The Tripawd Times of Nova the Great Dane

Yep, you heard me right.  Just a little over 2 weeks ago Mom brought home a new Great Dane sister for Emmy and me.  Hey, I know what you are thinking… “Queen Nova, are you okay with this?”  My answer is YES.  In fact, I was the one who told Mom to bring her home.

Actually this all came about way back in late June with my Dane Drama.  Don’t tell Mom I said this, but she was an absolute basket case.  She was worried about me every minute of every day and was crying a lot. Frankly, it was making me a little crazy, and Mom’s sadness really made me feel worse.  I really wished that Mom would just be more “dog”, you know?  Like cherish every day, and wag her tail all the time, like us dogs!   One night while we lay on the couch together in the middle of the night, we had a heart-to-heart conversation.  I am sure you humans know what those conversations are like.  When you look into your pups eyes and you can communicate without speaking a word.  She told me how much she loved me and how much she wanted to make me happy.  I told her I would be happiest if she was doing things that brought joy to her life, rather than sitting there crying with me and being sad.  Mom has done so much for me, and I really wanted her to share this love so that other pups can have a life as wonderful as mine.

She decided then that she would begin to help other Danes in need through our local Great Dane Rescue in Michigan.  NOW we’re talkin’!  She immediately applied as both a volunteer and as an adoptive pawrent.  Not a foster pawrent, she’s not quite ready for that yet.  She says she would definitely be a foster failure, and want to adopt every Dane out there.  She made the decision that her next Dane would be a rescue.  Anyway, she started channelling some of the energy she spent crying and being depressed into helping other Danes in need, and helping some friends who were struggling with their pups illnesses be more pawsitive.  Isn’t that pawesome?

Well you know how that stuff works. A beautiful Harlequin Dane named Lady Darla came into rescue and Mom fell in love with her immediately.  She was only 2 years old, but had primary Addison’s disease, which requires daily medication and monthly injections. After years of administering all of Emmy and my medications, this did not faze her in the least.  Mom told them she was interested in Darla, but after the application process was complete she found out that she was 3rd in line to adopt her. By some miracle, the first two families opted not to adopt her.  She knew that this meant that Darla was meant to join our family.

Mom’s intention was never to have a 3rd Dane, but to be able to adopt soon after losing one (both Emmy and I are old and each have our health issues, so it really could be either of us).  She was worried that one of us would be lonely if we lost the other.  In a way she was right.  While I would really miss not having my seeing eye dog Emmy with me any more, I think that bringing in a new sister would be just as good for Mom as it would for me or Emmy.  When they offered Darla to Mom, she quickly justified it, saying that it would be a good transition, so that neither of us would be alone if one of us left this earth. Dad amazingly bought into her logic, especially after she showed him a picture of how beautiful Darla was.  She really is a beautiful girl.  Sure, I can’t see her, but I can feel her pawsitive energy and she makes me feel really good.  I think she is a great addition to our pack. It feels nice to not have Mom being sad and worried about me all the time. And whaddaya know… I have been feeling great.  I have not had any health crises, episodes of confusion, and I no longer wake Mom in the middle of the night. It feels so warm and peaceful when we are all together.  Darla has made me excited to get up and moving around more often.  Emmy too.  We never really were interested in going for walks since we’ve been old ladies, but Darla makes it fun.  Now all 3 of us go for walks with Mom after she gets home from work, and all of our tails are wagging (if Mom had one you’d see it wagging).  And Darla is learning to help me find my way on walks too, just like Mom and Emmy.  Life is so very good!

Here are some pictures of me and the new addition:

My New Sister Darla and Me

Three Lovely Ladies

I Really Love My New Sissy!

Darla Likes to Play All the Time

Now I Have TWO Seeing Eye Dogs!

We Became Very Fast Friends

And She Know How to Curtsy to the Queen!

All the Pawsitive Energy Makes Me Feel SO Happy!

Welcome Lady Darla! We Are Proud to Have You Join Our Pack!

First I wanted to let everyone know that I am still feeling pretty good.  I was panting a lot and it was driving Mom totally nuts.  She started to wonder if it was the extra nighttime dose of Prednisone that was causing the trouble.  We Mom cut that out (just the evening dose) and things got a lot better.  I still pant every now and then, but the vet tells Mom he’s pretty sure the panting is just the Prednisone talking.  Unfortunately, I need to take it if there is anything goofy going on in my brain.  But at least now I am panting half as much.

