Goodbye, Chautauqua

The symbol of Chautauqua Institution -- the Miller Bell Tower. We heard the bells on our walks.

Return to the Woods

Met a friend on the way.
Episcopal Church at the edge of the woods.
Ahhhh...
See the nature classroom on the other side of the creek?
Thunder Bridge
Hall of Philosophy amphitheater
Where Mommy took classes both weeks.

Babies!

This little ravine was only a few steps from our apartment. Do you see a large bird in the tree? It is a baby Cooper's Hawk!While on a Bird Walk Tuesday morning, I was introduced to 4 baby Cooper’s Hawks (only 3 seen here) in the little wooded ravine near our apartment. They probably are about 4 weeks old and were not flying very well Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, they were flying about half way up the height of the trees. Wednesday, they were in the tops of the trees. I walked through there numerous times to watch their progress. After they were high in the trees, I felt safe taking Guinness through the woods with me. He never saw them, though he may have heard them. It was awesome to watch them fly from branch to branch. We saw Purple Martins feeding their young. There are Purple Martin houses all along the lakeshore on the grounds.
A mother spider has exquisite musical taste. She built this home in the kiosk in front of the opera house.

Guinness Being Guinny

Even More Sights from our Walks

One of the oldest streets.





A sculpture garden

House Tour

Today was the annual Women’s Club House Tour, and “our” house was on tour, but not our apartment. However, a few people did come snooping on our patio, so I put a sign on the door – “Not on tour.”

Here in the entrance to our lower level apartment.
Our landlord creates metal sculptures. This is in the garden.

Found Woods

Grant left us yesterday and won’t be back until Wednesday. Today Guinny and I decided to explore the south end of the property. We found this!

With trails...
And a creek!

More Scenes from Walking

Dogs at Doggie Park!

We finally found some playmates at Doggie Park!

But Nicky, the goldlie doodle, kept the Wheaten Terrier and Guinness rolled on their backs being submissive.

Right at Home

Guinness is being a VERY good boy! I brought sheets to cover the sofa and duvet, because it would be difficult to keep him off the furniture while we are with him let alone when we are out. He has settled right in.

He is even sleeping on the sofa instead of in the double bed with us! Ü He is ignoring that he has his own bed on the floor.

Some of his medications ended today; the rest end tomorrow! Yay! And he is doing just fine.

Walks

This is basically a walking/biking campus though there are vehicles “on duty” such as tours and deliveries, cars for permanent residents, and for moving in or out. Among the throngs of walkers are many with dogs. Guinness, who does not like to heel strictly (meaning at my side with a loose leash), is learning from the other dogs to heel without having a taunt leash! We take at least two long walks around the grounds every day. We found a better way to reach Dog Park (though we have never seen a dog there) with a walk through the woods and a bridge.

Here is a sampling of the visual delights around this campus:

Schedule and Vacation

I had to make an official schedule of his meds to keep everything straight.

7:15 ½ cup dry + canned food

Metronidazole (12 hours)

Amoxicillin (12 hours)

8:15 Metocloprimide (8 hours)

9:15 Sulcrate (8 hours)

10:30 ½ cup dry + canned food

1:00 ½ cup dry + canned food

3:00 Metocloprimide (8 hours)

4:00 Sulcrate (8 hours)

6:00 ½ cup dry + canned food

Metronidazole (12 hours)

Amoxicillin (12 hours)

10:00 Metocloprimide (8 hours)

11:00 Sulcrate (8 hours)

Between caring for the dog, I packed to go to Chautauqua for two weeks. We left after lunch, and arrived before dinner. Guinny is quite excited about his vacation at this gorgeous, dog-friendly cultural mecca.

Here is in our vacation apartment with his newest stuffed animal from the kennel – a lobster. He took great delight in sqeaking it. I hope the landlords upstairs didn't mind!

Sick but Fun Dog

I called the pet hotel to give them an update on what is happening and to tell them the vet’s assumption. They totally disagree, as do I. They say that he is totally happy there with no visible stress. In fact, this dog counselor said, “He’s my funnest dog at playtime! Even when he was sick, he still is the funnest dog.”

Meds and Diagnosis

We closed Guinness into the den in case he did vomit more overnight, and he did – several times on the hardwood floor.

