More Junior Ranger Fun

You might remember that Boo earned his Junior Ranger badge at Denali National Park and at Kenai Fjords National Park this summer. Well, when he earned the one at Kenai Fjords, he told the Park Ranger that it was his second one. The Ranger went on to tell us that if he earned three badges in AK, he would earn a Junior Ranger patch.  So of course, he has been asking since then to get his third badge and patch. It turns out there is a National Park building in Anchorage, the Public Lands building. You can earn a badge there. Whew! So, we set off this past week to the Public Lands Building. Boo completed his activities (with a little help from Mom on a word find that was WAY too hard for his age group) and was sworn in yet again as a Junior Ranger. He's an Alaska expert now, I think.

They even swore in Bit this time. She's really too young and the other places were pretty strict about their program and would not swear her in at her age, which I understand. Boo earned his.  And when she is older, she can earn hers too.

But they swore her in and she was so excited. She kept telling me that she was a big girl because she got her badge. :)

The Ranger checking off his work.

Getting sworn in.

Alaska Greatland Junior Rangers

They've really played so well together this summer.
Bit is gonna miss him when he starts school.

THE PATCH!

Sandy Girl

Our Sandy Girl gave us quite the scare recently. She was having some difficulty breathing after coming back from a walk in the hot, humid, south. After some time, BeBe and PawPaw were able to get her calmed down and breathing okay. But the next day, she had a similar episode and so BeBe made an appointment for her to see the vet. Well, Sandy Girl doesn't like going to the vet. As soon as you get there, she starts panting and shaking. And she did just that when Mama took her in, which sent her into another episode and she was really struggling to get any breath. They took her from Mama and tended to her in the back and had to put her on oxygen and sedate her to calm her down.

The diagnosis: laryngeal paralysis (common in older, large breed dogs). Her vocal chords aren't moving as much as they should and they were getting swollen and inflamed when she would get hot or worked up/stressed out. It was causing her airway to close. The vet described it as trying to breathe through a collapsed straw. They had to transfer her to the emergency clinic because her condition required specialty care and perhaps some further tests that they could do there.

PawPaw joined them at the regular vet and helped carry BeBe and Sandy to the ER vet. My understanding is that Sandy was so excited to see PawPaw, that she got too excited and they had to get her calmed down again. They were finally able to transfer her. The ER vet recommended a tie-back surgery. They would tie back one of her vocal chords so that she would always have an airway. The complication with this procedure is that she wouldn't be able to close her airway when eating and drinking and could aspirate.  After some time though, the dogs seem to get used to it and don't have any difficulty. Hopefully.

Of course, B-man was in the field during all of this. I was a nervous wreck. BeBe was too. PawPaw, as usual, was our voice of reason. The surgery was big bucks too. I didn't know what to do. So, I decided to send her home on sedation meds until I could talk it over with B-man. So BeBe and PawPaw took her home and she did pretty good on the meds. B-man called and I talked it over with him. He made the choice so easy for me. Thank you, Honey.   We had to give our Sandy Girl a chance. She's old, yes (13). But, she's so healthy and spry otherwise. She could go on to live her happy laugh after the surgery. So, we scheduled the surgery and waited.

I thought of all of our times together. My Sandy Girl. She was born under BeBe and PawPaw's front porch. We've had her from the beginning. She moved with me to Colorado and was my first battle buddy. She is always happy to see you. Always. She is so loyal too. Before we moved here, she followed me everywhere I went and joined me to and from the baby's rooms on multiple nighttime nursing missions. I would try to tell her to stay, but she would come anyway. Following me anywhere. I think she's following BeBe around the same way now.
She has THE softest fur of any dog I've ever met. And it' still soft at 13 years old.

I'm happy to report that she's recovering well. PawPaw said they must've given her a bath and groomed her up real good b/c she looked so pretty when he picked her up after surgery. They are having to prepare her foot in meatball size portions for now and she's on a limited activity restriction for a couple of weeks. But seems to be doing well.

I miss my Sandy Girl and our Mur Mur!!! The brown one has reportedly been a little jealous of the attention Miss Sandy has been getting. :)
Siblings.

Also, BeBe and PawPaw, feel free to correct me on any mistakes I've made in the telling of her story. I was kind of a blubbering mess during the whole thing and might not have it all right.

