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Bday girl
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wishing sis a Happy Bday

this is Baxter and just wanted to take a second to wish Miss Cookie a Happy Bday.  she is 9 years young today. mom is not home to help me with pics so i'll just post this one for now.

new desktop background

for mom's pc

Testing a post from android

Testing a post from android

BentleyBarneyBaxter

well, we've been waiting a couple weeks now for the official word from the rescue program, but it must have gotten lost in the mail. MNBR confirmed that all our paperwork was good on their end, it was just a matter of the check clearing. mom was so afraid of jinxing anything that she refused to post. but paw checked online and it cleared a few weeks ago. but we just didn't think we could make it official without this:

everyone meet the new trouble at Playa del Nacho: Baxter!

yesterday marked 6 weeks that we've had him. mom found him through a great rescue group in Minnesota. and get this...he came from Chillicothe, MO. how crazy is that? i think Butterz is looking out for us all. Baxter is so much like him but different too in his own way.

that reminds me, better tell you about the name change. sometimes we call him BentleyBarneyBaxter. he came to MNBR officially as Bentley, but they already had a Bentley in their group so they called him Barney. mom liked either. but then our good friend Barry accidentally called him Baxter, and wouldn't you know it, that just happens to be the dog's name in one of paw's favorite movies, Anchorman. so Baxter it has become. mom just calls him B for short. i'm sure she'll come up with another nickname in time. remember Butterz was not Butterz at first!

so this is his first photo when ma and paw drove to Madison, WI on July 17 to meet one of the many transporters that helped get him to us!

and you can tell he's trying really hard to adjust here but somehow making do.

oh, and notice that little circle on his back leg? he brought a friend with him. Mr Ring as in Ring Worm. and B is a giver, cuz now i have it. you can see how much i'm enjoying the bathing treatments. thanks B, yer the best!

but enough about me. it's not all sad stories and this will pass. there have been swimming and kayaking lessons.

and i think he's finally learning to relax. what do you think?

big news

we've got something big coming soon. promise. and Butterz would love it. heck we think he had something to do with it!

Bye Boo

Posted by Mom:

well, i have put this off as long as i could. every week i kept thinking i'd get up the courage to post something and each time i sat down to type, i'd back out. well, if i wait until i can type without crying then nothing will ever get done, and not posting it doesn't bring him back, so here goes.

when i last posted, we were taking Butterz home to say goodbye. on May 24th we did just that. but what happened in between? the short of it, we found out he had a brain tumor and it was cancer - glioblastoma to be precise. given the option to put him through radiation and send him home with "meds for comfort", we chose to let him go with dignity. i cannot possibly express how hard that decision was to make or how hard it has been ever since. barely a day has gone by that nacho and i have have not mourned in some form or fashion. i've cried more in the past 2 months than i thought possible. it's been a long time since i had to put a dog to sleep but that feeling of slipping away never ceases to amaze me. i know we made the right decision but it has not made the last several weeks any easier.

a little history about Butterz. of course his given name was Matrix. our dear friend Korby hooked us up with him. we'd heard about him since we'd gotten Cookie. Matrix was her brother. a kid in town had gotten a boxer from the same litter and it turned out to be Butterz. we'd heard all the stories about how big he was. anyone who'd seen both he and Cookie said "you gotta see this dog!" as misfortune or luck would have it, his owner was not able to keep him. so at just under 4 we (ME) offered to foster him to help the owner out. nacho was against this at first. when i went for my first meet and greet, i was taken back by his size and demeanor. this dog clearly had a lot to say! that never changed! but within a couple of weeks we both knew (1) we'd made the right decision and (2) he'd be with us permanently. it was quite the complement 6 months later when his owner said "you guys keep him. i could never give him what you give him." do not get me wrong, this guy was not a bad person, just bad timing.

we never looked back. Butterz challenged everything i knew about patience. but the last 2 years, he taught us more about working with what you've got! if he were a person, you'd say "he had such a zest for life!". on a scale of 1-10, Butterz was a 17. and it was with that perspective that we knew the right thing to do was to let him go when he still seemed like himself. i'd rather say he was a 13 when he left than a 2.

since we've said goodbye, i realized he taught me one HUGE thing: how much of my life he took up. his was the BIG head you saw in the window coming down the drive. he was the one sitting at the top of the steps staring at the driveway. he was the one that cleaned out the shower when you were done. he was the one that cuddled with me every night. he was the one that snored. he was the one that would jump head-even with you when he got excited about going somehwere. he was the one that made the most noise when you came home. he was the one that slobbered on everything. i know these things now because over the last few weeks i've missed all of them and more. Butterz was my stuffed animal come to life.

so it's been a terribly difficult 2 months. we all three have felt the loss. even more surprising though are the friends who've felt it with us. i cannot begin to describe the outpouring of support we got through all of this.

• our vet and their staff were amazing! they supported us by continuing to test everything they possibly could and reminding us we were not crazy for insisting they do so.
• the staff at U of I Veterinary Hospital. i cannot say enough about Dr Kubier. she called me a couple days after we had to let him go just to say she was thinking about me. in the midst of our ordeal she said "i believe there are pet soul mates and i believe Matrix is yours." yes he was. and she has no idea how much those words meant to me!
• the staff at Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Dr's Moore and the student vet that helped him (whose name i cannot recall) were awesome. they understood what a tough decision it was for us to make and completely supported us! as Dr Moore said "that's the most selfless decision you can make." thanks Dr Moore!
• our good friends Sarvers. as Donna said later, they just kept bothering us so we'd get ourselves and Cookie out of the house. when we didn't or wouldn't talk to anyone, they'd come down and make us talk to them. Barry, your offer about Butterz ashes is one of the most moving things anyone has ever said to me. thank you!
• and countless friends and family that really seemed to feel this with us. people contacted us and said things that i never would have imagined. i mean to some people, "it's just a dog" but it was clear to those around us, he was not! he was a lot of things, but he was never just a dog! thank you all!

i consider my time with Butterz a true gift. i know this is a hard road to travel. and i know it is not supposed to be easy. i have a hard time looking forward because i know he's not in front of me. but every time i look back, there he is, in the middle of the road, encouraging me to keep walking, knowing with every step i take, his image gets more and more fuzzy, smaller and smaller. he should be here. and if he could, he'd come running up that road to me, ears and slobber flailing.

love you, miss you Boo!

the short of it

We are taking him home to say goodbye

not looking good

Try 2 keep this short. He has brain pressure & they r afraid it will hemorage. No vision n lft eye. Waiting for mri as soon as they can get him n. Even that could cause hemorage. Mom and paw r a mess. Paw made it here a little while ago. We r at Purdue Univ. Met some nice people who really care. Prayers pls