In like a lion...
I spent last weekend at the beach.. I spent this weekend wrapped in a comforter huddled around the DVD player with Dogger and The Kitty. March comes in like a lion and out like a cold, wet, sad baby lamb.
They invented DVD players for this kind of weekend. Saturday I half-heartedly did some laundry and watched three hours worth of a not-very-good BBC lawyer drama. Think bad The Practice crossed with say, anything on Lifetime. Not to say “really, really bad” but also not to say “quality” or “worthwhile” or “good”. But it was a cold, rainy and cold and rainy Saturday and my options were limited.
I still did get things done though. I got the laundry done, I heated up some soup, I finished up some left over breakfast Danish and figured out a way to keep the ottoman from slip, sliding away from the chair. And then, I went to Broskey and Alphagals where Alphagal gave me a very yummy still-warm-from-the-oven loaflette of bread. After that, Dogger, The Kitty and I watched The Lake House, a not at all bad for a cold, wet, rainy Saturday night Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock movie all in all, a very productive day.
And then it was Sunday. I went to Church and filled up the car. It was still cold and rainy and now I didn’t have any laundry to do and I had run out of DVDs! Anthony Bourdain beckoned. He was in Ghana, where he very much enjoyed the food, the country, the people and their Kente cloth, and then he was on to Namibia where he did not enjoy the food, (think dirt, no pots and pans or plates or sanitation), the country, the people or anything else. I dozed while he did a yeoman's job of not barfing his way across the Kalahari . No matter what desert Bourdain was trekking through, I had to make hot chocolate. Had to it was that cold and nasty. Sitting inside, under a blanket with Dogger and The Kitty dancing attendance, I had to make hot chocolate. Brr. Last week I was sitting on the beach.
And then it was time to do something, anything. I decided to take Dogger for a walk. Dogger thought I was joking and suggested that staying inside was a better idea. She also suggested that perhaps we should see what was airing on Animal Planet. I suggested that she needed to go out because they do not make a litter box that large.. She said that she possesses the largest bladder in the animal kingdom and she had been out just been outside yesterday. In my defense, when we set out it was only drizzling. By the time we came home, soaked to the bone and cold.
I decided it would be a good time to give Dogger a nice warm shower after the nasty, cold shower I had just treated her to. I am glad to say instead of the scent of wet dog wafting through the house, now my house carries the scent of Pantene with just a wiff of anti-flea. Dogger is barking at me, she wants me to go back to the TV and watch Mythbusters with her.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Train of Thought
Dogger and I took our walk around Dix yesterday. There is a tree in the parking lot of my building that I decided was just about to hit peak pretty and if I wanted a picture of it I would need to do it nower than later-er. As it turned out, "now" worked for my schedule. I left work, went home, changed clothes, grabbed the dog and went back to work. My sop to my off duty-ness was to park my car as far from my building as I could. I wish the grounds were a little more colorful but whomever designed them must have decided that white was the most calming color, but I kind of doubt that back in the day they really thought all that much about what colors would be the most aesthetically pleasing to their patients Spring at Dix Hill.
And then we came home. I fed Dogger then made my dinner (I know wrong order, the person should eat first. Blah.) and after dinner I was in my chair watching TV and Dogger was on the floor chewing on her bone and I started to feel really guilty - I don't think I pet Dogger enough. How do you quantify that? Should I wait for her to initiate petting? I never thought about this before. I was sitting there watching people talk about digging cool stuff out of their yards and finding priceless art in their crawl spaces and I started to wonder if I pet Dogger enough. I quickly got off my chair and stroked her fur, and she enjoyed it, but she had also seemed to enjoy chewing her bone. How much should I pet her? Right now if I went to pet on her, it would wake her up. I don't think she wants to be woken up right now. She wants to lay there and fart in her sleep. She seems very content.
Sigh.
