Monday

 

We took Dee Dee to the island this morning and caught this bird mid-flight. 

 

 

 
 

Dee Dee was groggy today, not ready to take flight yet though.

It took us many tries over several hours to get her to take all of her pills, both this morning and tonight. It takes a lot of patience, and it's exhausting. We cut them up into small pieces but that means we have 9 pills to give her!

 

The day was beautiful. The wind was blowing at 10 mph. 

 

We are trying to take care of ourselves . . .

. . . and others. John found this baby turtle caught in the car lanes at the state park entrance. I don't know how he saw it because the asphalt is black and the markings are yellow. The rangers all wanted pictures. One ranger came out of her hut to see it crawl off to safety after John placed it in the grass near the water.

 

 

Miles walked: 7.2

Miles biked: 11.72

Sunday -- Crossing Bridges

Crossing the bridge to the mainland from the causeway at sunrise after Dee Dee's early morning walk.

 

She did well today. She pooped, took her meds this morning and this evening, ate some shreds of chicken and two small jars of baby food. She napped and enjoyed her walks.

 

We spent the entire day with her except for a quick trip to Publix to get more chicken and baby food.

 

Grief is interesting. It can make you delusional. Here's an example: When her doctor called with the bad news about Dee Dee's kidneys, he kept using the male pronoun "he" to refer to her. I didn't interrupt him to correct him because it wasn't important. When he finished talking, I asked a question and used "she" when I referred to Dee Dee. He picked up on it and switched to "she" in the rest of his comments. I considered it a mistake. And so did John, but he told me tonight that his first thought was that the doctor had the wrong test results and that he was talking about someone else's dog. When he told me this, my mood lightened as I considered the possibility, especially since she did so well today. Maybe the doctor did make a mistake?

But we know the facts don't support the delusion. 

So, we are glad that she was comfortable today and that we got to spend time with her.

Saturday

 

On our morning walk downtown on the Pinellas Trail, Dee Dee's doctor called with her blood test results. It was as bad as he feared. Her kidneys are shot. Off the scale bad. He said he's surprised that she's not vomiting and having diarrhea. The results explained her loss of appetite, he said. The build up of body waste makes a dog feel nauseated.

After he praised her weight gain and general appearance at her appointment yesterday, he said that the only thing he was worried about were her kidneys. We wanted to be hopeful, but we knew that something bad was going on when she stopped eating, even chicken. 

She does look good, generally. And she's still enjoying her walks and she greets us at the door when we return from walking or biking. She's sleeping well, and not coughing very much.

It feels like landing a plane with the parts flying off.

We've placed the mattress in the lanai to make it easier for her to get in and out of bed. She doesn't need any unnecessary jostling.

This set up is the way John and Dee Dee lived for a couple of months in early 2019 before I drove the truck down with our furniture in March during the mid-semester break. The only furniture they had was a bed and a folding chair. They entertained themselves by watching the squirrels in the avocado tree.

It's good to know what is going on with her so that we can better prepare. We know what to expect and what to do. Her doctor could not give a time frame, but he said he's surprised she's doing as well as she is. He goes out of town next Thursday, so Wednesday is an important day to see how she's doing.

She likes being wherever we are, so we are going to stick by her side.

The island walk with Dee Dee this morning was nice.

After we dropped her off (before we got the phone call from her doctor), we rode our bikes downtown and walked back to Hammock Park and then back downtown. The picture above was taken from the end of the pier at Weaver Park, looking towards the causeway.

Downtown mural honoring the old days when Dunedin was famous for their oranges and grapefruit.

 

Another mural on HOB (House of Beer), a local brewery. It's a work in progress. The little creatures are hops, an ingredient in beer.

 

Before the pandemic, this was a popular hangout, located right on the trail. They would have outdoor games, TVs, benches, etc.

 

The dolphin statue outside of Al Fresco's. Someone added the mask on the snout. Sadly several of the shops on Main Street have gone out of business, or are going out of business, or are for sale.

 

Sunset pictures from our walk last night at the Dunedin Community Center. We noticed today that they were now open, but the sign said to call for more information.

