Thursday, July 31, 2014

What is that?!

This morning me and my precious girl went on a long walk. I was SO happy, like over the moon, giddy as a little girl on Christmas morning happy. I had just walked with who I knew would officially be "my dog" soon. I loved walking her. I loved watching her little ears bounce with each step. After we got home and cooled off for a bit, my hubby comes downstairs and asks me what that "bump" is on her neck. Bump? What bump? Why this one....

At first I didn't completely freak out, but then I realized it was her lymph node. I contacted the rescue to let them know,and see if the foster had noticed the "lump" before I got her and she had not. Apparently, this happened literally over night. On Sunday, another lymph node had swollen to the same size.

Hazel had a vet visit that following Monday. I was petrified. As soon as the vet saw Hazel, I saw "the look" cross over her face. "You know what my concern is, right?" She asked. "Lymphoma", I said. While there can be more than a few reasons for swollen lymph nodes, the fact that they had increased in size so quickly, and were filled with so.much.fluid made her think that it was cancer. She had never seen a case like this that wasn't. Cancer...the same disease I lost my best girl to, and my cat. We had just put down my 18 yr old cat the week before, and all I could think was that I had finally had my "dream dog" again, and now I was going to lose her too. Dr J took some fluid samples and immediately looked at the cells under a microscope..she paused, and then said that she is not seeing what she would be seeing if this was indeed cancer. It was looking like a really bad bacterial infection. We still had to wait for the tests to conclude this, in addition to testing for Valley and Tick fever, but that's what her guess was. Hazel was put on antibiotics. Still, her lymph nodes continued to swell. Two days later, they were so big that fluid/blood started leaking from them.
Our poor girl was miserable. Feeling helpless, I called into the vet and was told that it is definitely a bacterial infection, and now that we know we're not looking at cancer, we can start prednisone to help reduce the swelling. She had her first dose that Wednesday night.




By Friday, she was soooo much better!! Her lymph nodes were almost back to normal size. I got to walk her again Saturday morning, and she had her first outing to pick up some more food and treats.
Can I pay with kisses?



I am so thankful that she is on the mend. I sure wish we could figure out what caused this to happen. If we don't, there's a very good chance she could be exposed to whatever caused this again. For now, I am not going to worry about that and am soaking her up!

Friday, July 25, 2014

Bringing our girl home

So, D and I made it our mission to meet as many dogs as possible. We wanted to make sure we weren't just falling for the first cute face we saw. The thing is, Hazel's foster made it very clear that she wanted Hazel to live in a home with other dogs. We had talked about adopting two dogs anyway, so initially, this was not a concern. It wasn't until I started feeling stressed about "promising" to adopt a second dog that I realized we had to let go of the idea of adopting Hazel. We very well *may* adopt two dogs...but I wanted that decision to be an organic one. One that we made as a family after having adopting our first dog. Because we've never had two dogs before, we have no idea what that looks like for us a family. We preferred to adopt a dog who likes other canines, and then foster. We knew Hazel would have foster siblings and the chance to romp with doggy friends on a regular basis. I relayed our concerns to her foster and with a heavy heart, closed the book on the "adopting Hazel" story. I felt so sad and defeated. I accepted the fact that our search was going to have to continue, and that it may very well take much longer than anticipated. Well, later that day while I was at work, I saw an email pop up from her foster. I didn't want to open it. I had butterflies. I took a deep breath and clicked it open. I'll spare you all the details, but basically, it came down to the foster saying that she thought our family was a great match for Hazel,and she didn't want to hold up a potential adoption by requiring the 2nd dog since she knew we would provide that outlet for her. I cried. I squealed..I wrote her as quickly as I could thanking her...and then I called Tom to tell him the news. That night, we had a home check from a volunteer, Kim. Two hours later, our girl was home. We did things a little backwards...Hazel's foster was out of town and she had a pet sitter at her house. Kim got permission for me to go pick Hazel up and bring her home. The adoption process with this rescue is that everyone fosters with the intent of adopting. They want to make sure it's truly a good match, and that all parties agree before an adoption is finalized. I let Hazel sniff the house, introduced her to hubby, and then let her get re-acquainted with her human sister. Then..it was play time in the back yard. We marveled at how she pounced on the tennis ball. We could not get enough of her cuteness. Everything she did was "adorable" and"precious".
We did not sleep Friday night. Hazel was antsy (who could blame her), and had to potty several times. I could not wait to wake up early and enjoy a pre dawn walk with my dog..this is something I have been waiting for over 3 years, since the passing of my beloved Haley.

My dreams were coming true..I was so happy. But, that all changed the following morning.... To be cont'd...

Meeting Hazel

It all started with this picture...I saw it posted on Facebook. The photographer is someone who I used to volunteer with. She is an amazing talent and took this photo of Hazel. When I first saw Hazel and read her bio, we were not in the position to adopt. Our elderly kitty was in the last stages of renal failure, and our last gift to her was a peaceful retirement. Sadly, just a few weeks later, our girl had passed. For the first time in over 20 years, we had no furry beings in our home. It was just an empty feeling. Not long after, I started thinking more about Hazel. Why couldn't I get this girl out of my head? I was obsessed, and then became a girl on a mission. I emailed the rescue Hazel was with and soon received an e-mail from her foster mom offering to schedule a meet and greet.
Dani and I fell in love with her. I cried the moment I saw her. We spent some time with her in the courtyard. I don't know what it was at the time, but I felt this incredible pull towards her. I wanted to be smart about our decision and wanted to meet other dogs, but there was no mistaking how we felt about her..





As we were leaving, Hazel pulled a little on her leash and seemed to be looking for us. She acted like she wanted to come along. Dani and I pryed ourselves away from her and drove away. The very next night we met four more dogs..all wonderful, sweet dogs, but they weren't Hazel. .....to be continued....