Tuesday, June 29, 2010
It's been really hot lately. After a cold and blustery spring, summer has finally arrived. Jack's never been a hot weather guy - he much prefers cooler temperatures, which is one of the main reasons we started travelling to the coast with him years ago. We often find him on the cool tile floor in the kitchen... which doesn't help his arthritis and stiffness. At night he only gets comfortable when we turn on a small oscillating fan and aim it at him (and yes, we do have air conditioning!).
Jack's coat is not long, but it's very thick with a heavy down undercoat that sheds constantly. When he gets wet, it curls up in all sorts of places until the next brushing. Linda often calls him a "Little Wooly Mammoth."
We ordered a "cooling bed" for dogs last week and Jack is anxious to try it when it arrives. Apparently by adding water to the chambers, it will keep the bed at room temperature. His regular bed with polyester fiberfill warms up as it absorbs his body heat, but the cooling bed won't. That's the theory, anyway. We'll see.
Other than the heat, Jack seems happy. So far his summer allergies are not too bad - they generally are at their worst in July and early August so we're keeping our fingers crossed this year.
Tomorrow morning he will visit with Dr. Schneider for his monthly "node check-up." On Thursday he sees Dr. Beebe for acupuncture and prolotherapy. He is a very lucky guy to have two wonderful vets who are very fond of him.
Meanwhile, we are excited to report that his one-year prescription to his chewable heart medication, Vetmedin, has run out! Dr. Schneider had to renew the prescription. This is a medication he started taking last July, and when Linda accidentally ordered 4 bottles instead of two back in October, she was absolutely certain he wouldn't be around long enough to go through all 4 bottles (each one lasts 25 days). Boy, was she wrong! We went through those 4... and many more!
We forgot to mention in the blog that last weekend marked 37 weeks since diagnosis. Not only did he make it passed Thanksgiving, but he made it to the Mendocino trip and is about to celebrate the 4th of July. That's our boy!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Done! The Summer Vacation album is up. Please follow the link to the left.
For those of you who have wondered why this site is called Leaningdog.com, you'll find your answer in the last picture. Jack often wonders why Mom and Dad can only find winding roads, and has learned to lean very effectively into the curves. Smart boy!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Due to human illness Jack’s Summer Vacation page will not be posted today. Please bear with us; we will have the page up as soon as we are able. Thanks again for visiting Jack’s Blog!
Monday, June 21, 2010
We had a great trip to Mendocino this weekend! There’s a place we have always wanted to stay that is super dog-friendly...The Inn at Schoolhouse Creek. Here is the website for some really lovely photos: http://www.schoolhousecreek.com/. If you haven’t been to Mendocino, it’s one of the more challenging places
to reach on the California coast, northwest of Sonoma and Napa and near Ft. Bragg. Challenging to reach but well worth the effort! We wish we could have stayed longer. It was a fitting way to celebrate 36 weeks since Jack’s diagnosis last October.
We’ll post Jack's Summer Vacation page tomorrow when we have more time. But here are a couple of pictures in the meantime.
Jack enjoyed the trip and was a real trooper, but the real surprise of the trip was Jenny! The Inn at Schoolhouse Creek is a complex of cottages, and behind one set of cottages was a nice enclosure with two miniature donkeys, Monique and Heidi. Jenny was absolutely enamored with the donkeys and couldn’t get enough of them! We thought she might bark or nip at them, but instead she sniffed them like crazy and licked their noses! They seemed equally interested in her and were spotted a couple of times trotting over with enthusiasm to greet her. By the end of the weekend it seemed like a new ‘sisterhood’ was forming…
A big THANK YOU to Steven & Maureen and the staff at the Inn for such a wonderful weekend. Jack and Jenny are already plotting their next trip.
Jenny and her new BFF Monique
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 
This photo of Jack was taken yesterday in the car as we cruised around doing errands. Does this look like a guy who has heart disease, a chronic sinus infection, arthritis, lymphoma (in remission), and 6 months of chemo under his belt?
