Stampy's cry for help

Stampy attempted suicide this morning while I was out at the barn.
He got Odin's pills from the countertop, tore apart the pill containers, and then, to my horror, ate what looked like all of Odin's heart pills.
So I called Dr. W, who did some calculations and called me back and said Stampy needed to come in to get charcoal in his stomach. Since I had been gone 3 hours and we didn't know what time he ate them, there wasn't any point in inducing vomiting.
He looked a little, droopy, with dilated pupils, and so we raced over to the vet and got the charcoal tube in his belly.
I've been watching him the last couple hours to make sure he doesn't pass out. Some of those pills are blood pressure reducers and others are blood thinners, and too many at once could have been trouble.
But, as I was cleaning the house, I found that he actually stashed most of them (for a later, second attempt?) and they were mostly the nasty heart-stopping ones, so I think he's going to be ok.
Little bastard.
This must be becuase I'm weaning him off the prozac.

Crime Scene

My new favorite sweater

My sister made this for me in my favorite color. It is a very cool pattern and it fits perfectly. I LOVE it!

Nisqually - more pictures

Nisqually Basin - good pictures

Odie good vet visit

Dr. W says Odin is doing great. He has a "sparkle in his eyes". I told her that's only because she gives him so many treats. He was even talking at her, trying to get her to give him more treats. (And then, because Stampy stayed at home alone, they both got cheeseburgers after.)
She said that she thinks the big sign will be that he'll stop eating, and then boom - he'll die. She said he is not suffering right now.
So my list of trivial things:
- His bulgy eye is quite possibly a fatty tumor that's behind his eye, like the ones on his body. Since it's not bothering him and there's nothing we'd do about it anyway (like surgery), there's no need to do anything.
- His breathing and afib at night is just what it is. Not a sign of impending death.
- His cool lips/nose/tongue/feet AND wobbly back legs in the middle of the night are all inadequate circulation. Nothing to do about that either.
- Flopping down in weird spots, seeming tired - also just regular old heart failure.
She said it's ok to take him on little short walks.

That's it. She said that for a dog with all his heart problems, he is doing just as she would expect. She thinks he's stabilized on all the meds, and seemed optimistic he could hold out like this at least a few more months. She told me twice she thinks he'll just die suddenly, and while that's worse for a planner like me becuase I won't know it's coming, it's good because he won't have a long drawn-out suffering phase where I'm agonizing over what to do.

Oh yeah, and the gagging - she said there's no fluid in his lungs, and a heart failure cough is a little puff, not a nasty retch.

Odin has been gagging a lot

It sounds like he is choking on rawhide, but since he hasn't eaten any in years, that's not it.
Sometimes he gags stuff up - spit stuff that goes on my carpet which my bare feet never, ever touch.
He's breathing loud at night too.
T thinks he has less energy, but I think he is still him.

Odin's eulogy

I'm trying to come up, ahead of time, with what his memorial stone should say. It has to be perfect because it's for Odin.
I can't write anything better than famous authors, so I'm reviewing all my favorite meaningful quotes.

So far I have for line 1:
Odonata - 6/21/1999 - x/xx/2009

Option 1:
"I get up. I walk. I fall down.
Meanwhile, I keep dancing."

Option 2:
"But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world."

Option 3:
"Round and round he walked, and
so learned a very valuable thing:
that no emotion is the final one."

Option 4:
"That is how she felt without him,
feeling his presence where he no longer was."

Option 5 (one by me):
Odin lithe and supple
slinking, sliding, prancing now
he moves like liquid

Option 6:
I loved Odin "more than I had reasons for.
- which I know now to be the only way to love,
without conditions or explanations."

Option 7:
"Let us go then, you and I, when the
evening is spread out against the sky ...
[for] indeed there will be time."

I haven't decided yet on a stone or the wall (with his ashes), at Marymoor:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/recreation/parks/inventory/marymoor/petgarden.aspx

3 funny pictures of Stampy

Stampy, Wallis, and Gromit

An unflattering picture of all three of them. (Intended to show size of Stampy in proportion to them. W&G combined, however, outproduce Stampy in hair manufacturing.)

Stampy has a new BFF

While we were gone yesterday, Stampy dragged T's clothes out of the bedroom to suck on instead of mine. What is terrible is how joyous I was about that (instead of mortified and ashamed).

Pictures of Two of My Christmas Gifts In Use

Weather girl is telling me what to wear; and Octavia (the hemaphrodite boom box) is rocking out to Modest Mouse.

Stampy in his new booties

Enjoying life on the adult couch

We are actually watching This American Life after a rousing game of Seinfeld Scene It. (Mom won, by a nose.)

Phase 1 of becoming an adult

(One adult room.)

Dryer + Pen = Ill-fated Experiment

This is what happens if you forget you have a pen in your pocket and wash it then dry it.

Christmas dogs

Note how dopey Stampy looks.

Seabrook vacation

Christmas pets

Pitiful travels

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