Flying Baby

Best. Christmas. Gift. Ever.

Do you know a harried mom?
Run. Don't walk. THIS is the perfect gift!!!

All's good with Fred for the moment.

Oh, except for a pesky tick bite.
Quintessential Bulls Eye rash. The tick was so tiny I couldn't see it.
Now we all know what a tick bite looks like.
Good grief.
The last aspiration came out as good news, no Mast Cells.
So that's good!

Back to the Vet

 Poor Fred. As if he hasn't been through enough this month.
Thanksgiving Day, in the space of an hour, his incision swelled up. Called the ER --they said to put warm compresses on and see them in the morning

Four hours and $4,000,000.00 later, they told us it was an air pocket.
Hmm. Doesn't sound quite right. 
Monday: Called the oncologist who had me shoot her some photos. She does not like the looks of this. We are seeing a local oncologist Thursday, the earliest we could get in. 
Let's hope for good news.

Keen as Mustard

 I'm listening to an Audiobook called The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton during the long ride home. She comes up with the most unusual turns-of phrase...like 

"Keen as Mustard"

That's how this otherwise lovely fading Southern Belle smelled

 Henderson Village in Georgia... a lovely bucolic setting one mile off the interstate in Georgia. AND they accept pets!!!

 Old buildings were either on the property, or brought here....I'd guess most are around 70- 100 years old. And this building smelled it..

 During my stay I thought there was a slaughterhouse nearby. It turned out to be a frisky donkey hee-hawing away in this field.

 Three or four rooms in this building.

It's still fall in Georgia...btw

Catch ya later White Pelicans

 Fred and I are getting ready to do what we do---get back on the road with a stop at the vet to check the incision.

Meantime,

 the rare White Pelicans are having a heyday in the Redfish Hole catching, I think, Mullet and Redfish.  Unlike its cousin (your run of the mill regular old pelican) the White Pelican will only eat Fresh Fish. No Fisherman castoffs for these guys.

I wish I could figure out how to fix the light on these photos, but cool nonetheless!

Good news for Fred

 Well, Fred looks like a skinned cat, but the news is good. It was a low grade 2 tumor, which is evidently a good thing. We have to be watchful, but he should be in pretty good shape.

Here is Fred breathing a sigh of relief!

Things must be looking up. The White Pelicans are back.

 The Redfish Hole in the back is attracting tons of rare White Pelicans

 Beautiful.

 Blast Off!

 Hitchhiker on board.....

Their wing span matches

the whole way.....cool.

Stairs for a distressed dog

 One of the side effects of this surgery was that Freddy became terrified of stairs.

He was desperate to go out, but just could not bring himself to walk down the stairs....

 I tried cheese, ham, treats, everything. Uh Uh No way.

Finally dad helped put a sling under his belly. This seemed to help some.

Still looking pretty darn pitiful though.

(Cone/ innertube is off temporarily while I have eyes on)

Misery

Wow, tough surgery

Not even the orange ball brings a smile

Not feeling like much of a model right now...you can see the old ACL scar on the same leg

Thank heaven for the gel mat .

This was his bed while mom slept (not) on the couch. A whole heck of a lot of whining and crying went on during the night. And during the whole day. Vet's advice is to stop the pain meds. Somehow that doesn't seem like the right approach.

An added bonus: Fred is now deathly afraid of the stairs. This means going out is a major major ordeal...

Please Pull For Fred!!!

 Fred was overjoyed to get to Florida, to enjoy the Gulf front Dog Park, the golf cart, not going in the pool and all his other happy pursuits 

 But, on the day we arrived, the vet called.

 What we assumed to be routine blood work turned into a diagnosis of a Mast Cell Tumor

We went to our local vet who referred us to an Oncologist in Tampa

THAT was not very nice. First, we had to fast for "precautionary" reasons. 

A Lab missing a meal or two is a VERY BIG DEAL.

Then, a belly shave???*&%!!!!??? Embarrassing and uncomfortable.

 What will they say at the Dog Park? Well, at least no masses in the abdomen

This morning , fasting again, (oh, misery!) we're off to Tampa again. This time the tumor will be removed with a roughly 3 inch diameter removal. We're expecting at least one night's stay at the dreaded animal hospital, complete with scary beeping sounds and generally no fun at all.

We expect results on the grade of the tumor within a week. 

Let's hope and pray for the best. 

Grandma's House ca. 1959

I can hear the Cicadas......

Siblings

Fun with Babies

Bubbles!!!!! With cousin Lily

And then a little quiet time with the Little Giant!

Each in awe of the other

(Insert Caption Here!)

We're not in Nebraska anymore, Freddy

 The New Residence Inn in Coralville, Iowa

So much in so little space

Wow, really well designed.

AND I got to use Rewards points!!!

Literally driving til the cows come home

The cows were going home just as I was unpacking the car

 I'd thought  I'd driven til the cows came home before... this time for real

 Fred's interested...

 It's definitely a 2 Gallo single serving night

Fred's had just about enough. Hard to tell him we've got two more days.