Category Archives: Pets

Blue Dog

In which my dog is such a good girl!

I’ve had my beloved ACD Bindu with me for a couple of days. Bread let me take her when I saw him at BoSe’s the night before last, and I walked her over to AmmZon’s and bathed her immediately, then poisoned her with flea meds.

I’ve had her at work with me, and she lounges under my desk and naps, or plays with the other office dog, Jamal, who is a gorgeous and friendly brindle pit bull.

This morning Bindu and I walked from AmmZon’s to the square to work. She’s remembered all her training, and heels beautifully. When we walked on a leash this afternoon, she left the perfect amount of slack in the lead. I love that. (A dog that pulls bugs the shit out of me, so I kick ’em in the haunch until they stop.) If she’s off lead and we approach an intersection, she always pulls back and looks at me before we cross. Such a good girl!

Dog love is a beautiful thing.

For the LOVE of GOD, Stella!

In which we return to the vet for a third time.

Picture015.jpgStella’s got another hemotoma in her ear. This is the third one.

It’s in the original ear. The hair hasn’t even grown back from the first surgery.

I asked what would happen if I just ignored it, and the vet said that it would eventually burst and be really gross, not to mention being unhealthy for the dog. You know, having a bleeding blood vessel like that.

So.

I will be visiting the vet again tomorrow morning to drop Stella off, and she will give me The Look and I will feel really, really bad about it, and they will put her totally under and do the same surgery they did a couple of weeks ago, and I will pick her up tomorrow afternoon and she will be stoned out of her gourd and there will be a rubber tube sutured into her ear.

And it will cost over $100.

I. Hate. Fleas.

In other news, this morning’s interview went great… in the sense that the people were really nice and it was, over all, a pleasant social experience (and I looked fantastic, if I do say so myself). I was grossly overqualified because it turned out to be a shipping clerk position and they’re not going to hire me and even if they did I’d turn it down because there’s no way I could stuff CDs into sleeves for a living and be able to stand myself.

I’m doing a wee data entry gig at WGI in the evenings and possibly during the days if they can get a computer set up for me. So: income! Yay!

Megadeath!

In which it was really totally icky and gross! Ewh, ewh, EWH! EWH!

I went into my kitchen yesterday and something… horrible… had transpired.

I really can’t even put it together, even with the circumstantial evidence. I mean, there was some… fluid… on the counter that looked like the kind of fluid that really needs to be INSIDE of something, like, permanently. The kind of fluid that only gets outside if you’re, like, totally dead or something.

Oh, and there it is. The totally dead or something. I have no idea how it got quite THERE, exactly. Perhaps the cat ate it, and then, well, and I know this sounds far-fetched, but bear with me: perhaps the cat sat on the counter, just so, at the very edge, and, I don’t know, PUKED down into the water bowl on the floor and half missed?

Buz McFuzThe point being that on the OTHER counter, not the one with the puddle of mystery internal fluid but the other one, was a single drop of blood the size of a nickel. And below that counter, half in and half ON the stainless steel dog water bowl, were the bloody internal remains of… something.

The thing was so dead and so totally apart that I couldn’t even identify it.

Guts, floating in the water bowl. SO FUCKING GROSS. EWH!

I had to pick that bowl up and take it outside and dump it in a ditch. And then I had to clean up the counter. And the other counter. And several sketchy-looking places on the floor.

And when I was done, with my nose all wrinkled up and everything, the cat, Buz, in his little-girl voice, said, “Meow?” and polished my ankles, purring.

Purring!

He’s such a liar, that innocent-looking cat with his little-girl voice. Meow my ass. He totally and without shame wreaked deathly, bleeding havoc IN THE ROOM WHERE I COOK MY FOOD!

In other news, I have an interview tomorrow morning at 10:30 and then I’m going over to WG because apparently they’ve got a data entry project I can do. Yay!

Stella! Steeeella!

In which I right a wrong.

Picture026.jpgI’m so self-involved apparently that I totally forgot to mention Stella’s surgery!

