9th & final edition of the 4 Vagabonds & 2 Couch Potatoes:

--- Here's DeDe's latest (and final) travelogue for all of you to read --- Bonnie

Hi Folks:
It is the 3rd of September and we are in Loveland Colorado at friends. We have been here for 8 days now and will be leaving on Wednesday for Dayton. We are cutting our trip short because Missy is very sick. As I have told you in previous editions, she has been limping almost since we left home. It has been an off and on thing with some bruising in her groin area. In the last addition we stopped in Everett Wa. at a well known clinic and they done a lot of blood work and x-rays of her left hind leg. They put her on antibiotics and she seemed to limp less. As soon as the antibiotics were gone, the bad limp returned. We were in San Francisco at this time for Dede to get her apparatus off. We took Missy to a vet there and she could find nothing on the x-rays wrong with the leg. She gave us some pain pills to give her. We decided to come straight for Colorado. Carol & Diane, told us they have the U of Colorado Veterinary Clinic with all sorts of specialist On the way we did stop at Moeb, Utah for a trip to Canyonland. The next day we toured the Arches. That is sure beautiful country. We then left for Durango where we took the train to Silverton. Don't miss that when you get out that way. What scenery there is in this country. Then it was on to Colorado Springs and the cog train to Pikes Peak. We also toured the Garden of the Gods. That ended our scheduled trip to Colorado. We came north to Loveland to Carol & Diane's. Dede and Nan are staying in the house and Jan & I and the girls are staying in the trailer. They have a beautiful place here nestled by the mountains. They have a horse and stable and 2 dogs. Snoopy & Missy are really having a good time. Some grass for a change and everything fenced in and lots of land to explore. We took Missy to the clinic and they ran more test on her and turned her over to an internalist. They called us in the PM and told us to get her back right away. They kept her and started some procedures and gave her plasma and tried to get a biopsy. No sucess. He called the next day for us to come in and told us the bad news. She had a mass that was in her pelvic area that was too risky to operate on. All the bruising was from the mass pushing on the blood vessels that are in the area. We chose to just take her home. Needless to say we want to get to Florida as soon as possible because she has so much trouble getting in and out of the trailer and van and we have to help her even get up on the couch or bed. We will be in Dayton next Friday and probably try to leave for Florida by mid week. They have showed us a great time while we were here.Carol took us to Rocky Mountain National Park and we have been to Estes Park. More beautiful scenary. Dede has been going to therapy here and they are redoing 2 tests on Missy Tuesday morning before we leave. Talked to Linda this am and she will make an appointment with her vet for Missy to see when we get to Dayton. Probably just for some meds. They gave us Morphine for her when it gets worse. This is sure a sad ending to a great trip. See you in Dayton or Florida.We are on our way.

*** The 4 Vagabonds and the 2 Couch Potatoes
- posted by Mikey @ 2:03 PM