Speaking of happiness. I watched Enchanted this weekend. It's a very sweet movie. I even liked the songs, which I did not like at all when they were played at the Oscars(tm)- Awards these songs so did not deserve, they were sweet songs, bouncy tunes you can hum but they don't work well outside the context of the movie, they just seem like what they are: A substitute for fifteen pagers of dialogue. I liked one of the songs so much after seeing it in the move that I went to Itunes and bought it. I found didn't like it as much. I miss the pageantry of the big production number it came with. It really needs a cast of thousands to do it justice. Amy Adams seems like a really sweet girl and she has a good voice but she isn't a cast of thousands. Hence, why none of those songs from Enchanted won Oscars(tm). Alen Menken is a talented guy but his songs don't do well out of context and frankly? Music isn't really a visual medium, songs shouldn't need a cast of thousands to be properly enjoyed.
Yesterday at work I do check for a couple of things on every-ones computers to make sure they will be ready for the new payroll launch next week. How sad is it that I am my groups technical person? Anyway, one of the keyboards was so filthy that I am pretty sure I contracted cholera from it. Really.
Dogger and I took our walk around Dix yesterday. There is a tree in the parking lot of my building that I decided was just about to hit peak pretty and if I wanted a picture of it I would need to do it nower than later-er. As it turned out, "now" worked for my schedule. I left work, went home, changed clothes, grabbed the dog and went back to work. My sop to my off duty-ness was to park my car as far from my building as I could. I wish the grounds were a little more colorful but whomever designed them must have decided that white was the most calming color, but I kind of doubt that back in the day they really thought all that much about what colors would be the most aesthetically pleasing to their patients Spring at Dix Hill.
And then we came home. I fed Dogger then made my dinner (I know wrong order, the person should eat first. Blah.) and after dinner I was in my chair watching TV and Dogger was on the floor chewing on her bone and I started to feel really guilty - I don't think I pet Dogger enough. How do you quantify that? Should I wait for her to initiate petting? I never thought about this before. I was sitting there watching people talk about digging cool stuff out of their yards and finding priceless art in their crawl spaces and I started to wonder if I pet Dogger enough. I quickly got off my chair and stroked her fur, and she enjoyed it, but she had also seemed to enjoy chewing her bone. How much should I pet her? Right now if I went to pet on her, it would wake her up. I don't think she wants to be woken up right now. She wants to lay there and fart in her sleep. She seems very content.
Sigh.
Speaking of happiness. I watched Enchanted this weekend. It's a very sweet movie. I even liked the songs, which I did not like at all when they were played at the Oscars(tm)- Awards these songs so did not deserve, they were sweet songs, bouncy tunes you can hum but they don't work well outside the context of the movie, they just seem like what they are: A substitute for fifteen pagers of dialogue. I liked one of the songs so much after seeing it in the move that I went to Itunes and bought it. I found didn't like it as much. I miss the pageantry of the big production number it came with. It really needs a cast of thousands to do it justice. Amy Adams seems like a really sweet girl and she has a good voice but she isn't a cast of thousands. Hence, why none of those songs from Enchanted won Oscars(tm). Alen Menken is a talented guy but his songs don't do well out of context and frankly? Music isn't really a visual medium, songs shouldn't need a cast of thousands to be properly enjoyed.
Yesterday at work I do check for a couple of things on every-ones computers to make sure they will be ready for the new payroll launch next week. How sad is it that I am my groups technical person? Anyway, one of the keyboards was so filthy that I am pretty sure I contracted cholera from it. Really.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The times they have a-changed
It was a perfect dog park day. Not too cool, not too warm, breezy but not windy and a good mix of dogs. Sigh. A year ago Dogger woudl have run and played with her friends while I talked with mine. This year Dogger was leashed and we skulked around the perimeter waiting for the small dogs to get out of the small dog park. While we were skulking we ran into a few dogs... A year ago I would have pet the other dog and encouraged Dogger to go play, it was like a mantra go play, go play, go play! This year I held my breath and encouraged the other dog to go away, go away, go away! . I wish along with Doggers life saving pill there was a social life saving pill I could give her too so we could go to the park and go play! go play! go play! I don't know what happened to her over the past year but now I'm afraid to let her off leash at the off leash dog park.
