ECUADOR MOVE 2018

2018 - A NEW ADVENTURE

If you get car sick (Is that an actual medical term?), I wouldn't advise driving from Quito to anywhere. Toronto boasts of its bike lanes. Well, here they have them on the main highways. That's bikes competing with transport trucks, buses and cars travelling at 100 kph. The problem it seems is that the vehicles think the bike lanes are simply an extension of their domain. So, now we have vehicles of different sizes and length passing in the bike lanes. Heaven help the bike people.

Before we left, RM said she needed to get the insulin out of the fridge. No problem. The manager would look after it and get it on the van before we left. 45 minutes into the trip we realized there was no meds in the van. We turned around while the driver's wife called Juan Pablo at the hotel. OK, he'll now meet us halfway. He arrived with a bag of drugs and RM started hyper ventilating (not really but it makes it more exciting). Lociento, lociento. Everybody is sorry. Back goes the hotel manager to get the bag he missed. Off we go again with a friend of the driver riding up front as a translator.

As the sun began to set, we got lost even though our translator had her gps on. Running in the dark through the mountains gives you a whole new appreciation for the term "pucker". When we arrived at the Aquamarina Hotel in Manta, the girl at the desk looked up and said, "you are Mister Donald Ballantyne?" She told me our room and all 12 pieces of luggage was on the 2nd floor and there were no elevators to that floor, only in the towers. She saw my cane and immediately took us to room 102, just off the lobby. She is now my best friend. The following morning we went to the Cafe for breakfast (free) and got some coffee and toast. All of a sudden, a staff person had two plates of scrambled eggs for us. Muchas gracias! Then he came over with a plate of fruit with grapes the size of plums. Just then Juan Zambrano arrived to take us to the lawyer, grocery shopping and home to Vistazul

So, here we are, 304 Vistazul, San Clemente, Manabi Province, Ecuador, South America. The sun is just starting to come in the front windows so sunset is close - about an hour away. We'll be ready to hit the sack for sure.









Peacock feathers in jar

I've included a couple of pics from the first hotel which is an amazing place with its architecture, menagerie of sheep, sheep dogs, cows (they milk them and ship milk), llamas, peacocks, ducks, rabbits, huge guard dog (friendly) and approximately 33 different species of birds. They also have great kids' menu. Check out the web sight : www.sanjosedepuembo.com

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. I've been sick as a dog and haven't been out of the condo since we made our trip to Portoveijo to see our lawyer. Rose Mary thinks it's pneumonia and it feels like it used to when I was at Camp Widjiitiwin. We hope it will leave as quickly as it arrived. RM contacted our "over the fence" neighbour to find out about a local doctor. He's ex FBI, Submariner, and he called Dr. Christina when he saw me. I had a 104 on the F scale and was prone to hallucinations seeing a group of Metes in my bedroom and they wouldn't let me turn on the fan. 

The weather has been "open the doors and windows" warm and breezy. I'm hoping for a nice storm off the Pacific. We had a little 4.9 'quake last week. It felt like Posie had jumped up on the bed. Marcelo said it was 25 miles off the coast.

Tonight we had yellow potatoes (boiled) and carrots to go with our fresh fish. We ran out of butter and had to eat the veggies without it. I'll never put anything on my veggies again in Ecuador. They were delicious and the fish was firm and moist. Tomorrow we go shopping locally and then on Sunday, we head for Charapoto for the open market. We'll get lots of pics this time as we'll be on our own.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Yep, tomorrow has arrived and it's just the same as yesterday. We went to the hotel for dinner last night. It wasn't a special anything, we were out of groceries. The picture is a natural rock formation between Quito and Manta. The next picture is our best buddy Posie. She's nine years old and we miss her. She's hanging out in Sarnia with her two favourite people, Dianne and Roger and can still visit her other favourites, April and Dave and of course, Bre. There's a mixed breed crazy dog two condos down. She comes to our condo when she gets loose and we open the door and this whirling dervish comes flying in the door, charges around the kitchen then blasts out the door and back to her boss. We think Posie will get along with her when she arrives.

We went to Bahia and got a whole mess of food. I tried out a lawn chair and when I heard a snap and my right butt cheek dropped lower than my left one, I waited for RM to come along and pull me up. Time to leave.

Our friend at the hotel has his bike for sale. It looks like a good $110 investment. 

We are off to see our lawyer in Portoveijo to get our background check completed tomorrow, January 22 at 10am.

