I'm keeping this short and sweet because that's all I can do right now.  Last Wednesday we lost Stella unexpectedly.  I woke up to find her early Wednesday morning.  It's been a shock and so tragic for us.  We are doing the best we can and navigating through our grief.  Stella was 10 1/2.  

Here is a tribute post I wrote for her: 

Please keep us in your thoughts.

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My Sweet Stella Turns 9!

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I can't believe it myself but the youngest member of my wolf pack turned 9 over the weekend!  Sweet Stella is still under the double digits though, so I'm remaining calm. 

We celebrated Stella's birthday with tons of snuggles, some delicious wet food (which is a special treat for her), and a present!

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Pixie & Grace Birthday Recap

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My two original girls are a year older and I want to cry. Pixie I had since 2005 and I got Grace 2 years later in 2007.  They were an adorable little duo for a couple more years before I got Stella in 2010.  Anyways, they've always shared a birthday a week apart with Pixie on August 31st and Grace on August 24th and since they are the best of buddies I always have a joint celebration.

This year the gift was courtesy of Chewy - the Goody Box - Grain-Free Box for Dogs.

I was super impressed with this box!  Each selection of food and treats is handpicked for dogs and every box contains 5 or more full size goodies.  All the brands of products are premium brands that are grain-free.  It's a great way to sample different products and foods to see if your dog is ready for a change or just an occasional treat. And these boxes always come with free shipping and make a great special occasion gift!


Inside this box was:
 
Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets Wet Food - White Fish & Sweet Potato formula in Broth
This was a big hit with Pixie as she has hardly any teeth so food like this that comes in a broth makes it easy for her to consume.  The highly digestible grain-free formula is great for keeping things running through her system smoothly.  She loved the flavor!


Solid Gold Chewy Dog Treats in Turkey, Sweet Potato and Cinnamon
Again, a great treat option especially because it's easy on Pixie and Grace's little teeth. It's full of protein in the first ingredient (Turkey) and the sweet potatoes give the girls some good fiber.  There's even pumpkin and kelp in this recipe!  It's great for senior dogs with sensitive teeth, too!


Hartz Bug Eyes Dog Toy
Grace loved this darn thing.  She's a chewer and this is great for tough chewers plus it's hilarious to watch the eyes pop out!


Merrick Power Bites Beef Chewy Dog Treats
Another great treat because it's soft and easy on aging dogs and their mouths. All of my dogs seemed to go wild for these treats and loved the beef flavor.  They are a great training reward because of their small and convenient size.


Nulo Freestyle Trainers Duck Recipe
These are another great training reward and they come in handy when Pixie is out on her therapy pet visits.  These treats have duck as the first ingredient as well as blueberries, cherries, honey, and chickpeas.  There's a lot of great nutrients in these and it's only 2 calories per treat so I don't have to worry about making Pixie put weight on.


K9 Natural Meat Mates
This is a delicious food topper and it's great for using on days when my gang seems picky.  It uses just a single source protein that's sustainably farmed from New Zealand. I love freeze dried items because it's less mess for me to serve to the pups.  Regardless, these guys LOVED this topper!


Make sure to wish Pixie and Grace a happy birthday!

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How My Dogs Enjoy the Summer

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I haven't done a big photo dump in a while so I figured I'd do one today and show you how my dogs enjoy the summer. Since they each have different personalities they actually have different ways of enjoying it.

 Pixie and Rocky are sun babies.  They will lay inside in a sunshine spot coming in the window if it's available.  They ALWAYS wants to be out on the porch and will stay there until I physically drag them inside. They both love feeling nice and warm.

 Unfortunately though there have been plenty of Summer thunderstorms and when that happens they all clump together and tremble until it passes.

 Stella loves laying out in the shade on the porch furniture.  She absolutely loves being as comfortable as possible. Look at her adorable leg stretched out behind her in that photo above!

 She's also great to bring along to parties. She guards my wine!

 Grace will basically go anywhere I go and lay with me as much as possible. So even if I'm sitting out in the sun, she tries to join me. I try to keep my dogs cool when they're outside though so if they aren't in the shade of the porch, I only keep them out in the sun for a few minutes.  I also ALWAYS have clean fresh water available both on the patio and in the porch.

 Pixie sleeping in the porch!

