18 Month Milestone!

This is a retro picture of Addie from many years ago. She was about to get a bath and was not very happy :-(



We are celebrating, Addie has made it 18 months post diagnosis! She was only given 8-10 weeks in July, 2008 and she is still here to receive our kisses every day. We could not be happier!

She has had a rough time of it these past few weeks. About 3 weeks ago, she was playing with Finigan and slipped on the ice and injured her back right hip. After a week, she was getting better, and then she re injured it. The weird thing was the next morning, she was then favoring her front left leg. Then that started getting better, then yesterday worse.

Being the worried parent, I was also concerned about her fur being very dry, and her shedding terribly even though it is winter. Also, we found 2 additional lumps within her abdomen. So, we made an appointment with her holistic vet - Dr. Friedly to have her checked out. He believes that the issue with her legs is that she was putting too much weight on the front leg to support the back leg and then she ended up injuring the front. He also believes the 2 lumps to just be the standard fatty kind she often develops. It is sad to see her slowing down and having issues. I hope the legs are not giving out due to the cancer, but it is tough seeing her age so much as well. She is almost 11 1/2, and at 70#, she is definitely experiencing her age. But we do all we can to make her comfortable and loved every day.

Right now, she is curled up at my feet snoring :-)

January 2010 Update

Happy New Year everyone!

2009 held many challenges and sad days for us but we look forward to a very happy 2010.

This year for Christmas, we headed back to Indiana to spend time with family. That meant that Addie and Finigan headed off to be boarded for a few days. It is a fairly quiet place so Addie enjoys that much more than the loud kennels she used to attend. Richard is great with them both and works with Addie and her special meals.

For the past 11 years we have debated about what other breed(s) of dog are in Addie's DNA. We know her mother was a full blooded Rottweiler but know nothing about the father. I always thought Labrador because she loves to retrieve, swim, and has webbed feet. Rob has always thought fox hound because of the shape of her hind-quarters. For Christmas, I got Rob (and me) the gift of knowing. I had Addie's DNA tested. And the results are....

Significant Rottweiler (as we already knew) and minor (very minor amounts detected with low confidence) - Cairn Terrier (AKA Toto!). That was quite the shock. We think that her dad must have been mostly Rottweiler as well and the Terrier is just somewhere down the line. Although these results were not at all what we expected it was still fun to find out.

Addie has not been doing as well as usual this past week. She has had bouts of cold paws, has been shaking, and last Saturday she fell and injured her back leg. No broken bones but we think she sprained something by falling on the ice. She is able to walk but does not put a lot of pressure on that leg. We are hoping now that the holidays are over she will get settled back into her routine and will come back around to feeling better.