Okay, lots of catch up to do, but here I'll just do what Rene suggested about the new stuff we just put in.  Magic is four weeks today and doing very very well if he wasn't so damn stubborn and if everytime I see him I am popping another pill of some sort down him!!

So for 11 years for Magic and 17 years for OJ the wonder kitty with a million lives, they have learned, if it is black and rubber, it swings and is the pet door.  If it is clear, it is the GLASS door and you aren't going through it either way.  In an effort to make this door more tripawd friendly, I had a new door constructed (I was going to do that this year, just not quite THIS way)…So try to picture this (I will eventually post a picture)…screen door guy was inventing as he went…the opening is now 18 1 /2 wide and 33 3/4 tall …. I can darn near walk through it…well I can if my body would bend (it hurts too much to bend!!)…I would like it a little wider but this works very very well…EXCEPT I had it made all clear plastic…plastic on the top where screen would be (we have done that for years…stays warmer in the winter) and swinging plastic (we decided AGAINST a metal frame…just a hanging thick plastic…hopefully flies won't find the entrance or mosquitos)…so NOW the poor animals have to relearn that clear with a metal strip running across the top of swinging plastic, SWINGS and clear (all the way up) HARD means….bashing nose.  They can actually feel the air at the bottom and I think that is the clue.  I didn't let him do it alone til I had spent two days kind of shepherding him through and now he clears that threshhold of the screen door just fine and the back legs leap right after him!!!! 

So with THAT success under my belt, I realized that MY creation for a ramp/step to get Magic in my truck  (that the neighbor nailed together as per my instructions) not only weighed as much as an elephant, but wasn't going to work…I saw it in my head, but when I explained it to Magic in English, He listened in Canine and said ..no way tootsie.  So on this website, there is a petloader advertised and I am here to tell you it is a product that is EXACTLY the way it is advertised.  I got the heavier one because the steps were wider (remembering that Magic was 114 pounds, at first chemo he was 102 which is good since he needed to lose some but now he needs to eat damn it) and talked to the owner who said he would make it as light as possible (don't know if it is actually any different…have nothing to compare)  I got the four step one so that I can use it at a low spot (drag one of the truck bed cushions under the step to steady) or at regular pavement or sidewalk at full stretch.  It is a VERY GRADUAL stairway that is perfect…carpeted, heavy duty, not a bit wobbly.  (remember I got the heavier one so don't know about the lighter one)…

So I can't imagine this not working because he HATED the ramps and has been doing steps since about the 5th day or so….HA.  Did I ever mention how STUBBORN this animal is…and I mean stubborn (I may have mentioned the night he turned into a 114 pound purse that I had to lift and drag from outside to inside cuz he did not want to come in…my body hasn't recovered yet!!!).  I even had the neighbor dog run up and down (grrrr, just like I thought Magic would do)….it dawned on me when I started this that other than two years ago for about three or four months when I was taking him to some dog parks, the only time (because he was so reluctant and kept trying to jump out) he got in the truck was to go to the vet.  So here I am trying to get him to use these steps to get in the truck and he isn't having any of it at all.  I got a neighbor to be on the other side (he wasn't too helpful cuz he doesn't know when to LIFT and I end up doing it and I just can't lift that much up when he is on the steps cuz I'm SHORT) and we muscled him up and muscled him down.  Then he sits on the driveway with his BACK to the truck…contempt obvious in every bristlilng hair.  I'm still at this point thinking maybe it IS too much for him and maybe I AM pushing too hard (I have a problem with impatience…I think maybe this and having to syringe feed kidney failure kitty is God's lesson for this year!!)…So on Tuesday we try again…this time I get smarter and make my strong guy neighbor lift the front using the wonderful  ruff harness (omg that is such a lifesaver) and I tied the shopping back sling around his back quarters tight against him so that I had leverage…now the neighbor has the heavy part (  ) and we muscle Magic up and then down and then do it a second time.  What he does is put his one front leg up on the step then puts the two back ones on the lower step and I think "here we go, yay" and then he takes one foot ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF WHERE I AM STANDING SO I CAN'T SEE IT and puts it on the driveway, totally off the stairs. (yes, I did try changing sides…he's smarter than I am)  But muscle him we did and then he sat on the driveway again with his back to the truck (and me of course).  Sigh.  Maybe I am expecting too much…poor old guy.  Learning the new door and now these steps….I'm going to fast…so I take off his leash and he GALLOPS into the garage and I mean GALLOPS UP THE VERY STEEP COUPLE OF STEPS in the garage into the house…no stopping, no looking, no foot off anywhere, much steeper than the truck steps…I was so mad at him….like I said, stubborn. 

So I am thinking I need to take him somewhere at the same time Rene sends me an email suggesting the same thing…it must be meant.  So a friend comes over (neighbor went to work, friend has a clue when it comes to moving dogs and has a friend with a tripawd) we do the same thing he takes the front and I take the rear and we muscle him into the truck.   Then have to roll him off the foam pad since he won't move….just like coming in that night…102 pounds of dead weight.  But we get the tail gate closed and now he is puzzled.  Off we go to one of the parks (not dog park just regular park) that we used to walk to.    Put up the steps with one of us holding him back (that's ALL I'd need for him to try to jump out and break his remaining front leg…oh shudder shudder…today I'm  devising something to hook him in place while I do with two hands that four hands make easier).  Down he comes like he has done it before (now remember, first time was Monday, horrible.  Tuesday, just as bad.  Wed…..here we are) and if dogs can grin without actually grinning, Magic was in hog heaven…he was SOOOO happy to be somewhere else, somewhere he hasn't been for weeks and weeks, we were there for about 30 mins (trying not to overtire him is another thing I have to learn) then worked our way back to the truck and Randy put up the steps while I was attempting to secure Magic to a tree….Randy was done first (these things are SLICK I'm telling ya)…up those steps he went like he knew how!!!  We come home, put the steps up and down those steps he comes….like he had been doing it for a long time.  I still see a little uncertainty, but I think that is to be expected.  Today after my new water heater is installed (there is a sign on my roof that says…hey I think she has $25 left, have something else break) I am going to call Randy and we are going to do it again and then again on Friday and then he will need to go to the vet to have the last three staples out and the blood test they do after the first chemo.  They were going to come to the house, but were starting to make liability noises and if I can get him in, then that's what I'll do…but I think I'll have THEM get him in and out rather than try to manipulate the steps at the vets office in their crowded parking lot.  For the first couple of times after this week of training, I think I shall have someone stand by with me….I am so grateful for this friend…and I'm grateful for my neighbors and how helpful THEY have been…but now one of them has injured HIS back so is out of the helping line!!

Sorry this is so long, but I am incapable of talking or writing anything short….a real downside of my personality….I am sure like many of you the rollercoaster of emotions is so TIRING….one day I am so enthused cuz something went perfectly and then the next day nothing goes right.

Today I need to do some food research…don't want to go crazy, but have started those k9 immunity things and went to use the booster deal and I had ordered the people one instead of doggie one…and how to get 10 capsules down him (that is just THAT supplement)..I am also grateful his oncologist and regular doc are fine with supplements just told me not to do a bunch of antioxidants while we are doing chemo…apparently that interfers with the chemo?  I am very stupid about all this and you can only ingest so much before you get a tummy ache of the brain…..

Hope this helps…boy I can recommend my doggie/kitty door and that wonderful petloader set of steps…..

Thanks for reading…..now you will all need a nap

Diane, Magic and OJ  (someone will have to show me down the road, not today, how to do the signature things in the box at the bottom of the posts…)