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

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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Words cannot convey the exhaustion all of us feel as Lilly remains hospitalized, with new symptoms cropping up each day this week (so far). Thursday (2/2) was another long day, so just a few pix and notes and another video … before we tackle whatever comes up today (Friday 2/3).

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We were prepared to share moderate news (not worse, not better) about Lilly from Wednesday afternoon (and we will below), but a crushing early morning call brought a report that Lilly began having seizures overnight. Our neurologist called about 6:20 am with the news. He was en route to the hospital. While it wasn’t unexpected, we’re still devastated and worried 10 x more Thursday morning than we were Wednesday afternoon. Photos and video below from that visit. We won’t be able to see Lilly until about 1 pm today.

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Lilly, our intrepid canine heroine,  is an avid hunter of small game. Mice and voles, mostly. In spring 2009, we posted an hunting instructional video — master class, if you will — of Lilly at work. Today, we share the winter edition of Lilly hunting. Her initial pounce alone is worth a chuckle. (Don’t worry. She doesn’t catch anything.)

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Subtitle? How Lilly spent her holiday vacation. Being a crazy-smart girl, Lilly knows how to ride a snow sled while being pulled along, but she also sometimes rides down the hill with me. Over our holiday break, we enlisted Mr. Champion of My Heart to shoot some video.

I’m not keen on being immortalized in video bundled up in my bulky snow suit. We thought you might enjoy seeing what we did with all the snow that fell on the Winter Solstice.

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To balance the posts lately about Lilly being less than great to Ginko, here is a dog video showing how much the dogs really do love each other. Our holiday message for 2011? Nibble on the ones you love. Ho ho ho!

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It’s December 22! We made it. That days now get LONGER again. In celebration of Yule, two videos from years past of Lilly showing happiness knows no single season. Read the rest of this entry »

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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I cannot call this a review because I have NOT tried the product myself. However, I did attend a webinar last month for this new VueZone wireless webcam that’s being marketed to pet families as a way to monitor pets when you’re away. That includes, I’d guess, trying to decipher dog behavior problems that crop up.

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The Angry Birds craze reached our rural, smart-phone-lacking abode. Dog toys. We’re talking Angry Birds dog toys today. And, thanks to Hartz … we have 6 dog toys to give away for the holidays. Read the rest of this entry »

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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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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The day after Thanksgiving, when many still have pots and pans soaking, is a good time to share this video of Lilly putting away her dog toys. You’ll notice that she holds them down with her foot. That’s because she often puts her toys away with such enthusiasm that they fly out of the basket. No reward for that, so Lilly learned to make sure they stay put. Therefore, the foot bonus action became part of the dog trick.

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Happy Thanksgiving. To celebrate this festive occasion, we have two videos to share. The first shows Lilly howling on cue. The second shows Lilly “laughing.” This noise has been isolated by researchers and deemed dog laughter.

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