Newsarchive 2011
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December 23th 2011
What a year it has been... So much to tell but I gotta keep it short for my health.
It’s been a while since I’ve updated the English part of the Special Princess site and with good reason. On October 25th our lives completely changed for the worse (yeah it almost seemed impossible but it has happened, more bad news!) and ever since then I’ve been literally fighting to stay alive.
To keep a (very) long story short... On October 25th I collapsed during a walk with the girls and was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance. There I went into shock and cardiac arrest. The doctors found out that I had a (benign) tumor in my liver which caused internal bleeding, caused by medication that I have been taking for over 7 years now and I was rushed into the ER. There they did an emergency operation (in the middle of the night) and after that I spend a couple of days in the intensive care. Eventually I was transferred to the step-down unit but due to everything I had been through I has lots of trauma’s and was struggling hard there. They released me a week later due to mental issues because being any longer in the hospital would have made my health even worse. Ever since then I’ve been fighting here at home against the pain and attacks on my body and it’s been a long fight ever since...
It’s been about 8 weeks now since this all happened and still my health hasn’t been much better. I’ve lost about 16 kilo’s since it all happened (the medication I was on made me gain 30 kilo’s in the first months I was taking them so now that I’ve stopped taking them this is happening, that and the fact that I can’t eat a lot of food because of nausea and other problems) and I’m living from pill dose to dose. We spoke to the surgeon earlier this weeks and the latest results are even more shocking then we all could have imagined. In most cases when something like this happens a woman has a tumor that’s about 2cm big. I have multiple tumors of that size and one large one that’s about 8cm big. That’s huge and I can’t keep on living with that. But operating is also not really an options since the chances of me not making that are to big of a risk to take at this point. So we now just have to wait, wait for about 6 months in the hope that, since I’m no longer on the medication causing the tumors, the tumors will decrease in size and slink on it’s own. And if that’s not the case... Well then I have an ever harder road ahead. I’ve been on strong medication ever since this all happened and the prognoses is that I’m gonna have to keep on taking these pills for the 6 months to come since the tumor in my liver is so big that is causing terrible pains.
And then we have the problem of the other medication as well. What I mean by that is the medication that I’ve stopped taking ever since this all happened since it was the cause of all this madness. These were hormones that I took because I have disease in my uterus which causes lots of pain and extreme bleeding (also internally). I can’t take meds for this condition ever again since the chances of me having new tumors growing inside me are to big. So what’s the other option then? Because living with that pain and those bleedings is also absolutely not an option... Well we’re discussing that issue with the gynecologist at the moment but my hopes are that somewhere next year my uterus will be taking out so I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I know that’s a extreme discussion but I’ve known for years now that having a baby was not really ever an option for me due to my health issues. So for me it’s actually a logical decision to make especially since everything that happened the last couple of weeks. Now we just have to convince the doctors of this too because as it turns out they are pretty biased and keep on throwing my age in as a reason why not to do this. Like I want this to happen, it’s not like it’s a party for me!
And last but not least my grandmother has been going downhill in massive speed also. The tumors in her head have grown ever since the radiation and they now found a tumor that’s 5cm in her liver as well (that wasn’t there 4 months ago so it’s growing in an absurd speed). So to cut to the chase, she doesn’t have a long time to live. We were hoping for a couple of months but the passed few weeks her health has gotten even worse so at this point we are not even sure if she will make it to next year. We really hope to spend our last Christmas together but there’s no telling right now if this is even possible.
Anyhow this isn’t even half of the story (cause we also lost one of our pets, dear little Prescott a chinchilla that was born in our home at the end of November) but like I said before, I have to think of my health so I’m gonna keep it short because sitting at this desk typing is very hard for me and exhausting. But in a clipnote we’ve been through hell for this passed year and it isn’t gonna change any time soon. I’m gonna be in pain for months to come and it will also take month’s for me to be my old self after that so maybe by the end of next year I’ll physically be my old self a bit again (if I’ll ever be my old self again because that all depends on how the tumor growth will continue now of actually the resorbation of it). My grandmother is going to die soon and we’re still struggling with everything that has happened to us the last couple of months let alone deal with everything that is happening to our family now.
As you probably all understand I haven’t been and also will in the short future be online very much cause it simply is to hard for me physically and I also mentally have other things to deal with right now. But since I know that some of you don’t understand Dutch I thought I’d give a short update about everything that has happened so far so you all know why I haven’t been updating my site much recently. I hope that with the help of online translators fans of the Special Princess site can keep on reading all of my messages on the Dutch part of the site and if not then I’ll hope to see you all back again when I’m ready to update this part of the site again.
I do want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Thank you all for the sweet messages that I got especially the last couple of weeks, it has been great to have so much support from everyone in times like this. We all wish you the best and hopefully till next year...
October 18th 2011
Today there was another hospital visit planned for my grandmother with the oncologist to prepare for the radiations (that start tomorrow again, 5 times this time so for about a week). They made a mask for the radiations and we asked some questions which unfortunately stayed unanswered. Questions like what will be the expected time that my grandmother has still feeling ok where answered with the advice to just enjoy the time we have and make the best of it. This isn’t really a satisfying answer but that’s all we get so we have to accept that. And that’s what we’ll try to do, make the best of it and stay strong for each other.
October 14th 2011
To get a break from it all we went for a nice walk this afternoon.
October 13th 2011
Well the results of the MRI scan of my grams are in and they are as expected.
They’re disseminations in the brain. There were found multiple spots, small and larger ones which are probably the cause of the problems that my grandmother is having. The treatment will now be another course of radiation but that’s all they can do.
The treatment will start soon but no matter if it will help or not the advice of the doctor was to live life to the fullest from now on. So that’s what we’re going to do!
