Talked To The Vet...

We're calling this thing a draining tract just because we don't know what else it could be. It ruptured sometime last night/this morning and is oozing, just like the really big mass did before the surgery.

Doc is still pretty confident this is all from a foreign body getting into Reyna and he was concerned this could happen, but he really doesn't know the best route to fix things. He had three suggestions when we talked a few minutes ago.

1 - Wait it out and see what happens with it. Try some different antibiotics in case some bacteria has worked its way in (after all, its essentially an open sore at this point).

2 - Do a second surgery with a board certified surgeon who is skilled at working around the femoral artery and the inguinal blood vessels. Surgeon would also do a culture, histopath, pathology, etc. Major down side to this is that the surgery would be 2 to 3 times the cost of the first surgery. Did I mention I'm still paying for the first surgery?

3 - Take an x-ray of the fistula tract. Inject dye into the system and see where it goes. Doc said its possible to have a foreign body enter in one place and drain somewhere totally unrelated. Problem is that the fatty tissue in the area of her draining tract doesn't react perfectly to the dye and can make it hard to get an accurate reading with the x-ray. This option also involves specialists and would be very expensive.

We're going with the wait and see with new antibiotics route, since thats the only option I can afford. The antibiotic Doc wants to use has been reported to cause problems with black and tans (GSDs, rotties, dobies, etc) so I have to take Reyna in this afternoon for a couple of tests to she if she's predisposed to the problem. If not, we give the meds a try and hope the problems don't occur. If she is, the next choice is a hideously expensive antibiotic.

Gotta stop and buy goats milk on the way home, since I'm sure the antibiotics will make her sick.

Not Again

Interestingly enough, the sore near Reyna's incision that we were concerned about early last week appears to have healed up. But then this thing showed up yesterday (possibly the day before; I was busy and forgot to take photos, but I know it wasn't there on the 25th):

In case you're confused about what you're seeing, all the light pink skin on the right is healthy. The darker area left of center is the scar from her surgery earlier this month. The big red ball on the left is bad. I sent a couple of pictures to Dr. Lapham last night and got a response a little bit ago. He wants me to call him first thing in the morning - he thinks it's another draining tract that could be ready to rupture. I don't know what we're going to do. I still owe on the last surgery. Dog forbid he says she needs to go to the vet school, because that will cost a fortune. Another night of worrying ahead...

A Smidge Creepy

I was outside playing with the this morning pups when I noticed four areas of this on the ground below the tree:

I looked at the tree to see what might be causing this mess, and I saw this:

And this:

They've already stripped three branches almost completely bare. When I went out this afternoon, the leaves they were sitting on when I took the photos were gone.

At this rate, the tree is going to be completely naked in a week. Unless the hurricane gets them tomorrow....

Birthday Fun

My birthday present from Mary was "Paint Your Pet" night at Wine & Design. The idea with this event is that you send them a photo of your pet, they put it on a canvas, and then you paint it (with help as needed).

I used a photo of Duncan taken in 2009. I didn't do Reyna because a friend of mine who is an actual painter is doing Reyna's portrait for a belated birthday present. Here's the photo blown up for painting (the wrinkles are from adhering the paper to the canvass, not from the actual picture).

I will admit to finding the whole process very stressful. Up until I hit a certain point, anyway. All of a sudden, I was able to relax and just paint without worrying about exactly how it looked. Which is good, cause Duncan has some seriously complicated coloring when you're trying to paint it just right. I joked to Mary that if I ever decided to paint Belle, she'd turn from a tortoiseshell into a completely black cat....

Mary painted her shepherd, Bruno, and I think she did a lovely job.

My expectations for this project were fairly low - I really just wanted to be able to recognize what I painted as a dog. I was very excited when a couple of other folks could tell that I'd painted a German Shepherd. You know, considering the last thing I painted was the catiary, I think I did a pretty good job.

Maybe we'll try Kodiak next month...

Poor Pup Has No Luck

The red spot near Reyna's incision that we were watching has turned into a small open sore. It has a well-defined firm round shape. Dr. L said this is what he was worried about and he's hoping this is the last bit at the inguinal canal working its way out. We're not going to do anything yet, just keep a close eye on it and see what happens over the next few days.

