise and giving. Most of all, they have Beautiful Hearts.

While I don't really think I do all that, Sheri did say she gave it to two special puppy mommies. I definitely fit that description!!

We got Fearghus a few weeks ago! While we never thought we would EVER get another PUPPY, here we are. We really thought our next dog would be an adult from a shelter. But circumstances brought us to another puppy. And honestly? It's not that bad. We did a about a week of potty accidents, but that has passed. He is SO smart! And SO huge! He starts puppy kindergarten on April 1st.
He is being very patient with Cinnamon. Cinnamon is being very difficult. He's the only one who has not accepted Fearghus, but he's very slowly coming around. And the fact that Fearghus is so patient is really helping. And here he is giving Sebastian a hug!

Sebastian is doing really well. Some days he limps more than others. But overall, he is still very happy, his appetite has been very good, and he loves the new addition to the home. Still going strong!

We all get to meet the new vet on Tuesday. We'll be walking in with a Great Pyrenees, an Akita and a Rottweiler. We should get some interesting responses..........

Thanks Sheri!!

Puppy

Thank you for all your suggestions on names!! We ultimately went with Fearghus, pronounced Fargus. The kids liked the weird spelling and we liked that the nickname is Gus.

Things are going well. He's very smart. We've got sit and come learned. We're working on leave it.

The potty training isn't going that great. We're crate training. He does great overnight. We put him to bed around 10, and by 6 he's got to go out. No middle of the night! And he's never had an accident over night.

But, during the day is another story. We put him in at 8, then come home for lunch around 12, and are home around 4:30.
He usually has an accident in the afternoon. Yesterday afternoon was 80 here, so we just left him outside. But, we can't do that all the time.

Not sure what to do. They say dogs aren't supposed to pee in their bed area. Well, he does. We're at a loss.

So, last night was a trip to Borders and got a new book. The other books we have just lightly touch on potty tria...........wait, that's for kids...........on housebreaking. "Puppies for Dummies" had a whole chapter on it!

Pictures of puppy without a name.....

This guy is only 8 weeks old. Look how big he his next to me!

This was the first picture taken. He had no idea what he was getting into when we brought him home .


And the names we kinda like. Nothing has really stuck with us.

syler
peanut
emmett
lancelot
fearghus
barrister
ivan
bentley
caesar
goliath
janko
armond
morpheus
gizmo
gunther
hercules - herbi
jacob

Puppy Names!!

Ok, just a quick post. We just got home with our new puppy and we need a name!

It's a boy. A very big boy! I will post pictures on Sunday. He is a Rottweiler.

Any ideas?

P.S. Everyone is getting along great! We had to move some furniture around to make more room.

A new puppy

We have decided to get a new puppy.
When Sebastian goes, it is going to be hardest on our other dog. She does not like change. She likes to play with Sebastian. Sebastian raised her. I cannot imagine leaving her home during the day all alone.
The hard decision was, do we get one before or after Sebastian goes? Since we have no idea when this day will come..............
So, we decided we will start preparing now. We'll slowing buy the 'puppy' stuff. A new crate, toys, puppy food, collar, etc....
We are starting to look. Whenever we find "the one", then we will be prepared. We are in no rush.
BUT, I found 'the one' today! DH said no. It is too early and we don't have the stuff bought yet. There will be another one when we are more prepared. Sigh........

The test results are in - early.

And it is cancer. Obviously I pretty much knew this.

But, I was mistaken on the treatment. I thought, since it didn't show up in the lung x-rays, that we would just amputate his leg and go on with life.

Well, this bone cancer is a weird thing. Dr. said that there was a 95% chance that a cancer cell was in the lung. And that as long as the cancer is on the leg, it doesn't manifest in the lung. But, somehow once the cancer is gone from the leg, it grows in the lungs. Very strange.

So, amputation right now it not what needs to be done.

Obviously we still need to think about this, but I think we have our 'plan of attack'.

We need to just let him be. When he starts having pain, we control it with drugs. This will last about 4-8 months. When the drugs stop managing the pain, we do a course of radiation on the leg. That will give us another few months. When that no longer works, we amputate the leg. Within 4-6 months, the cancer will overtake the lungs, causing decreased appetite and other issues.

Here is when the choices start. Do we then put him down? Or do we do chemotherapy? Chemo can add another 10-18 months. And chemo in dogs does not affect them like it does humans, they don't have the bad side effects. Well, we don't have to make a decision now. We have approximately a year before that happens.

And honestly, for his age, once this process is over it will be his time to go.

In all, we are just going to let Sebastian make all the decisions. We will watch him and love him. When he becomes too uncomfortable, we will do the humane thing. I won't let a dog suffer for selfish reasons.