Well yesterday we got to do something REALLY fun.  We went for a long R-I-D-E with Mom and (Almost Tripawd) Carter’s Mom Kelly up north to a town called Bridgeport to meet and sniff butts with Tripawd Tesa and her brother Max, and her humans Jill and Mike.  It was a 4-Dane, 14-legged PAWTY.  You’ve probably read about Tesa here a few months ago.  Well, Mom has made friends with her and is helping her with advice and stuff, since Tesa is at the beginning of her osteosarcoma journey.  She’s about to go for her 3rd round of chemo next week.  Mom loved the pictures that Kelly did of me, so she wanted to do something like that for Tesa and her Mom.

These days Mom is trying to get better at photography, so she took a bunch of pictures along with Kelly.  Kelly isn’t done with hers yet, but here are some of Mom’s pictures of the fun time we had at Tesa’s house:

Four Danes, Four Times the Fun!

Tesa and Nova…. 2 Danes, 6 Legs, 1 Journey

Tesa is On Her Way to Kicking Cancer’s Butt, Just Like Me!

Long Live Tesa!

Tesa Feelin’ Good and Lovin’ Life on 3 Legs

This is one of Mom’s favorite pictures that she took. No, that’s not Emmy and me, that’s Tesa and Max!

Emmy and I were starting to get jealous of Mom taking all the pictures of Tesa and her family, so we did some major photobombing!

Tesa’s Mom takes care of her like Mom takes care of me!

It was truly a party because we shared a drink together!

The last time I posted, I told you that Emmy and I were laying off the Dog Dramas for awhile.  Well, unfortunately I have given Mom some more things to worry about.  Since Memorial Day I have been taking Prednisone, and last week it gave me a bad case of uh, diarrhea.  Yep, I know it’s hard to believe, but even a Queen gets diarrhea.  I tried very hard to follow proper protocol, but Mom was at work and I couldn’t hold it.  I looked for her everywhere in the house and by the time I got to her bedroom I just couldn’t wait any longer.  I felt so bad about it, but I just couldn’t help it.  Mom took me to the doctor the next day, and she gave me Flagyl.  It’s nasty.  Mom tried to sneak it in my food, but I found it and spit it out.  So now she wraps it in a piece of cheese and shoves it down my throat.  Not too pleasant for me, but it works for her.

At the vet that day Mom was celebrating the fact that my weight was up a few pounds, and the vets were all amazed to see how well I was doing.  Dr. Stewart, who several weeks ago told Mom I had a brain tumor, apologized to Mom and said that he thought that maybe he was wrong about my diagnosis.  There were lots of happy smiles and tails at the vet that day, even though my butt was still rumbling!

Well, around 2 am the next morning I woke up feeling awful.  All confused and panting and scared, just like Memorial Day weekend.  Mom was sleeping and she heard me bumping into furniture and crying.  She got right up and came out to help me.  I just couldn’t find my way anywhere.  I didn’t know where I was, or what I wanted.  I just hopped around in a panic.  Mom got me outside to go potty and I was all over the place.  She tried to get me to come back inside but my head felt so weird I couldn’t understand what she was saying.  She was crying and hugging me, I think she felt as lost and confused as I was.  She finally was able to help lift me back into the house and she shoved a Prednisone down my throat.  She didn’t know what else to do, but knew that it was supposed to help reduce swelling in the brain, so she did it.  She thought that maybe she might have to say goodbye to me, she was so worried.

After about 3 hours, I started to feel more relaxed and I fell asleep.  It was 4 am.  Mom went to bed, and called in to work and said she would not be in that day because there was trouble with me.  When I woke up around 7, I felt like myself again.  I went in to wake up Mom and tell her I was ready for breakfast.  She was shocked and amazed, but I could tell she was still so scared.  I found my way outside just fine and gobbled down 2 breakfasts.  Mom sat down at her computer and started asking friends for advice.  She was thinking of taking me up to Michigan State for a neurology consult, to get a second opinion.  A couple friends recommended a neurologist that wasn’t so far away, so Mom and I went there with all of my records and test results from my vet.  She wanted to get his opinion and see if he agreed with the diagnosis.

Well, supposedly this guy is really smart, and he told Mom that the only way to know “for sure” was if we did a very expensive test called an MRI.  But without doing the test, the doctor said that he was almost positive that I do indeed have some sort of brain tumor.  He prescribed something called Valium that is supposed to calm me down and help me not be so scared when (or if) I get confused like that again.  I think Mom wanted to take some of the Valium herself!  We headed home and Mom took me to get a cheeseburger.  And we had a great day out in the yard where Mom took some pictures of me.

