A new platform?

Hi my wonderful friends!

In an effort to stay in better contact with you all, I’m going to be doing more fb updates because those are easier to do on the run. Please go to my page and give it a like and make sure to hit “follow”.

https://www.facebook.com/Noodle4President/

I miss all of you so much and hope to be in touch with you soon.

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Happy Saturday!

Good morning, friends!

The weather here is lovely this morning…58°and sunny. Perfect for sitting on Mom’s lap.

Hope everyone’s enjoying their weekend.

Love,

Noodle

Food Allergies Stink

Good morning, everybody! It’s me, Noodle with the mohawk!

I have to tell you, our house is being hit hard by allergies. Mom and Dad are all congested and us dogs are itchy, itchy, itchy. Even Molly! Yep, all of a sudden Molly was covered in hives the other day. Turns out, she’s allergic to something in the new food. Now she’s eating her old food again. She’s NOT happy that she can’t eat the new stuff.

Macy’s healing up very well. Hardly any marks on her anymore. Her only complaint was Friday night when Mom and Dad ate steak and she couldn’t have any for the first time ever because now they know she’s allergic to beef. Sorry, Macy – more for me 🙂

As for me, I am all scabbed up and bumpy. It’s flea season and every so often Mom finds a straggler crawling on me before my Nexgard has a chance to kill it. My flea allergy was off the charts when I was tested years ago. I can’t even be in the same zip code as a flea without itching. So I have been getting extra baths, benadryl, and my special lotion from Jax n Daisy.

The biggest news I have is that on Wednesday night, 2/21, I had one of those awful cramping episodes again (Canine Epileptoid Cramping Syndrome). Just like the one I had last February, I had been very itchy prior to it starting. When it started, I was laying in bed with Mom. She had fallen asleep about 30 mins before. I woke her up by licking her nose with just a tiny little lick. She called Dad into the room and they were rubbing my muscles and telling me I was a good boy. This one was a short one – maybe only a minute – and only cramped up my back legs. It was still scary but at least I know I’m not gonna die from these things.

*For Mom’s records: I’ve now had episodes on 4/18/15, 10/2016, 2/10/17, and 2/21/18.

Although we’re all a bit itchy or congested, we really are doing well. We’re all happy and we have each other – that’s all that matters.

We hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Somebody’s in Trouble…

…and it isn’t me!

My dumb sister – Macy – rolled in something super nasty (undetermined but either poop or a dead animal) and Mom had to give her an unplanned bath. During said bath, Mom almost barfinated because it smelled so bad in the very tiny bathroom.

Prior to her rolling on the stench of death, she knocked me over onto my back in the dirt. I just had a bath on Sunday. Mom was not amused but wanna know a secret? I was. BOL! I was able to re-dirtify without getting into trouble.

Before I head off, Molly wanted me to tell everyone she said hi. She’s still been very busy being head rat hunter/annhilator. Yeah, she’s catching them more often. Eww.

Uh oh. I gotta go. I’m in trouble now, too. Mom’s mad at me because I keep trying to show Molly that I really love her by, ummmm, giving her…”hugs”….on her rear.

Good night, friends!

There’s so much to tell!

Good morning, friends! Happpppy Presidents’ Day!

Mom has today off and promised beyond promise that she would help me type a blog. I told her it had been waaaaay too long since our last update and that you guys probably thought we gave up on blogging. So here we are!

Okay….so…the biggest news I have is that Mom and Dad had a bunch of allergy testing done on Macy to find out why she kept getting sores and bumps all over her body. Well, Doofus is allergic to EVERYTHING! Check this list out and keep in mind that anything over 300 is an allergy:

Insects

 

Everyone was completely shocked, including the vet. He said, “Ideally, I’d like to put her in a bubble but that’s not possible. So, instead, she needs to wear shoes everytime she goes outside.” Mom was like, “But we don’t take her for leash walks, so shoes don’t make sense. Once she’s done doing her business she likes to lay in the yard.” And he said, “No more laying in the yard.”

Whaaaaaaat?!?!?!

After much discussion, Mom and Dad decided that as long as the allergy medication (Apoquel) is enough to keep the allergies away, Macy can still lay in the yard because what kind of life would it be for her if she had to always be in the house? Even I think that’s too cruel for Doofus. Not to mention the fact that if she can’t go outside and burn off energy it’ll just make my life even worse.

The other thing the vet said was that Macy needed to be put on a prescription diet. When Mom calculated the cost at $210/month, she nearly fainted. She asked the doctor why Macy couldn’t be on grain-free store-bought food (without the other allergens added). He explained store-bought food is not monitored for content whereas prescription food is. Monitoring is important because prescription foods contain hydrolyzed proteins. These are tiny proteins that measure 5 kilodaltons (kDa) or below. This prevents an allergic reaction. Most store-bought foods contain proteins that are 20 kDa, creating an allergic reaction.  Then there’s the obvious fact that store-bought grain-free foods are manufactured on the same lines as the regular grain-included foods.

