Dad’s Coming Home

Fewer words can get Miles as excited as those three.

In fact, “Wanna treat” might be the only thing I can say to Miles to get him more excited.

During my stay at home this past week, I got to learn a lot about Miles’ behavior during the day.  He’s pretty lazy most of the time, perfectly content to sleep on the sofa or lounge on the porch.  Once in a while, he’ll get really riled up and toss a toy around, growl at it, kill it, then settle in for another nap.

I also learned that he gets really, really excited to know that Billy is on his way home.  The first time I told him, I was completely unprepared for his reaction.

Miles was on the porch, monitoring the goings on in his front yard.  I called for him, “Miles, guess what?  Dad’s coming home.”

Next thing I know Miles is on top of me on the couch looking out the window.  I drag myself out from under him and look at his eyes.  You know those “crazy eyes” dogs get when they are about to lose control and get really hyper?

He had that look.

It’s terrifying when it’s your 50 pounder and he’s inches from your face.

Miles tears off the couch and runs to the porch to look outside.  Nothing.  He flies back onto the couch and looks out of the window.  Still nothing.  Then he hears the low roar of Billy’s car pulling into the driveway.  He dashes for the front door, sits and looks up at the door knob, just waiting for it to turn.

When Billy does come inside, Miles knocks him over then leaps onto me on the couch and heads back for more of Billy.  It’s nothing short of Dino welcoming Fred Flinstone home from a hard day of work at Slade Gravelpit.

Meanwhile, Honey–who is just as excited–doesn’t stand a chance.  Everytime she gets close to Billy, here comes Miles to heard her out of the way.

I’m happy to know that Miles is picking up on words and phrases.  I take for granted how much Honey knows that he doesn’t yet.

But don’t think this means that Billy is Miles’ favorite.  I still don’t think he’s made that decision yet!

The Good Nurse(s)

Hello, Strangers!

It’s been a while, yes, but I have a doctor’s note for my absence.  I have been terribly under the weather since about Tuesday of last week, missing work and an important event.  And while I’ve been at home I’ve been under the care of my in-home nurses.

Honey has always taken exceptional care of me when I’ve been ill.  She will rarely leave my side, preferring to keep an eye on me at all times.  Even when the back deck was accessible for her to sun (her most favorite thing to do), she stayed next to me on the couch.

And she even stays low key, not begging for pets which she normally does when lounging on the sofa with us.  She becomes uber-watchdog, viciously barking at the man who insists on bringing us bills.

This was the first time for me to be home sick with Miles and I wasn’t even sure he would notice.  Honestly, the first day I don’t think he did.  But I left the back door open and let him have access to the Carolina Room all day.  He was happy as a clam.  (That dog’s favorite place in this house is sitting in the corner of the screened in porch, monitoring the front yard.)

The second day, I think he began to notice that something wasn’t right with Mom.  His approach at nursing is a bit more, well, in your face compared to TBDE.  Miles thinks that enticing me with his toys or serving as my own electric blanket is the way to go.

I woke up once from a nap to see Miles standing over me, the long arms of a monkey toy grazing my nose.  “I’ve got a great monkey toy!  Doesn’t that make you feel better?”  And having a 200 degree blanket is great for the every-other-five-minutes I was freezing.  It was the time in between when I was burning up that having Miles on top of me wasn’t so great.

I’m finally feeling better and I’m so grateful they were around to keep me company.  Napping on the couch and watching countless hours of Food Network is so much better with my two buds snuggled up next to me.

And now for some great news we’ve been waiting to hear.  Miles went in for blood work on Friday.  The results came in today, so drum-roll please…white blood cell: normal, some other test: normal, platelet count: 231,000!!!  That’s right, 231,000!!!!  It was down to 4,000 at his worst.  He’s done with the medicine and we’ll have his blood checked again in one month, just to be sure everything is still moving in the right direction.

This is easily the best news Billy and I have received in a long time.  I can’t tell you how grateful we both are to everyone who had Miles in their thoughts and who inquired about him.  (Even our neighbors who we’ve never met and saw us in the front yard last week!!)  I’m looking forward to many years of blogging about our Life With Miles!

New Vocabulary Word

Medicine.

It’s a shame, but this word is now part of Miles’ vocabulary.  It’s a word that not even Honey knows.

Granted, I’m pretty sure Miles thinks medicine means peanut butter…he gets his pills atop a spoonful of Peter Pan each morning and night.  But how sad is it that he knows this word?

I didn’t even realize that he knew this word until I was able to distract him from a plate of cherry turnovers on our coffee table last night by asking him if he wanted to take his medicine.  Here’s how it went:

Miles (slight reaction) do (nothing) you (nothing–at this point, Honey would be all about whatever was coming out of my mouth next) want (still nothing) to (no way) take (nada) your (zip) medicine (head turns, ears perk, tail wags)? 

Then he ran into the kitchen and sat down by the counter where we keep his pill bottles.  I’m figuring that Miles will need to have a spoonful of peanut butter every day for the rest of his life…with or without medicine!

As for his progress, he is back to his old self then some!  He’s running and playful.  He cares about his toys again.  (Yesterday, he played with 10 different toys in 10 minutes.)  He’s instigating wrestling matches with TBDE.  He’s getting into lots of trouble.

We go back to the vet on Friday for more bloodwork and I just know that he will pass all his tests with flying colors!!!

Thanks, Billy…

…but could you give me a warning next time?

