Full Tilt, right to the end

She had an episode on our walk and I had to carry her home - she didn't really recover from that point on. After spending the night in a 24hr Emergency Clinic for animals we finally got the prognosis from the doctor: Louise was suffering from congestive heart failure, the symptoms of which intensified greatly earlier that night. X-rays showed the telltale signs. Other tests showed that she was no longer able to get sufficient oxygen from breathing - possibly from fluid in her lungs. Holly and I opted to say our goodbyes to Louise rather than to prolong her suffering - Louise died this morning, at 6:15 am. This was not a financial decision but rather one made out of compassion. We let Louise leave with dignity.

While in hindsight we can see some of the telltale symptoms of her progressing condition, Holly and I were blissfully unaware of how weak Louise was becoming. Sure, she was slowing down, but Louise was pretty good at indicating to us when she wasn't interested in going out, etc. In some ways this proved to be a good thing for Louise as she continued to live her life unencumbered with thoughts of tomorrow and for the most part, at her pace.

Louise's final week was spent pretty much like any other week - she was in the office with me on Thursday, she was rolling around on the sofa in one of her playful 'wrestling matches' with me just yesterday, our walks were relaxed and quite enjoyable in the summer weather. Louise generally wanted nothing more than to be with Holly or I. (and whatever was on our plates.) Just yesterday she was barking on the sidewalk, just letting the neighborhood know she was there. Every day was a happy one, so long we we were together.

Louise was one of those fantastic, 'enrich your life in ways you never thought possible' kind of dogs. By that I mean to say she was a completely normal dog given a chance to be a part of a group who adopted her as one of their own. Our family group consisted of my wife and I, two cats and of course, Louise. Having two cats in the group ensured that our days would never be boring, as there was always just a little friction between them and Louise. But they had their moments of reconciliation as well.

I don't have a fantastic memory, which is why I'm thankful right now to have kept a record of her time with us here on this blog. Sure, the frequency of updates slowed down over the last while, but so did Louise, so I figure it evens out. Just knowing that I have several years' worth of stories and photos to remind me of the many adventures she had is comforting to me.

This is going to be the last blog post here but the content will stay up for those who wish to continue remembering this little dog. Comments will stay enabled for now and as always, we read every one. I hope you enjoyed these random stories about our little 'Heavy Breather'.

Getting a bit warm in these parts

It's been so long since I have posted to this blog, but hey, at least I have been doing twitter updates. Anyway, this time I hope to recap a few of those twitter pictures as well as a couple new ones, just to keep things fresh.

The warmer weather has finally arrived, but it is in true Vancouver style, which is to say that it's decidedly 'warm' and not 'hot' like the rest of the continent. That's ok though, it's just about perfect weather for walking a heat-sensitive pug like ours. We haven't had to take any special measures yet, but both Holly and I have noticed that Louise is losing stamina when out for her afternoon walks. She still wants to go out, but well, she doesn't really last all that long.

The first two pictures are ones I took while walking with her along the sea wall. In the second one she is just 'investigating' the bottom rung and not actually trying to drink salt water. But it took a lot of sniffing for her to determine that it wasn't actually worth drinking. I guess the salt content isn't all that high in the waters around Vancouver so maybe it's normal that it would take a dog a bit of sniffing to figure it out.

The next picture is one where I have captured Louise licking her paws. If you asked me I'd say that it was a very cat-like behaviour but well that's not a popular theory with either the dog OR the cats.

All of this brings me to the last picture in this post, which is also one that I tweeted a few days ago. It was one of those lucky shots where I had set a wine bottle by the door with intentions of recycling it (we still have it here) and Louise decided to lay down next to it because the door was open enough to allow some cooler air to come in. Holly noticed first and suggested I take a picture. I did and what we have is a decently staged 'hangover' picture.

Wii find it exhausting

I think we might have been the last family in Canada to purchase a Nintendo Wii. Of course, by being last we also happened to score a great deal (ie. basically free by using Shopper's Optimum points for a discount greater than the price of the console). Even with that though, we have noticed that prices for the remotes have held firm. I guess it's pretty easy to see where Nintendo makes it's money from.

Anyway, the Wii is a bit bothersome for Louise, as when we are playing with it, she is never quite sure where she should be sitting. Should she sit on my couch? Probably a good idea if it's Holly's turn. But once Holly's turn is over, Louise is wanting to switch couches again, as now I am up, practicing my golf swing. This back and forth action will continue for quite a while until Louise finally gives up and goes to nap in her bed.

