OUR DEAR SOPHIE GIRL IS GONE

14 years ago,

 in 2010,

 we rescued the best pup both Jim and I have ever had,

our dear Sophie.  

She was 6 months old and clung to both of us (but mostly to Jim) 

at the rescue place,

so we knew she was supposed to be ours.

Sophie was so cute and funny and loved to be snuggled under or between things,

but she hated her baths and clippings.

She loved to play fetch and always brought the ball back and dropped it for more.

She slept with us every night.

And loved Xmas time up at the cabin snuggled on the couch next to the fireplace.

She was always up for a walk,

and loved car rides,

especially in my VW Bug with the top down.

Treats were a favorite,

 actually any food was,

 and it was so hard for us not to feed her from our plates. 

Snuggling up after a delicious meal..

She'd let me dress her up in her raincoats but never seemed too happy about it.

And she would make her toys squeak on demand.

And every nite she's sit by my side as I worked on one project or another.

She was so much company for the both of us.

So it is with extreme sadness and grief 

that I share our sweet, sweet girl is with the angels. 

 She suffered a series of seizures that buckled her under herself laying in her urine,

and she was unable to walk, eat or drink.

Of course we rushed her to our local animal emergency 

where she seemed to rally and walked slowly around the place.

They advised us to take her home and see how she did that evening. 

 But after 3 more seizures that night we knew it was close to the end.

And she had actual tears that were running down her face after the last seizure,

and we couldn't take seeing her in such pain, confusion and sorrow,

so back to the vet we all went for a grueling and heartbreaking goodbye.

(our last good bye)

Both Jim and I have had to put several animals down in our lifetimes,

 but Sophie was the most brutal of them all.

She was our child that we never got to have together as a couple.

Extremely loving and loyal to the end.

Our dear, dear baby girl.

Sophie always seemed so very human,

and more than once I felt in my heart that my mother sent her to us.

And I swear she would communicate with us,

such a smart pup especially when she would run out of water.

She'd stand between the two of us and point her nose to her water dish.

And she never had an accident in the house until her last day with us.

At the end,

 with her eyes,

 she told us how much she loved us,

 and that she understood it was time for her to leave,

and how sad it was for her.

She was stronger then both Jim and I.

The both of us were such a mess. 

And we cried for days afterwards.

I just know my mother met her as she left us.

ITS A DOGS WORLD HERE

This 4th was especially hard on 2 of our pups.

Our dog Sophie above,

  hiding in garage under Jim's desk with his sweater covering her.

She never came out till it was time to go to bed at 3:00a.m.

And below we have one of Danielle's pups,

Miss Tatum,

 who is a huge scarrdy cat.

Danie was at a party so my ex, son, Jim and I babysat her.

She felt safest last night in my son's arms with her protective & snug sweater on.

We had an unusually loud night full of locals firing off their fireworks

from about 8 till after midnight.

Maybe because of the full moon,

not sure why,

 but it was pretty awful for the dogs.

Our poor babies.

JIM'S MASSIVE RECOVERY - PART 1

I know you all saw the terrible accident in this post from October.

The accident actually happened during the last week of August,

it just took me awhile to get pix organized and up.

Anyways,

what I haven't shared with you are some of the recuperating photos I took of Jim

from when they sent his home from the two hospitals 27 days after the accident.

They deserve this whole other post plus a Part 2 coming up.

BEWARE:

some of these photos are pretty brutal and gruesome,

but not all.

Even Sophie had to cover her eyes a bit.

OK, here we go, ready or not....

this first pix is how the surgeon sent Jim home to me.

Blood and yellow pus oozing from his harvest area,

dripping all over the floor.

I was freaking out.

This is not my jam or area of expertise.

But I had to learn fast.

Just the pills alone they sent home with him were overwhelming.

And then there were the boxes and boxes of medical supplies 

they sent to our house.

Where to put them all?

And so much plastic waste products they were packaged in.

CRAZY!!

So I called our trusty mountain neighbor,

Chris,

 who used to be a nurse in the Navy to help me that first night.

He wanted to lighten the mood so this is how he arrived.

It worked.

We all had a good belly laugh.

And we wrapped up Jim's leg.

Of course by morning,

it had all leaked out over the bandages.

Yuck!

So above is about a week at home now and the fluids are drying up,

thank goodness!

For 2months, 

every single day,

 we had a wound nurse come

to check Jim's leg and change his bandages.

This was Ming,

one of our favorites.

We also had  a physical and occupational therapist,

a mental health worker,

and of course his Primary Care Doctor checking up on him weekly.

Thank goodness for Jim's Medical Insurance.

We both have Medicare Blue Cross HMO thru Providence Health.

This is Jim's surgeon checking his leg 

for the first time in 2 1/2 months after sending him home.

He's removing Jim's staples from not only his main wound 

but also from his harvest area.

Above he was doing a lot of de-breeding.

It was upsetting watching him do it with a sharp razor.

In several areas he scraped too harshly and opened up some healed spots.

And there were so many staples to remove.

The surgeon used the coolest tool for that so it wasn't super painful,

only a little Jim said.

Here is the wound after about 2 more weeks below.

It's finally starting to dry up and heal.

Jim was really scared to touch it and wash it in the shower,

so I did it for him. 

 Such a weird feeling as I soaped it up.

And after another 2 weeks.

Below you can also see how his harvest area is healing and shrinking.

And finally,

mid-December,

 it has completely closed up.