I wish it was better news but hé that’s the story of our life... We just gotta make the best of it for the time that we have and keep on hoping for a miracle.
I want to thank everyone who has send us a message/text/phone call in the last couple of days to let us know that they’re thinking about us. We sure do appreciate it but as you hopefully understand I’m not really in the mood to talk right now. I’m the type of person who deals with these sort of things on her own so that’s what I’m going to do. But thank you all so much for the kind words because I really do appreciate it!
I’m gonna keep it a bit short here on the English part of the site (as you can hopefully understand). A more detailed report of everything that is going on and it about to happen is on the Dutch part of the site so check that out if you want to learn more, but I’ll leave it at this for now here...
October 10th 2011
Well here’s an update about my grams for everyone who’s interested...
Today an MRI scan would take place which was said by the neurologist Saturday. This turned out to be false information since the scan can’t take place before Thursday which of course we think is scandalous (especially because my grandmothers health is been spiraling downhill). So the passed couple of hours we’ve been talking to the hospital and eventually others hospitals in the area trying to arrange something. The head of the neuro-department called radiology but even they couldn’t do a thing for us (although they did place her on the urgent list which means that if for some reason the scan becomes free my grandmother will be scanned immediately) but thankfully we found an opening elsewhere on Wednesday morning. Also not ideal but better than the next day because if the scan takes place Thursday afternoon the results won’t be in until Friday so that will be another day waiting. So we‘ll just have to wait a little while longer before we know more, unfortunately... To be continued.
October 9th 2011
Unfortunately yesterday ended at the worst possible way. As you can read in my blog (on the Dutch part of the site) my grandmothers health wasn’t good yesterday so after the clubmatch we took her to the hospital for some test. This gave some results but not enough for a diagnose. Tomorrow they’ll take an MRI and hopefully that will give us more information about what’s going on, but no matter what it’s serious business. After the test yesterday my grandmother went home but today she was emitted into te hospital because her health continued to go downhill. It turns out now that this has been going on for about a week now slightly getting worse and worse, but my grams was to stubborn to admit that at first (everyone who knows her personally know what I’m talking about). We can only hope for, well a good result is out of the question but a result that gives us good hope for a full recovery. We’ll know more tomorrow.
And so we’re back to square one, just were we where 6 months ago.... Filled with insecurity, anxiety and fear.
October 8th 2011
Today was another showday and no we didn’t just watched this time... We joined in the fun! We got a 2nd place 'Very Good' so we're very pleased with that.
October 2nd 2011
It’s after midnight so that means... Partytime!
A year ago we were stressing so much around this time wondering how everything would turn out to be. Unfortunately it didn’t all go as planned but in the end we got 6 beautiful, healthy pups a couple of hours later (one didn’t make it, puppy 7).
Now a year has passed and boy did a lot happen in that time. Lots of contact with the new owners about their pups, contact in hard times and also a litter reunion this summer!
Because of the birthday of our 2nd litter I made a special clip of their 1e year...
I would like to wish all of the pups from Special Princes litter 2 a very happy birthday! Sweet Eevee (Curious Eevee Special Princess), Snowy (Ambitious Phione Special Princess), BeeGee (Lightning Raichu Special Princess), Mojo (Playful Phanpy Special Princess), Sky (Prince Manaphy Special Princess) & Kai’len (Cute Buneary Special Princess), whether we’re with or without you today know that you’re on our minds and we hope you have a great, fun, nice and tasteful birthday today. Enjoy and know that we still love you very much!
And of course mother Abby we also wish you a very happy 4th birthday. We know it was yesterday and we celebrated a bit already but today will be your real party, I promise...
And we had that party!
This afternoon Sky and his family came over for a visit to celebrate the birthdays together. The dogs got nice treats, gifts and had lots of fun in the backyard. We really loved watching them have so much fun!
September 30th 2011
Getting closer to their birthdays i'm recieving lots of pics of the pups from litter 2, lovely to see all those faces again! We of course also took some nice pics of our girls who's birthday's are comming up...
September 27th 2011
Here’s a short update about Bouchra...
Unfortunately she’s still not her old self but her eye problems are getting better. She also is taking some real advantage of the special treatment she’s been getting the passed week so we need to keep an eye on that... Hahaha!
Scott is still gaining weight and isn’t as skinny as he was a couple of weeks ago so we’re very happy about that.
September 22nd 2011
Unfortunately we had a complication with Bouchra after the surgery. Her eye doesn’t look that great so since yesterday we have to treat that several times a day. And that poor girl is already having such a hard time cause she can barely eat with all the wounds in her mouth... We hope that she’ll be her old self again soon!
September 20th 2011
Today was Bouchra her surgery. This morning we took her to the vet were they first took some x-rays. After that they started the operation which was a though on her but she got through nicely. Once we picked her up the anesthetic was already wearing out but the panic started to come. The strings in her mouth caused her to panic because she didn’t know what was happening. She’s now home with us and still a bit panicky but we’re sure that will get better in time. The next couple of days she can only eat chicken and after that we can start with her normal food again. We hope that Bouchra will be her old self again soon...
Prescott is still gaining weight little by little so is doing well to!
September 16th 2011
Today was another vet visit day...
Bouchra has had some teeth problems and lately it’s been getting worse and worse so it was time to do something. Today we went to the dentist vet who checked her out and the results weren’t great... Bouchra had been having problems that a lot of cats have these days. What causes it is still unknown but it causes teeth to rot so they need to get out. She had some mild anesthetic today to check everything out and next week she will be operated on to fix everything. In the mean time she got an antibiotic shot that last 14 weeks and some medication.