Back when we started going, two years ago now, there were six, eight dogs at the park every day at most. I knew all the people and their dogs. I knew the dogs better then the dog people because I knew all the dogs names. It was calm and nice and we all had a good time. We didn't know each others names, but we saw each other every day and talked for hours. The dogs didn't really know what they were supposed to do, but they liked the attention from the people even if they didn't know what to make of the other dogs. But we all learned about dominance and the role of humping. Sometimes you are the humper sometimes you are the humpee. Boy dogs hump other boy dogs, girl dogs hump other girl dogs, girl dogs hump boy dogs. It's a dog thing.
Times changed. More people started to come with more dogs. Instead of six or eight dogs there were sixteen or eighteen dogs. This leads to nervousness. There also started to be intermittent dog fights. Intermittently, with Dogger as a participant.
These scare the shit out of me whether Dogger was participating or not and they totally kill a good dog park buzz. Everything is nice, it's pretty the dogs are happy, the people are happy and then all of a sudden - Dogagedden breaks out. Once there has been a fight, there is a better than average chance there will be another. It's like an actor "going up" on stage, all it takes is one of them to lose it and all the others start to think about it and hoping it doesn't happen to them and pretty soon it's all they can think about and pretty soon they can't remember their lines either. Fights make everyone tense and pretty soon it spreads to the dogs and all it takes is one new dog to walk in and it can get ugly.
Now, I am phobic. I have developed a phobia about Dogger getting into it with another dog. I take Dogger to the park because she loves it so much and I have such happy memories there and then I wait for her to tear a dogs throat out. I make her stay in the small dog park or failing that option (damn small dogs! Don't they know they are supposed to "think they are large dogs" and "hate" the small dog park? Cut a big dog some slack! and go play in the big dog park with the other little dogs), I make her stay on the leash, in the off leash dog park! Because what if? phobic, phobic, phobic.
Today the small dogs wouldn't leave the small dog park so Dogger and I left early and toured the historic district. We had a nice walk, we went home, I fed her, we both watched some TV and then around seven I took her out again , she was totally perplexed by this change in routine. I told her we were going for another walk for her own good. She wasn't sure about this. She is the only dog in the world that would question getting two walks in an evening.
We walked to the baseball field and I debated the karma of using a new tennis ball I found outside the baseball field on the other side of the tennis court fence. I did use the ball, Dogger thought it was much better than her own old, nasty tennis ball, but, I did leave it at the park when we left, outside the fence where I found it. A little scuffed up but still there should its owner come looking for it.
It was a perfect dog park day. Not too cool, not too warm, breezy but not windy and a good mix of dogs. Sigh. A year ago Dogger woudl have run and played with her friends while I talked with mine. This year Dogger was leashed and we skulked around the perimeter waiting for the small dogs to get out of the small dog park. While we were skulking we ran into a few dogs... A year ago I would have pet the other dog and encouraged Dogger to go play, it was like a mantra go play, go play, go play! This year I held my breath and encouraged the other dog to go away, go away, go away! . I wish along with Doggers life saving pill there was a social life saving pill I could give her too so we could go to the park and go play! go play! go play! I don't know what happened to her over the past year but now I'm afraid to let her off leash at the off leash dog park.
Back when we started going, two years ago now, there were six, eight dogs at the park every day at most. I knew all the people and their dogs. I knew the dogs better then the dog people because I knew all the dogs names. It was calm and nice and we all had a good time. We didn't know each others names, but we saw each other every day and talked for hours. The dogs didn't really know what they were supposed to do, but they liked the attention from the people even if they didn't know what to make of the other dogs. But we all learned about dominance and the role of humping. Sometimes you are the humper sometimes you are the humpee. Boy dogs hump other boy dogs, girl dogs hump other girl dogs, girl dogs hump boy dogs. It's a dog thing.
Times changed. More people started to come with more dogs. Instead of six or eight dogs there were sixteen or eighteen dogs. This leads to nervousness. There also started to be intermittent dog fights. Intermittently, with Dogger as a participant.
