Tana update

A few weeks ago I posted about my little munchkin Tana and her eye problem, well the news is not good. On Thursday she had an appointment with the ophthalmologist (yes they have eye doctors for for animals, dentists as well), she confirmed that Tana has Primary Lens Luxation. Unfortunately this is a bilateral genetic condition so her other eye will become affected at some stage. If left untreated she will develop glaucoma which would lead to blindness.

She is now on two types of eye drops twice a day, one to restrict her pupil so the lens won't luxate again, the second to reduce the pressure in her other eye, as it is elevated. Tana is being such a good girl when it comes to putting in the drops, of course a few treats never go astray.

We go back in a month for a recheck. The specialist told me that she has another Tenterfield Terrier with the same condition, that has being managed for the last three years with eye drops. The only vision loss for some dogs on this course of treatment is at dusk and at night.

Apparently lens luxation is a common condition in Tenterfields, Jack Russels, Mini Foxies, Miniature Bull Terriers and Australian Cattle Dogs, with onset starting around four to five years of age. Thankfully they can now DNA test for the condition. I obviously didn't do enough research on all potential health problems when selecting the breed. Having said that I wouldn't swap her for the world.

Poor little Tans she's only four years old. Also I forgot her birthday earlier in the month...I think a new squeaky toy is in order.

Is there an end in sight?

Having lived in Queensland my entire life, Brisbane girl born and bred, I've never seen such constant widespread rain around our Sunshine State. They are now comparing this to the 1974 floods that stuck Brisbane. I was only nine years old at the time and don't really remember much, except that a relatives house was inundated at St Lucia. My parents did take use down to the Wynnum foreshore to have look at the aftermath of the king tide. There were boats floating in the streets near Wynnum creek, amazing stuff.

The view around my house yesterday

This is getting a bit close for comfort - Water at the back door

Water starting to creep in at the front door - thankfully it stopped raining and the water drained away

Water pooling at the side of the house

The dogs are starting to go a little stir crazy with all the rain. To break the boredom we all donned our raincoats and went for a long walk, much to Tana's disgust. She loves a walk just hates wearing a coat.

My thoughts go out to all those affected by the flooding. Stay safe and lets pray that the rain stops soon.

Has anyone got any hints or tips regarding the spacing problems I'm having. All paragraphs are just merging into one no matter how many lines spaces I put between them. It seems to occur after photos are inserted...help

Cheers Lisa

My poor Tana

"Ouch"......what a way to start the New Year

My poor little Tana somehow managed to injure her eye on Thursday evening. After work on Friday, we paid a little visit to see my lovely friend Wanita (she's a vet) to have her looked at. After lots of treats and cuddles the verdict is that she has swelling and inflammation in and around the eye, no abrasions (we can rule out the cats then). Her conjunctiva is very red and aggravated, possibly from her rubbing at it and her eye is weeping a bit.

She is on antibiotics, eye ointment, 3 x a day!! and Metacam for 5 days. Then she has to go back on Wednesday for a recheck. Unfortunately it isn't the first time this has happened, she had a similar injury in November, same eye. Alas I've had to resort to putting an elizabethan collar on her as she keeps rubbing her poor old eye.

Hows that for being creative. I made the collar for her when she was spayed. I just cut up an old x-ray, made loops out of gaffa tape, slide a collar through and Bob's your uncle!

Here she is being comforted by Olivia, watch those claws Livvy!

I'm at a loss as to how she keeps injuring herself. I did wonder if it happens when she plays with Chester, she gives as good as she gets but he is about 30kg heavier than her. You do hear the odd squeal from her occasionally. Actually when Chesty has had enough he just whacks her with his paw. Maybe that's the problem. Another thing could be her digging about in the backyard, the state its in at the moment, I'm not surprised she runs into things, especially at night.

What a sad and sorry little thing she is at the moment. She isn't her usual self, which tells me she is in some discomfort. Although when it's meal time, all her troubles miraculously disappear!

Poor Tans. I'm hoping that there is no permanent injury, which is not uncommon in little bug eyed dogs.

Keep your fingers crossed for a full recovery.

Cheers

Lisa

Happy Birthday Butt Head

My lovely Chester turned 10 yesterday

Look at that face, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth...........yeah right!

Apart from his kleptomania and snoring he is an absolute delight.

Since Utah's death, Chester has changed a little. He is a bigger sook than before, if that's possible and now seeks attention and pats. Utah was king of the attention seekers, always nudging you for a pat or cuddle. Even whilst out walking, he would happily walk alongside someone and nudge their hand (naughty boy). Whilst Chester loves a scratch on the base of his tail and a tummy rub, he never looks completely happy when strangers want to pat him.

His favourite spot behind the chair, usually he has his rear end under the china cabinet and often gets stuck there!

In a previous life Chester was a stud dog, being trained in non slip retrieval. He then had a short lived career as a stud dog for a guide dog school, that's where I acquired him. I was working in the breeding department at the time and he came to live with me.

Whats a dog gotta do to eat in peace, damn chooks!

Now he spends his days taking it easy, being Tana's cushion

Happy birthday Chesty, don't worry I haven't forgotten your new toy.

