Our little escape artist

It's been a few days since Gromit's paw incident and he seems to be doing much better. He's putting weight on his foot and is acting a little less lethargic now that his pain killer doses are decreasing. He was doing so well that late Monday afternoon I decided that I could run to the grocery store really quick and leave G at home.

I was gone for about an hour and when I got home I found a happy dog who had removed the bandages from his foot and was licking his stitches. Ack! I dropped the groceries and scooped him up and ran to get my first aid supplies to re-cover the foot.

Please excuse the quality of the photos since they were taken with my cell phone. I was the easiest thing to grab.

The after hours vet clinic told me that it would be ok to leave his foot unwrapped since we had a vet appointment the next day to assess his foot - as long as he didn't lick it anymore. They suggested we purchase an e-collar (cone) so we could be sure he wouldn't get at his foot when we weren't looking. So when Dave got home from work (because I wasn't going to leave G unattended again) we headed out to get G a cone.

I thought that I should also lightly cover his foot because it looked like it was still oozing and bleeding just a little bit and it would be safer to have it covered while we were out and while we were sleeping. This is my poorly done, make-shift foot wrap. It looks like I don't have a future in veterinary medicine.

Monday night we put G in the cone, wrapped his foot, and went to bed. I woke up every hour or so to check on G because I was so worried about him. Everything was fine until my alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. so I could give G another dose of pain killers. I got up and looked around and couldn't find him anywhere. I turned on the bedroom light to see that he had backed himself under our bed to catch the cone between the bed frame and the floor and slid out of the cone. On the other side of the bed was my bandage that he (again) pulled off his foot. I found G under the bed. We had a little escape artist on our hands!

Clearly this dog is too smart for his own good.

So I re-wrapped his foot, gave him his pain killers and brought him into bed with me so I could keep better track of him. We slept there together until 9:00 a.m.

I kept him with me all day Tuesday until we went to the vet. The vet said that I now needed to leave the bandages off so his foot could air out (except when he goes outside - I need to cover it then) and helped me to better secure the cone to G's collar so he couldn't slip out of it anymore.

He now has to wear the cone any time that I can't be right next to him and when we go to bed at night. G is NOT thrilled. Can you tell?

He hates the cone so much that when it is on him he just sits there and gives me the "I hate you" glare or pouts with his head down. He won't lie down unless I'm holding him or walk unless I'm walking right next to him. Let's just say this makes sleeping and going outside to potty very interesting.

The stitches will come out late next week so let's hope we can all make it through until then.

Hang in there, Little Guy!

Paw trouble

Saturday evening was a great evening... at first. Our friends Kendra & Danny and their two cute kiddos came over for dinner and then we all headed to our downtown area to watch the local holiday parade and tree lighting. The kids had fun and Gromit enjoyed getting pet by all of the passers by during the parade.

When Gromit was saying hello to another dog we noticed that he wasn't putting any weight on his back right paw. We checked it out but it seemed to be fine. A little while later he was still not putting weight on his paw so we ended up carrying him for the rest of the evening. When we got home we re-examined the paw and saw that one of his pads was swollen and pink.

Dave let G into the backyard to potty and when he came back in the top of his paw was bleeding! We don't know if it popped or if he was biting at it or what but we quickly sprung into action. We rinsed the paw with water and sterile saline solution to clean it out. Then I wrapped his paw in gauze, a protective bandage, and covered the whole thing with one of Gromit's socks to prevent him from getting at it.

It was recommended that we take him to the after hours emergency vet clinic to have it checked out to make sure nothing was still lodged in there and to avoid incfection. After two and a half hours in the waiting room (apparently it was a busy night) we were finally able to see the vet.

Long story short, they say something must have gotten stuck in his paw 3-5 days ago and Saturday night it came to a head and exploded, like a zit. To be sure that whatever was in his paw is gone they recommend minor surgery to check it out. We agreed to the surgery and had to say goodbye to our little baby for the night. He was NOT thrilled about wearing a cone before his procedure.

Dave and I got home a little before 2:00 a.m. and tried to get some sleep before going to pick him up before 8:00 a.m. I certainly didn't sleep very well knowing he was in a strange place and having surgery on his paw. Poor little guy!

I went to pick him up at 7:30 this morning and the vet told me everything went well. She flushed out a small seed pod from inside his paw during the procedure which seemed to be the cause of his pain, swelling, and bleeding. We don't know how or when it got there, but we are just glad that it is out and he can get to feeling better soon. He is on antibiotics and pain killers and his paw is bandaged up to protect the stitches he received after they worked on it. We'll continue to give him some extra TLC and treats and will follow up with the vet in a few days.

Feel better soon, Gromit!

Deliciously Vegan Fridays

Welcome to another edition of Deliciously Vegan Fridays! I’m hoping that someone will link up and share another vegan recipe with us this week! Even a salad with no toppings that include animal products or meat is technically vegan so feel free to linkup and share what you made even if it seems simple. This week’s recipe: Southwestern Stuffed Spaghetti Squash.

I found the recipe online here. I thought it was really easy to make and didn’t require rare ingredients which makes it super easy to pick up the needed items at the store. I still had some leftover soy cheese from the pesto recipe I made a few weeks ago so that made it even easier. The only hard part was getting Dave to agree to eat squash (because he hates squash), but he was a good sport and was willing to try it out.

