Because this is just how my life is going lately . . . .

Sadly, this is not the "before" picture, but the "after."

Wouldn't you know, that after not getting an appreciable amount of rain for MONTHS, a monsoon would come through the DAY AFTER I had the pool up and Bailey swimming.

Yes, this is the sight I woke to Tuesday morning, and I almost cried! In fact, I did, but just a little, and there were hormones involved! I'm afraid the fact that the pool was not quite level, which I thought had turned out to be a blessing, ended up being a curse. And you can imagine the mud pit that is now our back yard after approximately 3,896 gallons of water flooded through it. I wonder how much 3,896 gallons of water cost, 'cause I just flushed that money down the drain! And I am at a loss as to how to make ground that looks level LEVEL!

I'm pulling a Scarlett and telling myself I'll deal with it tomorrow. I said that yesterday too...

Needless to say, I AM NOT HAPPY!

Bailey, however, is very happy. The little saboteur!

I Am One Proud Mommy!

Bailey swam last night!!!!! He did such an excellent job and I am so, so proud of him.

I spent most of the day Saturday finishing up getting the yard ready for the pool, laying out the pool, blowing up the top ring, and filling it with water. It was a comedy of errors or mishaps at least, but the thing is finally up! Sunday I added a little more air to the top ring (after replacing the manual pump with an electric one), finished filling the pool with water, and last night, I put Bailey in! I thought the ground where I placed the pool was level, but it turns out that it actually isn't. But that worked to our advantage. I was able to put him in in the "shallow end" and then walk him around to the ladder, where I quickly climbed in with him to reassure him. He had on his life jacket that our vet gave us, and he had those legs kicking! I used the handle on the life jacket to guide him around in circles. Anytime he got near the ladder or the spot where I had put him into the pool (where he could actually touch the bottom with his back legs down and front legs up), he splashed like mad trying to get out but only ended up splashing water all in his face. He did not love that. He only seemed to panic slightly two times. Otherwise, he did fine.

I kept him in for several minutes (I had heard that the hydrotherapy places only let them swim for 4 minutes their first time in, so I kept it short.) and then realized I had no good way to get him out. Getting him in required lifting him over the side of the pool and I barely got him in, but at least he floated. I knew I couldn't just drop him out to the ground. So my wonderful mom brought the picnic table benches over and I set him out onto those and then he jumped down from there. Unfortunately, Mom suffered the brunt of his shaking off the water. Next came the spastic, "I'm wet! I'm wet! I AM WET" running all over the yard, but it was more good exercise for him. :o) When I was setting him out of the pool, I noticed his left leg was really weak but they say this tends to happen when they first start hydrotherapy.

So, I am one relieved mommy to have that first dip behind us and to know that it really went much better than I expected. I had no real problems getting him in or out, and no big fuss from him when I was putting him in. Whew! What a relief!

Of course, the next time I try to put him in the pool, he will know what's coming. We'll see how that goes over...

(By the way, I have NO pictures of any of it, because I was more concerned with surviving what I thought would be a major ordeal. Maybe next time I'll be able to get some pics!)

Happy Half Birthday to You!

Bailey is 11 1/2 today!

Happy Half Birthday, baby!

Prayer for Healing

Oh Abba,

Thank You for my Bailey. He has been such a blessing in my life for 11 1/2 years. I love him so much, and I want to have him around for a long time to come. Please heal my baby. I hate to see him stumbling around, tripping over his own feet, to see his legs sliding out from under him and his back end drooping. God, You created him and You know every cell in his body. You understand exactly the effects of degenerative myelopathy and I ask that you erase each of those effects from his body right now! Help the messages from his brain to get to his muscles again. Bring back his proprioception. Heal his spinal cord and repair the myelin and axons. Help him to build muscle mass in his back legs. And God, please heal his liver. Only You know why his enzyme numbers are high and only You can correct the problem. He is Your creation. Help him to have many more years of happiness, health and mobility.

Help me to make the right decisions in caring for him. Give me wisdom. Give me strength. Give me peace.

I love him so much . . .

Bailey's Greatest Hits

I have always said that Bailey is an extremely intelligent dog. Many people agree with me, though they might be just as biased as I am. :o) I thought I would list the commands that Bailey knows, and throw in a few of his quirks as well.

