English Emma Blooms

I feel bad that so many people have been crying over the loss of Solomon. I did not mean to make anyone cry.Anyway, I thought I would post more Solomon pics! Joel was crying in his bed last night. heart breaking.




Anne brought over a delicious lasagna for our dinner. Lasagna is real comfort food and it really was the best I had ever tasted.

Joel told us at dinner: " My eyes are dripping because I am sad about Solomon'

Solomon is gone but he had not only a good ten years with us, he had some good last days with us too.

This week he attended Joel's "teddy bear picnic".

Last week he and Joel played together in the snow.

Solomon is still here. Also, today Joel did not go to time out! Not because he rebelled against it but because he did nothing that deserved a time out! WOW! This is the first time this year... Aaron had a three-day weekend because of MLK day. I think that Joel would be pretty happy if Aaron never went back to work again.

so, Solomon is doing well... He loves his walks, he plays with his toys, but he can't breathe at night. Apparently, according to Aaron, I get up in the night several times with Solomon. I have a given him a pillow (Solomon) to prop up his head to aid his nighttime breathing. All night I have nightmares that he has died. It seems that the tumor in his nose causes him aggravation and nothing more.

Anyway... today, on MLK day, we went to circuit city to their fake sale and then to Trader Joe's for some food. Joel napped, I took Solomon out. I made a delicious soup for dinner. I read about how our meat comes to the table from birth to slaughter... all the chemicals they are fed... the hormones, the antibiotics. Apparently in the 1930s, it took cows 5 years to get to their slaughter weight. Now it takes 14 months because they are fed a cornmeal blend instead of grass, and have animal protein and fat added to it. There's something to think about.

Aaron spent a whole morning reading books to the stuffed animals at Joel's tree frog's birthday party

What else....

I'll leave that as the thought of the day!

Solomon is on an anti-inflammatory medication that is working wonderfully. His left eye is not bulging as much, although his nose continues to bleed.

The side effect of the anti-inflammatory is that his arthritis and the bullet in his leg are not bothering him half as much. He is actually more playful now that he was when he was a puppy! Perhaps we should have been giving him the meds all along. I am sure I would want them if I had a bullet lodged permanently in the muscle of one of my legs. We are still having long walks AND Solomon loves the cold weather.

optimistic.

There is a neighborhood slightly north of our house that we never go to because of the rabid looking dogs who wander around unfettered. The other day I thought, why not try the neighborhood again? Solomon, Joel and I went on our scouting mission. NO MORE RABID LOOKING DOGS! Amazing! Then I thought, it is not really that surprising they are gone. It was 9 years ago that we met them and never went back! They are probably all dead now! They must have been neutered rabid looking dogs. Then, the sad realization.... 9 years ago Solomon was with us for the rabid-looking dog encounter, which means that soon he will be dead too....

The neighborhood is called Ravenswood and consists of mostly small houses with a few gigantic ones. Broad Ripple used to be a vacation town before it was consumed by Indianapolis. There was a bathing beach and fishing areas and even an amusement park in the park across from our house. The foundation of the Ferris Wheel is still in Broad Ripple Park.

I love walking around Ravenswood because of the interesting and diminutive architecture. Surprisingly there are also a lot of abandoned, foreclosed, and for sale houses. Some of the houses that have people living in them are ramshackle... Joel says they are haunted houses.

One of the houses for sale is number 6666! It looks like no one has lived in it for years. I wonder if it would sell if they changed the number to 6656. I wonder if the owners have already tried that approach and failed. It is only a number!

Solomon is seemingly fine.. actually better than last week. He is going for long walks (we just came back from one), eating his dinner and enjoying special treatment. Yesterday I let him lie down in my flowerbed in the sun!

The vet visit yesterday was promising. Our vet is getting us a consult with an oncologist to see if there is anything we can do for the poor dog that won't kill him. His left eye has begun to bother him because of the left nasal passage blockage.

Well.. Solomon has had a bloody nose on and off for a month now. The vet said he has allergies but the allergy medicine is not fixing it. Aaron, the optimist said that Solomon probably has a cancerous tumor up really high in his nose. I was horrified, so Aaron quickly backpedalled with his diagnosis. I am calling the vet in the morning... I am not ready for life without Solomon.

When we came back from Sandiego, Solomon and Jeremiah were less than thrilled to see us. That is because they were cared for in our absence by Matt and Greg who stayed at our house, Marlyn who cared for them after Mat and Greg left, and Jamia, Jermani, David, Anne and Steve who took Solomon for walks!

Here is Jamia's account of her time with Solomon!
 
Solomon was overly excited to see Jamia and Jermani appear in his doorway early in the evening of September 19th.  Solomon took Jermani on a walk and showed her the White River from the lookout point in Broad Ripple Park .
 
Solomon was so excited that Jamia had to take over the leash on the way back.  Jamia was worried he was so social that he might try to visit with other dogs in passing.

 
Solomon and Jermani insisted that they walk together, so Jamia gave in.  They ran way ahead, but waited for Jamia to cross Evanston Avenue.



 
David also joined the outing, but didn't want there to be any proof that he was there

 
Jamia, David, Jermani, and Solomon all had a fun outing.

As I write Joel is pooping. Listening to the grunts coming from the bathroom I realize that I never notified Solomon's fans at to the status of his poop tets... Well, the vet left a message on our voicemail saying thank you very much for the $220.00 and that there were no parasites in his poop.


Solomon is back to his old self but is dissapointed to be back on his IAMS Senior Care dogfood instead of the soft canned stuff the vet ordered.