Today I was Eight and I Ate, Ate, Ate!

Hello everybody! I have a great announcement to make – Today is my BARKDAY! I am EIGHT years old! Aroo… roo… ROO!

I have always celebrated my past birthdays with yummy cakes. Thankfully, this year was no exception.

Here’s a photo of me waiting patiently for my cake. Can you see it resting on the kitchen stove?

Not only was there a cake; but the Missus had also made some meatballs!

Look at the booti-ful barkday spread! I couldn’t wait to sink my canines in!

Check out my gorgeous cake. The Missus had baked it in the shape of the figure “8”. It was filled with beef, decorated with sausages and bacon bits and prepared with a special ingredient - LOVE!

Look at me. I’m eight and still a very handsome, sexy stud! Wey-hey!

By the way, I didn’t spend my barkday alone. I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, but we have a guest staying with us at the moment. Her name is Sakura and she’s a Japanese Spitz. She was definitely invited to my barkday pawty. (More on Sakura in my next posting - I don’t want her to upstage my barkday post!).

I quickly gave Sakura some tips on how to ‘succeed’ at barkday pawties.

“Pssst… Sakura, if you want yummy food, you’ve got to wear a silly hat and pose nicely for some photos.”

Sakura was a natural. Here we are wearing our silly pawty hats...

... and how to pose nicely for the camera.

“Is it time to eat yet? I’m starving!”

By this time, my patience was beginning to wear thin and my tummy was growling. As you can see, my eyes were fixed to the cake. Man… I was literally drooling!

I couldn’t wait any longer and made a dash for the meatballs. Sakura could only stare in awe as I gobbled the lot. (They were so much better than Ikea’s!)

Soon it was time for the ‘main event’ – the ceremonial scoffing of the barkday cake!

The Missus started to cut us some small portions…

…needless to say, they didn’t last long on my plate…

…especially when Sakura started ‘helping out’. (Mental note: Don’t invite other dogs to next year’s barkday pawty!)

Within minutes, almost half of the cake was gone.

However, that didn’t stop us circling around like vultures!

Soon enough, Dad was cutting even more portions for us.

Ta-Da! Exactly half of my cake gone! I got a real shock when the Missus suggested that she might keep the ‘0’ for my 10th barkday pawty. I’m sure she was only joking, right?

Let me leave you with one final picture of the ‘Barkday Boy’.

“Happy Barkday to Meeeee, Happy Barkday to Meeeee…”

Arooo… roo…ROO…WOO!

Love,
Homer

An Update On My Mast Cell Tumours

Woof! Woof!

As it’s been a while since I blogged, I thought I would give you an update on my health condition. You may remember that I have been diagnosed as having Mast Cell Tumours.

Following a number of consultations after my initial diagnosis, my humans decided to put me on Palladia. This is a chemo drug, specially formulated to treat animals, which is supposed to kill tumour cells and cut off the blood supply to the tumours.

There are two tumours on my body – one on my right shoulder blade and the other next to my front left paw pad. My humans and my vet hope that the Palladia will get rid of them.

I have now been taking my medication for the past three months. Unfortunately, I can’t say it’s been smooth sailing. There have been days when I have experienced side effects such as a decrease in appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea and blood in my stools. Whenever I get such symptoms, my humans have to stop the medication and wait for my body to recover. Once my health has been restored, I am able to resume taking my chemo drugs.

I’ve attached a couple of photos of the nasty tumours. The Missus feels that they have not changed from the time before I started taking Palladia. My vet, on the other hand, believes that the one located next to my paw pad has improved.

What do you think?

OK my lovely readers. I shall leave you with a booti-ful photo of Yours Truly. I hope you’ll like it. ☺

Kisses,

Homer

The Missus’ Contest Winning Photo

Sometime last year, the Missus submitted one of her 'Africa Blog' photos to a local photography competition.

Woo hoo! She managed to get an ‘Honourable Mention’ from the judges. Not only that, her photograph was then included in an exhibition held at Singapore’s Botanical Gardens.

Here’s the exhibition photographs.

Can you guess which one is hers?

It’s the Cheetah Cub! Isn’t it booti-ful?

The Missus was so proud to have her photograph exhibited. She couldn’t wait to have us all ‘in the picture’.

