Ethan’s Journey

 Day 6 with Mossimo. He enjoys camping. More progress was made today. Moe also went on the boat. He totally enjoyed riding on the boat. We ventured over to Wilson Bay and hung out for the afternoon. Jiminy was sunbathing. Of course he was dressed in his shark  life preserver and sun hat. We have got to keep the sun out of his eye. The weather was perfect. Even when I hopped in the lake it didn’t feel that cold. Paul took out the jetski. He later took Avery for a ride at sunset. The water was absolutely smooth like glass. Paul and Avery were cruising at 65-75 mph. What great bonding for them. We went to dinner at a local restaurant. The food was yummy. The people watching was hilarious. We rounded off the night with a campfire overlooking the lake. I love when the lake is so still.

Day # 5 with Mossimo. He did well. He had a lot of new experiences including meeting more new people, more dog friends, going on several long walks with his new brothers and sister. The dogs are all getting along well. Meeting new people is getting easier and easier. There is so much less growling and barking. We took Moe in the lake. I wanted to wash off his rescue stink and get him all spiffed up. He was confused by the waves a little. He liked standing in the water. But after I put the shampoo on, I had him go deeper where he had to swim. He swam fast. He is a strong swimmer. I think he didn’t overly enjoy it, but he got to where he could touch and he was just hanging out in the water. He got excited when he first got in and was hopping like a bunny in the water. Avery and I took Moe to a secluded spot and practiced “come!’  Off leash. He did well! Ethan went into the lake and piled a whole bunch of rocks together and called it an island. Now there are 1001 Islands.  Paul p...

 Day #4 with Mossimo. He has had a significant decrease in growling, aggressively barking and lunging at strangers. He is almost at a “normal” reactive state. I don’t trust him, but I have learned his ques. Moe went on several walks today. He got to use his long leash and explore the quiet country road with the other dogs. There were lots of things to sniff and pee on. He is a bit of a stealthy pooper and prefers to spin his rear around and poop in the brush. He sat quietly outside for a good majority of the morning without incidence. He was enjoying the sun. I used a fur minster on him and he didn’t mind too much. Ethan arrived at about 10:30. His drive was uneventful. He tried to pick up his meds from the pharmacy and the pharmacy said that his one rejection medication has been cancelled. Now he is actually running low. I am so frustrated with this pharmacy. I am ready to jump ship from this pharmacy but need to make sure our previous and awesome pharmacy can now process his insu...

 Day #3 with Mossimo. I started the day with taking the dogs out. It was raining. Penny and Ferguson had a giddy up in their step. Ferguson is stealthy. He tip toes like a dancing fairy in between the raindrops into my garden does his poops and pees lightening quick. Penny just pees and calls it a day. She earns crate time or else she will decide our house is her toilet. We try again later on these days with her. Jiminy uses his potty pad. He was trained on a potty pad and uses it well. I didn’t decide this, he came programmed like this. I hate it, but it works. Especially since he is not built for cold weather or rain….or crates. Mossimo did well today. He met some new people, was less timid, wasn’t lunging to aggressively attack, minimal growling and no barking. We will keep diligently setting the ground rules and reinforcing positive behavior. The weather was not pleasant. I spent a good portion of the day cleaning our house. Deep cleaning! There was rug shampooing, couch cushio...

Full day #2 with Mossimo. I have been studying him to see what his triggers are. It isn’t just men. It’s anyone new. It also seems worse if Moe is in between Ethan or I and said person. It is a resource guarding situation. To combat that, we are trying new things. This morning Moe heard Paul upstairs and did a low growl. To combat that, we took a walk (we still have him leashed anytime he is out of the crate) around the house to look at stuff.  One of the places we went was in our bedroom where Paul was minding his own business. Moe was distracted with new things to see and smell so he didn’t much care about Paul. He didn’t growl or bark. He let Paul approach him and pet him. That is progress. We just have to learn how to redirect him. Moe does fine when Ethan and I are home. The other dogs don’t mind him. We go on several walks around the field. He has graduated to his 30 foot leash for his walks. He walks very calmly and doesn’t pull. I also found that the bark deterrent device i...

We popped over to the lab this morning to get Ethan’s lab work. It took about an hour total which isn’t bad. I am thankful I can take my work with me. I still like to go because they ask Ethan questions like “which tests are we running today?” He doesn’t always know. Today was one of those days. After lab work, we rushed home so he could meet with his therapist. I was happy he shared his thoughts about this new possibility of immune disease. He does feel better knowing he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He shared a few more things and they talked through it. This lady is good because she asks questions without being therapist-y. It’s more conversational. I think Ethan responds better to that. I also got the ultrasound report back from Ethan’s kidney ultrasound. There was a small kidney stone seen. Of course there is! So that’s going to be so fun for Ethan to look forward to when he is starting a new job in 10 days. It’s quite small but it’s there. We have not gotten communication from the...

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. ...