This is my sweet foster dog Poptart. She looks very much like Fudge, but they were not related. Poptart is a very sweet girl who just wants to be included. She is very submissive with other dogs, likes cats (she was play bowing and belly crawling with my friends cat) and kids. She is a very soft girl, she can be trained with a buckle collar, praise and a harsh tone - anything stronger breaks her heart. I called her for bed the other night, didn't even think I'd raised my voice, and when she didn't come I went back around the corner to find her laying flat on the deck as small as she could get - which isn't very small because she's 55lbs.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Monday, August 22, 2005
Sad turn of events
I had to put Jodie, my 14 yr old corgi, to sleep on July 14th. She had been fighting kidney failure as you may know, and it had become too much for her.
Now Taylor, my 10 yr old lab, is having seizures which started this last Sunday. She is on meds to control them but it is likely a brain tumor. We are looking in to options for treatment/prognosis/etc right now. My feelings are that she will not be with me much longer either. We are going to see the neurologist in Santa Cruz tomorrow and maybe get a CT scan.
Hard to believe it is happening so close together. I'll send out an update when I know more.
Well, it was confirmed yesterday that my lab, Taylor, does have a brain tumor and it is not operable/treatable. We will just medicate to control the seizures and when they return make the hard decision then.
Then, to make things worse:
I came home Friday after work and as I was getting ready to lock my dogs in the house so I could Amanda's dog Angel, Angel broke through 2 gates and started a fight with Ekko. As I got Taylor in the house to safety and went back to rescue Ekko, TS was now in it with Angel and Ekko was on the border. I got Angel on the side yard and closed the gate but before I could get TS back in the house she body slammed the gate open and they were at it again. I tried to pick Angel up to get her out of reach but it didn't work so I steered them back towards the back fence. TS gave her a chance a few times to just let it go but she wouldn't and he would be back on her neck in an instant. I finally got them back by the fence/gate Angel had come through but I had to pick her up over my head to get over the fence. She tried to come right back through but I had my leg holding it. But since it has open bars TS stuck his nose through to snap at Angel and when he did that she clapped down on is upper jaw/nose. He was stuck in the bars and she would NOT release her grip so I had no choice but to try to pry her bite open. Once I got TS free her mouth shut on my left fingers. I finally found something I could wedge against the fence to keep her in long enough to get TS in the house.
Then I sat on the steps and had an asthma attack for a few minutes and went to check on my dogs and my hand. Right then Amanda came home and checked the dogs while I ran cold water on my hand. Ekko was fine, TS has a scraped up nose and a gash on his lip...and Angel is a MESS. She has a drain tube in her chest, stitches on her back right leg and possibly a damaged knee. And she STILL tried to get to them again yesterday!
We ran Angel to the vet Friday. I didn't want to go to emergency cause I didn't want a bite report filed. Amanda's EMT friend looked at it and said I could wait i I wanted to. So I did. Saturday I felt like I needed to make sure it was really OK so we went to urgent care and I told them I dropped a jack hammer on it. Nothing broken, infected though that quick.
Amanda broke her foot last night in softball. spent 2.5 hrs at Kaiser ER.
We have an appt today at 1pm with Trish King at the Marin Humane Society. She is evidently very successful with dog/dog aggression. So I'll be driving Angel hopping on three legs and Amanda hopping on 2 legs up to Marin today.
Thought I'd fill you in on how the meeting went with Trish King.
She said unfortunately her advice is to put her down. She said she is the quintessential fighting pit and a person of low moral character would be happy to have her. After hearing of how the fight played out, and that Angel still wants to return to it, she was convinced that she is a disaster waiting to happen.
She said a few things that drove it home for her were the fact that she was as injured as she was and kept fighting, that she let me reach in and pick her up repeatedly without turning on me, and the fact that she is one of the few dogs that noticed the dogs Trish had in her office on a large crate with a big blanket in front of it. Angel caught the sent right away and though she didn't lunge she kept her focus on that crate.
I just wanted everyone to know that we had to put Amanda's dog, Angel, down last night. I will be at the pet fair tomorrow but Amanda will not.
And then:
My little lab Taylor has gone off to play with her corgi buddy, Jodie as of this past Saturday. I hope we are done with this trend for a while...
Now Taylor, my 10 yr old lab, is having seizures which started this last Sunday. She is on meds to control them but it is likely a brain tumor. We are looking in to options for treatment/prognosis/etc right now. My feelings are that she will not be with me much longer either. We are going to see the neurologist in Santa Cruz tomorrow and maybe get a CT scan.
Hard to believe it is happening so close together. I'll send out an update when I know more.
