Pre-kids. Elwyn was a beautiful lab:

And, he could be something of a rag doll — could happily doze in the oddest positions:

Always good and patient with kids, especially if they let him give them kisses (Benton wasn’t mobile enough in this photo to have much say in the matter):

Benton was the first of many kids — ours and others — who did some full-body sensory play with his fur:

Alana got her share of kisses as well:

And, again with Alana:

As a foundation for a pillow pile (Benton):

Hanging out at Town Lake with Carson (and Garrison S.):

Another magazine-cover-worthy pose:

Still with some puppy-ness to him, retrieving a stick:

But, his most favorite activity had to be anything water-related.

Retrieving a dog toy:

Retrieving a rock:

And, finally, a video of Elwyn actually diving for rocks — the bigger the rock, the better:

He had a good run for fourteen years and will be missed.

View a slide show or click on any of the images below to browse through a selection of shots from the trip:

Tim has been in Austin for work since Monday morning.  My mom, a.k.a. Grandma Marilyn, was here until Wednesday and helped me get through a few of the days without Tim.  We managed to stay fairly busy, making jam, soup, taking Alana to swim lessons (which started this week), and other things of that nature.

Alana had an itching episode on Sunday afternoon which did not go away.  Grandma observed that she was not sleeping well, scratching the night away.  I took her to the doctor’s office on Thursday to find it was a flair-up of eczema.  So, after $75 in prescription creams, she is sleeping better and not as itchy.

Thursday night, we headed to Leed’s Farm, a good-old fashioned farm with lots of non-farm kids stuff too.  From goats and pigs, to hay rides, zip lines, and a corn maze, the kids ran wild for 2 and a half hours.  The farm was rented out by the school, so it was all families from school, giving the boys plenty of friends to pal around with.  It was a really nice time.  Afterwards, Benton had two friends spend the night, and spent most of Friday morning assembling Legos with his friends and his brother.

Tonight, Benton basically saved the dogs from lots of ugly complications when he quickly realized that the dogs had eaten a bottle of Elwyn’s arthritis medicine that had gotten dumped on the floor.  I was in the shower, so he brought me the bottle and explained that the dogs had eaten them.  I quickly dried off and called the vet, who had me administer hydrogen peroxide to get them to vomit.  Molly took a little longer to vomit and Elwyn did not seem to vomit any pills, so to be on the safe side, I had to run them to the vet and get a treatment of activated charcoal to feed them.  By 7:15pm, about an hour and a half after the incident started, they were gleefully eating up the black, tarry looking charcoal that was mixed in with some canned food and thinking it was pretty yummy.  This part might have been overkill, but since I could not say for sure if they had vomited most of it up, I chose the safe route.  All in all, I am extremely thankful that Benton made the connection and quickly informed me.  The Mexican dinner which Benton was looking forward to became Wendy’s on the way home from the vets, so I owe him big time.  We will have to have that Mexican food later this weekend.

Molly, pictured here from last summer, ate at least 11 pills and did NOT like seeing me the second time I came with a syringe full of the peroxide.

Elwyn, also pictured from last summer, did not like seeing me with the syringe, but at age 13 is a little less able to do anything about it.

I am also extremely thankful that Tim is on a plane from Houston to Columbus as I write this.  It is always nice to have him back and another level headed adult to help me steer my course through each day and week.  Onward – to Halloween and beyond…….

Summertime.

In a house with just-barely-off-white carpet.

And two black dogs.

Julie brushed Elwyn for 10 minutes and got the above results. You can imagine what our carpets look like within 15 minutes of being vacuumed.

Sunday morning, Benton was first downstairs and told me that Molly pooped again on the floor. I was baffled. She was still in her cage….. which meant that Elwyn was now pooping on the floor!!!! So, despite my efforts, I have cut over 9 spots out of the carpet and now have moved furniture, caged off the rest of the room and am heading out the vet’s office to deliver a fecal sample for testing to see if there is a medicine that can help cure Elwyn faster than Molly got over it. We shall see.

The new carpet is due to be installed on Monday. I might have to further procrastinate this project if our little doggie-doo problem is not completely gone.

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