Front Page Rilley (Again)!

Rilley's fifteen minutes of fame has been extended a bit more.  Lisa Tallyn, the reporter who wrote Rilley's first newspaper article just over two years ago, has written a follow up article.  The story appeared on the front page of today's edition of the The Independent & Free Press here in Halton Hills.  Back in November, when I had written his two year anniversary blog post, I had sent Lisa an email to let her know that Rilley had been doing well.  That's when she had the idea to write a follow up and of course the girls couldn't pass up the opportunity to pose with their favourite, four legged friend.

Katherine and Elizabeth with their prized pooch!

Photo credit: Ted Brown, The Independent & Free Press

To read the article, it can be found by following this link:

http://www.theifp.ca/news/the-life-of-rilley/

An interesting thing just happened as I was about to publish this post.  A very nice girl called after having seen today's article.  She wanted to know if we would like to adopt a young beagle who needs a home.  Her friend had taken it in when its owner passed away.  To be honest, I'm actually sitting her hoping that I didn't come off as a jerk when I politely declined.  I told her that Rilley really would not do well with another dog in the house...he is a very solitary dog who doesn't always enjoy the company of other dogs.  He's not mean, quite the contrary, he is very lovable.  However, he seems to become depressed whenever there is another dog around and, while he is doing remarkable well, after everything he's been through we wouldn't feel right disrupting his routine with another dog right now.  So, caller, if you read this, we are truly very sorry that we could not help you and your friend out.

Rilley Rings Out 2012

It certainly has been another interesting year.  We started off in January wondering if the breakthrough seizures had returned.  Fortunately, they turned out to be more of a nuisance than something to be overly concerned about.  As the year progressed, the biggest issue we seemed to have with the little wonder is his insatiable appetite.  Countless fridge raids seemed to be his forte.  However, we celebrated some major milestones with Rilley.  In April it was his 11th Birthday (or if you want to be technical, his 9th anniversary since we adopted him).  May brought us his 18th month since surgery and just last month he surpassed two full years since our first trip to the University of Minnesota.

Whenever Christmas rolls around, we count them as "bonuses"...this year was Rilley's third bonus Christmas.    As usual, he had a grand time and was bestowed with a new Christmas collar and the usual gifts of chew bones.  Of course, as usual as well, he grabbed the first one and wanted to run outside to bury it.  When he realized that this was not to be, he ran upstairs to the master bedroom and came back without it.  That evening, as we were getting into bed for the night, we came across the missing chew bone under one of our pillows!  I suppose, true to his canine genetics, he did manage to bury his bone!

Unfortunately, it wasn't a white Christmas...as has been the case on many occasions here in southern Ontario.  However, just days later mother nature made up for it and Rilley couldn't be happier.  He absolutely loves the snow. Ok, maybe not the coats that Sara forces him to wear, but he does like the snow.

So as we sit here, sending off 2012 and welcoming in 2013, Rilley wishes all the best for everyone and he is looking forward to celebrating with everyone again next year!

Two years and still causing mayhem at the manor!

November 4, 2010

That was the date; the date that would change Rilley’s life.  It was exactly two years ago today that Rilley began the experimental treatment that would eventually see him cured of cancer and in his own small way contribute to the field of cancer research.  While there have been many other dogs in the trial, some with much more aggressive tumours than he and some who have lost the battle, they all deserve to be recognized for their part in this important study.

But this is his day, a day to be celebrated for it was approximately 730 days ago that Drs. Pluhar and Hunt removed the tumour from his brain.  Then Dr. Ohlfest and his team worked their magic to create the custom vaccine.  Together they all gave Rilley licence to cause further turmoil and destruction in our beloved home.  Yes, you read that correctly.  If it wasn’t for the dedicated professionals at the University of Minnesota, life would be just a quiet existence for our family.  Days would have become dreary without the excitement that a certain furry, four-legged, misfit of mischief could bring.  We would no longer have felt the love of the beagle who takes great pride in being the self-proclaimed Lord of the House.  Had we not made that 16 hour journey to Minneapolis, we would not have the pleasure of cleaning up after endless garbage raids and how could we overlook the joy of coming home to a wide open fridge, with its contents strewn about?  The resulting stains to the upstairs carpet because, surely, we could not expect him to devour his bounty on the cold tile kitchen floor.  Let us not forget the absolute thrill of being woken up at 3am because Lord Rilley has deemed it an appropriate time to be served his breakfast!  Sorry buddy, but you lose on that one…a quick bathroom break and perhaps a treat for not keeping me waiting while you patrol the back yard is all you get that early in the morning.

