December 24, 2010 - The kids woke up to find "Tiny the elf" hiding in his final place before Christmas! It was bittersweet for MaKayla. She has grown really fond of Tiny. When we explained that Tiny would not be coming back until next year she was really said. We told her that Santa would take Tiny back with him after he left present for her and Noah. That made it a little easier for her. She said good-bye to Tiny and wished him well.
Ike has not been feeling well for about a week now. Under the advisement of our vet we tried different things hoping it was just an upset tummy. Today ended up getting a lot worse. Our vet met Andy first thing in the morning. Ike's stomach was huge and pushed out on the sides. and he had no energy. Let me back up a minute. In November, Ike had what we think was a stroke which left his left side of his face paralyzed. He could not even blink his eye on the left side. We have been putting drops in his eye every three hours to keep the eye from drying out and creating an ulcer. We knew that his health was deteriorating but he was not in any pain.
Back to the present. An x-ray showed that Ike was in congestive heart failure. The reason his stomach was so big is because of all the fluid. We were given a couple of different options. We chose to have the fluid drained to buy us some time. As soon as the fluid was drained he was back to his old self. We spoiled him with lots of treats and special meals of ground beef, rice and corn. He loved all the extra attention.
We were suppose to go back to Illinois for Christmas Eve with my Dad and Bonnie. Due to the circumstances we canceled and spent a quality time at home. Andy and I took turns going to the Christmas Eve service at church. We didn't want to leave Ike home alone. The diuretic he is on makes him have to go out about every 30 minutes. The picture above is from a couple of weeks ago.
Andy & Vickie convinced Noah to let them play with his new 
