Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

For the last 24 hours, Lilly has dramatic tummy troubles every 2-3 hours like clockwork. The diarrhea came on quickly Tuesday (2/7) afternoon and got worse overnight, despite the piles of rice I fed her to bulk things up. Our veterinary specialty hospital discharge instructions warned us this might happen as a side-effect from (primarily) the steroids Lilly is taking, but also as a consequence of the immune-mediator drug Lilly needs.

It is NOT a sign of her primary disease, but instead … just an icky outcome from the now 7 medications Lilly now takes as part of her recovery from meningoencephalomyelitis (inflammation of the brain and lining of the brain and spinal cord) after having an adverse rabies vaccine reaction.

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All of us at Chez Champion of My Heart remain in awe of the outpouring of love, support, and prayers in the wake of Lilly’s near-death experience with meningoencephalomyelitis. We have one more request … in addition to sending mojo for NO seizures and FULL recovery, please add SLEEP to our wishlist. We are tired!

Lilly has monster insomnia from the steroids (we assume). She only sleeps for 15-30 minutes at a time. Of course, it doesn’t help that she is crazy thirsty and needs to pee all the time — day and night — as well, but it breaks our heart that she hardly sleeps.

She cried, whimpered most of last night. In other words, no one around here is getting much sleep.

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I’m sorry it took me so long to post a blog update. Lilly’s hospital discharge on Sunday, February 5, 2012, took longer than expected, so we didn’t get home until around dinnertime. All of us were / are exhausted. The headline, however, is that Lilly is home … and as of this second has been seizure free since Friday, February 3, 2012, in the late afternoon.

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Rather than cutting down a great tree and bringing it indoors for the Yule season, we choose instead to decorate one on our land. We planted this tree many years ago. Boy, has it grown? I’ll need to buy more lights next year. Here are a few holiday decor pix from the girls of Champion of My Heart.

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Our decision to return Lilly to the full dose of her anxiety medications came in part from her escalated treatment of Ginko. Lately, she has been acting like Gandolf.

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After a few too many days of sub-zero temperatures on the mountain, I found myself desperate to do some bigger laundry — think sheets. Hearty girl that I am, I went out in 25-degree weather to hang out the sheets. Lilly came along and decided to play fetch, with this …

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A terrific cartoon by Gemma Correll is making the rounds on Facebook. It shows a female party goer making friends with the host’s cat. It’s funny because it’s true. While taking pictures of a bulldog named Margie at the Colorado Authors’ League party Saturday, a fellow writer asked, “Why are you doing that?”

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Taking a week “off” is relative, of course, meaning mostly not owing drafts to clients. Other demands of life continue. HOWEVER, Lilly and I ventured to Boulder for dog training class with our dog trainer Gigi Moss … for the first time this year. I’ll tell you how it went tomorrow. Today? A video showing just how much Lilly loves her dog trainer.

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It took four years and innumerable tries before we FINALLY got a new avatar photo of me and Lilly. I cannot tell you how many attempts to replace our favorite photo from December 2007 resulted in me sobbing. I’m not the most photogenic person, and I take bad photos personally. Here, then, is our new favorite picture … along with a few outtakes … because I really did NOT want to be that girl who uses a terribly outdated photo online.

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As promised, some agility humor for our dog training friends who already have earned or aspire to earn a Master Agility Champion title (MACH) with their dogs. Meet Chaos, a nationally ranked Labrador Retriever who TWICE had to earn her 20th and final double-Q to get her MACH #5. All this … at the age of 10.

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Tom took this picture the other night. Lilly likes to sleep on her back in the evenings. Sometimes, she brings one of her plush toys along. Here you’ll see just how much she loves her KONG Braidz Monkey that the fellas gave me when I toured the KONG factory in Golden, Colorado, earlier this year. It’s beyond cute.

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Sometimes I capture images of Lilly that reveal a sliver of her soul. She is the most earnest, sincere, and focused dog I’ve ever known. Observe. (I posted 3 of these photos to our Champion of My Heart Facebook fan page last week, but the others are debuting here.) Which one is your favorite?

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Who can resist a book review pitch with the headline, “Share the Awkwardness”? Not me, clearly. Here, then, is our book review of Awkward Family Pet Photos from Mike Bender and Doug Chernack, the New York Times best-selling authors of Awkward Family Photos. Don’t miss your chance to win a copy of the book. It’s a perfect gag item for upcoming holiday gift exchanges.

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I hate autumn. It’s my least favorite time of year, often steeped in angst and frustration. This year, however, autumn has been glorious, and if a girl like me says that, then you know it has been amazing. A couple weeks ago, I did an impromptu photo shoot of Lilly amid our fall foliage.

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The fact that Lilly lets me trim all of her toenails in a single sitting each week remains one of my greatest dog training victories. We call it Turkey for Toenails, but these days we typically use cheese. Alas, once in a while, I botch things and cause Lilly to bleed. It turns out dewclaws really gush.

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