'Curious Cub'

OK Missus, that’s enough of your show-boating on my blog!

Sending all my love to everyone! Woof!

Homer

Easter 2013

Wow time really flies. I can’t believe it’s Easter again.

I know what that means – dressing up time. Fortunately, the Missus has been very busy and hasn’t had time to create a new Easter costume. Woohoo! Unfortunately, she just decided to ‘recycle’ one of my previous outfits.

Remember the Easter Bunny from my time in Holland? Well, here is the much more mature Easter Rabbit…

You can see I wasn’t very happy posing in the big floppy ears.

Isn’t Easter finished yet?

Realising that I wasn’t going to get out of this until I gave the Missus one of my winning smiles, I finally decided to play ball.

Ta-da! Here is the happy, smiling Easter Rabbit.

Happy Easter everyone!

All About Mast Cell Tumours

When they first received the bad news that I have Mast Cell Tumour, my humans’ hearts sank. They didn’t know what to do. They have since spent hours trawling the Internet for information and have so far taken me to five different vets looking for the best advice on treatments.

Unfortunately, there are no animal oncologists in Singapore and the opinions given by the general veterinarians have been conflicting. Their advice has pretty much narrowed down to two options:

1. Surgery (you need to cut away 2 to 3 centimetres of skin around each tumour in order to ensure ‘clean’ margins).

2. Chemotherapy (the drugs available in Singapore are 'Palladia' and 'Masivet').

A third option, radiotherapy, is often used in the US and elsewhere. Unfortunately, this treatment is not available here in Singapore.

Surgery is usually recommended as the optimal solution. However, to remove the tumour next to my front left paw pad would require the vet to cut away most of ‘my poor little foot’. As this is not an option that my humans want to consider at present, they have decided to proceed with a course of Palladia. I started taking the tablets last Monday on a low dosage (i.e. 50mg every alternate day). So far I’ve been doing OK, with no side effects at all. The Missus has also been pumping me full of Omega 3, 6 and 9 and has modified my diet to avoid carbohydrates.

My Omegas.

As I said, despite the medicine, I’m feeling just fine and dandy…

Here I am looking smug due to all of the additional love, sympathy and attention I’ve been receiving. I must admit, I’ve been shamelessly milking the affection of my humans! Heheheheh.

Thanks again for all of the wonderful support and kind words you have been leaving on my blog. We all really appreciate it!

Update and Thank You

Woof! Woof!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging much lately. As the Missus mentioned in my previous posting, we have been dealing with a couple of ‘crises’. Unfortunately, I have been diagnosed as having Mast Cell Tumours.

Over the past few weeks, I have received a huge outpouring of supportive emails and messages on my blog and on my Facebook from you guys. I am very touched and would like to bark a big thanks to all of you for extending such wonderful friendship during this difficult time.

Despite my health condition, I’m actually doing fine! Dad has commented that I still behave like a crazy puppy: demanding lots of attention, long walkies and plenty of treats! I don’t feel ‘sick’ at all and my appetite remains ‘ravenous’!

So far, the Missus has found three Mast Cell Tumours on my body. The first one was found on my hind leg and the vet has operated to cut it away. I have one on my right shoulder blade and another right next to my paw pad.

In order for my humans to be absolutely sure that they had found all of the potential tumours, they had to shave my booti-ful locks off.

I feel so naked!

This is the site of the first tumour we found on my hind leg. You can see the scar tissue where the vet has operated.

This is a small tumour on my right shoulder blade.

And this is the third tumour near to my left front paw pad. The vets tell me that this is the ‘trickiest’ part to treat.

Here’s a picture showing where each of the tumours are in less detail.

OK. Now I shall leave you with a cute picture of me.

‘Bald’ is the new ‘Sexy’!

I’ll tell you a little about my treatment in my next blog.

Bye for now.

Bad News

A couple of unfortunate events have taken place over the past few weeks.

First of all, my mother was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, which is a very rare and aggressive type of cancer.

As I began to come to terms with my mother’s illness, I received another piece of devastating news. Homer has been diagnosed as having Mast Cell Tumors on his skin.

Boy, it feels like my world has begun to crumble.

So, please excuse me if I haven’t been visiting your blogs. I’m sure you will understand.

Regards,

The Missus