British Columbia cities have some of the cleanest air on earth, according to the World Health Organization, which collected air quality data from over a thousand cities around the world.
The global health body released its list of measurements ranking 1,100 cities in 91 countries this week and B.C. had six of the top 10 cities in the world, including Kitimat, Burns Lake, Houston, Terrace, Nanaimo and Nelson.
Wow, what a difference in Shelby. She loves me now as well as Susan. I’ve been coming home a bit early every day so I could hang out alone with Shelby because she’s been so clingy to Susan that I can’t do much with her when Susan’s home. It worked real well. i used to have to call her when I got home to come join me outside. We would just hang out and read the paper and go for a walk and play chase in the yard. Last week she started meeting me at the door and now when I get home she’s all excited jumping us on me and licking me. You have no idea what that means to me after trying to just get her to come near me in the beginning. She’s brought so much joy in to our lives, it’s hard to imagine…..
We are learning all the time what she’s capable of as she teaches “us”. Very different than us being used to teaching a dog. She can do all the shake paw stuff, stays, heels unbelievably but not to the word heel but to the word ”stay” when walking. We work on learning her vocabulary but it’s really quite easy. She’s so gentle and very affectionate. She wants to be loved but who really doesn’t. Can’t wait to see her with Ava next week but she’ll probably get gobbled up by Rheanna who loves dogs and may not give Ava much time. Life is great!
We have adopted the lovely Shelby. She came to us after we were approved last week by the H.E.A.R.T. dog ruscue organization. Saturday we picked her up from her foster home. She was there for the past 2 weeks before coming from the NWT. She is sadly afraid of men and I personally will work my hardest to change that however it’s going to take some time. We’ve had a bit of a rough start already with an incident on Sunday. Susan and Shelby had been in the garden, Shelby won’t leave Susan, and Susan had the fence turned off while picking cukes. Later with the fence on I went in to get some corn and Shelby came to see what I was doing. Just as I was coming out she touched the fence and since I was right there she associated it with me (we learned she can yelp). That was it for me for the rest of the day. Monday, Susan had her out in the pasture when Shelby bolted and took off up the mountain. We called all the through the night with no luck. I stayed home from work and early in the morning went back in the bush calling for her again with no luck. While walking back around 7:00 am I heard a noise behind me, turned around and there was Shelby in full gallop charging towards me, stopping at my feet with a big smile and a wagging tail. I’ll never forget how happy I was to see her. We spent the day just hanging out in the yard, chillin’. She always likes to have a wall at her back, not sure what that means, but that’s what makes her most content, OH, except for sleeping with Susan on the bed in the guest room. I know it’s been a long time since last blog, but, suffice to say it’s the right time. Maybe, there’s nobody coming to our site anymore but if there is, hello and thanks for the read. We love our Shelby……
I know it’s been a while since I last talked about Bailey but there’s really been nothing that’s changed.She’s very happy and quite active. At her last check up we were told she’s put on weight and to go easy on the cookies…..yeah right. We just ordered her third bottle of B17 pills. We’re just all enjoying life and looking forward to some sunshine after a very long winter. Here’s a picture of Bailey out helping me when I was fixing up the driveway with 4 loads of crush last Friday.
Bailey Update; Beware this is a little lengthy but if you have a dog you might want to spend the time to read it. If you have any questions or comments please be sure to leave them and I will address them as soon as possible.
Bob has been pretty good at keeping a blog going on Bailey’s health update. He has asked me a couple of time to contribute so here is what I have to contribute to Bailey’s health update.
I make most of Bailey’s food. I have been making almost all of my dogs food for many years but not quite as passionate as I have been with Bailey’s food (although I know that when Beasley had her health issues the last year of her life, I am pretty sure that I was just as adamant about making her food as well).
Each Friday night I put quite a lot of bones in a big soup kettle and let them boil for about 4 – 5 hours. Sometimes it is a turkey carcass, maybe chicken backs and necks but usually it is beef marrow bones – about 5 of them. Whatever I have decided the flavour of that week I get enough bones for a sufficient amount of tasty, healthy broth. Once the broth has come down to room temperature I put it in the fridge over night so I can lift the fat off the top of the broth and get as much meat, cartilage, marrow that I can get off the bones before discarding the fat and the bones.