Thankfully Bouchra still eats normally so that means that she’ll probably won’t even really notice her teeth missing. But she is in a lot of pain so they need to get out as soon as possible.
Bouchra is in the hallway on a pillow in the sun at the moment getting out of the whooz she’s in. She has a hard time ahead of her but we’re sure it’s the best of her and she’ll make it through cause she’s a though girl.
So this is another to be continued next week... Oh yeah and a short update about Scott. We spoke to the other vet yesterday and Scott has been gaining a bit of weight ever since he saw the vet last week so that’s great we all think. The progress isn’t going that fast but that’s not something we should worry about. So we need to keep going on the way we are doing now and hopefully in some weeks Scott will have a good weight again. So we’re planning on doing that!
September 15th 2011
Pics and clips of BeeGee's show adventure this weekend are online, and boy he dit well... For everyone who has not seen the news of passed Sunday, that day BeeGee was at the clubmatch of KC Geleen and there he got an Excellent and was crowned 'Best Male'. After that he got BOB and in the ring with breedgroup 1 at the end of the day he was crowned 2nd. So that was just amazing!
September 12th 2011
Today I finally recieved some recent pics from Sterre (Blissey), isn't she cute or what?!
And s hort update about Prescott. He's still nog eating great but is making progress and his weight has been going up slowly as well so fingers crossed that he'll continues this progress.
September 11th 2011
On this sad day my day was actually quite good. I had a wonderful afternoon with Sky and his owners and our sheltiegirls of course at a special dogevent in 'Het Gooi' where our Abby took her very first swim together with her son Sky and daughter Eevee.
But that's not all the news I have, Because today I received a phonecall from the owner of Abby’s son Lightning Raichu Special Princess “BeeGee” who had his 2nd show today and he was crowned ‘Best Male’ with an Excellent. After that he became BOB (Best of Breed) and by the end of the day he went into the ring with all the other dogs from Breedgroup 1 and got a 2nd place there (out of 9 dogs) as icing on the cake! I’m so proud of BeeGee and his owner Josien, I’m such a proud breeder at the moment! Josien and BeeGee huge congrats on this results!
September 8th 2011
Today was another day of vet visits...
The victim this time was Prescott, poor little Scotty who has been with us since birth. After the death of Paige, whom he had no relationship with what so ever (didn’t even knew her, never was in the same cage as her) , he hasn’t been doing great either so we started to worry. Losing another animal this year is really not the plan so earlier this week we already went to see our own vet with him. They checked him our, did his teeth but they still couldn’t find the source of his problems. So yesterday, after another day of losing weight we decided to contact a specialist. Today we could go there and they told us this...
Our own vet probably didn’t see this because they weren’t as specialized in chins as this one but Scott had a very sharp molar that was poking in his cheek. We don’t know if that is the cause of it’s problems but that’s probably why he couldn’t eat the last couple of weeks. They immediately gave him a mild anesthetic and did his molar. We have to keep him warm today and still force feed until he is strong enough to eat by himself. Starting tomorrow he’s gonna have to eat more by himself and hopefully next week he’ll be eating as normal. We have to call in next week to tell how he’s doing but hopefully he’ll be his old self again soon.
So fingers crossed!
September 5ht 2011
We already saw them filming yesterday and today we found out that we were on tv! The regional tv channel was filming the event yesterday and at about 1.19/1.20 min in the clip you can see Bailey from Sammy pulling his leash and Eevee behind him in her pink K9-harness. Click here for the clip...
September 4th 2011
Today we went ‘barkswimming’ with Eevee in a pool nearby. The weather was okay, the watertemperature was great so we had a blast. Eevee also swam quite a bit so that was great too. We were not alone cause Sammy and her dogs were with me in the pool so that was nice as well.
September 2nd 2011
Out little Eevee (Curious Eevee Special Princess) is exactly 11 months old today. Our first tricolor female, daughter of our Abby our first Sheltie ever, the first pup we ever kept from a litter and now already almost 1 year old. Time really flies! And we love her so much, we're so proud of her...
August 23th 2011
Today we had a lovely afternoon with in total 11 pups from the age of 4 week till about 9 weeks old. Oh what a great time... We first went to visit Abby's grandchildren, Cheeta's litter and after that we also stopped by the litter of her Lhasa Apso friend Carmen who also gave birth to some beautiful pups a while back. Puppycuddles all around for us, amazing!
August 22nd 2011
Today Thera and her Kyra stopped by for a visit. We had a great afternoon and the girls had lots of fun.
August 21e 2011
Today was a exhausting, hot and long day but also lot of fun. We left for the agilitymatch in Arnhem in the morning together with Anjana (on crutches because of a knee injury) and her Luca. When we got there they were just starting their break so we didn't see much of the action. But we still had a lot of fun with Josien and her beagle Puk and BeeGee (BeeGee and Eevee were so happy to see each other again). We also saw some other familiar faces so it was a nice but short visit. In the afternoon we left for the sheltiemeeting in Het Leesten which was organized by a group of people who are members of the sheltieclub on Hondenpage. There were 21 dogs (including our 3 girls) of which 18 dogs were shelties. It was a nice walk and the dogs had lots of fun. I'm pretty worn out by now because of this long day in the heat but I think the same goes for the rest of the people that I went with today. And besides that it still was all worth it as far as I'm concerned.
