Big Buck Harley Weimeraner

This week my beloved dog Harley went to doggie heaven. I miss him tremendously.  On Monday night as I was putting the boys to bed he looked like he was trying to be sick on the carpet so I put him outside.  I got the kids to bed. Harley usually only goes outside for a few minutes and is right back in the house. But he wasn't coming back in.

I went outside to see him struggling to go to the bathroom. I watch him for a while and then Brady came out of his room so I went back to settle him back down.  Finally I went back to check on Harley and there was no sign of him.  He seemed to vanish.  I got a flashlight and went out to find him.  When I found him he was curled up in a spot in the yard behind the shed and under a bush. He has never done that before. I knew that this looked like he picked his spot to peacefully drift away.

But I couldn't just leave him there.  I knew what was happening, but it broke my heart to leave him there. So after about an hour I got him back in the house. We walked a few steps and he rested, walked a little more and then I was able to carry him the rest of the way. He could hardly breathe and didn't want me by his side. That is a first. He typically doesn't leave my side, but at this point he wanted to be alone.  After several hours he settled down on the carpet by me.  We watched a marathon of The Long Island Medium together and I knitted my Quill.  I knew this was most likely my last night with him so we sat together peacefully.  I cried almost the whole time.

In the morning I had the boys give him a hug and kiss and left the boys with my mom. Freddy and I went to the vet and they found he had a high fever and a tumor the size of a grapefruit in his abdomen.  It was effecting his internal organs and they said had I left him in the yard they were sure he would have passed on his own.

So with tear filled eyes we said goodbye. His suffering was short and for a dog that has had cancer and countless surgeries he lived much longer than I ever thought.  He was the best dog.  I got him right after I turned 21. I turned 21 the end of November and he was born in January. I had spoken to the breeder before he was born. I knew she was expecting a litter of pups and I wanted a male. She already had one other male reserved. So when only two males were born the other person picked his dog first and I got the other male.  I held him for the first time when he was about a week old.  I don't even think his eyes were open yet.

He turned out being my best friend and knew my every mood and didn't leave my side. He never really thought Freddy moving into the house was a good idea. He also wasn't to sure about the kids coming along.  Even if they did give him food. But he liked me the best and tolerated the rest of the household. 

I am sad about his passing, but I am relieved at the same time.  I knew the day would come and I was so fearful of how. If you saw all the tumors he had I feared about them stopping him from walking or being able to get around. Although a tumor was his ultimate demise it didn't bother him until the very end. 

When I got him, like I said I had just turned 21, and I was renting an apartment at the beach (where I wasn't supposed to have a dog).  He didn't like me leaving him and going out to a bar (he could be quite destructive when he was left alone). So I think my freedom of going out was short lived. I think I got a few months.   He went to work with me during the day and then as he got older he went to doggy day care at my Mom's house while I worked.

We didn't travel much because I didn't like leaving him.

So now with his passing we have a new mind set and we look forward to getting away.  We booked a week long camping trip to Lake George next month and we plan on taking the kids for some one night getaways.  So with the sad comes new things to look forward to. I like to think his spirit is still with us and watching over our family. He was the best guard dog and friend. I'm going to miss him, but I know he is at peace now.

And no I don't have any plans of getting another dog. I plan on going away as often as I can. Well for now at least.

Rest in peace good buddy.



Almost Time

I have been trying to find a football. Harley had a tumor the size of a football removed from his chest.  I haven't been able to find one.  They got packed away with the summer toys, but I did find a small toy football. I figured it was better than nothing, but it is still much smaller than the tumor that Harley had removed back in January.  It has been a long haul getting him back to good health. He is doing good. He has a lot of fluid where the surgery happened so it almost looks like the tumor is back. The vet drained it once, but it filled right back up. So over time it should all go away.

He is bored out of his mind since I haven't been taking him for runs and walks, but I think that should be changing soon. He is doing good, he just looks terrible. Now the tumors on his stomach look bigger with the one off his chest.  They are all fatty tumors and very common for his breed. They aren't that harmful just terrible to look at and the one on his chest and foot were causing him discomfort, hence the reason we decided to have them removed.

Our Disney trip is quickly approaching and it is all I can think about.  I am so excited I can't stand it. I really hope it is warm in Florida. It has been so gloomy and cold here in NJ and I'm ready for some sunshine and fun!  

I am bringing a shawl with me to knit. It is a Terra Shawl by Jared Flood.  It has a lot of long rows of knitting and purling. I thought it would be perfect to knit on the plane or at night in the hotel.  It has some lace in it, but it is so simple and has such a WOW factor.  Jared has an amazing way of doing that with his patterns.

So I'm off to procrastinate a little more form getting anything productive done!

Oh and I'm so incredibly excited to have won a give away!  I can't wait to receive my knitting goodies in the mail to show them off.  More on that later.

Harley's Naked

Today Harley went back to the vet to have the last of his stitches removed.  Woo Hoo!  He also had a crazy amount of fluid drained out of his chest. Fingers are crossed that the fluid doesn't fill back up.  But if it does over time it will eventually all go away.

 

He had to have a mild sedation to get the stitches out.  It makes him look so old.

