Spoiling the Dog

My parents came to visit this weekend and mom helped me make a new dog pillow for Sadie. As you may or may not recall, the last one bit the dust after a yucky kennel accident. But seeing as she's having to have extra rest time these days, I thought a good quality bed would be nice for her.

I thought we could pull one off for cheaper than PetSmart and get a custom fit, to boot.

Here's the cost breakdown:
* 2 inch, high-density foam (24" x 39"): $15.20 (used 40% off coupon)
* Sherpa Faux Fur: $12.49
* 24" Zipper: $3.59
TOTAL: $31.28

Not a huge cost savings, compared to this one, but Doug likes that it's reversible since we made the whole pillow out of the fur.

We also got her a new collar to wear around the house, so she doesn't "jingle" so much. She is usually a naked-necked doggie, but since we're leashing her so much, she has her collar on all the time. She's getting so spoiled!

Poor Sadie

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all who have prayed for and asked about Sadie. It truly means a lot to me. Here's the latest:

After a week of her anti-inflammatory meds, Sadie really showed no change in her limping/use of leg. I have done a fair amount of research online and found it very interesting. Most of the sites sing the praises of the TPLO surgery, but then I found that they were all surgeon's websites. I found another with a different perspective, here.

Long story short, I feel that we should not rush into the surgery that the vet is recommending. Not only is it expensive, but it is VERY invasive (cutting away bone, and inserting plate and screws) and has some pretty scary risks associated with it like bone infection, bone fractures and cancer due to the metal.


We've not really restricted Sadie at all since the injury, and even tried to encourage her to exercise. However, we are now going to try 8 weeks of extreme restriction - no running, jumping, quick spinning, tugging, etc. and see if that will help. If it looks like she can build up some scar tissue to support the leg, then we may not need the surgery. If nothing has improved, we'll look into it.

Another thing is that there is a brand-spanking new surgery option called TightRope CCL which I would MUCH rather have for Sadie. But it just came out in July 2008 (last month) and waiting 8 weeks might help it to be a little more available.

Plus, we are needing to be away from her for a week at Thanksgiving and I can't think of any easy way for somebody else to give her the very specific and careful care she would need post-surgery.

I haven't talked to the vet yet, as he's on vacation. We'll let him know on Tuesday what our ideas are and see what he thinks.

Pray for Sadie

I know it's odd to ask for prayer for a pet, but Sadie is so special to us, so I am anyways. As most of you know, she has been limping badly for about 2 1/2 months. She injured her back leg after trying to catch a Frisbee and landing on her back hip.

I took her to our vet last night, as she's just not healing right and I've been concerned about her more and more. His diagnosis was a cranial cruciate injury or torn ligament in her knee.

Long story short, we are trying some anti-inflammatory medicine this week to see if that helps her to put weight on the leg and therefore strengthen the remaining (hopefully existing) intact ligaments to hold her load. If that is not effective, we're looking at surgery. The surgery that is #1 recommended to fix the problem is around $3000.

Doug is not eager to spend $3000 on an animal, and I know it is a lot of money. We'll research this out more and get second opinions and look for some cheaper options, but my vet is very honest and I think that he is telling us the truth.

I'm asking that you will pray for this medicine to help Sadie put weight on her leg and that it will show significant improvement by our next visit. That would mean God's intervention, as it is not likely that this treatment will work. However, she is only 4 years old and being on medication the rest of her life will still be expensive and has a lot of long-term side effects.

Thanks for reading this and caring for me and Sadie. I've been emotional about it. Lesson learned is that if we had taken her right away, we would have received instructions and medications that may have allowed a partial tear to heal right away rather than exercising "normally" and risking a full tear. Looks like her Frisbee catching days are over. She never was much good at it anyways... ;-)

Grocery Bag - Initial Prototype

I have completed my first "green" grocery bag. It's actually blue, but you get the point. I followed a pattern from Chica and Jo's blog pretty much verbatim. It ended up using a little over 1 yard of fabric and is 21" x 14". You can see how it folds down to a small, compact size which can easily be tossed in my purse or van.

There aren't a lot of great fabric choices in ripstop nylon, but it is supposed to be durable and very washable. I'd like to try some out of my "cool" new fabric, but I don't know how cotton would hold up in the long run. I put 2 full gallons of milk in here, and it was easily carried. Total weight was 18 lbs, but I think it could hold even more.

Some improvements I'm considering: add a little hanger so it can be easily used at the grocery store packing stations (see this example); and Doug thinks I should make one with a flat bottom to hold more stuff. I don't know how easily it would fold, then, and it would be a lot more time intensive to sew...

The New Me

I have a new look! Or two, to be exact.

First, I got new glasses. I usually wear contacts, but these are pretty "hip" compared to my old ones so you may see me wearing them more often:

Before:	After:

Secondly, I finally got my hair cut! About 6 inches chopped. I was starting to feel like a hippie:

Before:	After:

A Baby is Born

One of the hummingbird eggs hatched! Hopefully the other egg will hatch soon, as well.

Here's a picture:


You can see the body with a few stragley feathers and the head is face down into the nest. I'll keep you posted! Maybe I'll catch a video when it is moving more.

Another Sewing Project

Here's the nursing shawl I made for my friend Kristi. I love this fabric! The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours. I think I could make the next one in less time than that. This is something I'm thinking about making for some craft shows. They sell on etsy.com for about $25. What do you think?