Finally...I will be updating this blog in the next week.

Well...there's a lot to talk about.  I have been very, very bad not updating this.  We didn't have very good internet connections (we will be looking into this in the next few months) plus we have just been going & doing non-stop.
Since we left Cheyenne, WY we have been to:
-South Dakota
-Illinois
-Pennsylvania
-Virginia
-Back to Florida for 3 months now.

And On and On and On....Our Time in Cripple Creek, CO

We wanted to ride the Harley's up Pike's Peak so we thought we'd find a place to stay in or close to Colorado Springs.  We called every campground around there...Woodland Park, Divide, Colorado Springs, etc., etc., etc.  They were all full until at least mid August.  We figured school would be starting soon so everyone & their brother were taking their last camping trips before school starts.

We don't book in advance since we don't know where we'll be or how long we want to stay someplace.

August 8, 2016

Left Durango.

Wild burros roam the street

We ended up in Cripple Creek, CO.  It's an old gold mining town.  Before the Gold Rush, this town had a population of 15.  At the height of the Gold Rush the population soared to over 50,000.  The current population is under 12,000.  We were extremely pleased with this quaint little town! 

The town of Cripple Creek

 



Where we stayed.  Cripple Creek Hospitality
House & RV Park
This was a hospital in the early 1900's

The main "drag"...Barnett St

Map of all mines underground

We went to the Molly Kathleen Gold Mine. 



In the mine.

Natural Epson Salt on walls of mine

In the mine

Blacksmith's "shop" in the mine



Guess who...

Elevator we went down in

Model of mine shaft we were in

They put you in the original elevators the miners took us down 1000 ft.  There were only 6 of us in these but they said 9 miners were in these each time they went down. 

We were less than 1/2 way down.  There were many mines below us, 1200 ft below us!  The mine has 22 levels.  We were at level 10.

 

We stopped by the Heritage Center across the street from the mine.  It was really interesting.

 

And the Saga of Poor Sweet Annie Continues....

If you read our blog post from Friday, July 8, 2016 OMG!  Glad We Weren't...On the Road..., you know what happened to our Annie.

We left Brent & Ashley's on Sunday, July 10th.  We were checking her wound every night when we stopped.  On Wednesday, July 13th we noticed a couple of stitches had come out.  We didn't think too much of it.  We put some Neosporin on it, a huge bandaid then wrapped gauze around it then put her T-shirt back on.
When we checked it on Thursday, July 14th a couple more stitches had come out.  Again with the Neosporin, bandaid and gauze.

We arrived at our campground on Friday, July 15th in Cortez, CO.  We were busy setting up and we were sooooo tired.  Annie's wound didn't get checked until Saturday morning.  It looked like most of the stitches had come out but it didn't seem to bother her.  We wrapped it again.  We called all the vets in the area, none were open until Monday, July 18th.  We figured we'd just keep an eye on it then take her Monday to see a vet.
On Sunday when we checked it, it was completely open.  You could see the muscle!  We found an emergency vet in Durango that was open.  We all loaded in the truck at 9:30 am and headed to Durango, about an hour east of us.
We got to the vets office around 10:30 am.  They looked at it.  Dr. Randy said they would have to do surgery...again.  There may be some infection also.  Shit!  And we thought we were taking good care of her.  Shit!  He said it would be a couple of hours before we could take her home.  Poor Annie.
We drove around a while, went to lunch (at Ska Brewery-more about this in another blog post)
We got a call around 2 pm.  Annie was out of surgery, it went well.  She was in recovery.  We could pick her up around 4 pm.  This was beginning to be a very long day!  We asked if we could come see her.  They said she was still sleeping and wouldn't even know we were there.  Ok we said.
About 20 minutes later my phone rings.  It's the vets office.  Annie woke up.  We could come get her as she would probably be happier with us.  (We figured when she woke up, she WOKE UP!  She was probably barking and wouldn't stop).
We raced to the vets office.  We could hear her in the back.  Tori was ready to head back there. 
They brought her out.  Poor thing, she looked pitiful but was full of energy!  Oh...and she gets to wear "The Cone of Shame". 

