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The Life of Ollie H. Trabel

I've Moved to Arizona!

So, about a month ago Mom put me in a travel bag and flew me out to Tempe, AZ where I met up with Mom's husband, Damian. I didn't know what had become of him, but I'm glad to know he's safe and happy.

We're all currently living with Damian and Mom's friends, Scott and Jenn until we move to our new house in June. So that means I have to live with their dog, Niko. At first I didn't like her at all. I let her know I don't take crap from anybody, not even a big ol' Rhodesian Ridgeback mix!! Fear my 9 lbs. wrath, Niko!!! After a few days she started giving me some respect, so I've been cool with her ever since. Now we're happy as two peas in a pod.

Mom flew home to Indiana again and brought my brother Stanley back here a few weeks later. Niko didn't like him at all and tried mauling him the second he came in the door. I freaked out, Stanley freaked out, Mom freaked out, etc... So now Stanley's never left alone here and is lucky enough to go to work with Mom. I'm not quite sure what Mom does or what Stanley does for that matter, but I'm rather jealous. Mom gives me extra love and treats before she goes and when she comes back, so I'm sure it's a great place and I'm missing out.

Well, we'll be in our new house in a few weeks! I'm really excited! Mom says we've got a doggy door so we can come and go as we please just like at Aunt Jenn and Uncle Scott's!! We also have a little bit of a yard area that we can play together and sun during the day. Oh and has Mom ever been caking on the sunscreen on us!!! I'm sure it's not going to get better so long as we're living in Arizona. While I miss Grandma Deb and Grandpa Jim and their lake, we're awful happy to live somewhere with nice weather!

SPRING TIME!

Ugh, is it just me or was this winter the pits?! I'm sooooo tired of snow, ice, and cold temperatures! Fortunately, this week was really nice. Sadly, mom's got an upper respiratory infection so we only got to go hiking a couple times. But I sure had fun when we did! Next week we're meeting some new AHT friends in Ohio! We can't wait! It'll be so nice to get out and run all day long!

For those of you wondering about my health... I'm doing great. We found out that I'm hypersensitive to something in new treats Mom had bought us for special occassions. The first time I had them there was no problem. Then Mom gave us them on Stanley's birthday and I had a horrible reaction and had to be hospitalized for dehydration. The vet and Mom didn't make the connection since I didn't have problems withthe treats before. The vet just thought since Mom was stressed out with finals at school and preparing to leave to go overseas I was picking up on that stress and developing an upset stomach. Then when Mom gave us those treats on another occassion I had the same horrible problem and was hospitalized again. Mom immediately threw away that brand of treat and sticks with treats/food I've never had any problems with. On special occassions like our birthdays, Mom now cooks up and mixes together: lean ground turkey, apples, carrots, and cottage cheese/plain non-fat yogurt. We absolutely LOVE it and it doesn't make us feel sick (a definite plus!).

Sick again...

What in the world is going on with me?! Back in May I had horrific digestive problems and then about a week and a half ago, I started vomitting pools of blood. It scared me and it scared my mom. Mom rushed me to the vet and the nice vet gave me subcutaneous fluids (made me look like a camel or a doggy water balloon) and a shot to help stop the nausea. Unfortunately it didn't help much. I ended up being rushed back in about 4 hours later. There really wasn't a lot they could do, so they just told Mom to start my medications now rather than wait until the morning like they had originally planned.

The next day was even scarier! I started having really bad diarrhea and it looked like black seaweed (apparently the "stringiness" was coagulated blood). Mom called up the vet and got me in right away. They ran LOTS of tests on me. Fortunately, they ruled out the Hemmorrhagic Gastroenteritis they'd thought I'd had before and Pancreatitis. Alas, they finally concluded I have bleeding ulcers! I'm not even 2! I'm too young to have these things! Oh well, at least I got people food for a week. My Mom mixed up rice, lean turkey burger, green beans, apples, low-fat cottage cheese, and plain low-fat yogurt. It was soooo good! Between that and the Carafate, I was all better in no time! Mom's just really worried this is going to happen again, so she's not allowing anyone to feed me anything that isn't bland (except MY dog food) and hopefully that'll keep me well.