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cello

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About cello

  • Birthday 02/04/1956

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  • Real Name
    Carol Ann

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Florida
  • Interests
    Greyhounds, Standard Poodles and cruising!

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  1. Chris I am sending healing thoughts through the air waves to you. Hoping that the medical folks can get you fixed up riteawayquick! Carol Ann & Molly McPoodle.
  2. Many, MANY years ago there once was a family that had a lot of Greyhounds. They came in all colors and sizes and personalities and behaviors. Gizzy was first hound and she was "Gizzy the Perfect". She was a tiny brindle girl who at all times was a little lady. The 'rents thought that Gizzy should have a friend, so three months later they adopted another girl. This was Specky! She was a bit bigger than Gizzy and was white with a gazillion black spots! Specky was KNOT a 'little lady'! She was a rough and tough crazy girl! Specky could make any day a fun day! Raining outside? No problem! Just run full speed through a puddle! No one to play fetch with her? Then just throw the toy in the air and catch it herself! Specky especially loved to 'surf' on the living room rug! She could ride that wave like no other! Specky was a wild woman! But even crazy wild girls know that at Christmas time, they need to be on their bestest behaviour so that Santa Claus will bring them presents. I mean what houndie would want a lump of coal in their stocking? One year Specky decided that she should get up close and personal with the Santa ornament on the Christmas tree. I mean the little guy looked so realistic he must be a true messenger for Santa, right? So Specky stole the Santa and was having a deep conversation with him, trying to convince Santa that she truly had been a good girl that year. In her normal exuberant manner, Specky was a wee bit too mouthy with Santa. OR maybe Santa was just not having her explanations and she resorted to a different style of persuasion - we will never know. At any rate, poor Santa was found on the ground in front of the tree with a few body parts misplaced and broken. The Mama tried her very best to do a Humpty Dumpty operation on Santa but he was never 'quite' the same again. Even though Specky made a bad choice that year, Santa forgave her and still brought her toys! Specky left us back in 2013, but we still think of her every year when we put up our Christmas tree. I remember the fun loving girl who never met a stranger and was never bored. That will be my goal for 2024. Be friendly to everyone and never be bored. Be more like Specky! Happy Holiday to everyone.
  3. Specky was such a big help when it came to unwrapping Christmas gifts!
  4. Good morning. I am very sorry to hear that Bolt is not doing well. My Greyhound Lady was diagnosed with PLE around age 8. Our local vet suspected that was what was going on and he sent us to the specialty veterinary practice to see an internal medicine vet. Tests run were blood, ultrasound and a biopsy of her intestinal walls. They took several samples of her intestines and found evidence that confirmed a diagnoses of PLE. Changes in the thickness of her intestinal walls and free fluid in places that it should not have been. Lady was treated initially with high dose steroids and an ultra low fat diet. Eventually we added in an appetite stimulant to help her eating. The main thing that I feel and our internal medicine vet felt kept Lady going was the extreme low fat diet. This all took place 6-8 years ago and at that time there were only two ultra low fat kibbles on the market, and Lady hated both of them. Our vet said that this is common as without fat the kibble is tasteless. So I came up with my own diet plan for her. I realized that boneless skinless chicken tenderloins were almost fat free. I also discovered that pasta was high in calories and very low in fat. So Lady began her two year odyssey of eating four cups of pasta and four ounces of cooked chicken breast and one cup of her low fat kibble eat day. Some days were better than others when it came to keeping her eating. We were able to lower the prednisone to a very low maintenance dose that she took three times a week. Lady did quite well on this regime and our vet was extremely pleased, calling her our miracle dog. Eventually after almost two years Lady developed intestinal cancer and we had to let her go. I hope that you have similar success with your Bolt. PLE is a horrible disease and the end result is unfortunately always the same. However, if you can get a hold of the keeping the symptoms at bay, your boy can potentially have a good life in the short term.
  5. Well, it's that time of year again! Time to reflect back on that crazy Christmas when Specky ate Santa Claus even though she was trying to be on her 'best' behavior! We all know that Specky's "Best" behavior was somewhat below the standards set by her sister Gizzy. While Specky might not have been the best behaved of our Greyhounds, she definitely had the MOST FUN! That sort of makes you think doesn't it? Should we focus on doing every little thing perfectly or living in the moment? Should we be a Gizzy or a Specky? I think that maybe we should aim for somewhere in the middle. Of course follow all the important rules, but maybe, just maybe can we relax a little on the ones that really don't matter? Does the bed 'have' to be made every single day? Can we let the kids load the dishwasher even if the plates aren't in the exact spot we like them in? Maybe we can put that work project that can wait until Monday away for the weekend and really enjoy time with our loved ones. So let's all make a pact together. Let's work at being just a little more like Specky. Live life to the fullest. Be less harsh when others do things or think different from us. Put the work and the tablet and the phone down and look around and see what our loved ones are saying. Be a Specky and live for today because we never know what tomorrow will bring. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
