Piper REALLY wants to go on the BARF diet

...or she doesn't value her life at all....

Actually she is no danger. She ended up pushing the Big Mastiff Bailey right out of the Bailey's own food dish and taking it over! 100 lb. dog let's her food dish be taken over by a 8 lb. cat. That's just sad. (For those who want to know...It was ground pork, pork trimmings and a bit of canned pumpkin with honey and cinnamon)

Let's see what Greta has to offer....


Emma didn't leave me nothing!



Today she gets her her very own dish with her very own food.

A Face Only A Momma Could Love...

I just love the tooth stickign out of the floppy jowls!!!!

And So the Summer Starts...

as always with the boys bickering and fighting. DH gave them a talking to this morning warning them we had 2 full months of summer vacation and it was gonna be long and miserable if they proceeded to bicker and fight through it.



They made it through almost 12 hours without bickering and fighting. And then on their search for nighttime snack, they found the invisible Susan (from the Fantastic Four) figures chilling in our freezer. They wanted to know if they can have them...sure...except one Susan has a broken arm, Owen kept the whole Susan for himself and gave the broken Susan to Dylan who became teary and whiney about it, Owen became bossy and angry. I stepped in and put an end to it. I now own two Susans.

See my two newly acquired Susan's!

After snack and showers and partially picking up their destroyed bedroom (OMG those two possess absolutely NO organizational skills WHATSOEVER!@@ HOW could they have come from MY womb?!) I told them they are too old for sitting in time out, from now on whenever they choose to bicker and fight they'll be put to work...Hard Labor...they'll each get a pail to walk around the backyard and fill with rocks and they aren't' finished until they fill the pail. To which my 8 1/2 year old says, "I just have one question...where will we get the pails?" WHAT?! Are you SERIOUS?! IS that IMPORTANT AT ALL??!! I actually had to look at him and ask, "Is that hate important part of what I am telling you?" good news he was able to answer, "No. The important part is we need to stop bickering and fighting or we'll have to do Hard Labor and pick up rocks." THANK YOU. OMG, sometimes I think that kid has Asperger's.

R.I.P. Cheyanne, July 2006-Jun 2009

We lost Autumn's guinea pig Cheyanne today. I think she was morbidly obese and her heart just gave out in her sleep. She was great yesterday. Eating, drinking. It wasn't too hot here. She was just shy of 3 years old. It wasn't like our last guinea pig I could see it coming a good week or two before as she slowed down and slept more, and started sleeping in weird places, not with Cheyanne.

Cheyanne was a sweet pigger, smooth haired white and cinnamon colored.

Autumn was devastated. She went up to clean the cage and found her. She came down and she was crying so hard and holding her forehead...at first I thought she hit her head, then I was afraid she was confused and had had a seizure...because I could barely understand what she was trying to tell me. Finally she told me she thinks Cheyanne is dead.

I went up and sure enough she had died in her sleep. We got her a shoebox and wrapped her in a receiving blanket. Autumn sobbed the entire time I dug the hole under the fuchsia rose bush next to her last guinea pig Schvinka Morshka. I read the Rainbow Bridge Poem, and then said the Our Father (the only prayer I can remember). And then the kids all picked flowers from my garden and laid them on Cheyanne's Grave, and then they laid flowers on Newt's grave(Oregon Newt b.2000-d.2009), and Bunny Elbows (our cat b.b.1995-d.2008), and Schvinka Morshka (Autumn's first guinea pig, b.2003-d.2006). It turned into a Pet Memorial Day of sorts.

We talked about how Owen's guinea pig Cleo is going to miss Cheyanne as well, and Autumn said she was sleeping next to Cheyanne's body when she found her. Autumn went up and showed Owen how to take over feeding and watering his guinea pig and then sat in the wading pool holding Cleo, who oddly was more snuggly than she has ever been. And then she took care of the cats and rabbits.

And now we are down to 23 pets. June has been a rough month on us: *(

Big Brother is watching YOU!

Oh Lord, I forget how young Owen still is. He's 6 going on 7 the beginning of August. But every so often something like this happens that reminds me.

First of all earlier in the day, before dinner, he had attempted to climb on my desk to get him self some copy paper to draw on...and in the process spilled my full glass of Sprite all over the mouse pad, luckily it didn't spill on the keyboard, just under it and under the speakers and just missed ruining the book I borrowed from my SIL, and poured all out the back of the desk onto the wires and routers @@ Thank Goodness I have hardwood floors!