He is feeling so much better not having a football sized tumor in his chest.

We have had to keep a shirt on him for the past three weeks so he wouldn't lick his stitches.  So when the vet brought him out from the back and we saw him without a shirt on Tiny yelled, "Harley's naked! Why isn't he wearing his shirt?"  It made everyone in the office laugh very hard.  It also helped me from not passing out looking at his scar.  Hopefully a few more weeks of rest and he will be back to his full energetic self.

Mommy's Juice

I took that video of Tiny (a.k.a. Shea) when he was two. I think it might be one of my all time favorites.  I am not quite sure why there was so much liquor on the counter. But judging by how clean my house was we must have been planning a party.

Tiny is the king of whining.  He does it all day long. I like to think I win every battle with him, but it is exhausting.

If I had personal days at work today would definitely be a day I used a personal day.  I am watching Harley 24/7 to make sure he doesn't lick his stitches or eat his bandages. He is still all covered up, so I haven't fainted yet! 

I think I am going to make a stiff drink tonight. I don't drink often, but I think I am going to make an exception tonight.  I think all the surgeries in the past weeks wore me out!

Harley's Home!

 

Doc Harley is home!  Harley is sporting a new scrub look.  He had a tumor the size of a football removed from his chest and several other tumors removed.  I was very surprised by the overall size of the tumor on his chest, but so was the vet. Only half of it could be seen by looking at him.  I knew it seemed huge because he couldn't seem to get comfortable.  Right now he is laying on the floor sleeping and he looks so much more comfortable!  I hope the healing process goes quickly even though I know it is going to take some time.

Brady and Tiny asked where Harley was about 1 million times over the course of 24 hours. We are so happy to have him back home! He is still not too sure about that Tiny kid.

The vet warned me if his bandages fall off I will probably faint at the sight of his incisions. So we will head back to the vet on Tuesday for a follow up.  I am praying his bandages last till then!

Surgery Day

Today is Harley Weimeraner's birthday.  He is 11 today. I feel like the worst pet owner ever since I just dropped him off at the vet to have a ton of surgery on his birthday :( Poor guy, but it will be best for him in the long run.  At least that is what I am hoping.

Harley has so many fatty tumors it is almost hard to look at him.  For our Christmas card pictures I tried to use a sweater on him to disguise some of his bumps.  It didn't really work.  The tumors are just ugly to look at and not totally health threatening at this point.  The vet and I have been going with the motto if it ain't broke don't fix it.  The tumor on his chest is so large that the kids ask if Harley is having a baby.

But going back about 5 years ago he did need to have surgery. He had Mass Cell Tumors.  They were stage 2 and he had to have 2 surgeries.  The prognosis for Stage 2 is either they can be removed by surgery, or radiation. We went the surgery route and he has done great.

But he has a tumor on his foot that is just horrible and has to be taken off. It is going to be a huge problem if it opens up.  The other tumors he has will be a problem when they start to deteriorate.  Once they start breaking down there will be no way to fix them and he will have to be put down.  So today he is having a HUGE tumor removed off his chest, several smaller ones on this legs and side.  He has been as healthy and strong as an ox and I'm hoping once he is healed up it will mean more trips to the beach and hiking.  (since he can't do that now because of the tumors).

Here is a little story about Harley.

When we purchased our home we bought it from a woman who had recently had a divorce or separation.  The stories about her husband selling explosives for drugs and being wanted by just about every law enforcement jurisdiction for this and that made us nervous.  Our neighbors informed us that he would never give us any problems, he just got messed up with some things but we had nothing to worry about on the whole he was a good guy.  I was reassured that he wouldn't give us any problems, but in the back of my mind I worried about the bad people he was dealing with coming to find him.

So we were in our new house for a few months when one night there was banging on my front door.  I was home alone with Brady and Freddy was at work. I didn't want to answer the door because I wasn't expecting anyone. The banging got louder and louder and soon I could see flash lights all around my  house pointing in the windows, but when I looked out I couldn't see a person or a car.  I knew the house was surrounded, but by who?  Was it the drug dealers that the homeowner had dealings with before?  Maybe they didn't know he moved.  So I sat on the floor as the banging continued. I didn't have curtains up on most of the windows and I didn't have a phone in arms reach. I would have to cross infront of the windows with just Brady and be exposed to get the phone.  So I sat on the floor. 

The entire time this was happening Harley was barking like a wild crazy dog that only had one thought on his mind... to kill whoever was on the other side of that door.

Finally I broke down and with Brady in my arms (and Tiny in my belly). I raced through the Living Room grabbed my phone and squished down on the floor in the kitchen. Now I could see flashlights coming through each of the windows in the kitchen.  Harley was still barking. I called my husband, police and my parents.

It was raining that night and the police car that was coming to my house got in an accident at the intersection to my parents road. Which caused my father to be stuck and not able to move forward to get to my house. He didn't know the police car was responding to the call at my house. Finally he found an opening and drove through and raced to my house.  My husband was in route home too. 

After a while I realized if they had wanted to break in they would have done so already and that seemed to calm me down a little bit.  Harley wasn't giving up he was going to kill that person banging on my door.

