Okay, I'm Ready For You

I took that photo of Widgie this morning just before giving her the first set of pills for the day. She had her third chemo treatment yesterday at the oncologist in Burlington. Her lymph nodes have shrunk dramatically, so we're clearly gaining ground on the lymphoma. She's her usual self, too -- on Monday she was rolling around on her back in the grass in the front yard, enjoying the fall sunshine.

But there is this small matter of all those pills. Her morning regimen looks like this:

The evening regimen is about the same number of pills, but we swap out a couple of different meds for others.

Bless her heart (literally and figuratively), she's been a real champ and so tolerant. The easiest way to take these would be in food, which is how she used to take her heart pills. But she stopped eating when we tried to get all these pills in her with food.

We'd have the same issue with "pill pockets," too -- those sorts of things are fine with just a couple of pills, but when you're talking about a dozen different pills going down the hatch, there's only one sure-fire, reliable way to do it:  Open mouth, drop pill at back of tongue, nudge pill down throat, and quickly close mouth. For the occasional pill she manages to not swallow, I say to her: "What comes up ... must go back down."

So that's the routine Widget and I do twice a day. (For some reason Alayne insists I'm "better" at this than her and thus I'm the one who does it. I guess guys have to be better at something, eh? But gentlemen, notice how we are always better at those very things the ladies would rather not do anyway?)

Widget has gotten fussy about food, too, and some days she will eat certain things and not other things. She keeps sending different menu requests to the kitchen and waits to find out if the chefs can satisfy her ever-changing needs. (We're still trying to figure out if we can do duck à l'orange.)

Meanwhile, this annoying guy shows up twice a day to stick pills down her throat.

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New Shelter Challenge Begins

The latest round of the Shelter Challenge is underway and runs until October 13. You can vote every day here. To search for us, type in our name, Rolling Dog Farm, and Lancaster, NH 03584.

They have redesigned the contest site and made other changes. Please note that I cannot help with technical or voting problems. I also do not have an "inside track" to anyone at the Shelter Challenge, and I don't know any more about the contest than anyone else does. So if you find yourself having issues, please consult their FAQ page here and their Rules page, which is a pop-up you can find linked on this page.

Thanks for your votes!