1. Sit
2. Come
3. Come-Sit
4. Stay
5. Lay down (probably not grammatically correct!)
6. Speak
7. Shake
8. Go get _________ (insert toy's name here, yes he knows all 3,597 toys by name!)
9. Drop it
10. Uhhnn! (means stop whatever you are doing immediately!)
11. Do your trick (where he takes his tennis ball, rolls over onto his back, holds the ball in his paws, lets it roll down the back side of his legs onto his chest and turns his head to catch it in his mouth - this is his aunt's favorite)
12. Go get your floppy and bring it inside (this is mommy's favorite - he will remember exactly where the frisbee is even if he can't see it, go get it, bring it to the gate and drop it, wait for his leash to go on, then pick up the frisbee again and carry it inside!)
13. Sing your song (If you're happy and you know it, say woof woof! "Woof woof!" etc. - I wish I had a video camera with sound to record this one! I do at least have witnesses.)
14. This side (keeps him from walking on the other side of trees, mailboxes, etc. and tangling his leash)
15. NO!BARK!!!!! (This is Bailey's least favorite, and the one he has developed selective hearing to avoid obeying.)
16. Out (Usually "OUT of the kitchen!" lately because he wants to sleep in the middle of the kitchen floor while I am cooking, but this command also works when he is in the foyer giving the UPS man something to fear for coming anywhere near his territory)
17. Wait
18. Back up
19. QUIT TANGLING YOUR LEASH WITH THE SEAT BELT BECAUSE IT WILL TAKE MOMMY 15 MINUTES AT THE PARK TO UNTANGLE YOU WHILE YOU YELL AT ME THE ENTIRE TIME FOR ALLOWING YOU TO BECOME TANGLED AND NOT BEING ABLE TO UNTANGLE YOU INSTANTLY (Oh wait, he hasn't learned this one yet! Here's hoping . . . :o)

(I'm sure I left some off this list...)

Bailey is also teaching mommy the "come" command. Lately, I will be in the living room watching TV and hear Bailey barking from the back of the house. Thinking that a toy has rolled under a bed or something, I go in search of the unhappy puppy. Every time he has done this lately, I find him resting on my bed, no toys dropped on the floor, no major needs, nothing! I think this is his way of getting back at me for having to learn all of the above. He just wants to be able to tell me to do one thing and have me do it. So far, I'm doing an excellent job with my training! Wonder what he will teach me next . . . .

One day this weekend, as I was putting off cooking his food for the week, I asked Bailey, who was resting quietly in the floor, what he thought about switching back to dry dog food. He promptly stood up, looked right at me with his nose in the air, barked at me three times, and walked out of the room. Now tell me he doesn't understand every word I say!!! I literally did nothing to provoke this barking, other than suggesting he go back to the food he's eaten most of his life!

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Bailey is not a big fan of water. He detests bath time. He has never had the opportunity to swim, so I don't know how he would react to swimming . . . yet. One of the best exercises for dogs with degenerative myelopathy is swimming. Because of course it couldn't be Frisbee catching or tail chasing or tennis ball tricks or anything else that comes naturally to Bailey! So the plan is to start hydrotherapy with Bailey at home. The nearest animal rehab facility is at least 2 hours away, and our vet thinks that Bailey would be freaked out (even more?) by the special hydrotherapy tubs that they use because they are small and he would feel closed in.

The first step was to buy a kiddy pool and get him to sit in it with no water. That went over very well. He got into the pool pretty easily and loved having Mommy sit in it with him and love on him for a while. We did that a couple of times, and he had no problem with it.

Then I added the water.

He was a little more reluctant to get in once he saw the water in the pool. At first, he stood outside the pool and drank the water. I believe he thought he could make it go away if he just drank enough. I managed to wrangle him into the pool and then I sat down in it with him, planning to love on him just like we did before. He would not sit down and was not at all happy being in the water. But then he found a nice little island in the pool where he could place his front feet so that at least not all of his paws were in the water at once.

Yes, he thought it was very convenient that Mommy's legs were there for him to stand on. I kept him in the pool for 30 - 45 minutes, waiting for him to get comfortable enough to sit down. He finally did sit, with me pushing on his rump, which popped back up as soon as I let go. After that, I let him get out.

The second time I put him in the pool with water he did a little better. He did not try to stand on me the entire time, and he would walk around some to follow me as I moved around the pool. After several more dips in the pool, he still won't relax enough to enjoy it, even when he's burning up hot and tired from walking.

We're taking baby steps for now, but the next step won't be baby sized. I bought one of those easy-set above ground pools (thank goodness for Wal-Mart's low prices!) and now I need to get him swimming. Besides getting the pool set up and the filter wired, the biggest challenge is going to be finding a way to get Bailey in and out of the pool without me having to lift him. He is not so heavy that I can't pick him up, but once he is soaking wet, I might not be able to lift him. Maybe once I have the pool set up an idea will come to me . . . .

Dogs Are Not Disposable

Used tissues are disposable. Some contact lenses are disposable. Dogs are NOT disposable.

I brought Bailey home when he was only 6 weeks old. He was the first to leave his litter, and he cried all the way home. I tried to reassure him, calling his name, and then realized that he did not know his name yet. The first time I fed him, he reached for the bowl with his back legs stretched out behind him, expecting some other puppy to crawl under him to get the food, I guess. Later, I was sitting in the floor with my back against the sofa, and he crawled behind me and fell asleep. That was February 2, 1996 - 11 years, 4 months and 2 days ago. That was his first day as my baby.

And he's still my baby. He required a lot of care as a puppy, and he needs care now. But he is alive, happy, active, loving, playful, faithful, protective, adorable, and he is not disposable. I will do everything I can to keep him alive, happy, and active, even when it gets tough. I will not give up him on. I will not replace him with a younger, healthier dog just because that would make life easier.

Anyone who could doesn't know what love is...

Love is patient, love is kind. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. I Cor. 13:4,7-8