The last 72 hours have to be some of the most tiring of the last year.

Riley is on the mend.  He’s definitely starting to act more like himself.  It’s nice to see.  We’re still doing fluids subcutaneously twice a day to continue to flush his kidneys.  The vet has no idea what is really wrong, but when he went back to the vet on Sunday, the creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels are starting to head back into the normal range.  Horray!

So, we actually got a pretty good night sleep last night.  (Other than Riley’s poor leaky penis.  He has so much fluid in him that he can’t even tell if he starts to leak a little.  Pissing him off a bit that we won’t let him sleep on the bed, but he’ll get over it and the leaking will go away once we stop the fluid flushing.)  The sleep was SO nice.

This morning, W started a new schedule at work, which included getting up an hour earlier than normal.  Not too horrible, but I would have loved to have slept all day.  I had way too much to do to finish getting the apartment ready for a showing this evening.  Keeping the apartment tidy is growing more and more difficult with the growing stack of boxes.  Thank god we get to start moving those boxes over to the new place as of Friday morning!

What a day, in which I shoved a needle in one of our dogs

Earlier this week, Riley started acting a bit strange.  At first he was just clinging to me.  I’d sit at the kitchen table and he would lay down under it at my feet.  I’d stand at the sink doing dishes and he would lay behind me on the floor.  I’d go to the bathroom to pee and he’d lay on the bath mat two inches from me.  Not like him at all.  He’s a very independent dog.  As long as he knows what is going on in the house, he’s happy to lay on the couch all day, every day.  But he turned into a little leach.

Thursday we really decided that he wasn’t feeling well.  He started peeing.  Every. Hour.  And a dog that will hold it for 13 hours if we happen to oversleep on the weekend was now having accidents in the house.  I was going through atleast a roll of paper towels a day.

This morning, we decided to take him in to the vet so that they could run a urine test.  We just assumed that it was a bladder infection or something of the sort.  About two hours after we dropped him off, we got a rather concerning.  Riley’s normal vet was not in the office, and the new Saturday vet informed W that Riley was pretty sick and needed to be hospitalized over night for fluids. His bloodwork had shown that his kidneyswere not functioning correctly.   Now Riley has some of the worst separation anxiety I have ever seen.  W has worked really hard with him over the years to get it under control, but the idea of the poor guy laying in a dark clinic kennel all night was horrifying to all of us.  We talked to the doctor and finally decided that we would bring him home with an IV catheter so that we could continue to administer fluids throughout the night.

The first half of the first of two bags went fine.  He laid calmly on the couch while the fluids dripped slowly in.  We took breaks every hour or so to go visit the grass(snow).  Everything was going swimmingly.  Then I lost every “Florence Nightingale” award I was shooting for.  I got up to heat myself some coffee in the microwave and in the two minutes I was away from the couch, he woke up from a dead sleep and jumped off the couch, tearing the port and tubing out of the catheter.

We had to drive him over to the emergency clinic, hoping they would be able to clear the catheter and reattach the port, but there was a gigantic clot in the line and they had to remove it.   It ended up being a blessing in disguise however.  The doctor at the overnight clinic was pretty shocked that the vet had sent us home with a catheter in his leg, because complications like that are common.  So, she gave us some needles and instructed us to give the remainder of the liquid subcutaneously.

I’ve given fluids before, to a rabbit, but never to a dog.  I was a bit nervous.  But with a little online refresher reading and a cup of coffee to settle my nerves, the needle slid in easily and we got an entire liter of fluids into him within an hour.

He’s now happily sleeping in bed with W and  I’m debating going to bed or just trying to power through the day.  We have to take him back in to the clinic at 10 for more testing and examination. (thankfully his regular doctor will be there) and then we have a tremendous amount of things to do to get the apartment ready to be shown on Monday.  There’s also the pure fact that we move in one week.  So, sleep?  While inconvenient might be greatly needed to get through a long day.

Holidailies 14: 7 days and counting

I have always been a one dog kind of girl.  Even when I lived with The Professor and we had three beasts, I always connected to just one.  For the past two years, it has been my wonderful Kentucky.  He’s such a big sweet lug.  But since I moved in with W, I’ve really bonded with her dog, Riley.

