Author: chilidawg

Chili Dawg here, mom let me use her laptop again.  Before I became a tripawd, my pawrents bought plane tickets to visit my dad’s family in Arizona.  My mom asked one of her former students to house sit so that Finch and I didn’t have to go to the kennel.  Finch and I were excited because we would get the house to ourselves (I called the bed!).  Plus, we always get extra treats whenever Lee Anne babysits the kids, and since the kids would also be gone we figured we’d cash in on even MORE treats (awwww, yeah!).

Well, ever since the vet said the cancer word and I became a tripawd, Mom and Dad are having second thoughts about leaving me and Finch.  I want them to go and have fun- they don’t get to see these pawrents very often.  I think Mom is having bad dreams about leaving me, because in the middle of the night she gets up and lays on the floor with me.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the extra snuggles, but I don’t want my mom to feel bad for leaving me, I feel much better as a tripawd.

AHHHH Chili Dawg, last time I let you “paw-jack” my laptop and spill my secrets!  It’s not that I’m afraid to leave the Chili Dawg.  It’s just that I don’t know how much time I have left with him.  He’s doing well right now, and for that I am grateful.  I just wish I could shake the bad dreams.  Any suggestions?

I just finished reading the book, “Blind Hope: An Unwanted Dog & the Woman She Rescued,” and there was a quote in the book that I wanted to share with my fellow tripawds and their owners:

“Love is a bridge that stands firm through difficulties and connects one heart directly to another, not because of how it looks, but because of what it is.”

How true that is, eh?

Chili Dawg here, my mom is letting me use her laptop to write this.  So this weekend, my pawrents and aunt and uncle did this weird race called the Warrior Dash.  My grand-pawrents came down to watch Noah and Juliana, and they brought their monkeybutt dog, Sarge with.  Normally, Sarge bothers me the whole time, but apparently now that I’m a tripawd he just knows to leave me alone and instead bothered my monkeybutt brother, Finch the whole time.

Anyway, my pawrents and aunt and uncle left to do this Warrior Dash.  I have no idea what that is.  All I know is that they left the house clean and when they came home, they were caked in mud and had these weird hats with horns on them.  After my mom got clean, she laid on the floor with me and told me that when she fell going up one of the muddy hills it hurt her really bad, but she picked herself up out of the mud and scrambled up the hill because she thought of me and how I didn’t show any pain when my leg hurt.  I thought that was pretty cool.

After both my mom and dad got cleaned up (it took a while- I’ll show you a picture of them all muddy) we tried to take a family picture.  I tried to cooperate, but Finchy wouldn’t stop wiggling around and he got me all riled up and all I wanted to do was lay on my side.  Oh well, I guess Mom will have to try again another day.

My son, Noah, has a very kind heart.  The day Chili Dawg came home as a tripawd, Noah waited for us to get Chili to his dog bed and then immediately sat down next to him and stroked his head.  Every day we left the house to go somewhere, Noah made sure he gave Chili a kiss on the head and told him to, “feel better”.

Now that I’m on summer break, we have been able to move at our own pace during the day and the kids and dogs have had plenty of time to play outside together.  The Chili Dawg has enjoyed “being beautiful” outside, basking in the sunshine next to his brother Finch.

The other day, Noah said to me, “Mom, we’re going to need lots of water and dirt.”  I was a bit confused, so I asked, “For what?”  “For when it’s time to grow Chili Dawg’s leg back. At school my teacher said we need the sun, dirt, and water to make things grow.”  “Sunshine (that’s Noah’s nickname), Chili’s leg isn’t going to grow back.”  “Why?”  Oh boy, how do I explain this one, I thought to myself.  “Because Chili’s leg was hurting him, so we had to have it taken off and it isn’t able to grow back.  But it’s okay, because Chili doesn’t need to have four legs to do everything that he used to do, right?”  “Right, Momma.”

Today at lunch, my daughter had the plate with a dog on it and she kept saying “woof” over and over again, which led Noah to say, “Mom, if I was a dog, I’d be a dog with only 3 legs.  You know why?”  “Why?”  “Because then I’d be as cool as Chili Dawg.  There aren’t a lot of dogs with 3 legs.”