So this brings us to a couple of hours later when I decide to set the web cam up I bought last week so I can chat with my long distance sibs all at the same time (how cool is technology?!) So I'm setting it up and Owen comes in and looks and says, "Oh COOL! What is that?" I tell him it's a camera for the Internet, a video camera for the Internet. And his eyes get big and he says in a worried little voice "SO you can see people who accidentally spill soda on your computer and desk?" ABSOLUTELY! (Is that mean, putting the Fear of Mom in him?!) So he leaves the room, eyes as big as saucers to go tell his bro Dylan. And then he comes back in and asks with much curiosity," Can you see upstairs too?" ABSOLUTELY!!!! (OMG I could NOT let this opportunity to end the nighttime struggles pass unanswered...how friggin' perfect is this?! I didn't even PLAN IT...it just worked out I could play Evil Genius!

Now they couldn't wait to go tell their older sister of Mom's new wise mystical technological gadgetry. At first she asks me, she looks suspicious because I have been tinkering with the idea of putting a video baby monitor in her room to watch for night time seizures. I say Yes I Did, She checks out the new gadgetry. But Alas She Who Is All Too Wise for her young self argues with them, she's not falling for it. I have to woo her over to my side to join in the conspiracy. She's happy to oblige, feeling like she's in on a grown up secret.

I'm so giddy with excitement! Right now they are up in bed, SOUND ASLEEP. GO MOM! GO MOM! GO MOM!

<----Totally enjoying being an Evil Genius for the night!

No more pencils, No more books....

The kids have had their last day of school and so starts a 76 day countdown.

Our summer plan is to work on everyone's writing. We'll produce either a newspaper or a magazine. We'll work on our reading skills. We'll do some math drills. We'll explore some native american tribes, plymouth colony, the ocean, and biomes.

Our Fun list includes going fishing, swimming at teh grandparent's, going to the planetarium, using our telescope, and Owen wants to see some live horses...I'm not sure the last one will work out.

The Great Flood of 2009

I flooded my playroom. Actually I flooded it 3 times in a row because my washing machine is cranky and likes to do that every so often. The worst part is it flooded while I was washing all my towels so I didn't even have a bunch of dirty towels, or even clean dry towels with which to soak up some of the mess. The silver lining is it is actually a three season room with outdoor carpeting over concrete...the bad news was there was so much water it actually squished. The wabbits are beggin' for an arc!

Thankfully Danny Joe and DH fixed it (ok so Danny Joe fixed it, DH watched, er supervised I mean...) Something about unclogging and overflow sensor (guess I need to be more careful about washing the dogs stuffed toys after they have put a hole in them, lol) All I know is I was just happy to see it back in one piece, the last time DH took a dryer apart to fix it, it ended up in about 50 pieces never to be re-assembled or workable again!



"PWEEEEASE...Build us an arc so we don't float away Momma!We don't wanna grow webbed feet and be ducks anymore!"- Gypsy and D.B., house rabbits

Happy 5th Grade Graduation Autumn!!

Congratulations Autumn on your 5th Grade Graduation!!!

Autumn was awarded a Presidential Achievement award for Academic Excellence!

It was a very cute ceremony. Autumn played her flute in the Select Band. The class did a great rendition of the classic Grease song We Go Together.

Hard to believe my first born is going off to middle school!

The Passing of a Legend

No, not Ed McMahon , although he recently passed too..but our beloved Newt, our creatively named Oregon Newt, has passed on to the Great Amphibian World Beyond...it happened over three weeks ago on Jun 1, 2009.

I bought Newt and his long deceased pal (named Gingrich of course) waaaay back in late spring/early summer of 2000. Yes, Newt lived almost 9 long years, and he was adult when we got him so who knows how old he really was. Originally he was housed with Spike, our 17 year old Chinese Box Turtle. For the first 5 years we weren't even sure what he ate..remnants of Repto Min and fruit and shrimp that Spike ate? Turtle poop? Algae? Who knows but for 5 years we weren't even aware they made special food for Newts and Salamanders! Yet he thrived. He survived the time I accidentally refilled the tank with ice cold water and sent him into shock so bad he couldn't swim and I had to scoop him up and warm him under the heat lamp. He survived when we introduced Mr. and Mrs. Wiggles , the Eastern Painted Turtles into the tank and he decided they were too active as roommates and was afraid to come out and eat and became almost anorexic before we noticed and moved him to his own "pond". He survived the time Dan thought he was pouring plain water from a animal misting bottle into Newt's pond, only to find out once he poured it that it was diluted bleach mix I was using to clean up puppy pee accidents, which required Dan to once again scoop him out before his delicate skin burned and rinse him under fresh water. Newt had some close calls but he kept on going.

