Boxer – Page 5 – M. Sullivan Photography

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Basketball, Daphne, Family, Gymnastics, Photos, School, Weather

November Ramblings

Today is my first official day of vacation. I am taking the week off to begin Thanksgiving preparations. I don’t actually need the whole week to prepare, but always like to spend a day attending to household projects that get neglected throughout the year – touch up painting, going through closets and giving away clothes that the kids have outgrown, organizing our storage room and working on things that I have put off due to lack of time. Today is project day, tomorrow is cleaning day and Wednesday is cooking/baking day. By Thursday, we will be set to host our 19th Annual Sullivan Thanksgiving for 12 people + two dogs.

Before I delve into “project day”, here’s a recap of what’s been going on in our household during the past few weeks.

Thanks to the end of daylight savings time, it is just getting light out when I leave for work in the morning and is dark when I leave work at the end of the day. Here’s what I see when I leave my office. I can’t wait until the days begin getting longer even though the sunsets are beautiful.

Sebastian’s basketball season began a week and a half ago. In his first game, he scored the first six points for his team. He has the same coach as last year, the mother of one teammate’s and good friend. We are looking forward to a great season with several returning kids from last year, plus a few new team members.

When Sebastian isn’t busy with basketball practice or games, he has been diligent in his music studies. This year in band he is learning to play an instrument – the baritone. His teacher has asked all students to practice with their instrument’s for at least 10 minutes per day. They haven’t learned how to play the various notes yet, but need concentrate on producing sound and the proper hold on the instrument. Here’s what happens during practice with our dog, Daphne, in the room.

Daphne has been recovering slowly and continues to take a half tablet of prednisone every other day. She had her 8th birthday yesterday and celebrated with a new toy – a rubber chicken.

Sophia continues to take gymnastic classes on Tuesday evenings. She loves her teacher and enjoys an hour of balance beams, floor mat exercises and parallel bars. She has also been busy at school with her weekly choir group and a performance for a Veteran’s Day all-school assembly. She talks about having a bit of stage fright, but really enjoys music. We are looking forward to watching her class perform The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in a few weeks and the school’s winter music program in mid-December.

We did a quick family photo shoot after church yesterday in preparation for our annual holiday card. With my remote shutter release in hand, we snapped many, many photos in the hopes that we would end up with a few good pictures. By the end of the day, the photos had been edited, uploaded, organized in a card and 50 copies were ordered. With a number of discounts applied, I was able to get 60% off my order and had them shipped for free! It’s nice to have that project crossed off my list in only mid-November. We had thought of waiting until we received some snow to make for a more “holiday” card, but if recent years are any indication, we would have been waiting until January. Here are a few pictures that didn’t make the card.

Our big news this month is that after 14 long years with our old SUV, we purchased a new 2013 Nissan Pathfinder a little more than a week ago. Sebastian has been awaiting the arrival of the newly designed vehicle for months. When it finally arrived at the dealership, he was beyond excited. After test-driving the optioned out model, the whole family was in love. We decided on a lesser trim level to fit our budget and were able to get one brought in from the Twin Cities that matched all of our requests. We are in love!

We can’t wait to try out the 4WD after the first snow of the season. Speaking of the weather, although there is no snow in the forecast, the week ahead looks to be spectacular for northern Minnesota in November – highs in the 50’s and no precipitation in sight. I guess we will have to use the sun roof instead of the 4WD for now. I’m not complaining.

October 20, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Daphne, Photos

On The Road To Recovery

Daphne visited the vet on Thursday. After a quick exam that included a check of her temperature and a fine needle aspiration of one of her lymph nodes, the vet determined that she does not have an infection. All we know is that something triggered her immune system to go into overdrive. She is a dog with a very “reactive” immune system. The vet put her back on prednisone – twice a day for three days. Over the next few weeks her dose will continue to be tapered off. Our hope is to get her down to one half a tablet every other day. If we can’t keep her healthy at a low dose or wean her off completely, our next step is to try a drug called Atopica. It has fewer side effects, but will cost significantly more than prednisone. After just a day of prednisone, she was acting like her old self yesterday. The kids played with her in the backyard and were tired out before she was.

Here’s to a healthy fall. Fingers crossed!

October 16, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Daphne, Photos

Under The Weather

In early March, our 8-year-old boxer, Daphne, began having issues with swollen lymph nodes, swelling in her muzzle, lack of appetite and low energy. She visited the vet on a number of occasions, was prescribed antibiotics for Lymes disease, allergy medicine and prednisone. She had a few relapses during the spring and early summer, but by the end of July she was off all medications and was doing well. Her energy level and appetite had fully returned and she was back to her normal, playful self. Early in September, she had a relapse. We don’t know if it was triggered by outdoor allergens, auto-immune issues or something completely different. She broke out with hives/bumps all over her body that eventually crusted up and have since gone away. She is still left with low energy, swelling in her lymph nodes and has a diminished appetite. We put her back on prednisone which has helped with the swelling and appetite, but as soon as we try to taper back the dose, her symptoms return. We don’t know the cause or the solution to her health issues, but will take another trip to the vet to see if they have any answers. Here’s Daphne last week looking “under the weather”.