6/26/24

We met with our new nephrologist this morning. Based on the trends we are seeing with Ethan’s lab work, they are going to do another kidney biopsy in 3 weeks.

Last year’s kidney biopsy ruled out rejection. But it did shed some light on an immune system disease that he has. He has a disease with his immune system that is causing his immune system to produce antibodies in his kidney. This triggers inflammation in the kidney. This inflammation lowers the kidney’s ability to filter out toxins, protein and more.

Basically, once they confirm it is this issue going on with the immune system and not rejection, they can give medication to slow down the progression of this disease process.

The kidney biopsy is already scheduled. Ethan seems to agree that he wants this as a next step. He also has a sense of relief that this is something out of his control. He was feeling like he was doing the right things and still getting bad results.

After work, Ethan and I drove to Buffalo to get our new dog. It was an odd process but it went smooth. 

A big van pulled in with many crates of dogs in the back. There were 9 families waiting with excitement to meet their new family member.

We stood out in the rain to get our paperwork. Then one by one, they handed out dogs and we were on our way.

Our dog seemed pretty chill. He hopped in the car and sat on the seat. Ethan popped in the back with him. Ethan was quite patient. 

This poor dog. He has had a tough few months. This week is going to be a whirl wind for him. He spent two long days traveling in a van with about 30 other dogs. All were crated.

He is handed over to us. We travel another hour and a half. Then he meets more new people and dogs. Spends the night in another unfamiliar place.

His face is all scarred up, ears tattered and torn in a couple spots. He has a double dew claw in the back that needs trimming in a bad way. We are going to wait on that stuff until he is more trusting of us. 

It is evident that he is not trusting of all of us yet.  He was nervous of Avery and Paul at first. He warmed up to Avery before long and was laying in her lap. He was quite nervous around Paul. He startles if you try to reach over the top of him to pet him. These are all things the rescue said he did when they first found him, but after a week or so, he began to trust them and really warm up.

He warmed up to Ethan and myself fairly quickly. He met Jiminy first. Jiminy is scared of him. This dog is calm which helps.

Then Penny. Surprisingly, Penny seemed to coexist just fine with him with minimal pouting. Ferguson allowed the new dog to sniff him but as soon as no one was looking, Ferguson got nasty and earned the rest of the night in his crate.

We tried to come up with names for over an hour. No one could agree and we were all trying to be respectful of names someone didn’t like.

After many ideas were brought to the table, we ended up deciding on Mossimo. We will call him Moe. We welcome our newest boy, Mossimo Diiulio. 

As Paul told someone last night “we are dog people!” (Animal people is more accurate but I wasn’t going to correct him on his work call).