Another update on Sebastian

I really should be doing my homework. I haven't done homework all week because I've been reading about bone cancer in dogs. So, here's a short update.

The vet was awesome, I'm so glad we drove up there. They ended up doing a chest x-ray first. This was assuming that is was cancer and to check to see if it spread. Bone cancer in dogs spreads quickly and usually straight to the lungs. If it had spread to the lungs, there would have been no point in doing a biopsy, because it would have been too late for anything. And the x-ray was cheaper.

The x-ray was clear of cancer. But, there was a small bullet fragment!!! Someone shot my dog! This had to have been before we got him. It could explain why the shelter had no history on him, as some random person picked him up and took him there. If I ever find out who did that.................

So, since the lungs were clear of cancer, we proceeded with the biopsy. The vet was a bit miffed, but that's ok. The biopsy results will be in by next Tuesday. And we discovered something else.................that leads us to think it's not even cancer.

When we got home last night, we thought our other dog looked like she's lost weight too. Our son is the one responsible for feeding them. It seems that he forgets sometimes. So, that explains the weight loss. He is no longer feeding them, we are.

It was the weight loss that had me convinced that the mass in his leg was cancer. Now that we can pretty much rule that out.........................of course, I have no idea what it could be if it's not cancer.

Oh and here is a breakdown of our day yesterday:
Drive to Kansas City: $40
Trip to the vet: $815
Watching a huge dog on morphine? Priceless.

I've got some pictures, wish I had a video camera. I can't take the time to post them now, but I will try this weekend. He was frickin' hilarious!!

Ok, off to do homework.

Small update on Sebastian

We called the vet with some questions this morning. You know, the ones you think of AFTER you've left?

Anyways, he averages about 1-2 biopsy's (or is that biopsies?) per YEAR! I don not feel comfortable with that. They will actually be taking part of his bone. That is huge, invasive and painful.

There are 2 oncology vets in Kansas, both about 3 hours from us. We have family in Kansas City, so we have decided to go there. That way if we ever need to stay overnight, it won't be an additional cost.

They were able to fit us in tomorrow! So, as soon as I get out of classes in the morning, I will be headed to KC. Here is the place we are going. I was very pleased with the website, the receptionist, and things we have heard already about Dr. Heeb.

We will also get the results much quicker this way. Which means we can start treatment much sooner! Since this type of cancer spreads so fast, we are hopeful that we caught it early. If it has not spread, the amputation is all we will need to do. Which is good, because I already have my mind made up about that. It's the rest that I can't decide on.

Amputation? That does not bother me at all. I've known a few 3-legged dogs in my time, and they all seem to do great. My friend has a 3-legged Great Dane. We don't have any steps in our house that Sebastian uses. He refuses to go in the basement.

You should have been there when we had the tornado warnings going off one time! I was the only human home. I threw the cat in the carrier and put him in the basement. I grabbed Angel (our Akita) and took her down. Then it was time for Sebastian. He is big. He is stubborn. He is strong. This may sound very mean, but when you have a tornado headed your way, you don't have time for much else. I put him on the leash and I started to go down the stairs. He got down about 2 steps and just planted himself there. I pulled and pulled. He just stared at me. I finally won because he couldn't breathe anymore and gave in. I know, mean. But what else could I do? By the time we were all down there, I was sweating. Then I turned the radio on and the warning was canceled!

Anyways, we'll be meeting the new vet tomorrow and doing the biopsy. I'll let you know how it goes soon.

Thank you all for your kind words.

How do you put a price tag on a life?

This is my dog, Sebastian.
Poor guy had a paw injury and wouldn't stop licking it. I'll let you imagine all the damage he did to the house with this thing on.
Patiently letting me snap away with the camera.
Playtime with his sister.
A visit to a girl scout troop to teach them about dog manners and what therapy dogs do.


On Sunday morning I noticed my big ol' dog limping. Then I noticed he had a fever. Then I noticed a lump on his front leg, where what a human would call, the knee. There really wasn't much we could do, it didn't seem like an emergency, so we waited it out. He didn't seem in pain, but he's a tough and stubborn guy, so who knows.

I had class this morning, so DH took the morning off and took Sebastian into the vet. I may as well missed both classes, as I don't think I really heard the teachers. I called DH after my first class and he had just left the vets. My favorite vet had the day off, so he saw another one. She kept Sebastian to do blood work and x-rays.

The blood work was ok. The x-rays were inconclusive. There is something wrong, but they could not tell what. It may be an infection or it may be bone cancer.


