Swimming – the kids are still taking swimming lessons each week and LOVING it. I cannot believe the progress they have both made – especially Frankie! Frankie started out as a non swimmer and now he can swim and Ella started out a flailing swimmer who is now a good, confident swimmer.
Frankie can now comfortably swim in water over his head, which has opened up the world of the big pool for him. He learned how to doggie paddle which means he can actually move pretty well through the water and he learned how to kick. He is also jumping off of the diving board, with the help of a noodle. Both kids can float and swim on their backs now too.
Ella is, well…. really good. She is far beyond the rest of the class so the instructor asked that I bring her on Saturdays to attend with more of his advanced kids. Ella is built for swimming (long torso and BIG FEET) and can breaststroke her way across the pool faster and better than I ever could! She has real potential to become a top notch swimmer someday. All she lacks is competitiveness and concentration ;) Something that I and Frankie have in abundance! No one can concentrate so deeply on something as Frankie : )
Resting and getting warm in the sun
This is me having a little "Me Time", "alone" on the couch, reading a book off my Kindle
The young un's, hanging out enjoying the sun and one another!
Ranger's chicken
Crazed
Lucy is getting big
Lucy slipped
Ranger was so glad to be back home with his family, where he could hog the chair and watch Tom and Jerry with the kids
Frankie started riding without training wheels!
For about a week, Frankie was the only one who could get Ranger to eat!
Frankie working his magic - raw chicken feet and a neck = yum!
Frankie has had a difficult month. PTS has reared its ugly head again and he’s regressed in a few areas : ( I am losing my patience and even though I know that he really can’t help it, I get really impatient with him. Which sucks, especially for him. I would ace 101 Crap Parenting class.
Part of my bad month has been due to Ranger’s poor health. He has been sick for a very long time and after about two weeks people (as in even my own kids) lose patience hearing about your sick dog constantly- how much he’s eaten or hasn’t eaten, how many times he’s peed, what his belly looks like, or how you love him so much. Gee, I wonder why… He spent two long weeks at the vets due to liver failure, but came home skinny but happy, on a lot of meds. Once home his abdomen promptly started filling with fluid again (CRAP), I had to have it drained once, and then the vet left town for seven (long) days. To say I was a basket case and sickenly depressed would be an understatement.
Through a long series of frantic texts with the vet, who was in southern Uganda doing research on chimps (damn them!), we got Ranger’s meds figured out to keep the fluid passing through the proper channels, and not filling up his abdomen. Unfortunately the meds killed his appetite so he’s been literally starving to death for the last week. I totally forgot how worried I was about his abdomen filling! We did everything we could to get him to eat – even buying him two chickens of his own - but nothing we could do would get him to eat. Thankfully he started eating a few chicken feet on Wednesday, and the vet came back, vaccinated the rest of the Pack, and checked Ranger on Friday. He checked Ranger over and thought that his liver was regenerating and that I could cut back on the meds, which were killing the appetite. Even though it’s only been one day, I’ve seen a huge improvement. He’ll still ONLY eat chicken feet but has shown some interest in popcorn anyways, and he’s drinking more. And he’s eating about a dozen chicken feet a day, so that’s good! Until the store runs out of chicken feet….. As gross as it is watching him crunch down chicken toes, I much prefer the feet to handling the liver. That stuff stinks!
I also was able to get Ranger some Dandelion and Milk Thistle from the States, to help regenerate his liver, and with his increasing appetite and TOUGH and hardy nature, I do believe he’s going to make it now. Something I was doubtful of last Tuesday! There is NOTHING more tough than a Ugandan dog. These dogs are genetically superior to any dog you can find the States – they are AMAZING. Even at his sickest, ol’ Ranger would insist on going for a short Pack Walk every evening with the rest of the Pack and maintained his charming personality. The Pack has treated him no differently during his sickness and Billy almost seems more submissive to him. I believe in the power of the Pack!
There are several other really crappy things going on right now, of a more personal nature that I won’t blog about, but safe to say, I hope in April things pick up! I am very thankful that Ranger seems to be improving now, after about five weeks of sickness, and swimming lessons have been a joy for the entire family.
