Grover Update

Many of you have emailed with good wishes and kind thoughts to Grover for a speedy recovery and I thank you all. I should have had an update for you yesterday, but it was just such a busy day, I didn't get time to sit down at the computer. Let me tell you about the day in general and then I will get to the Grover news (and obviously, it isn't bad news - or I wouldn't be wasting time with other stuff).

As I was making coffee yesterday morning, I noticed two suspicious black dots along the back of the counter top. I choose to ignore them and we head out to feed dogs. Once back in I opened the cupboard to grab some flour and there was no denying anymore - we are living with a mouse. For 10 years this house has been mouse free and I was cockily thinking it was pretty much mouse proof. Apparently I was wrong. I HATE having mice in the house. The next hour or so was spend gutting the big corner cupboard and throwing out anything with teeth marks on it and anything that wasn't tightly sealed in mouse proof containers. That was a lot of stuff. Did I mention I hate mice in the house?? I'm offering Sprite and Bait (who only has supervised house visits when the door to the back room is firmly closed as he and Sprite aren't good buddies) rewards for getting the little bugger, but really think I need Kara back in the house to sort this situation out.

When the vet opened at 8:30 I called to make sure Grover had had a good night. The techs said he had. He was still depressed, but he was up and around.

We aren't running first thing in the morning now, as we feed and water the main string around 6:30 and then need to wait at least two hours before we can run them. So, we watched a movie (Kicking and Screaming with Will Ferrell. If you haven't watched it, I wouldn't bother) while I puttered around the house.

Our run was the longest of the season so far (26 miles) - and the dogs did just great. I had young superstar Tess in lead with Hilda and Mark had his favourite Snickers, along with Holly.  Holly is an interesting young lady. She is beautiful and talented, but I just can't seem to get the best out of her in lead. She's fine in team for me, but just doesn't like running lead for me. For Mark she has been doing a pretty great job. I think it is because I'm more demanding of my leaders then he is. Whatever the reason, she is running lead a lot for Mark lately. We are hoping it will bring her confidence up and that will translate to leading for me down the road, or she will just be a good team dog for me and a leader for Mark!

The only problem we had on the run yesterday was that we kept running into neighbours that wanted to chat. Most everyone around the neighbourhood is so kind when we are out training that I feel it is the least I can do to take a few minutes to visit when they stop. Even the neighbours I don't know, know me and want to know the plans for the winter and how the team is shaping up. It's very flattering actually. Problem was I had figured that we needed to be back in the yard by 3pm at the LATEST to make it into Westlock in time to visit with Grover before the Clinic closed. So, finally when we ran into one of our more senior neighbours, who was out with his dog chopping his winter wood, I had to put a hand on his arm and tell him I was very sorry, but I was in a real hurry today.  We pulled back into our yard at exactly 3 o'clock. Mark headed to the garage to prepare food for the dogs we had been running, I headed to the house to phone for a Grover update and let them know we were on the way in. The dogs were quickly fed and put away. Each of us grabbed a shower and jumped in the van for the drive to Westlock.

Grover is still quite depressed, but he was happy to see us and wagged his tail most of the time I talked to him. We went over blood work with Trevor and he assure me Grover is progressing just as expected with an attack of pancreatitus, which is good news. It is just something that takes time. They are figuring that sometime today they will offer him a bit of water and low fat food - for the last few days all his nutrition is coming via his IV - and how soon he can come home will depend on that. We are still waiting on the biopsy results, which aren't expected back until Friday or so.  We had a nice about 20 minute visit before it was time to go. Grover wanted to follow us as we left. I told him just to work on getting better so he could come home.

Oh, did I mention we came home with a kitten?? It's so wild we will probably never see her again, but she is getting a chance. We let her out of the box (which it took Mark, a vet tech, leather gloves and a lot of howling and hissing to get her into) and she bolted to the furthest corner of the garage behind one of our freezers. Bait was over trying to make friends when we went back into the garage to feed last night, but I don't know whether the little spitball is interested.

Anyway, that was our day. We will continued to keep you all posted on Grover's condition - and I will be certain to mention when the mouse is eradicated from the house!

Karen