I know it's a little late to blog on poor Newt's passing but I bring it up because it took my boys' three weeks to take notice of his passing. I was pretty sure I told everyone that Newt died when they got home from school and that I buried him under a orange day lily (to match the coloring of his underbelly). Apparently they weren't paying attention.

It took DH and my stepson this long to move his 30 gallon tank down to the basement for me. It was the missing tank that set it off. Owen went to hang up his backpack and then comes to ask me "Where is Newt's tank?" I tell him it's in the basement. HE looks at me puzzled and asks "So Newt is living in the basement?!" So I tell him No. Newt's tank is in the basement. Newt died like three weeks ago, don't you remember. He said he didn't know that. A little while later I see him sitting on the couch with a strip of toilet paper..."What are you doing with toilet paper on my couch? Make sure you put it in the garbage, I don't want to find it laying around, or the see the dogs eating it!" He buried his face in the T.P. and starts to sob. Very dramatic. Especially since he was fine when I walked in. What's wrong? I'm just sad Newt died! OK.

So then I bring some laundry upstairs and on my way back down I run into my older son Dylan coming out of the bathroom, who has now been informed of this latest breaking news of Newt's death, again 3 weeks post mortem...who looks at me accusingly, with moist red eyes and says "You know Mom ..SOMEONE should have been feeding and watering Newt!" To which I tell him...I was feeding and watering Newt! He didn't die of dehydration or hunger...he died because he was over 9 YEARS OLD...I got him before YOU were even born!" To which he looks at me and accusingly states," I NEVER SAW YOU FEED AND WATER NEWT!" No, you did see me feed and water Newt you just didn't take notice. Like I told you Newt died three weeks ago but you didn't take notice until his tank was gone. He died because he was old. At the minimum he was 9...he was adult size when we got him so you can probably tack on a couple of years.

We don't' take pet deaths well here.

Dog Pile

Not exactly sure what Emma was trying to do... I guess just make it around Bailey who seems to be participating in her favorite past time, obstructing the pathway. Poor Emmers was pretty loaded up on phenobarbital and uncoordinated , she just couldn't get her back end over. I just thought it made an adorable picture.

Emma is doing well, and so the vet is going to decrease her loading dose down to 90mg twice a day. Hopefully she gets her coordination back but stays seizure free.

Day 3 on B.A.R.F.

B.A.R.F diet...Autumn thinks it's name is derived from what it looks like, or possibly what it will induce.

Emma however thinks it is absolutely fabulous. Course she also just tried to eat my pack and play, and has eaten poop from various sources (her own, rabbit's, cat truffles-it's all good).

So this is what her morning meal looks like..raw chopped beef, and a vegetable puree-a mix of thawed frozen and fresh veggies, eggs -shell and all, and olive oil.

Her evening meal is the chopped meat and either a frozen block of what my SIL calls Kennel Mix (which is apparently more chopped raw meat with more fat and organ meat-YUM!) or raw chicken, duck or pork necks. I brought out two of those necks last night and my stepson Danny Joe looks at me and says "What are those?!" to which I could only reply "I hope they are raw chicken necks or duck necks..." and then silently thought to myself, "because they look like bull penis." Not that I know what bull penis looks like..other than I've watched that crazy cooking show where that guy travels around the world and eats cultural delicacies we Americans normally feed to the garbage disposal .

Autumn was totally turned off watching Emma eat the necks. You can hear her crunch the bones a few times and then she swallowed the entire neck WHOLE! It had to be 6 inches long! Gruesome.

The Seizures Stop

It's been a quiet couple of days. We have broken Emma's seizure cluster. She's on a decent size loading dose of phenobarbital three times a day, plus Benadryl as needed to keep her calm. She's drunk and wobbly in the back end, has trouble getting up from laying down and with no warning all her feet will slide out from under her and she does her Bambi on ice imitation. Yet if she thinks there is even a chance she's gonna get some food she manages to get her back end to cooperate and be right there, so I am not too worried about neurological damage from the assault of seizures. I'm pretty sure when we titrated down a bit that side effect will go away. Each day she seems a little better.

For as sick as she was, she was intent on getting at my dry dog food bin. I had to take it out of the downstairs bath and put it up on my freezer where she sat in front of it and cried and howled for it. So I figure out of sight out of mind right? I put it down in the big kid playroom up on the counter near my washing machine. The next thing I hear is the sound of 60 pounds of puppy claws clawing for traction on my washing machine! The only thing I saw by the time I got there was Emma falling off the washer @@ I wasn't really sure if she just jumped up on the washer and tried to pull herself up unsuccessfully OR if she squeezed through the rail on the steps stepped on the dryer and walked over, which would be easier except in her drunken, unbalanced state, she fell off??

