Sorry for lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.

I have had the flu, plus we have been dealing with some health issues for Sam, our black lab (that's Sam in the picture, with Chillou our other lab).

Last fall, Sam was diagnosed with right-sided heart failure, but this summer he started retaining way too much fluid in his belly -- more than the heart failure would explain -- so this week the vet did a laparotomy operation. Turns out the heart is damaged but not as badly as it could be, and the liver is fine, no tumours, but he is in kidney failure. During the surgery our vet took out two gallons of fluid and he removed the renal capsule to see if that will help his kidneys function a little better. Its not a cure, or even a treatment, but may help Sam continue on with a good quality of life for a while yet. Then today Sam's incision was dripping and it turned out he had opened some of the sutures somehow. After six hours in the vet emergency clinic, they wrapped him up and we will take him to our vet tomorrow to get him closed up again, to make sure there is no infection lurking.

So we will have Sam for a while yet, we hope. He is such a loving dog -- we have never had such an affectionate dog. After his miserable day, following a miserable week, he wanted nothing more than to stretch out on the bed and go to sleep next to my husband and finally we were able to help him up and he lay down with a very contented sigh. When I finish this post, I will carefully lie down on the other side of him and there won't be a happier dog in the world.