Its That Time Again

Considering that I had to sit for two and a half hours at the DMV to renew my license, I'm really glad they gave me the eight year version this time. And that was at the DMV office that has a reputation of being one of the fastest in the area. I briefly considered leaving and coming back a different day, but I just knew that if I didn't get it done today, I'd suddenly be too busy to get it done by Wednesday, and Thursday I'd get stopped at some police checkpoint and be caught driving with an expired license. Cause that's just how my luck runs. I almost wish they were still doing the 5 year version - it'd be a lot easier to remember in connection with turning 40 than with turning 43....

Fun In The Sun

The pups and I spent some time playing outside this afternoon. Reyna hasn't been able to get in her pool for quite a while, due to illness and/or injury, so I scrubbed it out and filled it up for her today. That made her a very happy pup.

Duncan never gets in the pool, of course, but he does like to hover around and wait for Reyna to get out so he can play with her.

Duncan really hates getting wet, but he loves to chase the water from the hose. Once Reyna was settled in the pool, it was Duncan's turn to play.

Surprisingly enough, Kodiak actually wasn't terrified of the water coming from the hose (although he was a little nervous about the hose itself). He didn't even seem to hate getting wet, he just wasn't interested in all that foolishness. He did enjoy teasing Duncan, though, when he got stuck in the honeysuckle bush while trying to dry his face.

And here's a little clip of Duncan playing with the water from the hose.



Its so nice to have Reyna feeling better and able to enjoy a little silliness outside.

Freedom!

Yesterday, 11 days after her surgery, Reyna and I went to the vet's office to get the staples removed from her incision. I'm surprised we lasted as long as we did - I knew we'd never make it to day 14. I haven't seen this level of brattiness from Reyna since she was about 2. The only difference is that back then it was a teenage angst type of obnoxiousness, and now it's more of an unbridled joy sort of thing. Cute, really, even when she's flipping me the bird and bouncing just out of reach.

Reyna was a perfect lady while the tech removed her staples, and then she proceeded to maul Dr. L when he walked in the exam room. She wouldn't stop until she'd knocked his stethoscope off his neck and tried 3 or 4 times to tickle his tonsils. Its really a shame she doesn't like him....

Doc says his incision looks great, but there's a red spot that he's a bit concerned about. It could be nothing, just some irritation from the staples or Kodiak getting in a lucky blow. It could also be the infection trying to show itself again. We're not putting her on any more meds, but we are going to keep an eye on the area. If it clears up in a few days, yay, hooray. If not, we'll deal with it.

Reyna's staple-free incision:



5 minutes after getting home:

Its Not Cancer

Just got a brief rundown of the biopsy results. Dr. L is out of town for the weekend, so we've been doing this via email and a call from one of his techs.

The histopath diagnosis: Chronic ulcerative fibrosing pyogranulomatous dermatitis/panniculitis. (Whatever the heck that is.)

The pathologist's opinion: Inflammation of this type could be initiated by infectious, foreign body, traumatic or idiopathic pathogeneses. There was, however, no evidence of predisposing factors such as visible infectious agents or embedded foreign debris discernible in the sections examined.

Dr. L's comments on the pathologist's opinion: Which in my mind backs up the likelihood of a foreign body penetration (stick/twig/sharp piece of something) causing damage with resultant ulceration/necrosis. Why it did not heal well with conservative therapy is anybody's guess, but I do wonder if I flushed out some material when I opened up the tract during surgery. If she heals well, that is the best answer of all. I will be holding my breath for the next few weeks as the tissues mend.

In simple terms - its NOT cancer.

They didn't find any microscopic particles of anything, but they aren't yet ruling out foreign body trauma. They have ruled out bacteria, fungus and other infectious agents. Now it basically comes down to how she heals. If Dr. L got rid of all traces of whatever object caused the damage (if it is foreign body trauma), she should heal nicely. If the infection comes back now that she's done with her antibiotics, then its back to the vet we go.

Sooooo happy its not cancer. Now that we’ve settled that, I’m not so worried about the other options. Reyna is feeling really great with that mass off her belly and the infection out of her system. Even one of the neighbors commented that she looks a lot peppier than she did before the surgery. The only downside is that she’s feeling well enough to be a total brat about her activity restrictions. She’s not at all happy that she has to be quiet for at least another 5 days. With luck, Dr. L will take out the staples and take her off restrictions when we hit day 10 or 11, rather than making us wait until day 14. Of course, that all depends on how her incision looks.

A couple of shots of her incision, taken this afternoon. No redness, no oozing. Paws crossed it stays that way. She's been really good about not licking, and I've been really good about jumping all over her if she looks like she's even thinking about licking.