That night I had another bad episode, but it didn’t last a long time.  Mom gave me the Valium and I was napping in no time. We’ve had a great couple of days this weekend, and Mom is hugging and snuggling with me every chance she gets.  I just love that.  I know that some day I will have to move on to be Queen in the Spirit World, but I want Mom to understand that even when I go there I will still be with her and we will be together again.  You humans don’t always get that.  All of you humans who have Spirit Tripawds…. they are with you always in spirit and are waiting for you on the other side.

SO….. here are some pictures that Mom took this week that we wanted to share:

Modeling a “Dog Mom” necklace for a rescue fundraiser

Life is Good!

Here we are well into July, and Emmy and I have laid off the dog dramas.  So Mom is really, really happy.  The week before last, it got kinda icky around here because the power went out for 4 days, so there was no air conditioning to keep me cool.  Can you imagine THAT?  A QUEEN without AIR CONDITIONING?  Yes, it’s true, I had to live like some of my loyal subjects and suffer with nothing but a fan.  Thankfully, Mom and Dad have a generator, so they were able to run fans all over me and keep the refrigerator running so that my ice cubes stayed cold.  My brothers hand-fed Emmy and I ice cubes throughout the day, and Dad brought home the giant fan from his triathlon club to keep me cool.  You have gotta see this fan.  It was definitely fit for a Queen.  Here it is, the Great Dane of Fans:

The Great Dane of Fans and its Biggest Fan

Emmy was kind of a fan hog.  She liked to stand right in front of it so it would blow back her ears and jowls like she was on a car ride.  Me, well I kept my distance a bit because this thing was LOUD, and I am not a big “fan” of loud sounds.  But it did the trick to keep us somewhat cool for the 4 days with no central air.

Mom has been a crazy nut when it comes to taking pictures of us.  After her friend Kelly took all those beautiful pictures of me back in June, Mom decided to dig out her digital SLR from back in her real estate days and try to hone her photography skills.  Emmy and I are really her only willing subjects, my human brothers go running away when they see Mom running around with that giant black eye poking out of her face.  Then she posts her favorites on Facebook so that everyone can bask in our loveliness.  Now she’s even started trying to teach herself Photoshop Elements so she can “enhance” the photos and make us even more beautiful.  As if that is even possible!

Yesterday Mom drove off without us to go see Tesa’s mom Jill, who had her “Treats for Tesa” tent set up at a rescue adoption event.  Emmy and I have devoured all of the grain-free peanut butter treats that Mom bought at one of Jill’s last shows, so she needed to get some more.  She brought home a bunch more treats for us…. WHOOO HOOOOO!!!

Emmy Begging for More “Tesa’s Treats”

Mmmmmmm….. Tesa’s Treats are so delicious!

Jill makes all kinds of delicious treats for big dogs and little dogs.  She also makes toys like fleece squeaky bones and tug toys.  And she also makes some things for humans called “spinners”.  Humans like to put these in their gardens and watch them spin around in the wind.  Mom asked Jill to make her a spinner in University of Michigan colors, maize (yellow) and blue, and put it out in our front yard.  Even though Jill is a Michigan State fan and doesn’t like U of M, she made one anyway, even though she calls the colors “icky”.  Since Emmy and I ourselves are maize and blue, Mom thought we matched perfectly with the new spinner so she had us pose with it out in front of the house:

All Hail the Maize and Blue

Tesa just had her second chemo treatment this past Friday.  Mom and Jill still haven’t had a chance to get us together for a Tripawds photo session, because their schedules have been crazy.  But they plan to do it very, very soon.

Mom seems to think that it is a big deal that we have gone 2 WHOLE WEEKS without any dog dramas in the house.  So I thought I would report in on that.  I also wanted to tell you about the awesome stuff Mom brought home for me when she went to go visit Tesa’s mom, Jill, at a craft show that was about 30 minutes from our house.  It was inside at a church, so I couldn’t go along for the R-I-D-E.  But anyway, some of you probably remember Tesa, her mom posted on Tripawds a couple of times in the past few months.  Tesa is recovering wonderfully from her amputation, and just started her first round of chemo this past Friday.  Mom took along a bag of “appetite-stimulating” goodies for Tesa, namely canned DUCK and canned RABBIT.  She gave Jill some ideas on how to entice Tesa to eat if she felt icky from the chemo, like give her ice cubes made from beef or chicken broth.  HEY… I wouldn’t mind a batch of those for ME, Mom.  Hmmmm…. maybe I should throw in a little dog drama to get Mom on the ball, you think?

