Goodbye Snap dog

Our faithful Snap dog died Wednesday, December 21, 2016. This is one of the very first photos of three year old Noah playing with him in Gburg. 

It was a rather sudden departure. Only a week before he died, on Wednesday December 14, I had decided Snap's Christmas present would be to be professionally groomed. This was actually a gift for me, to get a break since I did it every couple months. He looked great when he came back. He looked so thin and fit and I thought his diet had finally worked. But the more I thought about it through, the more concerned I became. How did he get so thin in only the two months since I'd last groomed him? I decided to make him an appointment with the vet. 

Before Terry took him to the vet, he weighed him on our Wii scale and discovered he was down three pounds! For a medium sized dog, that seemed like an awful lot. I called Snap up the stairs to leave the house and he stumbled as he attempted it. Our house has three half flights of steps and never once  had he had trouble getting up them. Definitely not normal for a relatively young eight year old dog. Terry forgot to mention the stumbling and thought the weight loss took place over three years instead of two months. Therefore, the vet was satisfied with how Snap looked and behaved, said he had good muscle tone, and was at an ideal weight. He seemed in good health and said to contact him again only if he went off his food or lost more weight. Here he is at the vet after eating a treat.

However, Snap started shivering incessantly that day. Initially I just thought he was cold since it was frigid, our house is a bit drafty, and he had just had all his hair buzzed off. But as the weekend went on he was spending all of his time laying down and eating less and less food. We were only able to get him to eat or drink if we put it right next to him. By Monday, he was doing poorly. Our friends Paul and Jana had gifted us a day and night away from our kids for Christmas and Jana was alarmed at Snap's behavior, especially after he vomited some dark substance, which we were worried was blood. We made Snap a vet appointment and cut our date short. We decided to treat what the vet thought was pancreatitis with antibiotics, anti-nausea pills, and pain pills. We took Snap home and continued on with our date. Tuesday he was doing worse, not eating hardly anything. However, on Wednesday, he was even worse. That morning he was jumping at every sound in the house so we put him in the laundry room where it was more quiet. When Terry left the house around lunch time and checked on Snap before he left, he said he didn't think Snap was going to recover. I checked on him and he looked like he had the fear of death in his eyes and his breathing was labored. I snuggled him and then brought him into Noah where we had a talk about Snap being very sick and maybe dying. Noah took it very hard. He bawled. All the kids came in and we talked about what was going on. In just those few minutes Snap grew even worse.

When Terry returned and we gave Snap a pain pill he had a seizure. It was terrifying! We were expecting Nathan and Ana that evening but by the time they got there, Snap was practically at death's door. Right before I went to bed Snap seized three times in one hour, wasn't moving or even looking around, and had terribly ragged, quick breathing. Terry stayed up with him and by 11:30pm, he was gone. The next morning we drove out to the ranch to bury him. It was his favorite place.

Shari brought her girls out too. 

We trekked out the field north of the roller coaster and said good bye. 

Terry wrote out and read his thoughts:

Snapdog. Circa 2008 - Dec. 21st, 2016. We first met Snap as a puppy back in 2008. He was more calm and quiet then the other puppies and Eva was most drawn to him. We discovered his name during our first few days with him when Terry was holding Evie in one arm and petting Snap with the other on a porch swing. Snap decided to jump off. One of his hind legs became caught in a slat and a definite snapping noise was heard. We were relieved it was only a sprain. He was a typical naughty puppy, chewing on shoes and peeing in the house, but he figured it out.

Snap loved to wander and discover new smells. I especially remember him running away from the youth building in Gothenburg. Noah and I drove all over town to find him. Noah prayed that he would go back to the youth building. I told Noah we should pray that we would just find him but Noah kept specifically praying heʼd go back to the building. After a long, futile search I decided to take one last look at the youth building and sure enough, there was Snap at the front door. That was just one of Snapʼs wanderings. Weʼve had neighbors call, walk him home, or just put him on the lead outside of our house. We could never seal up the back yard well enough to contain his curiosity.

We miss Snap. We will miss coming down (or up) the stairs each morning to find him relaxing on a couch or chair. We will miss him begging for any size crumb of food to fall from the kitchen table or counter and our constant tripping over him as he positioned himself for any and all scraps. We will miss his ardent desire to be in the front yard to bark at every dog that walked by. Weʼll miss his enthusiasm to go on a walk when he would see Eva put her running gear on. Weʼll miss him laying on the back of the couch. Weʼll miss him dragging himself up M Hill when heʼs exhausted on a hike. Iʼll miss making a path for him in the snow in the backyard for his bathroom trips. Iʼm sure the kids will miss picking up his poop. Weʼll probably even miss his bad breath, dirty teeth and silent (but deadly) farts.