Southwestern Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients:
1 medium spaghetti squash, cut in half
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 medium red pepper, diced
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp vegan tzatziki
1/2 cup shredded non-dairy cheese (I used soy cheese)
Salt, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste

Directions
1. Cut the spaghetti squash in half and scrape to remove the seeds. Rub a little bit of olive oil on the inside side, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the two halves on a cookie sheet, with the inside part facing down. Roast in the oven at 375F for 50 min or until tender. Allow to cool for 30 min.

2. Use a fork to scrape the inside out, forming spaghetti-like clumps of squash. Just scraping it will cause it to look like spaghetti - no special moves necessary.

3. In a pan, sauté the onion and pepper on low. Then add the spaghetti squash, corn, black beans, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and spices, and cook for another 5 min, stirring occasionally. If you’d like, you can stir in Tzatziki to make it more creamy.

4. Transfer the squash-bean-corn mixture back into the now hollow squash skin. Top with some shredded soy cheese. Stick it back into the oven for about 5 min until the cheese has melted. Scoop out and enjoy!

See?! Super easy and we thought it tasted pretty good. The only thing I would do differently is drain and rinse the black beans before adding them to the skillet. On a scale of 10, we would give it a 7. This recipe made a lot of food so we’ll be having leftovers all weekend :-)

That’s my recipe for the week. If you made a vegan recipe and would like to share be sure to link up below. Happy Friday!

Thanksgiving in Colorado

We’re back from our trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving and we had a great time! It was certainly a different experience to have to travel home for a holiday - much different than driving down the highway for a couple of hours.

We left town on Wednesday night after Dave was able to leave work and landed shortly after midnight in Colorado. There was a small hiccup with Dave’s luggage and it didn’t come up the baggage carousel, but luckily the airline delivered it to my parents’ house before we woke up in the morning so all was well.

We spent Thanksgiving day at Dave’s parents’ house where his uncle was visiting from the mountains and his grandma, grandpa, and cousin were visiting from Illinois. We had a yummy meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, green beans), caught up on each other’s happenings, and enjoyed hanging out until it was time for us to head back to my parents’ house.

We did get up to do some black Friday shopping, but only for a couple of essential items that we needed and knew we could get for cheap. I got a wireless mouse for $10 (mine died a few weeks ago), Dave got a Bluetooth for $5 (in CA you have to use a hands free earpiece to talk and drive), we picked up a webcam for my grandma (who we set up with Skype before we realized she thought she could use her digital camera to video chat), and Dave got a video game and some headphones. So overall we were out from 7:00-8:00am and spent less than $35. I’d say that was a pretty successful shopping trip!

Later on Friday we took a trip to the Denver Zoo with my family. We always have fun looking at the animals and walking around and Dave had fun taking pictures.

On Saturday morning we went to breakfast with Brianna & Rob. Brianna’s parents live across the street from my parents so it was easy to get together for a quick break from the family. We went to Snooze for one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. If you haven’t been to a Snooze restaurant, you need to go. I’ve never been disappointed with anything I’ve ordered there, including this great meal. Yum!

Later that night we had another Thanksgiving meal at my parents’ house with some of my mom’s extended family - my uncle and my aunt & uncle who are also from California. I think I gained five pounds after this meal. My aunt made this AWESOME pumpkin soup and we also enjoyed bean bundles, turkey, beef, cranberry Jell-O salad, mashed potatoes, and deviled eggs. That’s enough to sent anyone into a food coma. Yummmm.

On Sunday we tried to take some family photos with my camera and remote but its hard to get such a big group together and smiling and in/out of the sun. We did manage to get a few good ones of the group and then I took a few fun photos of folks in pairs. They came out pretty well!

We had lunch with Dave’s Grandma Kay on Monday and then we spent some time looking through some of her scrapbooks from 1990-1992 and I found this gem:

This is Dave’s 10th birthday cake - the Lochness Monster. First, how cute is it that he wanted a Lochness Monster cake for his birthday?!? And second, how awesome is my mother-in-law for making this cake?!? It was so much fun to look through those books and see so many photos of Dave when he was little :-)

Monday night we hopped on a plane back to California and headed home. It was a good trip, but it is nice to be back at our new “home”. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Deliciously Vegan Fridays

Welcome to another edition of Deliciously Vegan Fridays! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We’re in Colorado celebrating and visiting with family and friends, but we still managed to fit in our vegan meal before we left home. This week’s recipe: Blueberry Corn Pancakes.

I found this recipe in my new vegan cookbook, Veganomicon. We decided to have breakfast for dinner - and it was so fun! What I liked most about this recipe was that the ingredients were things that I (mostly) already had around the house. It was also really easy to make.

Blueberry Corn Pancakes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp canola oil (or mild tasting vegetable oil)
1  1/4 cup plain soy milk
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:
1. Preheat a large non-stick pan on medium high heat. Sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, combine all other ingredients (except blueberries). Add wet to dry, mix until just combined, then fold in the blueberries. Do not over mix or pancakes will be tough.

3. Spray pan with cooking spray. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour batter into pan. Cook pancakes until brown on bottom and bubbles form on top, about 4 minutes.

4. Flip pancakes over with a spatula and cook until bottoms are brown and pancakes are barely firm to touch.

They were really good! The cornmeal gave them an unexpected texture - it was different, but good. On a scale of 10, we would give it an 8. We even thought that we could pass these off on family members who think we’re a little weird for eating vegan food - and they would never know they were vegan.

That’s my recipe for the week. If you made a vegan recipe and would like to share be sure to link up below. Happy Friday!