The Latest News

Hi everyone!  Once again I've been away for a bit.  Oh, I haven't actually been anywhere -- I've mostly been right here, but I realized I needed a little break from social media.  It gets to be a downer after awhile; I'm sure you understand what I mean.  But I've missed you all, because reading my favorite blogs is almost always a cheering prospect.     

      

Duncan

Hello everyone.  I apologize for the fact that I have not visited your blogs and commented recently.  I will definitely do better in the coming days, if nothing else goes wrong.  We found out two and a half weeks ago that Duncan has cancer and he's going to die.  We were so shocked -- it was very hard to process.  He's only seven years old.  I mentioned a while ago that we were taking him to a specialist because he wasn't using his left rear leg when walking.  Based on what our regular vet had told us, we thought we were going to be scheduling orthopedic surgery with the specialist.  Instead we were told that Duncan has a malignant tumor in his hip and spine -- something called nerve sheath cancer, which I had never heard of before.  It's aggressive, and we basically had three treatment options.  The first was to treat with medications (steroids and pain medicine).  The second option was to have his back leg amputated, and his prognosis was six months to live.  The third choice was to have the surgery and do radiation treatments, which might give him a year to a year and a half.  These last two would be very expensive, by the way.   

     

The Month of March - This and That

How has your Saturday been?  We've been having a thunderstorm this afternoon here.  Once again, it's been two weeks since I've posted.  We've had a stressful couple of weeks, and I just haven't felt like writing on my blog.     
We were back and forth to the veterinary hospital three times this week because Duncan has not been using his left leg; he walks hobbles around holding it up off the ground and not putting weight on it.  The veterinary practice where we take him had a broken x-ray machine, and our doctor had to take him to another animal hospital to get him x-rayed.  It turns out that his kneecap is dislocated, and it may require surgery to repair it.  We're going to try him on another week of anti-inflammatory/pain medicine, and if he's still not putting weight on the leg, we'll have to schedule surgery for him.      

      

Duncan Loves Fall, Too

Hello friends!  Are you having a good week?  We've been busy, busy, and I don't see things slowing down anytime soon.   I have not posted on Duncan in ages, and I thought I would share a few pictures.  Oftentimes, he can hear the wind from inside the house (or we think he can) and he almost begs demands to be taken out.  You see, he wants to engage in his favorite activity -- chasing the leaves as the wind blows them around.       

 

November

Happy November!  Can you believe how fast this year has flown?  Have I told you how much I love this time of year? 🍁🍂  Only a dozen times or more, I'm sure. 😊  

It's beautiful today, and I have some of our windows open, bringing fresh air into the house.  Just a short post sharing some random images with fall color today -- hope you enjoy!

Duncan Is Two

Actually, he's two years and three months old.  I had planned to write about him in January, when he turned two, but I was still sick at that time and wasn't really blogging.  However, I haven't posted about Mr. Duncan in ages, so I thought I should bring you up to date on the little rascal.  :-D

Look Who's Got a New Christmas Scarf

Duncan wanted you all to see his Christmas scarf/neckerchief he got when he went to the groomer yesterday.  ;)

Checking In

Hello everyone and Happy Thursday to you, or as we used to say at my workplace, "Friday's Eve."  ;)  I hope you're enjoying some sunshine wherever you are this week.  What a relief to see the sun again.

This is one of those posts that's a mishmash of what's going on around here at the moment.  Not much rhyme or reason to the post, mostly just checking in for the week.  First of all, Mr. Forest Manor isn't feeling well, so he turned around this morning after he got halfway to work and came back home.  He's sleeping as I type this.  Master Duncan thought it was some kind of holiday since Pop came right back home, so he's been beside himself with excitement.

I've Been Away

Greetings everyone!  How are you?  I've been away from blog land for a bit (almost three weeks actually).  Life has really kept me busy lately.  My dad was in the hospital for a few days last week.  Because of his serious health problems, life has become difficult and stressful for my parents.  They are handling things to the best of their abilities, but my sister and I still worry about them.  I don't say much about that here because I'm not really comfortable talking about it on my blog at the moment.  I know many of you have been through similar experiences, and you can probably relate.

My husband was on vacation last week, and we took our annual trip to the mountains near the end of the week.

Lake Santeetlah

Saturday News

Hello dear readers -- I hope you're having a good Saturday!  May I just say that I'm really glad to have the past week behind me?  Yep, it was one of those.  After a long day on Sunday, we discovered that night that we had a big water stain on the drop ceiling of our finished basement room.  My husband removed the ceiling tile, and a big bunch of water poured out all over some papers we had organized for filing.  We spent about an hour with a flashlight looking everywhere to determine the source of the leak.

Happy Weekend

Hello dear friends!  I can't believe it's Friday, but I sure am glad!  I hope you've all had a good week.  You might have gathered that we were at the coast last week, and it was so nice to get away.  The weather was some of the nicest we've ever had for a whole week, and that in itself was a blessing.

Duncan Has a New Friend!

Hi everyone!  I hope you're all having a good week; I can't believe June is almost here.  Many of you are kind enough to inquire about Duncan when you visit, so here's an update for you.  :)  Himself is at summer camp at the moment.

Dashing Thru' The Snow

Well, I know everyone is sick of snow and cold weather this year, so I won't belabor the point.  ;)  We received our biggest snowfall of the season here in North Carolina last night, and I realize it's small potatoes compared to what people farther north have gotten this winter.  It's our second snow this week.

Duncan The Destroyer

Hi friends!  I'm so glad the weekend is here!  I hope you've had a good week; it's been very cold here for the past few days, but it's supposed to be much nicer tomorrow.

Earlier today, I came through the den on the way to the kitchen and I noticed that Duncan seemed to be wearing a new blue collar...

A New Haircut

Hello dear readers and Happy Monday to you!  I hope you've had a good weekend.  I just realized it's been over a week since I posted anything.  One thing I've been catching up on is my blog visits; I had fallen way behind on those.  From what I've seen, everyone has been cold, pretty much everywhere but Florida, it looks like.  You've also been busy cooking delicious-looking food, and getting ready for the holidays.

I'm excited about the upcoming holidays, too, but this is a non-holiday post.  It's also a totally different kind of metamorphosis for Met Monday.  :)  Guess who got their first haircut this week?

"Dog Days"

Hi everyone!  I haven't given you an update on Duncan in a while, and he's now seven and a half months old!  I can't believe it; I feel like life is just whizzing by at the speed of light.  Remember how long and slow the days and weeks seemed when we were children?

The Cone of Shame

I don't understand why I have this lampshade on my head.

Duncan Checking In

Hello everyone!  Several of you have been asking me how Duncan is, and I realize I've been remiss in not writing about him lately.  I haven't had time to write about him because I've been too busy trying to keep up with him.  I believe he has been our most challenging Scottie yet.  Part of it, I think, is that it's been 25 years since we had an eight-week old puppy, and we had forgotten just how much work they are.

You'll notice he's grown quite a bit.

Duncan Update

Happy Monday everyone!  How was your weekend -- lovely I hope!  My sweet friends have been asking how Duncan is doing, so I thought I would show you how much the little whipper-snapper has grown.  :)

Springtime in Reynolda Gardens

The very first year I started this blog in 2011, I visited Reynolda Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to take some pictures.  I thought it might make an interesting post.  It was still late winter then, and I told myself I'd be returning in a few weeks, or a month, to take more pictures when things were fully in bloom.  Three years later, I finally did that very thing.

Photo from 2011 post