THE LAWYERS

"Flori" Zambrano Law Firm Owner

The alarm went off at 6am today (Jan 23) and I slept in until 7:30. After a quick breakfast we headed down to the gate to meet our new taxi owner, Robert. I called John M to see if he knew a cabbie and he called a guy he had used since coming here 6 years ago. We were in a pre panic mode as Flori needed to see us at 10am to call the paralegal we were using in Canada. 

Veronica translates all our documents into Spanish. I hope you realize the magnitude of this. We have a ton of work in our presentation in order to secure a visa.

Veronica (Translator)

Jorge (Paralegal)

We made it on time, talked to our 
para and then we had to go and get fingerprinted by the federales in Portoveija. Where we went, there were all these national police standing around the front of the building and they look a little more menacing than our cops do. Jorge took us through the process and we are now officially on the files of the Ecuadorian Federales. They were very mannerly gentlemen who opened doors and helped me up and down the steps. You just wouldn't want to meet them doing something illegal on your part. Now, we wait for something to happen - like getting a bill. The rates are great compared to Canada. 

Rose Mary commented on the number of taxis we see everywhere. Not just in the cities but everywhere, literally. Our village runs around 2,000 residences and there seems to be taxis running up and down the streets all the time.

                THE AGONY OF DE FEET 

If you remember the Wide World of Sports, Jim McKay made "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" a much repeated line with a little variation thrown in. After walking more than I have walked in one setting in years, my feet were in denial and that isn't the river. They wanted nothing to do with coming down the stairs but I whipped them into shape and got down.

It's weird out today. Our indoor temp and outdoor temp are the same. Usually the outdoor is less but not today. Rose Mary is making a salad for lunch, then it might be time for a swim but I'm not sure. Talk to you again.

Just got up from a nap. That's a nap with no guilt. Here, if you're tired you just lay down for awhile. If you're reading at 2am who gives a diddly squat. It's freedom,

Rosa Maria has a new/old bike with more than one gear. She rode it to Mayers Beach Front Ghoulash Joint (?) and has to take the day off tomorrow to get rested up.

While looking out the front window, Rose Mary saw something sitting on a windowsill of one of the condos. After looking at it through the

zoom lens she determined it was an owl - all 6 inches of it. Ground owls are plentiful around here because of the soil being a sand/clay mix.

It's strange to see an owl pop out of a hole in the ground and look around with that haughty attitude.

Here it is, January 29 and no major storm yet. Today we walked to the San Clemente bus stop to catch a bus to Charapoto. This is where we would go on Sundays for the open air market. It rained yesterday and it made the streets little seas of mud. We had to pay our Direct TV, internet and hydro bills. We haven't got Hydro paid yet and am not sure what the glitch is other than I don't speak Spanish. After stopping for a cold drink and a sit down, we looked for a $4.00 taxi, well actually, they're all $4.00 but there weren't any taxis at all. This is strange as there's usually side streets full of yellow cabs. I think the mud has chased them away. Finally, a shirtless guy enjoying an ice cream said uno momento and he jumped in an empty cab and took us home.

Tomorrow morning at 10am a rep from the company that makes and services my CPAP machine is calling to take me through the steps to reset it. She's calling from Australia. Small world, eh!

A major calamity has occurred - I have lost my left hearing aid. There may be some nefarious circumstances and I hope to learn more tomorrow.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - Literally (February 21, 2018)

Tomorrow is here, a little late, but here. I thought I'd better get busy again after all the admonishing flying my way. Some of you are a little impatient but I take responsibility. And no, nothing on the missing hearing aid although there is a reward offered for anyone who finds it.

Our friend at the hotel had his bike for sale and Rose Mary thought we should get one - each. So we bought Marcelo's as a starter. He had a friend or a cousin (he has 80 cousins) who also had one. This one has 21 gears and the lovely lady below said she would take the next one and I could have this one. OK. Well, the next one didn't work out so we have one and it's beautiful. It even has a basket for Posie.

Rose Mary usually walks to the cliffs on the beach every day and today we finally downloaded the tide times for a year. She is always afraid she'll get caught and not be able to get back when high tide rolls in. It can be 2.5  to 3.0 metres difference in height. Now, for us oldie moldies, that's 7 feet to 10 high over low tide. Last year in January we witnessed a high tide that was throwing waves in the pool. The staff had to close some wooden doors to the beach in order to stop the force of the waves from turning a fresh water pool into a salt water pool.