After cleaning up the floor, I proceeded to stuff his morning Metronidazole down his throat as he will not eat it with food. He started gagging and foaming at the mouth, shaking his head and making a mess of the dissolved pill all over the floor.

Dr. Simone called first thing as promised. There is nothing unusual in his blood work; everything is in the normal range. She talked on for a couple of minutes without allowing me to speak saying that he should be improving quickly now with the medication. Finally, I was able to say, “But he vomited several times in the night. He is not doing well.” She asked me to bring him in right then so that they could sedate and xray him to see what is going on.

I returned mid-afternoon for him. His xray shows no obstruction in his digestive tract, but his stomach walls are enlarged as his stomach is severely enflamed. She prescribed one more medication -- Metocloprimide, to begin giving him tomorrow afternoon if he has stopped vomiting. This is another eight hour cycle med, but has to be given an hour before the Sulcrate.

She gave one possibility of his distress—stress! She thinks that his popping back and forth from home to kennel was too much for him to handle. But he LOVES going to the kennel. Her analysis is hard to fathom.

As we walked into the waiting room to pay, Guinness was going bonkers with all the possible new friends waiting their turn. My comment this time was, “Can you believe he was just sedated?”

Doctor Visit

We closed Guinness in the den overnight in case there was more vomiting, but we awoke to a clean dog and clean floor!

I called the vet first thing and got Guinny in to see the doctor. As we walked toward the building, Guinness was his exuberant self being so happy to come to the vet’s office. I told him, “Guinny, you need to look a little bit sick, because you are.” We entered the door with him straining on his lead to say hello to all the staff, pet owners, and sick dogs. People sit in awe (or is it fear?) of his exuberance. I quipped, “This is a very sick dog. Can you tell? He is almost nigh unto death.”

Once in the exam room, Dr. Simone entered and he eagerly jumped on her as usual. She told him he could not jump, because she is pregnant. She examined him, had me take him into the next room to weigh him, and she took him in the back to have a blood test taken. He is 66.8 pounds today – down 4 pounds from the end of May. Worrisome. For today, the vet gave us Amoxicillin, an antibiotic; Metronidazole to treat infections caused by susceptible organisms; Sulcrate Suspension to coat the lining of his stomach, and, once he stops vomiting, Drontol to kill any possible worms. They do want me to bring in a sample for testing. Plus she gave him some prescription food – Medi Cal Gastro Forumla – in cans and kibble. I am to begin giving him a few tablespoons of the canned food every two or three hours, gradually building up the quantity and eventually mixing it with the kibble until he is back to normal meals. My head was just swimming with all the instructions for these four medications plus the food! Two are to be taken every twelve hours, and one every eight hours. That one has to be given one to two hours after taking other medications or food. HELP! This is impossible! I felt like crying; I didn’t know how to manage all this!

Sick baby

Mommy went to Vietnam with Karin, Steve, and Kevin to adopt Kien, then stayed in NC with them for almost 2 weeks. Meanwhile, Daddy was very busy with his out-of-town clients, then went to NC to meet his new grandson, so Guinny spent most of the month in a villa at his pet hotel. He was bathed and ready to be picked up Monday, June 30, but our flights were delayed. I arrived this morning to bring our boy home to discover that he had had diarrhea Monday night and had begun vomiting. This morning when they went in to him, they discovered that he had vomited all night and needed another going-home bath. Before they brought him out, they told me that he had been losing weight all month. According to their scales, he had lost 3 pounds. Also, the first time Grant picked him up for a weekend at home, they had told him that they had found a worm in Guinny’s stool and suggested that he have a fecal test done. Grant never saw any worms and was too busy for that. He never even mentioned to me that there could be a problem (sigh), as what could I have done from Vietnam or NC?

They did feed him this morning thinking that it was more important for him to have something in his stomach to vomit than to have dry heaves. But I know from Mark, that he recommends NO food or water for 24 hours after vomiting, though I did give him some ice.

As is normal on his first day home, he was a zombie, so there wasn’t an obvious change in behavior other than, when we went outside for potty breaks, he was more subdued than normal. This afternoon, he vomited two more times – both were mucous with blood plus he lost his food. (I knew you would want to know.)

Since today is Canada Day, the vet is unavailable unless we want to pay the big bucks for the Emergency Animal Clinic. We opted to wait after calling Mark, our brilliant nephew veterinarian unless there is a turn for the worse.