Well, it was confirmed yesterday that my lab, Taylor, does have a brain tumor and it is not operable/treatable. We will just medicate to control the seizures and when they return make the hard decision then.
Then, to make things worse:
I came home Friday after work and as I was getting ready to lock my dogs in the house so I could Amanda's dog Angel, Angel broke through 2 gates and started a fight with Ekko. As I got Taylor in the house to safety and went back to rescue Ekko, TS was now in it with Angel and Ekko was on the border. I got Angel on the side yard and closed the gate but before I could get TS back in the house she body slammed the gate open and they were at it again. I tried to pick Angel up to get her out of reach but it didn't work so I steered them back towards the back fence. TS gave her a chance a few times to just let it go but she wouldn't and he would be back on her neck in an instant. I finally got them back by the fence/gate Angel had come through but I had to pick her up over my head to get over the fence. She tried to come right back through but I had my leg holding it. But since it has open bars TS stuck his nose through to snap at Angel and when he did that she clapped down on is upper jaw/nose. He was stuck in the bars and she would NOT release her grip so I had no choice but to try to pry her bite open. Once I got TS free her mouth shut on my left fingers. I finally found something I could wedge against the fence to keep her in long enough to get TS in the house.
Then I sat on the steps and had an asthma attack for a few minutes and went to check on my dogs and my hand. Right then Amanda came home and checked the dogs while I ran cold water on my hand. Ekko was fine, TS has a scraped up nose and a gash on his lip...and Angel is a MESS. She has a drain tube in her chest, stitches on her back right leg and possibly a damaged knee. And she STILL tried to get to them again yesterday!
We ran Angel to the vet Friday. I didn't want to go to emergency cause I didn't want a bite report filed. Amanda's EMT friend looked at it and said I could wait i I wanted to. So I did. Saturday I felt like I needed to make sure it was really OK so we went to urgent care and I told them I dropped a jack hammer on it. Nothing broken, infected though that quick.
Amanda broke her foot last night in softball. spent 2.5 hrs at Kaiser ER.
We have an appt today at 1pm with Trish King at the Marin Humane Society. She is evidently very successful with dog/dog aggression. So I'll be driving Angel hopping on three legs and Amanda hopping on 2 legs up to Marin today.
Thought I'd fill you in on how the meeting went with Trish King.
She said unfortunately her advice is to put her down. She said she is the quintessential fighting pit and a person of low moral character would be happy to have her. After hearing of how the fight played out, and that Angel still wants to return to it, she was convinced that she is a disaster waiting to happen.
She said a few things that drove it home for her were the fact that she was as injured as she was and kept fighting, that she let me reach in and pick her up repeatedly without turning on me, and the fact that she is one of the few dogs that noticed the dogs Trish had in her office on a large crate with a big blanket in front of it. Angel caught the sent right away and though she didn't lunge she kept her focus on that crate.
I just wanted everyone to know that we had to put Amanda's dog, Angel, down last night. I will be at the pet fair tomorrow but Amanda will not.
And then:
My little lab Taylor has gone off to play with her corgi buddy, Jodie as of this past Saturday. I hope we are done with this trend for a while...
Friday, June 17, 2005
Dixie and Fudge
OK, this is a picture of Dixie - a tall and beautiful Catahoula mix that my friends adopted from me. She is playing with Fudge, a sweet and gentle Am Staf that went to a wonderful family that takes him everywhere with them. Julie got me set up on Flickr and I am just getting my feet wet.
Friday, June 03, 2005
weird experiences post surgery
(I actually wrote this on 6/3 but hadn't posted it, so there are more updates to follow)
I've been away awhile. Not sick, just not writing. Today I felt like sharing a few thoughts on the weird feeling resulting from my recent surgery to hopefully cure my sleep apnea. It's been one week. They did a septoplasty - where they straighten out the septum that runs up the middle of your nose dividing nostrils into left and right. Evidently those can be pretty windy instead of straight. While they were in there they did a turbinate trim - these are the boney wall like structures that make up your various sinus areas. Evidently the walls can be too thick and they go sheer them away a bit. They moved into my throat where they did a tonsilectomy - didn't lose them as a kid. And they did a UPPP which is a really long word for taking out part of the soft pallet at the back of the roof of your mouth and removing your uvula (punching bag). Then they did a radio frequency reduction to the base of the tongue. Lots of work. All went well. I really expected my throat to be the worst of the experience. Not even close. True, it looks weird to look into my throat and see no punching bag in sight. And it feels weird to feel all of those little stitches back there tickling the back of my tongue like some tiny, bristly little kitten sitting there. But my sinuses have been the thing that has been tweaking me this past week.
