The last month

This last month has been a busy one! Following are just a few pictures to show what we've been up to!

Pack Walks have added a biking element to them! Frankie is now sturdy and stable on his bike and the two enjoy biking in front of the Pack during Pack Walks now.

Leaving us in the dust, as usual!

The Pack! Please note a HEALTHY RANGER! His liver is healed and he's eating well now, putting on weight again, and has all of his steam back.

They all look different but somehow the same. Oh how I love these dogs!

Bike Rider One

Bike Rider Two

Billy likes to sleep in the oddest, tiniest places

Surrounded by children's toys, like every good family dog should be. But good family dogs shouldn't EAT the children's toys.  

Like mother like son. Frankie is following in his mother's footsteps washing dishes in his Stringtown apron. Oh the memories this apron brings back, of working in a small bar and grill in Bridger, MT for 9 years!

Lucy, the day before her surgery

We have the GREATEST vet - he actually lets the kids "help".

Here's one of his little helpers - white gloves and all. Oh my, she was quite the kick!

Not sure why this is tipped, but Frankie helped too, by holding a foot. He was not as in to it as Ella was, and yawned the entire time.

Whiskers! Yep, I'd probably look like that too if I was being spayed ;)

Our Danger Ranger. Yep, he's gotten into the bad habit of sleeping on the furniture. Sanyu and Bridger are the only dogs allowed on the furniture but because he was so sick and slept all the time, I made an exception. Now that he's better he still likes to cash in on the perk!

I made a trip to Bundibugyo in western Uganda, this last week. By plane! It has taken me 7 years in this country to ever have the opportunity to fly in a small plane over Uganda. It was so much fun!

Lucky for me my best pal, Prossy, went too. This picture cracks me up. We started out working together seven years ago. The difference between then and now is hilarious!

Our MAF plane

I was there to visit this translation project, in Bundibugyo Town.

The Bamba translators. I love these guys because they are all built like me! Short and thick. I'm not the minority when I'm around them!

Bundibugyo is on the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains and cocoa is one of their main cash crops. I never knew cocoa grew on trees and I was completely taken by them! They're beautiful!

Cocoa pods

The airplane drew quite the crowd!

The airstrip

Back to Kampala!

March is marching away

It seems like I’m beginning to be a just a-once-a-month type of blogger. In my world, no news means bad news and who wants to waste time reading or blogging about bad news? Not me! I have taken very few pictures in the last month so I have very little to post anyways!

Swimming – the kids are still taking swimming lessons each week and LOVING it. I cannot believe the progress they have both made – especially Frankie! Frankie started out as a non swimmer and now he can swim and Ella started out a flailing swimmer who is now a good, confident swimmer.

Frankie can now comfortably swim in water over his head, which has opened up the world of the big pool for him. He learned how to doggie paddle which means he can actually move pretty well through the water and he learned how to kick. He is also jumping off of the diving board, with the help of a noodle. Both kids can float and swim on their backs now too.

Ella is, well…. really good. She is far beyond the rest of the class so the instructor asked that I bring her on Saturdays to attend with more of his advanced kids. Ella is built for swimming (long torso and BIG FEET) and can breaststroke her way across the pool faster and better than I ever could! She has real potential to become a top notch swimmer someday. All she lacks is competitiveness and concentration ;) Something that I and Frankie have in abundance! No one can concentrate so deeply on something as Frankie : )

Swimming caps are the way to go, especially if the pool is crowded. I can always find my two kids thanks to their colorfully bobbing little heads!

Resting and getting warm in the sun

This is me having a little "Me Time", "alone" on the couch, reading a book off my Kindle

The young un's, hanging out enjoying the sun and one another!

Ranger's chicken

Crazed

Lucy is getting big

Lucy slipped

Ranger was so glad to be back home with his family, where he could hog the chair and watch Tom and Jerry with the kids

Frankie started riding without training wheels!

For about a week, Frankie was the only one who could get Ranger to eat!

Frankie working his magic - raw chicken feet and a neck = yum!

