RIP Atlas

After the doctor's appointment Wednesday I went home and went to bed (I had worked the night before and was supposed to work that night too). When John got home from work around 3 and let the dogs out he noticed that Atlas just didn't look right. He wasn't playful, didn't want to get kisses (those of you who knew him knew how much he liked kisses), didn't want to go outside, was real sluggish, and was breathing really hard and fast. He woke me up to see what I thought, and you could tell just by looking at him that he was very sick. I called the vet to see if we could take him in and they said to bring him straight there and they would fit him in. When we got there he began coughing up blood, they did an x-ray and said his stomach and bowel looked fine but his lungs looked really weird, like they were full of fluid or blood. We initially thought that maybe he had a bowel obstruction because over the last week we had found him throwing up more that usual and even throwing up some hickory nuts that he must have been eating from the back yard. We thought maybe he had eaten a nut and it had gotten stuck somewhere in his bowel causing an obstruction (thus the reason for the x-ray of the stomach). The vet said they could do exploratory surgery on his bowel to see if they could find anything, but he was more worried about his lungs than stomach and recommended we go the animal hospital where there was a surgeon and better machinery if there was something more serious wrong. So, we loaded up and went to the animal hospital about 25 minutes away. When we got there the surgeon did more x-rays and blood work. He said there was nothing wrong with his stomach but was very concerned about his lungs. He wasn't getting enough oxygen and his blood oxygen levels were only 88% so they had to put him in an oxygen chamber while we tried to figure out what was wrong. The doctor told us there was a few different things that could cause the fluid/blood build up in his lungs. 1.) Pneumonia - this was not it because his white blood count was normal meaning there was no infection. If this had been it there would have been a fairly simple way to treat it and he would have gotten better. 2.) Rat Poisoning - this causes decreased blood clotting which could account for internal bleeding in the lungs. This was not it because his blood clotting factors were all normal. If this was it there would have been a way to treat it and odds are he could have survived. 3.) Heart Failure - on the x-ray his heart was slightly enlarged and the doctor said that a congenital heart failure could cause fluid build-up in the lungs. This was not the cause because he had no heart murmur and his EKG was normal. 4.) Electrical Wire - apparently if an animal chews on a live electric cord somewhere in the house it can shock there system and cause there lungs to fill up like his did. There is no blood test to see if this is the real cause (just walking around the house looking at electrical cords) and there is no real way to treat it and the outcome is not good. 5.) Kicked in the side - if he had had some trauma to his chest it could cause internal bleeding in the lungs and show like he did. Once again there is no real way to diagnose this and if it is the cause, there isn't much to do about it and the outcome is not good.
Those were the options we were given, we ruled out number 1,2, and 3 and were left with the two gravest outcomes. We weren't sure about the electrical wires (once we got home that night we looked all over the house and couldn't find anything out of place) and we didn't know about chest wall trauma (though he and Caly never played hard enough for that to happen, we don't think). Faced with the option of leaving him the ICU at the hospital for a few days in the oxygen chamber and still probably not knowing what was really wrong with him and how to fix it (or if we even could fix it) we chose to have him put down.
We were able to stay with him until they were done and love on him while he passed. It was a very hard decision to make and one we have gone back and forth on ever since.
Caly is doing well, it is obvious that she knows he isn't here any more and misses him, we have been trying to give her extra attention ever since, but it still isn't the same. She will sniff where his crate used to be and walk around the house moping "looking" for him. But she is getting better.
Here are a few pictures in rememberance of him. Even though we had a very short time, we still loved him very much and neither of us will forget him.

