Friday Friends

Many thanks to all the wonderful folks who have asked me recently about Mattie.

Mattie is the matriarch of the family. She is a foxhound and nearly 13 years old. She has had her share of rough days as she ages but we try to keep her pain under control with arthritis medicine.

Here she is in the background watching the two youngest, a Jack Russell named Eddie (with the short tail) and a Jack Russell - Basset mix named Lucy (with the long tail) playing.



Don't let the growling concern you. It's all in play. Here they are rough housing until Lucy calls a break to get some water.



Friday Friends - Mattie Update

It's been more than a week since Mattie got the stitches out of her leg and I am happy to report that she is doing very good.

It has been unseasonably cold here this week, which has aggravated her arthritis. But other than some stiffness, she has been getting around much easier and is no longer acting as if she is in pain.

We all feel like she dodged a bullet this past month. It was touch and go for awhile. Now we are inspecting her leg each morning and also looking for signs of other cysts forming, as they tend to abscess on her.

Her badly abscessed leg is no longer infected. It is red and a bit raw from the bandages but now that the bandages have been removed, it is healing quickly. The incision is completely closed and looks terrific - although it is the length of her entire leg.

Mattie is a foxhound. When used as hunting dogs, their average lifespan is only three years. When they live as part of a family, their average lifespan increases to eight years. Mattie is over ten years old. She is shown here with Eddie, the Jack Russell, keeping watch in the background.

When we built our house, we had wall-to-wall carpet installed so it would be easy for elderly dogs to get up. Hardwood tends to be slippery for elderly dogs.

An Update on Mattie

Mattie is doing well since the surgery on her leg.

Originally, the vet wanted to leave her leg unbandaged so it could heal with fresh air surrounding it. However, she licked it overnight while we were sleeping and one of the sutures was licked loose. So the vet bandaged her up and each day she's been brought in to have it rebandaged and her leg examined.

Mattie is about 11 years old, which is ancient for a foxhound. She lost her twin brother several years ago and we have felt like she's been on borrowed time. But she is a fighter and she's been hanging in there.

She could smell the antibiotic in her food and refused to eat. So she was given a shot with a timed release antibiotic that lasts for an entire week. It has done wonders to help her recover. She's also been on Tramadol as needed for pain, which thankfully has only been given at night to help her sleep and keep her comfortable.

Catching Up

It's been a few weeks since I've posted. I've been involved in organizing the Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference and Book Fair, an annual event that brings together more than 75 authors, publishers and literary agents to raise money for literacy campaigns.

While I've been neck-deep in organizing, planning and tidying up afterward, Life has gone on around me.

My oldest dog, Mattie, a foxhound, had developed a cyst that the veterinarian determined to be benign. We were watching it to make sure it didn't grow so fast that it hampered her ability to walk, as it was located on the inside of her back leg.

It took a turn for the worse and began to abscess. Mattie had surgery but the infection was so bad (it grew amazingly quickly) that they limited the surgery to a biopsy. We received word that she did not have cancer, which was a huge relief. But what is causing the cysts - which grew from one to three on the same leg in less than a week - is still a mystery.

She is now on antibiotics and going to the vet daily to have her bandages changed and her leg checked.