She was stoned as hell when Bread picked her up from the vet late yesterday afternoon — her eyes were red and droopy and she couldn’t seem to be able to focus both of them on the same object — but she survived the vet once again and her ear is slowly draining all over the place.

She’ll be on antibiotics for the next ten days; she gets two huge pills shoved down her throat every day until the tube comes out of her ear.

Bindu comes to work

In which there’s dog love.

Picture027.jpgJust got back from lunch. Bread came and picked me up and we got tacos and sat under a tree at Whitham Woods to eat. Then we stopped at TSC for dog and cat food, then he drove me to the jeep. He’d already changed the tire and it was on its tiny little doughnut.

He took the jeep, I took his truck and came back to work.

Bread brought all three of the dogs into town with him ’cause he wasn’t thinking, and it’s too hot to leave them in a vehicle and too weird to take all three of them to a shop and leave ’em in the jeep while the tires are getting changed. So I’ve got Bindu under my desk because Bread didn’t really want three of them with him. Somehow two are easier to manage than three.

Oh, that blue dog. HOW CUTE IS SHE?!?!?

Farewell, sweet Dhuma

In which one of our canine/human family passes.

Re-re called me last night after I’d gone to bed, so of course I didn’t answer. She called back a bit later and left me the message that I got late this morning: Miss Dhuma died last night.

dhuma

~+~+~
Years and years ago, Dhuma and I cohabitated. Actually, her people at the time, Re-re and her then-BF RP, shared a house with Bread and myself, but that’s secondary. Dhuma and I lived together, so I knew her well, and she was an awesome person. Awesome fur person. Whatever.

Dhuma was not only Stella’s littermate, but one of the many, many dogs that ties a rather large group of very old friends (and lovers, on occasion) together. The canine family lineage goes like this:

Once upon a time, Blount got a dog. A short-haired Golden/Lab mix bitch he named Tigger. [She’s 14 now.] Blount was close with Bread, Re-re, RP, BoS, Truck, and others. Tigger became the foundation bitch for five generations of dogs, many of whom are owned by our friends.

Tigger begat, among others, Ginny [12 yrs] (originally Trucks’ dog, and now living with the Craig-Phillipses) and Kaia [12] (the apple of BoS’s eye, and the One Who Has Been Known to Physically Push Girls Out of BoS’s Bed On Occasion if They Were Sleeping In Her Spot).

Ginny (now known as Jenny) begat, among others, by Bread’s dog Stimpy (deceased), both Stella [10] and Dhuma.

Kaia begat, among others, BoS’s dogs Shiva, Luna, and Buddha, and Prana [5], RP’s current dog.

When Stimpy died, Bread took Stella because she was one of Stimpy’s. Eventually Stella begat, among others, my Shiva, and Thea [5] (who makes her home with Jenny and the Craig-Phillipses).

There are other dogs from these various litters who live with other friends of this extended group of people…The point is that a great number of our family-of-friends’s members have dogs from this line, so it’s more than just a friend losing a pet: we’ve all lost her.

Dhuma was a honey-colored short-hair Golden/Lab mix, a world-class swimmer and fetcher, and a really nice person. Dhuma had a cute pinkish-brownish nose instead of a black one. When she greeted you she’d sing this wonderful keening love song just for you and wiggle a lot and growl and smile, pulling her lips back and ducking her head. I used to say, “Dhum-dhum-dhuma-dhuma-DHUMA!” when I visited her house, and she’d sing at me with her deep voice, and grin at me.

She was obedient (in her own special way), and gentle, and smart, and handsome, and loyal.

I loved that dog. She was the kind of dog who’d give you a happy-to-see-you-dance whether you hadn’t seen her in four hours or four years. And she was a great snuggler.

You’ll be missed, Dhuma.

I’m going to hug Stella and Bindu and Shiva now.

Girls, girls, girls

In which it is girls’ night out! Whoop!

