Outfit Details:

Miss Patina “Garden of Eden” blouse

Madewell high waisted jeans (this is the pair I’m wearing — I also love the lightweight Danny wash)

Charlotte Olympia velvet kitty flats (if you can’t find a sample sale, The Outnet has a few pairs for half the price)

Keiko x Bonlook “Shug” glasses

 

Bobby had a job in Boston, so my sister Amanda, Miku, and I rode with him and spent the day there. I’ve never spent more than two days in Boston, and it’s always for work which leaves little time for exploration. Amanda hadn’t ever been, so it was a good little trip! We had such a nice day, and Miku was so happy to go on an adventure. She lives for road trips. We took turns posing with her because she’s the best good girl and we just love her so much. We didn’t even spend the night — we came back to Brooklyn that evening — and the next day, Miku tried to hop back in her carrier. She’s like, “Okay, let’s go. Where to?”

When I asked for dog friendly restaurants in Boston, someone warned us that there aren’t many because of health regulations. But we actually found that most casual places with outdoor seating were dog friendly. I always call in advance, just to make sure. And Miku is so well behaved; she just sits in the shade with her little bowl of water and hangs out like she’s one of the humans. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice; it was a little overcast and not very hot, since rain was on the way.

Speaking of rain: finally getting to swap out my Hunter boots  for regular flats was a good feeling. I’m totally fine with rain and have plenty of umbrellas and rain boots (okay, I have one pair of rain boots…I downsized!) for the occasion — but with our summer days counting down, it sure is nice to have some days without rainfall. It did rain in the late afternoon, but I’ll take those pockets of sunshine. And it looks like we’ll have several days of it, this week!

I haven’t been giving many Miku updates because it’s a lot of not knowing, and when we get good news about one thing, there seems to be something else we have to worry about. That’s just part of having a senior dog and making sure they’re always taken care of; if you’re doing your due diligence, you’ll often find things that need to be taken care of. But the important thing is to catch everything early. Her surgery for the cancer on her leg went really well (narrow but clean margins), and as you can see in the pictures, it’s all healed but her hair hasn’t started growing back yet. It’s one of the reasons we have to keep her clipped, now — her hair doesn’t grow back, and when it does it’s brittle and wiry. She has hypothyroidism that’s regulated and regularly checked, but between that and her age/breed, it’s apparently normal for her hair to be this way/not grow back. Melatonin has helped, but it’s not a miracle cure.

Anyway, her surgery went well and we just have to keep monitoring for any returning or new growths. She’s been in great spirits and is just as spunky as ever, but this Wednesday she’s having another echocardiogram and ultrasound and of course, it gives me intense anxiety. The echo is routine because she has some heart issues that we have to keep monitored, but the ultrasound is to investigate a sudden spike in her ALP levels. Two weeks ago (seriously! two weeks ago!) her ALP levels were normal but she had a small ALT increase, and then they did a recheck and it was reversed — ALT normal, ALP more than doubled. I put myself into horrible spins when I google everything and try to understand it all (and there are endless possible diagnoses), and though I’ve definitely already done that as soon as our vet called, I’m trying to wait until the ultrasound can give us more information. For the time being, she’s acting completely normal and is her happy self, so I’m hoping and praying it’s something manageable and we can go back to our routine, mini adventures. She’s still such a spunky and youthful pup, despite her 14 years of age.