Today

Today we lost the gentle protector of our family, Miss Clara. Miss Clara has dealt with several chronic health issues for some time that have all been getting worse. We were forced to make a decision to have her put to sleep due to the fact that she has become unsafe around our children. We are heartbroken over the loss of this great friend and family member, but need to put the safety of our children first. We have tried just keeping her separated from the kids, but she is so in love with our family and devoted to us, that keeping her away was the cruelest option for her.







Over eight years ago, I lost my first English Mastiff, General Patton, and was asked to take in a rescue mastiff, Miss Clara. She was 2 1/2 year old, and had been abused and neglected. She was the most gentle loving dog I have ever met. I called her my velcro velvet dog because she was so soft, and she was instantly attached to me! At that time Clara was NOT a fan of any male friends or suitors that came to visit. She wanted nothing to do with men until December of 2004. The first time Jeff came to visit, Clara warmed up to him immediately and I knew he was a keeper!

























Miss Clara has born all the changes to our family over the years well. Accepting each new member, and becoming fiercely protective of them. She has shared her space, dealt with loud and busy children and her demotion on the priority list with each new member. Her size and bark have warned off quite a few unwelcome door to door solicitors. She has worried herself sick when I had asthma attacks, surgeries, or was pregnant (how do dogs know these things??) She has been a faithful protector and friend, and we will miss her more than words can express!

Miss Clara

It has been awhile since poor Miss Clara has gotten any attention on this blog, so it is about time! Although she is the gentle protector of our home, with three small children she is unfortunately the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to Mommy's attention! For the most part she ignores the kids. She goes and hides upstairs when they are being loud and then comes out of hiding when they are sleeping. On occasion though, she decides she wants to be right in the thick of things, getting as much loving as possible.

Prior to Gracie's birth, Clara always slept in our room. Well this summer she has changed her routine. Lately she has been sleeping in the crook of the hallway that corners up to the boys' room and Gracie's room. So despite the fact that she ignores them, and they have replaced her in priority, she is still ever the gentle protector dog we knew she would be once we had children!

Our Miss Clara

Today our sweet girl Miss Clara turns 9 years old!! That is ancient in Mastiff years. She continues to be our sweet protector, even as our family continues to grow and grow! We all love her so much! Happy Birthday!

20 weeks and counting...

So July 4th marked 20 weeks into our pregnancy! Halfway through, we can hardly believe it! The boys are getting more and more excited. The other day Luke asked "when is my baby sister coming out?" No, we don't know we are having a girl....Luke thinks it is a girl, and Ben thinks it will be a brother. Thursday is our ultrasound, so we will hopefully know who is right on Thursday! I told Luke his brother/sister would be here in November, and he said "Baby Jack birthday is November!" (Baby Jack is his cousin, Luke is infatuated with birthdays and is intent on memorizing all of his immediate family member's birthday months, I had told him Baby Jack's birthday was in November a week ago....and he somehow still remembered!!!! He is just so smart it makes my brain hurt!)

I would post a picture of my baby bump silhouette, but since I have been so sick for the last 20 weeks, there is not to much to show quite yet....maybe in another couple of weeks! :) One blessing has been the "very bad days" seem to be spacing out at least a little, giving me two to three "good days" in between as a break. All four of us are excited to have me feeling at least a little better. Each new good day is a day of celebration in our house!

So instead of baby bump pictures, I will just post cute funny pictures of our sweet Miss Clara instead. Clara hates lightning and fireworks, she paces and pants and generally makes us all miserable and unable to sleep when she won't settle down. As you can imagine, this last weekend with July 4th was pretty rough on her. Her favorite place to hide when she is scared is our bathtub!




Okay, we will try to post again on Thursday evening or Friday morning after we have our next appointment and ultrasound!!!

Sandlot

If you have never watched the movie Sandlot, it is such a cute film. Of course it is a favorite of mine since "the beast" happens to be a Mastiff, like our sweet Miss Clara. Well, today the boys were playing baseball and the ball rolled under the table and into Miss Clara's paws, a true Sandlot moment. Clara loves when the boys play ball, because she often likes to join in.



Luke and Ben are fearless on a normal day when it comes to our "beast", but for some reason today, the thought of crawling under the table and trying to retrieve the ball under Clara's watch was just too much for the boys. Never fear, Mommy went to the rescue and saved the day and the baseball... and Miss Clara got an extra hug and kiss while I was under the table.

Let it snow.....in March!!!!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland again!!! The highs today are in the 30's and by Friday they are calling for them to be in the 70s again! Gotta love God's sense of humor when it comes to the weather. Here are just a few pictures of the boys enjoying this unusual March weather. If I haven't said so already, I love snow and winter so I am not sad to see it stretched out a bit longer!



