Oh, Bella.

From Drop Box

This past weekend, I noticed our puppy, Bella, was limping. She was also whining and not as active as normal. Come Monday, we took her to the vet and I was assuming she’d come home with some sort of “sports injury” as a diagnosis.

Sadly, I was very, very off.

Bella, only around 9-10 months old, has hip displasia on both back legs. On her right side, she has absolutely no liagment left. The hip is bone on bone with no socket. On the left side, it’s very similar, but she does have a little, yet dwindling quickly, of a socket formation.

This is a genetic disorder for bulldogs, but Bella’s case is progressing rapidly and far too early in her life.

My bulldog, the one that’s brought the boys nothing but joy, entertainment and love this entire summer, will never be the same again.

She will undergo surgery, yes, on Tuesday. We will see months of rehab for her in hopes that she’ll run again. Jumping, however, may be out of the question.

It brings me to tears to think of our world without her so soon. Not only would I be crushed without her adorable face, but the boys would shatter. She is their sibling, in a lot of ways. Playing soccer for hours, she’d take the ball and the boys would run in circles after her, giggles in tow.

Not going to lie, I hate most people’s “LOOK AT MY DOG!” posts. No one loves your dog like you. But Bella… she is special. And she doesn’t deserve this.

So as silly as it is, please keep her in your thoughts/prayers/jujus. She has a tough road ahead.

From Drop Box

From The Window, To The Wall

It’s 7:32 AM and I’m on hour 6 of sleep. Not too shabby, right?

But then it stops. 

“Hey. I think I’m going to need you in the bathroom.” Michael practically snorts at me.

Not knowing any better, I stumble in the direction of the bathroom (thanks, sleep meds, for making the stumble more of a “drunken fall”) and am met mid-master bedroom with an odor.

I turn the corner to find brown “sludge” 3 feet out each direction from Bella’s dog crate. It’s on the walls. It’s on the cabinets. It’s in the grout.

It’s dried.

So here’s where I start my Monday. At 730 scrubbing dried dog vomit out of the grout/off the floor/out of the cabinet creases/off the walls. And for the record, getting it… ::shudder:: undried went well with Clorox Green Works All-Purpose. But getting it out of the grout went even faster with plain old Clorox poured on and let to sit for 3 minutes. (Seems counter productive for going green, no?)

Then, I scrubbed my BODY down, and made breakfast. Because, damnit, even though I’ve been scrubbing literal shit off everything for an hour, people still have to be fed (Note: I will not be scrubbing shit before I make you food if you visit. Just thought that needed to be said).

Afterwards, I started sweeping the floor from the aftermath of the In-Law Tornado that whipped through my home this weekend leaving my freshly swept floors rather … ABSOLUTELY NASTY.

While said floors were being swept, Thing 1 and Thing 2 decided to start a food fight - with dog food. In aforementioned scrubbed master bathroom (and I failed to hear them over my ipod, FTR) . They managed to get halfway through a 5 gallon container before I discovered their “good times”.

I proceeded to do what any self-respecting southern mama would - I clothed their bottom parts, slapped on some bug spray, and chucked them in the backyard while I RE-CLEANED the bathroom floor.

But what do I hear 5 minutes in? What is that Conner is yelling at me through the window?

“Chase dumped the dog food out!!!”

OMG.

The TEN gallon puppy food bucket we keep on the back porch was DUMPED. OUT.

And that dog that threw up all night? Yeah. She was GOING TO TOWN on it. Ugh. 

I had Conner fetch (lol) the broom while I held back Bella (the bulldog in case anyone needed that cleared up previously, but I failed to do so until now). I swept it all up, dumped it back into the bucket, hosed down the crate from that morning (which had been hauled outside for obvious reasons), and lugged it back inside (it weighs around 30-40 pounds and is about 4.5 feet long and 3 feet tall).

Then i sat down and considered a nap - at 12:20.

Baby In The Hallway... And The Bulldog In A Crate

Friday & Saturday must have been EXTREMELY hard on everyone in the house. Might I present my examples:

1) I found this in the hallway:

From Drop Box

2) Which matches this:

From Drop Box

(Bella finally had her eye surgery… she is um… recovering well. Lots of sleep and whatnots. Or just being a bulldog… ::eyeroll::)

3) Because against all odds and medical-crap-ness and etc I was *somehow* able to drink these:

From Drop Box

But not without a price because the next day I went to McWane Center with the kids, got a ticket on the way, wanted to CRY (after having fun) because I was utterly EXHAUSTED, yet still had to drive home 2 hours. So on Saturday night (after working in the hot sun for 6ish hours), I fell asleep at 8:15.

… exactly.

And I barely remember half of the day.

4) 

From Drop Box

This has absolutely nothing to do with my semi-topic, but it was damn cool.