WOOF! Tails from St. Simons the day to day ponderings of our pack

Posted by Miranda

Today Brutus celebrates 10 years – and almost all of those 10 years have been with me. I adopted him as an adorable little 5 lb puppy from our local animal control. He was a handful – chewing up everything in pure puppy style until he was about 1 year old. He has become quite the sophisticated elderbull and has a very special place in my heart.

He got an early birthday present yesterday (blue dog) that he instantly took too. It only took him a couple hours to pull a seam and get some of the stuffing out, but he’s been a little more gentler with it since then.

This morning he woke me up with his heavy sigh (he sleeps on his favorite Molly Mutt right next to our bed due to his recent arthritis) and a look that said he was ready to get up and enjoy his day. And enjoy it he will! We started off this morning with a big bowl of his dog food followed by a piece of peanut butter toast. Then when dad woke up, Brutus got his birthday present – another toy (lion). He was equally thrilled to have something else that he could call his own and immediately gathered lion and blue dog and layer down on another of our many Molly Mutt beds to enjoy his new presents.

Today at lunch, Brutus will enjoy chicken nuggets and at dinner he and dad will each get a ribeye. We are determined to make this his best birthday ever!

We want to make this birthday extra special because not only is he the big 1-0, but we also found out on Friday that this will most likely be his last birthday with us. We went to the vet for an ultrasound and it turns out that Brutus has liver cancer and is only expected to be with us for another 4-6 months. It tears me up to think of the day that I won’t get to sit on the couch with him snuggling and kissing, but at the same time I only want him to be happy and comfortable. We’re lucky in that Brutus pretty much wears his emotions on his sleeve, so he’ll tell us when it’s time.

Until then, we’re going to live every day to its fullest and love him with everything we have to give.

Posted by Brutus

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written…it’s been a long couple of weeks. The good news is my Cushings test came back negative. Bad news is I had a yeast infection on my neck and fungal infection on my back from my allergies. Arthritis has come on pretty strong in one of my front legs as well. So, for the next couple of weeks, this is what my medicine schedule looks like:

Depending on the day, I get 12 or 13 pills – 4 or 5 at breakfast, 2 at lunch, 4 at dinner and 2 at bedtime. My bedtime vitamins are so big they don’t even fit in the pill box! I can’t complain too much because this just all means extra peanut butter for me.

The medicine for my arthritis makes me kind of sleepy so I’ve been taking a lot of nappies. One of the good side effects of having arthritis is mom and dad feel bad for me, so they moved my big Molly Mutt into their room and I get to sleep on that instead of in the crate. Every night I climb onto my bed and daddy tucks me in. I sleep on moms side of the bed so she checks on me through the night if I wake up or make noises. It’s good to know that I’m loved!