Here are a few funny pictures of Jeff trying to do some PT with Miss Clara's help!

Love,
Mer

Miss Clara is home!!!!

Miss Clara came home this afternoon around 5 PM after her surgery. She is doing well, but is so sad looking it just makes us cry. Her face and eye socket are extremely swollen, so we have been using the "boo-boo buddy" ice packs that Grammy Kerger sent for the boys. I don't know if Grandma knew it would come in handy for Miss Clara rather than the boys....but we are glad they did! We will continue to follow up with the vet to check the eye pressures in her left eye, to try to prevent any further injury in her remaining eye. But for the time being we are glad she is home and thankful for all the prayers!
Love,
Mer

Miss Clara Update

Thank you for all the kind comments about our Miss Clara. We took her to the vet this morning and her eye was worse still, but thankfully did not rupture over the weekend. She is currently at the vet's office having her right eye removed, with the hope that she will not be in such pain anymore. She will most likely come home tomorrow. Thanks again for your prayers, we will update again soon!
Mer

Miss Clara

(this is an older picture of Clara in her prime!)

This week has been a tough one with Miss Clara. Last Sat I had to go to work late so I could take her for an emergency vet appointment as her right eye was swollen shut. They thought it was an infection, and gave us some meds with a follow up appointment Wed.

Wed morning I took Clara back and the Vet discovered that not only was the eye worse, but Clara has pretty bad glaucoma in her right eye as well. Once again we came home with a whole bunch of new medicines to try to bring down the growing pressure in her eye and try to save her vision.

This afternoon we went back again for another check and this time the pressures are worse. We are pretty sure she has already lost her vision on her right eye. The problem now is that if they don't decrease the growing pressure in her eye it will eventually rupture. The doctor sent us home for the weekend with some pretty tough decisions to make. Most likely they will need to remove her eye, or inject some medicine into it to essentially "kill" the eye so that it does not continue to grow and hurt her. The problem is, all of this could be caused by something much bigger, ie cancer, etc, etc. and they have not even begun to address that.

So, even though it is a dog....if you could pray for our family this weekend we would really appreciate it. Pray that we will make the right decision, and please pray that her eye will not rupture and create and emergency situation this weekend. Clara is so precious to us as the canine queen of the house. We can't stand to watch her be in so much pain.
Thank you!
Mer

Happy Birthday Miss Clara!

This week our canine family member, Miss Clara, celebrated her 8th birthday! In Mastiff years that is pretty ancient! Minus a few more gray hairs on her face, she is still our cuddle bug protector!
Happy Birthday Clara!

Miss Clara, our gentle protector, and more!

Some of you may know our "doggie" her name is Miss Clara. We love her so much. She puts up with a whole lot now that we are running around, but she is so gentle and patient with us. When she gets tired of us making noise she goes upstairs to hide in Daddy and Mommy's room. She lets us pet her and give her kisses. She even is our patient when we are playing doctor. Her favorite spot to lay is on the top of the stairs, and she watches us as we climb up the stairs and then give her a kiss.


Her second favorite spot is under our highchairs! I am sure you can guess why!!

Clara will turn eight years old next month, that is old for Mastiffs. Yet, she still likes to run around an chase our stuffed toy balls. We make Mommy and Daddy laugh when we try to copy what she does, especially when we try to scratch our ears with out feet!

In other news.....Mommy and Daddy found these shirts the other day and because they matched our personalities so well, they had to buy them!








Love, Luke and Ben
P.S. We have had lots of rain lately and we love it!!!


Also, here is just a taste of our busy days full of laughs!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Miss Clara and more fun stuff

We have had lots of questions about how Miss Clara, our 8 year old English Mastiff is handling sharing Mom and Dad with Luke and Ben. So, we thought we would post a few pictures to tell the story. At first the boys were pretty scared of Clara, and she of them. Now she tolerates them, and they LOVE her! She is pretty protective of them though and loves to sleep in their room. She especially likes to lay on their nap blankets when they are not looking! Luke's absolute favorite word is "Doggy".
Clara mostly likes their nap times because they are not chasing after her or making lots of noises, and she can have Dad and Mom all to herself! In this picture Miss Clara is watching over nap time, making sure the boys fall asleep. As you can see, it is not working yet!
At last Clara just gives in to take a nap too, Ben would love to share, but Miss Clara is not convinced!

Here is a morning visit to a park. The boys are starting to enjoy it. The first time we tried to take them they just cried and were overwhelmed. Now they love the slide and swings!

This is just a fun picture of Ben after bathtime getting ready for bed!
And Ben getting ready for his first haircut! Mommy was sad to get rid of all his baby curls, but Daddy did a really good job!
Enjoy!
Jeff, Mer, Luke and Ben