Again, Mom and Dad discussed it and decided to try a store-bought food in conjunction with the Apoquel. If it doesn’t work, they’ll refinance their mortgage  find a way to pay for Dumb-Dumb’s food.

So, Mom did lots of research and found Earthborn Holistic Grain-Free food. One of the types contains nothing Macy is allergic to. This is a huge feat because most things contain potato or soy. Anywho, the best part? We are ALL eating this deliciousness now! It is SOOOO good. Even Macy, the pickiest of picky eaters, gobbles it up in seconds. It will only cost about $100/month to feed all of us compared to the Rx food which was $210 to feed JUST Macy.

Ok, enough about my dumb sister and more about me 🙂

I went on the 8th for a dental and guess what? No cavities and no extractions! I have beautiful pearly whites and breath that smells like roses. *Insert Noodle dance here*

Here’s the funniest update. I hadn’t had a haircut in 87 gazillion months. My hair was REALLY long. Like, 2 inches long. I was suuuuuuper fluffy. Here, look:

This is from a couple weeks ago so my hair was even longer than in the picture.

Okay, well the other day, Mom FINALLY cut it because we haven’t had a cold day in like 3 weeks. Look at my new do:

She gave me a mohawk!!! It’s the best haircut ever!!! I know I’m not smiling in this picture but I truly am happy.

I feel like such a rebel.

Anywho, I’m off to go snuggle up to Mom. I like when she has extra days off.

Hope everyone in Blogville is doing well.

Highs and lows

Hi, friends!

I tried to get Mom to check in sooner (like everyday since Rudee passed) but you know Mom – she’s a slacker. We’ve been on a bit of a roller coaster since the year began.

Low

January 2nd – Rudee’s passing.

High

We are doing good here. At first we all did a lot of sleeping.

“Poo on this day, Mom! I’m bored.”

Macy has taken everything WAY better than anyone expected. She’s back to driving ME crazy and trying to play with me ALL the time. We’ve been doing zoomies together and a couple of times I’ve sat between her paws like I used to do with Khia.

Everyone seems to be a lot more relaxed. Mom and Dad think all of us were out of sorts because we knew Rudee was sick.

Actually, the only thing out of sorts a little is Molly. She’s been breaking down the gate all the time and whimpering. We think it’s because, until yesterday, she has been on a steroid treatment for her foot, though, and not because she misses Rudee. She’s had a lot of accidents in the house and she’s been SUPER SUPER hungry ALL the time! Now that the steroid treatment stopped, we’ll see what happens next.

I don’t know if you noticed in the one picture above but Macy and Molly are on the couch – TOGETHER! Mom and Dad have slowly been re-introducing them to one another. This was an isolated incident where they were next to each other without Mom or Dad next to them. Usually it’s Dad on one couch with one pup and Mom on the other couch with the other pup.

Low

Tuesday, January 9th, was 1 year since Jamison passed away. Mom didn’t want me to blog about it that day. She didn’t even tell Dad it was 1 year until yesterday because she said it was harder to talk about it on the actual day. She beats herself up about his passing all the time. It’s a very sore subject because she misses him more than anything.

High

Yesterday, January 10th, was Noodle Day – my 5th Gotcha Day! We didn’t have a party but Mom gave me 87 gazillion kisses.

I was a scruffy guy the day Mom found me!!! I don’t like baths or hair cuts but I’m glad to be flea, poop, mat, and worm free now.

Low

Mom joined the gym and gets home from work/the gym at 8 pm. We don’t like it. We need more cuddles and kisses.

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We hope everyone is having a great 2018 so far!

*ear licks*

 

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy.

Today we had to say goodbye to Rudee.

Dad picked Grandma (his Mom) up first thing this morning and at 8:45, Dad, Mom, Grandma, Macy, and Rudee left for the vet. Macy didn’t go in until after everything was done.

Mom said she’s not sure if Macy knows/understands. When Jamison passed away, it was obvious she knew. She cried, laid down next to him, and protected his body, growling at me when I came over to sniff. Mom thinks Macy may have been too distracted with everything else because she loves being at the vet so much.

Mom had a much harder time saying goodbye than she expected she would. When Rudee was originally scheduled to go to the Bridge on 12/23, Mom wasn’t even going to go into the room with Dad and Grandma because she said she couldn’t go through that again. After taking care of him and getting close to him for the last few weeks, she couldn’t let him go without her there.

Mom told me that Dad and Grandma sat in the chairs and she laid on the floor with Rudee. She held his head and whispered lots of loving things in his ear. She told me the medicine worked really fast.

I’m sad my cousin is gone but I’m happy he’s not in pain anymore. Last night was really bad for him. I know he’s with Khia and my Grandpa (Dad’s Dad). I bet they’re eating LOTS of treats and getting really dirty.