Kodiak is still freaked out by Reyna when she's wearing her cone, which is generally when she's in her crate, and Duncan is clearly stressed out by all the drama....

Post-Op Pup

We all headed out early yesterday morning to get Reyna to the vet's office for her surgery. After dropping her off, the boys and I went to Suzie's for some distraction and then to Mary's to get comforters for Reyna's crate. While we were there, Dr. Lapham called to tell me Reyna was out of surgery. He gave me a rundown of everything he found (and didn't find) during the surgery. I sent him an email last night to verify that what I heard was what he actually said, and thankfully, he called again today to go over the information a second time.

He started the surgery following the duct, since that's where the infection was coming out. Dr. L said that now he thinks that wasn't actually a duct, rather it was a draining tract. He thinks this because it went into and under the mammary gland and then towards the inguinal canal, which isn't normal for ducts. The damaged area went deep into the tissue away from the nipple, and mammary cancer typically occurs closer to the nipple. He did do a mastectomy and removed that mammary gland, along with the lymph node, because the tissue in and around it was necrotic. He wasn't able to get all of the draining tract and surrounding tissue because it was too close to the femoral artery, but he feels confident that he got most of it.

Dr. L said that he's bumping cancer a bit lower on the list because the damaged tissue didn't have the typical appearance of cancer, but he's not ruling it out. He was hoping to find a twig or some other obvious foreign body, but no such luck. However, he thinks its possible that something got into Reyna's belly, created the draining tract and damaged the tissue and then worked its way back out, leaving microscopic particles behind that have prevented the healing of the wound. He's also leaving fungus on the list of possibilities. He's still saying pretty much anything is possible - after all, this is Reyna we're talking about. At this point, its really coming down to the biopsy results of the sample he sent to the pathology lab. He said further treatment will depend on the results and how Reyna heals from the surgery. He did mention that he's a bit concerned about her weight loss over the last several weeks, but without any other indication of problems he's going to attribute it to her immune system working over time. If she heals up and there's nothing left to treat, then she should get back to her normal weight. If not, we'll deal with it. He's still leaning towards Friday for the biopsy results, but it depends on the lab.

I was able to get Reyna yesterday around 5pm. The poor girl was still groggy from the drugs and had quite a bit of trouble walking. I couldn't help it, I just had to laugh. Here's Reyna in the exam room, waiting for the vet tech to go over the post-op instructions.

Crashed out in the crate after getting home.

And passed out on her bed later in the evening. I love how her tongue sticks out when she doped up like this. She's doing better today - her tongue's been in her mouth all day.

Here's a shot of her surgical site. There are more staples that you can't see from this angle, going down to the left along the curve of the darker area. I have to say it looks a lot better than the open wound did.

Reyna didn't want any food last night, but she's been eating, drinking, peeing and pooing normally today. She clearly feels fine, because she's been arguing with me all afternoon about needing to stay calm and quiet. I'm thinking its going to be a long 14 days....

Happy Birthday!

My little Mycroft is 11 years old today. Happy birthday, sweet boy!

Back From The Vet

We ended up not doing any tests at the vet's today. Based on how the mass has shifted shape and location and because its not responding to antibiotics, the vet said the only real option is surgery to remove the mass and do a biopsy. Its possible the mass could be the result of a fungus or a foreign body entering the duct. The surgery will allow him to follow the duct to the mass and find a foreign body (if there is one) and do a lumpectomy. The biopsy will show if the mass is the result of a fungus. Unfortunately, the vet thinks the most likely cause of the mass is mammary cancer. If it is, the biopsy will tell us what type of cancer, and what we can expect. Doc said there’s three types of mammary cancer – bad, really bad, and really really bad. 50% of the dogs who have a lumpectomy are just fine afterwards and die years later from something unrelated. Of the remaining 50%, 25% may have a recurring tumor but no life threatening issues. In the last portion of dogs, its terminal. Doc is concerned enough about this that he's shifted his schedule to get her in surgery as quickly as possible. So, Monday the 8th is surgery, and we’ll hopefully have the biopsy results Friday the 12th. After that, we’ll see.

Back To The Vet

The swelling of Reyna's whatever-it-is still hasn't gone down at all. Dr. L wants to run a couple of tests to try and get a better idea of what it is, so we're headed back to the vet later today. Lucky us.

Work Faster!