Frankie has had a difficult month. PTS has reared its ugly head again and he’s regressed in a few areas : ( I am losing my patience and even though I know that he really can’t help it, I get really impatient with him. Which sucks, especially for him. I would ace 101 Crap Parenting class.

Part of my bad month has been due to Ranger’s poor health. He has been sick for a very long time and after about two weeks people (as in even my own kids) lose patience hearing about your sick dog constantly- how much he’s eaten or hasn’t eaten, how many times he’s peed, what his belly looks like, or how you love him so much. Gee, I wonder why… He spent two long weeks at the vets due to liver failure, but came home skinny but happy, on a lot of meds. Once home his abdomen promptly started filling with fluid again (CRAP), I had to have it drained once, and then the vet left town for seven (long) days. To say I was a basket case and sickenly depressed would be an understatement.

Through a long series of frantic texts with the vet, who was in southern Uganda doing research on chimps (damn them!), we got Ranger’s meds figured out to keep the fluid passing through the proper channels, and not filling up his abdomen. Unfortunately the meds killed his appetite so he’s been literally starving to death for the last week. I totally forgot how worried I was about his abdomen filling! We did everything we could to get him to eat – even buying him two chickens of his own - but nothing we could do would get him to eat. Thankfully he started eating a few chicken feet on Wednesday, and the vet came back, vaccinated the rest of the Pack, and checked Ranger on Friday. He checked Ranger over and thought that his liver was regenerating and that I could cut back on the meds, which were killing the appetite. Even though it’s only been one day, I’ve seen a huge improvement. He’ll still ONLY eat chicken feet but has shown some interest in popcorn anyways, and he’s drinking more. And he’s eating about a dozen chicken feet a day, so that’s good! Until the store runs out of chicken feet….. As gross as it is watching him crunch down chicken toes, I much prefer the feet to handling the liver. That stuff stinks!

I also was able to get Ranger some Dandelion and Milk Thistle from the States, to help regenerate his liver, and with his increasing appetite and TOUGH and hardy nature, I do believe he’s going to make it now. Something I was doubtful of last Tuesday! There is NOTHING more tough than a Ugandan dog. These dogs are genetically superior to any dog you can find the States – they are AMAZING. Even at his sickest, ol’ Ranger would insist on going for a short Pack Walk every evening with the rest of the Pack and maintained his charming personality. The Pack has treated him no differently during his sickness and Billy almost seems more submissive to him. I believe in the power of the Pack!

There are several other really crappy things going on right now, of a more personal nature that I won’t blog about, but safe to say, I hope in April things pick up! I am very thankful that Ranger seems to be improving now, after about five weeks of sickness, and swimming lessons have been a joy for the entire family.



February! Where'd you go?

Wow – I haven’t blogged all month! My mom said she was getting tired of watching bunnies, so it seems it’s time to post something : ).

To be honest, I have been busy waiting. Yes, that sounds funny, but psychologically I really have been “stuck” waiting for my house to be finished so that we can move (something I hate!), get our Pack, stuff and guards settled there, and then go to the States for five months. Yes, you read that right. Five months. Gulp. I have not processed that length of time yet and am trying not to let myself think of how much I’ll miss my dogs while we’re gone. Yikes!

February 9th Ella turned 7 and we had wild party at the pool with over 30 of her “closest friends.” Ha ha! Really got to love that girl : ) I posted all the pictures on Facebook, fully intending to post some here, but it just didn’t happen. Facebook uploads are so much easier than Blogger! Ella is a joyous, crazy little girl and truly a delight. A kick in the pants as well! Her big smile and gaping teeth are enough to warm the cockles of my heart.

The kids started weekly swimming lessons two weeks ago and LOVE IT. They were READY for it and Ella had been waiting for a long time! I had wanted to get her at least started swimming before I got her lessons (not sure why) so now she is improving on style and all. I must say, that child is good. The last time I swam with her she outswam me across the big pool!