August 19th 2011
Today, much to soon, we had to say goodbye to Paige... She wasn’t doing well for a couple of weeks now so we were already force feeding her in the hopes that she would get better. But unfortunately she didn’t make it, she kept losing weight and today in the waiting room at the vet’s office she died. Her heart was still working but neurologically she was already gone. Paige her family, twin sister and mother who she shared her cage with are very upset and said their goodbyes in their very special own way this morning. Now hours later they still are at the same place were Paige was just before she died, chinchilla’s can die of a broken heart when a friend dies so we just hope that they’ll cope well with this especially because they still have each other. Paige is the daughter of our Hermione and Angel and was born on November 14th 2005 in our home together with twin sister Piper, she was only 5 years old... We but especially her mother and sister that she’s leaving behind will miss her dearly that sweet, little, beautiful girl. But you just couldn’t fight anymore... RIP
Tonight I made a memoriam clip for Paige to honor her, you can see it above this message...
August 18th 2011
August 18th 2011
Today I had a great but also very exhausting day in Germany. Together with the girls, my mom and friend we went to Zoom Erlebniswelt! It was terribly hot, around 30 degrees Celsius so that was devastating for my health but man did I have a great time or what...
August 17th 2011
Today we were, again yes, at the vet’s... Will we ever get a month off?! We were there with Paige today one of our chinchilla’s who’s been losing a lot of weight for the past couple of weeks. She got an check-up and we decided to force feed her 4 to 6 times a day from now on until she get’s her normal weight and strength back. We just hope that she’ll be okay because she’s only 5 years old so she has a lot of year ahead of her. Hopefully she’ll be just as big and strong as her twin sister back again in no time!
August 16th 2011
Today we went with our 3 girls and the 3 girls of Kim to the Erkemederbeach. It was a great walk and we had some amazing breakthroughs! Alice and Abby who are scared of water just walked in and got their belly's wet. I'm so proud of all the girls!
August 12th 2011
Today we had a lovely afternoon at the Veluwe together with Kim and her From Chelsey’s Grace girls and also with Anjana and her Luca and vacationdog Pip. It was a great walk with nice weather and lots of conversations.
August 11th 2011
Poeh, what a day... We were at the University of Utrecht at the liver diseases hall from about 10.45 till 14 o ‘clock. A long time... We were sent there by our vet for some extra tests on Ashley because the causes of her attacks still are unknown. They did an ammoniac and an ammoniac intolerance test and the results weren’t what they supposed to be but also were not alarming. So the end conclusion is that with there results we know can definitely rule our some kind of liver disease. So that’s great news! The not so great news is that there is actually no other disease that can cause this attacks but epilepsy. It may be a bit a-typical, the type of attacks that Ashley has but since there is no other explanation we’ll just have to go with that. Since Ashley’s attacks are not as heavy as Abby’s for the moment we can’t do anything about it because putting her on medication will probably have more side-effects than real effects on her. So we just hope that she and Abby will have a great, long live ahead of them without any more attacks or at least not so many. They can be a handful this dogpack of ours but I wouldn’t want to miss them for anything in the world, those sweethearts!
August 10th 2011
After another talk with the vet we decided to make an appointment at the University of Utrecht which specializes in liver diseases (and much other things). They can do some extra tests which will hopefully determent what’s wrong with Ashley. So to be continued...
August 6th 2011
Unfortunately our little Ashley had another ‘attack’ today. This one wasn’t as heavy as the previous one but did take a lot longer. We already have a phone appointment next week with the vet to talk about what she discussed with her colleagues so we’re gonna bring this up then too. Because it seems that the frequency is starting to build. We just hope that the liverdiet that Ashley is now on will do his job soon and will have any effect on her or otherwise we’ll be back on were we started...
August 4th 2011
Yesterday was such a wonderful day! But today is overshadowed by bad news (and terrible heat)... This morning we got a phone call from the vet about Ashley. The test she had in mind isn’t going to be as easy as she thought so she wanted to discuss that with us. We spend a lot of time on the phone talking about our options. And we decided to try a special diet and medication for livershunt patients in advance before we take any more tests. If this doesn’t help we can always try the test but since it’s so complicated to due we decided to start with the ‘easy’ option. The vet is also gonna talk again with some specialists to discuss what else could be causing this other than livershunt. Because although they all think it is livershunt the tests were inconclusive on that disease for now so what if it’s not... We’ll hear about that next week probably and since the medication and diet need to be ordered we’ll probably start that in a couple of days.
August 3rd 2011
Today we had a wonderful afternoon at the beach with all of the pups from our 2nd litter. It was an amazing chance to see all of the pups again playing together, kissing us and just enjoying themselves in and out of the water. This was a reunion I will not soon forget!
And we also learned today that BeeGee passed his obedience exam with a great final score so that means he get's to go to the agility class soon were he can start learning for some real action! Congrats Josien and BeeGee on your exam.
July 29th 2011
Today we had a lovely trip to again the Erkemederbeach! We were there with a big group of friends. Ilse and her husky Dazey and shelties Mainey and Fay, Laura and her mom with the Amazing Velocity pack and vacationdog Kelso (also a sheltie) and Thera and her dad also came with Kyra and border collie Bindy. We spend about 2 hours on the beach and got a breakthrough with Kyra. That girl who’s afraid of water came after me and Thera for a sausage and kept on walking and walking. Amazing! It was an afternoon with a lot of fun.
July 28th 2011
July 28th 2011
We just spoke to the vet about Ashley and the news was again a bit shocking... She spoke to a neurologist and specialist on liverdiseases and the all think it’s levershunt. Even though the ammoniactest and ultrasound said otherwise. Next week we’ll go to the vet for some more test and to discus our options (a heavy operation of diet which might mean that Ashley will not live as long as we’d hoped). So you’ll hear more about that next week...
To end with more positive news...
My grandmother had a appointment with the cardiologist today and it’s going well so that’s good news. Of course we have plenty more to worry about but some good news once in a while is nice to hear.
And last but not least...
