Katfish and Billfish Came to St. Kitts

Well Katfish and Billfish made it to St. Kitts! They came to visit and we had such a wonderful time! Mom and Dad were here for about 10 days and we kept them busy every day! Between zip-lining, snorkeling, tanning, eating, fishing, island touring, and exploring. We took them to our favorite places! And our not so favorite places. It was imperative that they visited our not so favorite places….They were even able to experience "Only in St. Kitts" moments too! 

Oh and I almost forgot! Duke was in HEAVEN all week with Billfish. I don’t think Duke left his side. We actually surprised Duke by letting him outside to go “potty” but really it was to surprise him with Billfish! And boy was he surprised to see his best friend. By the way it was my idea to surprise Duke! Mom was really cute before we surprised Duke though the exchange went something like this:

Katfish: Do you think Duke will remember me? I’m worried he won’t.

Me: Well I can’t promise he will remember you but he will remember Dad!

Love you Katfish!

I won’t bore you with the details of their visit. Just know that Katfish loves zip-lining and Billfish loves snorkeling! He was snorkeling machine! Oh and Dad has done a lot of out the country fishing and he has always been successful. So might be angry for me to tell you that he was skunked here in St. Kitts. Not one people! The man caught nothing! So I guess that means he will just have to come back and try again!
We enjoyed them so much and hated to see them leave. We had home cooked meals and a few surprises from home! Most importantly we had our family here with us. And we exposed them to every good, bad, and Jumanji like quality of St. Kitts.

So instead of details enjoy our pictures.....

Old Sugar Mill

Katfish

Katfish 

The helmets are awful....

Hey! 

Katfish and Billfish

Racing to the finish 

Brimstone Steps

Still going...

Finally at the top! 

Heading down

Family picture  - notice how Duke gets all of the love

Posing for a cooking picture...

Duke is a wolfpack fan! 

"Box" Turtles (hahah....)

Getting a lesson on turtles 

Billfish Limin'

Me and Katfish 

This might be first time Dad sees this picture..but we caught you in the act! We know who you love the most! 

We had such an amazing week. 

Fall on the Rock

As summer comes to an end and we head into Fall there are some things that I would like to address. There are several things that I believe I will love about Fall down in the Caribbean and other things that I will desperately miss about Fall back home.

Let’s start with what things I will like about Fall on the Rock.

• Firstly, I will be able to wear white after Labor Day! Hooray! White pants, white jeans, white skirts, white shorts, white dresses, white shoes! If it’s white and I own it, you can count on me wearing until I fly home for Christmas! I might even wear all white just to express my sheer pleasure in being able to wear white after Labor Day!
• I will be able to tan in November, outside! I have grown pretty accustom to tanning now and enjoy it on a regular basis. Having the opportunity to lay out, oh say maybe on Thanksgiving will brings me lots of joy. You can’t particular do this in North Carolina without catching a chill….Oh and I can do this from a float in my pool. Yay!  
• My toes have also enjoyed wearing flip flops and Jack Rogers and I would hate to deprive them of that come late November. By being on the Island my little does will stay nicely polished for all to see in their flip flops.
• Hurricane season will end around November 3^rd. Oh speaking of November 3^rd…that’s my birthday! And I for one have never celebrated a birthday on a Caribbean Island. And I’m even luckier because I get to celebrate Andrew’s birthday in September. That will be 2 birthdays on a Caribbean Island!
• I will actually be able to take Duke out and not complain about being cold. Andrew will hopefully appreciate this is. But then again he will tell you that I am the only person who is currently cold in the Caribbean, so I might still complain about being cold just not when I take Duke out.
• My whale watching might peak towards the end of Fall (fingers crossed) The research I have done says that whales winter down in warmer waters to breed and calve. Bingo! I might get to see a whale this Fall, because we all know the only one I have seen has been the pool float!

Now for things I will miss about Fall back home.