I had held off and held off getting Frankie lessons, due to his tendency to freeze up and disassociate when touched, a dwindling but still lingering symptom of his PTS. I am HAPPY to say that he is READY now and although he’s wanted to slip back into “baby/victim mode” with the teacher once or twice, he has not disassociated or gotten pissy once! Yeah Frankie! I’ve watched the swimming teacher work with kids for years and appreciate the fact that my kids have a man to instruct them. They rarely get direction from men (usually just fun) and they are doing great! I’m so proud of the way they listen, respect and obey their teacher, making learning far more easier for them because they’re cooperating. I’ve forgotten to take my camera the last couple of weeks but will try to get some pictures this week!

Ella is almost finished with first grade. She still can’t read (????) but retains an incredible amount of knowledge of what she’s learned in her subjects. I think her favorite subject is Science, closely followed by Bible. She has finished History/Geography, is almost done with Science, and is close to being done with Bible. We stopped Language Arts in October because, while she was completing the work, she just wasn’t putting two and two together in order to READ, so I figured it was a waste of time. Being the great teacher that I am, I sort of just gave up, fully intending to hand her over to my mom this spring and having her help her read! We will start first grade Math when finished with Science and Bible and probably hand that over to Granny too ;). So yeah, I’m not getting any teacher of the year awards, but once her Granny teaches her to read I think things will be just fine.

Frankie, big boy that he is, has started WASHING DISHES!! Woohoo, Frankie! So far he hasn't broken anything, unlike his sister who broke two bowls at one go one day. Both kids are really starting to take responsibility around the house and I must say, it is SO helpful. Even a four year old can help and help he does. What a love about Frankie is how visibily pleased he is with himself when we accomplishes something. He's naturally not the worker his sister is but he DOES like the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a job well done AND team work with the family. For four years old, he is a very mature little boy.

Ranger has been battling health issues and is on his eighth day of being at the vet : (. In December he was off his feed and lost weight, due to anemia and a kidney infection. 10 days of antibiotics perked him up and he fatted up again, only to fall sick about three weeks ago. Our trusty vet diagnosed him with a damaged liver, due to the mold that was in the Pack’s chicken mash. Yes, I feel really really bad about this. Who knew that a bit of mold could be so toxic to dogs? I do now!

Ranger was put back on meds but after five days was getting worse, so I took and left him at the vets for better treatment. It was really not looking good at all as his kidneys weren’t functioning and he couldn’t pee, nor would he eat anything. The vet drained the urine from his bloated belly and he is able to pee now and started eating. We went to see him on Thursday and his little back legs were puffy and swollen, due to his fighting kidneys. The vet said yesterday that the swelling is going down now, but that he wants to keep him a little bit longer. I can’t believe how much I really miss that dog, even with four others! There is a huge hole in our Pack and I’m praying that Ranger can come home completely healthy again. Soon!

                                            Sanyu, involved in the worst kind of cat torture imaginable

Consequently, we have switched the Pack off of chicken mash and they are now eating a cheap (but good) type of posho and the vet clued us into a place where we can get the BEST DOG BONES EVER! This topic deserves a post all of its own but lets just say that these bones are SO GOOD that WE even eat them in soup! Cheap too, at 500 shillings per kilo, which is less than $.25! It thrills my heart to see the Pack happily munching and gnawing on their meaty bones, knowing that they’re getting the nutrition they need and are cleaning their teeth at the same time!

Billy, sporting the tiarra that Ella got for her birthday. He was the only member of the Pack who would wear it! As you can see, it didn't bother him at all...

Ella got a 20” bike for her birthday so now each one of us has a bike. I also got a bike pump so now each one of us has a bike AND full tires! This has kicked off some really fun Family Pack Bike Rides! We’ve only taken Bridger, Sanyu and Madea as Ranger is at the vets and Billy has a sore front let, but they do great! It helps that I’ve had some practice riding my bike now. I really hadn’t ridden a bike much in over 10 years so to jump on one AND handle two to three dogs was a bit much! Ella can even take Bridger and they do great! No crashes yet!

                                                            Billy - the ultimate cat bed

Ranger and the Birthday Bike. He didn't think much of the balloons.