These scare the shit out of me whether Dogger was participating or not and they totally kill a good dog park buzz. Everything is nice, it's pretty the dogs are happy, the people are happy and then all of a sudden - Dogagedden breaks out. Once there has been a fight, there is a better than average chance there will be another. It's like an actor "going up" on stage, all it takes is one of them to lose it and all the others start to think about it and hoping it doesn't happen to them and pretty soon it's all they can think about and pretty soon they can't remember their lines either. Fights make everyone tense and pretty soon it spreads to the dogs and all it takes is one new dog to walk in and it can get ugly.
Now, I am phobic. I have developed a phobia about Dogger getting into it with another dog. I take Dogger to the park because she loves it so much and I have such happy memories there and then I wait for her to tear a dogs throat out. I make her stay in the small dog park or failing that option (damn small dogs! Don't they know they are supposed to "think they are large dogs" and "hate" the small dog park? Cut a big dog some slack! and go play in the big dog park with the other little dogs), I make her stay on the leash, in the off leash dog park! Because what if? phobic, phobic, phobic.
Today the small dogs wouldn't leave the small dog park so Dogger and I left early and toured the historic district. We had a nice walk, we went home, I fed her, we both watched some TV and then around seven I took her out again , she was totally perplexed by this change in routine. I told her we were going for another walk for her own good. She wasn't sure about this. She is the only dog in the world that would question getting two walks in an evening.
We walked to the baseball field and I debated the karma of using a new tennis ball I found outside the baseball field on the other side of the tennis court fence. I did use the ball, Dogger thought it was much better than her own old, nasty tennis ball, but, I did leave it at the park when we left, outside the fence where I found it. A little scuffed up but still there should its owner come looking for it.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Places to Go, People to See
I was filling out my calendar at work and I noticed that the month of April it may actually appear that I have a life! True, it is a life measured in visits to health care professionals, but I have plans for April that don’t actually impinge on my work schedule as well. I was shocked too. I have one weekend with my parents and another, all be it just a Saturday, attending my District convention, This is a lot more advanced planning than I am used to.
I need to embrace my sad and pathetic no life while I still can. I need to make it a point to really appreciate and embrace my sitting around doing nothing time while I still have the time. I’m going to make it a point to sleep really late too, while I have no life and no plans and nowhere to go. Having stuff to do really cuts into my busy slothing schedule.
Hopefully, Doggers April vet visit will be the end of her every-three-weeks electrolyte testing. She’s had two good tests in a row and both the vet and I are hoping that this last round will be her last frequent testing. If this round turns out well, we are going to move on to deciding how little pred she needs to stay alert and keep her lethargy down. If she isn’t on any pred she just lays there like a bump, if she’s on too much, she’s a hyper-kinetic, peeing, pain in the ass. Currently, in response to my complaints about her lethargy, the vet has her on 2.5 mg every three days for a total of 5 mg a week. I don’t want her bouncing off the ceiling, I’m just interested in her being a little more lively. The weeks she was on no pred at all, The Kitty who is a competitive sleeper and who’s hobby is power napping, whose waking “hours” are counted in minutes, was more alert more often.
All that laying around had an adverse affect on her. Dogger is fat. Noticeably so. In hopes of combating this, I started her on a diet dog food. I’m not so sure about her new food because nowhere on the bag does it stipulate as a side effect increased flatulence, it would have been nice to be warned. She literally leaves a cloud where ever she goes. She spent most of her weekend in my parents’ basement and now they are going to have to repaint and possibly call in an exorcist to fully rid the space of the evil spirits her behind left behind – And then there are no promises that it won’t just come back! One day I had put Dogger outside and she had been out there for a while. I thought getting her out of the environment would solve the problem? But no! I walked into the hallway and got slapped in the face with a transient odor. It was awful; she can be like a walking cat box.
It was getting so bad for a while I had started to sing Smelly Cat under my breath all day. Sadly for me though, I know exactly I am feeding her.
