June 29, 2009

What a crazy freakin' weekend!

Andy drove up from Long Beach on Friday night after a quick trip to visit his parents in the hospital, and arrived home around 3am. He said a brief hello to a very excited Sampson, and hit the sack. We got up at 8am on Saturday to get Sampson ready for his fun-filled day of hanging with his sister, Brody, and Abe & Kjer's other baby-girl, Lilly. We dropped him off with Auntie Kjer, and headed to San Fran for the Warped Tour with Neil & Nellie, Aaron & Nicole. Of course, it was the hottest day EVER in San Fran (well, maybe 94 degrees) and I was wearing jeans and a scarf! Needless to say, I have the most horrendous sunburn! We had a great time watching some of Andy's favorite bands perform- mostly, Bad Religion & NOFX- and we met up with some friends from Livermore and Fresno.

We headed back to Sac around 9pm to pick up Sampson. When we got back to Abe & Kjer's house, Kjer told me that Sam had a great time. She had some good snuggly moments with all three of the pups (how cute!). We really appreciate all of Kjer's help, and hope to return the puppy-sitting favor soon (so I get some snuggly time too).

Sunday hit a scorching 107 degrees in Sac, and we spent most of the afternoon in the pool. Sam joined us for a bit, but didn't make much of an attempt to swim with his three legs. My parents were flying into Sac around 4pm and we had made tentative plans to meet up with them for dinner, but we decided to surprise them at the airport instead. We greeted them with big hugs, and the four of us had a wonderful dinner near the river.

Today is another scorcher- 104 degrees in the afternoon. We chilled out in our wonderfully air conditioned home during the evening. My face and shoulders are covered in aloe- mucho ouch. Once it cooled down, we took Sampson on a walk to the park around the corner from our house. He loved it. I got some action shots... which reminded me to further pursue finding the software to get videos on the blog.. I guess those are "TK' once again.

June 26, 2009

I believe that Andy and I have redefined the phrase “rolling with the punches.”

I came home on my lunch break today to check on Sampson while Andy is at a hospital in Long Beach with his parents. During a brief visit to So Cal last weekend, Andy’s dad began experiencing chest pains. He was taken to the hospital and doctors determined he was having a mild heart attack. He stayed there for a few days as they monitored his potassium level. On Thursday, he was discharged, and very quickly started experiencing chest pains again, and was immediately admitted back into the hospital. He has been there since, and this morning, Andy and his Uncle Gary drove down to Long Beach to be with them. The doctors are still trying to coordinate transportation for Bob (Andy’s dad) up to UCSF. He may be flown in by an air ambulance later today. Hopefully, this pushes Bob closer to the top of the transplant list. Fingers crossed.

My parents flew out of Sacramento this morning, headed for Colorado. The funeral services for my Grandmother are tomorrow. My heart goes out to them, and I hope they are able to find peace and comfort in saying goodbye and in being there with family.

Sam and I are anxiously awaiting news from all sides. My wonderful friend Sarah has been very concerned about me and today she sent flowers to my office (see pic- aren't they beautiful!). Andy had made plans for us to go to the Warped Tour in SF tomorrow- those plans are still up in the air. In the meantime, I’m sending out all the love I can muster to our families in this time of need.

June 23, 3009

I'm taking a break from blogging for a moment. Yesterday, my Grandmother passed away at the age of 89. She is in Colorado with my Grandfather and many wonderful family members. I'm helping my parents make arrangements to fly back for the funeral. This is a very sad time for our family, but we will cherish all the great times we had with her. Hugs and kisses to all the Flukens reading this blog, from me, Andy and Sampson.

June 22, 2009

On Saturday evening, we attended a wonderful wedding in Dublin, for our friends Val and Steve. Unfortunately, we had to leave the party early to get home to Sampson, since we had to leave him in his kennel. It was nice to know that we could leave him alone, safe, for a few hours. Hopefully, in a few more months, we can leave him alone, in the backyard, for a few hours. We still have a few things to fix before we feel it is "safe."

We were relieved of our puppy-sitting duties on Sunday afternoon (and we already miss the job). We spent the day, Father's Day, snuggling with Sam, watching movies, eating, sleeping, and tending to the garden. It's really growing out of control. Sam tried to lift his leg on it last night and almost fell over. Maybe that'll teach him.

June 18, 2009

Andy and I are on neighborhood watch for the next couple of days while our neighbors (2 of them) are on vacation. This usually only entails moving newspapers, bringing in mail, watering yards, keeping an eye on anything weird happenin'. This time, we have the pleasure of watching our neighbor's three sweet doggy girls. Sampson is thrilled with this, because he gets to hang out with them in their HUGE backyard.

These little ladies are just too cute- I had to introduce them.

Nahla is the youngest. She's about 2 years old, and very active. She likes to bark and chase after Sam. Jasmine (black and white doggy) is the middle child. She likes to jump up on my lap and chill in the shade. Beauty is the oldest. She has epilepsy, so we give her medication on a regular basis. She's very mellow, but has gone missing numerous times since we've met her. She always seems to find her way

home (unlike SOME doggies).

We will be spending time with them in their backyard in the evenings. Sampson loves sniffing around the yard and

lounging under the apple trees. The girls don't seem to mind him. It's

lovely....

