Here's an updated pic of Carter just trying to take a snooze and Moocha decided to cuddle up with him.  He didn't move an inch when she jumped up on him. 

Carter had a pretty good Christmas.  He ended up having some prime rib x-mas eve and got to open presents. However, on Christmas day he refused to eat then for 2 days but he is back at it again.  He is kinda up and down with how much he eats, but mostly on the up side.  His first present was a duck that quacked and he managed to start de-stuffing it so I took it away.  I felt bad so went and bought him an un-stuffed animal and that worked out well until he swallowed the squeaker.  He has become a little OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) with certain things, one being toys.  He also constantly wants to lick my GR's ears.  We are still waiting for the squeaker to work its way through his system, so far nothing and it has been almost 48 hours.  Good news is that he is eating just fine and keeping food down and things are working at the other end, just no squeaker yet.  Silly dog.

He of course is still enjoying the snow and loves to make doggie snow angels and just lay around in it.

He wishes everyone a Happy New Year.

Thought I would send in some more photos of Carter. In these pics he has our puppy's toy and is not willing to give it up for anything as you can see by the treats balanced on his nose. One photo is of my son trying to take the toy away from his grip but he has jaws of steel. I had even wedged a treat into his mouth thinking he would have to drop the toy to eat it. It ended up sitting there for a little bit. In the end he could no longer resist. My Golden ended up destroying his last stuffed toy so I went and bought him a new one. He now has a beaver, but he still likes Mocha's toys if he has the chance to get them.

There have been some changes in Carter health wise, unfortunately. He has had a decreased appetite, including not wanting to eat for a couple of days. I was able to get him to eat leftovers from our dinner one night and the following night I had taken him to my nephew's football game and we had hot dogs for dinner. He is now back to eating his dog food but in much smaller quantities. He also has been struggling with our deck stairs and getting up on the furniture. His legs have given out at times and he falls. Although at other times he does fine. We just help him along if he needs it. If need be he will start going out the front door to do his duties as it is only 2 steps. He will do the stairs up to our 2nd level but only at bedtime. He used to follow me up there all the time but I think it is getting too much for him. He is still chasing tennis balls but not as often or as fast.

But the good news is that he doesn't seem to be in any pain and he has not had any breathing problems. We will just keep a close eye on him and pamper him with lots of love and attention.

Thanks for reading up on our special guy who has now been with us for 14 months, 10 months longer then the vets thought he would live.

If Carter is feeling up to it we are going to stop by the Senior event in Maple Grove on the 18th.

Again another goofy pic of Carter taken with a camera phone. He is wearing my son's art project, a basket he wove in art class.

Carter is still battling his hot spot but it does continue to improve slowly. He has become so good about getting his topical meds on it. I have him sit and ask him to give me his paw and he does. We keep a sock sleeve over it for about 10 minutes so it has time to absorb without him disturbing it. He is pretty good about leaving it alone.

Carter has been having some episodes of choking while eating. My dogs frequently have this problem because they inhale their food, however he doesn't. He doesn't become in any distress but I always keep a close eye on him when this happens. It does not happen every time he eats. The other night it happened again and when I peeked over the counter to check on him he had finished eating but there were splatters of blood in his bowl. I also noticed some around his mouth. I checked out his mouth and could not see anything out of the ordinary and he had stopped with the coughing and appeared to be fine. He has since had 2 more meals with no coughing or choking, but felt the situation warranted a trip to the vet. They did check his hemoglobin and he is mildly anemic but nothing alarming. They also took a chest xray and I was able to see his xray from a year ago and today's. The vet said he has had some changes since last year and I was able to see the progression of the cancer in his lungs. However given that he is eating, drinking, comfortable and happy we are not going to change anything at this time. He has had a weight loss over the year of 4 lbs so we are going to try and get him to eat a little more. I might have to spoil him some more with canned dog food, I'm sure he won't mind that. He still loves to chase tennis balls and now frisbees in the yard. He is working on catching the frisbees too.

Carter and the rest of our clan is going to be welcoming a new fur baby to the household. I believe I mentioned that our Jack Russell passed away from pancreatic cancer. I had all the intention to adopt a JR about 6-8 years of age from a rescue and none of the dogs we met seem to be a match for us. I had a friend of mine mention that a breeder friend of hers has a pup that she is looking for a good home for since it only has 3 legs. Well hey we have gone that route already. So this JR that I had planned on getting is now a Yorkie. So look for some new pics of Carter and his new baby fur sister. It ought to be interesting to see his reaction. We will try and catch it on film.

Here are a couple of new pics of Carter. The other night he thought he should just lay on top of me on the couch. He was pretty content but it was a little uncomfortable for me so it didn't last long. The other pic is one of his favorite spots in the backyard, under the bushes. He digs a little bit to get some cool dirt and plops down. My daughters play the I spy game with each other trying to find him. He is still enjoying many games of fetch in the back yard. We still have to have at least 2 balls going. I just can't believe how fast he can run and he keeps low to the ground when retrieving. If we toss the ball high in the air he will try and catch it, usually after the first bounce.

The dogs were a little out of sorts and confused at the beginning of the week as we had to help our Jack Russell cross the Rainbow Bridge this past Sunday. The kept looking for her in the back yard (the last place they were all together). She also had cancer, different type from Carter's, hers was very aggressive and unfortunately not a really treatable one. Carter seems to miss her the most. We did however get him a couple of new soft toys with squeakers in them and they are for the most part still intact. The JR would rip them to shreds if she got a hold of them.

I had to pick up some pills for him at the vet and brought him along just to check his weight and he actually gained about 2 lbs. I was amazed as his appetite has diminished some. Maybe it is all that muscle he is building up from playing fetch.

We got a hamster the other day and introduced it to the 2 GR. Our resident dog wasn't all that interested but Carter was. My daughter had the hamster in a round ball and was holding it. Carter just kept licking the ball and when we took the ball out of his reach his teeth would chatter, it was a most unusual thing, pretty entertaining.

That's all for now.

Hi, just wanted to give an update on Carter:

We just dogsat Carter for a week and what a perfect dog!  He got along great with our resident golden.  He followed us around the house at first, but eventually found his spot at the foot of the couch.  There, he would chew on his favorite kong tennis ball and whatever other stuffed animals he could find.  We took Carter on a couple of walks and he did fine on the gentle leader.  He loved to sit outside on the hill...there he could see over the fence, and he would watch all the cars drive by.  At home, he was fine laying at the foot of our bed on a dog bed.  Never any issues with him, he is a very sweet boy!

Carter had a great Christmas.  He recieved a couple of toys and so far his "baby" (the purple toy in his mouth) has not been distroyed by my Jack Russell.  He loves to carry it around.  We had to add another pain pill to his regimen and he is prefectly content now and has had no side effects from any of his meds.  He continues to LOVE the snow and I think it has been great physical therapy for him.  It provides great traction and cushion for him. He just tears around the yard.  We play daily in it and he has started to play a little with my dogs.  I think my JR is in love with him as she is constantly trying to get him to play with her and will go and sit by him too.  This is very unlike her, she is a pretty independent dog.  His fur from his surgical site is almost as long as the rest of his fur now.  He doesn't seem sensitive in that area either as he doesn't mind being touched or petted there.  Nothing else new to report.