• Food. Shocking! I know you can’t believe that the first thing I would say would be food. Crazy, huh? Yes y’all I will miss good ole’ Fall foods. Sweet Potato Pie! My oh My! I love Sweet Potato Pie! Oh and Thanksgiving food! You are probably thinking how does a vegetarian love Thanksgiving food? Simple, I don’t eat the turkey, just everything else people!
• Fall shopping and clothing. I know I said I love flip flops, but I do love a good boot-cut jean and a clog with a sweater! Or a pair of skinny jeans and some tall boots! LOVE! Like my Mom said the stores will wait with open doors for when I return.
• The changing of the leaves. When I think of Fall in North Carolina I think about how the leaves change color! Vibrant hues of orange, red, and yellow! Perhaps a weekend drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway or even heading west to a little town called Lexington…
• Football. There I said it y’all! I will miss football…well kinda. I will miss tailgating with friends and purchasing more than enough potato salad for our tailgate. Football I could take or leave but tailgating with friends I will without a doubt miss. Oh yes and I will miss wearing Red and White to the games. Go Pack!
• Horseback riding in the fall. This one will be tough too. There is nothing like a good ride on a cool crisp Fall morning. Sigh. I love nuzzling the horses when they start to get their winter coat too! Breaches and a light sweater! Another sigh…
• Pumpkin Picking and Carving. The NC Farmers Market will just have to save a few pumpkins for me. I love picking out pumpkins and deciding whether or not they will make for a good carving. Boo! Oh and I love picking a few special little ones for the inside of our house. Oh and you must not forget some must go by the front door too! Ohhhh and the Mums! I love Mums. Yellow Mums look really nice with a few pumpkins next to them!
• Fall decorations. Autumn leaves, pumpkins, wreaths, turkeys! I truly love an Autumn Fall wreath hanging on a front door; it’s so warm and inviting! All of my wreaths are in storage and will one day hang on our front door again! 

No matter where I am in the world I welcome Fall with open arms. There are many many things that I will miss about Fall at home in North Carolina, but the Caribbean has some nice things to look forward to as well. So for now I look forward to Fall on the Rock I currently call home. 

note: this is not St. Kitts 

News and Such

So a lot has actually happened in the last few weeks, but it would literally take weeks to tell you all about it. So I'll keep it short because clearly, who has weeks to read one blog post....

Yay! America! I got to go home to good ole North Carolina! It was pretty amazing. I drank a copious amount of sweet tea, enjoyed time with parents and brother, brushed and fed carrots to my horse and donkey, ate wonderful food, and spent time with good friends. OH and I literally went to Target 4 times in 4 day period. One day I went twice...Don't judge, I like things, especially things I can't find in St. Kitts. 

Aside from doing all things I love at home; I got to go shopping with my best friend, Justine, for bridesmaid dresses for her wedding next June.  The day was wonderful and I love, love, love my dress for the wedding.  Thank you so much to the Kinney's for such a fabulous day; it was so special.

Being home was so nice.  It’s always good and, at times, very necessary to just go home. I had such an incredible few days at home with family and friends and got to do many things I love.  Shopping and food, the way to my heart.  Thank you also to my in-laws and sibling-in-laws (is that the correct way to phrase it?) for coming to visit me! I felt so loved! Oh and yumm the macaroni salad helped too!

It was hard to leave Andrew and Duke, but of course they fared just fine without me.  Andrew took great care of Duke.  Duke even got my side of the bed the whole time! 

Duke got his stitches out.  He is one AMAZING dog! He swims like a normal 4 legged dog, jumps in and out of bed and the car, and still runs as fast as lightning strikes!  It warms my heart that he is doing soo well.  I mean in the water when he swims you can’t even tell he has 3 legs.  I mean obviously when he gets out you can…Mom even got him a pirate bandana to wear and around town!

Justine! She is awesome! She came to visit us last weekend and we had a fabulous time! Though the weather was kinda hurricane like for about a day, we still managed to have a good time!  We didn’t have enough time! I would have loved to show her more.  We did layout and work on our tans.  Boy, tanning is tough work, but don’t worry I’m really getting good at it. We took her around the island, took her out to eat at some local places, and even showed her the grocery stores.  Our visit together was really nice and I can’t wait until it happens again!

Andrew is heading into finals in a few weeks.  Study, Study, Study!  I take my final next week. Study, Study, Study!

I brought lots of food and many other things (clothing, cough cough) back to our little tiny rock to enjoy. I even managed to bring back salsa from Andrew’s favorite restaurant, Centro. He loved me for that!

I got my haircut here and it was uneven! GASP!  But I went back the next day and they fixed it! Thank goodness!

Oh yeah and they raised Andrew's tuition..big bummer! 

I still have yet to see a whale….

Me and Sealy 

Sissy girl 

Daddy and Will 

Justine! 

Photo Shoot

Limin' 

Bridesmaids Weekend 

Justine!

Happy Boy! 

Pirate Dog 

Duke clearly thinks he is too good for the rest of us...

Duke

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to y’all that our Duke is the best dog we could have asked for.  We love him dearly so the past few weeks have trying to say the least….

Andrew and I can home from school/work one day to find Duke’s right hock (rear leg) was extremely swollen.  He was fine though.  Happy as a clam and excited to see us.  Of course I was freaking out though.  Which again shouldn’t come as a surprise.  And I get that my husband is only a vet student and not a veterinary yet but I still expect him to answer all of my questions about Duke, unfair? Maybe…Anyway the joint was hot and swollen but other than that Duke was normal. Duke was fine.  We took him in to the clinic the next day just to see what was going on.  Our first thought was that he just injured it while chasing a mongoose or something.  So we took him and the doctor wanted to keep him for some x-rays and to collect some fluid from around the joint.  Duke went home with us that afternoon and we patiently waited to hear back from pathology the following week to see if there were any abnormal looking cells in his joint fluid.

