Indy's Independence Day

July 1 is Canada's Independence Day. July 4 is America's Independence Day. July 21 was Indy's Independence Day.

Yep - you read that correctly. Indy the escape artist and accidental steer herder has finally learned how to behave himself off-leash on the ranch. Mostly.

For the last three days, he has accompanied me (free of a leash) everywhere on the ranch where he is welcome. To the berry garden, to the kitchen (where we waits in the grass), to the laundry room, to dead-head flowers, to get the mail... You get the idea. He's been a very, VERY good boy. Except for the cat chasing incident, in which I had to crawl into the brush, haul him out and carry him back to the cabin. But all told, he's spent about 3 or 4 hours of each day out and about with me.

He likes it so much that yesterday he decided he'd been alone in the garden for too long, jumped into the compost bin and from there jumped out to freedom. God knows how long he was out. Maybe an hour. Jason and I panicked, thinking he'd be long gone.

Nope! He was in the tack shed chasing ground squirrels. Easy to find, and doing J.W. a service at the same time. More importantly, he was not lost in the wilderness or causing a steer stampede.

Good boy, Indy! Your independence has been a long time coming, and well earned.

I suppose it doesn't hurt that I always have dog treats in my pockets these days, too, and I make sure he sees me put them in there. :)

Indy's Big Adventure

Most days this past week, I've spent minimal time in the greenhouse and garden. Almost everything in there is ready to go outside on Wednesday, so as long as I water and deadhead the spent blooms, I can spend the rest of the day getting cabins and the outdoor kitchen ready for guests.

Indy is still leash-bound, since he can't get it into his brain that behavior off-leash = freedom. We're doing this to protect him - this is a wild place, and there are many, many things here that could kill or seriously maim a city dog. Plus, there's so much property and wilderness - he could get lost and never find his way back.

Okay, you get the picture. Indy LOOOOOVES to be outside (especially when it's sunny) and to bake himself. So, when I go to do housekeeping tasks for hours on end, I leave Indy in the garden and leave the Greenhouse door open so he can go in and out, get some water, chase the chipmunk, watch the horsies, and just have a good ol' time. It's much better than being cooped up in the cabin! Everyone on the ranch knows he's not allowed off-leash, and people go in and out of the garden all day long, whether I'm there or not.

Well, on Friday, someone walked out of the garden and left the gate open. Just before lunch, I headed back to the garden to check on him, only to have Darius pull up in the golf cart and tell me that he found Indy running around outside with the tennis ball in his mouth! He told him to get back in the garden AND INDY WENT! You have to understand - this is a HUGE step!

I get to the kitchen to help with the final lunch set-up and Mitch and J.W. come in and tell me that Indy followed them around for a good 5 minutes, and since he was having so much fun, they just let him have his freedom.

Hmmmmm....

Fast forward to that night, I'm ready to take Indy back to the cabin after an afternoon in the garden. I have his leash in hand and think, "I wonder..."

So I open the gate - he darts out. I call him. He comes back! He darts off in another direction. I call him. He comes back! He takes off again. I call him. He's..... GONE! I chase him for twenty minutes, Jason heads toward the horses and the fishing pond on an ATV; I hop on another ATV (a spectacle in itself) and head towards the road.... and finally find him running full speed chasing something I can't see. And that turkey... I call him, and he turns and runs right back to me! Now - we haven't mastered "dog on ATV" like J.W. and his dog Lucky, so I leave the ATV blocking the driveway and walk Indy back.

He's still leash and garden bound.

But he wants you to know he had a GREAT time.

Indy's Letter

This is actually an old photo from January, taken at the Kelso Dunes, but I was looking for an Indy photo I haven't used on the blog yet! (I've misplaced my camera again...) Yes... I look crazy. It was really, really, really cold up there.