Riley is really the exact opposite of Kentucky in personality.  He’s mild and gentle to Kentucky’s rambunctious wildness.  He’s a snuggler.  Kentucky’s a kisser.  He’s a toy lover while Kentucky is a toy killer.  It’s really quite the combination.  They are the best of friends and Riley is definitely becoming one of my top two favorite dogs in the whole world.

The ONLY problem I have with Riley is that he is a counter surfer.  You absolutely, without a doubt cannot leave anything edible on any surface that he can reach or he will get it, tear it open, and eat it.  He’s been known to pull a paper grocery sack off of the table, only because he wanted to see if possibly maybe there was anything that he could eat in it.

What in the world does this have to do with the holidays, and specifically my Holidailies post for the day? Well, today was the beginning of my holiday baking spree.  And before I could leave the house to go pick up the forgotten ingredients at the grocery store, I had to figure out a way to keep Riley from eating the already purchased ingredients that were on the table.

This was my solution:

I was pretty convinced that this would be okay.  These shelves are totally exposed, and we usually only use them for dishes, so it wasn’t like he would know there was food up there.  We were leaving for dinner when W expressed some concern that he might get up there to steal the treats on the lower shelf.  The lower shelf is FOUR feet from the floor, but she had no doubt in her mind that he might very well attempt it.  I love the dog, but really?  All of that work for a jar of Karo Syrup and a bag of powdered sugar?  He was a good boy and didn’t do it, but now that she pointed it out, I’m sure I’m going to walk into the kitchen at any time to find his little white butt covered head to toe in stickiness and white powder with his standard “What?  You ain’t never seen a powdered dog wig before?” look on his face.

Mr. Kentucky Bucket goes to the Vet.

Last night while we were relaxing, I noticed a sore on Kentucky’s tail.  He has a cropped tail, but it is cropped a little longer than normal.  Most likely it was a shoddy job done at the damn puppy mill he was rescued from.  Anyway, we pinned him and I got a fairly good look at it.  It was a dark patch of dry skin with a very raw lesion on the very tip of the crop.  The tissue under the lesion was swollen and hard.  Luckily, we are good dog mamas and our dogs have health insurance.  So, a trip to the vet was in order.

I called the office as soon as I got going this morning and secured an appointment for 4:00 this afternoon.  To say the least, I love our vet for a number of reasons.

1.  They got me in for a same day appointment.  Kentucky’s old vet usually could get me in within the week, but her hours were very limited and same day appointments were for emergencies only.

2.  The lesion on his tail is simply that.  It’s an abrasion, probably caused from him sitting down too quickly on his tail or dragging his tail on the cement.  It was, however, very infected and the tissue underneath was getting pretty inflamed.   So, we came home with a $97 bottle of antibiotics and some antibiotic spray.  That was the entire cost of the appointment.  Had we not had insurance for him, the appointment would have cost me nearly $400.  Thank goodness.

3. Kentucky has never been an aggressive dog, so the weird behavior lately has been very sad and frustrating for me. He was fine until we got into the confined little space of the exam room.  Then suddenly any time the vet techs or the doctor would try to approach me, he turned into the snarling, howling beast.  Usually, I am so concerned with the person that he is lunging at that I do not have an opportunity to keep an eye on his behaviors and postures.  The lashing out in the exam room really helped with that.  Since the doctor and her assistants were not afraid of him, I got a chance to really see what was going on.  The doctor and I agreed that he was trying to protect me.  And definitely not in an aggressive way.  He is barking and howling, but his tail is still going and his ears are still forward.  There are no signs of aggression.  Just him warning people to stay away from me.  We decided that the exam would best be done in the back room without me present.  And, according to the doctor, that was exactly what needed to be done.  Once I was out of view, he was completely relaxed and didn’t snap or behave nutso in any way.  So, we at least have a starting place to work on this crap.  Doc suggested we start with a refresher obedience class (mostly for the socialization and stimulation) and then work on desensitizing him to strangers by asking people that we know to approach him with extra special treats.   So, that’s the plan for now.  Finding an obedience class.  Gonna try to find something that starts right after the holidays.