You can see the wooden gate at the right of the picture that had to be closed. This didn't stop the tide from advancing but it did stop the wave action

Today we watched a black bird looking in our front sliding door. We thought he wanted in but it turns out he(?) was seeing the reflection and was attempting to get that other bird to leave town. I researched the name of the bird and was informed it's called a blackbird. Whodathunk! They are fascinating to watch when the grounds keepers are cutting grass and looking after the gardens. Their tails will suddenly fan out and they'll run after a worker. Actually, they run like a squirrel and then suddenly jump. With a beak like a parrot, I'm not sure what avian family they belong to.

JOSH DONALDSON "THE BRINGER OF RAIN" MUST HAVE BEEN HERE IN SAN CLEMENT, ECUADOR AND he woke me up. I thought the A/C had come on at high speed and I was fumbling for the remote. I couldn't figure out why the little light wasn't on and the vents were closed. Coming fully awake, I realized it was coming from the stairway and was the rain hitting the covering over the 3rd floor stairwell. It was a Noahic deluge and I half expected to see an ark floating by. Then..... it stopped. No light mist or gentle dissipating, just stopped. The sun came out and it's now 81F. Of course, this IS the rainy season. The following is the comparison:

Above is January last year. It's graphically clear that in that sand and clay, there are little seeds just waiting for a drink. Below is what the rain can do in San Clemente, Ecuador. The trees are evidence of the nutrition that is lurking under the surface. Again, one year's difference. Our friend, John MacDonald, has many pictures of the amazing growth of his plants and trees. His blog is well written and has great pictures he and his wife Mary have shot. If you are a parent with children in school, they would enjoy his blog as would adults. It would also be a great resource for teachers.

https://johnandmarylivingitupinecuador.wordpress.com/

Every morning we get up and look at our back yard to see how much taller our trees are. It's a remarkable view. The grounds keepers do all the yard work. The grass is about 6 to 8 inches long. When you look at it with the top all nice and neat, it comes as a shock to step on it and suddenly you're up to your shins in grass. 

PEANUT BUTTER AND MAYO (both homemade)

Marcelo, our friend from the hotel (Palmazul) asked his mother-in-law to pick up some peanuts and flour for us. PB is worth an arm and a leg in Ecuador. The flour is coarser than we use at home so it's a matter of adjusting to it. The loaf today is great but it's a different colour. Rose Mary says the flour isn't as refined and isn't bleached so now we're straight in understanding this great mystery. How about some toast and peanut butter. 

Magnitude 4.6 earthquake

31 km from Manta · 11:14 AM

Rose Mary is at one end of the table working on a puzzle and I'm reading Nero Wolfe at the other end. We both look at each other and notice we are wobbling side to side, my chair is on rubber legs and the open door is moving. EARTHQUAKE!!!


It starts with a "bump" like a door banging softly then everything starts to move - probably 3 or 4 side to side motions. So here's a 260 lb man (all muscle, of course) moving with the earth. The reports say it could be an after shock from January. We now have our escape plan during the day - run like the dickens out the front screen doors. The back door leads to the mountain behind us and seeing as how quakes move the earth, we don't want any falling on us.


REMORSEFUL
I gotta tell you guys, you are major "nudgers". If I've heard "When are you updating the blog", once I've heard it a thousand (exaggeration)  times so, here it is. Please forgive me,

SINCE OUR LAST POST
A lot has happened here in our new homeland. Most of it good! Some bumps but nothing big. One of my teeth (eye) broke but didn't come out. On a personal level, I get along with dentists. On a professional level, not so much. Well, why would I, they are bringers of pain.

Dr. Victor Correna was my new dentist. He looks like he's in his 20's but has trained in the US and Manchester, England.  He has all those letters after his name like blah blah surgeon, blah, blah, doctor. Well, that's enough for me. Got the snaggly monster out after telling me that for a regular extraction, it would be $20 ( I know, now pay attention) and a difficult one would be $30. It was really in there and I parted with $30 plus $10 for the consultation. The next visit, he sent me home with a temp tooth after drilling out the rest of the root canal. The 3rd visit, he put in a new tooth. So, for a post and implant, it was $440.00. Rose Mary had a cleaning and xray for $60.00.

