Catch Up

So I haven't written in a while because I've been very very busy, oh my word.  Unfortunately since my last blog entry we have lost Buddha.  He passed away a little over a week ago in his sleep.  I know he is in a peaceful place, although it has been hard to take since he was SUCH A GREAT DOG, he was so young and he seemed to be doing so much better.  He is very missed!  

Since Ava and I are such animal lovers I think we are going to adopt a kitten from the Manchester Animal Shelter in a couple weeks.  This house needs a furry friend....

Here are some pics from the last couple weeks:

First Salon Cut

Here's a few pictures from Ava's first haircut by someone other than me.  We went to Claudia's in downtown Concord.  I had to bribe her with Fun-Dip and she REFUSED to wear the cape that keeps the hair off your clothes... but once she got started she did GREAT! All and all it was a success!!!

Poor Buddha

So I have a lot of people asking about Buddha these days.  Buddha is our 15 month old Golden Retriever who has recently moved up to NH from AZ.  He's 100% Golden Retriever, but I get asked ALL of the time if he's a Lab because he has such white fur.  He is extremely lovable, easy going, friendly and sweet... he truly wouldn't hurt a fly!  He was Ava's 2nd birthday present.

Unfortunately Buddha has been very sick lately.  He first started limping on his back left leg when he was still in AZ, so at the end of April we took him to the vet down there and they took xrays and said he had a bone fracture and he'd need to just rest for 6 weeks, we also noticed that he had a tiny cut on his front foot.  A few days after this he hopped on a plane and flew up to NH to live in our new home up here since I recently moved.  The cut on his front foot wasn't healing and was kept getting worse, and his back leg burst open to the bone with blood coming out (I know gross, and poor poor Buddha!).  So we took him to Pembroke Animal Hospital to have a check up... long story short, they sent us to Brentwood Animal Hospital to have cultures of his leg taken and to take to an animal orthopedic surgeon.  What we have learned is that Buddha has a fungus called cryptococcosis eating away at the bones in his legs and creating lesions all over his body.  As far as we know this hasn't spread to his chest which is very good news, BUT it is very painful.  He is on a treatment and right now it looks like he will pull through, although the recovery will be about six months.  He will have to have his front toe removed where the cut was because the fungus ate all of the bone out of it, and we still aren't sure what will need to happen with his back leg.  We have been under the care of Dr. Reeve at Pembroke Animal Hospital and she has been an AMAZING vet and we are so thankful for all of her help.  We are really, really hoping Buddha fights this because he's such a great, wonderful and amazing pup.  As you'll see in the pictures he has three bandages on his legs that I need to change daily, although one of them just covers up a patch that he is wearing to control his pain.  I should also say that these fungus problems are mostly found in the southwest, so he must have breathed it in while he was still in AZ.  Our vet hasn't seen an animal with this problem before in NH... also big dogs and puppies are more susceptible to this and Buddha is both big and a pup. He is slowly showing improvement, but this week he has especially been seeming more like his old puppy self... 

yes he is a red sox fan!

Swimming in the canal in AZ about 8 months old

 7 months

7 months

About 7 weeks old

About 7 weeks old

Buddha is the last pup on the right

This video was on our 6 hour drive to bring Buddha home... he didn't have a name yet.... but wasn't he the cutest little guy ever!

Mural Painting

So my goal for the next few weeks is to start painting murals in my daughter's room... this has actually been my plan for the last couple months!  It's time to start getting down to business though!  I moved into my new place in January and right away I painted four rooms upstairs and two walls in my livingroom downstairs (with the help of a terrific friend of course).  In Ava's room we painted two walls white and two walls yellow.  My vision includes little chicks walking across the top of her closet and on one white wall a mural of a nature themed scene.  Ava's requests include a blue, pink and purple utterfly (known to most as a butterfly).  More to come on the bedroom progress, wish me luck!!

Ava helping paint my bedroom white in January.

Her bedroom now.  If you've known me for at least 10+ years then you might recognize the bear in the middle of her bed, he has been my life long Teddy since I was about 10 months old and he now sleeps with Miss Ava every night.