Juno: Recovering from Bath Day

My mom said just because I can't see doesn't mean I need to smell, but I really HATE getting a bath. Pardon me while I sleep off the trauma of it all!
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So how's Juno doing?

Lots of folks have been asking it ... "So how's Juno doing?"

Well, she can't see -- but it's not slowing her down.
She's back up stealing Louise's chair:

(What??? You want your chair back????)

Dragging logs off the pile onto her bed to chew on:

(The dog with the most logs wins, right?)

And curling up on the couch at the end of her doggie day:

(Don't bother me! I'm sleepin'!)

Basically, she's a 16 month old puppy who's bizzy, bizzy, bizzy -- when she isn't sound asleep somewhere!
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It's really pretty amazing how she finds her way around the house and yard with hardly a bump or a wobble. She's her happy, bouncy, tail-waggy self ... back to talking back in her bossy "get out of that chair and go get me a chewy bone" kind of way. (all good) She's also back to digging her way to China in the backyard ... (NOT so good!) ... but we're working on that.
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She gets two sets of drops in her eyes twice a day and her ocular pressure checked once a month. We are SO grateful for all the good wishes and prayers, thoughtful emails and notes and especially for such great vets, vet techs and help from our favorite opthamology go-to-guy, Ruben.
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So we're still bummed that she can't see. AND we're grateful, grateful, grateful for abundant blessings.
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Here endeth the report on Juno!
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Here's our Favorite Halloween Cartoon:

We think this is what could happen if dogs got to dress up their HUMANS instead of the other way around!
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( click on it to make it bigger and easier to read)

Training Camp

Today was Training Camp Day at our house. First of all Connie let Juno smell the training treats ... yum, yum!

Then we worked on one of the basics: COME!

Good dog, Juno!

Then we worked on "STAY!"

And a little remedial "DOWN!"

Meanwhile, you can't help wondering what's going on in LUNA'S head here ... I'm thinking it's:
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1 - "I wonder if there are more of those treats in there???"

2 - "Can I get them out and not get caught?"
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Overall, a good morning. Juno seems to be figuring it out and had plenty of energy and was engaged in the process. Now we've got our homework to do over the next two weeks.
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But right now, everyone is following the same command: Ready, Set ... "NAP!"

Juno says "thanks" ...

... for all the good thoughts, prayers and well wishes.

Here she is -- begging during the Dodger game for a cracker from her mom. She's managing to manuever herself around the house and yard and has some of her tail-wag back. One kind friend sent this piece about dogs who can't see and it was full of helpful information.

So we're going to muddle along here -- adjust to our new "family with a dog who can't see" reality and be grateful for sweet dogs and good vets and kind friends.
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Update on Juno

[Here's big sister Luna looking out for Juno ... just back from a hard day at the vet!]

So we're back from the vet with bad new/good news about Juno. The bad news is she totally can't see.

AT ALL.

Even light and shadow. The good news is there's nothing to be done for it so we don't have to worry about making a "wrong choice." (It's not MUCH good news, but I'm looking for what I can find!)

She's not even a year-and-a-half ... she lost her sight due to very aggressive, genetically wired glaucoma ... and at this point her ocular pressure is under control with drops and a pill-a-day so she's not in any discomfort. She's already figured out getting in and out of the house, finding her way into the back yard and "doing her business" and yesterday was back up in her favorite chair on the porch snoozing the afternoon away.

We're really sad for her AND really grateful for all the good wishes, prayers and kind thoughts across the miles. And as one colleague said: If I was going to be a dog who couldn't see I'd want to belong to two overprotective dog mommies with a fenced yard.

Here endeth the report from Canine Headquarters. We will now return to our regularly scheduled work week.

Post traumatic veterinarian syndrome

A doggie-mom report from the Juno-battles-glaucoma front:



The drops-in-the eye thing is working MUCH better and her pressure is down in both eyes.

That's good.

Last night she had a droopy eyelid and her "third eyelid" closing -- both symptoms of further onset of acute glaucoma in her "good" [right] eye.

That's bad.

After a couple of hours at the 24hr-ER-vet last night and then a visit this morning to her doggie opthamologist, she doesn't appear to have any damage to her right optic nerve and got some new prescriptions to keep the pressure down. .
That's good.

The meds don't come in generic and -- of course -- aren't covered by any kind of insurance.
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That's bad.

The saga continues but she's hanging in there and so are we. Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes!

If I let them put drops in my eye ...

... then I get a BONE!

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I'm not saying I'm LIKING this, but ... as you can see ... I'm hanging in there. Thanks for all the good wishes and prayers for me AND my moms. (And thanks for the interesting suggestion about medical marijuana. None of the research we've done indicates it would help my eye, but I'm thinking if it would mellow out my moms ...! Oh well -- probably not an option. But keep those creative solutions coming!)
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We're back!

We've been on blogging hiatus, here at harveyandluna, but we're back.
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When LAST we weighed in, our moms were packing to leave for the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim. We missed them while they were gone but our Aunt Stasia took VERY good care of us.

Our job was to "hold down the fort" while they were gone:
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As you can see, we did a VERY good job! (Well, at least we held down the couch!)

Everyone was home together for a couple of weeks and then it was VACATION time ... and the moms headed off to visit family in someplace called "Colorado."

There was SOME discussion about taking us along ... and we were game for an adventure. But the more they researched into the reality of road trips with dogs, the more they ran into things that looked like this:
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So we stayed here holding down the fort again while they drove all the way to Denver and back.

Now, we DID find out that while they were there, they were "seeing other dogs" ...