June 16, 2009

The past week, we have walked Sampson around the court, regularly. He enjoys visiting with the neighborhood dogs (our neighbor has three little doggies). It has been pretty cool lately, so nothing new to report in regards to any swimming- hopefully, with it warming up, we can try out the water therapy again soon. I finally moved a rug to cover the hardwood floor between the living room & kitchen, so that Sam can walk freely between the two rooms, and he's handling that well. Before the accident, he would walk backwards between the living room and kitchen (what a weirdo), and now, even with the rug covering the floor, he still turns around and walks butt first.

We BBQed with "Auntie Abe" & "Uncle Kjer" last night, and Sam was very excited to show off for them. He jumped around to greet them, sniffed them profusely for some time, and finally relaxed on the couch while we played rock band (I'm sure he was impressed with us- he just didn't show it).

Things are looking good for our dood. We have another couple of weeks of muscle building before we can feel comfortable being hands-off parents. We are still sleeping (or trying to) in the living room. Last night, it was me and Andy on the mattress on the floor, and Sampson on the couch- with a blanket- and a pillow under his head. What a spoiled buddy.

We've come up with some new nicknames for Sam (we loooove nicknames). Nothing too obvious like tripod. But, we find humor in his new harness. Andy commented that it looks like a shoulder holster. So now, we call him Detective Cheeky Cheeks- which comes from his old nickname, Cheeky Cheek-erson. Other old nicknames include; Sammy, Sammers, Merz, Merzies, Sama-lama-ding-dong, Sweet Cheeks, Cheeky-Dood, Dj Juan Samito, & my personal favorite, Sampson Eugene Cheeky Cheek-ersons Dudes.

June 7, 2009

Today's adventure in the pool was a success!

Well, partially. Successful in that we got Sampson into his life jacket and into the pool without too much of a struggle. No flailing, no scratches (whew!). But, as expected, once he got into the water, he went completely comatose. He's a labrador retriever that absolutely HATES water- go figure. We spent some time trying to make him comfortable. We slowly carried him around the perimeter of the pool, and then carefully took our hands off him for a brief second and he swam!... With his front leg... only (which defeats the purpose of this therapy). He just let his back legs float behind him.

I'll count this first try as a success. Hopefully each time will get easier. I'll do some research to find tips on how to teach him to swim with his back legs.

June 6, 2009

Sampson has been moving/walking/running (ugh) non-stop today. He wandered all over the yard as we worked on our sprinklers, and he tippy-toed around the kitchen/hallway. We are working on moving rugs around the house to cover the hardwood floors so he doesn't slip.

He tried on his life jacket today and it was a bit snug. Looks like we're heading back to PetSmart for a bigger size, tomorrow. Weather permitting, we will have him in the pool tomorrow for some exercise. Pics to follow.

June 3, 2009

On Monday evening, we had our friends Abe and Kjer over to BBQ. I was a bit uneasy because Sampson was up and moving about most of the time that we were hangin in the yard. At one point, he jumped up into a planter box that we have around a tree-- I nearly had a heart attack. Needless to say, he slept like a baby up on the couch that night.

I had moved the futon mattress OUT of the living room earlier that day, but moved it back IN that night. I'm fearful that if Sampson sleeps up on the bed with us (like he used to) that he may jump down at night, or if we start him on the floor near the bed, he will want to jump up to sleep with us. Either way, I'm not ready to take the chance of him getting hurt. A few more weeks of sleeping in the living room won't be so bad. It's like we're camping..... for three months!

This evening, we put on Sampson's new harness & leash and let him roam around the front yard. He walked around, nice and easy. He looked like he was getting tired pretty quickly, so we carried him back inside. It was a pretty good start. We want to be sure that we walk him later in the evening once the concrete has cooled, as we have to be very careful with his newly sensitive pads. With this weird weather, I'm not sure if we'll be able to go outside much tomorrow. It looks like a storm is coming in!?

June 1, 2009

This was an exciting day for all three of us. We knew that Sampson was doing very well, but we wanted to hear the same from our Doctor.

This first picture is right after I asked Sampson "you wanna go for a ride in the car?" He was very excited during the ride to the VCA Hospital. When we pulled into the parking lot, he was very vocal- whinning, crying. He usually does this when he is so excited he can barely contain himself (like when we pull up to the dog park).

We had an appointment with our surgeon, Dr. Celia Valverde. A friendly surgery technician took us into an examining room and he remember Sam from one of our last visits. He was very pleased with how Sam looked during his initial check. He then carried Sam into the x-ray room for Dr. Valverde to take a look.

A few minutes later, Dr. Valverde greeted us and said she was very pleased with how Sampson's pelvis has healed. She even gave us a "very good job" as we told her what we had been doing, rehabilitation-wise, at home. She showed us his x-rays, and it appears that the hardware she used to hold together various bones had not moved- very good. She wants us to spend the next month helping Sam build muscle, since she noticed a bit of atrophy in his back left leg (the leg that he nurses when he walks). She recommended getting him a doggy lifevest so he can swim in the pool- how cute is that? Well, it won't be cute when we put him in the water and he totally freaks, like he has done every summer when we throw him in the pool. I'm hoping he will get used to the water and maybe enjoy it- once he is comfortable. She recommended that we take him on light walks, and let him walk around the house/yard as much as he wants, but no running or jumping for another month.

We are very pleased with what we heard from the surgeon today. Although Sampson is still on the mend, at least we feel more comfortable letting him get back to his normal doggy life- sniffing, licking, smelling and WALKING!

I moved the futon mattress out of the living room today. Hopefully, we can get back to our normal doggy-parent lives.