Funny dog - Good dog

Here's a couple pictures to share of our dog, Emma. She is spoiled rotten, we like to call her the diva. She loves to sleep (especially with her head on a pillow), if she has to go out to the bathroom, she rings a bell that is hanging on our back door, but, if the ground is wet, she will tiptoe around and act as if she doesn't want to get her feet wet (sometimes she will turn right around and run back in the house). And, she has to be in the middle of everything...here I was trying to unload my dishwasher and fix dinner, and she was laying in the kitchen floor right in my way, she wouldn't budge. (please excuse my messy kitchen)



Here she's sleeping in front of the fireplace, with her ear sticking straight up. I guess she doesn't want to miss anything.




On a serious note, she is a really good dog. I've never posted about this before, but, our youngest son, who is seven, is on medication for seizures. In February, he started having seizures. The first time was during the night, while he was sleeping (he happened to be sleeping in bed with me that night, as DH was working overnight at the firehouse). He's had a CT scan, MRI, EEG's...all tests have been normal. Since February, he has had about 15 seizures; they have all been, thank goodness, at night and/or when he was sleeping. Although they are not classifying them as febrile seizures, we've noticed a pattern in that they always occur either shortly before, during, or after he's had a fever or starting to come down with a little bug. Usually when he has a seizure, he will go on to have a cluster of one or two more throughout that night. For most of the seizures, they are about a minute or less, and, he stays somewhat awake, screaming through the whole thing. A couple of the seizures have been more of the grand mal type -- where he is totally out of it, wetting his pants, and goes into a deep sleep afterwards. Those are the scariest. The neurologist has told us that many kids have seizures for unknown reasons and then outgrow them. We are praying for that. We were also told that the seizures do not actually harm him or cause damage. Last week, a stomach virus hit our house. Everyone but DH was sick at some point over a period of about 10 days. "Z" (our youngest) had been having some tummy symptoms for about a day. When he went to bed that particular night, Emma (our dog) followed him and slept on the floor right next to the bed. This is very unusual because she has her certain spots in the living room where she sleeps EVERY single night. It was like she was keeping watch over him. I remarked to DH that I thought this was strange, that she hardly ever slept in the bedroom. Sure enough, later that night after we were all sleeping, Z had two seizures. I think maybe Emma knew or could sense something and that is why she was sleeping near Z. Any time he has had a seizure, Emma has immediately run to his side and stood by until it was over. Our other son, who is nine, had three seizures when he was two years old. He was on medication for two years, and *knock on wood* has never had another seizure. They do not really think that the two cases are related, just a strange coincidence. We just pray that Z does outgrow the seizures and that if or when he has another one, it will continue to happen at night, when he is at home safely tucked in bed. My worst nightmare is that it would happen while he is at school and not with me. Overall, he is a healthy little boy and we are thankful for that. Thanks for listening!

~K