April 30, 2025

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I miss the dogs.  I also stress about them.  They each wear trackers and Pan is regularly getting into trouble going onto the commercial street nearby.  Not a place for dogs with various factories and regular traffic on the road.  Some have seen him and think he is a starving dog so they feed him (the problem with a dog that is part whippet - he looks skinny).  He keeps going back for more.  One time, I even heard he went into a lunchroom and was scavenging in the garbage.  I have been messaged by people working there.  He has been driven home several times.  Yesterday was a bad day for that and I was so stressed out, wondering if I have to re-home him if I can't be there.  Marlon stressed as he felt guilty that I was with him.  P gives the dogs lots of attention and exercise when he gets home from work in the evening.  Pan goes wandering during the day.  T will see the dogs playing happily together and then a few minutes later Pan is gone.

We knew today was going to be a simpler day with no extras for Marlon. He did get some time outside to sit in the grass again.

The steroids sure are playing havoc.  Steroid induced hyperglycemia thus the need to be regularly checking his blood sugar.  At least he now has a patch on his arm that automatically checks his sugars so his fingers aren't being poked 8 times a day.  Several insulin injections a day go into his belly or back of the arm.  He is covered in little bruises.

Then there is the acid reflux / heartburn which is another side effect of steroids.

And of course the food cravings.  I feel like I am regularly being sent off to buy food to satisfy those cravings.  Sometimes he is full and nauseous but still the cravings rule his mind.

So many medications.

And his weight.  Yo-yo.  He was 63kg when he was admitted.  His weight went as high as 68kg, as low as 54kg, and now it is climbing.  Today's weight was a jump of 3kg from yesterday.  He is bloated again.


The troublemaker sporting a beard of quills.  That was 2 weeks before Marlon ended up in the hospital and the morning we went to emergency, I thought I felt another quill on his lower eyelid.  Hoping I was mistaken. 

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