Long Time, No Blog (Part II)

When we last heard from Sam, he was sick. Nasty spots had shown up on an x-ray of his lungs, and things seemed dire.

That was nearly a year ago, and Sam's still here--and he'll be twelve-and-a-half next month.

Yes, there's clearly something wrong with his lungs. Despite antibiotics and antihistamines last year (even before the x-rays), he still coughs. Sometimes he coughs worse than other times--harder and more frequently. But he's not gasping for breath, he's not choking. When the vet listens to Sam's lungs, things sound "all right."

Sam clearly has days when his spinal arthritis is bothering him. Even though cold weather hasn't set in here (it's 74°F outside right now), he's been in more pain lately, and we've gone back to his winter drug schedule (a last round of pills just before bedtime, to supplement the usual breakfast and dinner pills). With the extra pills, he's been sleeping better (typically, the sign of Sam-in-pain is Sam-awake). Since Silver's taking pills at twice-a-day and thrice-a-day intervals, pill-juggling around here is becoming quite a skill. (I programmed it all on my Google calendar with pop-up reminders. My Google calendar is synced with my phone's calendar, so a message like "2 doxycycline" will pop up on my phone and my laptop at the right time. Sam's messages are a different color than Silver's.)

Sam still plays with stuffies--throws them around the living room and pounces on them. He likes his walks, although we keep them short because his back legs want to give out: down to the corner and back, with pauses for petting from whatever neighbors are out. And Sam still likes to eat. He raids the kitchen trash can at least once a day. (It's a new can, but Sam mastered it within the first 24 hours; fortunately, it holds less than the old one, needing to be emptied more often, which gets the goodies out of Sam's reach.)

Today is a special day: it's Sam's tenth Gotcha Day. He first came home with me on 5 October 2002.



It's hard to remember when his face was that color. These days, it's this:



This afternoon, he'll get vanilla ice cream with whipped topping. (He already had whipped topping on his breakfast kibble.)

Enough time blogging, for now. It's getting late (after 12), and Sam wants my lunch.