Wednesday, February 13/2013

Happy Birthday to John.  He is officially 6 months older than me today!!  Perhaps I should bake him a cake - maybe!!
I was up early this morning.  Hogan heard the neighbours start their truck and had to let me know he had heard them.  Now we are both awake!!   There will be no starting of trucks around this corner of the park without Hogan hearing and letting us know.  Not a bad burglar alarm!!
Ray and Kay are headed into Phoenix early this morning for Ray's annual colonoscopy.  Several years ago he had a bowel cancer so now is checked every year so hopefully, things go well for him today.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed and sending angels along for the ride.
Today, we find out the results of Hogan's needle biopsy so hopefully that is not horrible news.  I guess we will wait and see.
I headed into town and did some quick running around and while there, I stopped at the veterinary clinic to see if the doctor had a minute to chat about Hogan's results.  He did and I was told that the lump in his neck was a cancer.  The exact type was unknown (not enough tissue sent with the needle biopsy) but really, that is neither here nor there.  The point is, that it is indeed a cancer and now has to be dealt with.  After discussing the matter with John, we have decided to get the lump removed as it poses a huge choking risk at the moment.  Hopefully the cancer is contained within that lump and does not have little streamers attached to it that have infiltrated the surrounding tissue.  The doctor will know more once he gets in there.  Either way, the surgery will allow him to remove the lump and perhaps buy Hogan some more time.  After that, we will just let nature take its course.  Support him as long as he is doing well and help him to Doggie Heaven when the need arises.   (Stop crying Kimmy!!)
Ray and Kay returned from their trip to the city and Ray understandably is a bit tired.  He did sit out in the sunshine with us for a while watching the birds then headed inside to rest for the remainder of the evening.  Just before he left though, I was standing beside him chatting and I heard this big flutter of bird wings directly behind me and wondered just what the heck was going on.  Thinking it was a wayward dove I didn't bother to turn around.  Kay said something along the lines of "holy buckets" as a red tailed hawk swooped towards me, obviously changed its mind about landing on my head and did some sort of vertical fly maneuver to avoid contact.  Everyone saw it but me!!  I think I am glad it didn't land or claw me in any way!!  It happened so quickly that no one had time to catch it on camera!!
Being John's birthday, Kay and I headed to Mitch's to steal some more of his wood so we could have a fire tonight.  While there,  I checked on the laundry I was doing and Kay ended up bringing both hers and Rays quads back to the yard so that they were not so vulnerable to thieves.  With Mitch back in Utah for a few weeks they are up there by themselves.  There were two quads stolen out of one of the parks in town the other night so perhaps it is better that they are down here in the yard.  I am a great believer in "out of sight, out of mind".
It was pizza for supper  and then it was soon time for Marie to hit the bed.  It was a great evening weather wise and now hopefully all the cold crap is behind us.
I think I will start stripping the paint from those four legs that John is hoping to use on the coffee table he is building for the trailer tomorrow so I need my beauty rest!!  Ya, that's right...beauty rest!!  Good Night.