Yes, this is me from back in 1994 with our Basset Hound, Blazer. We just got back from a week of travel from Virginia to North Carolina and all places in between. When we got back we found out that Blazer (who is 16 years old) had about reached his limit with life and after sharing that life with us for the past 16 years he will be very missed in our family. He traveled to every state in the continental U.S. and we have countless memories together. Our house feels empty but right now but God’s plan moves on ahead. More photos are over on Deb’s blog here.
We went up to Virginia to visit the campus of Liberty University where I am currently working on my MDiv (Master of Divinity) at Liberty Theological Seminary. I have the option to take a language track in Greek and Hebrew, which will take about a year or more to finish, but must be completed on campus. So we went up to Lynchburg to see what our living options might be when it comes time to take those classes.
Up to this point every class I have taken has been through their distance learning program and although that is the easiest path to take, it might not be the best path to take. The language track will open up some opportunities for post-graduate work, but more importantly I hope it will benefit whatever ministry I am a part of when I finish my masters.
As a follower of Christ I don’t ever want to get to the point in my walk where I am unwilling to get out of my comfort zone and take bold steps. I have found the older we get, the easier it is to live in a state of routine and forget that we are to live boldly for Christ, and sometimes that means giving up the easy path for a more challenging one. I think sometimes we can stay chained to our safe routines for so long that we don’t even know how to escape if we wanted to, and faith is supposed to be anything but routine.
A lot has changed in my family since 1994 when Deborah took this photo at our house in Homewood, Alabama, Blazer is not with us, neither is my hair, but some how I added a few pounds and our routine will change once again.
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This past week turned out to be one of those weeks for us. Throughout all the details that follow I was able to somehow keep my sanity and keep my schedule in regards to the Secret of the Stole KAL. A huge THANK YOU and a big CYBER HUG go out to my friend Reba for helping me keep the group on an even keel during our travels. So, here is what happened.
It all began on Tuesday when we took our dog Aubie to the vet because he wasn’t feeling well. As I said in the last post we were leaving on Friday for a 10 day trip to Colorado and we needed to find out what was wrong with him so we would know whether to board him or not. I won’t go into all the particulars, but, on Wednesday we were informed that his one or more of his organs was failing and the dog that just the day before was following me around the house, would not make it through the day. We rushed to the vet and I was able to hold him while he breathed his last. The dog that gave me over 14 years of happiness and completely unconditional love was gone.
Since neither DH, myself, or our remaining dog, Blazer, wanted to be in the house with the memories of Aubie everywhere, we decided to leave a day early for our trip. The trip to the cabin was quiet and uneventful. I was planning on knitting up a storm and couldn’t manage to do but a few rows. Blazer was given the king’s throne in the car and seemed to enjoy it. After 1500 miles and way too much junk food, we arrived at the cabin in Creede, CO (altitude 11,000 ft) mid-day on Saturday.
On Sunday, we found Blazer lying very still and lethargic on his bed in the motor home. This is highly unusual for him since he has for the past 14 years been extremely vocal and interested in anything that was going on around him. He slowly emerged out of his grogginess and we thought it was just an “altitude” issue. Until later that evening, when we were checking on him and he had a seizure, stiffened up his body, flailed his head back and briefly stopped breathing. When the seizure was over he was once again lethargic and mostly unresponsive, leading us to believe that that was what had happened earlier in the day as well.
The following morning we called our vet and he basically told us that we should get him off the mountain and bring him in asap. We were stunned and saddened that Blazer was now ill and we would be cutting our trip so short. Tuesday, we left Creede and 1500 miles later we arrived back at home. Blazer went to the vet today and, wouldn’t you know it, all his blood work turned out “normal”. He is not diabetic, anemic, suffering from a heart murmur or even heart worms. That was the best news we could have had this week. We will hear about his thyroid test soon and if that comes back clean then the next thing the vet said we could do is a CAT scan to check for a brain tumor. I found this to be a point of amusement since it was an interesting name for a scan of a dog’s brain. A CAT scan is not happening on a 14 year old dog in my house, so we will just have to watch him closely and keep him company from now on since his brother is gone.
On a brighter note, when we arrived at the cabin William, our grandson, and his parents were already there, as were my mom and dad. It was William’s birthday (2 yrs) and we had a great time visiting with him. The festivities and family time took our minds off our loss, if just for a little while.
To the left is a three generation photo of William, Bryan (his father in the background), and Scott (my DH and Bryan’s dad). The photos we took of William and of Blazer while we were there are just priceless and I will post more of them soon on our personal blog Door Number Three for anyone who is interested.
All in all, it was just one of those weeks…
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We no longer have any human children in the house. However, we do have two dogs that have been with us for almost 14 years. Our Cocker Spaniel, Aubie and our Basset Hound, Blazer. The dogs are very much family to us and are getting up in years now. This, of course, means the beginning of illnesses, injuries and all the issues that come with aging pets. In some ways I think they know how much we care about their well being and sometimes it seems that they like to exploit this for everything it is worth, especially the basset, usually resulting in an extra biscuit, extra special dinner time, etc.
Here is Blazer after his recent surgery to remove a lump of skin cancer from his shoulder. Doesn’t he look like a pathetic thing?
Blazer the Basset
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Yesterday my husband took pictures of me and our dogs to send to our family members. This is a photo of me with our Cocker Spaniel “Aubie”.
Here is another one with our Bassett Hound “Blazer”. Do you see the pretty flowers?
Blazer saw the pretty flowers too and decided that they would probably taste pretty good.