This is the email that Indy sent to his Grandma and Great-Grandma last night. Their responses are below. Lucky Indy!

dEeR GraNdmA -

LiFe Iz gud heaR in Why-Oh-minG. I giT twO pLaY anD Git DuRTy eVry DAy. My oNE coMplAinT iz THaT mY MOm ANd daD onlY pacKEd tWo SkWeeKY tOyz fOR mE, anD My DUcK-DUcK Iz looziNG itS FlUffee InSidES and sATisfyInG SKweekiNesS. PLEEZ sEND skwerLy, GouSy and B-RabIT. LIfE iz LoanLEe wiThOut dEM.

I MiSs U anD OuR PlAy tIme

kIssuZ ANd ScRatChuz,

InDianA

From his Grandma Catherine:
My dearest Indy boy,
Please get your Mommy to send me your address and I will happily send you new squeaky toys to play with and drive your parents crazy!! Miss you and love you all bunches!!

From his Great Grandma Joyce:
Deer indy,

You are my favorite great-grand puppy. No body comes and gets in bed with me here at my house. I am looking forward to seeing you in Sept.

Love you loads,
Great G’ma


In other news, I went into town today with Elizabeth to pick up the Yukon which was in the shop getting repaired after hitting an Elk. And it's snowing again. On my shopping list for town? Jelly Beans for J.W. and Heidi's three year old son who saw HOP with his grandma this week, and has visions of pooping Jelly Beans. There were other things on the shopping list, too, but that was definitely the best. :)

The End of Indy's Nightmare

We got pretty good news from Indy's vet today. They got nice, clear margins free of cancer on the incision from his second surgery! That means we're done with the tumor at this time.

Unfortunately, his Mast Cell Tumor was officially labeled at Grade II Mast Cell Tumor, which is better than III, but not as good as I (which is what we hoped for). What that means is that the tumor is unpredictable and could appear somewhere else in Indy. At this time, there is no sign of any spread and Indy is free (once the staples are removed) to go back about his normal life and routine. We just have to keep an eye out for vomiting and diarrhea or any raised masses that may appear. The good part of this, is that at least we now know what to look for. If his mast cell cancer rears its nasty little head again, at least we'll know right away what we're looking at and what our next steps should be.

We love our pup - he is a huge part of our little family, and we are so glad that this nightmare is over - at least for now, and hopefully forever. :)


Jason shot this photo of Indy at the Kelso Dunes in January. We love it!

Surgery #2

Just picked up Indy from Surgery #2. They were as aggressive as they could be without causing "complications". The scar is twice as long as it was the first time and looks a little gnarly.

Indy can't really walk without a serious hitch in his giddy-up, but his skin will adjust.

We're praying that the margins will come back as clear, and that this nightmare is over for Indy. I'm sure he can't understand why this keeps happening to him.

At least he likes his donut. :)



Scar #2 -twice as big. Poor little guy!

Indy's Donut

Indy got his inflatable donut collar today to replace the cone he destroyed in three days.

It's open on the bottom with a velcro strap and attaches to his dog collar to keep him from tearing it off. The inflatable donut is covered with a heavy duty blue vinyl to prevent punctures. It's sort of like one of those airplane neck pillows with a strap and for a dog!

So far, we're loving it! He's no longer running into things (and the backs of my knees) and dragging furniture around with him. He's pretty comfortable and hasn't even shown interest in trying to get it off or check out what's happening on his right hind leg. Plus, I'm not going to wake up to hear Indy thumping the cone against the wall at 3am tonight.

As far as I'm concerned, this donut was money well spent!

Indy thinks so too.

Now if we can only get him to be still most of the time. He's a pretty active dog, and it's tough to keep him subdued so he doesn't tear his staples.

The C Word

My last post was all about Indy's lump. Yesterday the results from the testing on Indy's removed lump came back - and it came with the C-Word - Cancer.

Indy's lump was a Stage II Mast Cell Tumor. Stage 2 is the in between - it's not benign, but as far as they can tell it's not super aggressive. What this means is that Indy will go back in for more surgery this Thursday to remove more skin and make sure they have clean margins. They will also be checking his lymph nodes to see if the cancer has spread or if it's solely located in the skin of his right hind leg.

