Our Last Year With Mallery

                                                              

                                                                   November 2015

Mallery's home cooked meals were made and frozen in advance for the 3 day journey to Gulf Shores, AL.

Once there she adapted real well in a day to her day and night beds at our new rented condo.  (December2015)

Like always Mallery wasn't keen on the Alabama grass. In the beginning she took a few walks in the neighbor, but really didn't like it much with so many curbs to go down and up. She
 did enjoyed it better than the State Park Campground where we stayed the years before in our Nest. "No sand burs here".

We went for a beach  walk for the first time in February. Gulf Shores waters had Red Tide that caused breathing issues for anyone with immune or respiratory problems. That included myself and Mallery. By February the Red Tide was gone. We walked up the beach for 20 minutes with Mallery in the pouch.

When we turned around, we put Mallery down and she took off.

She walked almost all the way back with no going in circles. (February 2016).

With out our everything already packed Nest, we forgot to pack the bike basket. I had to take her in the kangaroo pouch for our last bike ride two days before my hysterectomy surgery. (March 2016)

Before I went in for surgery, I had noticed Mallery seemed to be very hungry all the time. The internet said this could be a symptom of diabetes. I made an appointment to the veterinary and had a Senior Panel done. To my surprise, I was told she was doing extremely well considering her past, and her kidney disease was stable. Now I could go to surgery and not worry about her. On my return home from the hospital, Joe said, "I can see why you get nothing done! It seemed all I did was take care of Mallery!" She was getting 4 liquid and 5 pill supplements and 2 spray pumps a day, plus the subcutaneous fluids.

On top of her supplements, she needed to go outside every hour, and her food needed to be warmed up 2 times a day and some apple hand fed. I had stopped her Artemix in February, because she seemed to be whining for 20 to 30 minutes after I gave it to her, and I was concerned that it was causing her too much discomfort. (After doing this review of her life, I am now wondering if I had changed her over to the Artemisinin, instead of the Artemix. From previous blogs, I read that the Artemisinin cause her more discomfort verses the Artemix. Mallery had so much going on that it became hard to keep up with it all).

After 4 months we headed back north.

Mallery did really well sleeping on the floor next to our bed in her dog bed, even though it wasn't in her kennel in the hotels on the way home.

When we arrived home we had snow on the ground, but it soon melted and Mallery was glad to be in her yard again.

And to roll in "real" green grass.

Mallery started to like to bury her nose and eyes under her blankets.

I tried to wash Mallery's face everyday to clean her sleepy's out of her eyes, but because our schedule was so demanding with her, it got undone many days and then it was a real chore to get out. It got matted in her long hair under her eyes. I then had to hold a wet rag over those areas to soften the gunk. She was always a bobble head (wouldn't hold her head still) making this task challenging. On this day I decided to wrapped the rag around her eyes and muzzle, and she just laid there. I guess she was a spa girl. Mallery was such a tropper!

With our move from Iowa to Michigan, Mallery's birthday hat got lost so on her 15th bithday I was unable to get a picture of her with it. ( I did find it months after her birthday and kept thinking I would get a picture of her in it, unfortunately I waited too long). (May 2, 2016)

On May 11, 2016, my daughter, Alisha, had to let our Maggie May go home over the rainbow bridge. She was my second most favorite furr soul. She was 14 years old.

Just another cute picture of my Mallery after rolling in fresh cut grass that her dad had just mowed. I could tell she loved the smell of it, and I am sure it reminded her of her younger years in Iowa.

After she was done, I had to pick a lot of grass out of her hair, but that was OK. I just loved seeing her enjoying her senior years.

Mallery enjoyed the sunny days, when it didn't rain. She always liked to look out the sliding door, even if it was only because the light attracted her to it.  (May 2016)

In June Mallery got her summer cut from her mom.

This was a picture in the car going home after a trip to Petoskey to see another veterinary She was peeing constantly, and sure enough she had urinary tract infection, as well as intestinal infection. She got 2 shots with antibiotic and she was not feeling too hot afterward. I had them recheck her Kidney levels also while she was there. In June her kidney levels were at the best they had ever been since she had been diagnosed in May 2015

On our 2nd boat ride of the summer,

Mallery seemed to really enjoy the boat ride more than she ever had.

Mallery napping after a hour on the water.

Mid July Mallery and I flew to Alabama for 10 days to help my daughter Tiffany after a knee surgery. I took Mallery because she was so high maintenance and too much work for Joe to handle for that long. Mallery had never flown before.

Once again Mallery adapted amazingly well to my daughters home in a day.

Even in 10 days, Bella, Tiffany's cat, and Mallery became tolerate of each other, enough to be this close.

Our flight home was a long, stressful one with delays and missing flights and arriving back home at 4AM. I was unable to give Mallery any tranquilizers due to her respiratory issues. We had taken her to her Dr. to see if she could be on anything, but they said no, just Benadryl, which didn't help a bit. I tryed melatonin on the way home which helped a bit.

It was good to be home again away from the very hot and humid conditions in Alabama. (July 2016)

While we were out for a evening boat ride, we saw this full rainbow around the setting sun, and wings of angels under the rainbow.

Mallery showed signs of not doing well the first day we got back from Alabama. She was waking me up during the early morning with urinary track symptoms reoccurring. Since we arrive back home late Thursday night we had to wait until Monday to see a veterinary again. During the weekend, she continued to wake me up early in the AM's

The trip back from Gulf Shores, AL was hard on little Mallery. As soon as we got through the weekend, I made another veterinary appointment. She was diagnosed with recurring urinary tract infection, and given 4 different medicines, one to help with trachea collapsing. On Friday we went back to the veterinary clinc because Mallery was continuing to have issues, this time with more of howling symptoms. The video below, was what she was doing for the last few days none-stop off and on until she got worn down and fell sleep. This howling was something we had never heard from her before!

We stopped at McDonald's for lunch (Mallery's favorite fast food smells) before her appointment. She had not howled that day, so because she was going crazy while we ate our lunch, I gave her a few bites of hamburger. Ten to fifteen minutes later the howling started again.

The doctor decided to do a ultrasound and said she was full of gas. No more hamburger for her, which had been her steady diet of turkey, chicken, or beef with veggies, and a starch. No more cottage cheese, creme cheese to wrap her supplements. No more peanut butter to wrap her supplements. No more yogurt or an occasional ice cream. The doctor diagnosed her with gall bladder problems. No more high fats for her. She was given prednisone  and recommended we give her 1/8 of over the counter  prilosec. How was I going to get her pills and supplements down now without the creme cheese, cheese and peanut butter?

On the following Monday we had to drive 7 hours to Wisconsin to pick up my mom at my sisters and turn around the next day to get home for our 9 other guest coming to visit us for a week. Once again our little Mallery did real well for this stressful 2 days of long drives and a stay at a new environment for one night. (August 3, 2016)