Billy, TBDE, Miles and I were sitting on our back deck, reading the Sunday paper and enjoying the non-rainy Sunday morning.  Before I had even opened the paper, Billy warned me not to read his column.  (For my regular readers, you know I avoid all animal abuse stories and he had written about the most recent, horrific case in Lee County.)

I am a huge fan of his column, so he told me he would read it aloud to me and leave out the parts I couldn’t handle, as the majority of it was about Miles and his non-erlichia.

I’m thoroughly enjoying it until he offers the reader to visit my blog to read more about Miles’ progress.

Screech!

I jumped up and ran over here to post something new!  See, yesterday, Miles provided no inspiration (meaning: he was a pretty good boy Saturday) for a new post, so I wrote about my other favorite Miles: Les Miles.  Well, I just can’t have people coming to my blog expecting to read about the dog and seeing something about LSU at the top of the page!!

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the parts of Billy’s column that were appropriate for my ears.  Yes, our vet bills have been insane.  Yes, we have been stressed over his health.  And, yes, we would do whatever it takes to ensure Miles has a long, happy and healthy life with us.

He has brought so much joy (and an equal amount of destruction and mischief) to our lives.  And I think even Honey would miss him if he wasn’t around!

Life With Another Miles

I know it’s only May 3, but I wanted to let you all know something so you wouldn’t be surprised when it happened. See, Miles didn’t get his name just because it’s an awesome dog name that fits him perfectly. No, Miles is named for the brilliant, exciting Mad Hatter himself, Coach Les Miles of LSU.

My parents raised me right, and that was by taking me to nearly every LSU home game from as far back as I can remember through high school. To say I’m a fan is inadequate. I’m rabid. I’m insanely superstitious. I get so worked up that TBDE can sense what’s about to come and leaves the living room before the games even start.

So, it was shortly after celebrating our 2nd BCS National Championship (Geaux Tigers) in January that we found Miles (then named Zeb). As we were trying to come up with a name, I mentioned to Billy that I’d like an LSU-related name. He mentioned the Great Coach and thus Zeb was dubbed Miles.

I’m telling you all this because I realized today that there would most certainly be some LSU-related posts once football season starts. (See, Coach Miles kicked troublemaker Ryan Perrilloux off the team yesterday. Which I totally understand, but am now a little terrified because I haven’t seen our other QB options which means they don’t have a lot of experience.)

For any readers located here in ACC Country, don’t groan. I promise it won’t be much. Just my thoughts after the game (as long as they are printable) and after any major news. Really, no more than once a week. For my SEC readers (woo hoo), I’ll look forward to your thoughts in the comments!

Until then, enjoy two of my favorite Les Miles Moments!

No, Coach Miles, YOU have a great day!

Watch the Mad Hatter’s reaction to this successful play.  Classic.

Not Erlichia?

Well, this is a mystery.  I just got a voicemail from the vet and Miles’ tick tests came back negative.  So, it wasn’t the Erlichia causing his low blood platelet count.

He’s doing so much better that I hate to question what’s going on, but we can’t help but wonder just what the heck happened.

Miles will continue on his current meds and he goes back for additional blood work late next week.  I really either want to know exactly what the problem was or get some kind of guarantee this will never, ever, ever happen again.

Wake Up Call

Hmm.  What got me out of bed this morning?  Not my alarm clock.  Not the fact that I had one hour to get ready and be out of the house by 6:30 .  Nope, it was a loud “thump” that got me up and at ‘em.

Poor Miles fell out of bed, something he hasn’t done since he was itty bitty.

What’s that?  You thought Miles wasn’t allowed to sleep in the big bed with us?  Right.  Well, after going through a very scary situation like we did last week, in which you think the newest member of your family might not be with you much longer, you’re more than happy to have him curl up next to you in bed!

And isn’t a giant, sweet, soft, lovable puppy a better wake up call than the annoying beep of your alarm clock?

So Excited

We are waiting on the results from Miles’ blood work.  We should know more Thursday.

In the meantime, you might never guess anything was wrong with him.  I am at home for lunch and when I walked in the door, he greeted me as though he had not seen me in a month!  He’s sleeping under the desk right now, just to be as close to me as possible.

Hmm…maybe I can work from home the rest of the week?!?  (Just kidding, Bob!)

Back Home

After 15 hours in the car, 6 states and several attempts to climb into the driver’s seat, Miles is back home.

We visit Dr. Myers today at 3:40 and will report back to you soon!

Leaving Lafayette

Festival is over and even though it feels as though we’ve only been here 2 days, it is time for us to pack up the car and hit the road.

It’s certainly been an interesting vacation, and I think Miles has had a good time despite the numerous trips to the vet’s office.  He doesn’t quite have the bond with my parents that Honey does, but he digs them enough.  Especially since they fed him table food even though they were under explicit orders not to!

We’ll be back in Sanford Tuesday and our first stop will be Myers Animal Hospital–yippee.  It seems we’re just not happy unless we’re running up the bill at the vet!

Miles is becoming more and more like himself every hour.  I’m so glad my parents were able to see the Miles we know and love.

And speaking of my parents…we can’t help but feel terrible about this trip.  It’s been over a year since we’ve been home and it wasn’t fair for them that we had all these worries with Miles.  Rest assured that next year for Festival, we’ll take Miles to the vet before we visit (and we’ll also do a rain dance to keep the nasty weather away).

We had a great time.  We ate lots of amazing food.  We got to spend time with family.  And our little North Carolinian puppy finally experienced the Cajun culture his sister Honey grew up in.