I know it hasn't been very long, but I was really hoping we'd be seeing a little more improvement by now, particularly regarding the swelling. As best I can tell, the swelling hasn't gone down at all and the spot is actually looking a little oozier. The area does appear to be better defined now, rather than just one big mess. Thankfully, it doesn't look quite as raw as it did Wednesday. Reyna's being really good about not obsessing over the spot, although she does try to sneak in a lick every now and then. I also have to watch the boys. Duncan especially keeps trying to check the spot every time we go outside. I left a message for the vet with an update (and emailed him these photos) so we'll see what he thinks. I'm guessing he'll say something along the lines of give the meds more time, but he's the one that said he wanted to know if the swelling hadn't decreased within a couple of days.

Reyna's Latest Owie

I was outside with the pups earlier today and noticed that Reyna's belly looked like she'd been licking a lot, so I checked it. I found a spot where she'd licked the skin off and it was oozing a bit, so I called the vet to set up a time to get some meds. After all, she licks hot spots up often enough (although none in several months) so I wasn't too concerned about getting in today or even tomorrow. While I was on the phone, though, she sat down, and I saw that the area she's been licking was very swollen. That's not a normal hot spot for her at all (green with infection, yes, extremely swollen, no). We couldn't get an appointment but they said they'd work us in if we showed up, so that's what we did.

Dr. L came out to the waiting room for a quick look shortly after we arrived. He thought she might have an abscess and said a tech would be out to get us shortly. While we were waiting for the tech, though, the office manager's dog got out of the office and decided to visit Reyna. Not good. When I saw him, I got a tight grip on Reyna's leash, stood up to do a body block, and yelled "loose dog." No one came out to the waiting room to help, and the other client sitting there (with no pets) did absolutely nothing. By that point, Reyna was going ballistic over this strange dog who kept trying to shove his nose up her rear. I was holding her as far away as I could while stomping my foot at the other dog, telling him "no" and "go away." That dog just would not take the hint. I know Reyna was telling him in no uncertain terms what she was going to do if I let go of her leash just a little bit, but he would not back off. It took a ridiculous amount of time for any employees to get in to the waiting room to help, and the office manager never did apologize. Thankfully, Dr. L seemed to realize that Reyna was not to blame for any of what happened. He asked if any teeth had connected, and I said no, because I know how to handle my dog to keep that from happening. Of course, if that dog had been more aggressive (rather than just plain stupid) we could have had a major problem on our hands.

After all that drama, we finally got into an exam room. Dr. L was initially planning to do a needle stick and take a sample of the abscess, but after poking, prodding, and getting up close and personal with it, he decided not to. Thankfully, its not as close to a lymph node as he originally thought from his first quick look. At this point, he thinks the swelling isn't an abscess, rather its Reyna's way of making hot spots more fun and exciting than they used to be (she so sweet like that, trying to keep things interesting). However, he does want to know whether or not the swelling has gone down in a couple of days. If yes, then I report in again five days later. If no, then we're looking at another visit. She has ten days of antibiotics to take, hoping that the meds help while not making her too incredibly sick (good thing I picked up more goats milk yesterday, although I'm not sure I have enough for ten days). She also has a topical spray for the spot that will hopefully keep her from licking it so much (yeah, right).

This first picture was taken with Reyna standing. Her belly is to the right, and my fingers are holding back the fur just inside her right hip.

In this picture, Reyna is sitting. The sore is obvious, the dark red around the sore is the swelling, and the light pink fur covered skin to the right is normal.

We'll see how things go over the next few days.

Rally-O!

The boys had an APDT Rally trial this weekend. I'm very pleased with both of them. Duncan ran Level 1 and Level 2, racking up points, Qs and QQs for advanced titles. Kodiak stayed in Puppy Level, working very hard for his Puppy Championship.

Duncan's Level 1 runs were great. He had scores of 204, 201, and 208. Sunday afternoon he earned a perfect score of 210 with a flawless run! He also had three great Level 2 runs with scores of 204, 203 and 205. We had a bad run Sunday morning (scored 187), but most of that was my fault (the lagging and crooked sits were all him). I screwed up an exercise, did a 360 turn rather than a 270, but thankfully realized I was going the wrong way before I officially missed the next exercise and NQ'd us. When we got to the bonus, I wasn't clear in my "stay" command and he broke his stay before I took two steps away from him. The judge let us try again even though we couldn't get any points for it and Duncan executed the exercise perfectly. Naturally. That one low score put a damper on Duncan's weekend for no more than a couple of minutes. He now has 4 more Qs towards his RL1X (only needs 2 more), and 4 Qs towards his RL2X (needs 6 more). He also earned 3 QQs towards his ARCH (needs 2 more). I'm so proud of how well Duncan did this weekend. Even his 180 left pivots weren't too bad, which is impressive since he just recently discovered what "back" means...