Along with Dr. Victor we have a GP, cardiologist, internist (diabetes), and a rheumatologist (pending). So, we're pretty well covered. Oh, we have a local house call doctor as well. Dr. Christina is a petite, beautiful, lady. We met in our living room and she took my temp.(104) and listened to my heart. The next thing I know she has prepared a needle and given me an intravenous shot in my left arm, a different one in my right shoulder and then hauled down my shorts and stuck one in my butt, gave Rose Mary a prescription and asked for $30.00. It was another good EC experience. 

FROM ROSE MARY - May 7, 2018

Hi everyone. We started out the week badly. Robare our taxi driver was supposed to pick us up at 7:30 am to take us to the lawyers in Portoviejo for a 9:00am appointment. When he hadn't arrived by 8:00am I started to run up the hill to try and find another taxi that was close by. Bill was driving by and said to go to his condo and Mar would call for another taxi. I ran back down the hill, and Robare just arrived. He had a flat tire and his phone was dead so he couldn't call us. So I ran back up the hill to tell Mar to cancel the other taxi. So we finally were on our way at 8:20. It usually takes one hour to get to Portoviejo and we got there in forty minutes. The paralegal, Gabby said that we were O.K. She took our payment to the bank and then we got back in the taxi and went to the government office of migration. Then we took Gabby back to the office and Robare took us to the hotel in Manta.  We arrived at Mar Azul Hotel at 1:00 pm. It was very nice, it has three floors and no elevator, a pool, and a restaurant serving free breakfast but best of all it is across the street from the new Pacifico Mall. It was beautiful. I bought a teapot, Posie's back scratching carpet and two matching pillows. ( blue of course )

Tuesday morning at 9:30 we had to meet Gabby at The Ministerial de Relaciones Exteriores Manta,so we enquired at the front desk to find out where it was located and it turned out to be only 400 metres from us just across from the mall. Donnie didn't even plan that!!

We waited for half an hour and then it was our turn. The officer spent an hour reading through every page of our documents. That included our education, our marriage certificate, where we were born and of course our Police check. Then we were photographed and then we heard the wonderful sound of a stamper hitting our papers, which meant the Ecuadorian government had just accepted us into their country. I hope the Canadian Government is as picky about who they allow into the country?

We have one big problem because we have to wait for our two year visa to be in our possession. If it doesn't arrive before we leave to come back to Canada, we have to be back in Ecuador by July 1st,  because that is when our extention on our tourist visa runs out. SO we are asking for a lot of prayers! 

Sorry for the lack of communication, we are having Internet problems. 

Love to everyone and thank you for your prayers. 

Rosita Marie. 

Mary Isabelle Necessary On a Bicycle

The angels picked up Gramma at 11:00 pm last night from Southlake Regional Hospital and took her home to heaven. Job 1:21 ...the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

For the 10 hours prior to her leaving this world of pain, my brother Dave and Sharon, Kate, Kim and Rob, Doug, Trevor and me had laughed and talked, reminiscing about the last 60 years of life with Mom and Dad. It sounded like a script for the Little Rascals. Everything from Mom making soup every week to feed the hobos that walked the CP tracks behind our house, to baking chocolate cake that, unbeknownst to us, wasn't supposed to be flat and chewy. Someone tried to get us to eat some weird concoction that was thick and fluffy telling us it was chocolate cake. We knew different. To this day, I have to pour milk on Chocolate cake, fluffy or otherwise.

Mom grew up with 3 older brothers and a younger sister on a farm near Moorefield, Ontario during the war years. With 2 brothers and her father in the service she had to work with her brother and mother to keep the farm going. She knew what it meant to work hard and the evidence is seen in her life. From making bullets to spinning cotton for Khaki uniform material to making shoes at Scroggins in Galt, Ontario, Mom worked for a living.

When she turned 52, Rheumatoid Arthritis became her nemesis. I'm sure a lot of people have given up with this terrible disease but not Mom as her fingers and toes slowly lost their use and became impedances that got caught when she was trying to put on clothes. Right to the end, Mom knit clothes for missionaries and great grandchildren.

RM and I bought Mom a puppy 5 years ago which became a constant in her life. Posie loved her as only a dog can. Last night when Gramma didn't come home, Posie sensed something and was very quiet.

I already miss her as does Rose Mary who spent the last 5 years caring  for her at our home. I think RM  identified with Mom and her arthritis giving her an empathetic heart rather than just a sympathetic feeling for her. 

