goodbye

It’s taken me a while to be able to write this, I still tear up whenever Jay asks where Dolce is and I am just now getting used to the new quiet of our house without Dolce; it was a hard and unexpected goodbye.  It’s no secret that I am not a kitty person… I never have been… however, this guy had a way with people and although we had a love/hate relationship he was nothing but sweet just as his name implies…

thank you Dolce for being patient with me while I learned kitty…  thank you for understanding when I jumped in the beginning every time you jumped to sit behind me on the couch… thank you for forgiving me when I got mad at you for things that were out of your control… thank you for not holding it against me when I kicked you out of the bedroom after marrying your Daddy- I know that the couch was not nearly as great as the bed you once got to share… thank you for every early morning wake up call you gave us- occasionally you saved us from being too terribly late for work… thank you for your amusing taste buds: carrot muffins and ramen noodles- really?… thank you for not holding it against me for bringing a d-o-g into your home… thank you for learning to love her, tolerating her puppy phase and becoming her friend- she loved playing with you and misses you… thank you for all of the hours you sat with me while I was pregnant with Jay- although my lap was shrinking by the minute you always made room for yourself there… thank you for accepting and loving the tiny humans that we kept bringing home from the hospital with us… thank you for letting Jay crawl all over you and love all over you despite him not being so gentle… thank your for all time you spent and the laughs you gave us… thank you for all the love you gave us… you are missed, sweet kitty, you are missed…

a few of my favorites of him…

Curious Dolce

Over the past couple weeks, we have been looking through our old pictures, remembering Dolce. We hope you enjoy this and a few currently-under-development posts that will appear over the next few weeks. As Dolce was one of our original “kids”, we have plenty of photos by which to remember him.

Like all good cats, Dolce was very curious. He participated in numerous furniture assembly projects and new-purchase unboxings. Always wanting to be where the action was, he was an integral part of our lives through all events, large and small.

This "pet series" machine was overwhelmed by the amount of hair that our house contains
Dolce never missed an opportunity to try out new furniture, especially if it contained cubbies (boxes)
Helping Jamie assemble new furniture
Trying out the new furniture. This became a favorite spot for Dolce
Jamie assembling a dresser, with his helpers
Dolce was usually on top of any new box, but was content to yield his normal spot to Jay as needed
He just had to be a part of any event

 

Dolce

Dolce
2002-2012


Dolce passed away on April 6, 2012 (Good Friday).

We will post more pictures (and maybe a few stories) from Dolce’s life soon. We miss him very much.

home…

After a week long visit to the vets office (two of them actually) Dolce is home.  To make a long story short (or as short as possible and still have it make sense) we took Dolce in to our vets office a week ago last Monday because he wasn’t eating, drinking or acting himself.  They ran a few tests, let me take him home and told me that they would call me with the results.  I got a call the next day to bring him back in because they thought he had an issue with his liver.  They wanted to start him on some IV fluids and see if they could fix the problem.  As it turns out it wasn’t that simple… After ultrasounds and further testing they realized that he had a stones in his gallbladder and an obstruction in his common bile duct (most basically meaning he couldn’t get rid of waste and therefore had stopped taking anything in).  The stones and the obstruction meant that he needed to have surgery and that we needed to take him to another animal hospital where they could better help him.  He did have surgery last Friday.  They took out the majority of the stones that they could, rerouted his bile duct directly to his small intestine and closed him up after putting in a feeding tube.  It was touch and go over the weekend regarding his recovery- he had two blood transfusions after the surgery because of his low levels but he is now back on track (or at least on his way there).  I picked him up from the surgeons office yesterday where I received a bag full of his medications, the special food that he is on and instructions on how to feed him through his feeding tube.

