And, boy does he know it!

When we were in Colorado my almost three year-old grandson loved singing “I am Riley and I know it” to the tune of “I am sexy and I know it”.  He would even get this vibrato thing going at the end.  Very cute.  Until in the car one day, he heard the actual song and was crushed.  His sister’s name is Lexi and he thought they were singing, “I am Lexi and I know it”.  “Granny, why aren’t they singing my name!!”.  Oh, the little things.

Yesterday, Mickey was truly singing “I am Mickey and I know it” as he jumped a few small jumps for the first time in over six weeks.  After our successful hack on Sunday, we  (with Dr. Criner’s blessings) thought we would try a few small jumps.  If he could not breathe well or coughed badly, we would quit and continue the wait.

Oh, boy!

Mickey headed toward the first small jump like he was pushing the pace for a grand prix.  Head up, ears perked, enthusiasm flowing, he sprang toward the jump.  Lauren said his glee was apparent in every muscle of his body.  He jumped every one of the little jumps (like 18 inches high) with ease, speed and most notably without coughing! Since he has not really done anything but an occasional walk and trot, for him not to cough as we picked up the pace was a good test of how things were going.

He did not cough, he did not breath hard (at least not harder than what you would expect for him being a little overweight and little out of shape) and did not seem to struggle. After they worked a few fences, he recovered to a normal breathing rate quickly.   It was a very satisfying to know Mickey and Lauren were back working over fences.  So, we will increase his distances, raise the jumps, and see what happens next.  He has one more treatment next Sunday (the 26th).  If he handles it as well as he has (and there is no reason to think he won’t) we could be back in the show business by early fall.

Dr. Criner seems to think the vaccine has helped the pythium problem and also changing his feed, eliminating as many allergens as possible and just cleaning up his environment have hopefully all aided his recovery from coughing.  I am glad to see this positive track emerging at this time.

Mickey is a fine flyer.

Mickey asked (after he finished his chorus of “I am Mickey and I know it”) if we would do a couple of rounds of his all-time favorite song,

“Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,
hey Mickey (hey, hey), hey Mickey”. 

Which Lauren and I obligingly sang.