Journey

Plus one ‘Bear’ ….. Tarata Fishaway Lodge River Guide Mikayla breeds pedigree short-haired miniature Dachshunds.  While we stayed with them we were able to meet her dogs and enjoy cuddles.  We were quite taken with 6 month old ‘Bear’.  His sale had fallen through so he was still at the Lodge.  We almost approached Mikayla about giving Bear a home but didn’t want to make a rash decision.  After the trip there was a lot of discussion and we visited my work colleague Karl to see how dachshunds have fitted into his family.  We exchanged several emails with Mikayla and discovered the dachshunds were out of our price range.  Then one morning I opened our Inbox to see an email from Mikalya which said “I'd like to offer as my donation to let you have Bear with a small fee to help cover his vet costs.  It would be my pleasure to share my beautiful puppy with your family and I am sure he will be the best medicine there is possible for Rory!”  We were blown away by her generous offer and we could not say no.  Thank you very much Mikayla xox  Bear will be good for all of us.  Dogs, with their unconditional love, improve our mood, provide companionship and help keep us active.  Two weeks ago Sean, Rory and I drove to Whanganui to meet Trudi and pick Bear up.  He is slowly settling in.  It is a big adjustment for us all.  We have had to puppy proof inside and outside the house as he is much smaller than Fern.  Bear likes cuddles and wrestling and is a vigorous chewer of toys.  He has met his (much bigger) dog brother Ryder (Sam and Caitlyn’s fur baby).  He has had a trip to the vet to complete his vaccinations.  It has been good timing having Bear at home as several of Rory’s activities are still not underway, although he returned to Atawhai on Monday.  One weekend Sean and I took Rory through Pukeiti forest, down the Saxton track, to the Piwakawaka Hut on his Terrain Hopper for a picnic lunch.  Sean, Colt and I subsequently did a recce of all the Pukeiti forest tracks to see whether any others were suitable for him to use .  Last weekend we picked a dry day to take Rory out into the hill country to traverse the track in the Totara Block where South Taranaki Forest and Bird are trapping to protect Kiwi.  It was challenging but he handled it well, although was very fatigued.  It was wonderful to get him out into the wild.  Colt had his cast off but then it was very nearly Rory’s turn.  He had a fall onto the floor in the lounge and hit his hand on a wooden footstool.  There was pain, swelling and bruising.  I took him to the emergency doctor (the same one who had seen Colt) for an x-ray.  Thankfully it is not broken but quite a bad sprain.  Rory had a blood test prior to his 4-monthly Testosterone injection.  To our surprise it showed he now has high cholesterol.  It is a likely a late effect of the cancer treatment.  Sean and Rory attended a handover meeting at ACC from existing case worker Becka to new case worker Tabitha.  Rory had his annual skin check as he is at high risk of skin cancer due to the level of radiation he has received and the climate in Aotearoa.  There are two moles on his chest which they are monitoring closely.