Month: August 2016

If you read my last update you know we bought Honeybear a pool so we have been so busy trying to get the backyard ready for it.  If you are a homeowner I know you will understand that one thing leads to another!  Its always going to cost more, take more time, and be completely exhausting!!  So needless to say we are exhausted and Honeybear still doesn’t have her pool set up 🙁  But we are staying motivated and will get it done soon, very soon!

Honeybear has been doing great!  My dad sent her some antlers from Wyoming that she can chew on and she loves them!  As you can tell from the picture she is saying this is all mine!  As I type she is getting her 4th dose of chemo.  The second we turn on the road of the clinic she starts whimpering and jumping around in the truck!  She loves coming here and the staff loves all the kisses she gives them!  I love coming here too but I have to admit I still get nervous every time.  When they bring her out I grab the cross on my necklace and hold it tight as well as my breath and wait for them to say “she is doing great!”  Then I breath and say “Thank you God!”  I’m sure anyone going through this will understand the fear of bad news.

When we leave the clinic we are going to a pet store that carries Orijen dog food.  Even with all the supplementing we have been doing with Honeybear’s diet I still can’t stop thinking that the #1 ingredient in her food is corn.  It’s a great food (Science Diet Prescription J/D) for her joints and that is why I haven’t switched yet because obviously her joint health is more important now than ever.  But that corn…….so after a lot of research I think it’s best to switch to Orijen.  I also have stopped giving her any kind of rawhide as we switched to the antlers.  I found out the antlers have minerals and marrow on the inside which have health benefits. As they chew on them they slowly get smaller and don’t splinter off.  They also last forever and I am so lucky that hiking in Wyoming is my Dad’s hobby and he finds them all the time!

Hopefully I can include a picture of Honeybear swimming in the pool on my next update.  I can’t wait to see her big smile as she paddles around.  I’m thinking it will take her a bit to get into the swing of swimming again but she is a smart girl!  Life is so good and I know I say it every time but I’m really so thankful for another day, week, month, and God willing, year and even years with our sweet girl!  Why stop at year??!!  She has the strength and support to live her life to its full potential!

 

*Look at that core strength!!*

 

Honeybear has been doing really well!  The only little thing and I have mentioned this before is she get’s tired quicker.  For example I took her on a very short walk this morning and then a trip to Petco, taking the scenic route home so she could stick her slobbery face out the window and now she is laying right beside me snoring away!  Her appetite has been great and she can run like a champ! She is definitely enjoying life!

We are still dealing with this scorching Texas heat! Honeybear is over it and so are we.  You can’t go outside for 5 min without melting between the hours of 7 AM and 7PM.  So we decided to buy Honeybear a present……….A POOL!!! Not just a little kiddie pool, I’m talking about a 16 foot round 4 foot deep above ground pool!  We have a design and a plan so we spent this weekend tearing out our old deck to make space for our new backyard getaway!  It is a lot of work but Honeybear is our motivation!  I know you may be thinking, how is this a present for Honeybear?? Because she LOVES to swim!  If we go to the beach she runs straight to the water!  When we go to the Frio River we can’t get her out of the water!  She truly loves it!  We also thought it would be great therapy for her physically and mentally.  It should arrive beginning of next week and hopefully will be complete in about 2 weeks.  We are all so excited!

*This is Honeybear swimming at the Frio 3 days before her diagnosis*

I don’t want someone to read my blog one day and think “you must have to have a lot of money to treat a dog with cancer, all these people do is buy their dog treats, harnesses and toys.”  That is why I am going to share some personal information with you, not for sympathy but to hopefully  encourage someone one day.  Ok here goes.  Last June our dog Chogan was diagnosed with bone cancer, a week later my husband was laid off from the oilfield (a job he had and was great at for 10 years), that July we lost Chogan (he was 11 1/2). My husband got his insurance license and started working for Aflac in November (he is considered self employed and only makes money when he sells).  This February we lost our diabetic cat Jinx due to organ failure (he was almost 15).  On May 25th at about 3pm Honeybear was diagnosed with bone cancer.  That same day May 25th at about 11:59 PM with swollen eyes and extreme exhaustion we made a decision……to FIGHT!  After that our mood completely changed, instead of feeling defeated and depressed we felt relieved and hopeful!  Everyday since then has truly been a blessing.  We appreciate life more and realize no one knows what tomorrow will bring.  This last year has been a real struggle for us but it has made us so much stronger.  Our goal is to spend as much time with Honeybear as we can making her as happy as we can and if that means getting her a pool then so be it!  🙂  She is the star of the show right now.  Don’t get me wrong this has been a very expensive journey but we are making it happen.  We have been saying lately we are not taking our money to Heaven.  It takes a lot more than money to take care of a dog/human with cancer, it takes a lot of love and faith.  Even at our lowest and far from our wealthiest the decision was easy for us and I thank God everyday for showing us what we needed to do.  I also thank him for healing Honeybear this far and ask he continues to do so.