Tonight I had my basic obedience I exam with Eevee... It was a small group tonight. Only Boris the Stafford and Jack Russel Bram (Eevee’s best friend) were there so it was a nice little gang. And we all passed with flying colors! Even the sit and wait that Eevee still didn’t completely understood until yesterday went great (okay the 2ne time...) so that was fun. In a few weeks we’ll start with basic obedience II so I’m looking forward to that! But first we have the dogdates with the girls for example tomorrow...
July 27th 2011
Unexpected we have a reunion next week! What started as a meeting with one of the pups from our 2nd litter now is a full reunion with all the pups from that litter, we're planning to get together next week for some fun. I hardly can't wait to see all those sweet little faces again up close and personal and to give them all a big hug...
July 26th 2011
Unbelievable that it's already 2 years ago that Abby's 1e litter was born... Yeah it's true today is the 2nd birthday of Abby's 1e litter. So congratulations Cheeta, Sterre, Diesel, Dylano and your owners!
Unfortunately the reunion planned earlier this year was cancelled due to everything that is happening in our lives right now but I due hope that later this year we'll see all the pups from litters 1 and 2 again.
But for today I wish you a great day, have fun and I due expect some birthday pics soon...
July 24th 2011
This day is always a hard one for me... Because today it is exactly 4 years ago that our sweet little chow chow Belle died. Her death came unexpected so it was a very hard time for me then. Although I have dealt with it since it's still sometimes hard to not have your friend around here anymore. But like her memoriamsign here in the livingrooms says "You'll be in my heart" and that is so true Belle, always... RIP
Luckily I also got some fun news yesterday which makes today a little bit easier to handle. That's because yesterday I got an text from the owner of Abby's daughter Cheeta (a pup from our 1e litter that lives with another sheltiebreeder)... She gave birth to 5 pups on July 23th 2011 which makes our Abby a grandmother! Everything went well, mom and kids are doing okay. Cheeta was supposed to give birth on her birthday but Abby also gave birth to her first litter on day 60 and yesterday was day 60 for Cheeta also. She gave birth to two tricolor females, two tricolor males and one blue merle male. We would like to congrat Joukje again with Cheeta's first litter, may they grow up to be healthy, beautiful and sweet shelties!
July 22nd 2011
After a week of stress because of Ash we decided it was time for a nice event today. And since our summer vacation is this year all about the dogs we of course did something nice for them. Ashley stayed at home because she's not into all of this (but she had a nice time at my grandmothers and I heard they slept a while on her bed, so that was a blast) but the sheltiegirls came a long. We went to the Veluwe this time were we made plans with Kim (Chelsey's Grace) and her girls to go for a walk. And what a beautiful place it was there, amazing! We walked for almost 2 hours, way too long for me actually but I didn't even noticed because we had so much fun. The girls had a blast, played together and for just completely wild as they ran over the sand and gras there.
July 21st 2011
Today we finally got the results of the bloodwork done on Ashley last Monday. And sadly the news wasn’t great again...
The results are back to what they where so that means the diet has no effect on her what so ever (anymore?). The results also mean that this is probably what caused the attack this weekend.
Our vet has some theories but can’t figure it out so she’s gonna contact a colleague of her who specializes in these types of things to hopefully get a bit closer to what’s causing all of this. She hopes to contact him today but it can also take a week so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Until then there’s not much we can do. We just hope that they’ll figure out soon what’s wrong with Ash. A ‘to be continued’ again because we’re not much wiser than we were earlier today at the moment unfortunately...
July 18th 2011
Well we’re back from our visit to the vet...
They did a blood test on Ashley again and the results of that shall be in this Wednesday. They’re gonna check again to see of her results went up again and if that’s causes the most recent attack or if there’s another reason for that. We can call Wednesday to talk about how to proceed from there so we’ll just have to wait and see about that. For now we have no clue of what’s going in. Maybe it is a liver problem, maybe it’s a strange case of epilepsy of maybe it’s something even more serious that’s wrong in her brain? We’re just gonna have to wait till Wednesday to see if those results will tell us more so... To be continued!
And then some more fun news... Tonight we had obedience class again after 2 weeks of vacation and Eevee loved is of course. We're getting ready for our exam in a couple of weeks and after that we hope to get into de basic obedience class level II. My mom made some pics and a short clip toningt so check it out to see a bit of how everything goes at our school...
July 16th 2011
Today Ashley's new collar came in and it looks great... A great buy I might say! I also made some nice pics of the pussycats we have.
July 15th 2011
Today we had a wonderful day at Het Leesten together with Thera and her Bindy and Kyra... The dogs enjoyed a nice walk, trow with the ball and making some new friends! So a great day for all of us.
The day unfortunately didn't end as well as it started... Ashley, who spend the day with grandma who felt good enough to take care of her for a few hours, had a great day although she was a bit cold (strange looking back on it because of the weather). At home she fell asleep fast but then an attack came up again. This time even more intense then the last although not as heavy as those of Abby... We immediately called the vet to talk about what to do next and he thought it might be a pain attack (even though Ashley didn't screamed which she always does when she's in pain). Monday we'll go back with her to the vet to see what the test will show this time. But it's a huge setback since the last results were so well and she was doing so great in her diet... We just hope for the best! Abby and Eevee were very upset because of what happened but are now finally asleep hopefully dreaming of their great afternoon.
Abby is by the way still on the same doses of medication and we still have regular contact with the vet to discuss what to do next. She has good and bad days but considering how ill she is she's doing okay...
July 6th 2011
Today we had a wonderful afternoon at the beach with Abby and Eevee but also Eevee’s brother Sky and half-brother Diesel (all kids of Abby). They swam, ran, played, they had a blast... And I fell pretty hard as well, but I'm was ok just a bit sore but that’s alright. It just was a lovely afternoon which we all enjoyed very much!