After what seemed like forever (I think it was more like 45 minutes). The banging stopped (Harley didn't stop barking though).  The police were at our home, my father was at our home and Freddy was home.  I finally stood up and looked out the window to see the cops talking.  What the heck was going on! Did they catch who was at  my house? Did they get away?

It ends up it was the Sheriffs Department undercover. They were at our house to arrest the guy that lived there before us. Phew! It wasn't bad guys. It was good guys trying to get a bad guy.  I was so relieved, but still totally shaken.  I pet Harley on the head and told him it was okay and he backed off.  As I stepped out into the yard and saw the officers dressed all in black I was sure to tell them they just scared the crap out of me.  The first thing they said to me was "You have a good dog!"  They said they had a warrant to arrest the man that lived here before us and in the past they had issues when they came to arrest him.  They said this time they were not coming in this house with that dog.

Harley got a container of peanut butter that night. His favorite.

I know the next few weeks Harley isn't going to be feeling too good. So I'm planning a lot of quality time sitting with him next to the fire and knitting.  I am hoping by him having the surgery now means he will be all healed up for summer.

He's a good boy.

ps- we made sure that guy that lived here before add his address changed! he is still wanted, but we haven't seen him.

 

 

Harley Weimeraner

 

My dog Harley is the best darn dog a girl can ask for.  He will be 11 in January.  About six years ago he was diagnosed with mast cell tumors. They were stage two. He had two surgeries to remove the tumors and then it was a wait and see.  The next stage is stage three and they would have given him 8 weeks to live.  But Harley may have some extra bumps than most dogs (okay tons of tumors) but he is as strong as ever.

 

I got Harley as a puppy. He has been a good friend to me. He wasn't to sure about Freddy coming along and Freddy has never been to sure about him.  Once the kids came he has had a look on his face like saying "when are they going away."  hee hee. I think the picture above perfectly describes Harley's feelings for the boys.  He tolerates them.

 

He has never been mean to the boys and he does love it when they pet him.  But I know he would rather have me all to himself.

I call Harley's collar his big boy collar. He will chase after anything that moves. So I kept it on during these pictures to he didn't go after any varmint during our shoot.

 

I think he sees a squirrel.

 

 

I was trying to get a Christmas card shot, but Tiny didn't want to cooperate. But he did pose for this shot.

Okay I give up, go play.

Harley takes good care of us. He barks at anyone that tries to come near our house and is the best darn watch dog a girl could ask for.

Oh and no I didn't knit Harley's sweater. I bought that for him in Manhattan many moons ago.

10 on 10 September 2012

First off I have to say that I am not sure what is going on with my computer these days. I am having problems leaving comments and viewing some sites :( It might have to do with my lap top being very old and in need of some updating. But that being said I apologize if I have left the same comment 10 times on your site. I will write a comment hit enter and nothing happens. I click the button several more times, so my apologies.  I'm working on it. Also it is taking me about three minutes to load most sites. But others pop up right away. Ugg.

Okay on to 10 on 10.

Left over birthday cake for breakfast.

I really wasn't at the beach for three hours. It was more like 20 minutes. Tiny and I went for a little walk.

Be sure to swing by A Bit of Sunshine to see what everyone else did today

10 on 10 August 2012

I really love participating in the 10 on 10. To find out more about the project you can go here.

I took 10 pictures over the course of 10 hours one hour apart yesterday the 10th (okay 11). The goal is to find beauty in my everyday life.  The morning started out very unsettling.  My dog Harley has slipped and injured his leg the day before. When he got up yesterday morning he couldn't walk. He seemed to be suffering and he has tons of tumors... and it just didn't seem good

(don't worry he is doing better I know the last picture could throw you off).

It was raining out so it seemed like a good day to stay in a let him rest up. I stepped out and got my hair cut and when I got back it was sunny! But then it got cloudy out again.

Harley follows me around the house the entire day. If I go in the kids room he follows me, every trip to the bathroom he follows me. All day he is like my shadow.  I could see the pain in his eyes as he wanted so bad to be by my side.  Since it was raining out and seemed like a lazy day I let the boys play some games and basically do whatever they wanted as I sat next to Harley and spun yarn.  I haven't spun yarn in a while so I was so happy to have an excuse to just sit and spin.  Harley slept, watched, slept, watched.

First I finished up a skein of blue alpaca.  Brady was so excited I finally finished he yarn. He as been begging me to make him a blue alpaca toy. So hopefully I be knitting in a few days. Then I moved on to some merino roving I picked up at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I made two bobbins of singles and then plied them together.  Tiny has requested I knit him a sheep toy with this yarn.

By the end of the day Harley seemed much better. He could even go up and down the stairs to go out to the bathroom. Hooray!  He is still a little slow today, but doesn't seem to be in pain so that is a very good thing. I think he is just a little sore.  He always sleeps under his blanket. He puts it on himself. It always makes me laugh. So the last picture is a good sign he his feeling himself under his blanket comfy cozy.

Well that was my day. Boring as it was I am glad we are all healthy.

linking with Rebekah at A Bit of Sunshine