You might notice a small dark spot under his right eye. He had some kind of growth there that kept bleeding and was slowly getting bigger and more bothersome. Dr. Beebe finally had enough of it and snipped it off when he had his two other treatments on our last visit. She thinks it was a cyst. It's now the remnants of a scab that is healing quite nicely. He looks so handsome without that thing growing there! I'm not sure how she did it... no anesthesia and he didn't seem to mind (much.).
We're getting excited about our trip to Mendocino this week. If we don't blog again before we leave, we'll be sure to take pictures and post Jack's Summer Vacation Album when we get back!
Friday, June 11, 2010
All is well in the world of Jack. He's handling the daily low dose of antibiotics well (no tummy upset that we can detect) and the nose bogies are still at bay. He is in a really good mood and ready for pretty much anything... including brief play sessions with Jenny.
It's important to understand that Jenny plays hard. She gurfs and growls and bites at his legs and feet, and she sometimes hurls herself at him from a running start. Jack holds his own and comes right back at her. When he was going through chemo, he would often just sit down if she played too rough, but now it seems to get him "fired up!"
Jack is sometimes restless at night, which keeps everyone up. Last night was one such night. Still, he was very animated at breakfast and kept barking at John not to be stingy with the food. His appetite remains incredibly good.
This weekend we will celebrate 35 weeks since diagnosis of lymphoma back on October 11. Has it really been that long? We are amazed and delighted not only that he's still with us, but he's obviously happy and feeling good. Next week we are taking a family vacation to Mendocino on the California coast. We made these reservations back in March, not knowing if Jack would be here to go with us. Not only is he with us, but we believe he will really enjoy the trip! We have never been to Mendocino on vacation with the dogs, so we're excited that Jack can still have an adventure in his otherwise busy schedule.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Jack is responding so well to his recent treatments from Dr. Beebe that he took us on a big walk today! The trails in our open-space park form a figure 8, and today we walked the bottom (southern) loop, which included the walk from home to the park and back. He hasn’t walked that far since Christmas!
You’ve heard of James Bond and Goldfinger? We’ve got Jack Bond and Goldtoes.
One of the treatments involved implanting tiny gold beads into his feet, which cause long-term stimulation of the acupuncture points for his arthritic hips. No… we’re not kidding. You can read about it here: http://www.integrativeveterinarycenter.com/site/view/159787_GoldBeadImplants.pml. The beads are tiny and implanted through a syringe. We told Dr. Beebe that when she tells us he needs a treatment involving diamonds, that’s where we’ll draw the line.
The second treatment was Prolotherapy to stimulate the natural growth of connective tissue in the tendons and ligaments around his hips, in order to increase the strength in his back end. It is apparently used with good success in people and is now being done in animals. You can read about it here: http://www.integrativeveterinarycenter.com/site/view/159786_Prolotherapy.pml.
We decided to go ahead with these treatments because neither one would hurt him and there was a really good chance he would benefit. Based on today’s walk… he has! Dr. Beebe said he was a terrific patient and let her do pretty much anything to him without argument. She said he just laid there staring at the jar of chicken treats on the counter next to his head. Smart vet. He’s been in a great mood ever since and really acts like his old self. In our house we like to say “Jack’s Back!”
Friday, June 3, 2010 Jack’s been a busy guy this week! Not only did he have a big adventure on Monday (see below), but Wednesday he trekked to Sacramento to see Dr. Beebe. She tried a couple of new treatments in addition to acupuncture and they seem to be having a positive effect. We'll post more about those treatments next week when we see how he's doing. We can report, however, that he's been in a really good mood with bright eyes and an interest in everything. He also slept well last night, which is an improvement over the last several nights of panting at midnight and inability to get comfortable.
Tomorrow we plan to take a ride up to Portola, CA, to the rescue where we adopted Jenny (www.highsierraanimalrescue.org). One of their annual fundraisers is called Bow Wow at the Barn, which is on July 10 this year. We go every year and have a great time. It includes an excellent dinner (this year it's a luau) and silent auction. We have a few items to donate for the silent auction, so we'll take a ride tomorrow to deliver. High Sierra Animal Rescue is an awesome organization with really great dogs and cats rescued from shelters in Lassen and Plumas Counties in CA, and Washoe County (Reno) in Nevada. We highly recommend them and highly recommend going to Bow Wow at the Barn!