July 4th 2011
My friend Angela made some special nametags for the girls to wear with our kennelname on it. Today we got them in the mail and see here the endresult...
June 29th 2011
Today Diesel (Pachirisu) passed his EG exam with 97 out of 100 points and with that he has the best result of all classes at his dogschool. We want to congratulate Jessica and Diesel with this great result, keep on going cause we’re so proud of you!
June 28th 2011
Today we finally got the memoriam sign made by Dyenne for Sandy. It’s already our 5th sign made by her, 3th memorial sign unfortunately (besides that she made our house number sign and the kennelname sign)... And it’s again so breath taking, amazing! The work that Dyenne does for us is so important to me, this sign is like a closure for me so it’s always hard to get that in the mail but also very beautiful. The handyman will stop by later this week or next week to hang up the sign between the ones of Macy and Belle that are already here in our livingroom. And like the sign says: You’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart... Goodbye my sweet little Sandy!
June 26th 2011
Today was BeeGee's 1st show, and he did great! Unfortunately he didn't get any qualification cause the judge that judged the herding dog group hadn’t got her diploma for judging that group yet so she couldn’t give out qualifications, but he still got to bring home a very nice report. Abby's halfbrother Cody also entered the showring for the very first time and together we had a great time.
June 22nd 2011
Monday Snowy and (one of) her owner(s) Rachelle (11yrs old) passed their advanced puppyclass exam! With 0 points, so an flawless exams they finished cum laude and are now free to take a next class. And this one is already planned because next months Snowy will start with the pre-agility class at her dog school. We wish Snowy and her family all the best of luck with all of their plans, and of course congratulations on the beautiful exam score!
June 17th 2011
Today we got a call from the vet about Ashley’s blood test and... Her results are back to normal! So that means that the diet its doing his job well. So we finally know what is wrong with her!
On the down side... Abby’s wasn’t doing so great yesterday (no attack but strange behavior) so we talked about that too. She also said like us that Abby’s behavior probably comes from all the stress here since we all know she’s a very sensitive dog. Plus that we visited my grandmother yesterday who wasn’t doing well at all and for a dog like Abby, who actually found out she has the disease, that’s hard to feel. We’re just gonna keep an eye on her (and keep her a bit away from grandma, at least until she’s doing a bit better) en hope that that’s enough but if not we’ll change the medication again. So fingers crossed...
June 16th 2011
Here’s a short update from our situation here for everyone who wants to know...
Ashley had her blood test today (which went great btw, no sound what so ever and she behaved like the perfect dog!) so the results of that will be in by the end of tomorrow. She did have a fever and some trouble with her airways so she got some antibiotics so cure that.
The doses of Abby’s medication will stay, as expected, on the level that we’re now and that will be how it’s gonna be for the next time being. Of course we’ll keep an eye on her to see if maybe eventually the doses needs to be changed again but considering Abby’s behavior now and on the lower doses we expect that there won’t be any change in the medication for a while.
And as far as Eevee goes we have some news about her too... We thought that she became in heat Monday but today she started showing behavior of a dog in heat for about a week and the more we think about it the more we think that is possible. So we’re gonna keep an eye on that little one to see what’s the deal with that...
And then also an update about my grandmother... Today was decided to stop all of the treatments (chemo's and radiation) immediately because of her heart. How this will effect her we’ll discuss in a couple of weeks when she’s capable of going to the doctor to talk about that but until then she needs to recover from everything that has happened the last couple of weeks. The cardiologist has changed her medication doses a little so hopefully that will do some good as well... But of course this has been a hard blow for us to take. The situation and our whole future is now even more darker and terrible as it already was, and we can only hope for some good news soon. We’re of course trying to still hope and be positive no matter how bad everything looks right now but it is hard, especially after everything we’ve been through the last couple of months...
June 14th 2011
Girls grow up... And fast because little Eevee just got in heat yesterday!
June 12th 2011
Ashley’s has been on her diet for 3 weeks now. The blood tests that are planned this week will show if the diet has any effect on her health problems so we’re curious to see what comes out of that.
Abby’s medication schedule has been going down for a while now so that’s good news. We started with 2 times a day 1 pill after the attacks and for the last weeks we have been down to 1 times a day ½ pill. Unfortunately we noticed some behavior changes with Abby from the start and last week she showed some symptoms of an attack coming up. So we had a talk with the vet and decided to put her back on 2 times a day ½ a pill and ever since then she’s been doing much better. We’re very happy to see how Abby is doing now so we’re gonna keep her medication on this level at least for the time being (and maybe even forever).
I’m still not doing great but since everything that’s going on I don’t think that’s strange. I’m still trying my best to just survive every day and enjoy things while I can. I’m getting out a bit more so I’m starting to get back into the real world but it still is hard to sometimes just have fun and not think about out problems. But I am doing my best!
Well... And that’s the update for now!
May 31e 2011
Today the new M&MD (Me & My Dog) came out and me and my girls are in it! I was allowed to write a story for them as an sort of Q&A and see here the end result... Page 22 of the June/July edition! By the end of the week it will probably be in stores here in Holland. I’m very happy with the end result so everybody go out and buy the new M&MD!
