Blah

Kind of a depressing morning.

Partly due to the weather-we had two days of rain, yesterday was a wonderful sunny day, and now we are having two more days of rain, if the weather people are to be believed.

I read the paper and saw that the man from town that killed his mother last year was sentenced to 30 years in jail. He said he got angry when she refused to let him take a trip on his own, and an argument escalated to violence. According to the lawyers, he has "low to normal" intelligence, and his mother  was "controlling" and "treated him like a 7 year old". How sad.

Then I went to my computer and saw a headline about a college student apparently committing suicide because his roommate and a friend had secretly taped him having sex, and then put that online.  Really, people? You're smart enough to get into a college, never mind Rutgers, and you think it's okay to secretly tape people doing anything and put it online?

Then to put the rotten cherry on top of this gray morning of gloominess, Rosie didn't want breakfast this morning. Yesterday I paid the vet for a followup office visit and blood tests. The blood tests were absolutely normal, so her meds seemed to be working great. The dogs had a long run in the woods, baths afterward and all was well.  We (the vet and I) had discussed moving the prednisone from evening to morning, since it caused her to drink (and pee) a lot, so no pill last night. I gave her one today, and I hope the change might be the reason for the change in appetite. I hate to even think about this, but if the steroids stop working after a week, what else can be done? We have already passed the financially sound limit of doggie care.

I have great hopes for this afternoon- that day can only get better, right?

Apres Vacation

J's vacation week was not as productive as we hoped it would be. The first weekend was spent in RI at my niece's wedding, which went very well. This is my favorite shot, I don't think I ever saw her smile, but she did a mean stomp!

Almost smiling there, isn't she? And when she gave up, it was suddenly.

Wouldn't it be nice if it was acceptable for grownups to have strollers handy for little naps at social affairs? Mmm mmm.

Then the Rosie health issue sucked up our attention, energy and remodeling budget, so no progress was made inside the house. We did get some gardens cleaned up and lawns mowed, but that was about it. It is nice to see Rosie back to bouncing around- what we thought was maturity was apparently just feeling like crap.

Last Friday we drove down to Sectaur's to help with a couple of projects. We got off the highway as soon as we got into MA, and drove down Rte 1 to enjoy the scenery. I wish we had left a little more time to go further along the coast- it was a beautiful day for a ride. Taking 62 west was still nice, but started getting frustrating as we hit commuter time. 

Sectaur's and his lady friend (who I will call Minnie in honor of her passion for Disneyland) took us out to dinner and we had a nice time visiting. Bright and early the next morning (9ish) the men drilled holes, ran cables through walls and under the floors and installed a ceiling lamp. Minnie and I weeded their gardens and trimmed bushes, so their front walk can now be used without ducking and squeezing. It was a good morning and we were on the way home by noon. So the two ends of the vacation were good anyway.

Plus, we are grand-doggy sitting Mabel while her folks trot around Moldova. Their first night, the hotel didn't have any water, so not as improved as Ms M had hoped! They get back to MA today, and will come up Saturday to reclaim their beagle. Mabel has epilepsy, so we've been a tad nervous about that, but she has had no problems- knock on wood. I don't know if it's a beagle thing, or just her, but she sure does get fixated on certain things, like getting into our garbage can. I found it on top of the kitchen table the other night after J had had enough of the thumping. She also howls when someone walks out the door, even though there is another human right behind her. 

Now, not all of the scratches on that door are from Mabel, but she has contributed quite a few! We've taken them down the pasture into the woods several times and she loves that, though she sometimes has a hard time keeping up.

They all enjoy grazing when we get in the field.

Between the field and woods, there is pond which is filled by drainoff only. The kids used to skate there, but by this time each summer it is pretty low and covered with duckweed. The dogs love it.

Everyone but Rosie- she doesn't do water.

We had a bucket of water and a towel to wash the swamp mud off  tails, tummys and faces when we got back. 3 dogs stood and took it without a whimper. As I wiped Rosie -feet only- she pulled each one back with a wince as if it were acid I was wiping on. Big baby. 

This is what's been keeping me busy and away from blogging.

Pretty Sky

After welcoming Rosie home last night, we ate dinner and J decided to build a fire in his new fireplace. He took the camera to document it, of course, so it was handy when we saw the pretty skies.

Notice the pink tints in the clouds? That's not west, that's east and the moon was rising at the same time that the sun set. We had a low layer of dark clouds and the glow from the sun ( and the moon, I guess) was reflecting up. Normally that view would be much darker.

This is the west.

I'm so glad J decided to make a fire, and we caught this beautiful ending of the summer. 

Hey, it's good to be back home again

Rosie is home again and feeling much better, thanks to 29 hours of IVs. I had to pick her up last night when the vet closed and take her to the emergency clinic for overnight fluids. That was hard, since she was so happy to see me. J went this morning to pick her up and take her back to our vet for more fluids, and as it turned out, another test which showed she has Addison's disease, and has virtually no adrenal gland function.

This means a steroid shot is needed every 25 days or so, and that will be quite a hit to our budget. J and I have always been pretty pragmatic about pets and money but this hit us unexpectedly hard. Maybe because it came out of the blue and Rosie is so young. And maybe because she is more 'our' dog, not the kids'. We certainly spend more time with her and Boomer than we have with other pets. This whole episode was expensive, but we felt that we needed to find out what was wrong and give her a chance.

It was nice to see her walk in and be checked out by the others, go outside to make sure everything was still there and then settle down outside the bathroom door to watch over dinner preparations.

Coincidentally, Monday I started reading Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote, which is an excellent book about his life with an extraordinary dog. I highly recommend it.