It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed since Rilley’s surgery.  It is equally difficult to realize that his year-long participation in Dr. Ohlfest’s clinical trial ended a full year ago.  Despite all the time that has passed, it still seems strange that we no longer need to plan return trips to the Twin Cities; it was beginning to feel like a second home.

Sure there have been some moments when we were concerned about his wellbeing, a couple of incidents involving focal and minor breakthrough seizures, but nothing that has caused us concern that the tumour had returned.  A slight adjustment to his medication seemed to take care of these issues and all is well.  Speaking of medication, he is still taking anti-seizure capsules three times a day and will remain on those for life.  A couple of things have made this a bit easier to manage.  The first being Dr. James' recommendation of a veterinary pharmacy out of Arizona that makes it a bit more affordable to buy this volume of medication.  The second, which is of the utmost importance to Rilley, is the existence of Greenie’s pill pockets.  This is where his boundless appetite works to our advantage.  If it weren’t for these wonderful little morsels pill time would be much more difficult...and they now come in a peanut butter flavour!  

Needless to say, our family is thrilled that Rilley is doing so well after all this time.  He seems just as full of energy as any other dog his age, perhaps even more so.  There doesn't appear to be any evidence to suggest that I won’t be sitting here two years from now writing another similar update.

Happy two years Rilley!!!!

The Long and Winding Road - Two years later

Rilley - Two years since his first seizure.

I hope Sir Paul McCartney doesn't mind me taking a title from his songbook, but today, August 10th, marks the second anniversary of Rilley's first grand mal seizure.  An event that put him onto the long and winding road that has been his battle with a brain tumour.  It has become a bit of a tradition around our house that Rilley gets a special treat on milestone days like this.  Elizabeth and I took him to the local Pet Valu where she picked out a Ladypaw for him.  (Ladypaw is apparently the canine equivalent to a Ladyfinger chocolate treat...according to the Dictionary of Elizabeth...sounds good so I'll just go with it.)

A well deserved dog treat!

While we were in the store, I picked up yet another bag of Greenie's Pill Pockets.  The girl behind the counter made small talk and I mentioned how many of these we go through and Elizabeth mentioned the significance of the day.  That, of course, led to the girl bestowing a lot of special attention to Rilley.  Not only did she get down and start petting him, commenting on how gentle he is, she also fell victim to his charms.  This then led to Rilley's favourite side effect of being so darn cute...a bag of treats appeared from behind the counter of which he was treated to more than just one.  I think he made a new friend.

Once we arrived home, Rilley eagerly awaited his treat.  Once it was in his possession, he gladly demonstrated his Olympic-esque speed and agility in devouring it before I had a chance to snap a picture.  (Sorry I had to tie in the Games of the 30th Olympiad some how!)  As you can see from the image below the treat was gone in no more than a few seconds.

Ever see the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds"?
Well, Rilley would NEVER let a treat survive that long!

The next significant milestone:  September 10th...two years to the day of diagnosis, coincidentally it was also the very day we heard from Dr. Ohlfest telling us that his clinical trial would accept out-of-country dogs.

The Dog Days of Summer

We're now into the third week of the summer holidays.  The temperature around the Greater Toronto Area has been hitting all time highs and there hasn't been much by the way of rain.  No matter what Rilley is taking it all in stride.

It's been a busy time over that past month and a half.  Elizabeth's end of year dance recital, Katherine's grade 8 graduation and a little time away.  Given how hectic things have been, we hired a photographer to take some photos.  Jaime got some great shots of Katherine but of course with Rilley hovering around, he was poised to steal the show.