Gorgeous texted me Friday night: ‘Pre-party at my house 9:pm.’

I was late, of course. Bread and I had had a fight, and after had to spend some quality time “making up,” if you catch my drift. When nine came by, we were in the shower. I got quickly dressed and as I was leaving, Gorgeous texted me to say, “Where u at?”

I texted something dirty back to her — something along the lines of ‘on my way, had to get me some’ — and hopped in the jeep and drove right to her house stopping only at Mi-T-Mart for cigs.

Gorgeous & Rockstar and Ray were chillin’ in the basement, and we started drinking Tuaca while we chatted and watched a Jamiroquai vid. (I love Jamiroquai, OMG.) TiRi came over; I haven’t seen her in forever and she looks fantastic, so skinny and tanned with her cute little belly jewelry. By eleven thirty it was decided we absolutely must at least make an appearance at the bar; we four women walked over. At the Dead Cock we socialized and had drinks.

Gorgeous & Ray, Red Rock, 04/06
Gorgeous, Ray, at the Red Rock

When the bar closed at two, we walked back to Gorgeous’s house, screaming loudly the whole way about sex. Particularly, the myriad of wrong ways there are to perform oral sex on a woman and about the prettiest cocks we’d seen in our various sordid careers. It was a complete and total drunken laff riot. By the time we entered Gorgeous’s neighborhood, we were hissing loudly in an attempt to be quiet, hanging off each other, cackling, and trying not to trip over the broken sidewalks.

We hung out in the basement until nearly four in the morning. A few other people were there when we arrived, hanging out with Rockstar; a few more were supposed to come for afterhours but never did.

I drove Ray and TR back to 2nd street, where they’re next door neighbors, and then crashed on the bed in Ray’s basement ’cause I wasn’t in any shape to drive all the way to B-ville.

I woke up at 10:30 this morning because my phone rang. I missed the call, but it was NLW wanting me to do something with her so she could escape having to work all day. I went upstairs but Ray wasn’t home (and she hadn’t left me a note, either, wench) and then I went back downstairs, curled up with my new best friend Miss Muffin — the friendliest, cutest little tortoise shell cat you ever did see — and called Bread.

“Hi,” I said when he answered. “I’m not dead, but I am hung over!”

He laughed and said he’d figured that. We chatted, I agreed to pick up some motor oil for him, we hung up. I called NLW at home, she didn’t answer. I got dressed, sat around a bit, then called Ray. She didn’t answer. I left, drove around a bit, called NLW’s cell. She didn’t answer.

Got coffee, got tacos, went to Wally World. Bought two cheap plastic pitchers, some cheap plastic cups, and two quarts of 10/40. I felt inordinately proud of myself that I’d remembered to get pitchers; our last two were broken and eaten by a dog, respectively.

I got home, made a pitcher of Tang and a pitcher of iced tea, poured myself a cute little lime green-colored plastic cup of Tang, and answered my phone when it rang.

It was Re-re. Her dog, Dhuma, Stella’s sister, is dying. It’s awful. She’s having horrible seizures, isn’t eating or drinking every day, hasn’t gotten out of bed at all today. Re-re’s had that dog for over a third of her life, and Stella’s the same age as Dhuma. You know when you get them that they’ll die someday, but it sucks when it happens. I sat on the porch with my Tang and had a smoke and we talked dogs and life and other stuff; I watched my beloved Bindu as she flopped down under the Little Red Wagon for a nap and realized that she’s ten this year, which is really old for her breed. (An ACD’s life expectancy is 9-10 years.) She’s getting cataracts. And Stella has arthritis and has to be lifted into the truck most days. Oh, the dog love. So deep. *sniff*

Bindu, Daybed, 04/06
Bindu, my Australian Cattle Dog

When Bindu goes, I’ll have to be sedated. Seriously. That little Nazi Hitler of a blue thing owns me, absolutely owns me. I sing “Am I Blue?” to her and change the words so it’s about her. She’s an excellent cuddler. She’s totally velcro, which I love in a dog — I don’t like having to look for them. She’s half cat. She’s wonderful. She’s the dog of my heart.

