A Very Close Call!

This is my Best Bud Cooper.

He is a 6 year old Redbone Coonhound. He is my shadow. He knows where I am at all times if I am around the house. A lot of the nature photography I share is because of the walks Cooper and I take everyday.

Thursday he woke up and started throwing up lots of fluid. After the 3rd time I was very concerned. He was acting strange and breathing a bit harder than normal. I decided to take him to the vet.

Now anyone who has been following me here knows we are having a bit of a financial crisis at this moment so it was (I'm sorry to say) a big decision to go to the vet. Then I had to decide if we should do an x ray since the Doc. thought it might be a blockage.

I had to do that so I knew I was up to $100.00 at this point. After 3 hours waiting for the barium to work and the x ray to be read we found out it was an obstruction and he would need surgery.

Wow, what an emotional decision. I don't have extra cash on hand right now and I'm not sure if they will take payments.

I LOVE my dog and really do not want to loose him. I had to leave him over night and tell them I had a financial cap so they couldn't do all they could if necessary. If it involved the intestines they would just have to put him to sleep right there on the operating table and I would never see him again.

I prayed, along with many other people and they did surgery the next morning.

They were able to do a less invasive procedure to get the corn cob piece (eyes rolling) down to where he will be able to pass it on his own. He did have to be opened up so they could get to his stomach. Here are a few photos of him coming home and at home after I picked him up.

Stoned Cooper! The drive home was interesting. He would not lay down and just sat there staring and every once in awhile he would snap to it and look up like "Whoa, dude what is happening? Where am I?"


Here he is laying on his bed in the living room. Still a bit spacey.


Hello! Is anybody home in there?
It was weird, like an Alzheimer's patient. Poor guy.
I'm happy to say that today he is much better. Still moving slow. Lots of staples and stitches on his belly but he ate, and took a walk around the yard and is sleeping beside me up on the couch like old times :).
Even though he has eaten corn off the cob a bunch of times, this time he decided to eat the cob also. Needless to say this summer treat will not happen EVER again. That was a $600.00 mistake we will not repeat no mater how much he begs. I am so happy to have him home and despite the expense, I had to purchase a new collar on Etsy to celebrate!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AddisonLogan

Very Manley and cute huh? What's another $10.00's. It was on sale ;).

We girls know, it makes you feel better to buy something new!

I'll post pic's when he gets his new adornment!

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Come Walk With Me

Since I share about my walks with Cooper so much, I thought I share the woods behind my home where I do most of my walking with Cooper. If we go at the right time and the golfers are gone this time of year we will also walk on the golf course. I will share photos from there another time. So sit back relax and enjoy a wonderful stroll through my woods.

This is the path behind my house that connects to the entrance into the woods. Unfortunately, I can't cut through our yard to this path right now because it is full of poison ivy! I barrow my neighbors backyard in the summer to cut across.

Entrance into the woods on the way to the meadow. Isn't this a beautiful site? These trees have to be 30 ft tall.

further on the path to the meadow.

The meadow. There are 2 paths off to the right you can take or we go forward to the other end and left and it opens into the golf course.

Honeysuckle abounds here!

Deer path off to the side.

Side path

Pretty flowers (weeds)

Trees. Love the texture here.

Cooper running through the high grass.

For comic relief I thought I'd include what I am usually looking at!

Wild Phlox are my favorite! I hope you enjoyed your walk today. Have a wonderful Sunday!

Happy Independance Day Weekend

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cooper

Did someone say Softball?

My Paintings of Cooper

I thought it would only be polite introduce you to my shadow Cooper, since I will be talking about him at times here. One of my favorite photos of him is with the book that is responsible for him coming into our lives. We had been dogless for 10 years and my daughters had been asking for a dog for awhile but neither my husband or I were willing to take on the responsibility again. Fortunately or unfortunately I picked up a book by Jon Katz called a Dogs Year. What a wonderful book! because of Mr. Katz poetic writing I was persuaded to give in and look for the perfect breed for our family. Cooper is a Redbone Coonhound. He definitely does not live the life of a coon hound! As you can see here he loves to read Mr. Katz and is very thankful to him for his rescue from such a difficult life.

find book Here