Update

As you all know our beloved dog Marbie was laid to rest on Saturday. It's taken a while for me to able to talk/write about it without crying (still not successful). Marbie had been having a lot of trouble walking. We know he had been in a lot pain. This was the hardest decision Brad and I ever mad. We agonized over it. In the end we know it was the right decision to make. It was all very peaceful and Marbie fell asleep in my arms (here's where the waterworks start again).

Our house is very quiet without him, except for our now crawling, cruising, yelling nine-month-old. But there is no barking when we get home or when the pizza guy comes. No clicking on the hardwood of his nails and no shaking of his ears.

Marbie touched our lives in a way that we know no other dog will. The next dog will be a family dog, Elias' play-mate. Marbie was our first baby. Brad and I raised him from 7 weeks old in a small apartment in Madison. He moved with us four times, two states. We called him Fuzzball, Stinky, Buba, Mr. Pants, Louis Leekey, and Monkey.

Marbie will be missed every minute of every day. I miss his bed, food, and crazily enough his smell. I just finished a book The Art of Racing in the Rain where the dog believes when he dies he'll be reincarnated as a human but first his soul gets to play. I hope that Marbie's now running through fields, swimming and eating everything in sight. Hopefully he'll come to me in my dreams to let me know he's okay and I hope I'll get to see him again one day.

Marbie Mufasa

We'll always love and miss you Fuzzball.

Gratuitously cute

Oh what a night

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a week, egad, but it's been busy. It all started last Thursday night. First, and obviously best, Elias rolled over. You seriously gotta love those video monitors. If it wasn't for our video monitor we would have never seen it.

I was up getting ready for bed, Gramma Bette and Brad were downstairs finishing watching the news. I always like to take a peek at Elias on the monitor before I go to bed and as I turned it on I saw him trying to make his way from his back to his stomach. Well lo and behold he turned over. I rushed downstairs to show Gramma and Dad and then he rolled back over to his back.

Well, that was the last Mom and Dad got to see of the rolling. Gramma Bette said he did it twice (from stomach to back) while playing the next day. Brad is bound and determined to get it on video to show everyone but Elias is not having that. We do have a lot of video of him being tickled and laughing his head off, which I'll post shortly.

But wait, our night was not yet complete. Enter Hero Dog and Daddy.

The scene, around 11:00 p.m., I'm asleep and Brad is watching TV in bed. Marbie starts barking so Brad goes to investigate. He doesn't see anything so gives Marbs a pat and tells him to go back to bed. Just as soon as Brad is back in bed Marbie starts barking again. I hear him and ask what he's barking at. Brad again goes to investigate. Next thing I know, Brad comes running upstairs and tells me to stay put there is a very drunk man trying to get into our house.

Here's the scenerio, when Brad went downstairs the second time (thanks to Hero Dog's continued barking) he opened the door and saw a drunk guy at the bottom of our porch. Brad told him to leave or he'd call the police. Well he didn't. Brad called the police, told Gramma Bette to stay in her room and came upstairs to get our trusty baseball bat that is kept under the bed. When he got back downstairs the man was now trying to open the door. That's when Hero Daddy yelled, "If you try to come in this door I'll bash you *&^#$ head in." The drunk man replied, "But this is my house."

I then called 911 and the Brookfield Police were already outside. Thankfully the drunk was not a mean drunk, just a sloppy drunk. The police spoke with him and tried again to tell him that our house was not his house. They finally found a phone number and got him home.

After a very scary night, we all had a good laugh about how truly wasted this guy was. I mean, there is a guy screaming at you with a baseball bat and you still think it's your place. To make matters even worse it looks as though he might have driven. The next morning I got up and behind my truck, parked the WRONG way on our one-way street, was an unfamiliar car half on the grass. It was gone by the time I returned but assumptions point to our drunk guy.

To end this VERY long post I have to give a shout out to my 13 year-old Hero Dog who barked and barked to make sure we knew something was wrong and my wonderful Hero Husband/Dad who protected his family like no other. Big props and kisses to you both...Carly

Dog day afternoon (well, morning actually)

So after mom's post about my doggie Marbie last week, I thought I'd update everybody after his vet appointment this morning.