  6. Well friends here we are again. It's time to celebrate the season, and think of all of the things we have to be grateful for. Some of you will remember that fateful Christmas many, many years ago when our crazy girl Specky 'accidently' dismantled a Santa ornament from our Christmas tree. She didn't mean to be naughty! In fact, Specky tried very hard to live her life to the standards of her sister Gizzy. Unfortunately, Gizzy's standards just didn't include enough fun stuff! If Gizzy was the Captain of their ship, Specky was the Cruise Director! Fun, fun, fun, all the time was the motto that Specky lived by. I wonder if some of us are living our lives too much on the 'Gizzy scale' and maybe we need to inject just a little bit of Specky to our lives? So this holiday season, take the time to add some extra fun - even in these unusual and difficult times. Do something silly! Spread some joy to others! Be just a 'little bit' Specky! P.S. We now have a Standard Poodle named Molly. She is 100% following in her big sister Specky's pawprints!
  7. I am very sorry Ducky. For a wee guy he will certainly leave a large hole in your heart.
  8. As some of you may remember, way back in 2005, our crazy free spirited girl Specky dismantled a Santa Christmas ornament. I have no idea what crime Santa had done to so deeply offend Specky, but she certainly did a first class job of tearing him to bits! Literally! This is what the pieces I could salvage looked like after Specky got through with Santa! Poor Santa was quite the sad case! All of his body parts dismembered, some of them past the point of recognition! So I got out my glue gun, and did my best to reconnect Santa - sort of like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again! I really did try, but alas, my results were less then optimum. I really should have paid more attention in anatomy class! Here we are, 14 years later, celebrating Christmas once again. Specky sadly left us back in 2013. Gosh we miss that crazy girl! She brought so much joy and excitement to our lives! We now live with an almost equally crazy three year old Standard Poodle named Molly. There are times when we swear Specky is whispering in her ear - giving her ideas of new ways to get into mischief! Don't listen Molly!! Ok, maybe listen a little, because every home needs some crazy every once in a while! So let us all again remember the example of Specky. That crazy girl who knew how to live life to the fullest. Who was never afraid to do the unexpected. We can all learn a little from this tiny spark plug who taught us the meaning of fun!
  9. Affiliated Veterinary Specialists - or AVS - are wonderful! This is where GPA-GO has all their complicated ortho cases handled. They also use University Animal Hospital for the more simple ones. Dr. Privitte at University Animal is our own personal vet and we just love him. On a personal note, the specialists at AVS were able to keep our girl Lady alive for almost 3 years after a devastating diagnosis of PLE. I cannot praise them enough.
  10. Oh my. Lucy, you and Momo are in my thoughts and prayers. You are both very brave. Hugs, Carol Ann.
  11. If we had not had Lady on the high dose of Prednisone those first few months, she never would have survived. The pred saved her life. Yes, there were ugly side effects, but we learned to deal with those, and with time and her dose being lowered, they were manageable. When she had diarrhea we used Tyloson Powder. The key to managing this disease is consistency in diet. Do your best to pick a plan and stick with it. Jumping all over the place with different approaches is not a good idea. If it were my dog, I would get the endoscopy and biopsies done. You will never have a correct treatment plan if you don't know for sure what you are treating. Good luck.
  12. I just saw this thread. My Greyhound Lady was diagnosed with PLE at age 8.5 years old. Her condition was discovered through routine blood work prior to a planned dental. Her blood protein and albumin levels were extremely low. We immediately got her in to see a top notch internal medicine vet at a specialty clinic. They did an abdominal ultrasound and an endoscopy with multiple biopsies of her intestines. Tests confirmed that she had PLE. Prognosis was not good. IM vet had us switch her to one of two commercially available kibbles that were ultra low fat. She hated both of them - supposedly they don't taste very good. She was also allowed to eat boneless, SKINLESS, chicken breasts. I would grind up the kibble in a blender, add shredded chicken and fat free broth, spread this on cookie sheets and bake in the oven until like a cookie. Lady would eat that broken into chunks! That got us through those first few weeks. She also immediately started a high dose of prednisone - 40mg per day. Over the next few months, we were able to decrease her prednisone down to a maintenance level. For her food, we discovered that PASTA has almost no fat, plus lots of calories! So for the next 3.5 years, Lady ate two cups of pasta and a half a cup of chicken (Boneles/skinless breasts) plus one cup of the not so liked kibble two times each day. I was literally cooking her 5 pounds of pasta each week! Costco sells the chicken breasts for a reasonable price. Her vet called her a miracle patient! She lasted longer than any other patient of her with the diagnosis of PLE. Our vet was convinced that my dedication to keeping her diet exactly on track with zero deviations was the reason for our success. We lost Lady this past January to intestinal cancer at age 12.
  13. cello

    Molly

    Molly the poodle puppy!
  14. The newest vaccine covers BOTH strains.
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