Photos from Florida

Apex at the Office with a Christmas tree

I love it when I see that I’ve gotten mail from either Apex or Banta’s handlers. Tonight I had one in my inbox from Florida. It was photos of Apex from Christmas. We sent all the puppies in our lives a nylabone wishbone. As puppies they all loved the wishbone shape the best. In a previous email Sue said he was enjoying the bone but was mostly tossing it around and chasing it. Banta’s handler said that she really liked it better than another nylabone she had because it was smaller and her mouth fit around it better. Well anyway Sue sent photos of Apex with his wishbone and one at work with a Christmas tree. So here they are.

Apex on the couch with his wishbone
Apex chewing on his wishbone

Christmas Packages

Yakira

Today I sent off Christmas packages to all of our pups except Casey. We don’t have a way to send anything to her right now. We will have to give her a gift at her graduation. Each puppy got the same thing, a nylabone wish bone. All of them loved their wish bones as a puppy. Well with Waffle it was hard to tell because Casey was always the one actually doing the chewing on Waffle’s nylabone. Along with the bone a sent a large jingle bell with a red and green loop that I wove on my inkle loom. I hope they all enjoy their bones. I also have a wish bone for Clifford too and one for Bill’s brother’s dog Jazzy. Those we will deliver in person next time we see them.

No Ski Trip Out West

Apex and Sue have been hoping to take a trip out here to Utah this winter to go skiing. Well we got news today that their trip is going to have to be put on hold. Sue is having surgery on her right shoulder right after Christmas to remove a growth that is impeding the movement of her shoulder. She said the surgery team about fell off their chairs laughing when she asked if she could be released to go skiing in February. I sure hope that the surgery goes well and that she will be able to recover quickly. At least the right should won’t mess with her ability to use a guide dog.

Spelling Lessons Needed

We got the following email today from Apex’s handler. Part of her job is helping with a grade school. Emails like this just make my day!


GoodAfternoon,
Ijust returned from working in the K-4 class where “your son” sat in the lap ofa child.  The child knew he was a LAB (he has one at home)  and toldApex that “he should know how to spell by now.  He was not a LAP dog andto get off”.  Needless to say – the adults in the room roared and Apexlooked as if to say “What?”  (we- the class- had been working on aspelling lesson)
Tooprecious…

Couldyou please provide spelling lessons in the future?

Good News!

Apex using his blanket as a pillow while hanging out at the hospital with Sue’s Dad

Sue called to day with great news. The pathology came back today and the results were good. They got clean margins. That means that they got all the cancer! They will be watching him closely but everything looks good. They super glued his incision shut now that they know that they don’t have to go back in. The staples will come out on the 30th. I found out that when Apex went in for surgery they had decided that if when they got in there the cancer was into the bone they would take his leg and if it had progress further they would go ahead and put him down. Oh that must have been such a difficult decision to make. I’m sure that it was the right thing to do but it must have been so hard to send me to surgery knowing that she might not see him again.

I’m so grateful and feel so blessed that Apex has made it through this challenge in such a good way. It turned out that his having an ear infection was such a great blessing. If he hadn’t gone into the vet when he did the outcome of this would probably have been much different. Yeah Apex! Heal quickly you strong handsome boy.

Update on Apex’s Surgery

Apex in All his Glory in the middle of the bed

We got this email on how Apex’s surgery went today:

The vet called and she is done with surgery today.  She removed a melonballer sized of muscle from his leg.  The pathology report will be what tells us if she got it all or if it was encapsulated or not.  If not- we will go back to surgery on Tuesday if need be.  For now – I am going to get him and take him home.  He will be on pain meds for the weekend so he should rest and heal.  I have a to-do list that I can tackle while I am home with him.
I will let you all know more when I get home from the vets on Tuesday night.
Thanks for the prayers !