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

These tri-color, smooth coat border collie puppies were born at Valdemar Farm in Fort Lupton, Colorado (where we take herding lessons). The litter is jokingly known as “Big Head Todd and the Monsters.”

This is Big Head Todd. His head really isn’t *that* big. It just looks bigger because it’s all white.

We made a little puppy tribute video to all the “monsters” (5 boys, 1 girl). I should have been more methodical in my picture-taking. I’m not sure I show each puppy individually, and I’m pretty sure I show some more than once in the video. BUT, I just picked the pictures I liked best.

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Next up in our gallery of changes since Lilly developed meningoencephalomyelitis / meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and lining of the brain and spinal cord) after an adverse vaccine reaction to a rabies vaccine is this video showing how much trouble Lilly has holding a simple sit. Sometimes, her front feet slide out. Sometimes, we joke that she must have “butter on her butt.”

Our veterinary neurologist points out that Lilly’s brain inflammation has more to do with body awareness and control, but this sure looks like a strength issue to me. What do you think?

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Monday, we showed you some agility highlights as Lilly recovers from her neurological troubles. Today, we prove that it isn’t always pretty.

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At our last veterinary neurology appointment, Lilly got the OK to do agility and other more strenuous tasks so that her brain can start figuring out how to rewire certain movements. I convinced myself that Lilly jumped differently and weaved weirdly, but after looking at old agility videos, it seems more like Lilly exaggerates her movements following her “brain injury.” Videos, ahoy!

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One of the weird outcomes from Lilly’s ill-fated rabies vaccine that resulted in meningoencephalomyelitis (inflammation of the brain and lining of the brain and spinal cord) is that Lilly now makes CRAZY, new noises. Observe.

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Cue the sports-training-montage music from the movie Rocky. In recent days, Lilly has shown marked improvement in her strength and body control. We still remind her to be “careful” or to “go slow” on stairs, but as you can see in this new video update, Lilly is getting stronger.

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As the rampant inflammation slowly subsides, Lilly is getting fewer nosebleeds. Her nose is still all crusty and blocked, though. So, I had to share this video of her sleeping and trying to breathe.

A few other important data points:

• 2 weeks … how long Lilly has been seizure free
• 1.5 pounds … how much weight Lilly has regained since the brutal, week-long diarrhea stopped
• 2 … the number of times Lilly now wakes us up each night for help (compared to 10-12 per night)
• 2/23 … Lilly’s next recheck appointment with our neurology team
• $865 … the amount raised via chip-in to help pay Lilly’s veterinary bills, including money sent my mail and other means (outside the chip-in).

Thank you! We haven’t had time to send individual notes, but we are humbled and grateful for each person who has sent us money. Here is a link to the Champion of My Heart chip-in explanation page. After next week’s recheck appointment, I expect our total costs of saving Lilly’s life to reach $8,000.

Still no insurance or other financial assistance news on the official front.

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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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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 »