Feeling Grateful & Thankful, a Franklin Update + Dog Mom Sweatshirt

OUTFIT DETAILS

Dog Mom Sweatshirt – 10% off with code SABBYSTYLE – c/o K. Ellis Boutique // Jeans

Hi sweet friends and happy Saturday!  How was your Thanksgiving? And did you do a lot of shopping yesterday on Black Friday?  For today’s post I decided to put a pause on sharing sales and focus on what I’ve been feeling lately… Grateful!  I shared a couple weeks ago that our sweet Franklin, who will be 13 in March, wasn’t doing so well.  He has Congestive Heart Failure, which we are “treating” with a morning and night med routine advised by our vet.  And up until a couple weeks ago, despite his enlarged heart and the coughing that comes from the fluid getting backed up in his lungs at times, he was still acting like his normal Angel Baby Puppy Dog self!  I’ve never met a dog who loved a tennis ball more than our Franklin!  And he is quite serious about meal times haha.  Due to Roger’s diabetes, we are on a pretty strict schedule where we feed the dogs at 6:30am and 6:30pm every day and you better believe Franklin wakes us up/notify us about 30 minutes early that feeding time is about to happen.  He also still loves to play with all his toys, gives you lots of licks and kisses, and gets excited when we come home!

Obviously with him being 12.5, he’s getting older, despite how much I hate it haha, so we always say it’s our job to help him age gracefully!  That means with every stage of his age, there’s always a new normal.  Obviously he’s not going to act the same today as he did when he was a pup, but two weekends ago he was not acting like his normal self whatsoever, and that is when my mama heart got very worried!  He was super lethargic, not interested in moving off the couch, would hardly drink water, and we had to force him to outside and potty/get some fresh air.  That is when it hit me that the time to make a tough decision might be sooner than later.

I had actually made a vet appointment a few days prior because he had been acting slightly off so I wanted to get in and look at his heart, lungs, and take some blood work to check all his levels.  I’m so glad I had made the appointment for first thing on Monday morning because Saturday and Sunday were the longest days ever!  I cried all day Saturday.  Like weeping.  I really wanted to get through the holidays with him and our new little family of five!  But of course we wouldn’t be selfish and keep him around for our own personal wants – I just was not prepared to get serious about making arrangements and how we would go about it!

Sunday evening he started to act better and lo and behold, Monday morning he woke us up at 5:50am and ate breakfast like a champ!  Every little sign of normal behavior made me so happy and I decided to stay positive until we talked to the vet.  We got to the vet and had radiographs taken on his heart and lungs, and had blood drawn.  After a long 30 minutes, we received some good, but not great, but not horrible news!  His heart had slightly enlarged since our last visit in May, so that was the bad news.  But his lungs looked the same as they did in May, so good that they weren’t worse, but not great that they hadn’t cleared up more, but no news is good news on this front.  His blood work and all this levels are EXCELLENT, which is so awesome!  He gained a few ounces, which was also good news; as weight loss results from Congestive Heart Failure.

I was a nervous wreck and because I just needed to hear the facts, we straight up asked the doctor if it was his “time” and he said of course that day will come, but it wasn’t today and that made our dog parent hearts so happy!  The Dr. adjusted his meds and sent us on our way.  So far, the tweak of meds has helped, though he still has his cough, which is the worst sound ever.  It breaks my heart every time!  But he is still holding his own and loving life, so I can’t ask for much more than that!

This Thanksgiving I was feeling EXTRA GRATEFUL for another holiday with him and I’m not taking this extra time for granted.  I got this Stay At Home Dog Mom sweatshirt from my friend Kayla, at K. Ellis Boutique, and I thought it was super fitting because one of the biggest motivators for me when I decided to leave my nonprofit career in 2016 and take my blog business full time, was that I wanted to be home with my dogs!

I am so THANKFUL that I am able to pursue my dreams and run Sabby Style full time and none of this would be possible without all of YOU!  So from the bottom of my dog mom heart; thank you for your continued support, love, and kindness.  I’m so blessed to have the most amazing readers, followers, and friends and I’m beyond proud of this community we’ve built together!  xoxo