Our vet Dr. Hager at Hinsdale Animal Hospital examined Marbie and the good news first: he doesn't have hip dysplasia and everything else with him (his sight, hearing and overall well being is solid for a dog of 12+ years).

But Dr. Hager did believe Marbie's pooping problem - even though he hasn't gone inside the house for a week now since mom and dad seemed to figure out when he has to go every day - may be related to his arthritis in his back legs. Basically, the swelling and stiffness of his joints may be impinging some nerves, cutting some of the signals from his brain to his, well you know, and causing him to poop without warning.

If we can reduce the swelling with some arthritis meds, we may be able to eliminate these "accidents."

We'll keep you up to date - but encouraging news so far.

As for me, I turned on my crib waterfall soother with my feet last night - and then turned it on again twice more - to wake mom and dad up at 4 a.m. All this after doing a complete 180 in my crib earlier in the night. That was fun!

Peace out, Elias.

You can teach and old dog new tricks.

So I had kind of a tough night last night. Marbie, right after letting him in from outside, pooped in the house again. At first I was really angry. I just let him out. How could he come inside and go to the bathroom in the house. I know he felt horrible but I just didn't get it. I called Brad and talked to him about how are our parents going to watch Elias and deal with a dog pooping the house. How are we ever going to go anywhere again? Noone can watch him.

After calming down I decided to do further research on the internet. I had done some before thinking it was behavioral and he was acting out because I was pregnant and then we had Elias but this time I found this:

Bowel Incontinence and spinal problems
Q: Hi! We have an 11 1/2 year old male lab mix. Over the last 3 months his back legs have become somewhat lame (he has great difficulty getting up of climbing stairs - some times he just falls down while walking) and he seems to be totally unaware of his bowel movements (at first I thought his legs simply hurt to much to get up but many times he is already standing or is walking along and doesn't seem to realize anything is happening). Is this just age or are there other possibilities?
Thank You. Lisa
A: Lisa- Age alone doesn't explain very many things in veterinary medicine, so I strongly suspect that there is something wrong with your Lab. Due to the combination of neurologic signs (inability to control bowel movements and falling down) and musculoskeletal signs I think it is likely that there may even be more than one thing wrong. In this age range progressive degenerative joint disease from a problem like hip dysplasia or cranial cruciate ligament instability is one likely problem. A problem in the lumbo-sacral area is also possible as well as a condition such as degenerative myelopathy (not that common in Labs but possible, I think). Disc disease, spinal tumors, other forms of cancer and many other conditions are also possible. It takes a pretty extensive workup to diagnose the cause of neuromuscular symptoms in some cases but it can be very helpful in determining the proper treatment and in assessing the prognosis for long term success in treating the symptoms.
Mike Richards, DVM

I basically lost it. In my heart I knew Marbie was getting older. We figure he has hip dysplasia. He has all the symptoms, bunny rabbit gait, pain, trouble getting up and down, and incontinence. I couldn't help it, I broke down. Marbie's age suddenly really hit me.

We made an appointment with his vet for Monday. His incontinence has been increasing (another one today). I just don't know what we're going to do. I can't imagine my life without him. Brad and I got Marbie when we were 20 and 21. We had him almost all of college. He's been through five moves, three cities, and one baby. Even though he was afraid of fans, the oven, the washer and drier and now the dishwasher, we still loved him. He is the best dog ever. One time we left the fence open and what did Marbie do he walked to the sidewalk, peed on the tree and then came up the front porch and cried at the door. He would never consider running away, just peeing on a neighbor's tree. You can walk him off the leash and he won't go anywhere. We used to take him to parties in Madison till all hours of the night. He went everywhere with us. The best part is, he is SO sweet to Elias. We thought he may be jealous and ignore him but I truly believe he loves him. He hardly even reacted when we brought Elias home. It was if he expected it.

I have to realize the inevitable. Marbie is going to be 13 in a few months. I still don't know how I'm going to live without him. I know he's had wonderful life and we now have a beautiful baby boy to look after, but Marbie will always be my first baby. I love you Fuzzy Monkey.

Carly