Shaak Ti and the Tummy Troubles

We're written before about Shaak Ti and her Tummy Issues, and in an effort not to bore you awesome readers we've refrained from numerous or frequent posts about the same topic. For the last several years Shaak Ti has had recurring tummy related issues. And ever since she came to live with us we've known that her entire digestive system is her Achilles Heel.

Her latest diagnosis is a flare up of pancreatitis that should be well managed with strict diet management. For most of this year she's been on a diet of low-fat canned food. Shaak Ti has always been a finicky eater and we had low expectations of her reaction to this canned food, but she's taken quite well to it.  This latest flare up happened even though she was on her low-fat diet so we're a bit befuddled by the reason behind this latest episode.

After a few weeks of feeling sub-par, a couple of vet visits, and numerous medications, Shaak Ti is back in top form. She was out in the backyard yesterday vociferously giving some squirrels the business and we knew she was back at 100%.

So we're back to normal around here, weird napping position in her dog bed not withstanding. Hopefully now we can focus on the good tummy related topics, like warming your tummy and getting lots of tummy rubs.

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Garden Project - Phase Two Update

Our secret garden project is about halfway completed. After a couple of days of work last week progress halted and will resume again mid-week.

It looks pretty good thus far.

We've made a good number of promises about when it will be completed. Please know that every promise has been made in good faith. Numerous factors that were totally out of our control have pushed the completion date back, but it looks like we're in the home stretch now. More updates and pictures to come!

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Garden Project - Phase Two. For Real This Time!

Yes we had a bit of a misstatement a few weeks back with our post that our secret garden project was happening. We're very sorry. Unforeseen events caused it to be pushed back to today. We've been on a "too embarrassed to post until this thing got started" quiet period. We just tried to lay low until there was verifiable progress that we could show off.

 We can definitively say that the project is off and running!

And everyone can start hazarding guesses as to what they think it is. But you won't have to wait too long with your guesses. The project should be completed in a day or two, so we should have full pictures (with Shaak Ti for scale of course) by the end of the week!

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Garden Project - Phase Two

Phase Two of our big garden project starts today. It's been a bit of a wait and we're ready.

This unsightly rectangle of rocks will look much different, hopefully by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

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Grandparents Visit

The grandparents trucked all the way from North Dakota to visit the homestead last week.

The dogs were very happy to see them and get all the pets and love that we apparently don't provide. Both dogs get lots of love from the Grandparents, but Shadowfax especially. Climbing on Grandpa is the only time we really allow her to sit on anyone's lap.

She's been sitting on Grandpa's lap for years now. We did a post about the Jungle Gym for Dogs back in 2011. 

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Dirty Napping Dog, Clean Napping Dog

The Summer season around here is filled with napping outside and soaking up the sunbeams.

Shaak Ti has her preferred napping spot.

Shadowfax has hers. You can probably guess which location we prefer. Sleeping in mulch leaves you a bit dirty. Sleeping on a nice dog bed leaves you a bit cleaner. It's crazy how that works. 

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Western Redbud in Bloom and Pink Snow

One of the smaller trees in our front yard is a Western Redbud. It's on the Southwest corner of our house and has wonderful structure and enough summer foliage to provide dappled sunshine at its base.

For a few weeks in Spring though it's truly a showstopper. From about Mid April to the first part of May it is completely covered in delicate, tiny pink blossoms. The picture below is from late April.

As with all Spring blooming plants the flowers gave way to leaves and the tree shed the tiny pink blossoms. The blossoms were so numerous that they coated the ground below. There were so many fallen spent flowers that they caught on other small plants and shrubs and made them look like they had pink flowers too.

The flowers all fell off in the space of a week or two and coated the ground below in what looks like a fine dusting of pink snow. 

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Shadowfax and the Sliding Rump

I've watched Shadowfax nap over the course of this morning. She initially started fully in the dog bed, warmly covered in her blankie. Over the course of a few hours here twitching and dream-squirrel-chasing made her rump slowly slide out of dog bed onto the floor.

Shadowfax was nonplussed by all this though, she napped right on through it. We had a big day yesterday; hours and hours of romping in the backyard exploring, chasing squirrels, and playing fetch n' catch. She's probably pretty exhausted, but should have those pittie batteries fully recharged in no time.

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