September Update

The weekend that Jude turned 1 month old was Labor Day weekend. On Friday, Ong and Ba

came to town to visit and provide much needed assistance! Oh happy day!

On Sunday evening, we get a call from Nini and Papa letting us know that there are some wild fires in Bastrop and that the city/county has asked them to evacuate. Would it be ok for them to evacuate to our house? Or are the fires in Pflugerville bad, too? Fire? Fires? Huh?

Turns out it was the weekend of the great wild fires. We turn on the news and sure enough, there are fires EVERYWHERE. Because of the severe drought in the region, the extremely windy day and the holiday weekend things were catching fire easily and then being carried and spread like, well, wild fire.

The Pflugerville fire was not far from our house. Down at the end of Kelly Lane close to the Preserve neighborhood. The relatively small fire coupled with the quick action of the PFD and Travis County helicopters, the fire was quickly contained.

The Bastrop fires were a completely different story. The area is densely wooded. The fires raged for miles and miles. For days and days.

Nini and Papa stayed with us through the holiday weekend and then went to Ft. Worth to visit Jenni and Cade for a few days. With the same bag they had packed in their rush to evacuate. It would be well over a week before the fires were contained sufficiently to allow them to even return to the area.

When they were finally able to return, they were the lucky very very few. Their home was untouched. Not even any signs of smoke damage. All they had to throw out was some spoiled food from the electricity being turned off for so many days. We all counted our blessings.

During this time, Stephanie returned from a long weekend visit in California. On Tuesday after Labor Day, we decided to take the pups and Jude out for a nice long walk since Stephanie didn't have to work (she works for Bastrop ISD). Stoli and Diesel were as usual running and chasing each other. Having a generally good time. Diesel stopped somewhere ahead to do her business and then continued on chasing Stoli. Stephanie and I finally caught up to her pit stop and were heads down searching for her "treasures." After a few minutes, we were able to collect it all and wouldn't you know it, we look up to see Stoli and Diesel trotting back towards us. Well, Diesel trotted. Stoli was noticeably limping. We stop to take a look at him and he screeeeams. OK, so don't touch it. Stephanie takes Diesel and they run back to the house to get the car. I coax and comfort Stoli as we try to make it as close as possible back to the main road so that we can get in the car when Stephanie returns. The whole time, I've got Jude strapped to my chest because we didn't bring a car seat.

We get Stoli home and call the vet. They didn't have any appointments left that afternoon so instead of opting for the emergency route, I chose to just take him in first thing the next morning. Torn ACL. 100%. After leaving the vet's office, we go straight over to the surgeon's office. Surgery scheduled for the next day. Surprisingly, Stoli is able to walk out of the surgeon's office and into the car. He's a little loopy the first few hours, but he is a champ and recovers so so well. No more running for him =(

Our goofy dog going for aqua rehab

Figures he can kill 2 birds with one stone and hydrates while he rehabs

This maternity leave is one surprise after another. So now I'm bound at home. Stuck between painful fussy breast feeding sessions and ACL rehab. Yay for baby boys!