I was filling out my calendar at work and I noticed that the month of April it may actually appear that I have a life! True, it is a life measured in visits to health care professionals, but I have plans for April that don’t actually impinge on my work schedule as well. I was shocked too. I have one weekend with my parents and another, all be it just a Saturday, attending my District convention, This is a lot more advanced planning than I am used to.
I need to embrace my sad and pathetic no life while I still can. I need to make it a point to really appreciate and embrace my sitting around doing nothing time while I still have the time. I’m going to make it a point to sleep really late too, while I have no life and no plans and nowhere to go. Having stuff to do really cuts into my busy slothing schedule.
Hopefully, Doggers April vet visit will be the end of her every-three-weeks electrolyte testing. She’s had two good tests in a row and both the vet and I are hoping that this last round will be her last frequent testing. If this round turns out well, we are going to move on to deciding how little pred she needs to stay alert and keep her lethargy down. If she isn’t on any pred she just lays there like a bump, if she’s on too much, she’s a hyper-kinetic, peeing, pain in the ass. Currently, in response to my complaints about her lethargy, the vet has her on 2.5 mg every three days for a total of 5 mg a week. I don’t want her bouncing off the ceiling, I’m just interested in her being a little more lively. The weeks she was on no pred at all, The Kitty who is a competitive sleeper and who’s hobby is power napping, whose waking “hours” are counted in minutes, was more alert more often.
All that laying around had an adverse affect on her. Dogger is fat. Noticeably so. In hopes of combating this, I started her on a diet dog food. I’m not so sure about her new food because nowhere on the bag does it stipulate as a side effect increased flatulence, it would have been nice to be warned. She literally leaves a cloud where ever she goes. She spent most of her weekend in my parents’ basement and now they are going to have to repaint and possibly call in an exorcist to fully rid the space of the evil spirits her behind left behind – And then there are no promises that it won’t just come back! One day I had put Dogger outside and she had been out there for a while. I thought getting her out of the environment would solve the problem? But no! I walked into the hallway and got slapped in the face with a transient odor. It was awful; she can be like a walking cat box.
It was getting so bad for a while I had started to sing Smelly Cat under my breath all day. Sadly for me though, I know exactly I am feeding her.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
A stranger among us
And how was your weekend?Did you have to work on Friday? Godless sodomites! Why do you hate America? Actually, the reason NC state employees get Good Friday off is that once upon a time they got Easter Monday off - And not because the State Legislature was full of Pius Catholics, but so that they and the rest of the State Employees could take off work and watch a basketball game . I kid you not. In years past, for decades, they shut down state government so everyone could watch a basketball game.
If these people could learn to take football that seriously, it would almost make it worth living here.
I just got back from the store because a couple of hours ago I got back from the dentist again, I haven’t been to the dentist in five years and now I’ve gone twice in a week and will go back two more times in the next month. I think they are in cahoots with the chiropractors - Another group that gets its jolly’s locking you into weekly appointments for the rest of your life.. I would almost rather be seeing a chiropractor, those appointments would be covered by my insurance.
I was at the store because the dentist installed an Anne Boleyn, i.e a temporary crown, in three weeks I get Elizabeth II, but in the mean time, I have to be very kind to my mouth, or really, I need to be very kind to my left uppers, nothing crunchy or that requires chewing is to pass my lips. If it requires dentition to eat, I am required to pass it up.
I’ve been doing this all ready, for weeks, I had just hoped that it wouldn’t turn into a thing. I like chewing, I like solid food. I went to the store so that I could broaden my diet beyond tuna and baked potatoes and ramon. I’ve also become a regular at Subway, I am the person who orders their soup. I am hoping that in my time away from McDonald's that they will have mercifully moved on to another Happy Meal toy. I don’t even know what movie the most recent toys came from but every single one of the was ugly. I would open my Happy Meal box and be greeted by one of a series of increasingly unappetizing ogres. Yummy. I threw them away everyday ! I have never thrown away a toy!, even toys I didn’t like, even the stupid cartoon action figures. I felt kind of bad about it but at the same time, if I thought the ogre toys were grisly, I didn’t feel right about passing them on to a kid. I say this as someone who has watched and enjoyed The Dark Crystal many times, on purpose. Sober.