 Grace and Stella staying cool in the shade. Stella's sticking her tongue out!

I always make sure to keep treats handy for them to reward good behavior and make sure they get some protein so they have energy to play and endure the Summer temperatures.  Lately I'm loving Wellness Core Grain Free Beef Treats from Chewy. They are freeze dried natural dog treats and are packed with protein! There's no grain or corn, wheat, and soy and of course no artificial flavors and preservatives.  The dogs love these and it holds them over in between meals.


How do your dogs enjoy the Summer?

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Happy Halloween from My Wolfpack

Happy Halloween from...

 Rocky the Lumberjack

Pixie the Lion

Stella the little Mexican Chihuahua

Grace the Football player

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Help Me Help My Grace [How My World Has Been Turned Upside Down]

Grace is my 9 year old female chihuahua and everyone who knows me knows that her and my other 3 chihuahuas are my children.
Recently Grace was having what looked like severe anxiety and panic attacks due to pain in her neck.  She would tense her neck up and scream if you touched her neck.  This was happening twice a day almost everyday for a month.  After a recommendation from my regular vet to a neurologist in Maryland, I took her down there on Friday September 23rd.

The neurologist did some poking and prodding and could tell that there was some sort of spinal pain with Grace but the only 100% way to find out what it was and where it was, was by doing an MRI.  The MRI cost over $4,500 but without it, I would have no answers for Grace's pain and she would continue to suffer every single day.  I needed to be able to know what it was that hurt so I can properly treat her.

The MRI showed that Grace has Intervertebral Disc Disease  (IVDD) which is common in small dogs like Chihuahuas.   IVDD is a condition where the cushioning discs between the vertebrae of the spinal column either bulge or burst (herniate) into the spinal cord space.  In Grace's case, 3 of her discs ruptured, the C34, C45, and C56.  This is why she is in so much pain when it flares up.  So much pain that it actually causes her to go into a panicked state. 

Some dogs have it further down their back and end up losing the ability to use their hind legs and become paralyzed.  Luckily, Grace's is up higher and is treatable in a variety of ways, those of which I am still learning about as I research my options.  One option is surgery, which obviously comes with many risks, but there are other options for pain management.  Grace's quality of life is great. She literally JUST turned 9 and she is healthy in every other way.

My heart is breaking that money is even an issue for me.  I already spend $2,000 a year on my other Chihuahua, Rocky, for his heart condition.  He has Mitral Valve Disease but we have it way under control and he is thriving.  Unfortunately, I thought I had atleast another year or two before I had dish out major money on another one of my dogs.  So this was very unexpected.

I will be discussing my options with my regular vet (whom I trust with every fiber of my being) and in the next week I should have a better plan of action.  My goal is to give Grace a normal pain free life.  For now, she is on pain management with Gabapentin, Rimadyl, and Tramadol.  Because there are risks with anti-inflammatory medications, I am looking into other options immediately.  But in the meantime, Grace is not in pain and is enjoying life. 

Please consider donating to Grace and I or atleast sharing with others.
Friday was such a difficult day!  I went to Maryland alone so I was already overwhelmed.  Of course when they were telling me that we should do an MRI I was already freaking out at the cost but I knew that the MRI would give me answers.   As soon as they told me the amount I was devastated and my world began spinning. They casually mentioned that depending on the diagnosis there is surgery and I just nodded my head because all I could think of was SAVE HER!!   Then they gave me a quote just so I had an idea.  After seeing $11k I went to my car and cried. I couldn't even remember how to type or who to call. I was having a major panic attack! I knew that the MRI was necessary for me and for her.  But then came the question of how to come up with more money than that for her treatment. 

After the MRI, when it was time to take Grace home I lost it. I cried the entire ride back in the car. 
I was not ready to see my poor shaved pup! 

Please consider donating to Grace and I or at least sharing with others.   I can not tell you how important this is to me. If there's only one favor you ever do for me in your lifetime, please let this be it. Thank you so much for even reading this! 

 
HELP GRACE BY DONATING TO GOFUNDME HERE! 

If you can't donate on GoFundMe you can also help in another way. 

Another way you can support Grace is by using my affiliate link when you shop on Amazon. Simply bookmark this Amazon home page and use it anytime you get on amazon and order. Each month a portion of the sales will actually come to me. It's small but every little amount helps!

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