Burying The Jemma-Dog

I buried our Jemma-Dog at home today. The last picture in my mind I have of her is curled up as she used to sleep, with the flowers I put on her and beside her, two halves of a big marrow bones - one half for her and one half for Prince. I laid her on a calico sheet, and folded it over her before I filled in the sand, so she wouldn't get any sand up her nose. Jemma hadn't had a big bone in so long due to her diet restrictions, so this huge marrow bone was her one last bliss-out treat that she got to have before the vet arrived (home visit).

The children knew that today would be Jemma's last day, and they said their last goodbyes this morning before school, as did Michael before he went to work. This afternoon they can write notes to her if they wish, on around her photo I printed separately, and we will bury that with the new rose we plant above her.

So Jemma, off to play loonies with our big dog Prince. Plenty of juicy bones to gnaw on all day, long adventures in parks and bush, and plenty of cats to chase, waves to play in. Back to bouncing around like the nutty puppy you were those more-than-13 years ago.

~WOOF!~

Jemma is home!!!

Well Jemma is home. She's on the last of her pain meds and on antibiotics. Still has a little bandage on her leg from the drip and is back on boiled skin-free chicken and rice for a week or so (which she will just LOVE not!)... apart from that just watching her, keeping an eye on her and taking her back if she gets worse again... so yay for a Jemma who wags her tail now, and is home!

Jemma update - last night 8pm

Well, bloods are back and it's better than we thought. Liver and kidney function is fine, amalaze is fine it's the other one that's 'up' slightly (normal is max 500 hers is 591) so they suspect a small low grade infection somewhere... she went on IV last night for fluids and pain relief and to get her temp down and we'll see how she goes this morning. Michael went in to see her last night and said she looked not as bad as last time but definately not herself... so we'll see what the 10am call this morning reveals.

Best Wishes to those in the Brisbane Storms & Jemma Update

Sending best wishes to the Cherub Family (so glad you're okay relatively speaking) and everyone else involved in the big Brisbane Storms. I hadn't seen tv/heard radio for a while so had no idea... will try and catch the news tonight for an update... Those we know are physically okay, thankfully... sending best wishes guys for the cleanup and getting things sorted again... xo

following on from my previous Jemma post, bloods aren't back at the vet yet but she's been very quiet and her temp is up slightly... which is not good and not at ALL like her. She's had some pain relief but that didn't make so much difference. Her tummy isn't overly tender to touch... So she's staying in overnight tonight, ring back later to get the verdict on the bloods. I have been trying to think what could have been so fatty that she ate... anyway I asked the vet and she said that since her pancreas was so compromised last time, that it may not be fat as such but maybe something else going on, that has stopped her pancreas from working, which therefore means no fat is metabolised... so we just wait and see... both on how long she has to stay and the resulting cost.

An overall update

Jake's Birthday today - Happy Birthday mate! We're making a cake now to have for dessert and have some M&Ms to go on top - truly indulging and a special treat. Can't believe he's seven... born at 2.52am that many years ago today... he has been counting down since August haha ... so tomorrow night to Grandma and Grandad's for Birthday dinner, a class celebration sometime this week, something special already from Nan and Pop, and his Party in a couple of weeks time (with his 'proper' cake from me) - Birthdays always last in this house!

There's a few other general things going on, planning and hard work and luck of circumstance finally coming together. Solar goes in at the end of the month. Finally the floor in the kitchen goes in (we DIY reno'd it in Dec 2006), hopefully the 2500litre water tank is going in soon (plumbed to loo and laundry). As those of you who have DIY reno'd would know, it can be a slow process depending on the time and finances factor... and it's definately been slow here lol as we've been here over 10 years now and are still a LONG way from finished... even though yes we have achieved a fair bit.

I've finished sewing my PP pads (pics coming soon) so can tick that off the list in prep for Baby. I will be 30 weeks this coming Saturday yay!

on the Jemma-dog front - after last year getting very sick with pancreatitis and spending a long time (and several thousand - which we were lucky to be able to pay off per week for quite some time PLUS some very generous auction donations which helped immensely) at the vets, I went outside this morning and Jemma was NOT her usual self... not as sick as last time but still not right. She was fine and loopy as always yesterday... this morning though she knocked back toast (that's not good), barely got up (not good) kept stretching and doing the 'shiver' thing, and did not even get excited and go loony at the sight of the lead... mmm... rang the vet - they said up to me I could watch her or bring her in... we (Brooke, Jake, Zeke and I and belly) took her in. (the pic to the left is her in a post a few months ago).

Perhaps just a sore tummy but they gave me the option of her staying there and having bloods done, which I decided to do. Lucky I did because when they went to do the bloods and they put the blood in the spinner to get the serum, she said it was so full of fat the couldn't even do the tests in-house... shnot! I am trying to think where she got hold of something that could have done that - we are really careful with what she gets to eat... even the kids know she can't have certain things as it will make her sick...she's banned from any meats that have fat, on a low fat dry biscuit mix, not allowed big marrow bones and so on etc etc always careful to keep the bbq covered... *sigh* so unless she (a) got into the compost which wouldn't have much fatty stuff in it anyway (b) caught a fat bird - possible as there were feathers out the back the other day (c) ate too much manure when we did the vege garden (?) I have no idea how she got that level of fat in her system because we're so careful about what she gets to eat...

She was still far more alert than last time but not at all her nutty self and didn't go all licky and silly when we got in the car to go to the vet either... so definately not right... hopefully we caught it much earlier this time (last time she OD on fat as she licked the bbq plate clean since the lid was left up - gross I know)...

so we wait now for out-of-house bloods to see if she goes on IV... ah Jemma-dog... hopefully for her and us it's not as serious as last time... fingers crossed.

update on the food gardening with pics.

Righto. Well... updating from the 'What's in the garden/yet to come list' post, the garden received two more fruit trees today, namely an apricot and a plum (to pollinate the other plum). I'll put the full names down shortly in case anyone is curious. In order to put those in (a very abandoned garden bed lol) the soil needed turning over, okay the sand and it also needed all the cooch removed (grumble mumble cooch) and the assorted non-gardening items that seem to find their way outside - lids, spoons, a Lego block or two etc. Also the soil level in that bed needed to drop considerably so that we could fit the fruit trees + the compost/poo and then mulch without it being higher than the actual 'wall' of the bed so the water and sand wouldn't do a runner.
Here's a pic, hard to tell exactly what you're looking at so I'll try a better one later. The large fence you can see in the background behind the old boundary one is the reason why our old vege bed just wan't gonna keep working - you can see the cubby is there now and we're working on that garden as well.
I did help de-cooch or is it 'couch' and do a little bit of dirt moving but nothing major. We found the old (still busy) ants nests as well ;) which I don't mind coz they keep any termites in check round this area - another bonus of not being quick on the 'kill it if it crawls' nasty sprays. (NB for how this bed is doing 2 years later click here)

Now, for some weeks I'd been thinking about a straw-bale garden bed, initially from Len's Garden site, then from The Crone's garden that I had the pleasure of visiting last week, and then school has done an edible garden as well (Steiner school) and one of those beds is a straw bale bed. So it was gonna happen. I had it in my mind how and the opportunity presented to get hold of the bales. It also meant somewhere for the excess sand from the beds for the fruit trees, to go.