 There are so many sides to Mom's character she was like a cut diamond. Depending at which way you looked at her you saw something different. Not wrong or in a bad sense, just a different light bouncing back at you. Oh, there's no doubt, it could be bad at that moment. Trust me, we all knew that she was the one who gave the lickins! When I was growing up, being taken out to the woodshed was a literal place to be and the whompin' stick was whatever was handy at that moment. I think we need to bring back the "woodshed".

Mom stuck up for her boys and then her grandkids and then her great grandkids. Learning how to defend yourself with older brothers helped and so did being "mouthy".

That's what got her and Dad in trouble so much in the early days of their marriage. They were both strong willed and had to get in the last word. After giving their lives to Christ things changed. Mom still got in her "licks" at times but she was able to say she was sorry, sort of, after. We had doozy battles when she lived with us. I could escape downstairs where she couldn't physically go and would tell her I couldn't hear her all the way down which would really tick her off. Then I'd poke my head up over the half wall and smile at her. She'd laugh.

As my sister-in-law Sharon said, "We have lost a prayer warrior." When the pain woke her in the middle of the night, she would pray for people. Her writings are full of prayer items that recur over and over through the years, particularly her siblings and her sons and their families. Mom was proponent of Prayer Meeting and lamented the demise of the Wednesday night practice but was grateful that the seniors still got together to pray.

We will miss her physical presence, her voice but will be able to continue her legacy and pass down to the next generation the values that she held, not just in life, but in eternal values. Eternity was written in her heart as it is in all of us. She found that forever connection and her prayer was always that others, in particular her family, would realize that eternity is in their hearts as well.

‘Well done, good and faithful servant...   Enter into the joy of your master.’ Matt. 25:23

 The celebration of Mom's life will be at Calvary Baptist Church, Guelph, Ontario on February 20 at 1:00 pm. The preacher will be her grandson, Kaj Ballantyne.

Sleep Apnea

The appointment was for 11:15 on Tuesday. I wasn’t looking forward to it but knew if I didn’t go, my driver’s licence may get yanked. The doctor specialized in dealing with sleep apnea.

He told me I was mid range moderate and had stopped breathing 22 times an hour for short periods although one was for 59 seconds. My brother suggested I take up diving. If you have read the previous blog, you will have noticed the pics of a C-PAP machine that is worn at night. They have become much more streamlined than they were in the 1980’s but really, who wants to have one of those hanging off your face all night.

Now, here’s where it gets good. I told him I had lost weight since our last conversation. Well, let’s get weighed again. It was one of those happy moments when he asked me what my goal was and I said 200 by June 30. That was enough for Dr. Fried to close the file and tell me that I didn’t need the machine and he would monitor me through my local doctor’s office. 

So, it’s 5 months to lose 45 lbs. I’m down from 280 lbs prior to my near death diabetic coma weighing in at 245 and figure 10 ibs a month is a good and healthy rate of burn.

I also failed a test this past week that I had studied for and felt rather embarrassed about. 59% used to get you a pass but not at this place. It was a stress test and before my quadriceps femoris exploded off my leg or melted down over my patella, I hollered, “Give, Uncle,” whatever, just turn off the tread mill. The only word in my mind was “pain.” I know, I’m a woos.

The plan is to re-test in the days ahead and do the full time. My poor old heart has taken a beating after 65 years of abuse so I need to be careful but according to all the other tests, it’s beating along at a good rate. I have been taken off all blood pressure medication, my insulin has been reduced and my breathing is back to normal. Being fat is not good. Can’t wait to get back into my Speedo.

ONE TINY SPIDER, ONE BIG AMBITION

A biologist working in the Peruvian rainforest has stumbled upon the first evidence of a tiny spider with a deadly clever game: constructing its own decoy.

“It looked so spiderlike, with eight legs. The spitting image of a spider,” Phil Torres told the Toronto Star of his discovery.

While Torres, a specialist in entomology, had never seen a species like it, he’s not ready to declare a new biological discovery until science can verify his finding.

“It may just be a very evolved spider that can follow rules.”

Those rules have given the spider, no bigger than a lentil, a powerful weapon against predators, Torres said.

Constructing a decoy many times its size, the spider can lure a substantial meal into its web or scare off smaller attackers it doesn’t want to tussle with.

The decoy is painstakingly pieced together from twigs, leaves, uneaten parts of other insects and rain forest mulch, Torres said.