So, food was shopped for. I now have a selection of hearty creamed soups, some very nice, soft, crab cakes, a six pack of fat free, sugar free pudding and a couple of bags of frozen raspberries - I have had the worst kind of raspberry jones! Have you noticed how expensive fresh raspberries are right now? I don’t know if you were smart enough to get into the raspberry futures market, but Wow! Somebody somewhere is making a freaking fortune. Those little buggers are like gold. But what can I say? The heart wants what it wants. Fortunately, my heart can also get pretty excited about frozen bags o’ raspberries too. Good thing to, because otherwise? Total heart break
And how was your weekend?Did you have to work on Friday? Godless sodomites! Why do you hate America? Actually, the reason NC state employees get Good Friday off is that once upon a time they got Easter Monday off - And not because the State Legislature was full of Pius Catholics, but so that they and the rest of the State Employees could take off work and watch a basketball game . I kid you not. In years past, for decades, they shut down state government so everyone could watch a basketball game.
If these people could learn to take football that seriously, it would almost make it worth living here.
I just got back from the store because a couple of hours ago I got back from the dentist again, I haven’t been to the dentist in five years and now I’ve gone twice in a week and will go back two more times in the next month. I think they are in cahoots with the chiropractors - Another group that gets its jolly’s locking you into weekly appointments for the rest of your life.. I would almost rather be seeing a chiropractor, those appointments would be covered by my insurance.
I was at the store because the dentist installed an Anne Boleyn, i.e a temporary crown, in three weeks I get Elizabeth II, but in the mean time, I have to be very kind to my mouth, or really, I need to be very kind to my left uppers, nothing crunchy or that requires chewing is to pass my lips. If it requires dentition to eat, I am required to pass it up.
I’ve been doing this all ready, for weeks, I had just hoped that it wouldn’t turn into a thing. I like chewing, I like solid food. I went to the store so that I could broaden my diet beyond tuna and baked potatoes and ramon. I’ve also become a regular at Subway, I am the person who orders their soup. I am hoping that in my time away from McDonald's that they will have mercifully moved on to another Happy Meal toy. I don’t even know what movie the most recent toys came from but every single one of the was ugly. I would open my Happy Meal box and be greeted by one of a series of increasingly unappetizing ogres. Yummy. I threw them away everyday ! I have never thrown away a toy!, even toys I didn’t like, even the stupid cartoon action figures. I felt kind of bad about it but at the same time, if I thought the ogre toys were grisly, I didn’t feel right about passing them on to a kid. I say this as someone who has watched and enjoyed The Dark Crystal many times, on purpose. Sober.
So, food was shopped for. I now have a selection of hearty creamed soups, some very nice, soft, crab cakes, a six pack of fat free, sugar free pudding and a couple of bags of frozen raspberries - I have had the worst kind of raspberry jones! Have you noticed how expensive fresh raspberries are right now? I don’t know if you were smart enough to get into the raspberry futures market, but Wow! Somebody somewhere is making a freaking fortune. Those little buggers are like gold. But what can I say? The heart wants what it wants. Fortunately, my heart can also get pretty excited about frozen bags o’ raspberries too. Good thing to, because otherwise? Total heart break
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
And the ratio is...
Dogger had her second electrolyte check yesterday and her ratio is very, very good! 31! The vet said her heart sounded great, her blood pressure is better than it has been in a while and it was very easy to get blood from her this time. It hadn’t been mentioned to me before that her blood pressure had room to get better or that it was difficult to draw blood from her. I’ve known it was difficult to get Dogger back to where they do the blood draws, but no one had ever said anything about difficulty getting the blood out once she was back there. Dogger does not want to go back there and does not co-operate, and now I know why. I was counting down to the first lines of We Shall Overcome this time when Dogger finally decided that she would, after all, allow them to try to take her blood. I think it was the promise of many cookies and three lab techs cooing over her. Dogger can’t resist a good group coo.
