Update on the Pup

At the vet, urine sample was analyzed. High sugar. While the vet tech analyzed a blood sample to verify Diabetes, the vet explained the medication process for diabetes, dosage, method, ect.

The blood sample came back with normal blood sugar. ????

So, while the urine didn't indicate infection, we're treating him for bladder infection and doing everything possible to convince him to eat. So far I've fed him out of my hand, some roast beef and some spoonfuls of easy digest mush canned food.

The vet thinks he might have had a pancreatitis episode. This could have been random or from eating a food that upset him. Likely people food on Saturday. We had a party here so he must have eaten a scrap of something in the yard or house. I used to have a relative who didn't believe us when he was a puppy that he was super sensitive to people food and she would sneak him scraps and he would get sick. Since then we have been really super careful, though he would get bits of cheese for meds or a bit of turkey at Thanksgiving. Never hot dogs or chips or plate lickings. I am feeling super guilty for not checking the yard for scraps after feeding 12 under 9. I mean, I should have.

We will recheck his blood and urine in one week. In the meantime we will hand feed him whatever he will eat. Advice and prayers, again, are welcome.

Our Dog Hobbit

Hobbit has been a part of our family for almost 8 years. He's the grand pup of my Aunt's dog, my childhood buddy on her farm/ranch. He's an Australian Shepard. He's my baby even if he's really been annoying the last year, with pregnancy and new baby anxiety.

He's sick. Really sick. The vet can't figure out what is wrong with him. 8 weeks ago all his blood tests came back completely normal except for thyroid and he had gained 30 lbs in one year, so we started him on a thyroid medication. Now his thyroid level is perfect and he's lost 20 lbs (in 8 weeks?). And now he's not eating anything. Not even bacon (I thought I'd give it a shot). He's drinking water frantically and peeing bucket loads every hour (no doubt from all the water). He urine is odorless. At first we thought Lil'Bug was spilling water (yes, in the house). It takes a whole bath towel to clean it up. We have him confined to his kennel or the kitchen so we can more easily clean it up. If we let him outside for too long he searches out water accumulation and drinks and drinks and drinks like there s no tomorrow.

I'm worried there might not be. Nothing I found online is promising. Kidney/renal failure, diabetes, food poisoning, ect. He'll starve to death if he refuses to eat. He won't even eat BACON!

We're going back to the vet today. They expect me to get a urine sample. Advice on how to do that is welcome. It's not like I can put a potty seat on a bucket. Gah.

In the meantime, I am praying for answers and for his comfort.

Art in the Farm House

I mentioned in my last post that I plan to keep home in a different way. Here's my plan.

I plan to choose things to fill my home that are natural, pretty, functional, and handmade when possible. I hope to make some of them myself, learn to use the sewing machine I got for Christmas two years ago. I hope to craft candles from beeswax. I hope Dearest makes furniture.

I looked around my current home today, at the walls. My walls are filled with department store art. Not a single family picture, no "wall of shame", mostly mass produced prints. Lovely, but not welcoming. My own art went to storgae durring staging because they lacked proper framing.

In our new home the walls will be filled slowly with art we make, art from artists we know personally, and photographs of our family that we take, not studio posed, but capturing the spirit of each of us. Welcome home.

Identity Crisis

A strange transformation is happening at Chez Podkayne. We are listening to farm reports, reading Hobby Farmer for ideas and getting excited about them instead of bitter, we are gearing up for winter in a way that is actually different than what we'd do in the city, we are collecting winter wear of a different grade (LOL Ha! I told you, Dearest, that we'd need all those gloves and hats that I've horded over the years!), and we are preparing for the move in more than just physical ways.

This is a blessing that we've hoped, planned, studied, and worked for over the last 10 years. This is it. I'll no longer be the Mistress of Hatton House, but a farmer and a farmer's wife. We'll have land to tell people, "Get off of." Sorry, that's the joke around here. We'll raise our kids as Southern Iowans, which is appearently different than just Iowan. There will be less diversity close to home, even less than now, and that worries be a bit.

The transformation is more than just rural to urban though. I'm rethinking how I'll keep home, what role I'll play on the farm (we've discussed that I would teach full time (possibly on campus) for our off farm income once the kids are older), we've discussed having more kids, we've grown closer to our family and continue to foster relationships in healthy ways, and we've discussed finding a church community.

This move is about so much more than putting down roots, it's about growing and thriving as a family, and lifting each other up.