Friday, January 3, 2014

About That Galveston (January 3, 2014)

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 is a great year for you filled with peace, health and happiness. Roger and I have had a terrible scare in the form of our Labradoodle's (Bear) health, but we are now optimistic about continuing our travels with him.

During the past three weeks, after four veterinarians plus a consult with our vet in Tucson, we are cautiously optimistic about Bear's recovery. The last two and a half weeks have given us some incredible lows, but Roger and I truly feel that Bear is now recovering from a debilitating bacterial infection. After a blood test for Valley Fever came back negative last Monday morning, our Galveston vet felt that we needed to visit a pet internist in Houston. Galveston is about an hour's drive from Houston and the internist was able to see us that same day. This vet was willing to run lots of tests and call in other specialists at his clinic. Roger and I opted to continue on the doxycyline (Bear was beginning to make progress on it) that our Galveston vet prescribed. We did let the internist run a culture on one of the lesions. On Tuesday morning we noticed a different Bear. His lesions were beginning to dry up and he had more energy. We realize that veterinary medicine is not an exact science. We may never know the reason Bear became so sick. We are just grateful that antibiotics exist and that our puppy is getting better. As my brother Warren says, Bear has an OGK (only God knows) illness.

 Bear loves to lick his lesions and has to wear this cone.

We have not had the opportunity to visit much of Galveston because we have wanted to be close to Bear. Our therapy is found on the beach which we try to walk everyday. Hopefully Bear will be able to join us on these walks soon. In the meantime, he rests while we enjoy the walks.

Galveston is thirty two miles long and two and a half miles wide. Galveston was first colonized by the European pirate, Jean LaFitte in 1817. The first inhabitants prior to La Fitte, were the Karankawa and Akokisa Indians. After LaFitte was forced to leave, early pioneers Michael Menard and Samuel May Adams were responsible for founding the Galveston we know today. In 1839 Galveston was the largest city in Texas with the most active port west of New Orleans. Several natural disasters have devastated Galveston, with Hurricane Ike being the latest in 2008. Roger and I look forward to discovering Galveston as we intend to remain here until the 20th.

Walking the Galveston beach in January calls for a few more clothes than in the summer.

Thank you for checking in with us. We really appreciate your interest in our travels. Hopefully I will start publishing the blog weekly on Saturdays. 

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