First, they were packed for the first night. I had a sling under my nose to catch any runoff blood. Nice. Worked well though I must say. Even with the morphine - which didn't really seem that impressive - and the liquid vicodine - which really does work - I was up most of the night with a painful nose. And I could feel the packing, which felt wrong. The next morning the good doctor said to come by so he could remove the packing. My partner went with me. She watched as he pulled a plug from my nose - I closed my eyes and dealt with the feeling. Hmm. Not bad. Air. She says oh that wasn't very long at all. Not bad. Nice Doctor turns back around and says Ok time to take out the packing. Uh..oh. I did not watch. It felt like someone removed a t-shirt through my nose. She said, oh that was kind of long. yuck. Then he took a tiny little tool and vacuumed out my sinuses. Oh, this was a bad sound and a worse feeling. It didn't hurt. It's important to know that it didn't hurt. It was just, disturbing, unsettling. Go on home, don't blow for 4 days. You betcha!
OK, so I can see I have furry little stitches at the back of my throat. And they aren't going to let me forget about them. But my nose has stitches too. It has stitches inside the left nostril - the side ALL the knots fall on. Evidently every stitch in my nose tied off in the left nostril. So I carried tissue around to dab at my nose gently while it healed. It was doing pretty well though.
I've been away awhile. Not sick, just not writing. Today I felt like sharing a few thoughts on the weird feeling resulting from my recent surgery to hopefully cure my sleep apnea. It's been one week. They did a septoplasty - where they straighten out the septum that runs up the middle of your nose dividing nostrils into left and right. Evidently those can be pretty windy instead of straight. While they were in there they did a turbinate trim - these are the boney wall like structures that make up your various sinus areas. Evidently the walls can be too thick and they go sheer them away a bit. They moved into my throat where they did a tonsilectomy - didn't lose them as a kid. And they did a UPPP which is a really long word for taking out part of the soft pallet at the back of the roof of your mouth and removing your uvula (punching bag). Then they did a radio frequency reduction to the base of the tongue. Lots of work. All went well. I really expected my throat to be the worst of the experience. Not even close. True, it looks weird to look into my throat and see no punching bag in sight. And it feels weird to feel all of those little stitches back there tickling the back of my tongue like some tiny, bristly little kitten sitting there. But my sinuses have been the thing that has been tweaking me this past week.
First, they were packed for the first night. I had a sling under my nose to catch any runoff blood. Nice. Worked well though I must say. Even with the morphine - which didn't really seem that impressive - and the liquid vicodine - which really does work - I was up most of the night with a painful nose. And I could feel the packing, which felt wrong. The next morning the good doctor said to come by so he could remove the packing. My partner went with me. She watched as he pulled a plug from my nose - I closed my eyes and dealt with the feeling. Hmm. Not bad. Air. She says oh that wasn't very long at all. Not bad. Nice Doctor turns back around and says Ok time to take out the packing. Uh..oh. I did not watch. It felt like someone removed a t-shirt through my nose. She said, oh that was kind of long. yuck. Then he took a tiny little tool and vacuumed out my sinuses. Oh, this was a bad sound and a worse feeling. It didn't hurt. It's important to know that it didn't hurt. It was just, disturbing, unsettling. Go on home, don't blow for 4 days. You betcha!
OK, so I can see I have furry little stitches at the back of my throat. And they aren't going to let me forget about them. But my nose has stitches too. It has stitches inside the left nostril - the side ALL the knots fall on. Evidently every stitch in my nose tied off in the left nostril. So I carried tissue around to dab at my nose gently while it healed. It was doing pretty well though.
Friday, April 22, 2005
Genetically engineered foods
OK, I was visiting the Whole Foods website and read their stand on genetically engineered foods. You can read it here: wholefoodsmarket
I felt like I had to respond because things are getting out of hand, so this is what I sent them.
I felt like I had to respond because things are getting out of hand, so this is what I sent them.
I LOVE your stores and your products. I have to feed not only myself but a number of different animals that are even more sensitive to pesticides, etc. than we are. However, I have one concern about your statement on genetically engineered foods. I think that you are in a position to education people with true scientific information rather than jumping on the mass media band wagon and lumping all "genetically engineered foods" in to one scarey basket.
Please remember that even hybridization is a form of genetic engineering. That Ice Berg lettuce did not occur in nature. And that many crops we enjoy today would have been wiped out at some point in history if farmers and botonists had not figured out how to share the hardiness or resistance of one plant with that of another.
I think there are absolutley risks with some genetic engineering and as always we need to be watchful about how far things go, but I encourage you to temper your position on the subject with some common sense and expanded understanding of the broader subject of possible benefits as well as risks.
I feel that your position right now just encourages ignorance in favor of a great marketing angle. I would hate to have Whole Foods become just another manipulator of public hysteria.
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