Hope you have a lovely weekend
Cheers
Lisa

Go away rain

Crazy I know, why would I want the rain to go away. We are in the process of having new guttering installed and the job cannot be finished while it's raining. Some thing about sealant not being able to dry or cure in the rain. Goodness knows when it will be completed as it looks like the rain will be here till Thursday. Maybe we should have had our water tank installed first!

After I got home from work yesterday, we spent the afternoon removing ancient worn out fly screens and washing the windows. We have a high set house, so up the scaffolding we went. It's a bit scary trying to climb up a very large ladder, hauling a bucket of soapy water and a squeegee.

Today Tony finished removing the screens, alas I didn't get to clean the rest of the windows, maybe tomorrow.

Tony and Tana preparing for some fly screen removal

Hope you had a lovely weekend
Cheers
Lisa

Marble cake and puppies

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to visit some friends who's Great Dane bitch had had her first litter of puppies. The pups are two weeks old now, all 18 of them! Yes that is correct, 18 puppies. Its an around the clock task to ensure they all get a good feed from Mum, each feeding time taking around three hours. I take my hat off to Louise and Peter and their three kids, what a job. Silly me I forgot to take my camera, suffice to say it was like a sea of squirming little bodies. So cute.

Knowing that a homemade cake would not be high on their list of priorities, I decided to give this recipe a go. My Mum use to bake this cake for special occasions and I believe the recipe came with the cake tin.


Continental Marble Cake
3 1/2 oz melted butter
5 oz SR flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons warm water
3 eggs
8 oz caster sugar
grated rind of a lemon
2 oz milk

I would suggest using a stand mixer for this recipe

Grease and flour a fancy ring tin (the actual tin Mum used was a spring form ring tin)
Preheat oven to Moderate (180C)
Sift flour and a pinch of salt together
Beat eggs until foamy
Add sugar and continue mixing until thick and ribbon like
Gently fold in flour, lemon rind, milk and melted butter, don't over mix the batter
Mix the cocoa and warm water together until dissolved
Take out 1/3 of the mixture and add the dissolved cocoa mix
Pour the remaining cake batter into the prepared tin
Spoon the chocolate batter into the tin and gently swirl the mix with a knife to achieve the marble effect
Bake in a moderate oven for approximately 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes then remove from tin.
When cold, place the cake on a rack over a plate and drizzle thin chocolate icing over cake to decorate

Icing
1 cup of pure icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon of butter
1 - 2 tablespoons of milk

Place icing sugar, butter and milk in a mixing bowl, sit in a larger bowl or kitchen sink containing hot water. Mix well, continue mixing, add a little more milk if it is too thick. The icing should run off your spoon but still be thick enough to coat the cake.

The texture of the cake is spongy, different to a cake made creaming butter and sugar together. Lovely and moist with a hint of lemon.

Hope you have a lovely day
Cheers Lisa

What a week

Lots of tears, difficult choices, time for reflection, remembering the happy times, kind words and thoughts from friends

I've finally made my way back after the past week, who would have thought a gimpy black lab could have made such an impact on my life. Thank you Utah, you were a blessing from the angels.

A big thanks to those who left comments this week, especially to Sue and Wendy for the wonderful poems about the loss a beloved furry friend.

I managed to do a little baking yesterday, the usual loaf of bread - light wholemeal and oat.



Special request from Tony was a fruit cake. I thought I'd give my Nana's favourite boiled fruit cake recipe a whirl, its been years since I've made this.

Here it is, the recipe was either cut out of The Courier Mail or The Telegraph and stuck on a piece of cardboard from a shoebox.



Click on the picture for the recipe. If you have problems reading it let me know.
A few notes on the recipe - I used 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, line the cake tin with two layers of paper, brown paper if possible. Daph cooked her cake at 350F/180C degrees, I would try 160C as the cake started to brown and cook to quickly. I cooked it for about an hour and 15 minutes.



If you fancy a little buttery french goodness then pop over to Down to Earth Forum and check out my Brioche tutorial in Adventures in Bread Making.



Hope you have a lovely day
Cheers
Lisa

The Hardest Decision

Yesterday my partner and I finally made the painfully difficult decision to have our beautiful boy Utah euthanised. Arthritis and other joint problems were taking their toll on his poor old body.

We always knew that it would be quality of life rather than quantity with Uie. He had developed into a swimmer puppy by three weeks of age (legs out like a parachute) and didn't learn to walk properly until he was about 6 weeks old. He had a hip replacement at 12 months of age, then had to have surgery again a year later, as the implant had moved. Really he was an orthopedic disaster. In spite of all his problems he had the most beautiful nature, he loved everyone and everyone loved him.

The sadness and emptiness I feel at the moment is rather overwhelming.

Goodbye my beautiful boy.....Rest in Peace



Utah - 27/08/1998 - 13/07/2010

Saturday and I'm not working

I always work on Saturday, so its seems strange being home for the whole day. Thank goodness for holidays!!
I went to my regular 7am stretch class at the gym, then went to the local markets for a look see. Boy its grown, almost tripled in size.

I had to take my beautiful old Lab 'Utah' to the vet for his monthly pain injection today. He has very bad arthritis and is really feeling the effects of winter this year. He will be 12 in August and this may be his last winter with us. I've know Utah since the day he was born. Gosh I get teary just thinking about it. Compared to Chester our other lab, Utah is Mr Perfect, but that's another story.

Utah in May this year

The boys - Utah on the left and Chester on the right