Snap got sick very suddenly around Friday, December 16th. The Dr. suggested it was pancreatitis and we started giving him medication, but his condition only seemed to get worse. We gave him lots of love and kind words in preparation for his departure and I think he knew he was loved to the end. He died at 11:30 pm December 21st, 2016.

We hope to see him again. We hope dogs do go to heaven because we love him. We donʼt know why he had to die at such a young age, but we trust God has a plan beyond our understanding. He was a wonderful, tolerant, quiet, kind-eyed, gentle, loyal, snuggle-starved Schnauzer. He leaves a void that can never be filled. Goodbye Snap. We love you.

I could have added what a great vermin hunting dog Snap was, like the time he grabbed the enormous pack rat for us. He was so patient with the kids who were always grabbing his tail, just being loud, chasing him, or tying things onto him. Noah even took a bath with him once! Every time I drop something while cooking I have to stop myself from calling Snap over to lick it up. Every time I leave the house I feel the need to check the garbage (which he loved to get into) and say good bye. There's no Snap dog waiting for us when we get home, no one to bark at the passing walkers and dogs, no one to beg to go for a walk. I used to say that the day after Snap died I'd go get a cat whether Terry liked it or not. But no. I don't have it in me. It was actually a blessing to have Nathan, Ana, Theo, Elin, and their dog Thorin staying with us for a week because it distracted us from the loss. 

Everyone gathered around for one last look.

And one last pet. 

We covered him up and then scrounged around for rocks to mark the spot.

Sad family :( 

Walking away. 

The kids played around in the snow for a while afterward. It was a bit heartbreaking when Jerry started gathering up the rope that we used to lease Snap with. 

The kids playing on the drift. 

This is a smaller version of the same drift where Snap once romped in 2008. 

Cold, sad winter sky.

Noah was very angry. He had a hard time with it that day but is doing much better now. Initially he didn't want anyone to talk about Snap because it hurt too much but now we can. 

No more yellow snow to worry about. Good bye Snap dog. You were such a good dog. We miss you.

Evie's lists

The weekend before Christmas break, we had many things to get ready for, so Evie made a to-do list. I was just about to throw it away but am glad I took a look and a picture before I did so. It's like a day in the life of Evie. Hilarious.

My favorites are these:

1. "Challenge: be nice to brothers."  Ha!

2. "Be nice to Snap for a whole day."  This is bittersweet since he died three days later.

3. "be nice to brothers."  She crossed this out after Samuel said she was a mean girl, something she added at the very bottom with many arrows pointing at it. Oh the feelings of an eight year old girl. Thankfully daddy talked her down.

4. "have hot [crossed out] chocolate."  She likes it cold and never remembers it's called plain "chocolate milk.

5. "calm down Noah."  I don't know what the story is behind this, but it's something we say often.

6. The two about wrapping was about the tacky Christmas gifts we were giving for a party.

7. "do recital song in front of old people."  Geesh, what a nice way to put that Evie! They performed their Christmas recital songs at a retirement home that weekend.

Here is Evie's Christmas Wish List from this last year, 2016.

She started out with only the purple items because she was trying to not ask for much. But as time went on, she thought of more and more that she added in pen. She crossed out "Pickachu stuft animal and pokemon booster packs" probably because she was trying not to be greedy, but added them again below. I liked how she crossed out that she'd just see what she got for Christmas and in fact wrote "ignore that." Nope, she was gonna tell us what she wanted after all. She did get to go to "everybodys Bookstore" but didn't find the fairy books she was looking for. I love that she added "find fluffy" at the bottom because though she's never found it, we got her a new one. 

This note is from back in June and is probably the first time I remember seeing her making a to-do list.

A year before that, in 2015, here was her birthday list. I love her valiant attempt at spelling. So cute.

You can figure out everything except maybe number five, Jewel stickers, and number eight, A green jewel bracelet from Who's (the toystore). 

I found this list on facebook from March 2015 from a trip to the library.

Jazmine, Cindarella, Berenstain Bears!

our pack rat

We have had roof leaking issues this late summer and fall. When we came back from our vacation to Minnesota in August, there were two shadows of wet areas to our living room ceiling from the rain we received while away. Since there was never a problem until after we had our roof replaced last summer, we called the roofer to fix the problem. It took him a while; first one thing and then another didn't work. Finally he had someone come and replace some shingles at the place where he thought the water was coming in. Since then we haven't had problems - fingers crossed. 