Dog. Snow. Thing.

In which I list three unrelated, random things. Because this is my blog, damn it, and damn those ‘what to write about’ blog treatises too, because I’ve been blogging since before there was a fucking word for it and I’ll write whatever the hell I want to!

One. I made meatloaf for Bread’s dinner the night before last, and neglected to put it away fast enough. When I came downstairs around 8:30 that night, Bread was asleep on the couch and the meatloaf, which had been sitting in a pyrex dish on top of the stove, was gone.

Shiva had very carefully stood up on his hind legs and eaten a whole pound of meatloaf without knocking the casserole dish to the floor, since the sound of it shattering would surely have waken even Bread and earned that dog an ass whoopin’.

I mean, a whole pound of meatloaf?! Bad dog! (Clever, quiet, sneaky bad dog!)

Two. This wholly unwelcome news is just in:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A SNOW ADVISORY…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 6 AM CST THURSDAY.

A FAST MOVING WINTER STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE FROM EASTERN NEBRASKA TO WESTERN ILLINOIS BY THURSDAY MORNING…BRINGING WIDESPREAD SNOWFALL TO THE AREA. THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL OCCUR FROM ABOUT MIDNIGHT TO 4 AM…WITH A BAND OF 2 TO 4 INCHES EXPECTED FROM EASTERN IOWA INTO WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS.

THE SNOW WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES…WITH VISIBILITY REDUCED TO A QUARTER MILE OR LESS AND SNOWFALL RATES POSSIBLY AS HIGH AS 1 INCH PER HOUR FOR A SHORT TIME. SNOWFALL TOTALS BY MORNING ARE EXPECTED TO REACH 2 TO 4 INCHES.

Guess what? The shitty weather’s here! Maybe I’ll get lucky and get snowed in and have to read books in front of the fire and drink lattes.

Once again I’m soooo thankful I have a 4WD! Not.

Three. Yesterday, Bucket gave me a cute little case for my external hard drive enclosure. You really can’t get much geekier than having a custom zippy case with a shoulder strap just for carrying your external USB drive around with you.

In other news, it’s five o’clock, and I’m off to the tavern for a hard-earned cocktail. Okay, all I did was move a couple of web sites and talk on the phone a few times, so perhaps “hard-earned” is pushing it. But it’s five and I’m still awake by God so I figure I’ve earned something.

Dog Love

Stella developed a lump on her back, last summer sometime. It didn’t seem to bother her and wasn’t growing, plus her mom has bumps all over, so we didn’t worry about it. But a couple of weeks ago it suddenly decided to double in size, so of course Mr. B elected me to take Stella to the vet so I could be the bad guy and let strange people in a smelly place poke her with sharp things.

Er, I assume the vet’s is a smelly place – if you’re a dog. It smells fine to me, but I’m only a human.

Anyway, Stella’s appointment was Friday. She loaded up in the Jeep with me and we drove to town to see Dr. Weigert at 9:30. He asked what she was in for, and I said, “She’s got a couple of cysts. I thought you could poke her with sharp things so she’ll hate me for bringing her here.” He laughed and said, “I think we can continue that tradition,” and promptly gave her a booster shot. Stella glanced at me. Argh!

Then he gave her a general overall exam (she’s still got the best teeth ever), then checked out the big cyst. He decided he wanted to empty it out, even invited me back to surgery if I wanted to go. Having already seen one of Brett’s cysts removed, I declined. When the vet tech took Stella’s lead and tried to take her out of the exam room, Stella gave me the look that BRETT SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED: “Are you seriously letting these people take me somewhere?!?!?” My heart broke a little, but I waved my hand and said, “Go on, Stella. It’s cool.” And off she went with the the vet and the tech.