Today was also the day when Louise came into work with me. I tweeted her picture a couple times as we had an employee information session, which gave me a few minutes of downtime while they prepared the room. Louise wanted to sit in my lap, so she was only too happy to smile for the camera. Of course, ten minutes later she was also bored enough to insist we go for a walk immediately. Luckily, my boss doesn't take offense to me walking out of his presentation, and I was able to get caught up later.

Still, overall it was a pretty good day for Wheezie.

Return to the river

We rented a car for the weekend so that we could do a day-trip to the USA. Nothing like a little cross-border shopping to help out the economy, 'eh? Anyhow, as a peace offering for not being able to entertain Louise for an entire day, we decided to take her with us on Sunday, as we had some running around to do.

Based on where we needed to go, Holly also figured that we could probably fit in a visit to the park by the Fraser river - we used to live near this spot before we got Louise, and so for us it's fun just to return to get reacquainted with the place. That's probably a bit wordy for what I needed to say, but I have more pictures than words for this post, so bear with me while I fill things up a bit.

Our first stop was at IKEA to return a few things we got earlier (and then later suffered buyer's remorse over). This is actually a semi-common thing that happens to us with IKEA, so we have learned to keep our receipts close to the stuff we get there. A lot of their stuff is good, but well, not all of it tends to go well together and this was one of those times where what seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase turned out to be less compelling once we got home. Hence the return.

Since this was our first stop of the day, it also meant that we had to have a bite to eat - Holly had a cinnamon bun while Louise shared a hot dog with me - of course I was the greedy one who ate most of it, but Louise was ok with that because she actually got some hot dog - and the day was far from over.

Louise enjoyed the river but what was troubling to me was that for some reason she also really enjoyed the TASTE of the beach. That's right, Louise was licking up the sand like it was ice cream cone and I was getting more and more disgusted by the minute. Still, she thought it was grand, and had a good old time, as evidenced by this last photo, where I tried to get a good shot of the sand lining her lips.

Starting to feel like Summer

Well we finally got some warm weather. Spring has been so late in arriving that it is almost summer. While Holly and I appreciate the way things are warming up, it's already evident that things are starting to take a toll on Louise. We had her out for a walk along Robson Street, which was convenient because we could slip into a store if Louise started to get too hot.

I'm still kind of surprised that I haven't seen very many water bowls set out for dogs yet. Spring may have been cold, but dogs still get thirsty.

Oh yeah, earlier today when Louise and I were out for her morning stretch, we met some people that recognized her. I was a little surprised when a lady asked me 'is that Louise? I read her blog.' I mean, Louise is famous, but I didn't think she was that famous! At first she was going to totally ignore the people, which is what she has been doing lately, but since the lady knew her name, well that kind of changed Louise's perspective a bit. She was willing to be neighborly.

What is she doing now? She is konked out in her doggie bed, snoring a little. One thing about the heat is that it really tires her out. Good thing our apartment stays nice and cool most of the time.

We found some tall grass

Louise was back in the office yesterday which was probably a good thing since the weather forecast for the next little while is all rain. While I can still bring Louise in when it's wet, it does make for a lot of extra work.

But Friday was a fantastic sunny day and Louise discovered a new park area that has recently been put together. It is next to the Olympic Village, but is not nearly as elaborate as the park that is part of the Village. I think this was a vacant lot and they decided it would look nicer if they just threw down grass seed and some gravel for a path or two. It really was that low budget and simple and you know what? It turned out fantastic.

The grass is uneven as some places grew faster and taller than others, leaving a patchy texture across the lot that must have seemed a lot more interesting to someone at Louise's height than at mine. She already has a thing about long grass, as she likes to run in it, so I let her off leash and she would weave in and out of the tall spots.

I tried to get the camera low enough to give some idea on where the grass was in terms of height - obviously we aren't talking about a hayfield here. Just very fresh, new grass that has grown quickly. Louise just loved it.

The other nice thing about this little park is that it's even closer to the office than any of the other spots. This is great news for me, as there are times when Louise just doesn't have the energy to walk all the way over to the far side of the Olympic Village just to play in a park. Either she toughs it out and just sleeps the entire day away afterward, or she just pulls up short and indicates to me that she doesn't want to walk that far.

Yes, Louise has no problem telling us when she is done walking. Sometimes (especially on rainy days) it happens immediately on exiting the condo. Once she sees the rain, she will often just turn around and walk back inside. At other times, we will approach an intersection and she will just stop walking if we are about to go in a direction she doesn't want.

