For Suds

After attending Judi's funeral this weekend, Suds got very sick and was diagnosed with bloat. The choices were a thousands of dollars no guarantee surgery or putting him down. And in that moment I realized once again that being an adult is terrible because you're faced with sucky choices like this. My heart and my head felt disconnected trying to process logic and feeling.

We lost him on Sunday and came home one family member short.

We spent the day in shock and disbelief. That really just happened?

I can't even tell you how empty our house feels without him. There are signs of him everywhere, the worn down couch, Dexter's room (long ago we had started the tradition of him saying goodnight to a picture of Suds he had swiped from the living room), our learned routines of letting him out in the morning and leaving the TV on for him before leaving for work in our bones.  Waves of grief wash over me and Josh. Our hearts break, put themselves back together and then all of a sudden fall to pieces again.

It just wasn't supposed to be this way.

Suds brought a lot of joy (and a lot of anxiety, yes) to our lives. He didn't know any fancy tricks but he could chew up a doorknob with the best of them. He was a gentle giant who couldn't see a squirrel but could chase a fly. He fancied butter but not raw chicken. He tugged hard with his dad but not with his mom since he was certain she wasn't as tough. And he was THE BEST friend for Dexter.

We love you, Sudsy.

A boy and his dog

Suds is still on crazy pills. He's nervous but not as nervous in normal day to day life. Fireworks and thunder continue to scare the living daylights out of him. I was bummed that he took his rage out on a pair of neon yellow shorts that I scored on this trip. I know that I don't write about him as much as I used to. Someone told me that once you have a baby, your dog really becomes a dog. That much has held true for my relationship with Suds. No longer the baby in the family. He's a pet. But a good pet in my book even with the torn up shorts, broken windows and all because he's good with the real baby in our family. So I'm willing to look past the crazy Suds. No glue factory for him, at least not today.

Dexter loves him, he can say Suds Suds, okay, it's more like duh duh but whatever. Look at these pals!

Well, this is new

 

And Suds just sat there and took it like a man. Good dog. 

An update on Suds

Our first baby is still working through some things. Josh has been giving him the meds, he's been getting more exercise with the recent warm temps and we are once again attempting to dog whisper him. He's found refuge in our basement but we're still nervous that he'll have a psychotic break and end up destroying that room as well. We keep joking that we can't have nice things because of Suds. Nervous giggle, nervous giggle. I'm not sure if he will ever be "fixed". In the words of Gaga, he was born this way.

My friend Jill mentioned the Thundershirt. I wonder how effective it is, especially for bigger dogs. We've been toying with the idea of getting one since anything is worth a shot at this point. Has anyone heard if they work?

And now for the happy. Because there should be happy, right? Dogs supposedly add years to your life. Seven to be exact. It's not all stress and crazy with Suds; he is awesome with Dexter. Dexter just adores him, pointing and ooohing and climbing all over Suds' bony legs...and Suds just lets him. Suds even gives him kisses sometimes. Extra kisses if Dexter's had chicken. And in spite of the crazy (or maybe because of?) Joshie and I still get our kicks by holding imaginary conversations with our four legged friend. Silver lining to every cloud.

Conversation of the week

We are ridiculous. We like to carry on conversations with and do voiceovers for Suds. So on our way home from a walk, we spotted a opossum who had a fatal run in with a vehicle which resulted in this conversation...

(this time the voice styling of Suds will be played by Josh)

Me: "Oh, Sudsy was that opossum your buddy?"
Suds: "Yes. Oh, no!"
Me: "What was his name?"
Suds: "Paul"
Me: "Paul?"
Suds: "Well, actually, OPaul".

Broken windows, broken dog

Our dear Suds is broken. He has always struggled with a brutal case of anxiety. He paces, tap dancing circles around our house. For awhile he took to gnawing on doorknobs, chewing up clothes and demolishing woodwork when we were gone. We spent a good amount of time reconditioning him using this method a couple years ago. And it worked and we were pleased with ourselves. But then two weeks ago, he had a breakdown and tore up the woodwork, pulled cords from their outlets, and CRACKED two of our windows. Sigh.

So now our dear Suds is on meds. Hopefully, that in combination with exercise will ease his fragile mind. It's sad. It makes me wonder if we didn't do right by him when he was a puppy. No bad dogs, just bad parents type of thing. He's great with Dexter which makes it even sadder. Sigh again. Suds is crazy. But he's our crazy.

Here comes Hurricane Suds Suds

As I've mentioned before, Suds has a terrible time with thunderstorms. His phobia has only gotten progressively worse over time, so much so that he's now anxious at the tiniest raindrop. During the last major storm, Dex's stuffed giraffe became an amputee.

It stormed here last night and during the day today. Last night Suds paced and panted the ENTIRE night trying to wedge himself into corners of the room which as you can imagine is not an easy feat for a 115 lb. dog.

Flash forward to this afternoon-I came home to a house that had been torn through by Hurricane Suds Suds. From what I can gather from the crime scene, I figure it played out like this. He saw Dex's bouncy seat and remembered how comforting it was for Dex so he tried to ease himself into it but instead knocked it over. Suds' next course of action was to hide in the corner of our dining nook and tear up his basket of toys. Hurricane Suds Suds then decided to continue this mass destruction and proceeded to shred a blanket on the couch. I found the boppy pillow on the floor with the blanket. I'm still nursing and if Suds had sunk his teeth into that u-shaped pillow, Dex would've witnessed his mother weeping angry tears. Thankfully, Suds had enough sense to leave it alone.