I then bring the broth back up to a boil and put in the meat of the week ~ a lot of it, I usually add a ½ bag of cole or broccoli slaw, a couple of shredded carrots, maybe a beet, asparagus, spinach, broccoli and always lots of parsley. Basically any vegetable except for onions and garlic (or any related veg to onions or garlic because these vegetable are toxic to dogs) I don’t use any potatoes either or salt or pepper or other seasonings. It sounds like I put more vegetables in Bailey stew than meat but I don’t; dogs are carnivores and need the meat.
With Bailey’s illness being bone cancer I looked up which grains and vegetables are best for her at this. The grains I then put into Bailey’s stew is about 1/3 cup of each pearl barley or buckwheat, brown rice, flax seed and 2/3 cup of millet because millet is quite high in vitamin B15 which slows down the growth of the cancer tumor. I boil this concoction for about an hour. This lasts for about a week for Bailey getting fed twice a day; I also throw in a handful of high end canine health food kibble. Bailey likes her stew to be served slightly warm if you don’t mind.
I would like to add that never give any canines corn because most dogs are allergic to it.
The kibble that I give Bailey is Nutro Natural Choice for seniors.
I think about blogging often then “something” comes-up. I can key a lot of excuses for not blogging for such a long time but the truth be known ~ procrastination!
One blog that I should have written was the year 2010 in review – and I will – when I get laid off in mid-April – how is that for procrastination? Then I will start my gardening blogs again, book reviews, etc.
I will make blogging a part of my day like brushing my teeth! I know of a bridge for sale if anyone is interested.
So, Lindsay thought it is time for me to update the blog and say a few words about Bailey. Linds knows full well what’s up with Bailey, but her encouragement is welcomed and inspiring so here what’s up…
Last weekend, Susan went out early Saturday morning and tried to get Bailey to go for a walk down the driveway. Bailey would have none of it. Later that day, Susan went on a walk down the driveway, and went on down a secondary road and when she got back to our driveway, Bailey was there, tail wagging and a big smile to great her Mom. Our driveway is about 1/3 of a mile long. Our neighbour had a strange car visit, and Bailey was out barking at it. A dog ran through out field and she stood on the deck and barked. You have to understand that since Beasley passed I’m usually the one to go and yell at stray dogs, Elk, and every other animal as Bailey has (and I get it), given up on spending her life barking at everything that comes on our farm. If Elk come in your backyard everyday, you get to know them. They do no harm to the garden as I’ve spent a fortune on a solar powered electric fence as a defence. When she goes out in the morning to pee and looks at 45 elk, she just wants to pee and could care a less about them. Now she’s gettin’ some attitude?
Our program (Me and Susie) seems to be going well. We just got a little machine that we can program to open a food tray at a pre-determind time and Bailey can get a med when we are not home, or in the middle of the night which is nice that we don’t have to get up at 3:00 am once we teach her that when the machine opens, there is food and a med for her. Not sure how long it will take her to learn how this works? My bet is when we use it tonight she get’s the 3:00am food. It’s just a hunch….
Susan took Bailey to see the Vet today. We get her vitals done, turns out she has put on a bit of weight, a couple pounds, but most importantly, she isn’t loosing weight. Kelly told Susan that we should continue what we are doing with our program. I will later document exactly what we are doing, as it’s evident that our program has some merit. Albeit just merit…
I’ve been sick for a couple days and have been home and had the good fortune to hang with Bail and Seija and see all that goes on besides the weekends when she’s’ so robust because Mom is home. I was sick because of an allergy, another blog….I’m OK now. Today Bailey was standing and putting her paw on the ground, sometimes supporting herself with her right leg. She has for some time always curled her paw so it didn’t touch the ground. She moves around on 3 legs, very well I might add! Today I see her using her leg a bit. Makes no sense I know. But it brings hope and that’s a good thing. Ask the Egyptians. Her cancer tumour has grown, the growth would be comparable to going from a pea to a corn kernel. Not much as far as I’m concerned. As a matter of fact, I welcomed the thought that maybe something was going on. I said earlier she seemed stronger, I’m told she’s not loosing weight anymore, my half glass full thinking things maybe all the vitamins we are giving her might be making her better and that whatever the build up around her cancer is, maybe it’s some sort of protective reaction……I don’t know at all, I’m just documenting this. Bailey is better than she was when I started this blogging. We are nearing 2 months from a date that was given of her potential demise. Susan and I and Bailey ( and Seija too) are really enjoying a quality of life with Bailey. The roller coaster will probably start up soon…….once the snow melts.