Turns out it was the latter. How did Sherlock here figure that one out? Easy. She tried to start my laundry for me: P(SUCH A THOUGHTFUL PUPPY!) and turned my dryer on with Danny Joe's combat gear for paintball in it -yeah...I insisted he wash it after he got back from the Lyme Capital of the U.S.A. Saugerties, NY-especially since he came back with a tick bite and is now on a preventative course of doxycycline. All that loud clunking gave away her route.

You would think with getting fed 4 times a day she would be full and satisfied but no...ever hear how the anti epileptic drug Keppra causes Kepprage (uncontrollable anger and agitation), phenobarbital apparently causes Elvis-in-the Late-Years Complex...uncontrollable driven hunger.

Update on Emmers

I left off yesterday afternoon...she seemed better so around 1:00 I gave her a couple of cups of dog food because she was hungry. I was only going to give her a cup but after she finished the first cup she was gnawing her way through my dog food bin! Dan had her out on the leash a few times and she seemed to be doing OK, I was hopeful, but then she had another grand mal at 2:45, and another at 4:45. When she came out of the latter she was very aggressive and went after Greta and Bailey snapping and barking. I called the vet and they upped her pheno from 60 mg twice a day to 90 mg three times a day to get her leveled off. I had to go to Dylan's Storytelling performance at school but Dan was home with her and she had another grand mal at 7:00 and another at 7:45. I was getting really concerned and was thinking we might need to use the Rescue meds. My SIL Stacy showed up at this time, she has 7 large dogs (Newfoundlands and Bernese Mountain dogs) and does rescue work, and two of her dogs have had seizures. She showed up with a weeks supply of food for the B.A.R.F. diet (Bones and Raw food). We'll get Miss Emma off the grains/ dry kibble in hopes that it has the effect the Ketogenic diet has for children with certain types of epilepsy. Emma also owes her peaceful night's rest to Stacy who suggested we give her some Benadryl to mildly sedate her. She rested so peacefully. Just one small 30 second to 1 minute seizure that didn't progress beyond the snapping at her own back end!

I have never been so thankful in my life, I was really becoming concerned that this was only going to get worse. I had never seen a dog have so many seizures in such a short period of time! Thank God for giving Emma break in these awful seizures!

LOL just another note to tell you how well she feels this morning..she's trying to break down my bathroom door to get to the food bin, and was pestering the cat; P Amazing. Absolutely amazing...yesterday I thought we might be coming to a sad end, today she is better than we could have even hoped for!

Poor Puppy

Poor Emma she had a seizure filled night. She had one in the kitchen at 2 am that lasted for 2 minutes. Then I gave her a dose of pheno at 5 am. 5:30 am she had a really big seizure that lasted 3-4 minutes. Then again at 7:30. I got her to the vet at 8:45, they doubled her pheno dose and gave me rescue meds (rectal valium). They could have kept her but they weren't going to do anything for her but observe her, she only suggested that if no one was going to be home to watch her. They skipped the blood panel since she had a full work up for that. We gave her 30 more mg of pheno at the vet office. She had another shorter one in the car on the way home about 10:15. Another at home at 11:03. So we are waiting for her med levels to kick in. And mostly we can just wait and watch and pray for the best. We'll put her on a grain free diet, my SIL did that and it helped her dog who had seizures.

Must be somethign in the air

First Autumn had a breakthrough seizure yesterday. Then the new puppy Emma had a seizure this afternoon. We were so hopeful that they just overmedicated her for demodectic mange (too many dips too close together on too young of a puppy) plus injectable ivermectin on top of that plus heartworm pills (more ivermectin). We slowly weaned her off her phenobarbitol, had 3 good weeks with nothing, and then she had a big seizure this afternoon.

Dan and Danny Joe were watching the Mets game and Dan heard all this banging, he thought she was gettign into something and was telling her to knock off the racket but when he looked he found her having a big grand mal seizure, thrashing and frothing. Poor baby. Back to phenobarbitol for the poor Emmers.

