Back at home

The vet rang around 5pm with the results of the blood test – Sparkie was dehydrated, but her organs were ok and she doesn’t have parvo. After a mostly sleepless night, the news was mostly good. Sparkie ate her breakfast and hadn’t vomited, but she was still bleeding.

 

Mid-morning, we went to see Sparkie at the vet. She was lying in her cage with the side of her neck shaved and her leg shaved and bandaged. She's still on the drip, but she wagged her tail and sat up when we came in. Her chart says she's still holding down her breakfast. The bleeding doesn't seem as bad as it was yesterday. We sat beside the cage and rubbed her tummy and her chest and talked to her and fiddled with her ears and patted her shoulders and rubbed her unbandaged leg, for nearly an hour. We would have stayed longer, but the vet said we had to leave. Visiting hours were over.

 

Last night was probably the hardest night ever. If she's goes, my confidence goes, my motivation goes, my whole reason to get out of bed in the morning goes. We were at the big truck stop last night. Before now, every morning when we were here I'd take Sparkie for a walk past Bunnings. The staff recognize us and always say hello. And suddenly I was alone. I couldn't handle eating dinner on my bed last night. Sparkie always lies her head on my knee when I'm eating there. So I sat up on the seats, but still I found myself looking down, expecting her to be sitting there with her eyes bright and tail wagging as she waited for me to toss her some food. For the first time since I brought her home, we were apart at night. Not ever have I slept without knowing exactly how she's doing, where she is. For the first time since 12 March last year, I scrambled for the internet, begging for prayers on Facebook, my blog, everywhere I could think of. I was terrified I was gonna lose her.

 

Sparkie helps me face each challenge head on, and I owe it to her to give everything to help her survive this. She got me through 12 March 2011 and the horrible weeks that followed, and everyday she's right there if I need her. I guess that's why I kept subconsciously reaching for her, expecting her to be at my side when I'm helping cook dinner, expecting her to be behind me when I head for the door, expecting her to be waiting eagerly for my "get up!" before she leaps on the back bed, expecting her to be dozing at the foot of my bed. I kept catching myself about to whistle for her, call her.

 

Sparkie came home at 4:30pm tonight, not bleeding, not vomiting, not drooling, not shivering, etc, etc. She ate all her dinner and is alert enough to lay her head on my knee while I ate my own dinner. She's got to take some more medications over the next few days. She's tired and currently dozing on the bed beside me, but it's not semi-conscious drowsiness like yesterday. The next few days we'll both be taking it easy to recover from the craziness of the last two days.

 

 

 

“And where would I be without you?

I’d be packing my bags when I need to stay.

I’d be chasing every breeze that blows my way.

I’d be building my kingdom just to watch it fade away.

It’s true, that’s me without you.

That’s me without you.”

- Me Without You, a song by TobyMac

URGENT!!

Sparkie started vomiting late last night, had diarrhoea, was drooling and shivering and drinking lots of water. By midnight she had blood dripping from her rectum. We took her to the vet, who gave her antibiotics and something to stop the vomiting and then sent us home. She was better by the morning, but still bleeding. By 10am she was coughing up her water. By 2pm she was lethargic, refusing to eat, shallow breathing. We took her to the vet (a different one) around 3pm and they admitted her for the night. She was breathing shallowly, her bleeding was worse, and she actually lay down on the floor of the consultation room and fell asleep. The vet is going to run some tests, put her on a drip, and give her more antibiotics. We should hear back from them soon with the blood test results.

 

I’ll be honest here - Sparkie is very sick. The vet said there is a possibility she could die. Yes, the treatment and tests are expensive, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get her out of this alive. If she dies, I guess part of me will too. Prayers are very much appreciated. :(

Snakes, beaches, and Chana’s birthday

Chana’s birthday went quickly, with our tradition of opening presents on the family bed taking place before 9am. We spent the afternoon at Tyto Wetlands in Ingham, where we had cake and ice cream and fizzy drink, e.t.c. Our cousin Abigail called from Townsville to wish Chana a happy birthday.

 

We went to Rollingstone later that afternoon, north of Townsville, and took the dogs for a run down at the creek. Jessica crossed in the shallows and I stayed on the other side. “Hey, Jas, don’t you remember it being…” and then she suddenly stopped talking. “Being what?” I asked, still walking along the bank. She didn’t reply, instead calling to Tess and Asta, who were running ahead of her. “What is it?” I asked, “Jess, what is it? Did you see a snake?” And she yelled back, sounding exasperated, “Yes!” Apparently she nearly stood on it, and it flattened its neck and hissed at her, before slipping into the water.

 

We went to the beach a few days ago, picked up some more shells, didn’t see anything strange, and just generally had fun.

 

And here’s my photo of the blue moon last month:

September already?!

This time last year I was nearly going crazy waiting for the Kenilworth Show organizers to email back, and trying to get motivated to do some agility. We were in Goomeri with two dogs who weren’t getting enough exercise, one dog that was being overworked and so refused to work and a cat that we were trying to train to do tricks like a dog! Can’t believe the craziness of it all back then.

 

Yesterday Dixie went to her new home in Cairns, so now we finally have just one pup to train and she doesn’t seem to miss her sister much at all!