Miles walked: 7.9
Miles biked: 6.38

Friday

  

Today was an emotional roller coaster with Dee Dee.  She refused to eat this morning and she hasn't pooped since yesterday morning. Her doctor had told us that when it was time for her to be euthanized, she would tell us, and that we would know. We feared that the time was nigh. We searched on the Internet to learn how long a dog can live without eating. It's 2-5 days, depending on their health.

Not eating means that she doesn't get her medicine, since that's the only way we know to get her to swallow pills, even ground-up pills.

Our world was caving in on us.

I called the animal hospital and got us an appointment for 2:30. We spent the morning preparing ourselves for the appointment.

John went for a mental health walk while I stayed behind to be with Dee Dee. When he got back, I took my turn walking. In the meantime, she refused any kind of food.

 

We took her for a walk on the island early this morning, hoping that she would go to the bathroom and be ready to eat.  It didn't work. Freshly cooked chicken--rejected.

 

 

She just wanted to sleep.

Then while I was fixing lunch for us, I tried again. She ate. Then she took her medicine. That changed things significantly. We began to breathe a bit easier.

 

We sat around waiting.

The doctor saw her and said she looked better to him than she did last time he saw her. She had actually put on weight. He said that it wasn't time to euthanize her. 

 

He did a blood test to check her kidney functions, since that can cause a loss of appetite. He said it's possible that her kidneys are shot. He said it would be better to add grains and vegetables since high protein diets are not good for kidney failure, but he said if meat is all that she'll eat we don't have a choice.

 

I read online that baby food is good for dogs when they are rejecting other food. So John and I bought our first two jars of baby food. Dee Dee finished the beef jar immediately.

Later, I got her to take her evening meds with John's crock-pot chicken. So we are back on track.

Her doctor has given her almost 6 months more life, but when it looked like it was going to end today, it didn't seem like enough.

We get one more day and perhaps a few more, for which we are grateful.

I was so exhausted I took a nap.

Miles walked: 5
Miles biked: 0

Thursday

 

 

 Dee Dee is resting comfortably, but she's struggling.

We had a brief rain shower, but the rest of the day has been hot and beautiful.

 

We've been to the island twice today; once with Dee Dee and once to walk.

There was a good breeze. No sign of a hurricane having been in the gulf recently.

 

We were so tired after our walk this morning that we took a long nap with Dee Dee. 

Miles biked: 11.63
Miles walked: 6.5

Wednesday

 

We enjoyed our walk on the causeway this morning. Some days are easy, and some are tough. Today was easy. This sailboat interrupted the flow of traffic for a bit while the drawbridge was raised. This morning was a good day for sailing with gentle 8-10 mph winds.

Isn't this a great picture?

Earlier this morning, we took Dee Dee out to the island. She ate a lot of chicken with her pills this morning, and a lot of chicken with her pills tonight. And she ate chicken for an afternoon snack. She won't touch the rice today, or the canned dog food. It's chicken or nothing, she says. Well, she did nibble on some bread that John offered. I forgot about that.

John had to run an errand, so he dropped by Walmart to get some more boneless chicken thighs for Dee Dee and dark chocolate with almonds for us.

My new Cloud 9 bike seat arrived today. Great name, huh? So far, so good. The best thing I can say about it is that you forget that you are sitting on anything when you're riding. I'll test it soon with a long ride to see how it does after two hours of use. The rubber shock absorbers take the jolt out of the worst bumps. The old seat had minimal padding and zero suspension. The only thing between you and a bump were the tires. This seat is so much more comfortable. I'm hoping that will help my neck and shoulder pain. I have two other small adjustments to make, and then I'll be done fiddling with this bike.

I've realized (again) that no matter how comfortable I make my mechanical bike, I still need an electric one for windy days, especially if the wind comes out of the east. The Palm Blvd hill into the wind is tough. And the causeway is almost always windy. But for north-south trail riding, I like my mechanical bike.

 

We had some left over tuna steaks, so we sliced them up and added them to our salad for dinner. 

Topped with our own avocados, we had a great meal. Easy.

Miles walked: 7.4
Miles biked: 10