>Koompa died this evening from old age. She almost made it to her 16th birthday. She had a good day, too. She ate a feast of low sodium turkey breast and spent time sniffing and sleeping in the sun in the back yard. It was a really lovely afternoon- perfectly sunny and in the 50s. Someone down the street was playing bagpipes – “Scotland the Brave” and “Amazing Grace”. It’s odd because we hadn’t heard the bagpipes before. It was beautiful and soothing and Koompa seemed to enjoy the sun and music. In fact she was trying for one last sniffing tour of the yard when her heart gave out.

For the record, Koompa’s official name, which was not nearly as long as Marky’s, was Koompa Benjunji Joy Calabrese Barton. Im not sure exactly how we got the name Koompa other than too many sugary desserts made us pick a silly name. We added the middle name Joy because Koompa was always happy. She found joy in everything! That dog knew how to make a good time. She was really the lazarus of dogs having survived hemorragic gastroenteritis twice in NYC after eating to many chicken bones in the park and possibly a little rat poison.

We have lots of really wonderful memories of Koompa, including chasing her in Williamston, swimming in the red cedar river, running the bun run 5K in Austin and having her win the canine trophy (twice!), her love of running and rolling in the grass, and lets not forget her love of chocolate (especially M&M’s from Kevin’s suitcase).

One favorite memory of Koomps is her sitting in the A/C cage in NYC, hanging over the sidewalk. She knew more people than we did, and loved the attention.

We love you Koompa!!! Have fun with Marky and Schmelly.

We’ve got to say its really hard to lose both dogs this semester. They were both 15 so its a blessing we had them that long. But it doesnt make it any easier.  

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So Koompa’s cardiac output may be close to nil, but that girl loves to eat. Here she is chowing down on some left over pasta.

Ah, now its time for rest…

>Koompa seems to be doing OK despite her mini seizures. For example, Frankie was eating noodles on the couch and Koompa tried to jump up onto the couch to grab them. Or, when I took her outside to pee yesterday she saw a squirrel and pounced forward to get it until she ended up face first in the snow. I know, snow. Snow. Its April 7th and we have snow. At least the forsythia are still in bloom. Anyhow at the veterinarians today, they said that koompa had some fluid in her lungs and her heart murmer sounded a bit worse, both indicative of congestive heart failure. I guess the Koompster is nearly 16 (over 100 in human years) so that was not totally surprising. There are two kinds of chf — one caused by leaky valves and the other caused by enlarged heart. Koompa has the leaky valve kind, which is supposed to be the lesser of the two evils. I was relieved to know it wasnt some sort of cancer that had gone to her brain. I caved in and got an x-ray which showed no tumors but some fluid on the lungs. So, the vet gave us some meds to take the fluid down and to reduce the effort the heart has to give and said that if all things go well, Koomps could have another year in her. But then again he also said these things are unpredictable and she could have 2 weeks. Really all depends in the medicine works or not. I guess that is my report for the day. Im hoping the meds kick in. In other news? Poor Sparty.

>Trying to catch up here. I just checked the weather and it says we are under a winter storm watch. What??!! Our poor crocuses and daffodils. We’re supposed to get 7″ of snow. I wish I could say April fools! But at least as I lying in bed at 6:45 am I noticed a glimmer of sun, so the sunrise is really gaining some time! The sun doesnt officially rise till 7:12 but you could see a crack of light and we are still gaining 3 minutes of sunlight a day!

Poor Koompa has been having a rough go of it lately. The gal turns 16 in June, but she has been having these little mini seizures everyday it seems. Scott’s going to CA this week – not fair as I know he loves snow! – so Im kind of worried for Koomps while he is gone. Well, lets see if the weather snows him in.

Frankie loves to live on the wild side. She wanted to get a book from the top shelf of the book case. So she dragged the kitchen chair over to the book shelf (still couldnt reach it) and so she picked up her chair and put that on the big chair and climbed on top of that and reached her book. Good thing I didnt see her doing that until scott called my attention to the fact that Frankie was sitting on her chair on the chair reading her book.

And, now, Go Green!

>Bee just told me that she wants to make a three dimensional shape museum. What a fun idea!

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We fed the Ducks on campus yesterday after school. It was a bit cold, but still sunny! Frankie actually chased the ducks, while Bee tried to get the ducks to eat from her hands. I took pictures! Frankie saved half of her roll to eat herself as we walked back to my building.

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Happy Birthday Bee!! We can’t believe you are 6 years old – that is one third of the way to 18. Yikes! We love you!!!

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The sun may not wake up till 8am… but spring is (almost) here!! Our first crocus bloomed yesterday!!

>the sun rises at 8.02am tomorrow — that is just about as late as it was Jan 1, in the dead of winter. Kids should not have to walk to school in the dark, which is what this month earlier time change amounts to here in mid michigan. Besides this puts us out of sync with the rest of our global society (for whom DST ends April 5 and March 29 this year ).

OK, Im done with my rant.

>Well, Koomps and I just came back inside after looking in the early morning sky for Lulin. Its 10.8 but the windchill is 11 so it felt oddly warm, or rather not so cold. This morning is supposed to be a good time to find the green, backwards comet. We found the big dipper, and then we looked west and south and found saturn and the butt or head of Leo (Im never really sure which side of that constellation is up), but we didnt see the green little icepack. The sky was clear but a tad hazy so whole you could see all of the major stars they were not super intense. We’re going to try again tonight (which is supposed to the best time), and Tues morning/night and then I think our window is gone. Tell me if you see it!