I’ll do my best to take care of Macy, Rudee! Please give my Khia ear licks for me.

 

Happy New Year!

It’s finally here – 2018!

Molly and I almost didn’t make it to 2018 because our neighbors scared us half to death with fireworks.

“PLEASE make the booming stop!”

You can’t tell from the pic but I was shaking WORSE than a leaf! It was awful.

Before the fireworks started, Molly was super excited about NYE:

Mom gave her a whole Trazodone so she wasn’t shaking and barely drooled, but she did hide when the fireworks really started booming.

“I’m just gonna be down here for a little bit.”

The night was definitely worse for Rudee. He got sick to his tummy and things have kind of gone downhill from there. In fact, he’s no longer eating, his fever is back up to 105 and he is having a hard time breathing tonight. First thing tomorrow morning, Mom and Dad will be taking him to the vet to say goodbye.

We were lucky enough to get another week with him. During this past week, he was spoiled with love and was allowed to eat treats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not just dog treats but cheeseburgers, chicken, and hot dogs – LOTS of hot dogs!

Macy has been going between trying to get him to play, avoiding him, and simply being with him:

She’s going to be so lost without him. Mom will be taking her to the vet with them so Macy can say goodbye to him after it’s done. Mom and Dad think this is very important because when he was at the vet 2 weeks ago, Macy was going crazy looking for him everywhere. She needs to know he’s not coming home.

To try to prepare for this big change, Mom and Dad have been letting Molly out with Macy under careful supervision:

Hopefully, in time, the 2 of them can learn to be friends again. This is already a big improvement.

We know that this isn’t great news for the 1st day of the year but we’ve always been very honest with you. This is hard, sad, and unexpected but we still have hope that 2018 will be a good year.

To you, our friends, we wish you all that is wonderful for 2018.

*ear licks*

Noodle

 

 

Merry Christmas!

We’re a bit late but better late than never, right?

We have had a LOT going on here. After everything we have been through and you, our friends, have been through with us, Mom couldn’t bear to write on here unless we had something happy to share.

We’ll start from the beginning (we promise it gets happier).

The day of Thanksgiving, Rudee started acting weird. Some of you will recall that Rudee is my Grandma’s dog that came to live with us August 2016. He is also the reason Jamison, my cat brother, is no longer with us. Anywho, he started growling at the wall and going into the guest bathroom and barking. He also was becoming more and more lethargic. On Friday, December 14th, he stopped eating. On Saturday, he threw up bile. On Sunday, he was extremely out of it, panting excessively, had a fever, and was breathing very shallowly when he wasn’t panting. Monday morning, he went to the vet. An x-ray showed a mass in his abdomen. They got him stabilized (he had a fever at intake of 105.8) and he was released from the hospital on Tuesday. He still wasn’t eating when they discharged him. Mom and Dad got him to eat boiled chicken but he wasn’t eating very much. On Friday, he went for an ultrasound that showed he had a mass in his spleen, tumors on his liver, and a mass in his stomach. Unfortunately, his lymph nodes were entwined with the masses so it is inoperable. Because he was still lethargic and not eating, a plan was made for him to be euthanized on Saturday, December 23rd, at 11:30. Then, the craziest thing happened – he started eating! Cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken, kibble, you name it! So Saturday morning, Mom and Dad canceled the appointment. As of right now, he’s acting almost 100% normal. He’s still panting but he’s running around and loving on Macy like normal.

He’s a Christmas miracle! Told you this had a happy ending.

Mom and Dad are going to let Rudee keep eating whatever makes him happy. When the inevitable downward spiral comes, Mom and Dad will do what needs to be done.

Here are some pics from our weekend.

Here’s a blooper:

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday!

Love Always,

Noodle

The Hunt is On

Molly has been REALLY busy helping Dad this week. She and Dad are cleaning out junk that’s laying around in the yard and lean-to’s. The junk has become nesting areas to rats that come to our property because of the chicken and pig feed.

Let me tell you something – Molly is FIERCE when she is hunting rats. Remember we told you we had a feeling she was used as a hunting dog? Now, we’re 87 million percent positive. She runs like lightning after ’em, grabs ’em, shakes ’em, and then drops ’em for Dad. My lil jaw hit the ground watching her. Who knew that she could move so fast?!

She has been SO proud of herself. She’s like a different dog the last few days.

Look at her searching the wood pile:

She stood on that wood pile for an hour the other evening! Mom gets scared when she goes up there because it’s 4 feet off the ground. She kept telling Molly she was going to give her a heart attack. A couple times the wood got wiggly and Mom’s heart stopped beating.

I am taking notes. I’m working on my ferocious face to scare the little rats. Dad had one in a live trap and I gave him the what for. I was all “grrrr….rawrrrr” *dig dig* “snort…grrrrawwwrrrrr”. He was scared and rightfully so!