Dolce is still on the mend and not completely back to himself (who can blame him after major surgery) but at least now he is home.  We will need to continue feeding him through the feeding tube until he starts eating on his own and giving him his medications but he is home and on his way to a full recovery which is the important part.  The whole family (furry children included) were really excited to see him when we arrived home; I am pretty sure Piper would have jumped on to the bed to join him if we would have let her…

Wish me luck with all of the medical stuff (it is not my forte AT ALL) and luck managing all three animals plus Jay on my own for the rest of the week- Jamie is at his yearly staff conference for the week (yup- it’s horrible timing).  Needless to say, it will be an interesting week- especially since one of the instructions that I was given was to not let Dolce jump.  Seriously- no jumping??  He’s a cat people…

Here’s a couple photos of him settling back in last night…

He has a "sweater" on to cover the feeding tube a bit and hold it close to his body- that's what the blue thing is.
Piper greeting Dolce after his return home.

sick kitty…

We have a sick kitty at our house… one that needed to be taken to the vet on Tuesday and while we hoped that he would be able to come home tonight that isn’t the case.  They will need to do further testing and an ultrasound to rule out other things and get him on his way to recovery.  So, if you are so inclined to pray for furry children, Dolce could use a few prayers and I think that we could too.  My heart has been pretty heavy the last few days and while he, Dolce, drives me nuts from time to time I can’t wait to have him come home.

The other animals are kind of lost right now without him, Bella especially (his pound kitty sister).  She keeps wandering around looking for him and meowing- it’s really sad…  Jay has noticed that something is up but isn’t quite sure and I am honestly glad that he is too young to understand.  He has however, been hamming it up the best he can to keep our spirits up.  Yesterday, aside from being a dancing fool he kept his crown (a pipe cleaner crown that I made to entertain him on the plane) on all day and hammed it up for the camera with his shades…

By the way, I am still working on Canada photos and will post soon as soon as I can :)

so thankful- day 1

Because Christmas decorations are already up in the stores, since the weather here is in the low 80’s, because the leaves are changing colors on the trees (ha- we live in Florida folks) and because we hope to enjoy time with family and stuff our bellies to capacity this week, it can only mean one thing- Thanksgiving is almost here!! And since we have been especially blessed this year we thought that we would take the week to tell you about a few things we are most thankful for. We hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and are able to enjoy it with those most dear to you…

Make sure to check on posts from the rest of the week too…

We are so thankful for our animals. They may drive us nuts sometimes but seriously our lives wouldn’t be complete without our furry family members!

our weekend

Since we stayed up late to snuggle in for a movie, since our little guy woke us us at 4:50am and then again at 7am, and since my eye lids are heavy and I’m having a hard time focusing you will be getting a view of our weekend in short (possibly fragmented) sentences and pictures. Enjoy- there are a lot of pictures; it was a long weekend for us…

we had lunch with this guy
these guys were there for lunch too (and Grandma and Aunt Nancy who aren't pictured)
we knocked down towers made by this guy
we hung out in the hammock
we had a bunch of wagon rides
we got some great veggies from the farmers market
we got to wear hoodies because the weather was chilly
we worked in the garden
and we spotted this little beauty! (it's a squash in case you didn't know)
we had a serious case of bed-head after our nap
we were super cuddly after our nap- Mama didn't mind one bit!
we were also super silly and smily after our nap
we got to check out the birds on the lake after lunch
we got to play with HDH cups while sitting on the table
Mama attended a beautiful baby shower while the guys watched football
Mama attended a beautiful baby shower while the guys watched football
hosted by this cute one ^ for this adorable Mama to be ^
we made some yummy muffins with the help of this guy- recipe to come soon
we wore pants that were too big and thought it was funny when they were pulled up to our armpits
we played with Dolce, string and baskets...

We had dinner at the Knights and took each other’s Holiday photos. I would show you- they are too cute- but I am a little traditional about the photos and think you may have to wait until the card comes in the mail to see it. I will tell you one thing though, I LOVE them, that’s for sure!

we played with the kitties some more
we drank juice from a cup- with a huge amount of assistance and only for a short while

We hung out around the house on Monday
Had lunch with Grandpa again- lucky ducks are we to have lunch twice within four days
And Jamie and I celebrated out 5th year of knowing each other.  That’s one whole hand’s worth of time!!

All in all it was a great weekend. Hope yours was too!