I also can't thank you enough BeBe and PawPaw for taking care of our 4 legged babies. They love it at your house. In fact Sandy would sleep in the car all the way across country and barely even look out the window when we would drive home for visits. But the MOMENT we would turn down CCR, she knew it and would perk up and start wagging her tail. She always knew when we were close to home.  And was/is always glad to be there.

Thanks to technology, I was able to Face Time with her throughout the ordeal. She can't really see me, but she can hear me. :)

After her visit at the ER vet. She was pretty zonked out here.

I had to see her one more time before they took her in for surgery.

HOME!

After surgery.

We love you Sandy Girl and Mur Mur!!

Fishing

B-man encouraged Boo and I to take a fishing trip. He's so busy with work and studies, it's hard for him to get away for a full day of activity. B-man went fishing our first summer here (although it was really late in the season) and really wanted us to have a chance to go. So, while B-man was in the field, I got a sitter for Bit, and Boo and I set out on a fishing adventure.

It rained and rained the night before our fishing trip and on the drive up to the fishing spot. Rained. Rained. Rained. I kept thinking, what are we doing? Boo is going to be miserable and then I'm going to be miserable. We arrived at our destination and the guide was all get your rain gear and let's go. Ok, so we were really doing this. Boo started to cry when putting on his boots. I swore I would never take him anywhere ever, ever again if he didn't get it together (not my best parenting moment, but it's true). Turns out he wasn't crying about the rain, but b/c his sock was all bunched up in his boot and he couldn't get it on. Cry-worthy? Probably not. But it was easily fixed.

We hopped on the guide's boat and headed up the river.  It was wet and chilly. And Boo didn't complain at all. I couldn't believe it. We arrived at our first spot and got to fishing. A guy that was also fishing with us caught one first and when Boo saw it flapping around in the water, he was outta there! He kept saying, those fish are WILD! So, he would help me cast and reel, but when we got a fish on, he would head to the front of the boat. Lol.

It stopped raining and the sun came out! Yay! We continued to fish and we caught our limit. 2 per/person. We were fishing for silver salmon. The guide was slightly bossy. He was helping one gentleman whose license was going to expire in just a couple of hours and he was barking orders at him to the point where the guy just froze. No matter which way he moved, the guide was hollering something. I thought to myself, oh hell. This is not going to go well.  Just wait until he tries to help us.  I don't even understand the fishing terms he's using.  And from the looks of the guy the guide was "helping", he didn't either. Which actually made me feel a little bit better. We were all novices. Now, I know the guide just wanted us to CATCH FISH. That's his job and that's what he gets paid for, so I just had to let it go and listen and hope to God I could follow his instructions! We started catching fish right away, so I think that took some pressure off of all of us, guide included. In fact, we all caught our limit in 3 hours. Pretty awesome!

The rain came back in on our ride back to the landing. But we were happy as clams because we had our fish! Boo and I caught the biggest ones on the boat.  It was a big adventure and one that I was glad to share with our Boo. I hope it's one that he will always remember.

Anchorage Museum

Boo starts kindergarten on Tuesday. I'm not ready to talk about it. Just know there is a lump in my throat as I sit here and type and think about him going off to school.

So, rather than talk about that, I'll fill you in on our recent adventures. B-man had to go to the field for some training for a couple of weeks in August. The little ones and I tried to stay busy by checking out some things we haven't done yet. The Moms Club was hosting a play date at the Anchorage Museum, so we joined them. The kiddos had a blast. And they were quite well behaved. I rather enjoyed myself as well.

Giant bubble making was a big hit.

Keep it steady.

Starfish!

Anemones. All of the creatures were found along the shores in Homer.

Picnic lunch afterwards.

I'm trying to get caught up on posts again, so there will be several over the next couple of days as we near the start of school.

Jumping in the Rain!

The temps outside are getting cooler. Which means one thing...time to prepare for winter.
The little ones have outgrown their boots.

Let the search begin.
I found some for Bit from last season on sale at 6pm.com.
I had to do some more searching for Boo's boots. They're still being shipped.

They day after Bit's arrived, we set out to play in the rain.
If we wait for it to stop raining, we might run right into snow. That's how fall works around here. Rain.....snow. 

And I'm not ready to hibernate just yet.

Lil Bit was more than enthusiastic about playing in the rain in her "new flower boots".
Boo was not as excited, but in the end he couldn't resist.

Backyard Fun!

Ring around...

...the rosie.

A pocket...

...full of posies.

Ashes,

ashes.

We all...

...fall down!