That wasn't a concern yesterday, as this park was close enough that she was able to romp about without getting too tired. She still wanted a nap later on though, but that was perfectly fine by me.

Dog-casting

Ok, the first part of this post won't really be about Louise at all, but I'll bring it around to her, promise.

As some of you know, I'm a big fan of podcasts. I listen to a lot of them, especially on my daily commute into work. CBC is a fantastic source for some of my favorite ones and one in particular, Ideas had a three part series on dogs recently. You might not be into the far ranging topics on that podcast, so here are parts one, two and three respectively. Go ahead, they are free to listen to. They might take a bit to actually load up in your browser, depending on your internet connection, but I tested them to make sure they were legit.

Now coincidentally, Apple released a software update for their iphones (my podcast delivery method of choice) and when I synched up to get the update, I was half way through listening to the third part. Something messed up with that software update such that for a podcast that was part way through (an ipod/iphone keeps track of where you are) the pointers would be messed up, reporting the podcast as complete. If I pressed play, it would pick up from this point always, and play through, but if I paused or stopped it, starting again would resume from that same point. It was kind of like Groundhog Day, but on a very small scale. I ended up listening to that same portion about five or six times in order to hear it through to the end.

I'm not one to believe in fate or such but I do believe that one is shaped by the experiences in one's life. Maybe there were parts of what I listened to multiple times from which I will draw upon in the future - who knows. What I do know is that at the time I was listening to it I had Louise with me and we were making our way into the office after visiting with a friend. I did note that I was a little more attentive to Louise and what she might want to do as we walked on some less familiar streets in downtown Vancouver.

One of the things I found interesting about the above podcasts is the notion of how a dog's experience of the world must be radically different from our own. These creatures are smell driven, not sight driven like us. As such, they most likely interpret their surroundings with a different sensibility (no pun intended). It was an interesting topic that made me look at Louise in a different light. She's quite a little individual.

Playoff Madness

Louise lives in a hockey town. No, not Detroit, although that is also a hockey town. We are proud to live in Vancouver, BC and all of us in our household are Vancouver Canucks fans.

Last night was the first game between our Canucks and the despised Chicago Blackhawks. I had to take Louise out just before the game and tried to see if Louise could predict the score, based on... well that part gets kinda gross, so I'll just call it 'reading the tea leaves' and let you imagine the worst. It's probably not far off.

Anyway, I think I mis-read what she was telling me because I was certain that she was predicting a 3-0 win for Vancouver. As it turns out, we scored 2 goals in the first period and that was it. We were out for another walk during the first intermission and this time the 'tea leaves' told me one more goal. Again, I was off in my reading by one goal as the remainder of the game was scoreless. I think I have seen the flaw in my reading pattern though, so I look forward to testing this further tomorrow night (hopefully another win against the no-good Hawks).

Maybe Louise can become as good a predictor as Paul the octopus was during the last FIFA cup.

Oh yeah, welcome to our newest followers! I am pretty sure you discovered us through twitter. I don't tend to blog frequently, but feel free to browse the more than three years of posts from the past. Louise has had many adventures.

Another Visit with Dr. Sandhu

My goodness we had a long night last night. Louise was clearly having problems and was very uncomfortable. She could barely sleep and was generally miserable all night. While she was feeling miserable, at no point did she take it out on any of the rest of us - I just wanted to make that point crystal clear. Louise was suffering a lot but was good throughout all of it.

This morning, I didn't even make it all the way to work before I get a call from Holly saying that Louise is doing even worse and we are going to have to call the vet. I start making arrangements at work and with the doctor and in short order we arrive at his office.

I'm not really going to go into great detail over what was causing her problems, but will say that her bowels were blocked. Once Dr. Sandhu took X-rays it was pretty clear what the problem was and he had her back in fighting shape before we were able to return to pick her up. Louise's visit with the vet was barely an hour. She would normally have her teeth cleaned in about a month, so we also opted to have her blood work done at this time just to streamline the process for next time.

One of the cool things about the X-ray is that you can see her micro ID chip (around the shoulder area). I always nerd out over things like that and Dr. Sandhu had no problem with me taking pictures of the X-ray photos. (He was asking how many megapixels were in my camera phone.)

Oh yeah! Last weekend we saw Chester's owner and they finally got a new pug, this one named Julia. She's a lot smaller than Louise is, and of course is super cute. Just look at that face! Louise was pretty hyped up at the time and barking at nothing in particular and this was a bit startling for Julia so hopefully our next encounter will be more relaxed. It's alway fun welcoming a new pug to the neighborhood.

