Wrigley Beans, International Superstar

The other day, a mysterious envelope arrived in the mail addressed to "Mr. Wrigley 'Beans' Hopman." I was puzzled for a moment, but then realized right away that it must be fan mail from Wrigley's self-proclaimed biggest fan!!

And just check out how happy he was! Wrigley is typically the dog that doesn't insist on being paid attention to the way the other dogs do, so he sometimes fades into the background. But for a few minutes, it was all about him!

In unrelated news, I feel like I should mention that the Brown Dog Dad and I have split up and he will be moving out this week. I say this only because I might mention it in a later post and forget that I haven't said anything previously, so there it is. I will be staying in our house with all of the brown dogs (and Addy!) for the foreseeable future! Their lives will remain pretty much as-is, though I am thinking about turning the basement into a doggie playroom and also moving all of their crates into the second bedroom so they're not all watching me when I sleep. But yes, the same other than that!

Frankenbutt

Hi friends! Sorry for our horrific lack of updating lately, but we will get to that in a future post maybe.

So in the last post, I mentioned Probert's vet visit. Well, sometime last week, I got a phone message from the vet saying that Probert's blood test is great, but that she needs to talk to me about the lump on his back. I spent all day trying not to freak out, but unable to speak with her because she was in appointments. Finally, around 4pm, she calls and tells me that the aspiration of Probert's lump showed a suspicious amount of spindle cells and that to be safe, it should come off soon.

I called a friend, who immediately googled and read me this page about Canine Spindle Cell Sarcoma, which would likely be what Probert has.

Probert's surgery along with his dental cleaning was scheduled for the 15th of December until this weekend when he managed to somehow break a tooth! The tooth was badly broken and so with the help of the vet, I was able to move his surgery date up to this past Wednesday. On Wednesday they cleaned his teeth, removed the broken tooth, and also removed his tumor.

It was a hard day and when I finally got to pick him up, the tech checking me out warned me before I saw him that the incision was very big because they needed to take out a wide margin around the tumor to be sure they got "everything" in case it was cancer.

So, it's a couple of days later and Probert is doing pretty well and I am just so happy to have him home and alive and hopefully cancer-free. We will find out next week about the biopsy results, but everything I've read and heard has told me that even if it is cancer, this is typically a very localized type and that he should be fine. Please keep him in your thoughts. I just want him to heal well and be okay.

That's been part of our adventures lately! I hope that you are all doing better and that we will catch up with you all soon!

Hello to all of our two-legged, three-legged, and four-legged friends (and anyone we missed)! A few weeks ago, my computer broke and then I went out of town for a week, so I haven't been able to update the blog. As it is, I still haven't set up my newly repaired computer so that I can get the photos off my camera, but that is coming. You will have to settle for words for now.

The pups are doing great. It is "vet season" I guess because in the past two months Wrigley, Maizy, and Probert have all been in to see the vet for their necessary yearly visits. Wrigley's visit was mostly uneventful minus the news that he is overweight. Since he is getting the same level of exercise as the ideally-weighted Addy, Maizy, and Probert, our only choice was to cut his food down. Poor Wrigley. Though, having been away from him for nearly a week last week, when I saw him again with "fresh" eyes he looked thinner to me! I guess we'll see how he does!

Maizy's visit was exciting in that she required a tooth cleaning, x-rays (to take to a new ortho doc), had an ear infection, and had a little arm scab that she kept tearing open. She came home from her tooth cleaning appointment in a No-Bite collar limping from hip manipulation and having lost a tooth that just fell out during the dental! Only six years old and she is falling apart! She is an angel about her ear medicine, though, and her arm healed after a few days in the collar (which she hated. a lot).

Probert's visit last night was good. The doctor took blood in order to test his liver as she thinks he will be on his medication long-term and wants to be sure it's not affecting his liver. He also needs his teeth cleaned, so I will be scheduling a dental for him soon. He also had a little mass aspirated and we'll find out what that was. Luckily, everything else is great, so we got out of there relatively unscathed!

Addy doesn't see the vet until April, so she is plenty happy about that!

Funds Raised!

Thanks everyone for your support with all of the work I've been doing with Pinups for Pitbulls. Well, the event on Friday went off without a hitch! Here are a few pictures (no pups, sorry!). At the end of the evening (or really, the next morning, since I got home at about 4:30am), we had raised over $2000 for the bullies! Thanks to anyone who helped promote or came out! It is much appreciated. Look for our family-friendly fundraiser coming up in December in Wheaton.

Me and Tracy, my partner in pit bull fundraising (with the Brown Dog Dad in the back).

All set up for the midnight raffle (there was a second at 3am).

A packed bar and smiling faces. Good signs.

One of my favorite merch items that we have... the Pinup for Pitbulls tote bag.

Gutted

So, in working on planning tonight's (!!!) Pinups for Pitbulls fundraiser here in Chicago, I have been in touch with a few GREAT bully-friendly local rescues. I am so inspired by all of the hard work that they are doing, and at the same time, I am being heartbroken constantly thinking about the hard lives that so many animals have. There is no way to not wish I could do more.

At the event, there will be photos and descriptions to promote dogs from both One Tail At A Time and Making A Difference Rescue who are in need of sponsorship or foster/forever homes. One of the dogs that really touched me from Making a Difference is Hero. He was found by a woman in her yard, collapsed. She thought he was dead. Once he was picked up, an email was sent out from Animal Control to the director of Making a Difference with only two words, "Help me." And so, we are all trying to find Hero the home that he deserves.

Yesterday, I also received an unexpected email from a caregiver at PAWS Chicago asking if we could promote another dog at our event. Red is already famous in Chicago for attempting to protect his elderly owner during a home invasion. During the course of the attack, Red was shot and paralyzed. His owner sadly could not physically give Red the care that he now needs and Red is in search of a home to live out the rest of his days. I really hope we can help him.

Please think of these dogs... send them your good thoughts. We are hoping to help some of them out tonight, even if it's just by reminding people that there are so many dogs out there that need our compassion and love.

Playing Dress Up

So, once again this year we participated with Pinups for Pitbulls and submitted a photo for the 2010 calendar. Out of the almost 100 submissions, we were NOT chosen to have our own month in the calendar, but our picture will appear on a page in the back. Oh well. Enjoy anyway!


The photo was a huge collaborative effort in tribute to the Elvgren pinup painting, Station WOW. I can't tell you how much fun this shoot was. Everyone who worked on it was great. The photographer, Chris Zibutis is awesome and was assisted by his lovely wife, Monica Zibutis as well as their friend Robyn Martin. The hair and makeup was all done by my sister-in-law, Jenna Hopman. The dog-wrangling and general pup supervision was handled by my husband, Shawn Hopman. We shot at the yoga studio where I teach thanks to the kind owners. The pup models were your friends, Addy and Probert. As you can see, Probert is an old pro at this looking adorable on film thing by now!

Guess who has 4 birthdays!?

Tomorrow is Probert's four birthday! I haven't decided how we will celebrate, any suggestions?

Here is a picture of Probert from when he was first adopted. The toy is his Ellie that he brought with him from the rescue. Um, until Wrigley de-stuffed Ellie. RIP, Ellie.