1/5/18

On the night of the January 4th we saw George's picture on the Santa Cruz Humane Society website. I knew we HAD to have him, I was convinced that if we didn't get there first thing in the morning someone else would come adopt him! We left early and got there before they opened. When we arrived he was still available! It was love at first sight and I had to have him. On the car ride home we talked about names, he came with the name Winston but that didn't fit him. We thought about Milton or Gable but they just didn't sound right. About halfway home Chris suggested George Bailey, it was perfect. Little did we know how perfect it was going to be.

1/21/18

We noticed that he wasn't feeling like himself. We had taken him for a checkup a couple days before but all seemed well. I could tell something just wasn't right. After the winery closed I took him to Tucson to the emergency vet. They looked at him and determined that he just had a really full belly and needed help moving it along. We decided to leave him there overnight just in case.

At 3 in the morning we got a desperate call from the vet, George was retaining water and they weren't sure why. Now we played the waiting game. We closed the winery for the day and went up to Tucson to be with him. Still everything seemed like it was going to pass. We decided to keep him there one more night. After a visit we went home to wait.

At about 7 pm on the 22nd, the vet called again. George was not going pee and water was building up in his body. His kidney's weren't working. We were stunned. I remember feeling like it wasn't real, it couldn't be real. The vet said if we had any hope of saving him we had to take him to San Diego for dialysis NOW, not in the morning but now. We both made the same conclusion in a split second, we were going to save Georgie even if that meant driving all through the night to San Diego. We rushed to pack, got our other animals taken care of and we left in 15 minutes.

At about 11 pm that night we started our drive to UC Davis in San Diego. The drive was long and stressful, we had to check his blood sugar levels every hour and check his heartbeat. We made it to San Diego at 4 am on the morning of the 24th. The Nephrologist was there waiting and they took him in for dialysis immediately. At about 9 am we found a hotel and collapsed.

1/23/18

We were able to visit Georgie in the ICU for the first time. We still didn't know what was causing the problem or even if we were going to be able to fix it. He looked so pitiful in the soft cone but he was a mischievous puppy when it was off.

1/24/18

We got the best news when we visited! George had started to eat on his own AND he had peed 4 times during the night. That meant that his kidneys were working better!!! We were so excited!

1/25/18

After our very exciting news George started to not feel good again. The Nephrologist did another ultrasound on his kidneys. They had begun to mineralize and his cells were holding onto fluid. They had never seen anything like this and weren't sure how to proceed. The dialysis was just to allow his body time to heal itself. We had planned on going home for the weekend because someone needed to work the winery but I just couldn't leave my baby after this bad news. We drove home and Chris stayed home for the weekend and I drove back the next morning.

1/26/18

He feels fantastic and was very playful with me this evening. Rocky raccoon is his favorite toy. He always feels great after dialysis!

1/27/18

I got to bring Georgie outside for a few hours to walk around and play. I definitely wore him out. He was over the moon to see other puppies! He felt so good and really enjoyed being outside of the ICU for the first time!!

1/28/18

This was the most exciting day! Georgie was able to come break out of the ICU and spend the night in the hotel with me! If was a challenge because he was being fed with a feeding tube. It was a messy night but we made it through. Look how happy he was to be out of the ICU!!

We both slept through the night for the first time and boy did it feel good.

1/29/18

Georgie continued to go to dialysis three times a week but was able to spend the off days and nights with me. His creatinine levels continued to go down and he seemed to feel better every day. We explored Pacific Beach and he was a hit. Everyone LOVED him and he loved everyone. We couldn't walk two steps without being stopped. Even the restaurants loved him and had dog menus! A dog's life can't get any better than in San Diego!!

2/2/18

George was still feeling good. Chris was able to come to San Diego to be with us for the day but then I had to come home to work the winery. George was SO happy to see Chris. Dad is always the favorite!

2/6/18

We found a solution to no walking, a baby sling. We did get some strange looks but it made our lives so much easier and George really liked it!

2/8/18

Chris was able to come for another visit, did I mention that Dad was the favorite?? San Diego really is the coolest place to be a dog.

2/10/18

Georgie's creatinine levels were getting a bit better so we convinced the doctor to let us come back home to AZ for the weekend with the condition that he had to get blood work on Monday. George loved seeing his buddy, Henry and they pulled every toy out the basket and played with them all. We really enjoyed being home too.

2/13/18

On Breanna’s birthday things started to not look good, his creatinine had jumped way up over the weekend. We loaded the whole family into the car and drove back to San Diego.

2/14/18

Today was a great family day. We drove around with the top down, and went to a dog beach Georgie had 2 minutes of heaven on the ground running around with Henry.

2/15/18

Today we received bad news, Georgie's creatinine is back up. We decided to give him one more round of dialysis tomorrow to give him a boost. Then we went home and enjoyed the rest of our time with him. We did absolutely everything we could do to save him.