It’s been exactly 2 weeks since I last wrote. I guess it’s best to talk about the roller coaster Bailey has us on. I’m so happy to say that the coaster is sitting in an idle position at the platform waiting to take on new riders. It’s perplexing to us all. It’s important to note when I say all, that Seija has been living with us for a bit and has worked hard with us. We are so lucky to have her here during the day when we are at work. We’ve all compared notes on everything Bailey does……OH, wanna know what Bailey does? She is vibrant, pooping and peeing, milking us for cookies, talking, barking outside at stuff (finally 
) and learned to move around on 3 legs, applying very little pressure on her cancerous right leg. I talked with Susan and Seija about upping the B17 from 500 mgs./day to twice a day about 10 days ago, thinking we had nothing to loose as there was no apparent side affects negatively, so, maybe I thought, that it was working to hold her where she was and what with Susan and Seija having perfected her pain management. I have watched Bailey put a bit of pressure on her leg, using her foot when travelling in the last 3 days. She wasn’t using it at all 7 days ago. I know this sounds like a desperate dreamer, but we just last week had our Vet deliver more pain medication, Susan asked me to order more B17 next week because it took so long to get here before.
I earlier this week asked Susan and Seija out for lunch and said I’d be patient and let them shop. It’s winter in the mountains and important for us to go to town what with that cabin fever thing and all this bloody snow. A great idea except Bailey would be alone. So, I happened to notice it’s time for a dump run, and I’ll do that Saturday morning, and when I get home the Girls can go to Nelson and shop…..just me and Bail…..a perfect day it will be, and it was….
So…..what a roller coaster Bailey is putting us through. After returning from our trip her limp appeared more significant. She had a great time on the trip seeing Dear family and friends. Funny how she never allowed anyone to say good-bye or even see you later as everytime we would go to pack the car she would run outside and burst into the back seat. It wasn’t an emotional adjustment for a sad good-bye, she was scared we might leave her behind. She clung to us the whole trip, we clung back.
So the first week we’re back, we finally received the B17. Susan and I had a good discussion about starting her on this as she was vulnerable and we didn’t want to screw with anything, we were walking on egg shells so to speak. But we decided to try it for 3 days, and if we saw anything negative with her ( we watch how much water she drinks, her poop, her appetite, everything, and we report to one another) we would stop. Bailey has taught herself to lean to the left and keep her paw barely touching the ground, so we knew pain was involved and Susan went Monday to see the Vet. Susan took all the vitamins and the B17 to show the vet what we are doing. ( We’ve now had feedback from 2 Vets and they both have thought we are doing good and know all to well the emotion this causes, and hence, the desperation) It’s unconventional I know, and it’s really my concoction and it’s really going to be my fault if there’s something wrong, however, Susan has supported me and knowing Susan, how could she object to vitamins……she puts mine on the counter daily. We got a painkiller for her. The painkiller Tramadol was started and for a couple days, she was a bit slow going in the mornings, but when we got home she was happy……loves sleeping on the guest room bed! No people to bother her, and hell, we just dragged her all around B.C. and Alberta, nice to be home on a week day with the house to yourself.
It’s Friday and after getting the snow plow truck back after burning out the clutch I went to chain it back up. Bailey came out from laying in her snowbank and hung out with me around the truck. She’s never done that before. She generally could care a less about me doing chores, she spends her time laying in the driveway waiting for Mom to come home. After plowing I spent some time shoveling the snow that sloughed off the roof, Bailey went out in the snow and started acting like a young puppy, digging deep into the snow (looking for mice she hears). She rolled around on her back…yesterday as I approached her she sat down, raised her left leg, the good one, holding herself up on the bad one and gave me a paw. She then changed and gave me the other paw. This doesn’t make sense. But we’ll take this and Love our time with Bailey, just as we always have, but it feels so good right now as the roller coaster goes on. I’ve always told “The Girls” about the roller coaster that life is and I always encouraged them to not worry about the high’s and the low’s, enjoy the ride in the middle, it’s where you want to be….. and we’re tryin’.
Powered by WordPress