 

We had a bit of a scare yesterday evening, parked on the side of the road by the shopping mall in Cairns. It was about 6pm, and the road was crazy busy with everyone heading home. I was sitting on the seat on the passenger side with Sparkie and I’d just finished eating dinner. Suddenly her ears went up and she sat up and barked once. “Be quiet, Sparkie,” I said, and then I heard yelling and CRACK SPLAT!! something hit the side of bus. Some twits had thrown two perfectly good eggs at the bus – one hit the side behind the front wheel, and the other smashed just above the driver’s window. Dunno what they were hoping to achieve by doing that, unless they were trying to get them in the windows. If that’s the case then they have terrible aim! LOL! Anyway, we decided to pack up quick and get out of town in case that happened again and it was something worse that eggs. We do NOT want a repeat of January’s smashed windows!

 

Chana’s turning ten on the 5th, but I don’t know what we’re going to do for it yet. I don’t even know what I’m gonna buy her! :)

Ten days in Townsville

Ok, so maybe a bit more than ten days, but it sounds good! :) We went swimming, ice skating, to the beach, and to the water park.

Took me a while to get the hang of skating, but by the time our hour and a half was up I think I was nearly there! :)

 

We found some cool shells on the beach while the little guys splashed in the water, and then suddenly someone spotted something big and dark in the waves further out. Remember, this is crocodile territory, and the worst and biggest kind live in saltwater. So Daddy’s like, “Get out of the water!” and of course the little guys didn’t respond. And then Mummy was saying, “Get out, now!” and they SLOWLY started walking out. “Quickly!” but Jireh sat down again to play in the water. So I ran in, grabbed him, and shot out again. He wasn’t happy with me! And Mummy was saying, “Get the puppies out of the water!” and nobody was doing it, so I ran in, grabbed Asta and passed her to Jessica, then grabbed Dixie, and we all stood on the shore away from the water, holding the dogs and the puppies and the little guys and watching the water and making sure no other dogs were coming up behind us. After about 10 minutes, we hadn’t seen the shape again, and other people were in the water further down, so the little guys went back into the shallows and we let the dogs and pups go. But I didn’t take my eyes off the water the whole time, after that. I dunno how I manage to watch Sparkie, the water, the puppies, and everything else all at the same time, but I barely ever miss anything. :)

 

The other night Jessica burned her knee on her light, which hangs from the roof of her bunk (the bottom of Chantel’s bunk). Apparently, everyone was either in bed or outside doing whatever, so, in her words, “I had to treat myself.” She could have woken me up, I wouldn’t have minded at all. It’s been ages since we’ve had a decent “Station 51” call. Usually it’s Jireh calling it out coz Gabrielle hit Suzanna, or Gabrielle fell over in the sand, or Jessica said something rude to Chana, or…. you get the idea. The last sensible call was probably a few months ago at Wallumbilla when Chana slipped climbing a tree and grazed her back (at least I think it was her back, it was so long ago!).

Townsville Water Park

Bad news and random stuff

Exactly three weeks after we rehomed Sambo – the 13th of August – Gyvie ran away. We are travelling towards Townsville, with just two puppies left. The others are already with new owners. Asta, the puppy who was born outside in the hollow by the prickle patch, is ours to keep. The other, the only black and white in the litter, Dixie, is off to Cairns, our next stop after a week in Townsville with relatives. Anyway, we were halfway between Mackay and Proserpine when Gyvie got outside early in the morning. He headed straight into the bush and disappeared. Jessica and Chana took their dogs into the bush a few hours later, when we were packing up and Gyvie still hadn’t returned. By 1pm, we were driving out onto the road, minus one family member. We don’t have a good record with cats on the road. Cloudy, our first travelling cat, ran away into the bush just out of Home Hill. Misty, Gyvie’s mother, was left behind in Gympie and picked up by another family. And then Gyvie ran away. It isn’t the first time he’s been missing. But it’s the first time we left him behind for good.

You all know how I felt about Gyvie. But the last month or so, I felt I was getting less attached to him. I dunno why. But it wasn’t as hard to leave him as it was to get back from the Gympie Show and not find him. Run free, Gyvie! :(

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The puppies are now nearly 11 weeks old. We took them to the beach in Bowen, and they loved it.

We’ve been using harnesses for them instead of collars, because Asta in particular can slip nearly anything. Asta had Gyvie’s old harness, and Dixie was using Tess’s Halti. They were getting too big for this make-shift gear, so we took them into a pet shop in Home Hill and brought new, real harnesses. Both the puppies were very well-behaved, even when the shop owner’s big husky came out to meet us. They stood nicely while we tried harnesses on them. They barely even spooked when a tour bus roared past in front of them on the walk back across the road.

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Before leaving Roma we got new tyres on the bus – well, on the front anyway, and put the old ones on the back. Daddy says it’s a bit easier to drive now.

<< you can sorta see the shiny new tyre on the front here

Tomorrow my Auntie Beth and Uncle David fly into Townsville, where we arrived last night. We haven’t seen Auntie Beth since March 2011, and we haven’t seen Uncle David since October 2010. Really excited about seeing them again! Sparkie’s canine freestyle routine is good, I just have to remember what trick comes next. It’s pretty much ready though. We’re using a shortened version of Newsboys’ “Shine.” Jessica’s putting together some routine too, and I think Chana started working on hers yesterday. Maybe they didn’t realize we had a performance coming up?? But that’s usual for them. :)

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Here’s some random pictures from our trip.