There are a few things about Indy's tumor that give us some hope - if the dog has had it for months or years it usually means it's less aggressive. Indy's lump started about two years ago, and when Jason first had it checked out, his vet at the time said it was just a fatty tumor and wasn't harmful. Second, Indy's blood panel from before his first surgery didn't show any signs of cancer - which means it's more likely that it's just located in the skin of that leg and one more surgery should handle it.

Either way, we're grateful that Indy has no idea what's going on. He's just being himself and bringing us joy. He's such a funny dog with such a vibrant personality. Indy's almost impossible to keep still - we're trying to keep him from moving around so much so his staples can heal (Less important now since they'll be opening it back up this week). Add to that the fact that he's decided that his cone of shame should not be an impediment - he has virtually destroyed it in the last two days since he discovered that he can force it past anything he catches on. He's pulled some chairs around my kitchen already, and we just came home to find him in his crate (we're crating him while he's healing so he doesn't tear his staples when we're not home) with his cone looking like this:


Notice the damage from yesterday on the bottom left, and the new damage from the top left! He's a wild man!

Tomorrow I'll break down and buy him the inflatable neck collar at Petsmart to replace the broken cone. Since Indy's decided the cone is no impediment, it's downright dangerous to us - Indy will just continue jab those sharp edges into our legs.

We're just praying that Thursday's surgery will be the end of his mast cell tumor. We're trying to wait until we hear the verdict to make any more decisions.

You can read more about Mast Cell Tumors by clicking here.

Please pray for us and our little Indy!

Lumpy

For the past year, Indy's had a little lump on his right hind leg. It started at about the size of a mole, and grew to the size of a dime. When it reached that size, we had it checked out. The doctor said what I had suspected - that she thought it was just a fatty cyst that terrier breeds get (and yes, Indy has got to have some terrier in him). My schnauzer, Ripple, had one for about three years prior to his death at age 17. Indy's much younger, though, he's only 5. The vet thought that if we weren't ready to have a needle biopsy done that we should just keep Indy from licking it and keep an eye on it.


Poor, unsuspecting Indy takes a nap with Lumpy in plain view.

Fast forward to this week. The lump got bigger - about the size of a half dollar. So, we decided it was time to have it checked out again. Indy and I took a trip to the vet (Jason was working). The vet told me that if the lump got much larger it would be really difficult to remove it simply because they have to cut such clean margins, and dogs don't have that much extra skin on their hind legs. Since it was already so large, she thought that they'd have to knock him out for the surgery. Why not have his teeth cleaned at the same time then?

Poor Indy...


Close up of Lumpy the night before it was removed.

On Thursday morning, Jason dropped him at the vet where we had his friend "Lumpy" removed. The vet said the surgery went well, that lumpy came off cleanly and had not grown into the muscle under neath. It was solely in the skin and an easy removal. That's a good sign. Lumpy has been sent off for biopsy and we should have some results tomorrow. We're hoping it's just a benign fatty tumor. It COULD come back some day if that's the case, but at least we don't have to worry that it may have spread. PLUS Indy has squeaky clean, plaque free teeth. The vet said his teeth were pretty healthy!


The scar as it looks today.

Indy will be wearing the cone of shame for the next ten days until the staples are taken out. I shouldn't laugh at him, but he's just so pathetic and completely ungainly. When you hear indy moving through the house it's like thump, thump, thump - he's hitting it on everything and having a really hard time getting through doorways of all things. It's also a snore amplifier. I was awake from 4-6am this morning listening to Indy snore in his megaphone cone. He can't help it, so I just have to laugh about it. Something woke him up in the middle of the night with a bark. Indy then proceeded to fall asleep sitting up. I had to physically lay him down. Poor little guy. He was really out of it!


Indy in his cone of shame. He's also pretty loopy and out of it.

Currently, he's coneless and curled up next to me on the couch where I can see him and keep him from licking at his staples. The cone will go back on him tonight so he doesn't lick while we're sleeping.