They wanted to see her on Wednesday, July 20th at 7:45 am.  We thought they said they were going to check her and take her bandage off. 
She did pretty good with the cone of shame.  She got to take it off to eat and when she went out to pee and other stuff.  She caught on pretty quick when she got it off.  She wanted to go out a lot more than normal, that's for sure.  It was the least we could do for poor Annie.  Tori didn't know what to think.  Alley cat was puzzled.  How would she be able to play with her buddy.  Believe me, they figured it out!
Anyway, we got to the vets office on Wednesday and had to leave her for about an hour.  We were excited for her to have her bandage off!

We got a call that we could pick her up about 9 am. 
They brought her out when we got there.  To our dismay, she had another bandage on.  This one was red instead of blue. 

We were kind of disappointed but Dr. Randy explained that with her being a puppy it was best if they kept it bandaged for a couple weeks.  We understood.
They wanted to see her Sunday, July 24th and then again on Thursday and again on Monday or Tuesday.
We were only going to stay in Cortez until Friday, July 29th.  We looked around Durango for campgrounds.  We found one we could get into for a week starting August 1.  We made reservations at Alpen Rose RV Park in Durango (Will tell you why we chose this campground in another blog post).  Came back to Cortez and extended our stay here until August 1.
Hopefully Annie will recover nicely and this will all be behind us.
We've said many times...this is the most expensive dog we have every owned!  The nurse said Annie needs to get a job.  Well...show dog is out of the questions now.

OMG! Glad we weren't...on the road...

 

What started as an easy night...

 

George made a huge pot of his famous spaghetti sauce.  Going to have dinner with Brandon, Tyler & Cayden, Brent, Ashley & Lyla.

 

All the dogs, Zoe & Emma (Brent & Ashley's Goldens) Tori & Annie (ours) were out in the yard running around, playing & racing about 7 pm.  Brent & Brandon were in the yard watching the dogs play, I was in back of the rig showing Tyler the garage ramp.  He was curious as to how we were going to get the Harley's out.

 

At 7:05 pm this horrible screaming was coming from one of the dogs.  I ran around to the side of the rig.  It was Annie!  She was screaming!  Blood all over the front of her. 

 

When I first saw her it looked like a lot of blood coming from her mouth.  I thought she hit her face on the steps to the rig.  The boys were right there with her trying to pick her up.  All I heard was, "She ran into that thing!"  That thing...I thought it was the side of the steps.  I quickly picked her up.  She was all curled up screaming.   I carried her into the rig & put her in the kitchen sink.  She stopped screaming & was just whimpering.

 

As I was trying to see what happened to her face the boys kept saying, "It's not her face, it's her leg!  Her leg!  It's her leg!" 

 

It took me a few seconds to hear what they were saying.  I tried to look at her leg.  All she would do was cry & pull her leg away.  After about 30 seconds she let me look at it.  So much blood.

 

Brent had grabbed some clean rags from his garage.  We put one on her leg & kept pressure on it to try to stop the bleeding.

 

Brandon said he thought she broke her leg.  He said she was running so fast she ran right into the front leveling jack, the L shaped thing that adjusts the legs up or down.  He said, "Mom, she was racing around with the other dogs.  She was running so fast.  She ran into that thing & just started screaming!"

 

The boys were calling their vets.  One answered & said they were closed but referred us to an Emergency Vet in Kissimmee, Dr. Barnett.  Off we went...racing to the vet, Tori in tow.  She wasn't letting us take Annie anywhere without her. 

 

Tori, Annie, Emma & Zoe

Spent about an hour at the vet.  They were wonderful!  Because the laceration was so bad they had to put her under to do the surgery.  Surgery would take about 90 minutes.  We were allowed to carry her into the operation room & stay with her until the put the IV in.  They had to stitch her nerve, stitch her muscle & then stitch her skin.  It was pretty bad.  They said it might take a couple of months for her to get back to normal and even then, if the nerve doesn't heal right she may have a limp.  Her aspirations for being a Show Dog just went down the drain...LOL!