4.  We have tried a Gentle Leader with him in the past to help with pulling on his leash, but it didn’t seem to work.  I couldn’t get the darn thing fitted correctly and he just kept pulling it off of his nose because it was too loose or licking the air constantly because it was too tight.  Doc thought it would be really helpful.  Something about him needing to know that I am in control and the leader and I am perfectly safe and he doesn’t need to take care of me, because I am taking care of him.  I told her about our previous experience and the vet tech offered to come with me up to the collar department and help me get him properly fitted for one.

Now I’m not going to say that Kentucky is thrilled with the idea of the Gentle Leader.  That would be an out and out lie.  He ran around the house for the first thirty minutes rubbing his face on anything and everything he could reach.  But walking him went wonderfully.  It felt like I had just as much control as I do with the prong collar, but I had to use much less force and effort.  I took him for a brief walk and then a car ride for fun, constantly passing off pieces of cheese as rewards for not pulling and not barking.  We didn’t encounter any strangers, but the walk itself went well.  Baby steps, I suppose.

When we got home, he resumed the attempts to remove the halter and after wearing himself out, he finally resigned himself to falling asleep on the couch in it.

So I’ve done the NaBloPoMo thing for a week now and I’ve reached the point where I always end up giving up.  it’s the day that I have nothing good to talk about.  The Boy and I just spent the day homeschoolin’ and knitting.  We went out for Chinese at the classy joint by the U of M campus that keeps a wedding party table up at all times, just to show you how beautiful it would be to have your reception there, right next to the gigantic backlit photograph of the Great Wall.  Now we’re watching Survivor.

Oh!  Beast #1!  So, I tried the prong collar.  When I intially put it on him, I felt like the worst dad mom in the universe.  It looks downright evil.  It’s big and bulky and pinchy looking.  But I wrapped it around my own thigh last night and gave it a pretty hefty tug, and though it was uncomfortable, it was not painful.  This morning, I slid it on over his neck and decided that I was just going to be confident about it.   I knew that he trusts me above everything else and that if there was any chance that he panicked or was in pain, I would be able to keep him calm long enough to get the collar off him quickly.  And I can say without a single pause or any hesitation at all….

IT WAS AMAZING!

He walked so gently the entire time.  He was not scared or nervous with it on.  He would pull just slight, just enough to make the collar tighten half an inch or so and then he let off.  He did that about three time and from that moment on, he walked in a perfect heal.  He walked so well that we took a walk around the entire block this afternoon!  I haven’t been able to walk him more than to the end of the block and back for over a month now.  This evening, he got a bit startled by a bike that rode past, but within a few minutes, he got back on track and did really well.

I love how well it is working, but I’m so scared that he’s going to lose this personality:

7 Things?

I’m totally copping out on the NaBloPoMo posting tonight! After PoppyMom did it on her blog and requested that we all do it, I decided that it would be the easiest way to make a post since my brain is rather frazzled and out of it today.

Rules:

Link to your tagger and list the rules
List 7 random facts about yourself
Tag 7 people
If you’re tagged, play along and pass it on!

1.  Trying to come up with seven things to say about myself that are not hateful and negative is incredibly difficult.  Incredibly.  Here I am on #1 and I’m already dwelling on that fact.

2. I *heart* toe socks.  In a big, puffy paint, seventh grade crush kind of way.  I love that my toes never feel sweaty and that I can see each individual toe without having to look at my toe hair!  Yep.  I said it.  Toes hair.  And my lovely girlfriend?  They creep her out to no end.  Especially if I rub them up against her leg.

3.  I went to camp the summer before sixth grade.  It was a YMCA camp.  I didn’t know anyone else going, but I was convinced it was going to change my life.  Instead, it just made me look like a huge loser when I started middle school that fall and ran into people I had gone to camp with.  They had all gone with big groups of friends that they had attended elementary school with, and I was the only person from my school there.  I spent the entire camp by myself or hanging out with the counselors, who had obviously taken pity on me.  It was horrible.