Kodiak had a rough time this weekend. He was mostly fine with meeting and greeting, especially when folks had really yummy treats, but seeing the audience from the ring really freaked him out. And the walls were scary. He started out with a 191 Saturday morning, with his biggest problem being that he really, really did not want to have his back towards the audience, and he didn't want to walk towards them without me right beside him. He dropped to a 180 Saturday afternoon - still didn't want his back to anyone, and he also started stressing over the scary walls with their terrifying air vents. Sunday morning was the worst, with a score of 173. He was stressing over everything, from people and noises to walls and signs. The stationary exercises are hardest for him, because they give him just enough time to start thinking, which almost always leads to panic. When he's moving, its not so bad. We got lucky Sunday afternoon. The course had the required stationary signs, but there was enough heeling to get him moving. One of the other folks gave us some chunks of seasoned steak, which really snagged his attention. I also changed how we entered the ring. Instead of getting him out before the course, putting him up while I walked it, getting him out and trying to get some focus, and then asking for focus in the ring before we stated, I left him in the crate until it was time for him to go into the ring. I told the judge we were going to enter and start, no prep activities first. That seemed to help him quite a bit (no time to think about all those scary staring people). He did beautifully. He held his stay when I asked for it, did his down with no problems, and heeled like a dream. He even managed part of the bonus exercise. Kodiak earned a whopping 202 with that run, and the 4 Qs for the weekend gave him his Puppy Championship title. I'm so pleased with how well he bounced back for that last run and I have seasoned steak on my list for the next Rally trial.

Here's Kodiak in his crate after he finished his last run.

Duncan with 8 qualifying ribbons. At this level, they don't give placement rosettes or prizes anymore, just qualifying ribbons.

Kodiak being smug about his ribbons and toy (notice his tongue sticking out). He technically wasn't supposed to get any rosettes for placements, either, but one of the judges thought he deserved them anyway. The toy and big rosette are for his RLPX.

He's a bit more dignified in this one. And before you say anything, John, yes, he's just as afraid of the ribbons as he was the STAR Puppy medal. It took quite a few tries to get pictures of him sitting in the chair, rather than bolting from it.

In a couple of weeks we should have some great photos from the trial. They had a photographer come in and she'll be sending me a CD with all the pictures she took of Duncan and Kodiak over the weekend. Can't wait to see those!

He's A Star!

As part of the Puppy Confidence class that Kodiak recently completed, he tested for the AKC STAR Puppy program. This is for puppies under a year old, a pre-Canine Good Citizen certification. It includes some basic obedience, with and without distractions, and allowing someone else to pet him. Kodiak passed with flying colors, naturally. His certificate and medal finally arrived in the mail yesterday.

Reyna's Baby

At the hospital last week, Reyna met her absolutely all-time favorite patient, Baby. Baby's grandmother actually saw us in the hall and asked us to come into his room. Baby was a 15-week-old who'd been in and out of the hospital since birth. He has a big dog at home, so he wasn't the least bit worried about Reyna. After greeting Mom and Grandma, Reyna was totally focused on Baby. She was very careful with him, clearly aware of the various tubes attached to him. She would stare at him for a bit, then pat him with her paw. When he smiled, Reyna would lean up and give him a few delicate little kisses, and then she'd settle back and stare some more. It was all really sweet.

Reyna was acting fairly peppy today, so we headed to the hospital despite the heat. Since we started in Pediatrics last week, we started in Cardiology today. After we finished that floor, one of the nurses checked to see if Baby was still registered. He was, so off to Peds we went. When we got off the elevator from Cardio, I asked Reyna if she wanted to go see Baby. She grabbed her leash and started trotting down the hall towards the elevator for Peds (the hospital is a bit confusing regarding which elevators actually go to which floors, but Reyna knows her way around pretty well). After making nice with some of the staff, we checked in with Child Life Services and got a list of kids to visit. I made sure they knew we were going to see Baby, since they generally don't have us visit infants. We visited with a kid who was heading to Surgery shortly, and then I started in the direction of Baby's room. As soon as Reyna saw the doorway, she bolted for the room. We were past the door before I got her stopped and could ask Grandma if we could come in - a bit of a moot point, since we were already in there.