Damn

Autumn had another seizure. We were doing so well too. 56 1/2 days with no seizure. It's such a disappointment. At least it wasn't a big Tonic Clonic. I'm not really sure what you'd call it. She was fine, laughing and joking with me, felt fine all day. I left the room for a whole 7 minutes to go put my peas in the microwave for dinner and have the boys set the table. I send Owen in to go tell her dinner is on the table and I hear him holler at her like she's deaf "AUTUMN! GET UP. DINNER IS READY." She comes in sits down and she's in tears and tells me her stomach hurts...so I'm like then don't eat (I don't think she was just trying to get out of eating because we were having a dinner she liked...it was all Schwan's food...short ribs, roasted baby potatoes, peas, and french baguette bread and Autumn NEVER misses a meal). But as I'm looking at her she's not really there, she's confused and groggy. I bolt around the table and are like "Did you have a seizure?!" "I don't know..." she whimpered. Owen then volunteers he found her laying on the floor @@. I walked her to my bed and laid her down and asked Owen how he found her...laying face down. I look in at my husband who's on the computer in the room between the kitchen and the living room, he had a full view of her and he says "I don't know. I didn't hear a thing or see anything." @@ Danny Joe says when he came down for dinner she was on the couch, he went back up for his cell phone and she was still on the couch. At least I know it wasn't long, but she was totally postictal and groggy and fell asleep instantly on my bed and she has a huge cut on her chin, like she landed on the remote, and a mildly scraped elbow and ankle. What the hell?! I called her neurologist who upped her nighttime dosage of Keppra.

When she got up she had a little dessert, didn't feel much like dinner. Which is just as well because naughty Greta hopped up after everyone else left the table and ate her meal. Bad Dog. Guilty Dog. She had a massive headache. I just put her to bed so I'll be checking on her all night.

I think she had a absence seizure shortly before, when we were watching TV joking on the couch I asked her if she ever counter her freckles, she laughed and said yeah...but I only got to 50 and then lost count. Then she was showing me how she counted got to 24 stopped looked off to the side for a few seconds and I said 25 and she says and points 25...like she never even paused.

Brotherly Love, or Not

Best Friends, Worse Enemies. No words better describe brothers close in age. Exactly 21 months and 1 week apart...I'm pretty sure they alone are responsible for the rapidly spreading grey hair on my head. If I end up in a mental hospital, they alone will be responsible for it. I can't win.

If they are getting along, they are getting in trouble together (a la yesterday when they bickered with little girls on the bus, said girls hit boys, boys hit girls and Mom hit the roof), if they aren't best friends then they are worse enemies (a la waaaaaaay toooo friggin' early this morning about 6:30 am...WHY? WHY don't I have kids who take advantage of a weekend and sleep in for an hour or two? WHY?! they start right off with bickering and fighting which never ends well). They REALLY need to outgrow this phase or it is gonna be one loooooong hellish summer filled with endless chores and essays written about how to treat people with respect and kindness. They could have a really cool summer filled with cool projects like teepee building, crafts, field trips to the colleges planetarium and maybe even a big fun project like building a go-cart. Instead they'll have really good skills like essay writing, how to properly clean a bathroom, how to clean a playroom, how to organize toys, and ENDLESS, ENDLESS POOP PATROL DUTY.

For the Love of God, PLEASE help them figure out it is much easier to follow rules and be kind to others than to deal with the mountain of punishments Mom can heap on you when you ruin her Saturday morning.

Today's Blog is brought to you by the letter P

P for Puppy, Pooping and Pepto Bismo

I should have known it was coming. Two nights ago she pooped in the house..ok she's MOSTLY housebroken, one accident in a good week...not bad. We awoke in the morning to find 3 more seperate large, formed piles...OK that is NOT normal...by afternoon she had diarrhea...four hours later another bout...foolishly I fed her anyway, because really who can resist this squishy face??? And she was good until about 8, then she had an accident in the carpeted playroom on her way to the door. That was really fun and pleasant to clean up @@ : ( Poor girl thought I would be angry, and went and hid behind the recliner. Then again at 10. At least it was on hardwood and easy to clean...silver linings, kiddo, silver linings. I also found one lone Pepto tab and gave her half. YEAH for PEPTO!! I love Pepto..it affroded me a couple hours of sleep undisturbed by canine exlosive pooing. At midnight I heard her get up and let her out and averted another mishap. About 2 am I awoke because I heard her but I was too late, so there I am cleaning up puddles of poo in a sleepy haze wondering why exactly I was so excited to get a puppy. Again she hung her poor little sad head in shame while I told her it's OK you couldn't help it. I gave her the other half of the Pepto it held her till 6 when I heard her get up and follow Dan into the kitchen, but he was in the bathroom and I wasn't fast enough and she had another accident. Oh Good Lord may the Pepto Gods smile down on me and spare me the fecal flow!!!