As he approached the web, he saw what he thought was a dead spider. Then it started to move. Inching closer, he spotted “this little guy         One of the decoys is pictured above.    going like crazy” in one corner, jiggling the web to animate its decoy and fool its prey.

After finding the first one, Torres managed to spot 25 in a kilometre-square plain area near the ecotourism Tambopata Research Center in southeastern Peru and none outside that area. Not all were perfect.

“Let’s just say the spiders had different artistic talents. A few of them had only four legs and weren’t quite symmetrical. It still does seem to do the trick.”

Other species of spiders make little balls that look like themselves curled up and dot 10 or so of them around the web, confusing a hungry wasp that has to figure out which are fake and which are the real, sleeping spider, Torres said.

This is the first he’s seen or heard of one that constructs large-scale Potemkin models.

“This behaviour has never been recorded. It’s not a rare thing for spiders to make designs in their web or to put debris in their web. This does appear to be the most advanced design.”

Torres, who has worked with the research centre for a year and a half, will return to the rainforest in January from his home base in Los Angeles to collect a sample for entomologists to examine and determine whether this is a new species with a highly evolved idea of self-defence.

On Monday morning at 3:15 a.m., I left Mt. Albert to meet with my little brother Doug and his friend, Leon Muis in Hamilton. From there, we drove 1300k to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We arrived at 9 pm, got a motel room and headed for The Chop House and had the best steaks we've ever eaten. Amber served us and treated us royally even though we arrived at 9:55 and they closed at 10.

In the morning (Tuesday), Doug and I headed for the Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap - 318 curves in 11 miles. It was a trip and a half. The road wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be considering there are no guard rails and the drop is measured in 100's of feet. No, what was frightening was a crotch rocket coming at you in a blind curve, on its side with the riders one knee on the pavement and the throttle cracked open.

So, here's the schedule: Monday - Pigeon Forge 1500k from Mt. Albert, drove the Tail of the Dragon and headed home 1800k while Leon headed south to Florida and then to California, up the coast to BC and home to Hamilton (check out his Facebook page), arrived Wednesday at 5:30 after staying at Clarksburg to get out of the rain.

Got home in time to go to the doctor and find out why I was feeling so lousy - pneumonia!! Wooohooo!

I'm hoping to take Rose Mary to High Valley Rentals for our holidays. Check out their website.

http://www.highvalleyrentals.com/

POSIE

Isn't it amazing how small things can bring us great joy? If you have read this blog, you'll know about Tucker and his life. Well, Posie is our newest member. She isn't a replacement for Tucker but is a brand new adventure for Rose Mary and me.

Her name is Posie because Rose Mary asked Brook, a three year old she nannies, what we should call our new puppy and that's what she said. So, Posie it is.

She's a schnoodle - a schnauzer/poodle cross and is reported to be an intelligent dog. We purchased her from Amy DiA & R Country Kennels in Bancroft.

Ode to Tucker 1993-2007

It was strange to come home today. No one was up on his chair looking out the dining room window for us to return.No one met us at the door. We lost a friend today. There was discussion about a year or more ago to see if we could help him. Dr. Tilo Hoffman, our kind and gentle veterinarian, suggested medication to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with Cushing's Disease. The meds gave us some extra time with Tucker. We're grateful for a vet who really loves animals.

Now, if you've never had a dog for a pet, this is as far as you should read. That's because you won't understand the rest of this blog.


Tucker was 15 years old and you can see by the pictures, he was a miniature poodle - as tall as the breed gets and still be called "miniature". His heart belonged to a German Shepherd. From the time we got him, he was Rose Mary's dog. He'd share his affection with anybody who gave him a cookie or scratched his ears gently but he always got back to her. If I made a sudden motion toward her or smacked her leg, He was on me. He never bit anyone in 15 years but the barred teeth and that vicious snarl would confuse any stranger.He loved babies. When he was younger, he would lay beside them just to make sure they would be alright. And don't you dare move too quickly to pick that baby up. You had to tell him what you were doing and get his permission to touch his ward.

Cushing's Disease (hyperadrenocorticism) affects the pituitary gland. (See end of blog for info.) Tucker manifested the first 5 symptoms which got progressively worse. He also was getting more and more crippled by arthritis, cataracts and he was deaf. The maddening part of all this is when he was producing excessive cortisone, he charged around like a puppy. At night it was most obvious as I watched him try to decide if it was worth the effort to climb the stairs to our bedroom. Most times he did.

