Cameron's Adventures

When Emma was born, one of the children’s book we got is called “Are you my mother?” by P.D. Eastman. I think I read it to Emma the first or second week we came home from the hospital. It’s a cute little book about a bird trying to find her mother.

As Emma looked at Teika today, she asked “Are you my mother?”…

After some licking from Teika, Emma looked at her, but her teeth seemed really big and she was very furry…

“Could this be my mother?” she asked…

Emma kept on looking, and looking for her mother…

And when finally she looked up at the camera, Emma knew she found her mother…

“You are my mother” she said as she held on tight to me…

The end!

I can’t help photograph my dog. So here I am again taking a few pictures of her…

She loves her squirrel toy. It makes 4 or 5 different noises which drive her crazy. He he he…

Well it is time to remove the suit from Teika. After more than two months of wearing the suit she is now free of it. Though not 100% healed the wound is well on it’s way to be so in the next week or so. I am still monitoring her to make sure she does not lick the sensitive skin. The last thing I want is to have her open the wound by licking it.

But she is a happy dog!

As Teika is enjoying her freedom from the suit, strawberries and flowers are blooming around her.

Happy Father’s day to all the great father in this world!

On Friday, I picked Teika up from the vet with a new suit. This time she’s a disco dog wearing a very shiny brown suit. Here she is modeling the suit.

Before I show the suit that I’m talking about, I’ve got to tell you the story. But I warn you, if you are weak of heart you might want to skip this.

** This past Wednesday, I decided to go to work at 6:00am as I had a lot of stuff to do. I was a little behind on work and I needed to mockup some things for a meeting at 1:00pm. Since Rory has been giving me a hard time for not going to the GYM in the morning anymore (it’s been 4 weeks since I went to the GYM) I decided it can’t hurt to go to work early. I haven’t been going to the GYM because I wanted to take care of Teika. She has just been through surgery and needed to take pain medication at 6:30am. As she did not like them, I wanted to be the one giving them to her to make sure that she got them. Call me a control freak if you want, but it just made me feel good to be with her in the morning for as long as possible. However, Wednesday I was focused more on work and figured it couldn’t hurt if I wasn’t with her in the morning. Well, that’s where I was wrong… But we’ll get to that later.

Meanwhile, I was at work getting things done. It was a terrible weather day. It was cloudy and rained cats and dogs. It was also one of the first days where I stayed at work later than 4:00pm since Teika had surgery. Again, what could go wrong?… So on the way home, I got a phone call from Rory. He wasn’t in the mood of riding his bicycle in the rain and wanted to know if I could pick him up from work. I said, sure no problem. Unfortunately, the freeway was very bad. I think people in Seattle forget how to drive the minute they see rain. This is very funny given that we have so much rain here. But I diverge from my story…

As I was driving to pick Rory up, I finally got to Issaquah around 6:00pm. We then drove home together and got home around 6:30pm or so. This was an hour or so later than I’ve been getting home since Teika’s surgery, but what could go wrong?… What could go wrong indeed…

Rory opened the door from the garage to the house only to hear him say “OH MY GOJ!!!!”. As I closed my car door and looked in his direction, I was horrified. Teika’s raw meat was exposed the length of her right leg. The bandage was completely torn off and strings were hanging down as if  she had been attacked by a wild animal. And in the house, beyond her wagging tail and smiling face that said “look what I’ve done… I’m out of this terrible bandage” were shreds of bandages all spread around, some with blood some without. It was a horror scene. I wasn’t sure what to do, but both Rory and I got her in the car as quickly as possible and we hurried to the vet. That’s right, we forgot to put the cone on her head in the morning. So she had free reign to the bandage…

On the way there, of course we encountered the dreaded afternoon traffic. I decided to call the vet and let them know we are coming. Also, I wanted to find out if we should go back home and look for her skin. On her wound, the skin was gone and I was worried that she either ate it or that it was waiting for us at home. I wondered if the skin was needed. I wondered if her leg was going to be amputated. I wondered if she was going to be all right. All these thoughts ran wildly through my mind as we were stuck in traffic. At the same time, Rory was swearing all over the place as he was driving. But he made record time getting to Kirkland. I believe we got there in 30 minutes or less. This was all the way from Seattle and dealing with 520 and 405 traffic.