Anyway, for those of you who have done chemo, you know our humans have to pay a lot of money for it.  Well, Tesa’s mom is doing something super-cool to help defray the costs of Tesa’s treatments.  She has gone way beyond simply asking for donations, she has started a small business called “Treats for Tesa”.  She bakes all different kinds of wonderful dog treats, packages them up, and sells them to pawrents as a fundraiser for Tesa.  She travels to various craft shows on the weekends to sell the treats, along with many other handmade items like fleece bones and dog pillows, tug toys, and all sorts of other cool stuff like spinners that humans can put out in their yards.  Mom brought home some great stuff for me like some delicious grain-free peanut butter treats, handmade chicken jerky (not that junk from China), a fleece University of Michigan bone, and my FAVORITE giant pillow with pink owls all over it.  CUSTOM MADE WITH LOVE by a TRIPAWD MOM!  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Here is a picture of me with my new pillow.  It smelled just like Great Dane (Jill has two Danes) so I slobbered all over it right away.

My Pawesome Pillow Made By Tesa’s Mom

Mom talked to my Pawpawrazzi Kelly, and she and Tesa’s mom are going to have Kelly do some shots of us together VERY, VERY soon.  It will be a great photo shoot…. 2 gorgeous Great Danes, 6 long legs…. a beautiful girl just starting her cancer journey and a regal Queen 3 1/2 years into hers.  And Kelly is going to do some special shots of Tesa and her Mom together too.  It will be so fun.  Of course Mom will share the photos once we can make it happen.  We need to wait a little bit to make sure Tesa is tolerating her chemo ok.

A quick update on the so-called “brain tumor”… I have not felt weird at all since that terrible Memorial Day weekend.  We still don’t know if the doctor was right about my diagnosis, but it sure doesn’t seem like he was.  Mom and I are loving life and having a great time together.

Well, Mom is no Pawpawrazzi like Kelly, but she is getting a little better at taking pictures of me.  Here is another one she took of me this afternoon:

Enjoying a Beautiful Sunday in My Royal Collar

Mom calls our house Dog Drama Central.  I don’t know exactly what she means by that, other than that she always freaks out about our continuous health crises.  The thing that is pawesome about Mom is that she is so in tune with Emmy and I, she has this natural instinct that tells her when something is REALLY wrong with us.  And then she moves heaven and earth to make sure that we get the best care possible.  I know she jokes a lot about how we are the “Million Dollar Dogs” and that her life will be spent working for that next paycheck to pay our medical bills, but I also know that she thinks it is worth every penny.

Anyway, yesterday Emmy was the star of the show at Dog Drama Central.  Mom and Dad went off to Island Lake kayaking for the afternoon, and on her way out the door Mom found a small pile of puke and blamed it on me.  Excuse me?  She was in a rush, so she did a quick clean up and said she’d work more on the spot later with her super-loud and scary SpotBot cleaning machine (I hate that thing).  When they got back later, Mom took Emmy outside and she pretty much heaved her guts out in the yard, well, what was left of it.  She was drooling like crazy, so Mom knew she was really nauseated.  She brought her inside and hand fed us some ice cubes.  Emmy laid down looking very sad and sick.  Mom went to go get on her computer and found 2 more piles of puke, so started with the cleaning machine.  Then she discovered another pile in her bedroom next to her bed. Then she heard my brother yell that someone had puked all over the bottom bunk of his bunk bed.  She went in there and started to clean it up, and my brother and his friend ran out screaming because they said that Mom was picking through it pulling out various objects.  Mom is very nosy this way, but she wanted to try to figure out what Emmy might have eaten.  She found a puke-covered wrapper and rinsed it out to discover nothing but the tiny words “High in Protein, No Trans Fats, 70% Organic Ingredients” on it.  It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was the wrapper from one of my brother’s Blueberry Crisp Clif Bars, that he had left half eaten in his room.  She also found what looked like little plastic shards from the little tie you find on a loaf of bread.  But nothing really major, considering Emmy has been known to eat some really strange stuff, and always seems to poop it out.

Well, Emmy started to seem sicker and sicker, and very listless.  Mom tried to give her a Pepcid in a piece of cheese, and she wouldn’t take it.  Now that might not seem like a big deal, but my sister NEVER has turned down food, EVER.  So Mom said it was time to go for a R-I-D-E and they went out the door real fast.  I tried to hop as fast as I could, so I could go too, but they left me.  I made sure my displeasure was known by howling for the next hour or two.  Mom was gone for a very long time, and when she came back, Emmy wasn’t with her.  I sniffed around looking for her, but Mom just laid down with me to comfort me and tell me that my sister was really sick and needed to stay in the hospital.  OWWWRRRROOOOOO!  I was very lonely, so last night I slept in Emmy’s spot, which is our two dog beds on the floor.  (I prefer to sleep on the couch).  I also hopped in to Mom and Dad’s room a couple of times during the night to sleep and wake Mom up so she would call to check on Emmy.