I sat in the exam room feeling somewhat guilty – she’s such a good girl, and they always do such terrible shit to her at the vet because she always has the kind of ailments that require getting poked with sharp things – I balanced my checkbook to keep myself busy. Damn Brett! He should torture his OWN damn dog and not make me do it! The last time I brought MY HUSBAND’S DOG IN was a couple of years ago after Shiva’d really fucked her up in a fight; the vet had had to flush out a bunch of really deep teeth wounds with a squeeze bottle and put her on antibiotics. She *so* did not dig it and kept looking at me like, “Get me out of here!? Like, PLEASE?!?”

The door opened and Stella half-trotted, half-wiggled her way up to me, eyes saying, “You didn’t abandon me here!” And right behind her: “She was so good!” the vet tech enthused. “Dr. Weigert wants to show you – the cyst was infected. That’s probably why it changed size all of a sudden.”

She withdrew and I petted the brave Miss Stella, who now had a bald spot and a 1-inch incision on her butt instead of a lemon-sized cyst from hell. The vet came back in and showed me a specimen cup half filled with blood and infected pus. (EEWH! What is it with my having to see the contents of CYSTS?!) “It was definitely infected,” he said, “and I’ll want to put her on a five-day course of antibiotics.”

“Of course,” I said. “That is, after all, why we come to see you. You always poke her with sharp things and put her on antibiotics.” He laughed.

So Stella’s big bump is gone and all is well. Being a dog, she’s probably already forgotten about being poked with sharp things. (Whew.)

Sunday morning when Brett went to give Stella her pill, Shiva, as usual, WENT TOTALLY NUTS. “Give me a pill! Give me a pill! Give me a pill!” He has to be physically restrained so that Brett can shove the antibiotic down Stella’s throat – he’s CONVINCED she’s getting some kind of really valuable attention.

The last time Stella was on pills Brett started shoving random stuff down Shiva’s throat too, just to make him feel loved: a balled-up slice of salami, a kibble, his fingers. The dog’s utterly silly. Brett got the idea Sunday that what Shiva REALLY needed was a mouth full of peanut butter, and he proceeded to smear peanut butter onto the roof of each of our dogs’ mouths. OH. MY. GOD! I’d forgotten how funny that is! All three dogs (just thinking about it now made me blow spit all over my monitor!!!) stumbling around trying to lick the roofs of their own mouths – it’s SO FUNNY! Brett and I laughed ourselves completely silly – if you’ve got a dog and never done it, DO IT. Take a glob of peanut butter and pack it into the top of your dog’s mouth. They LOVE peanut butter and go crazy trying to eat it. IT’S SO FUNNY!!!
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Visitors

Around 10:30, Stella and Bindu went nuts at something out the window. So we all went outside, and the ‘something’ turned out to be two somethings: two shorthaired yellow labs.

One was young, male, friendly, enthusiasic, and cute as hell. The other was female and I think she was older; maybe even his mom – also very cute.

They hung out around the farm all day, sniffing and peeing and sniffing and wiggling and being really friendly. Both would come when called, both were healthy and well-mannered… well, there was an incident with the puppy putting muddy footprints on my left shoulder, but he was off as soon as I hollered “Down!” at him. Then he smiled and wiggled ALL OVER… and didn’t do it again.

He did sit wagging next to the Jeep, and I had to say, “No way, boy, we ain’t goin’ anywhere!”

I wondered if I should take a digital pic of them to post at the Batavia Conoco (er, sorry, I guess it’s a BP now) when walking them down to the road didn’t get rid of them. They were both clean and healthy and wearing collars with rabies tags dangling, so I knew they were supposed to be somewhere.

I slept most of the afternoon, but went back out with the girls around four and the visiting labs were still here. When I called, “Hey, puppy! Hey, momma!” they both galloped over for a sniff.

When Brett got home at six-ish, I told him about the visitors and he said he’d seen them almost by Chicken’s, so apparently they were on their way home somewhere.

I think they’re the first all-day canine visitors sans humans of their own to visit since we’ve lived here!
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