Oh Bananas!

Yippee! We are taking solids. Well, kind of. More like:

Step One: Let mommy put three nicely spaced spoonfuls of homemade banana baby food in my mouth.

Step Two: Squeeze that hidden pocket in the back of my cheek with my tongue and shoot it all back out at her at G Force speed.

The bananas worked well. The homemade apple puree ...uuuummmm... not so much. We'll be doing the unsweetened applesauce.

Here's a photo that clearly illustrates, my little girl is not so little any more. We are now five months, and we've got the giant rolls of fat hanging from every limb to prove it.


Nothing screams, "I'm fed with Mama's down home cookin'", like a roly poly baby. We did learn how to work with gravity and roll over from our belly to our back in June. We might be a little late on that accomplishment, but again, her favorite position since her second month has been at a full weight bearing stand. How she can bear her own weight, is a mystery to me. She's solid. :)

She's the only child I know who can be always on the go, and going no where. Constantly active. Her mouth is also in high gear at all times. She's like a drooling vaccuum hose. Faith managed to find my chin during church last week and latched on at a full suck with the strength of a Shop Vac. That was funny.

What is not so funny, is her newest accomplishment...screaming. {{great}}

And THAT Was June

If you have been reading the In This Corner blog you are very aware of our family's ups and downs last month. It has been crazy. It has been fun. It has been busy. And it has been very sad at times. To borrow and modify part of a well known poem:

When it was good, it was very, very good.
But when it was bad, it was horrid.

I know, family tends to dabble only on the Knucker Hatch blog so here's a monthly recap for you strict Knucker Hatch surfers:

In early June we hit Nags Head Beach for a full week of wonderful vacationing with Ken's side of the family. The cousins all got along famously and ate up every last bit of Grandma and Grandpa's attention.

Due to illness, we had to miss the second half of the trip which would have been a full week of vacationing with my Dad's side of the family in Florida.

But the Lord was looking out for all of us, as it was clear that we needed to be home with our nine year old, very loved, but hurting Golden Retriever. After a month of many tests and vet trips, we discovered that she was dying of kidney failure. So, on the 31st of June, we had to say good bye to our one and only Maggie Lou. Thank you to all of you who have called or sent cards to check on us and our grieving...it means so very much to us. I know for others, this will be the first time you have heard.

We are taking it day by day, and it is getting easier. But there isn't a single day that goes by in which we don't miss her giant face licks and sweet demeanor incredibly.


I've put together a series of links from the In This Corner blog. It follows the swift decline of Maggie. Perhaps it will be helpful to someone out there researching the medicine Deramaxx for treating canine arthritis. If you see the following symptoms in your dog: body tremors, not eating for days, vomiting, black stools, please consider changing meds if your dog is already on Deramaxx (even if it doesn't show up in the kidney numbers). Deramaxx was a gift to Maggie, and helped her considerably, but in hindsight, we might have picked another arthritic medicine, as the damage to her kidneys was most likely a result of the Deramaxx. The kidneys didn't reflect the damage in the blood tests until it was much too late, but her big brown eyes told us something wasn't right six months ago.

My Poor Eighty Pound Baby
Dog Gone Grief
Playing Us Like A Fiddle
The Dog Days of Summer
One Last Night of Friendship
Meet Me At The Door Maggie

Comic Relief

If ever I need a good laugh, I just need to keep my eye on my son. In one of our "Let's try to have fun" moments this weekend, the family headed out to a new fountain in our town park. At one point during the fountain frolicking, Jack became fascinated with...well...you've got the picture:
This would be followed by a very tricky, but much needed shorts adjustment, and then he would be back for more. Do you think he's trying to tell me he needs more fiber in his diet?

Meet Me At The Door Maggie

The sadness is all consuming when I am alone with my thoughts. My sweetheart lays buried in the corner of our backyard under the shade of the forest. Just a few days ago she was laying right where my feet are now resting. Every room I walk in, every corner of the yard, holds remnants of her presence. And while I have already given away her super huge pillow to my sister-in-law for her cousins to use, as well as her food, I can't bear yet to empty out her water bowl, and tuck it away. How I miss my sweetheart.