The good news is that there does not seem to be any sort of blockage inside Emmy (they took some x-rays last night) and her bloodwork mostly just showed signs of extreme dehydration and some elevated liver enzymes, which the Doctor told Mom were probably from her long-term used of Prednisone.  They put Emmy on IV fluids and she finally started to take in food again this afternoon.  They have been watching her to make sure she doesn’t puke it up again.  So far Mom doesn’t have a really good answer as to what actually caused Emmy to get so sick.  The Doctor said possibly pancreatitis, but Mom is going to find out more when she goes to pick her up tonight.  That’s right, Emmy is coming home tonight!  I can’t wait to have my sissy back.  I’ve been going outside a lot today to look for her, and wait for her in the yard, but Mom keeps making me come inside because it’s so hot.  Here is a picture of me waiting for Emmy out in the yard today:

Emmy, Come Home Soon!

Hey everypawdy, I’m famous!  Last night, Mom posted the picture of me kissing Emmy on the Great Danes Online Facebook page, and they decided to make it their banner there (for today at least).  This might not seem like a really big deal, but to me and Mom it is!  Great Danes Online is THE place to be seen if you are a Dane.  Mom even took a screen shot to put in my scrapbook:

Danes of the Day

Pretty cool, huh?

Mom and Kelly (the Royal Photographer) have been talking a lot on Facebook, and trying to leverage HER outstanding skills and MY tremendous beauty to come up with unique ways to raise money for local rescue organizations.  If any of my Tripawds friends know of any photo contests out there, let Mom know.   These very special pictures have helped get me a lot of attention out there these past few days.  I have my own PAWPAWRAZZI now!  Seriously, I do!  Kelly is going to come over to the Royal Palace this Sunday to take some more pictures of me strolling the Royal Grounds.  I can’t wait to show her my favorite things like all my favorite nap spots inside and outside, and all my favorite stuffies.  So stay tuned for more photos!

Hey, Tripawd friends, I want you to keep a secret for me, okay?  I have been having an awesome week and I feel totally like myself again. But I don’t want Mom to totally realize how good I feel because she has been spoiling me like you wouldn’t believe, and I really want to try to keep workin’ it for awhile.  Shhhhhh…. please!  Keep quiet!  Just tell your people to help me drag this out a little so I can continue to get the royal treatment.  The other day Mom made a giant thing of ground beef and has been feeding it to me with my regular food for nearly every meal.  And she is even bringing home that delicious expensive canned rabbit that I love so much…. mmmmmmmm!  Grain free wild boar treats every time I ask, she even brings them to me while I am relaxing on the couch.  Ahhhhhh…. now THIS is what I call the Royal Treatment!

Now Emmy is totally on to me.  She is getting pretty irritated that I am able to command such delicious things as ground beef and rabbit.  I keep telling her that I get the extra special treats because I am so skinny and she is, well, she’s like a big Buddha. So I  probably will not be able to work this sympathy angle too much longer before Emmy comes up with her latest UTI to freak Mom out.

Well Kelly is still posting pictures on Mom’s Facebook page of our photo session from Sunday.  I told Mom she better share them here too, so here are some of Kelly’s latest “masterpieces”:

Mom and Me

More Kisses for Emmy

HRH Queen Nova of Tripawds

Blind Girl with a Big Heart

Together Forever

I am quite a photogenic Queen, if I do say so myself!  Mom and I want to share a few more pictures…

All Hail The Queen!

Thank You, Emmy, My Guide Dog

Life is Good!

Emmy, My Protector and Guide

This morning, Mom and I, along with my sister Emmy, went to go meet up with Kelly, a lady Mom met through Tripawds.  Kelly has a dog named Carter.  Carter was almost a Tripawd, but it turned out he was able to have surgery to repair his leg.  Kelly and Mom became Facebook friends and have kept in touch over the last several months, and Kelly only lives 45 minutes from our house.  And it just so happens that she is a great pet photographer.  She told Mom months ago that she would love to take some pictures of me, but Mom got lazy about it.  Well, last week Kelly reminded Mom, so she set a time to meet up with Kelly this morning at her friend Laurie’s house.  Kelly took hundreds of pictures of me, Mom, and Emmy.  I had a great time.  Kelly has been posting some of the pictures on Mom’s Facebook page, so I told her to share them here too.

Mom and Me

Kisses for the Queen

Can't You Feel the Love?

Mom Takes Care of Me

My Strongest Supporter

Emmy, My Guardian "Dane"gel and Seeing Eye Dog

My Two Best Friends

A Wonderful Day