Tag: Chewie

  • R.I.P. Chewbacca “Chewie” Hutchison, 2009-2013

    R.I.P. Chewbacca “Chewie” Hutchison, 2009-2013

    Chewie’s final weekend convinced me that we were doing the right thing.  It was a weekend where he slept when he wasn’t painfully coughing, and his only bright moments were when he got to eat snacks or chow down on some rotisserie chicken.  I tried taking him for a walk, and we could only go […]

  • Chewie’s Farewell Tour

    Chewie was doing so well that we didn’t pick up on the return of his cancer for a while. On July 3rd, I took Chewie out to the car.  He planted his feet as we approached the car.  That was odd, since he had once again enjoyed going to Leashes and Leads for doggy day […]

  • Dealing with doggy renal cancer

    Dealing with doggy renal cancer

    Two months later, here is where things stand with Chewie. He is, to use my wife’s phrase after his checkup last week, “healthy as a horse.”  He has boundless energy, and he’s all atwitter that the long winter has finally ended.  Taking him on a walk is like trying to hold on to a kid […]

  • Chewie one week later

    I  wanted to let you know that Chewie is finally getting some energy back.  He’s had a rough week of recovery, but we’ve had a lot of encouraging signs recently.  After so many days of hard sleeping, weakness and wooziness, he seems to have perked up.  Last night he actually pulled out some of his […]

  • One week

    One week

    It was last Sunday that Chewie threw up his food after finally eating a little, and I told Melinda that I thought he was sick.  The next day she took him to the vet and began the little adventure I’ve been chronicling.  It’s not even a week, really, though we’d been worrying a little over […]

  • Chewie in Recovery

    Chewie in Recovery

    Or…The Adventure of Chewie Hutchison and The CONE of SHAME! On Thursday morning, I awoke to some terrible pain in my guts.  I called in to work and took the day off.  At first, I was worried that I was taking a sick day needlessly and it was just a little intestinal fit.  I needn’t […]

  • Chewie is out of surgery

    Chewie’s anesthetic started around 4PM, and Dr. Corbin called at 4:10 to give us a final preliminary report before she started. At 7PM, she called us to let us know that his surgery went well.  While they had him open, they did a test of a tiny scrape of his liver.  The liver had appeared […]

  • Chewie: Good news and bad news

    Chewie: Good news and bad news

    The bad news: Chewie has cancer. The good news: It is on one of his two kidneys.  Tomorrow, surgeons at the University of Minnesota will operate and remove that kidney, and so long as the cancer is confined to that one kidney, that’s the end of it. Short of “turns out Chewie just had a […]

  • Please pray for Chewie

    Please pray for Chewie

    Our 3 1/2 year old standard poodle, Chewie, is in the hospital.  He had had an eye infection 10 days ago, and our vet noticed that he had lost about six pounds.  She asked us to keep an eye on his eating.  After a week of his appearing listless and having little appetite, Melinda took […]

  • Still cold

    Man, is it cold in Minnesota.  Too cold to walk Chewie for more than 5 minutes.