The Lord was so good to us on Friday morning. Ken had slept on the couch next to her all night, and after a 5:00am feeding, I came down the stairs to find her laying on the cool hardwoods. When she saw me, I received the familiar loving tail wag that creates thumps of joy on the floor. I laid on the floor next to her with my pillow for a little while thinking of the few hours I had left with her. Her body was failing, but her cup of love for us was still full.

Trying to get her more comfortable, we went on the front porch and enjoyed the sunrise, cool air on our faces, and the chatter of the birds. For two hours we camped out. One by one, as Ken and the children woke up, they came out to hang with us on the porch and cuddle up to Maggie. Her constant tremors were always there taunting me. They were the first sign that something was amiss a month ago, and now they consumed her body everytime she tried to lay down and rest. How quickly this whole mess had fallen on her.

The blow hit the hardest when Ken made the appointment for 9:40am that morning. It sucked the wind out of me. Looking at the clock I had exactly one hour left with Maggie. Only sixty more minutes to enjoy the warmth of her fur and let her know a hundred more times just how special she was to our family. I was glad to have my brother and sister-in-law pull up to the house or I think I might have really lost my senses. Maggie adored Kristy. I knew that seeing Kristy again would lift her spirits to a new height. It did, and I was so thankful to see Maggie's joy in another well loved friend by her side.

Before I knew it, Ken and I were leading her up to the mini van for a final car ride. It was almost too much. She seemed so happy to just focus on something else, practically making the large jump up into the back end herself. Ken drove, making a phone call to a friend for prayer, and I laid next to her drenching our Golden girl in a new flood of tears. We chose to go to the vet who provided the second opinion. I was so glad I did. For whatever the reason, I quickly saw just how comfortable Maggie felt with this veterinarian and the facility. She was full of tail wags, and showed no concerns or fears.

The last fifteen minutes went very quickly. The vet went over all of her stats again, letting us know we were doing the right thing, and going over how the next few minutes would play out for us and her. She was given a sedative that took about 10 minutes to put her in a very restful state of sleep. All the while, Ken and I tried our best to maintain composure and tell her over and over again what a good girl she was. I wanted 'Good Girl Maggie' to be the last words she ever heard from us on this earth. Maggie deserved as much. She fell into the deepest of slumbers just as she always did at home, with just the tip of her pink tongue sticking out. It was the most restful I have seen her in so very long.

The second shot, took only seconds. She never moved. Never flinched. She passed on as gently as I had asked the Lord to take her. And I am so thankful for that peace. However, it is still mind numbing to return back to the car less than thirty minutes later with the same dog you just cuddled next to, only this time, she's bagged up for her burial.

We've had days now to adjust to the absence of our Maggie. The grief hits in hard waves. Jack and I have been taking it probably the hardest. I followed Ken around like a lonely puppy dog for the first two days, as I quickly discovered that being alone with my thoughts was overwhelming. We've tried very hard to do things as a family during this time, and the kids have found the best therapy to be listening to 'Puppy Stories' as they call it. Anything I can retell about the many memories of Maggie, brings them happiness. Grace's therapy has been writing and coloring about her loss. Jack on the other hand needs to talk it out, and is trying to desperately understand the difference between body and spirit (he wanted to revisit her grave the next morning and unbury her to see if her body was still there.) He is full of questions about death, even asking in tears who would bury him when he died. Your heart breaks all over when you hear questions like that.

We all miss her. And catch ourselves when we almost whistle for her to come join us for a movie, or feel like we hear the familiar tap-tapping of her nails on the hardwood floors. The holes in our hearts are so deep. But it is my hope that the holes will eventually fill in as the scars from the last few weeks fade, and the memories of her entire life become the focus.

I told Maggie to meet me at the door when I arrive Home. I have no doubt that she will be there with her tail wagging hard, looking desperately around our heavenly Home for something on God's floor to bring to me as a welcome home gift.