Like our Uncle Fred's lab Lily ...
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... and our cousin Fred's golden retriever Cooper. (Yep, two Freds on that side of the family. Kind of confusing -- but at least we can tell the dogs apart!)

But we're OK with that ... as long as they come back home to us! So they had a great visit and we did ANOTHER great job holding down the fort and couch.
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WHILE they were gone, however, Juno came up with an owie in her eye. They thought it was a scratch or a foxtail or an infection of some kind, so they've spent the last two weeks chasing her around trying to get drops and ointment in her eye and going back and forth to the vet.

Today they took her to a specialist (doggie opthamologist) and it turns out it wasn't an owie after all ... it's GLAUCOMA!

And that's a really bad thing.

At this point Juno can't see at all out of her left eye and now we need to keep a VERY close eye on her right eye so the same thing doesn't happen to it. (Which unfortunately it probably will eventually because she's got something called a "genetic predisposition.") The vet said it could be a few months or a few years before another episode and the moms are -- of course -- totally bummed. In the meantime it will be more eye drops. And more vet visits. And lots of research on what to do to keep her as comfortable as she can be in spite of her eye problems. .

But at the moment, we're both resting comfortably ...
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... and grateful for good vets and moms who take care of us -- no matter what.
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Stay tuned!
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It's General Convention time at our house

There she goes again ... off to one of those "General Convention" things. I knew it was coming when the packing started ... all these bags of "provisions" to supplement two weeks of hotel living ...

... plus suitcases, briefcases, etc. I thought if I looked cute enough maybe she'd pack ME ... but no luck!

So I'm just going to wait it out with my sister here where it's comfy.

Maybe she'll feel guilty for leaving us for so long and bring home PRESENTS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUNO!

Yep ... a year old today (more or less.) We're not EXACTLY sure when my birthday is, but what we DO know is ...

... that I joined my new family when I was 10 weeks old on August 19th (here's a picture of me THEN:)

And if we count back ten weeks that puts my birthday just about NOW! (And this is a picture of me today ... what a difference a year makes!)


Anyway, today's the day we're celebrating ME ... tomorrow they'll get back to worrying about the holes I've dug in the backyard, the kitty I can't seem to remember not to chase and all my other transgressions. But today they're just fussing over me and making my birthday a VERY happy one ... (and they can keep THAT up as long as they want!)

So Happy Birthday to ME!

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Juno the Drama Queen

This morning the gardeners came to mow our lawn and our Mom Louise was on a conference call so we had to wait in the bedroom and be quiet.

I HATE being quiet! (As you will see from this video clip my Mom Susan took of me:

So that's the new puppy in the White House!

We don't know much about Portuguese Water Dogs ...

... but we DO know about puppies! (Because one of us still is one!) SO we're happy for the Obama family that they finally got a dog. (We think EVERYBODY should have a dog!)

But we hope they know to put their shoes away, their glasses on the mantle (not the coffee table) and start now with the "sit, stay, OFF, "Leave It" stuff. The sooner the better, we say! (Right, Connie? :)

We love sleeping in on Saturday ...

... and TODAY we got to hang out on the BIG bed!

Woo Hoo!

Our moms went to a baby shower ...

We wondered what the deal was ... they tried to give US a shower once and that didn't end well ... so we couldn't figure out why they'd drive ALL THE WAY to Santa Ynez to watch them give a BABY a shower.

Turns out we had it totally wrong. It's not about giving a baby a bath ... it's about PRESENTS and FOOD ... and those are both concepts we totally get! So here are the pictures they took of the day ...ENJOY!

St. Patrick's Day Puppies

That's us ... all dolled up for St. Patrick's Day ...

... we were quite the hit at the dog park, but now ... well, now it's CLEARLY nap time.

Our moms have been SOOOOOOOOOO busy lately ...

... they haven't had time helping us "dog blog" in awhile. But I just couldn't resist making sure this picture got posted so you could see what a big girl I'm getting to be:



Eight months old and getting cuter every day, doncha think?

More soon ... Love, Juno

Juno: School Days, School Days!

So they're determined to make me into a good dog. And I really WANT to be a good dog ... I do. It's just going to take some work ... and so now I've got a teacher to help me figure it all out. Her name is Connie and she's got me doing a pretty darned good job with Lesson Number One:

SIT!

So far so good. At least it was until today. Then they decided to make me learn something new. It's called:

DOWN!

As you can see, Connie is VERY patient with me ... and, after a little while -- well, after QUITE awhile, we started making some progress:



And then ... EUREKA! (By George, I think I'm getting it!)



So all's well that end's well.

It was a LONG day in class today, but at the end of it I got lots of loving and lots of "good dog" pats ... and then I finally got:

A NAP!

This working your brain stuff wears you out! (And rumor has it next time we're going to work on "STAY!" Stay tuned ...)

Watch Out, Rachel Ray!

Our mom got something called a "Cuisinart" for Christmas and it's making her VERY happy! Here she is this afternoon, making turkey soup:

We're thinking "A Star Is Born!" (Can the Food Network be far behind?)
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How we spend a gloomy Saturday ...

Our moms have been busy putting away Christmas decorations and cleaning out closets and today is gloomy and cold and drippy out so we decided a game of tug-of-war would help break up the boredom.


They tried putting Juno outside by herself for awhile to calm us down, but -- as you can see -- that just resulted in some collateral poinsettia damage.
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Meanwhile, I'm just trying to stay under the radar and out of the way ..
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But now the house is tidied up, there are New Year's Roses on the coffee table and we're back where we're happiest ... each holding down our corner of the couch!
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Happy Saturday, everybody! Put your feet up and relax, why doncha? It's totally working for us!

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