Two milestones happened this week: 1) my two year old daughter had to have the tooth she knocked loose pulled at the dentist 🙁 and, 2) today is the Chili Dawg’s one month ampuversary!  I realized it today as we were on our way to my nephew’s birthday party.  One month, wow!  It has flown by and Chili has adapted so quickly and so well to life on three legs.  When we first made the decision to amputate, I wasn’t sure it was the right decision, but I just wanted him to be out of pain.  Now, I can see that it was clearly the right decision- to be greeted at the door with his golden smile and his Boxer brother behind him, to see his tail wagging and watch him run in the back yard pain free makes it all worth it.  Happy One Month Ampuversary, Chili Dawg!

So, I definitely know that the Chili Dawg is feeling better.  Yesterday we had epic storms that dumped a lot of inches of rain on us.  Our yard literally had puddles in it and there was a small river running along our fence.  Chili likes to “patrol” the perimeter, and once the rain had stopped I let the dogs and kids go out to play.  Chili inspected the fence line and then gave me a look that I instantly read.  “Don’t even think about laying in that muddy “river”, Chili!”  I said.  He gave me the same look and promptly laid down in the muddy “river”.   I made him get out of it, and then turned my attention back to pushing my kids in their swings.  When I looked back at Chili he was back laying in the muddy “river”.  I made him get out of it again.  I think if he could have rolled his eyes at me he would have.  I went back to pushing the kids and AGAIN, when I looked at Chili he was back laying in the muddy “river”!  As he feels better he is getting more and more belligerent!

Yesterday was a rough day.  My 2 year old faceplanted in the grass.  You would think landing on your face in the grass wouldn’t cause much harm.  Well, you thought wrong.  My husband took our daughter to the pediatric dentist who would have liked to have pulled Juliana’s VERY loose tooth right then and there, but due to my daughter’s heart defect and being unable to get hold of her cardiologist, they were sent home with a prescription for antibiotics and the order for me to call back to make her an appointment to get her tooth pulled.  Oy!  Needless to say our 2 year old was very crabby yesterday.

One of the highlights of our day yesterday was watching the Chili Dawg get back to his old self in the back yard, doing his “back dances”.  It’s nice to see him just living life 🙂

Chili Dawg had his staples removed on Friday.  Friday was also his last day of any pain pills that we had.  Monday (Memorial Day) was the first nice day we had in a long time- no rain, yay!  Monday, I got to see the Chili Dawg run in the back yard.

I’ll set the scene for you.  It was hot.  About 90+ degrees.  Noah and Juliana were playing in the kiddie pool.  Finchy and Chili Dawg were lounging in the shade by the fence (Chili was actually being “beautiful” by sitting so that his ears and fur blew in the wind).  Then, a couple of kids walking a dog walked by on the sidewalk.  Finch jumped up and ran along the fence with them.  I looked at Chili.  He looked at me.  I said, “Go ahead if you want to.”  So, he got to his feet, and took off on his tripawd run to catch up with Finch.  Noah stood up in the kiddie pool & yelled, “Look Mom, Chili’s running!”  I think that says it all.

Around 2 o’clock this morning, I woke up for no reason.  The Chili Dawg had some how gotten up on our bed again.  This time, he was curled up next to Ryan and his “cone of shame” was gone (I found it on his dog bed- it’s good that he doesn’t try to lick his staples anymore).  Ryan woke up too (unheard of, by the way) and told Chili to get off the bed.  Clearly, Chili is feeling better post-amputation, because he gave Ryan a look like, “you’re kidding, right?” and crawled over him to get to me.  He immediately assumed our snuggle position for when Ryan is out of town with his head on my shoulder and let me pet his soft fur until I fell back to sleep- one of the best feelings in the world.

Around 3 o’clock this morning, my daughter woke up (thank you appetite stimulant) to eat.  I came back into our bedroom and decided that I should get Chili out to go potty, because every once in a while the Amantidine causes him to sleep so deeply that he has an accident.  I looked at his dog bed and he wasn’t laying on it.  I checked his crate and he wasn’t in there.  I turned the light on in the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake Ryan up, and that’s when I saw the Chili Dawg.  I have no idea how he got up there, but there he was in his old spot on the bed sound asleep.  Our bed is fairly high up, and he would have had to jump or scramble to get up there, so he must be feeling better if he got up there without waking me up since I am the world’s lightest sleeper.  I think that’s a good sign 🙂