When we initially discovered this problem, we placed buckets under the drips and Terry went into the attic to investigate where the water was coming from. While he was up there he pulled the wet installation away from the drywall. The water leaked through the drywall seams. The picture below was from the last time this happened. That bubbled area of texture has fallen off and has yet to be fixed. I'd like to scrape the whole ceiling free of popcorn and start fresh!

The evening of our last leak, Terry went into the attic again to search for additional water trails (this was before new shingles). He's waving goodbye because we were afraid we would never see each other again. Ever since he had pulled the insulation away from the drywall, every night we'd hear some kind of creature galavanting around our attic! We'd hear it when he'd walk, run, or skip across the bare drywall. I heard it sometimes in the afternoon while the kids were in quiet time and it was, well, quiet, in the house. But more often than that, we'd hear it in the evenings, usually around 9:30pm. In addition, I had discovered while searching for something in our loft, large bits of rodent poop. I swept them up and told Terry I thought they were far too big for just a mouse. Plus something was eating the bird food and even dug into the seamed area between the garage stairs and kitchen door. There was a little pile of dirt debris right outside our kitchen! Clearly, something was up.

There he goes! We had tried all sorts of mouse traps and finally mouse poison. The trap in the attic was never touched, but all the traps in the garage would be picked clean in the morning but had no dead mouse in them except occasionally a tiny field mouse would wander in through the gap at the bottom of our garage door and be caught. But night after night most traps would be empty of peanut butter and dead mice. We figured we had a sly mouse on our hands and therefore bought two or three bags of mouse poison and set them about the garage. The one we placed in the garage loft was eaten into the following day and we waited for the inevitable dead mouse to show up. The next day the entire bag of poison was gone, along with the other one/s throughout the garage. What kind of creature eats entire packets of poison?!!

On the day that we went hiking in mid-November, we were greeted with a surprise upon our arrival back home. I was one of the first to get into the house and was yelling behind me for Ezra to hurry up and come inside because it was nap time. He wasn't coming so I went back outside to get him.  Halfway down the garage stairs I saw Snap, just to the side of the stairs, with a large rodent in his mouse. Samuel and Ezra were just standing there next to him watching. I yelled out, "RAT! RAT! RAT!" and Terry ran to get a shovel. When I yelled out, Snap dropped the rat and went inside like he was disinterested. I could see the rat was still moving and was horrified it would get away. I ran back into the house to get Snap and drag him back to finish his job. By the time I got back out there, Terry had broken the rat's neck with a flat edged shovel! He was worried he had decapitated him and that the red color around him was blood. It wasn't. It was only red dirt from the shovel.

I was freaking out; yelling and exclaiming and asking questions and jumping around. We all were. This thing was massive, just enormous, at least a foot long from snout to tail end. His body alone had to be at least nine inches. Terry scooped him up and we went outside into the light to get a better look. I had yelled "rat" when I saw it in Snap's mouth, but then when I saw his furry tail and big mouse-like ears, I was in doubt as to what in the world this thing was. Rats were supposed to have nasty naked tails as far as I knew. And he looked so soft and kind of cuddly that I felt bad. He really almost looked like an escaped pet, not like a nasty rat. 

I was so pumped full of adrenaline that I couldn't settle or make dinner. I think we just had leftovers. I got on facebook and google and asked my friends for help in identifying this rat/mouse thing. I emailed friends and our county weed and pest guy. People guessed anything from a possum to a chinchilla. None of their ideas seemed right based off my internet research. The closest match I could find was a bushy-tailed woodrat, otherwise known as a pack rat. They key, as I had thought was his furry tail, large ears and eyes. 

He was 6.5 ounces. I had exaggerated his girth, thinking he was two pounds. Wanting a correct weight to identify him,  I dug him out of the garbage and weighed him properly. Adrenaline had enlarged him in my mind.

Several days later Terry found its nest and that pretty much decided it for us; he was a pack rat. From Wikipedia, "Pack rats are nest builders. They use plant material such as branches, twigs, sticks, and other available debris. Getting into everything from attics to car engines, stealing their ‘treasures’, damaging electrical wiring, and creating general noisy havoc can easily cause them to become a nuisance.^[3] A peculiar characteristic is that if they find something they want, they will drop what they are currently carrying, for example a piece of cactus, and "trade" it for the new item. They are particularly fond of shiny objects. These two traits have inspired an anecdote about a man finding his dime replaced by two nickels. They can also be quite vocal and boisterous."

 So there you had it. Its description matches our creature. He was very boisterous in our attic. He used whatever material available to build his nest, which was insulation, and, the clincher in my mind, was a shiny candy wrapper I found in his nest. Terry had discovered two wires that had been bitten clean in half. Also, when I finally heard back from the weed and pest guy, he agreed with my assessment. I only wish we knew how he got into our attic...