Photo by Jaime at  www.inmyviewphotography.ca

However, photos weren't the only thing Rilley scored with.  We have also found him an excellent home-away-from-home that allows us to have the occasional getaway.  Since Rilley began the anti-seizure medication almost two years ago, our lives have revolved around making sure he gets it three times a day.  Despite having great neighbours who are always willing to help out, this has made it difficult to have some time away.  A lot of kennels out there don't want to take in a pet that has had a history of seizures, however, one of the girls former teachers recently started up her own pet retreat and Joanne was willing to take him on.

"They even gave me a Kong FILLED with peanut butter!
Sweet!  I love it here!"

Rilley has stayed there twice now and he loves it!  You can tell...he gets into just as much trouble there as he does at home.  On his last visit, he had been out for a walk with another dog and the story goes that when they returned, doggie inn-keeper Joanne entered "just 45 seconds behind him".  Mysteriously a container of cooked rice had somehow found it's way off a shelf, onto the floor and magically open.  Surprisingly, the contents were nowhere to be found!  Hmmm...45 seconds, eh?  Wow, that's a record even for him.  Now in his defense, there was another dog present at the time and no humans...so it may not have been him...

But we know better don't we?

Rilley even took advantage of the poor kennel girl that works there and scammed her for a second dinner.  Yup, he feels right at home there.

In case you're wondering how to find this saint that so willingly puts up with our behaviorally-challenged beagle, follow this link:

www.teacherspetpetretreat.ca

And with that, the summer marches on!

Rilley, enough with the food already!

"What? WHAT?! You can't prove a thing!"
Rilley and Exhibit "A".

Ok, enough's enough!  Rilley has really returned to his pre-tumour self.  He's getting us up every night between 3 and 4am and expects his breakfast.  During the week I will give in a lot of the time just so that I can go back to bed, however, this does need to stop.  In an effort to curb this behaviour I decided to just give him half of his breakfast around 4am with the plan that Sara give him the other half when she got up.  She was off work today and as such could sleep a bit longer and then get one of the girls off to school and the other to an appointment.  However, in this morning's rush to get out the door the other half of his breakfast was...kind of, ummm, forgotten.

At some point while the house was empty Rilley, the ever resourceful one, noticed that the jar of Kraft Peanut Butter had been left within reach.  Well, within reach once he cleared all the contents of the counter onto the floor.  By the time Sara returned back home, it was all over.  The jar of PB laying in one corner like some kind of giant Kong and the lid in another.

Then, as is the case with his usual gorging rounds, the whining started.  Obviously, our furry friend's tummy was rebelling against him.  Rilley's vet, Dr. Ewing, suggested that Sara bring him by so she could observe him.  After about an hour and a half, she sent him home saying that she would normally have given him charcoal to induce vomiting if he had come in sooner.

Later this afternoon, Rilley's rebellious stomach turned vengeful against our living room sofa.  What a mess!  It's not that easy to clean up peanut butter vomit from fabric, but luckily it was mostly on the cushions...too thick to soak into the actual foam...so, a quick rinse and into the washer they went.

As for Rilley, following Dr. Ewing's advice, we skipped his dinner and he now seems to be feeling better.  Although I worry for our sleep...not that he'll be sick again, but that tonight he will be REALLY hungry and not let up until he gets something.

No need to unscrew the lid...just use your teeth to break and pry it off!

 

18 Months and Counting!

"Is there an 18-month treat?"

Yesterday, May 5th, marked Rilley's 18th month since Dr. Pluhar flawlessly performed his brain surgery and set him off on the journey of a lifetime.  Thanks to her and Dr. Ohlfest's innovative research Rilley has been able to celebrate this significant milestone and there is absolutely no sign that he has any intention of slowing down.

It still seems strange to not be planning any more trips to Minneapolis.  However, we do keep the good folks there updated on Rilley's progress and we will be sure to share this miraculous milestone with them!