 

We left Annie and took a drive around town.  We had lived in Kissimmee 20+ years ago so we thought we'd just drive around and see if we recognized anything.  We didn't see a lot that looked familiar anymore.

 

We got back to the vet at 10:15 pm.  Annie started barking as soon as she heard our voices.  Tori wasn't waiting, she had to see her Sis.  We walked back.  There was Annie, standing, barking & growling a little.  She was ready to go home!

 

We headed home.  Both the girls were happy to be together...again!

 

We got home about 11 pm.  Annie jumped out of the car & tried to run around the yard.  Tori stuck with her...she knew things weren't quite right with her Sis.

 

Oh...and as an added bonus, when Brent was trying to pick her up she bit him.  She bit him so hard that one of her baby teeth was stuck in his hand.  He put peroxide on it & will be ok. 

 

And on and on....



 

 

Trying to calm her down & stop the bleeding

At the Emergency Vet

Waiting....



The injury

Tori eating Dairy Queen while waiting for Annie

On the way home



Feels better laying next to Sis...

The culprit...front leveling jack

Had to wear a tshirt so she wouldn't bite her stitches



Next morning...close to Sis

Here we are...parked at Brent & Ashley's

Meet Annie! And her big sister Tori! And Alley the cat!

Here's Annie!  She's 10 weeks old.

 

 

Tori!  Our 9 year old Golden Retriever. 

 

 

 

 And this is Alley!  She's 2 years old and was found when she was about 6 weeks old...in an alley.

The loss of our Golden Retriever Daisy...

Our Daisy

A couple of weeks ago our 9 year old rescue, Daisy, wasn't feeling like herself.  She hadn't been for a few days.  We took her to the vet.  They wanted to do some bloodwork since she didn't appear to have anything physically wrong with her.  After about an hour, we got a call to come in and go over the results.
It wasn't good news...not at all!  Our Daisy had serious kidney failure.
The vets & vet techs at Coastal Animal Hospital in Bradenton couldn't have been nicer & more compassionate. 
Dr. Wally said we could take her to the emergency vet hospital.  For the next 48 hours she would have an IV giving her constant fluids to flush her kidneys.   
We were ready to go.  Anything to save our Daisy. 
Then we asked if this would cure her.  Dr. Wally said no but it may extend her life.  For how long we asked?  Maybe a few days, a few weeks or a few months.
This put a whole new spin on this "mess".  First of all, Daisy DID NOT like being away from home...at all!  She definitely didn't like being away from her sister, Tori.  And lastly, we wanted to do what was best for Daisy.  We talked to Dr. Wally some more.  He said there was less than a 50% chance that this would even work.  We could bring her home but she would definitely die within 4-5 days...and it wouldn't be painless.
We decided the best thing for our Daisy was to euthanize her.   
We had Tori with us.  She knew something was wrong with her sis.  They took Daisy to put an IV port in her front leg.  When they brought her back in, Tori snuggled with her, licked her face then laid down facing the door.  Tori never looked back.  They put the IV in.  Daisy passed very quick.  She just "went to sleep".
We said our goodbyes.
Tori got up, walked right out to the car and got in.  She never looked back.
We cried all the way home, most of the night and on and off the next day.
Tori was so sad.  She wouldn't get up in the morning to go out without coaxing.  She wasn't eating much.  All she wanted to do was sleep.  We felt her pain.  That's all we wanted to do too.  We didn't, but we wanted to.
We knew we would get another dog eventually.
We were looking online at shelters, rescue's, pets for sale ads, etc.  It was just "busy looking", just keeping us occupied. 
Then it happened!  We saw this little fur ball...a black  10 week old Golden Doodle!  Last Friday afternoon!  We called to inquire about her, made an appointment for 7pm that night for all of us to meet her, including Tori.
Well, we now have a new puppy...Annie. 
It took Tori about 36 hours to warm up to her.  Now she won't even go outside unless Annie is with.
A puppy is more work than we remember but Tori is being a very good mom.  She's been going outside to do her business.  She walks right next to Tori.  She's going to be a very good girl...and she's so cute!