Upcoming Fourth of July

We will be heading to Clear Lake again this Fourth of July, and Joe just found out that there will be "special guests" in the 4th of July parade - none other than Bill and Hillary Clinton! Wow, this is huge. I'll be curious to see the response they get. Of course little Rachel will have her "I love Hillary '08" shirt on! We foresee a great photo op, baby kissin' from a presidential candidate! Stay tuned for more upon our return late next week.

Update on Max dog

Thanks to people who inquired about little Max dog. He spent most of the day Friday at the University Animal Clinic, and the tests all went well and all came back negative. What we learned was that he doesn't have anything bad like bacterial infection, fungus or cancer. He basically has rhinitis, an inflammation in his nose that could be caused by any number of things such as smoke, incense, perfumes, carpet smells...all of which we have none. So he goes back to his regular vet this evening to get probably some more intense steroids to get the inflammation down. Let's hope this helps! On another note, my friend and co-worker Kasey has a friend who does anesthesia at the U of M and was there with Max when he went under, and she said how much everyone at the clinic just loved carrying Max around like a little baby, and how good he behaved. :)

Max

Our little dog, Max, as some of you know, has been having quite the nasal problems in the past few months. Lots of intense, almost "violent" sneezes, mucus flying out of his nose when he sneezes, and recently a sort of 'hacking' of mucus in his throat by trying to get it out of his nasal passage. He's been on a couple of different types of allergy medicine, which didn't really help. So our vet said he may have possibly fungus in his nose, or an infection, or even (heaven forbid, and it's doubtful) a tumor of some sort in there. So we took him this week to the Univ of MN Animal Clinic, and now tomorrow he has to go back to put under anesthesia so they can do a CT Scan and if they don't find anything from that, then a rhinosocpy (spelling?) where they would put a tube with a little camera in his nose to search for what may be causing this. We are very hopeful that they will find something that is easily cleared up. It makes me sad like crazy. I know that obviously the clinic is extremely professional and I have no need to worry, but I do. He's just our cute, helpless little dog who can't speak for himself. He can't tell us what's wrong. He may have to stay overnight in case there is bleeding in his nose from being poked with a tube up there, but I hope not. I hope he's back home with us Friday night...a bit groggy from the anesthesia...but at least at home.