He had a wicker basket in the living room by the sliding doors. Whenever someone came in you would hear him charging in from the kitchen, rooting through his basket for a toy, almost looking like he had a certain one in mind, then charge back out in order to present it to whoever had just come in. I've seen him on a number of occasions pull a toy out, make the move to deliver, then spit it out and get another one.

He loved fruits and vegetables. We would watch him in the garden as he checked out our tomato plants until he found a ripe one, then he would ever so gently, remove it, head for the lawn to lay down and savour it. Cantaloupe was another favourite. In fact there weren't too many fruits or vegetables he wouldn't eat.

At night, there was a routine that had to be followed. First, Rose Mary had a coffee mug of milk to get her meds down. She always left some in the bottom for Tucker. He would slurp it down then lay on his tummy, knock the mug on its side and with closed eyes, get every evidence of the milk out of that mug. Immediately he went to the door because it was time to go out. We had to tie him up after dark because of the coyotes who enjoyed calling him out. After his evening constitutional, he made a bee line for the kitchen and if you didn't follow him, he would come back and remind you vocally with a little howl that you had missed the cue. This was dog cookie time, then off to bed.

My Mom graciously baby sat him for us when we went on holidays. He learned that if he did his night thing any time he came inside, Mom would give him a cookie. Well, why wouldn't she? He would stand in front of the cupboard and stare at the jar until she gave him one. It's funny, because when we came home, he wouldn't do it with us.

Rose Mary owns Three Bears Child Care and we have up to five children in the house every day. Over all the years, Tucker has never bit one of them. If they pull his ears, he gently but firmly takes their hand and moves it. Or he would vocalize so Rose Mary was aware that he was being put upon but never a bite. The kids loved him.

Last week an interesting thing happened. Brianna and Daniela have been at Three Bears for three years. Last week, Brianna (5 yrs old) was adamant that Rose Mary take her picture with Tucker. She just wouldn't let it go. Her sister then needed to get in the picture. Who knows why she asked except she did know from Tucker's original diagnosis that Tucker would die because of his illness. Well, Tucker died today.

Symptoms: Symptoms of Cushing's disease can be vague and varied and tend to appear gradually and progressively. It is thus easy to mistake Cushing's disease for normal aging. Additionally, many of the clinical symptoms are not unique to Cushing's and could reflect a number of other health concerns.

The most common symptoms include:
• increased/excessive water consumption (polydipsia)
• increased/excessive urination (polyuria)
• urinary accidents in previously housetrained dogs
• increased/excessive appetite (polyphagia)
• appearance of food stealing/guarding, begging, trash dumping, etc.
• sagging, bloated, pot-bellied appearance
• weight gain or its appearance, due to fat redistribution
• loss of muscle mass, giving the appearance of weight loss
• bony, skull-like appearance of head
• exercise intolerance, lethargy, general or hind-leg weakness
• new reluctance to jump on furniture or people
• excess panting, seeking cool surfaces to rest on
• symmetrically thinning hair or baldness (alopecia) on torso
• other coat changes like dullness, dryness
• slow regrowth of hair after clipping
• thin, wrinkled, fragile, and/or darkly pigmented skin
• easily damaged/bruised skin that heals slowly
• hard, calcified lumps in the skin (calcinosis cutis)
• susceptibility to infections (especially skin and urinary)
• diabetes, pancreatitis, seizures

It is generally either the increased water intake and urination or the coat changes which prompt an owner to have their dog evaluated by the veterinarian, as these dogs don't appear suddenly and dramatically ill. It is estimated that 80-85% of Cushingoid dogs have increased water consumption, drinking from 2-10 times normal amounts (normal is considered 1 ounce of water drunk per pound of body weight per day). 85-100% of Cushing old dogs have skin and coat changes. 80-90% of Cushingoid dogs have an increased appetite, and 90%-95% have a pot-bellied appearance. Considered a disease of middle and old age, dogs typically display symptoms at some point after 6 or 7 years of age. It is estimated that most dogs display some symptom(s) of the disease for one to six years before Cushing's is actually suspected and diagnosed. Certainly it is harder to ignore a dog that urinates throughout the house or a dog who is balding than it is to overlook an older dog who is gradually slowing down on walks.

Other indirect symptoms to consider are the disappearance of previous inflammatory conditions. Dogs with chronic allergies or arthritis may appear considerably better when they develop Cushing's, due to the heavy doses of cortisone they are giving themselves.