Summer? Is that you?

The first summer "holiday" has come and gone. While I'm already whining about being back at work, I am extremely excited for one thing: Summer. 

OK, so I know summer doesn't officially start until late June. In fact, according to the calendar, my June 17th birthday is in spring. But calendars can get f*cked because my birthday is in summer, dammit! I never celebrated my birthday at school (unless you count half birthdays), I've had several pool parties, water balloon fights, and melted ice cream cakes for my birthday. Those aren't spring activities, bucko. And since we in the Midwest get majorly gypped when it comes to warm weather months, I'm pretty sure we get a pass in claiming the whole month of June in the name of summer.

Regardless, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer. Water parks and pools are open, kids (and teachers!) are almost free for the summer, and the camping season is upon us. Yep, after this 4-day week, Hubby and I are taking both the pups camping. It'll be Pepper's first trip with us, and we're hoping he enjoys the fact that he can pee on pretty much anything all weekend long without getting yelled at. We already know Maxine loves camping, so we're definitely keeping our fingers crossed.

An update on the good ol' boy: He spent all of last Wednesday at the vet getting tested for Cushing's disease. As it turns out, the test was inconclusive. He either has Cushing's or thyroid disease, and while both present similar symptoms, the treatments are different enough that we really need to nail down which it is. Our vet is going to have a chat with an internal medicine specialist and let us know what the next step is going to be. It's possible that they'll just run the same test again, but with a higher dosage of the diagnostic drug. 

So what kinds of symptoms does our little man have? Anyone who has seen him knows his fur is thin and he has a bald area on his back that just won't fill in. He has lots of little bumps on his skin, and the skin itself is really, really thin. He's a tiny thing, and even though he has gained 2 pounds since living with us, you can still easily feel (and see) his hip bones and spine, but he has a pot belly. He's really sensitive to temperatures and gets hot pretty easily. He drinks a ton of water and then pees a bunch. Even his heart murmur could be a symptom. 

So far, he's not really in any pain. He does have some mild arthritis, but he's an old man, so that's pretty normal. He still gets around well, jumping on and off the couch, chasing after Maxine, and frolicking in the grass. He still doesn't trust us completely, but he's letting us in a little at a time. Just the other day we a had a breakthrough where he kept wagging his tail while I was petting him. Usually it stops dead, like he's terrified to move if we touch him. But there it went, just wagging along! 

Here's hoping we can show him just how fun summertime is for our little family. :)