The next week came and all we knew from pathology was that the test was there were some “suspicious-looking cells” and they needed to take a biopsy from the joint area.  They did tell us though that there was a possibility of a synovial cell sarcoma, aka cancer of the joint fluid.  But my thoughts were no, that wasn’t it; it couldn’t be, no way.  

So Duke went back a few days later for a biopsy.  The biopsy procedure was normal and routine.  Duke was able to come home that evening and he again like always was happy as a clam. 

Bad dog! Duke pulled out a few of his stitches the next day so we had to take him back to get a few staples put in. And because he was a bad dog he had to wear a cone around his head to prevent him from reaching his stitches for several days.  I kept calling him my flower.  He looked like a giant flower.  Duke didn’t know what do with the cone.  I felt bad for laughing, but it was funny.  He would just walk into furniture or run into us and then not know what to do! Bless his heart!

The results….cancer.  Duke has cancer. The doctor called and told us the news.  Duke has cancer.  I was heartbroken and it took my breath away.  They confirmed that the swelling around Duke’s joint was in fact a synovial cell sarcoma.  My heart sank.  I kept biting my lip until I was off the phone with the doctor and then the tears came.  I couldn’t control them and all I wanted was to be with Duke and Andrew. I couldn’t wait to get home just to squeeze him and hold him. I just love him so much and he is the greatest dog.  He is perfect for us.  I honestly never thought it would be cancer.  I mean I know it was a possibility but I never truly thought that would be the result.  I was so angry and didn’t find this situation fair.  Why my dog? Why cancer? Why now? What’s next? Has is spread? The biggest question and most important question. Has the cancer spread?

All Andrew and I did when we got home was hold Duke and love on him.  Andrew might not admit so I will just go ahead and tell you; he cried too, it’s true.   But as far as Duke goes…he just wanted to know why I was squeezing him so hard.  He was fine.  Duke was running, playing and chasing mongeese.  For Duke, today was just a normal typical day in the life of Duke.  Outwardly nothing was wrong.  He was in no pain and all was completely and utterly the same Duke he has always been.  He was fine.  Duke was still just the happiest dog I knew.

Has it spread? The question was still hanging.  We had to find out right away if the cancer had spread.  The first places that we had to check were his lungs and liver.  That would be where the cancer metastasized (fancy doctor term for spreading to the rest of the body) first.  So we did.  Back to clinic Duke went for the like the 5^th time in a few week period.  They needed to do a chest x-ray and ultrasound his abdomen.  Again Duke is still fine.  He is still happy and normal.  There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with him.  So we kept praying and hoping that the cancer had not spread.  Please don’t let it spread.

It hasn’t spread!  Thank God the cancer has not spread! Duke doesn’t have cancer anyway else in his body.  Oh happy happy day.  But what’s next? He still has cancer though.  We still have to get rid of the cancer. We have been talking to Andrew’s Dad this whole time about Duke and he has been an incredible help.  We found so much comfort in talking to his Dad and getting guidance from him (Thank you!)  We now needed to know our options.  Was chemotherapy an option? Amputation? What?

Amputation is our only option.  Well that’s not entirely true.  If we decide to do nothing, wait until eventually the cancer spreads and he becomes sick with no other options but to put him down (i.e. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, maybe even 2 years down the road), he would have all 4 legs and be “normal” for the rest of his happy life. Or we could remove his affected leg and cure him of cancer.  We picked the second one.  It is 100 % curable if we amputate his leg.  Don’t get me wrong we are beyond excited and grateful that the cancer did not spread but we still have had a hard time with the decision.

So that’s that.  Duke has cancer, he is fine and we are amputating his leg.  We are so very blessed and happy to know the cancer is only in his leg and that we get to keep duke for the rest of his nice long life. Our sweet sweet Duke will have 3 legs “My little tripod.”  We just pray that Duke continues to be the same dog that he is today.  We want to still see him swim, run on the beach, go for boat rides, jump into bed, chase mongeese and still be the happiest dog I’ve ever known.  We just want his leg to go and not his spirit and tenacity for living the great doggie life that he does.   Our hearts are heavy but we know we are making the best decision for our Duke.

Andrew keeps asking if we will get 25% OFF discounts on baths now since he will only have 3 legs? I yell at him when he makes jokes like that! Oh and y’all can look forward to Duke being a pirate with a peg leg for Halloween. 

Cone Head!

Handsome Boy!

Happy Dog!

Resting with Nevi

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

- Unknown