Fun Facts Friday - Furbabies

If you've read my posts this week, you know we've had a super sick dog. Our Heath Man has spent most of the week at the vet. He was diagnosed with Gallbladder Mucocele.

Gallbladder mucocele causes obstruction of the gallbladder's storage capacity due to the formation of a thick, mucoid bile mass inside the gallbladder, impairing its ability to function. The accumulated bile may extend the gallbladder, resulting in necrotizing cholecystitis – tissue death due to inflammation of the gallbladder.

It's pretty serious. He's been a very very sick boy. And we've been very very worried fur-parents as you can imagine.

Thankfully, he started to finally eat, drink water, and potty yesterday afternoon. He was still mopey, but they thought it might be because he was getting depressed and missing us. So, they let him come home. When he first walked in the door, he was his super chipper, bouncy self.

He ate about half of his dinner, then pretty much laid down the rest of the evening, not nearly has peppy, but certainly better than he had been on Monday. Still kind of hard to watch. Of course, we have no clue what the medicines' side effects could be. He's on 4 different meds. We all know how meds can affect us too. So I would assume they'd be the same for dogs.

Basically, we have a long road ahead and are just hoping and praying that he pulls through. That the medications and the new diet help. The only other option might be surgery, but the mortality rate with that is really scary too.

But, it's Friday. And I want to be happy (even though it's cold and rainy here). Since I've been talking about my furbaby this week, I thought it was only appropriate to keep up with that "theme" for Fun Facts Friday.

• I have had 4 cocker spaniels - clearly I'm a loyalist. 

• My first cocker was Abigail (Abby, AbbyLuLu, Turkey Butt, Absters) all black with one white speck on her chest - I had her for 14 years. 

• My second cocker was a rescue named Erin, a blonde cocker. She had been an owner surrender and a rescue organization saved her on St. Patrick's Day. They thought she was 5, vet thought 8. She had kidney disease and we lost her after only 5 years.

• Third cocker is Madeline, a Black-white Parti. We adopted her from the Dallas/Ft. Worth Cocker Rescue. She's a total wild child, spazoid.

• Fourth is Heath, a rather rare Sable Parti. We adopted him from a cocker spaniel rescue in Oklahoma. He's such a ham and a complete love bug!

Case in point - Heath hugging my friend Jessica

• I'm a huge proponent for adoption. Yes, they may come with problems, I'll admit that. Like Erin's kidney disease, Heath's genetic blindness, Maddie's craziness. But ultimately, it's worth it. 

• We tend to have a lot of nicknames for our dogs. Sometimes I wonder if we just confuse the crap out of them. 

Abigail: Abby, AbbyLuLu, Turkey Butt, Absters, Abs 

Madeline: Maddie, Madsters, MaddieMadMad, Madness the Badness, and sometimes a few choice words 

Heath: Heath Man, Bubby, Bubsters, Heathy Man, Heathy Dude

• Each one has had a completely different personality with their own quirks and eccentricities. 

• Abby would make a "lululu" sort of noise mostly because my mom taught her that. She'd say "Abby Lulu" and Abs would respond back (even when mom was on the phone).

• Maddie acts out a lot. When she's mad at us she'll get in her bed, on the couch, or in a chair and flip upside down, rolling around, make a guttural noise. It's quite funny to watch.

• Both Maddie and Heath have these insanely long eyelashes. 

• Abby hated baths and learned that she could go limp and it made it SO hard to bathe her. Maddie scoots up right under the faucet. 

Your turn - share something about your furbaby (if you have any). Rescues? Crazy habits? Crazy nicknames?