His next move was to the shoe closet because if there's anything Suds knows about a storm it's that you're suppose to move to the most interior room of the house if you don't have a basement. He grabbed all the shoes in the closet and scattered them on the living room floor in order to make room for his 115 lb. self. He left the shoes untouched, not a single bite mark (thank God, again that's where the weeping could've come in), and then must've realized that hey, we DO have a basement! So he booked it down there and there he stayed for the rest of the afternoon until I got home from work.

I have no pictures of the damage from Hurricane Suds Suds but if I did, they would be too horrific to share and I don't want to inflict that kind of harm on you.

Christmas

Hope you had a lovely Christmas! Here's a few pics from our holiday:

Baby's first Christmas gift. Thanks, Pauleys!

Suds opening his present from us.

A new Wubba!

A cooler for Joshie to replace the one that I, ahem, lost at Amy's bachelorette party last year.

Dreams really do come true...a Vidalia Chop Wizard. I tried to register for one of these babies when we got married but Josh said it was a waste since I don't chop anything. I said if I had one, I would chop everything, including his face (okay, not really but you get the point).

Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?

Winter break

I'm on my winter break right now so I've gotten a glimpse into what Suds does all day while Josh and I are toiling behind our desks.

Pretty pathetic, huh?

Christmas cards

We (okay, really I am) are running late with our Christmas cards this year. It was quite the process trying to take a family picture with Sudsy since we were DIY-ing it by rigging the camera up on a chair and then setting the timer. Suds needs something to focus on and with no photographer behind the camera, he was just not getting into the Christmas spirit. Here are a few of the outtakes:


Our final Christmas card pic will be in a mailbox near you soon, hope you get a kick out of it!

Hip hippo hooray

Amy told us that hippos were seen in and around World Market and if we made the trek out there to hunt them down we would not be disappointed. And we weren't.


These adorable guys are little wafers filled with Nutella and some sort of vanilla-y creme. You can get the full scoop on them here. Given their cute factor, I almost feel bad taking a bite out of these delicious little morsels. Almost. He, however does not feel bad at all...

Sudsy is mesmerized.

Dragon or princess?

Will Suds be playing the part of the untamed dragon while his little brother chases him around the house?


Or will he be a gentle princess who will be invited to tea with his younger sister?


Dragon, it is! After our doctor's appointment last week it looks like Sudsy will have a little boy to pal around with. What adventures will these two get themselves into?

Sh*t, Suds

Suds pooped in the house. A giant puddle. It was awful. He didn't track it all around the house though. Bright side. He did accidentally step in a pile a few hours later. And tracked it onto the basement carpet. Damn it.

Happy Monday.

Friend or foe?

Sudsy Pie made friends with this little tyke over Labor Day. It's his new cousin-once-removed, Wrigley. She chased him around the dining room table and then pawed/punched him in the face. Suds isn't one one to turn down a new canine friend, he loved it and came back for seconds.

An apple a day

"Oh, boy! Really? I can share this apple with you?"

"Hmmm, I can't quite remember how to go about eatin' this thing."

"Oh, yeah. That's the stuff."

"Can't tell you how much I appreciate this treatsie, Ma."

Bite me

Josh's cousin Jeff set some fireworks off a summer or two ago when Suds was nearby and ever since then Suds has been a nervous nelly around loud thunderous noises. We witnessed a true freakout this weekend while we were sitting on the porch and a firecracker went off. Suds tried to jump headfirst into the screen door to get inside. And when that didn't work he proceeded to claw like a madman (mad-dog?) nearly tearing the screen down. We decided to just let him inside so that he could go to his favorite hiding spot during thunderstorms, our basement. However, as more fireworks went off, we realized that he was still freaking out so we went inside and found this...


Surely, the lack of opposable thumbs was enough to deter him from trying to get back out to us during his freakout, right? Not so much. Apparently his plan was to gnaw the doorknob until it turned. Oh, Sudsworth.

Country livin'

Sudsy went on vacation too! We took him out to Tri-County Boarding Kennel so he had a chance to run around, smell the breezes and soak up some country livin'. This was our first time boarding him for a long period of time but he seemed to be okay with it. As soon as he heard the barks from the kennel, he left with the staff and didn't even look back to say goodbye to his Ma and Pa. I felt like I was taking our baby to daycare for the first time. According to the staff, he, along with a Newfoundland guest, loved the little dogs, especially a Cavalier King Charles. Go figure.

Hey, where we goin', guys?

Looks like the Cavalier King Charles gave him a run for his money. Suds has been in this position all day!

Rain on my parade

It has been raining all weekend and I am so very over it for the following reasons:

• Suds' little heart cannot handle the thunder and lightning that has accompanied all the rain. He gets so worked up and refuses to stop pacing. He tried to jump up into bed with us twice to get away from the demon in the sky that's causing all the ruckus.

• Our outdoor house projects have come to a standstill. We were doing so well with the front porch and backyard and now, nothing.

• Inside, the rain wreaked a little bit of havoc on our basement. Nothing major, but enough to annoy us.

Oh, joy. More rain in the seven-day forecast. Thanks a lot, Ed.

In need of new material

That's a nice horse you got there!

Looks like you need a saddle!

Who's walking who?!

Yes, he's an extra large dog. Yes, I realize that it must look somewhat comical seeing a 5'3" Asian girl walking a dog that comes up to her waist. Yes, the horse comments are cliche. Yes, they are also not very funny. Yes, you should just keep quiet and let us walk in peace until you do think of something original and witty to say.

Fee Fi Fo Fum

Suds went frolicking in the Land of Tiny Furniture.

I'm not sure if it's because Suds is so tall or if my dad just has really short furniture at his house but Suds seriously towered over every chair, coffee table and couch. I was afraid that he might plop down and take the whole living room set with him.

"I will crush you, tiny pink chair!"

This picture may be a bit exaggerated since I was so close to him but doesn't his head look ginormous compared to this teeny coffee table?