4.   Shopping is my worst addiction.  Which really if you know me is kind of strange coming from me, because I’m a fairly non-material oriented person.  I’m used to losing my material possessions, either through my own doing or no fault of my own.  It just seems to happen.  So I don’t tend to connect to objects.  But I *love* to shop.  So I tend to shop for things that naturally deplete, like lotions, makeup, shampoos and office supplies.  Compulsively.

5.  When I read something on the computer, I highlight it first with the mouse.  I then proceed to drag and click all over the text as I read.  No idea what started that habit.

6.  The Professor gave me a prong collar tonight to think about using for Beast #1.  We’ve been having some problems with him lunging and barking at people like some sort of raving maniac.  Now mind you he is one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met, but something has thrown him off lately and now he’s being a ass.  The collar will be my absolute last resort, and I’d only use it after I have talked to his vet and done a shitload of research.  It’s sitting in my bag right now and I can’t quite bring myself to look at it.

7.  I may possibly be purchasing a laptop tomorrow and I’m about ready to jump out of my own skin with excitement about it!  Yay portable goodness!

And um…if there are even seven people who read this on a regular basis?  You’re it.

We’ve had two very quiet weekends in a row.  I *love* quiet weekends, but I’m starting to feel a little bit stir crazy.  My cabin fever tends to kick in much more in the autumn than it does in the spring.  I want to get out and play and run.
Friday was The Boy™’s school field trip to see the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.  We realized the night before that he had no dress clothes here, as all of them are at the Absent Minded Professor’s house.  In 45 minutes, we managed to hit Steve & Barry’s, Old Navy, and Kohl’s, only to find that they all totally suck when it comes to boy clothes.  We found a presentable outfit for under $30 at Target, of all places.  On Friday morning before his dad picked him up, The Boy™ starting channeling America’s Next Top Model and gave us a “Little Boy Fashion Show”.

Saturday, The Absent Minded Professor picked him up for the weekend early so that they could spend the day working on science fair experiements.  That left W and I with a full day of nothing to do.  We decided to take the dogs to Minnehaha Off Leash Recreation Area.  It is by and far the most beautiful dog park in the city.  It’s about a half mile walk down into a deeply wooded area that runs along the Mississippi river.  The dogs love jumping in the river, and it’s a gorgeous walk for us.

Pretty sure this will be the last time this year that I will get to walk on a beach in flip-flops, let alone wade into the river with the dogs.  Winter is well on it’s way.  Yesterday it was *beautiful* in the morning, nearly 71 degrees, but by evening the temperature had dropped nearly 30 degrees.  Our sweaters have come out for the year.  I’ve been making extra trips to the thrift store to find cardigans and warm pajama pants.  Plans have been made to go visit W’s cousin PoppyMom for Thanksgiving.  Yep.  Summer is over.

Weekend Update

It’s Monday again.  Lovely lovely Monday.  Back to work and real life.

My sister was in town last week, so Friday afternoon I went over to visit with her for a bit and help with some last minute clean up on one of her rental properties.  We had a good time and it was great to see her, but honestly, I feel like we’ve gotten closer since she moved out of state.  The Boy spent the night with her since she was leaving on Saturday.  That left W and I with a rare Friday night with no kiddo!  We initially  planned to have dinner out and a quiet night at home, since there were a million chores and errands planned for Saturday.  That idea fell out the window pretty quickly after we settled in for dinner at Lyle’s.  Two for ones can cause any couple to forget their plans for a quiet evening at home.  W loves Vodka Redbull, so she ordered two.  Plus the two that came with it.  After we finished, we hung out with some of W’s friends who were playing poker.  She decided the buy-in of two shots was perfect, so she  played for awhile.  I am horrible at poker and even more terrible at shots, so I was her card assistant.

The Saturday schedule felt a little packed when we first got started, but it all flowed together pretty nicely.  We swung by the post office to ship out some items W sold on Amazon.  At first we were more than willing to drive to Eagan to send the packages, thinking that we could use the automated postal machine at the post office there, and then we would just head out to the rest of our errands which were all in the southern suburbs anyway.  The postal machine failed us immensely though since it was not able to process media mail postage rates and we had to wait in line anyway.

