Happy Birthday Hannah

As the saying goes, how time flies when you are having fun.  I can not believe that my Hannah Banana is 12 years old today.  I still remember the day when she came into the shelter and I fell in love with her as soon as I seen her.  She was this skinny, beat up and scared yellow lab but I knew we would make a great match.  In the years that followed she attended obedience classes, became a St. John's Ambulance Therapy Dog, helped bring awareness to homeless canines and taught many children about bite prevention.  All in all a great canine citizen.

 

How could you not love a Hannah?  She loves everyone and everything and she is known as my flower child.  She has been through some major surgeries in her life, 2 spine surgeries and a shoulder surgery.  You would never know she has orthopedic problems when you see her chase a ball on the tundra.  She has slowed down these past couple of years as now Blitz can beat her to the ball. 

 

She is my favorite yellow dog and I now cherish each year we have with her as I know her time is limited on this earth.  But for now we will love her and make her comfortable in her senior years.

 

Happy Birthday Hannah Banana!

 

Talk soon!

Hannah watching Craig make her pumpkin birthday biscotti

 Out of the oven to cool, then we cut and bake for another 30 minutes

 Everyone waiting for their share in the biscotti

Happy Birthday to the Best Yellow Dog!

My Ankle Saga

One week after our arrival from Antigua I was on a plane again heading to Yellowknife for surgery on my left ankle.  For those of you who know me or follow the blog you might remember a couple of years ago I fell through my mom's very old deck stairs and broke my ankle.  For the past couple of years it has been a roller coaster of doctor appointments both here in CamBay and in Yellowknife.  So finally on February 28th I was scheduled for surgery to remove the large bone chip (size of a dime) from my ankle and to check the ligaments.  My last CT scan was in November and it showed a lot of scar tissue forming around the ligaments.  

 

Between the doctor, anesthesiologist and myself we agreed that a block would be the best for me as there is no real recovery time like you would get from a general anesthetic.  I looked at the clock when I went into surgery and it was exactly 1pm, right on schedule and when they removed the drape I checked the clock again and it was 2:45pm and by 4:30pm Karen was picking me up at the hospital. 

 

The next day I was heading home and was glad that it was a direct flight to CamBay. The guys from Canadian North here were great and lifted me out of the plane, down the stairs and into the terminal where my Sweetie was waiting for me.  I was a bit nervous to enter into the house as I knew the dogs would be excited to see me but to my surprise they respected my space, even my boy. 

 

Craig had to head back to work but I was in good hands as the Shorthairs looked after me that afternoon and have been ever since.  Today my nurses Craig and Blitz changed my bandaids and washed all of the grossness from my foot. Now it's just healing time and the doctor wants me off work for a month but I think I will be going stir crazy and may head back sooner....we'll see. 

Talk soon!

The day of surgery at the hotel

 3 days post op and new bandaids

 Still swollen compared to my right leg

 Great nurses looking after me - they are in this position every afternoon

 Enjoying some Arctic sun

At least his bum is warm from the sun