Playa del Carmen

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. Here's the new couple Mr. and Mrs. Nate Morrow.
Hil and Chelsea

After dinner on the first night.

This sign says Hurricane Emily July 17th, 2005. That was the day after our wedding and explains why we didn't get to go to Playa del Carmen on our honeymoon. The water in our hotel was up to that sign....crazy!

We took the ferry into Cozumel to snorkel and it was amazing. We saw a barracuda and lots of colorful fish. I saw an eel down in the reef. That's the ferry to my right.

This was the type of boat we went on. It was a glass bottom boat. Very fancy!

Playa del Carmen Part 2

Heath went deep sea fishing w/ the guys the day before the wedding. He didn't catch anything but Nate and John did! (red snapper and wahoo) The gang ate the fish they caught at a beachside restaurant. It was the best fish we had ever tasted.

This was after dinner one night.

Big flying grasshoppers were everywhere.



This was the beautiful view from our room.

No snappy title today=)

Yesterday was pretty hard. We went through the bag of Bruce's "stuff." Thankfully Carol and Howard had collected all of his stuff and folded up his kennel before we got home last week. There were a lot of his toys still in the shed and I just sat holding his toys and cried. But I laughed through the tears as I pulled out some of the stuff. Bruce was hilarious with some things. I wanted to keep all of his toys because they bring back so many funny and great memories. Heath brought me back to reality quickly reminding me that parvo was all over his toys. So, unfortunately, we threw most of them away. We want a new puppy (not anytime soon) and parvo is all over his toys. We did keep his Orka and this chain that he used to carry around and shake=)) We bleached both of these things and put them in a Ziploc bag and put them in the top of a closet. Good for Bandit....he gets all new toys!

We dug up some of the infected areas in the backyard last night. We also bleached the yard last night after mowing. We are being pretty aggressive with cleaning the parvo. We are replacing all of the carpet and killing all of the grass and putting down sod. We are also putting a tray of bleach by the back door to step in when we come in from outside. We have heard of people spraying their tires with bleach every time they return from driving anywhere. I don't know if we'll go that far. If you need to know anything about Parvo we are the ones to call.

Changing the subject...has anyone been watching America's Got Talent? We have become quite fond of the guy from Dallas Cas Haley. He's awesome...we hope he wins!

Coping

We are doing pretty good. I went back to school today and that was a huge distraction.
It's hard to come home though. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to see Bandit, but I wish Brucey was still here. It's weird to see his kennel in the garage all folded up. I think the thing I miss the most is just him being here beside me. That probably sounds weird, but Bruce was so loyal and protective of me. He followed me everywhere. I couldn't even go to the bathroom without him scratching at the door=)

We have had many people ask how this could have happened and where the parvo came from. We have no idea and that makes it so hard. It can be tracked in on shoes, car tires, flies, birds, etc.
It shouldn't have happened. He was fully vaccinated. Parvo is very bad in Lubbock right now. There were many sick dogs when Bruce was at both vets.

It didn't seem real that we were at Hobby Lobby yesterday buying a box to put Bruce's ashes in. We got a really cool box. It's in the shape of a book and it will go on our book shelf.

We look forward to getting another dog soon. We loved the process of waiting for Bruce to be born and then our breeder picking him out just for us. I guess through this process we have learned that we can handle a big Rottweiler. They may look tough and mean, but they are gentle, sensitive giants who give so much love.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home yesterday and we are glad to be home. The house is quiet without our "big black monster" here to bark and growl and follow us around everywhere. Bandit's here and is fulfilling his role as a therapy dog...he was even aloud up on the couch!!

We want to thank all of our friends and families for their support during this difficult time.
It was so hard being away while Bruce passed away, but everything was taken care of in our
absence.
We started this blog to share his puppy pictures and I think we will continue to blog about Bruce because it helps us to write about the great but short time we had with him.

Playa del Carmen was absolutely beautiful. We tried very hard to have a good time. The wedding was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. We are so blessed by such good friends. We will post pictures soon...have a great week, Hil

P.S. I found this today on the Rottweiler forum we always read. If you've ever lost a pet it may give you comfort. http://indigo.org/rainbow/

Bruce is now resting at the Animal Medical Center with his regular vet. We picked him up early this morning.

He actually is doing worse than last night....but they say, it gets worse before it gets better. Hopefully this is the worst. Our vet was really concerned about how depressed he is. While in the car, he just moaned, it was so sad. Bandit is being boarded there too so at least they will be together. Bruce is quarantined so I doubt they see each other.

We are heading to Dallas today and we just did the online check in with our resort and got to pick our room. YEAH!

Poor Brucey

Here's Bruce waiting in the car to be seen at the emergency vet clinic.

Bruce has yucky parvo. We were shocked when the test came back positive!

He went to the vet on Wednesday to get weighed and his weight was 55 lbs. Today when he got on the scale he only weighed 49lbs!!

He had been feeling crummy since late Friday night and all day yesterday he was

throwing up and had diarrhea. When he didn't even lift his head up this morning when I went outside to check on him, I knew something was really wrong. He's at the emergency clinic right now and they started him on IV fluids, antibiotics, and narcotics. We will transfer him to our vet in the morning and they will take care of him when we are gone. We leave for our vacation (nate and chelsea's wedding) tomorrow. It kills both of us that he will be in the hospital while we are gone and we won't even be able to visit him. We have some good friends and family that are going to go and visit him while we are gone.

By the way, he was fully vaccinated for parvo and actually got an extra shot.

Rottweiler's are prone to parvo so our breeder recommends an extra shot just to make sure.

For some reason, Bruce clearly didn't respond the vaccinations. We have no idea how or when he got it so that's a little frustrating. We really did everything right. We followed the vaccination contract. We carried him into the vet when he was a baby puppy and we always walk on the sidewalk, never on the grass when we take him on walks.

The vet said he has an 80% chance of surviving so that was reassuring. It's so hard to see your usually hyper and active dog so sick like this. Please keep our boy Bruce in your thoughts this week.

Oh, and Bandit's a little depressed and sleeping a lot in his kennel. I think he thought it was pretty weird that Bruce wouldn't play with him. Bandit's 2 and been vaccinated so hopefully he's in the clear.