After leaving there, we headed out for haircuts, which turned out…well it was a draw.  W got a fantastic haircut that is making her consider always driving to Eagan to see that particular stylist.  I, on the other hand, asked the gentleman cutting my hair for a “Hepburn-esque pixie” and ended up with what looked more like a crew cut.  He must watch alot of George Hepburn movies or something.   I had to play with it for some time with a large amount of styling products before I found a combination that works enough to give it more of a “Twigggy” style.  Though considering my body type is anything but Twiggy, I doubt that it looks appropriate on me!  It will do for now though.

The dogs were with us during the errand running so we felt they deserved a long hard romp at the dog park before we continued on to our next destination.  Little did we know that the pond at the dog park was covered in moss and that within ten minutes of playing our dogs would be as well.

With big plans on adding to our wardrobe in a quick, efficient, and cheap manner we headed to the thrift store.  For under $40 we picked up two pairs of jeans, three sweaters, a vest, a button down shirt, a Hamilton Beach grill, and a CD.  Not a bad haul, truly.

Atleast you got the pictures to spice up an otherwise dull post!

The RNC Refugee camp

I am still decompressing from the weekend, so I am absolutely certain that this post will drift all over the place.  Just consider it a little glimpse into my brain when I haven’t had a set schedule for a few days.

Friday, I spent most of the day preparing and packing the truck for our camping trip.  I felt like I had done a fantastic job.  I was wrong.  About two  hours after arriving at the park, W discovered that I had forgotten to put her clothing bag into the car.  I felt horrible.  I felt completely worthless.  Of all the things that I could forget, it had to be her clothing.  So, while she drove back to the city to get it, I sat and watched the fire and tried to not beat myself up completely for an honest mistake.

That error made it really difficult for either of us to get into vacation mode until sometime around noon on Saturday.  But once we did, we both had an excellent weekend of relaxation, hiking, drinking beer, and eating amazing food over the campfire.  Other than pancakes on Saturday morning, neither of us ate anything that hadn’t been cooked directly over the fire.

Interstate Park is absolutely beautiful and the hiking trails were great and varied enough that we’ve been talking about taking The Boy™ on a day trip there.

I started receving texts on Friday night about the chaos that was taking place here in the city.  The RNC has created a police state in certain parts of this city.  I’m a bit flustered and shocked about how things have gone down.  I have grown and matured in my opinions on protesting and activsm to understand that getting yoru message heard needs to involve respect and presentability, but there is still a part of me that wants to sit down and join arms with fellow pacifists and stand together to fight this, and not just keep letting things happen to us.  So, I watch the videos and listen to the live feeds and read the blogs, and my heart is kind of torn in two directions.  One that is angry and sad at the government for how they are responding to the protests and another is angry and sad with the way the protests are happening and that the protestors don’t seem to get that no one is going to hear their message in a positive light with the way they are going about it.

Daily Life

I haven’t had alot of interesting things to talk about lately. Things have really just fallen into a nice little clip and life is as it should be.

We’re preparing for a weekend of camping in the great North East…that is North East of the Twin Cities near Taylor’s Falls. We’ll be heading out on Friday as soon as W finishes work, and sticking it out until sometime on either Sunday or Monday. We went camping within three weeks of meeting each other at the beginning of the summer, so this is a good way for us to close out this summer.

The most exciting part of it though is that I will get to take my dog! And he will finally be coming to live with us! I cannot wait to have my baby with me. The last month has been hell without seeing him on a regular basis.

The Boy™ is also scheduled to come home from visiting his grandmother this weekend.  So, all in all, I’m getting everything that makes me happiest in the world!  Camping with my girl, having my dog by my side, and my kiddo home safe and sound.  All in one weekend.

Today I’ll be running errands to prepare for the weekend.  I have a waxing appointment at 12:15 to get rid of the bear hair that has been growing on my legs for a couple weeks now.  The last time I had them done was Pride week, so we’re looking at almost 8 weeks of growth.  ICK!  I need to make an appointment today before I *leave* the salon for six weeks, maximum!  I always tell myself that I will call and make an appointment when I get home and then I put it off until I look and feel like big foot!

After that I have to run to SuperTarget to get groceries for the camping trip and possibly a stop at the car wash to vacuum out the car.  We’ll see how far I go.