During this entire healing time,

because Jim is a diabetic,

he was not allowed any sugar to help speed up the healing process.

He also stayed away from all fast foods.

That was really hard.

For both of us actually.

Ha ha

Everyone asks what that large round lump is on the upper right.

The surgeon told us it was the only piece of Jims leg skin 

that wasn't ripped off in the accident and they really wanted to try to save it.

We are so thankful that the surgeons were able to save Jims leg.

And it's pretty much of a miracle that he is still alive after his horrific accident.

Feeling blessed that's for sure.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS TO ME

Even my grandpup,

Miss Tatum,

got to see Santa with her pack walk friends.

And Santa brought our sweet Sophie exactly what she asked for,

a new coat for her expanding girth.

She is now 13 years old and really slowing down.

Her back legs are going out from under her when she stands up, 

and of course she can't jump up anymore.

I hope the day never comes when she can't get up the stairs.

I don't think I could carry her all the way up.

She is 45 pounds these days.

And it would break her heart if she couldn't sleep with us. 

But I know I'll try.

Maybe just take a couple of steps at a time.

BFF's FOREVER

Meet Sophie and Bogie.

They do not care for each other,

instead merely tolerate when the occasion arises.

Sophie has been known to snap at Bogie when he gets too near me or her food.

Bogie is scared of Soph big time.

Sophie belongs to Jim and I,

a rescue that we got right before we married,

 so we guess she is about 13 years old now.

An older lady set in her ways,

an only child.

Bogie was dumped off at a golf course,

 we think,

because he was so incorrigible.

A very naughty boy.

See this link that inspired an art quilt in Feb. 2010.

He had Doggy Obedience school.

He flunked as did we with him.

My ex and I adopted him about 16 years ago,

and when we divorced he stayed with my ex.

He is a friendly pup and loves everybody,

even other dogs and cats,

except of course for my Sophie.

She is a meanie.

We think Bogie is a Rat Terrier with nervous energy.

Sophie, we think, is a Wheaten Terrier, Cocker, and Poodle mix,

usually very relaxed, laid back and sweet except when she sees Bogie.

Ahhh,

but look at this,

they are chilling side by side,

not touching,

 mind you, 

but long enough for me to take a pix.

Ok, so what's going on here?

I've been babysitting Bogie for the past 2 1/2 weeks now 

because my ex, Inars, suffered a mild heart arrest

 3 weeks ago on the golf course.

His 2 best friends he was with saved his life by administrating CPR

until 911 arrived.

A detective took over from them until the ambulance got there.

 Paramedics did 3 paddle shocks and 5 adrenaline shots to the heart.

Inars was without a heartbeat and oxygen for 30 mins total.

A very long time.

We were scared to death.

And Bogie needed a home.

On the exact same day my husband Jim,

yes the one who had the terrible car accident,

was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

He was having difficulty with balance and walking

(along with several other motor skills) 

and fell into our sliding glass door. 

Thank goodness the plants against the door broke his fall so he didn't go all the way thru the glass.

But he did hit his head and was very confused and not able to walk.

Turns out Jim had 2 brain bleeds.  

One from the accident a few months ago that was slowly building up 

and creating dementia like symptoms,

and a new bleed from his fall into the door.

An MRI was done and a Neurosurgeon was brought in

 to immediately drill 2 holes on either side of his skull and release the fluids.

It worked!!

But more bad news.

Both men were hospitalized for over 2 weeks,

Inars also being treated for a UTI and an infectious bacteria.

We had to suit up to go into his hospital room.

He also lost all his cognitive abilities.

His name, his address, where he was.

The list was long.

 My two children were with him day and night 

helping him,

quizzing him until he started to remember things.

I have never been prouder of how they stepped up to the plate

to be there for him and continue to do so now that he's home.

And did I mention that he contacted Covid in the hospital too?

And that he was sent home to us infectious with that?

Again both children were there regardless if they caught it or not.

Crazy loving kids.

Jim also lost his bearings for a couple of days after brain surgery,

but actually recovered quicker mentally.

He was also diagnosed with pneumonia along with the brain bleeds. 

What do they say?

When it rains it pours,

right??

The good news.

Jim is now in a wonderful Rehab center learning how to walk and balance again.

He will be coming home to me this Friday with a plan for lots of Physical Therapy

and Narcotics free.

Bogie is back home with his dad

who will be getting a defibulator as soon as his Covid is over,

and his memory is getting stronger everyday.

Sophie is an only child again.

And as you can see below,

Bogie and Sophie learned how to co-exist peacefully side by side

and have decided they can bee Best Friends Forever.

Sophie actually even gave the Bogster a kiss yesterday when I brought her over with me to check on my ex.

Life is looking up again!

A special note:

I was never alone in all of this.  

Jim's amazing daughter Julie and her husband Mike 

were by my side the entire time,

constantly calling doctors, checking on meds,

even feeding me a Thanksgiving dinner when I wasn't able to get out to

celebrate with my son's in-laws,

a lovely tradition that's been going on for years now.

Thank you Mike and Julie,

I could have never done this without you.

And to my two children,

Zach and Danielle.

How I love you both with all my heart.

How very much you have learned in the past 3 weeks.

All new experiences for you,

life lessons that have taken their toll on you both and your partners.

Like I said above,

I couldn't be prouder of you both,

especially how you shared the responsibilities equally.

Dad and are are so very lucky that you both are ours.