Louise welcomes Diesel to the office

Today was a pretty good day at the office. That was because today we were introduced to a little Boston puppy named 'Diesel'. I arranged to bring in Louise so the two dogs could meet and I'm pleased to say that it went very well.

Louise and I arrived at the office first and as we planned, when Diesel arrived we came downstairs so the two dogs could meet. We have found that it generally goes much better when we introduce new dogs in this way. There have been times when a new dog will arrive at the office and if there is already a dog working that day, they will attempt to defend the office against the intruder. This neatly avoids all that and it gave the two dogs a last chance to pee outside (instead of on the carpets.)

Once inside the office the two dogs got along really well. Louise set her boundaries once, and after that Diesel respected them, despite being VERY excited to see another dog. He would jump toward her and try to get her to play (Louise was having none of it) but never challenged her directly. The best way to describe Louise's reaction to Diesel would be 'casual.' She didn't seem to mind him being around, and didn't seem to miss him when he was gone.

Of course, being a puppy, Diesel overwhelmed the office with his cute antics. I wasn't the only one chasing him around with a camera today. I have to say - it's much easier photographing Louise these days. Not only does she move a lot slower - something I don't seem to notice unless there is a much faster pup around - but she also knows what I'm trying to do when the camera is out. Louise will 'pose' for a photo much better than Diesel. Of course, he's young and still learning a lot.

One thing is certain - even though there was a young pup in the office, it didn't affect Louise's sleep schedule. Both Louise and Diesel managed to fit naps into their day.

Overall, it was fun having a new dog in the office. It reminded me of earlier times, when we had a lot more dog owners looking to bring in their pets. While at that time we had to be a little more rigid over which day of the week belonged to what dog, I think the rest of the office appreciated the overall variety of dogs, as compared to just the same one over and over.

As for Louise, I like to think that she was a bit relieved to discover that there was another dog to lend a paw at the office.

Twitter account for Louise

I'm trying to keep up with the times. I tell you, that's what this is about. Louise now has a brand new twitter account and you can follow her by adding @wheezie_dog to your twitter feed. For a while now I have struggled to update this blog regularly enough because a lot of the time there really wasn't anything extraordinary going on, but I would have a funny photo. Well twitter seems to be about perfect for that, so I'm trying it out as a bit of an experiment.

Don't worry, this blog won't be going away. I will still update it from time to time. I'll just feel less guilty about not updating it weekly if I can still put out photos of Louise on twitter. When interesting things happen to Louise, I'll post a writeup here like I always have, and in a similar fashion. This is really just a way for me to increase what I put out.

Let me know what you think, if you like the idea, if twitter mystifies you, anything. I'm hoping this becomes a fun little experiment. Also, if you have a twitter account that is used primarily for your dog, let me know! I'll have Louise follow other dog's tweets!

Oh one final thing: if anyone knows of a better gadget for this on blogger, let me know. While the one on the side seems to do the trick, I'd prefer something with a bit more consistent formatting, etc.

February Adventures

A few weeks ago we got a new camera for Holly. She has been taking a lot of pictures and video with it as she gets used to it and as a side effect I have a lot of fantastic shots of Louise I can share with you.

This first one is of Louise asleep on the back of the sofa. This is a usual cat perch so it's a bit odd to see her jump up here to relax. I'm guessing the sun was out that day and it would have been a warmer spot in the house.

One of the other things Holly likes to do is to compose the occasional song. To do this we have a digital keyboard that can plug into our computers and well, here we have Louise taking over a bit. I'm not quite sure what was going on but I bet that the song was probably about steaks, or maybe a blues number bemoaning the hardships of living with two cats.

Next up we have another action shot, this time Louise is eagerly looking forward to wrapping her lips around that turkey meat ball that Holly is holding up. We tore it in half so Louise wouldn't choke on it, which she didn't. Everything happened so fast after this photo that I really don't have a better one. Pugs are efficient when it comes to meatballs.

With all these indoor shots you might think that Louise never leaves the house during the winter. Not so! While she is sleeping more these days, she still insists on going out at least a couple times a day and unless it's raining she is usually out there for at least a half an hour. Of course, that means that one of us is out there with her during that time too. Louise has always been a great source of vitamin exercise because of this consistency. Oh, and as you can see, our grass is still green and we are without snow. But the temperatures vary quite a bit, ranging from a few degrees below freezing to about ten degrees above.

Bone Crazy

So last night we were watching some shows and Louise hopped up on our sofa with one of her 'bully bones'. I'm not going to describe what this is other than to say it's a dog chew toy made from bull 'parts'. Anyway, Louise hopped up on the couch and started to chew her bully bone.