May 27th 2011
I've made some clips the last couple of days. And they're very different I must say. One is happy, the other is sad but they do give a good view of how I'm feeling at the moment. Because my feelings change by the minute as well. So here it is, mij tribute to my 3 girls and Sandy... RIP
May 19th 2011
Monday we went to the vet with Ashley again to do some tests. They draw some blood (which went great by the way, Ash was a model dog that brave little girl!) and today the results came in. Most of it seemed okay again but some of the results that were already too high the last time they checked went up even more in the last couple of weeks. Plus besides that Ash had a little ‘attack’ again yesterday which stated that this all is far from over. Ashley will now be placed on a special diet and cure to see if that will help and in 3 weeks there will be some new tests. Based on those we’ll decide what to do next because we have no idea of this will help or not. It’s something to try out to see if it has any effect or not so that we know if we have to look further into everything or not. It’s going to be a though couple of weeks for Ashley who loves food but it’s for her own good unfortunately. To be continued, again...
And as for Abby... If she stays like this will change her medication schedule even more down starting next week. We hope that in a while she doesn’t have to take any anymore but we’re taking it one step at a time. So fingers crossed again on that part!
May 15th 2011
Today we went to the agility match of Josien, BeeGee's owner, for some distraction. She's in de B-class with her beagle Puk and had a game in Hoogeveen today. We had an great afternoon with lots of familiar faces and the dogs also had a great time. Abby's day didn't start out great with a strange look again in her eyes so we were doubting a bit of going or not... But once we got there she took place on Roel's lap and stayed there for the rest of the day. And she loved it, all that attention. Of course she's knocked out from the day but she did very well. Eevee had a great afternoon with her brother BeeGee so she's completely whipped out now as well. And Ashley... Well she had to overcome some of her fears today but did great, I'm so proud of that little girl! We should do that again soon. It's great to have some distraction in times like these when at home were of course sad about everything that has happened and sometimes really stressed out. So it was nice to go out for a while.
May 6th 2011
Today we had to say farewell to Sandy... She was the eldest of the pets here and also the only one who has known me in the time that I was still a healthy little girl. Sandy’s life was filled with health problems starting with an operation just after birth and epilepsy that she was diagnosed with a few year later and which caused every 1 or 2 years an attack. Her last health issue were tumors, probably cancer, that eventually led to her death. Sandy was a cat with a huge guidebook but once you knew here she was the sweetest kitty in the world. Sandy, RIP my little girl...
Sandy - Megamieuwsel Inc.’s Punkie
August 24th 1998 - May 6th 2011
May 2nd 2011
Today we sat for 2 hours at the vet’s office again for more test on Ashley. There was some extra blood work done and also an ultrasound to see how everything was working inside. The results were that Ashley’s liver is not functioning as it should but what’s costing that is still the question. Ashley’s heart (minor cardiac murmur that was found last week) or liver can be the cause of Ash’s attacks so there is definitely something wrong inside of her but what we still don’t know. The strange thing about it all is that Ash doesn’t suffer from anything else then the attacks so that should mean that there are no serious problems going on. But the tests are showing that there is something wrong and of course her attacks are an result of that as well so we don’t know what’s going on at all at the moment. There are a couple of options now but because Ash is so stress sensitive we decided to not do anything else at the moment for now. In 2 weeks Ash will get another blood test done to see how her liver results are then. And based on that we’ll decide how to go on from there. It all can be something really small that ends up to be nothing serious, or it can be the beginning of serious (heart and/or liver) problems... So to be continued again I guess, just like with Abby because in 2 weeks we’ll have an appointment for her as well again to talk about her medication and see how we’ll progress on that.
April 30th 2011
Yesterday we got an call from the vet with Ashley’s blood results. And they weren’t good unfortunately... With that we now know that Ashley’s attacks were not the results of an sudden blood pressure drop and/or epilepsy but that it is (most likely) the result of something else. Monday we have to go back to do some more test and hopefully we know then what it is. The possibilities (of better said one of the possibilities) made me very scarred so I’m keeping my fingers crossed till Monday. We hope for some good results and are trying to stay positive, we hope to have Ashley with us for a very long time. But I also know that the result can be not what we want and I have to prepare for that as well... I just hope the thing that is causing all of this is something they can cure easily with not too much problems for Ashley.
April 27th 2011
Today we went to the vet again with Ashley and Abby (we’ve been there every week since the beginning of this month). Unfortunately Ashley hasn’t been feeling so well since a couple of days and this weekend she seemed to have an ‘attack’. So we went in for an complete check-up just like Abby had. The results were a (minor) cardiac murmur, so that’s not great news.
Ashley’s attacks could mean 2 things. A minor form of epilepsy (yeah really, how many pets can you have in one home with that disease?!) or a sudden drop in blood pressure that’s maybe the result of heart problems. So for the time being we gotta keep an close eye on Ash and hope for the best.
And Abby... Well ever since her attacks she has changed a lot. She’s just an completely different dog. The vet and me too of course want to know if this is something that’s a result of the medication or that the attacks have made an permanent change in Abby. So we’re gonna lower her medication and see how she responds. The goal is to eventually completely stop with the pills but if we notice that the attacks are coming closer due to this medication change we might need to bring the dose up even higher then it was and consider the possibility that Abby may never quit these pills ever again. We just hope to get our old Abby back one day but also are realistic and know that there is a possibility that those attacks made a change in Abby’s brain, permanently. We’re glad to see that Abby still is that cheerful sheltie that loves everything around her, we love her so much for that and thankfully that’s still there. She’s a dog with a heart of gold and nothing can change that...
We hope for an good ending with all of our girls, although it is hard to do so with all of the sadness and bad things happening around us at this moment... But we’re trying our very best!
April 8th 2011
For a while now there are cases of epilepsy popping up in the sheltie-world. I was one of the people who thought the problem wasn’t so big. In the tests done so far (in Holland) the endresults were that epilepsie was not a breed specific problem. So that's why I though I was save, that's why I thought that the chances of one of our gilrs having/getting it would be almost none. But unfortunately due to some terrible events I’ve had to change my opinion...