Finally we got to the vet and by this time I had the shakes. I felt sick to my stomach and I was light headed. But in a few minutes, the doctor came by and explained the situation. Teika was fine and things were going to be all right. They re-bandaged her and kept her there that night. Our surgen was not there so I was still worried. I really wanted to hear his voice and have him tell me that everything was going to be all right.  The next day, the surgeon called me to explain the situation and that things were  “salvagable” and eventually everything will heal. But he kept here there for another night in order to replace the bandages and keep an eye on here.

So finally today, I was able to pick her up. And when I did, to my surprise, I found a very fashionable Teika. And everyone at the vet thought she was cool and fashionable. She has to wear a suit now in order to prevent her from chewing. And everyone agreed that she wears the suite very well and is the best looking dog with a suit. So without further adieu, here’s my lovely Teika with the fashionable suit:

^Teika the Princess is finally at home.

 
^Posing for the picture. This is a side angle of the suit.

As she walks the “catwalk” Teika is styling into the new suit. She is not thrilled to have it on but seems to be comfortable in it. And she wears it very, very well!

Well, today turned out to be a truly orange day. Not only was I and Teika wearing orange but now Rory took Teika for a walk around the block wearing his orange coat.

Though the pictures below aren’t too clear, every time we take Teika out we have to carry her since the only way out of the house is by using stairs.

I guess we are one big happy orange family!

Today, Teika and I match. Is it by accident or on purpose? Let me assure you that’s a little bit of both. Yesterday when I came home from work, Rory and Teika were already at the vet. So I put on some comfortable cloths to relax and enjoy the day. And what did I pick from the closet? A grey and orange sweatshirt. To my surprise, when Teika came home, her bandages were orange as well. That’s the coincidence. Today of course, it’s on purpose that I’m still wearing the hooded gray and orange sweatshirt.

Of course, who can resist the perfect photo opportunity. So I took my camera, rested it on top of a cardboard box and took some shots of Teika and I. Here are the results.

^ In this one Teika wasn’t quite ready to pose for the shot. But she was looking in the direction of the camera. 

^ In this shot, I was trying to get Teika to look at the camera. She’s almost doing it and of course I end up looking goofy with my finger pointing to the camera.

^ Teika’s a licker. So of course since I was down at her level she planted a HUGE lick on my face.

^ Not looking at the camera, but a loving moment between Teika and I.

I think she’s feeling much better today. Just a few more weeks… I wonder what color bandages awaits us at the next visit to the vet.

Today, Teika had a big day. After a full day of waiting for us to get home, she and Rory went to visit the vet for yet another bandage change. After an hour long drive due to terrible Friday traffic, Rory and Teika finally arrived at the vet. After 1/2 hour of waiting for the bandage to be changed, Teika was ready to come home in a blue colored bandage.

Luckily for Rory, he observed that fluid was coming down Teika’s leg. Upon inspection from the vet, they decided to do a mini surgery in order to remove the extra “dead” skin from the lower part of the leg. This was a procedure they were going to do next Thursday but it happened early. I think this is a good sign that she’s healing faster than expected.

So after another 1/2 of waiting, Teika finally was able to come home. And around 8:00pm tonight, she finally got home. And she was wrapped in orange bandage. I know this is Jesse’s favorite color, so Jesse, this one’s for you!

I think she’s a bit tired after the long day. She’s resting well tonight as soon she’ll be up and running again.

Good night Teika! Sweet dreams.

A photo of Teika when we first got her popped into my peripheral view as I was working on my computer. It made me stop and laugh. Ah, I remember this photo and how I had fun with it. Teika looks so silly here and I couldn’t resist to put the cute little phrase that is so overused today.

This morning Rory and I went out for breakfast. However, we had to make sure that Teika was not going to try and chew through her bandages as she did on Friday. Thus, she needed to wear the lap-shade.

Of course, when we came home she was no where to be found. Both Rory and I panicked. To our surprise we found her downstairs in the basement. Ops… we both forgot to close the door going down to the basement. But why would she ever try to go down there? It’s difficult to go on the stairs so neither one of us thought she would even attempt let alone succeed in going. Yet she proved us wrong.

So lesson learned: Leave Teika in the basement when we are not home with the lap shade on so that she does not chew on her bandages… Just 1.5 weeks left.