Speaking of “many”. Dogger has gained two pounds in three weeks! I had noticed she has been lethargic lately and mentioned to the vet, I had chalked it up to not being on pred anymore. I didn’t even notice that the junk in her trunk was causing her back tires to go flat until the vet pointed it out. She’s not lethargic because she’s ill, she’s lethargic because hauling around all that extra flab is exhausting. When she got sick she was down to eighty-seven pounds, yesterday at her appointment she was ninety-six point five! She has no waist! Her girlish figure has gone to pot. I remember right after she was diagnosed I had her at the park and one of the other dog people came in and took a look at the very wane Dogger and exclaimed “Wow! Did she drop a ton of weight? She looks terrific!” I was like, Well, she is dying, so yeah, I guess she has dropped some weight.. Well, she’s not dying anymore and any weight she’s come in contact with, she’s picked up and taken with her.
And I have been exercising her, above her usual visit to the park. I have also been adding a short walk after we get home. I added the walk component because we’ve been using the small dog park so Dogger hasn’t been getting as much strolling space as she was used to. But, obviously, more exercise is needed. But just in case her lethargy isn’t entirely weight based, the vet put her on back on her low dose pred twice a week until her next check up in three weeks. The good news is that if her ratio is good at that check that we can stop these every-three-week trips to the vet and stretch out the checks to every month and then every three months. Yay!
Dogger is going to back on her old 5mg a day pred regime this weekend because we’re traveling, but maybe if it perks her up a little we can get in some nice long walks to start getting some of that junk out of her trunk, but of course, only if she wants to, do you have any idea how hard it is to ask ninety-six pounds of uncooperative muscle to do something it doesn't want to do?
Dogger had her second electrolyte check yesterday and her ratio is very, very good! 31! The vet said her heart sounded great, her blood pressure is better than it has been in a while and it was very easy to get blood from her this time. It hadn’t been mentioned to me before that her blood pressure had room to get better or that it was difficult to draw blood from her. I’ve known it was difficult to get Dogger back to where they do the blood draws, but no one had ever said anything about difficulty getting the blood out once she was back there. Dogger does not want to go back there and does not co-operate, and now I know why. I was counting down to the first lines of We Shall Overcome this time when Dogger finally decided that she would, after all, allow them to try to take her blood. I think it was the promise of many cookies and three lab techs cooing over her. Dogger can’t resist a good group coo.
Speaking of “many”. Dogger has gained two pounds in three weeks! I had noticed she has been lethargic lately and mentioned to the vet, I had chalked it up to not being on pred anymore. I didn’t even notice that the junk in her trunk was causing her back tires to go flat until the vet pointed it out. She’s not lethargic because she’s ill, she’s lethargic because hauling around all that extra flab is exhausting. When she got sick she was down to eighty-seven pounds, yesterday at her appointment she was ninety-six point five! She has no waist! Her girlish figure has gone to pot. I remember right after she was diagnosed I had her at the park and one of the other dog people came in and took a look at the very wane Dogger and exclaimed “Wow! Did she drop a ton of weight? She looks terrific!” I was like, Well, she is dying, so yeah, I guess she has dropped some weight.. Well, she’s not dying anymore and any weight she’s come in contact with, she’s picked up and taken with her.
And I have been exercising her, above her usual visit to the park. I have also been adding a short walk after we get home. I added the walk component because we’ve been using the small dog park so Dogger hasn’t been getting as much strolling space as she was used to. But, obviously, more exercise is needed. But just in case her lethargy isn’t entirely weight based, the vet put her on back on her low dose pred twice a week until her next check up in three weeks. The good news is that if her ratio is good at that check that we can stop these every-three-week trips to the vet and stretch out the checks to every month and then every three months. Yay!
Dogger is going to back on her old 5mg a day pred regime this weekend because we’re traveling, but maybe if it perks her up a little we can get in some nice long walks to start getting some of that junk out of her trunk, but of course, only if she wants to, do you have any idea how hard it is to ask ninety-six pounds of uncooperative muscle to do something it doesn't want to do?
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