On April 5th 2011 we got the terrible news that my grandmother who has always been like a 2nd mother to me may not have long to live anymore. The stress in our house was massive and the dogs were feeling it too. On a quite moment while the dogs were asleep it happened. Abby went into an epilepsy attack which lasted well over 10 minutes. My world collapsed, not only had I’ve been through that terrible news that afternoon but now my little girl was very sick as well!
At that moment I of course decided right away not to breed with Abby anymore and to stop all of the preparations of breeding with her daughter Eevee as well so to stop breeding for a while...
I knew what epilepsy was, we have an Persian cat (Sandy) here who has been diagnosed with the illness when she was young. So I knew what it meant and how serious it was but I also knew that the test results on this disease are so far very inconclusive so with that as all the information I could find about this terrible illness I decided to breed with Abby. This was an decision that I’ve spend a lot of time thinking about at that time and thought I could make, but not anymore. I can only hope that all of Abby’s pups will not get this terrible illness, I can only hope that soon there will be test out that will tell you if a dog has this illness or not and if it can be passed on to his/her pups.
We have some great dogs at the moment and we’re gonna enjoy them as much as we can and hope to have many years of adventures with them to come. Because above all these dogs are my buddies, and no matter what I will love them and be there for them! What the future will bring, I honestly can’t answer that... Abby had an complete checkup after her attacks (because unfortunately it didn’t end with that one attack) and is now on medication. I can only hope that this will stop the attacks eventually, hope that we although all of the darkness now we still have an nice future ahead of us and that everything will eventually be okay!
I will be less active online and probably visit less (dog)events for a while due to everything that has happened. All my time is invested in my grandmothers and Abby's health of course. Also my own health has been going downhill since April 5th, the stress is just simply to much for me to handle so I need to put enough energy in that as well. I hope that in a while I'll have the strength and energy again to mingle in conversations and other stuff but for now all my strength and energy goes in the taking care of others and keeping myself in (avarage) shape. Hopefully everyone can understand that...
April 2nd 2011
Today Eevee, Snowy, BeeGee, Mojo, Sky and Kai'len are exactyly 6 months old! So happy half birthday to you all, up to the first real one...
March 31e 2011
Yesterday I got the great news that BeeGee also passed his puppyexam. And just as his sister with some great results! He got 143 out of the 150 points. BeeGee and Josien congratulations with this succes!
March 27th 2011
Today Sky (Abby’s son from her 2nd litter so Eevee’s brother) came to visit. The beginning wasn’t very smooth but onces they got loose... People you don’t want to know how our house looked because Sky of course fell into the pond and the made a mess you wouldn’t believe! But what a fun they had... And Sky wasn’t here for no good reason because he brought his friend Yuuki who had a date with McDreamy. Well and let’s just say we all had an great afternoon, hihi...
March 20th 2011
Today was the day that Abby's son Diesel had his first agility-competition, and we where there! We had a lovely time and Diesel did great for his first real competition.
March 7th 2011
My pc crashed this weekend so I had a little stress about that but thankfully we got it working again today! And just in time because Eevee's 2nd show was yesterday! She got a 1e place 'Promising' under a very though judge so we're very proud of that.
March 1st 2011
In January we finished our home visits to all of the pups from our 2nd litter. They all have great new homes which we already knew but now also have seen with our very own eyes. It was great to see all the pups again and to chat with their owners and we hope that later this year they will all be there for the reunion!
At January 29th Eevee and I entered our first show together and our little girl did great! She got a ‘very promising’ with a nice report.
February 8th Eevee and I had our first exam. The puppyclass exam to be exact. And we passed with 96 out of 100 points! I’m so proud of our little girl, off to the next course...
A couple of weeks ago we went for a walk with BeeGee what was also really nice. We hadn’t seen Eevee’s brother/Abby’s son since our home visit in December so it was nice to cuddle him again.
And this February was my ‘trail-lesson-month’. It was always the plan to do a sport with Abby but because of the litters and my health problems we never started anything. I wanted to change that but because I’m not 100% well I needed to see first what I can handle and how everything would go with my body after a lesson. So in February I tried out 4 different dogsports to see which one would suite me and Abby the most. We started out with agility which was great, we loved it and Abby was also so good at it! Later in the month we had a lesson of dogfrisbee which Abby loved also but just wasn’t our thing... Later that week we tried doggydance what we also both loved and we ended it all with an lesson in sheep-herding (pictures and clips can be found in the albums and on my Youtube page). That last lesson was just amazing to do, it was so great to see Abby’s natural instincts come up and to interact with the sheep as we did. After all the lessons came the hard part. Deciding which one it would be... And eventually we decided to give agility a try! My health problems are still an issue with that sport but hopefully with the help from my mom and teacher Abby and I will make it. We start in a couple of weeks and I’m excited already!
January 11th 2011
The last years I’ve doubted a lot about taking the MDR1 test with Abby and decided not to do it. My personal opinion is that no matter if your dog has the defect or not you shouldn’t take medication that is dangerous for any other dog. But some puppy owners really wanted to know if they pup has the effect or not so by the end of last year I finally decided to do the test so that everyone would have their answer and in the hope that maybe some pup don’t need to be tested at all (cause that saves those owners a lot of money).
Taking the test wasn’t easy. But eventually we tested Abby and the results came in today. Abby is MDR1 normal aka free. This means that she cannot give this defect to her pups and since Ledger also is normal/free this makes all the pups from that litter including Eevee normal/free by their parents. This result wasn’t that important to me but it’s always great to know that your girls are ok...
January 8th 2011
Today we went to see Sky!
It was great to see that little guy again and especially he and Eevee had fun.
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