The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

We've had a very full week of ups and downs. We had made plans to travel to Edmond, OK (by way of Arkansas to see family) to stay with friends for the big church weekend with socials, dancing, and the Jeremiah musical premier.

All that went very well and it was a wonderful experience. But in the midst of it, we received very bad news about our pet. DaVinci had not been himself the day before we left, and we thought perhaps the recently prescribed medication was affecting him. But we found out from the pet sitter on Friday that he was becoming increasingly weak and inactive. We had her take him to our vet, who found he was losing blood and going downhill fast. After bloodwork and x-rays were inconclusive, they transferred him to the regional emergency animal hospital for more tests and monitoring. By Friday night, he was pretty bad. An ultrasound revealed a large tumor on his liver had ruptured and was bleeding out. They had already tried IV fluids, and it wasn't helping. They did a blood transfusion through the night and gave coagulates to try to stop the bleeding, but he never stabilized. He wasn't in any pain and our pet sitter was able to be with him when he died Saturday the 29th shortly before noon.

We are heartbroken to be without our faithful companion of ten years, and it was so difficult to not be there with him and say goodbye. But he had a wonderful, healthy, full life and we are thankful for the time we enjoyed with him. We were able to bring his body home Monday and bury him under the beautiful tulip magnolia in the backyard. We will start the new calendar year without him, but we'll have a decade of fond memories to reflect back on.

DaVinci was...

...our big bellied baby

...always quick with a hug

...a natural weed barrier

...a good excuse for a nap

...a fabulous babysitter

...a patient chipmunk hunter

...an experienced remodeler

...never far from a toy

...frequently aspiring to new heights

...prone to stick his nose in

...our beloved friend who will be greatly missed

Digging Deeper

I hope if any of you have success stories with in-ground pet fences and your dogs, you will share them. Because we just spent an entire day yesterday in the hot sun digging the trench for DaVinci's new electronic barrier and I'm really hoping it works!

We can't install a physical fence for a number of reasons (blocking the drive, the neighbors still need onto our property to get to their barn, too expensive to attractively fence an entire acre, etc.). So we've been planning on this method for a while now. I bought an great system on Craiglist quite a while ago, but we've been too busy to get it in the ground.

The situation was also complicated by the fact that the people who board their horses behind us pulled up the survey stakes and we can't tell where the property lines are anymore. But with the help of a measuring wheel, Jeff's iPhone compass, and our deed description, we marked the corners and plotted a path. Then Jeff spent about five or six hours with an inadequate gas-powered edger trudging through our hardpacked clay soil, blackberry brambles, poison ivy, and overgrown grass. He had to navigate fences, posts, gates, horses, donkey, chickens, cars, and more to accomplish the task. But he set one foot in front of the other and made it happen (in spite of the fact that the rented edger broke down and we had to take it in for servicing).

The next step is crawling around on hands and knees installing 1000 feet of wire. Then planting flags. Then hooking it all up. Then training the dog. Then hoping he doesn't run away in spite of it all.

Going Gray

I took DaVinci for his yearly vaccinations yesterday. The vet tech commented that he was starting to go a little gray around the muzzle, indicating his true age in spite of his puppy behavior. It got me to look back at more of his early years, and I found these digital scrapbook pages I made of some of his first few months with us.

And one when he's a little older, his (fake ;-) magazine cover shot!

Growing up so fast...

Jeff is officially middle-aged today (if you take Psalm 90:10 literally). Thirty five seems so young to us now, though. It doesn't hurt that many of our friends and colleagues are several decades older than we. Quite a few of the professors in Jeff's department are nearing retirement, the majority of our ballroom friends are in their 50's or 60's (and that's being rather generous)! Even DaVinci is getting older. He's eight, which is a bit over the hill for canine life, though I hope he has many good years left.

Speaking of my two favorite boys, I found some old photo montages I made of them several years ago. They haven't changed much!

Concert in the Park

Jeff and I enjoyed a bit of Americana Monday evening at the concert in the park put on by our city Parks and Rec dept. It was thankfully not as hot and humid as earlier in the day, so we were quite comfortable in our chairs on the lawn, overlooking the Tennessee River.

The stage


DaVinci came too

For those who thought it wouldn't last...

Day Three: The captive animal is still securely tagged. We will continue to track the progress of this rare, one-of-a-kind "Hund".

Escape Artist

Da Vinci surveys the neighborhood from "his" upstairs bedroom window

I guess we should have named him Houdini instead of Da Vinci. Our dog has managed to escape multiple times in the last week or two, despite our best efforts. He is, in general, a very well behaved housedog. And he has the useful habit of being rather skittish and timid of odd things like papers lying on the floor and cardboard boxes. So we had erected a very flimsy temporary fence of chicken wire and wooden stakes around the backyard when we moved in over a year ago.

This was quite sufficient to keep Da Vinci in, although any other dog of his size and agility could have easily dug, pushed, jumped, or otherwise managed a way out. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that, while rooting around after smells and odors only appealing to a dog, Da Vinci seems to have accidentally dislodged a stake out of the ground and toppled a small section of fencing. He trotted right over it and romped the neighborhood for a while before we caught him. After that, he went looking for exits and found them at every turn.

We staked, tied, wired, and blocked each spot he found and tried to keep a step ahead of him, looking for any loose areas. But chicken wire is no match for a determined dog who has now had a taste of freedom. He never roams far and always comes back after about 20-30 minutes, but leash laws and general safety concerns still make this a problem. On weekends or long days away, we’ve been accustomed to leaving him outside with access to the sunroom and backyard, but that’s not a good option now. We had planned to take our time and build a nice picket fence one of these days, but now that day is here!