The Labraduo

I got to take photos of the Labraduo together yesterday at sunset.

R is not truly as much taller as these photos seem to show. Whenever they stand on boulders together, R chooses the spot that makes him tower over Shyla.

Here's what she thinks of that!

We still are not certain what will happen with R's elbow that has congenital dysplasia. We previously thought that we'd have reconstructive surgery done this fall. However, he's done surprisingly well over the past year, even doing long mountain runs with the Runner. He needs his daily Vitamin R (Rimadyl) to prevent limping, which is the one thing that worries us both. That is not a great medicine to take for the very long term because of its bad effects on the liver.

We'll probably get an appointment with our orthopedic surgeon to have him check over R. He's very honest about whether he thinks surgery is needed yet. He is the one who fully supported us waiting a year until at least this fall for the surgery so we trust him a great deal. Before we do that, we are cutting R's Rimadyl dose in half to see how he does. Time will tell.

We love having R be able to run and play so we'll do whatever it takes to keep him athletic.

I also think that the Runner is a little afraid of having two invalids in the house at the same time. R and I might be a very demanding pair!

Health decisions seem to be on the front burner here right now. I am getting some tests tonight that should give us a better idea of what needs to be done to my spine. We are hoping that, by some miracle, there won't be two big surgeries in our pack this fall!