About a minute into this, Louise starts to act a bit silly over it. Holly had the quick thinking to suggest I get out my phone to film this, as it had us entertained. You can tell when I'm laughing because the camera starts to shake a bit.

Later on in the evening it happened again, this time in her doggie bed. I tried filming that too but this clip has the better quality so it's the one you get. Hope you enjoy the silliness.

Remembering Chester

Man, I'm getting bad at this. A full week went by and I haven't been able to post about our walk in the park. The danger here is that the longer I put it off, the less detail I remember about it. I recognize that it's not really much of a danger for you, as really, the pictures are by far more important. But for me, I feel the need to fill the rest of the page with text. Forgetting details is losing precious cargo.

Before I continue, I do have some sadness to report: Louise's old friend Chester, who lived just a block away, was put down due to illness over the holiday break. We just found out last night because Chester's owner saw me coming home with Louise and she took the time to let me know. He was a fantastic pug, even more gray than Louise is, but only about a year older. Click on the link on his name and you will see a picture of him with Louise. Chester, you will be missed little buddy.

So as I mentioned, these are some more pictures taken from about a week ago when we were exploring the island park next to the Olympic Village. I think Louise liked the challenge of scrambling across the rocks to get to the island area, and she certainly liked what the city works department has done with the place. Even though it's an artificial island, it feels very natural.

On the way out of the park we wandered along a creek area that had also been created as part of the Village - it is now home to dozens of mallard ducks, of which Louise casually took note. I think by the time we saw the ducks she was already getting tired from running around though, as she didn't bark or give chase. For once, the ducks barely noticed her.

As I said, that was all about a week ago. Louise was in the office again yesterday, although it was a much more casual work day for her. While we did go out for a walk in the afternoon, she took the rest of the afternoon off to have a nap in her stroller. At one point one of my co-workers remarked that he wanted to just crawl in beside her to also nap, she looked that comfortable.

Preamble to a walk in the park

We had a small adventure last week when Louise was in the office. On our lunch break we went for a walk in the park by the Olympic Village as usual, but this time the tide was low and we were able to check out this semi-island part of the park that has been completed.

Of course, this first picture is not about that at all. It was taken on a different day altogether, and the cat perched above Louise is Sassy. They get along reasonably well, if by that one understands that Louise will sometimes chase after Sassy because the cat wandered too close to her food bowl. This in turn usually starts a fight between Louise and our other cat, Sophie. Sophie (not pictured here in part due to objections raised by Louise) has been known to act protectively toward Sassy, even when it isn't warranted.

But I digress. Louise and I had a fantastic walk and I got lots of pictures as she scrambled over rocks, ran across sandy beaches and hopped along wooded trails - all within about 500 square foot area. This island isn't really all that big, and when the tide is low a land bridge becomes accessible. Technically, it's no longer an island at that time, I know.

Anyway, I took lots of pictures, enough to stretch this into at least a couple posts. As usual, the hard part for me will be remembering enough about what happened in order to write something to go with the pictures.

Oh, and my wife got a new camera recently, so she has been taking some really nice pictures of Wheezie too. I'll see about getting some of those up soon as well.

This January feels like April

We are in the middle of the rainy season so that means our walks have generally been shorter. But today was warm so Louise and I set out despite the rain and toured the soggy neighborhood.

We did see a few other dogs out being walked, but none of her usual friends. There seems to be a lot of puppies in our community lately and well, Louise isn't a big fan of those. Specifically, she doesn't like puppies that don't have manners.

Still, she was pleasant to all we met, even if a bit aloof at times. This is of course preferable to the alternative of growling or snapping at a rowdy youngster. But as I said, there was none of that and the two of us had a pleasant stroll in the rain. I even let her read her P-mail off one of the fire hydrants, which she seemed to enjoy.

One thing about all this rain is that I try to time her visits to the office for the days that will be sunnier. This means she doesn't get into work as often. The current forecast is for the rain to break sometime around Tuesday, so if all goes well she will get her shift next week.

Food Coma

This is a leftover picture from New Year's Eve. We had enjoyed a lamb dinner and that always means that Louise gets to feast on freshly cooked lamb bones. It's good times all around. Anyway, just like us, she ate a lot and celebrated a lot and well, later in the evening we noticed Louise slipping into a little bit of a food coma.

Yes, I'm that horrible person who takes pictures of you when you are at your worst. Still, this wasn't really Louise suffering as much as it was Louise basking in the glow of having eaten her fill.