Baby Merkl

Last Wednesday John and I went to the doctor for our first appointment and ultrasound. Everything went great. The baby is measuring spot on (8 weeks and 2 days) with an official due date of August 9, 2010. The heart rate was around 163 beats per minute which is perfect. Our next appointment is at 12 weeks on January 27 and our next ultrasound is supposed to be around 18 weeks to see how the baby is growing and hopefully find out if it is a girl or a boy! As for me, I have been pretty sick. I got some nausea medicine at the doctor Wednesday and it seems to be helping a lot! I still get nausea spells, but no "loss of lunch" (if you know what I mean) since last week!! Here are a few pics from the ultrasound. The first is without an outline where the baby is (see if you can find it) and the second is the same view but with the baby outlined by the ultrasound technician. Enjoy!!

Christmas Lights

John and his brother Timothy put up Christmas lights last Sunday. Here are a few pictures of their work.

A Little Landscaping

Last week we had two trees in the front yard cut down. They were both very big trees that were leaning towards the house and made us nervous during storms. They were blocking a lot of sunlight for the grass in the front and to come into the house. Also, the one closest to the driveway was messing up the concrete on the driveway, popping up one of the seems about 4 inches and creating a large bump. Here is a picture of before and after.

Charles Payton Smith

I went to Maryland a few weeks ago and stayed for the birth of my nephew Charlie. The plan was to get up there 2 weeks before my sister-in-law's due date and hopefully be there for the birth to help babysit my niece, Anya, for a few days so my brother and sister-in-law (Matt and Kim) wouldn't have to worry about her (since they have no family in town or even within driving distance to them). All went as planned as Kim went into labor at 3:00 in the morning the night after I got there (Friday morning, I got there Wednesday afternoon) and were able to come home by Sunday afternoon. I took a few pictures while there, so enjoy!

Atlas

So, some of you may know, John and I got a new puppy about 3 weeks ago. So far things are going really well. He rarely pees in the house anymore (he knows to pee when we take him out, but he doesn't know to ask to go outside yet, we still have to tell him about every 2 hours or so, or when he starts to sniff suspiciously) and he hasn't poo'd in the house since about the first week. We weren't really looking for a new puppy, we were at PetSmart getting Caly some food and happened by the adoption room and there were about 5 little puppies running around. They were all super cute and came from a litter of 9 (the lady only brought 5 cause I guess they were a handful). We went in just to see them and play with them and ended up leaving with the bigger, more rambunctious of the litter. We aren't exactly sure what he is, we think he is some part yellow lab, some part golden retreiver, and some part terrier (because his tail curls); the lady said the mom was about 40 pounds and was a stray they found pregnant, so we are thinking he will be a little smaller than Caly (she weighs 50 pounds) maybe around 35 or 40, we'll see. He weighed about 4 pounds at 6 weeks when we got him and weighted 9 pounds tonight. We got him because a.) he's really cute b.) Caly now has a playmate and isn't quite so all over us all the time c.) we're idiots!! Anyway...here are a few pics I took today of him, he turned 9 weeks old this weekend.

Las Vegas!!

As many of you know, John and mine 1 year anniversary was last month (sorry it took so long to post the pics!!) and we went on an anniversary/honeymoon trip (since we never took one) to Las Vegas!! We left on a Friday morning and came back on a Wednesday night. We had so much fun!! We basically slept in until 10 or 11 every day, went shopping, saw some shows, and were incredibly lazy...can't get much better than that!! We tried to go all out and stayed at the Bellagio (the hotel Ocean's Eleven was filmed in), it was super nice and the room was amazing!! We even upgraded to a view of the fountain's outside!! So every afternoon/night that we were in the room, we would leave the curtains open and when we would see the fountain's start we would run to the window and turn the tv to the channel with the music that went along and watch. It wasn't until we left that we even realized that we never watched the fountain's from street level, only from the room!! THe view from our room was great, we were across from Paris Paris and had a great view of the Eiffel Tower. We also saw two shows, Mystere by Cirque du Solei (spelling??) was amazing, we couldn't get over all the awesome things they were doing, and The Blue Man Group which was hilarious, we laughed the whole way through!! Anyway, I could go on forever. I put the pictures in a slideshow...Enjoy!!!