He also has lost 12 pounds in the last 4 months. They actually weighed him 3 times and tested the scale with another dog.

He's a very big dog, with lots of hair, so it's hard to tell if he has a weight change.

This is a dog who used to be a therapy dog. He would go to schools and visit nursing homes and cancer patients. He is so sweet.

We rescued him from our local Humane Society. He was an adult, but nobody know how old he was. Everyone guessed around 3. That was 5 1/2 years ago. So, he's around 8 1/2, which is pretty old for a Great Pyrenees.

Gosh, I'm rambling.

Anyways, after spending all day googling Osteosarcoma, it really looks like it's very possible that he has it. Bone Cancer.

The treatment? You start by amputating the leg, then doing chemotherapy. You might get another year of life by doing this.

The question is, is that worth it? Chemo isn't exactly fun. Do we put him through all that, just to spend a few more months to a year with him????

Then we have to consider the cost. Obviously we are willing to spend money on him. And if there was a guarantee on the time we would get with him, it wouldn't be so hard. But we don't even know if it will work. Bone cancer spreads very quickly, it may be too late already. We can make the finances work, without using credit cards. Our cards won't get paid off in the time frame we have. We would use the money that we are currently using for extra credit card payments for his treatment. Our emergency fund will already be depleted by the end of this month. We bought the new TV, I sent $500 to my mom to help with medical expenses, today's vet trip was $272 and Fridays vet trip will be $360.

I will have more answers on Friday. They are doing the biopsy then. A bone biopsy. A very painful process with lots of healing time.
Of course we won't have the results yet, but I will have a huge list of questions for the vet. We weren't exactly prepared for cancer questions this morning.

I'm supposed to be doing homework right now. I don't think it's going to get done.

Remember when I said everything was falling down around us?

And here is how..............

Warning: This post includes cute doggy pictures!!

We knew we had fence problems. We've been saving to replace the back fence. I was thinking it would be around $1500. We were hoping to have that by September and replace it then. We also thought the above picture was our bad spot. Why haven't the dogs cleared that yet?? We were wrong.Here I am, taking my dog into our backyard on a leash. We had a horrible storm last night, and down went our fence. I was back there a few days ago and noticed it wasn't stable, so we rigged it with the post and chain, seen above. It didn't stand a chance against the winds last night.


And there's another spot that falling back.

I can not, under any circumstances let this dog off a leash. He is a repeat offender, skilled in the art of escape. Notice the yellow things at the bottom of the fence. Yes, we had to break down and put an electric wire along the base. He did everything to get out. The wire finally stopped him. Now about 3 months after we put the wire down, it snapped, (with help of the weed trimmer) and has not been fixed. That was about 2 years ago. Today was the first day he ever got close to that fence. I mean heck, how could he resist that gaping hole?

I wish I could have seen him. I know he couldn't have gone straight for it. He had to have pondered it. Paced back and forth, deciding if it was worth it. Then finding out it was. Poor guy has no clue he could have cleared that fence at any time in the last 2 years, he didn't need the damn thing to fall down!

"But mom, I promise I'll be good, just let me go!!"
There's Cinnamon, watching us from the window.

The next 3 pictures are of the length of the fence. I tried to get it in one picture, but it's just too long. 110 feet. $2700 to replace it. $1200 more than what I was budgeting for, and 5 months early.

And now it's Angel's time to go outside. These dogs usually go out and run around for about an hour. They love the big yard, and the big yard is one of the reasons we bought the piece of shit house. To make our dogs happy. Of course, when we bought the house, we didn't have any dogs. But we knew they would be an addition.

She stands in front of me, making sure there are no dangers.

Angel is very loyal and a homebody. She doesn't care to take off. I'm standing in front of the fence and let her off leash. She eyed it, then went off to guard me. I'm not sure what she heard, but she sure did turn her head quickly.Yep, the cat is still watching out for us.

"Here mom, let me lead the way. I need to make sure everything is okay"

I couldn't get a picture of it, but she kept looking back, checking on me.

We had quit a bit of snow these last few months. It's over now, but it did cause some damage.

The snow is clear up to her belly!


Ok, I almost forgot, this is a post about everything falling down around us. So, here it is. The covering over our porch couldn't handle the snow and down it came. Not the best picture, but you can see it hanging down. And see the dogs checking things out before they ventured out to the snow.

"Ok, I'm ready to come back inside now"



So, last fall, we had the guttering on one side of the house fall, then in the winter our porch cover, and now at spring time the fence. What will summer bring??

My guess is the rest of the gutters. Which I did have budgeted to fix, but since the fence is going to be so high, we have to take out of that fund. So, hopefully they will last another year.