Archive January | Swiss Lick Swissies

Archive for January, 2010

Happy Hanna

Monday, January 11th, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments

One of Indy’s litter mate’s humans sent me a link to a slide show today. I have to share it because it’s hilarious. I haven’t figured out how to embed it yet, so you’ll have to click on the link below.

Hanna in the snow.

Tags: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

Thank you all

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | Gryffindor, Uncategorized | No Comments

I wanted to take a moment and say thank you to everyone out there. We have received so many phone calls, emails, forum postings, cards in the mail, and comments on this blog from friends, family, internet acquaintances, and readers about Gryffin. It’s very, very touching. It makes us all warm and fuzzy (and it’s not just the heated seats in the cars) to hear from you all.

We continue to miss Gryffin, of course. But you knew that, I’m sure.

For those of you that get sad when you think of him, I ask you to do what I do.

Smile.

It really helps a lot. And Gryffin would much rather you remember him with a smile. He was never one for tears. Typical male.

Tags: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Gryffin the Swissy

RIP Gryffindor, 4/10/03 – 1/3/10

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 | Gryffindor | 6 Comments

My heart is breaking to write this. Tears are fogging up my glasses and dripping on to the keyboard.

We had to let Gryffin go early this morning during surgery at the emergency vet.

The big guy started acting weird in the evening on New Years Day. More drooly than ever, kind of lethargic, just not right. We figured it was upset belly issues and gave him some Gas-X and Pepto and figured we’d be taking him to the vet on Monday. He was worse on Saturday morning, so we got in at our normal vet. We were hoping for a pancreas infection or something (sounds weird to hope for that), but it was not. They suspected either autoimmune disease or the big C word that I don’t like to say or type. They sent us home with prednisone with the promise of test results in a couple of days.

As the day progressed, we did see some improvement. But I was kicking myself for not pushing the whole Xray thing. So, thinking it could be a spleen thing, we decided to head to the emergency vet for the xray. The vet there was able to see fluid (blood) in the stomach, so we moved forward with a chest xray and abdominal ultrasound. He found a mass on Gryffin’s spleen, so we moved forward with the splenectomy hoping that it would get everything. Sadly, they found more masses on the kidney and prostate that could not be removed, so he recommended we put Gryffin to sleep. Not wanting to cause Gryffin any more pain, we did.

So today we trudge on.

Run free, big boy. Tell Alex we say hello.