Goodbye Kate

Our sweet Kate died this morning. We are all devastated. She was such a good girl.
Rest in peace Katie girl.

Another Kate Update

She has gained 4 pounds in a week.

Buy stock in Alpo.

Kate Update

She is recovering well. She came home on Saturday, picked up by my friend and neighbor Kelly while we were at the hot air balloon festival. She takes her oral medication like a champ. My old dog Max was never fooled by mozzarella cheese or peanut butter and I'd always find his pill lying in a slobbery puddle on the floor. Kate, on the other hand, loves people food of every variety and is so excited to eat it that she couldn't care less about what you try to sneak by her.
I've been adding some wet food to her dry and she gobbles it up voraciously. It seems she had been suffering from this disease for a long time and we thought she was just a picky eater.
I brushed her last night while the boys watched the basketball game (Go Celtics!) and she was so happy.
Speaking of the boys, I can't tell you how amazing it is to be sitting in my backyard in the darkening twilight brushing my sweet, devoted dog and hear these sudden bursts of emotion and cheer ringing out of the living room. It's how I'd always hoped my life would be.
Sweet and simple, full of love.

Kate

Our beautiful girl has been in the hospital since yesterday morning. Her behavior suddenly got very strange on Wednesday and we took her to the vet yesterday. She was lethargic and disoriented and completely pooped out after just a short walk around the neighborhood. It turns out, after extensive testing, that she has Addison's Disease. Her sodium level was too low, potassium too high and according to the lab results she has no cortisone in her blood. She is on an IV drip now to replenish her fluids and she received a shot of prednisone and cortisone. She will be able to come home tomorrow and will recover fully but will need ongoing medical care with monthly cortisone shots and oral medication every other day.

Polishing it off

They've been working on installing my countertop now for the last 2 hours. The first two pieces went on so easy - POP! and there they were. But the other piece, the big piece with the sink? Not so simple. Our walls? They are not square. No, no, no. They are decidedly unsquare. They had to shave off a bit here, sand off a bit there. A bit more here and a bit more there. A shimmy and a shake. More shaving and sanding. Finally, that sucker went in. And now they're sanding and polishing the top so its purty. And it is. It is purty. I like it. I can't wait to put the new pulls on the cabinets and clean all the shelves and connect the plumbing for the sink and wash all my dishes and put everything back in the cabinets and on top of the cabinets and vacuum my floor and remove the pile 'o crap from my dining table which is in the middle of the living room blocking the boys' most precious toys and generally driving me crazy with all the clutter and chaos!
I seriously thought all that in my head with only one breath.
But, I must be patient because there is so much to do before that can be done.
First, Kate needs some attending to. She was spayed one week ago today and her incision is looking a bit weepy so off to the vet we go. As soon as these nice gentlemen leave.
Pictures of my beautiful new countertop will be forthcoming.

Addendum: Kate's fine. The vet says her incision is healing beautifully and that she doesn't need to wear the cone anymore. And that's good because she could not figure out how to navigate with that thing on her head. I can't tell ya how many times she has run into a door jamb or a wall and just stopped and stood there because she couldn't figure out what stopped her.