Terry found his nest in the empty black area above that pinkish shelf on the leftmost side of his work bench in the back of the garage. 

I know you can't tell from this photo, but we could still see the imprint of the pack rat's body in his nest. So we held our breaths that night and didn't hear any scratching around in our attic, and to this day that holds true. We are just hoping he didn't have a family. I have been worried lately because whenever Snap is in the garage with me, he sniffs around the bottom area of the stairs. It could just be another mouse (we live on the edge of a field), so I'm just hoping our pack rat troubles are over. 

Snap dog is our hero. He got lots of love and snacks for several days after this incident. Turns out, even though we don't have a mouser cat, Snap is just as good as one. He has caught other small creatures before - mice and birds. Miniature Schnauzers are in the terrier family and were bred to hunt rats. Long live Snap dog!

Snap's tail

 Snap is such a good dog. We got him when Noah was three years old and Evie was only a couple months, so he's been through quite a lot. Every single one of the kids have pulled on his little nub tail. Ezra likes to walk after him holding it.

There you see it...

...and there you don't. I like how he's got his bottom pointed down so as to protect himself and is looking at me like, "Help!" Ezra didn't hurt him but you gotta protect yourself just in case! Good dog Snap dog.

The Poop Troop

The kids have started their own business! As you can see from their flyer below, they've had plenty of experience cleaning up after Snap for the last seven years and we wondered if anyone in our neighborhood would like some help cleaning up after their dogs. We see all sorts of people out every night walking their dogs with plastic bags in their hands so we were hopeful that someone would give them a shot. 

We first talked our idea over with Noah and Evie nearly a year ago and they were immediately excited. Ever since then Noah had been periodically pestering Terry to help him figure out how to start "The Poop Troop." Finally, on Saturday October 24th, we began. Terry made the flyers and then we had a practice run-through at the front door. It didn't go so well. So we typed up a script and rehearsed several times. 

"Knock knock..." 

We went through every possible response.  

I put the littles down for naps and Terry took the olders up and down our street to knock on doors.

The first neighbor with hunting dogs wasn't answering so they moved on. We will have to try him again in the future. 

Just as they were on their way home a woman down the street stopped them and hired them for a month of poop troop duties. She was very sweet and let them get started right away. It's always nice to meet your clients ;) 

Another neighbor had said she didn't need a doggie scooping, but instead needed doggie walking. And why not?! The kids have had plenty of practice doing that with Snap. So she hired them to walk her little dogs once a week. Here is their first time out when Samuel, Ezra and I followed them in the van.

 The second week we waited on the deck. It was chilly so Samuel needed bundling. 

Here they come!  

And just today one of those neighbors the kids talked to weeks ago called and wanted their services. 

Go Poop Troop go!

Snap's teeth

It is with shame that I admit I had no idea Snap had a tooth decay problem. Not until a few weeks ago when he was skittish and upset around Shari's dog and would not stop licking his chops. When I opened his mouth to check if there was anything going on, I was shocked to see a tooth coming loose! The next day it was just gone and he was happy again. I just had no idea that animals could lose their teeth like that, but my dad assured me that all of his animals have done so in the past. 

Not wanting to be bad pet parents though, we resolved to take better care of Snap's teeth. I went to Petsmart, bought a dog tooth brush and paste and Terry got to work. Hehehehe. Look at Snap's face, "What's going on Master person?"

You're getting your teeth cleaned, that's what!

He really tolerated the whole thing rather well. Afterward he was rewarded with a Dentastick, a gummy treat that's supposed to rub down a dog's teeth. It's probably a gimmick but Snap loved it. The very next night he was ready for it. Instead of passing out on the couch, he followed us around and submitted to another round of teeth cleaning to get the reward - a total Pavlov's Dog reaction. We did this for about a week or two, every single night. Now he's getting fat so we are backing off on the treats (and sending him out for a run with the kids) and cleaning about every other night. That's probably more than he needs, but we've seen a reduction in the amount of plaque on his teeth. 

Long live Snap! (But not that long. I want a cat.)

biking and geocaching

The day after Terry and I returned from Chicago we must have felt bad for leaving the kids for five days because we took them on a big bike ride. That or we just all needed to get out of the house. I had recently discovered an easier way to get downhill to the bike path without having to haul our bikes to Canyon Lake - we go through Mary Hall Park. It worked perfectly. We rode down to the Fish, found a geocache and decided to find two more. Here's that first one.

We tried to go further east but were stopped by the massive creek flooding under the interstate bridge. So we turned around and had lunch at McDonalds.

Snap dog even got to come along. What a lucky puppy.