Reyna saw Baby and started wiggling and whining. Happily, Baby was free of tubes and bandages today. Grandma tried to pet Reyna, but Reyna wasn't having anything to do with that. Mom brought Baby over, and Reyna just lost it. She was vibrating and licking and whining while trying to sit politely (that's harder to do than you might think). It was so wonderful to see Rena's utter joy in being with her Baby again.

It turns out that we got there just in time - they were getting ready to take Baby out for some tests. Just a few minutes later and we'd have missed him entirely. Mom sat in the wheelchair with Baby while they waited on the orderly who was going to push them. Reyna planted herself directly in front of the wheelchair, ears forward, eyes focused on Baby. She completely ignored the various people who came up to pet her. The orderly commented that Reyna thought Baby had food (he was gumming his fingers) and then he asked if she'd watch him like that if he started chewing on his fingers. My response? Not unless you suddenly turn into a 16-week-old infant.

When they were finally ready to go, I told Reyna to say bye to Baby. She put her paw on his foot, he grinned, and she bounced up to kiss him a few times. Multiple "awwwws" from the folks standing around. Then she sat directly in front of the wheelchair again. I told the orderly he'd need to back it up and turn around - there was no way Reyna was going to let that chair move forward. He pulled the chair backwards, turned it around, and started down the hall. Reyna popped up and started trotting along beside it - until she got to the end of the leash. Let me tell you, Reyna was not happy that I wouldn't let her accompany Baby.

Mom said there was a good chance they would be going home on Monday. For their sakes, I hope that's true. I have a feeling that Reyna will miss seeing Baby next week, though. They took a bunch of pictures last week and today, and I asked if they'd be willing to send me some for Reyna's scrapbook. Mom said she would, so I left her my email address. I hope she does - I'm sure some of those photos are absolutely adorable.

Earritations

Duncan's left ear has been bothering him for a bit, so I finally took him to the vet to get it checked. I swear, the fact that it took me so long to get him there isn't because I'm a bad parent, its just because the pups have been costing me a fortune and I can't afford to go for low-level problems. The only reason I took him last week is because he's started indicating that the ear has become more aggravating, and the last thing I need is for him to collapse on the floor at the rally trial this weekend, grinding his ear into the floor because it itches. So, Friday we went to the vet and got some ointment. It does seem to be helping, although Duncan shoots me dirty looks every time I clean his ear and reapply the goo.

As far as I know, Duncan's not had any seizures since that really bad weekend. He still has some off behaviors, though, so I mentioned them to the vet while we were there. The options seem to be that Duncan is either taking a really, really long time to come back to normal, or he's having partial seizures that I don't see. I'm not completely sure which of those options worries me the most....

Reyna seems to be slowly but steadily improving with the new diet. I'm not ready to say she's all better, but I think she's headed that direction. Knock on wood. Of the three pups, she's the one most bothered by the nasty heat (current forecast shows temps of 100 for Thursday, Friday and Saturday - ugh!), and she's pretty lethargic even in the A/C. I'm not sure if we're going to go to the hospital this Friday - the rooms on the floors she's assigned to stay pretty warm. She had a good visit last Friday, though. She was able to do a bit over 2 hours, and I credit a lot of that to the 20 minutes she spent adoring a 15 week old infant. She absolutely loved that baby. The nice thing was that the family requested we come in and they were totally fine with Reyna being as close to the baby as she could get. They seemed to think it was a distinct possibility they'd still be there this Friday, so if we go, I'm going to make sure Reyna gets to see the baby again. You know, I've got to start carrying cards with my email address on them and asking people to send me copies of the pictures they take. I know they got some great shots of Reyna and her baby last week.

Birthday Boy

Duncan is 6 years old today! We celebrated Saturday with cake, pressies and Aunt Mary.

Duncan says he's tired of posing, its time for cake - just a little taste!

Oooh, what did Aunt Mary bring for the birthday boy?

Funny how Duncan doesn't mind waiting for cake when there might be cookies, too...

Duncan with his birthday goodies.

Cake!

Yes, Kodiak is eating his cake in his crate. Its really safer for everyone that way.

"Mmmmm....cake good."

"Wait, she's not coming after my cake, is she?"

Gotta make sure he gets every tidbit. Kodiak even cleaned the floor of the icing the big dogs left behind.

Happy birthday, Duncan! I hope we get to celebrate many, many more!