And he does love his upper deck time. Sometimes more than breakfast….
And more than dinner…though if Mommy brings dinner to him so he can dine al fresco, well, that would be divine. And she did.
But he loves his Daddy even more. And hanging on the deck WITH Daddy is just sublime!
A boy loves his Daddy.
Oh, hai, Mommy!
Taking in the view to the north together
These were from a few weeks ago, but they are sort of special and I had not shared.
🙂
We are just shy of our 3 month post ampuversary (May 4, 2016) and it is 8 weeks since our first, no bad news, but no real news CT scan. We agreed then to use the first CT as a baseline and watch the few teeny, tiny white spots in the lungs that could well be the beginnings of benign pulmonary osteomas or could be something ominous. He already has some of these osteoma, and the largish lymph nodes were NBD (no big deal) per cytology and there was some “wispy” areas at surgical site that could well be fluid, but we agreed to be more conservative before considering a radiation therapy plan. We would use the first CT as a base line and compare to a second in 4 to 6 weeks. I opted to make it 8.
No change – static! What a glorious word. Palpation also unremarkable, as are heart and lung sounds. And this is the second DVM student to exclaim (after bringing him out to see me post procedures) that loosing a leg has not meant he lost any speed or strength. Today’s student was a tall, strapping young man and he said, “He’s amazing – really pulled me along and gave me a workout”! That’s my sled dog mix!
More to think about now – still not sure if I want to put him through 18 to 22 consecutive, daily radiation treatments. It is just an overwhelming prospect. Even though I actually was part of the chauffeur team that transported another friend’s even older dog for the same treatment just a few years ago… But for now, here is a smile from the happy boy. And he is happy – and trying his best to help me be more dog.
Smile, smile, smile.
I’ve covered Pofi’s origin story previously, but would be remiss if I did not share the story of how he came to be the best canine big brother our Mia could ever have hoped for.
As discussed previously, he grew like a proverbial weed…
At 11 weeks
At 16 weeks
At any age, Pofi was a social pup – loved people loved the company of other dogs. His very first friend was our tenants’ dog, Summit, a Beagle x Dachshund and a bit if a cranky old man (per his people), but our boy was a sufficiently respectful youngster, so peace prevailed.
Giving Summit space, Easter, 2005.
Learning to play with Summit, Easter, 2005.
Over his first winter, he also became even better BFFs with Igby, a Lhasa Apso neighbor who is just one year older. Pofi really has always been good at scaling his play style to size as appropriate and watching these two wrestle was great fun for all of us.
Dancing with Igby
Letting Igby pin him!
And we discovered the dog parks in Minneapolis as he got a bit older. We started at the small one in our neighborhood and I can remember the mounting excitement reflected in his expressions as he looked up at me in wonder hearing the sounds of dogs playing as we first entered the first of the gates. His gait got so animated as if he could hardly believe we were headed to a gathering of his kind. We went often and he loved running in a big elliptical orbit around the park with all the other dogs chasing him. A few of the other dog parents took to calling him “Our Dog Park Athlete” and appreciated the work out he gave their dogs. He would look as if he never broke a sweat leading them around and around. It was poetry and effortless grace.
Payton was a favorite dog park friend – a German Pinscher x Shar Pei.
And when our upstairs tenants moved out with Summit, the time was right for us to take over the whole house and also the yard and find a friend for our social butterfly dog. He was 18 months old when we found 6 month old Mia through PetFinder. We met her at an adoption event and walked them together in the parking lot. We left with each in our separate cars and met up again at a dog park where he was doubtless surprised to run into her again. We played with some of his friends and then again left in separate vehicles. And then when he got home, low and behold, she was there again. He was pretty instantly delighted and presented her with all his favorite toys and played with her patiently and endlessly those first few days. March 4 of 2006, we became a two dog family and Pofi became the best canine big brother Mia could ever have had.
Showing her the dog park ropes
Wrestling
Sitting for treats
Tug
Playing nicely
The beginning of a (mostly) beautiful friendship and happy adventures for us all!
This one is sort of self explanatory – my husband took this the other night showing how well he gets around. It was a beautiful night – really comfortable, and he decided to go to his favorite spot on the second floor deck to relax and survey his domain! We think he is doing great!
I just want to document, briefly, the absolute start of things: how Pofi was found and came to be ours more than eleven years ago.
Pofi was rescued by a dog. True story. In late October of 2004, our friend was hiking in Tettegouche State Park on the north shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. Amy, her friend and her friend’s dog, Hershey, had finished their hike and were back at the parking lot preparing to depart. Hershey had accumulated some burrs in her fur coat and so her person was getting a comb to remove them when Hershey bolted from the car back onto the trail head. They followed after her to find her sitting guard over a little pup – cold and alone and likely terrified. No way he had gotten into this predicament on his own and certainly, they could not leave him. Amy’s friend closed the little peanut up in her coat and Pofi and his rescuers headed back to the Twin Cities.
Pofi – found alone in Tettegouche State Park, northern MN, Oct, 24, ’04.
Amy could not keep him, but knew us to be good animal people and heard we had lost our dear Yellow Lab mix, Jesse, earlier that year. We were ready and agreed to meet him – I knew right away he had to be ours, but my husband wasn’t quite sure, so I told Amy we would at least help by getting him vetted at our clinic. We decided even before then and she brought him to us a few days later, November 14, 2004, and at the age of 8 weeks, he became ours furever more.
Snuggling with my furever Daddy man, 11/14/04
First nap with my new furever Mommy, 11/14/04.
We didn’t know what he was or how big he would be (and fast he would grow), but he settled in with us and our trio of Kitty Boyz with no issues. He charmed us from the start and charms us to this day. And while I’m not going to run through his whole life’s history on this Tripawd blog, I will say he grew at a rate that stunned us. Nightly, we’d put him in his comfy crate and in the morning, we’d exclaim that he had clearly grown overnight. To illustrate that point:
Growth Spurt – left, 11/20/04 & right, 02/13/05. Less than 3 months time!
The first photo on left is from our first shopping expedition when I bought him his first name tag and a new collar of my choosing. I also signed him up for the next session of Puppy Kindergarten that was available after his immunizations would be complete. The photo on the right is from class graduation date – him in my lap with me trying to put a grad cap on his head. In the 8 weeks of the class he outpaced all the other dogs in terms of growth, even the Goldens and Labs. He towered over all of them by the graduation ceremony – dwarfed them! It amused the trainer and me greatly…
So, next entry, I will skip ahead to the start of his Tripawd and cancer journey, but I just wanted to honor and remember the incredibly lucky day (for us) that he became our boy.
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