Maladies

I am half way through the book, The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I bought this book with some hesitation as I am not naturally gifted in the sciences although I find science fascinating. A book that purports to examine the biography of cancer, written by an oncologist, not surprisingly made me question whether I was up to the task of appreciating it, being captivated enough to finish it or would merely drown in a barrage of arcane, scientific detail. However, the fact that it won the Pulitzer Prize tipped me over the edge as I figured it must have some broad appeal that made it comprehensible enough for a layperson to understand. And it does. I haven't been able to put it down. It is fascinating - it is not dumbed down but nor is it so rarefied that one would have no hope of understanding it.

Sadly, my choice of books has been incredibly apt this month. Christopher Hitchens, he of ferocious intellect, wit and turn of phrase, died of esophageal cancer last week. Whether one agreed with his views, (which of course I did - there was no one of greater eloquence when it came to atheism) it was impossible not to admit the brilliance of his way with words and his matter of fact, straight to the point perspective. He was the reason I paid a ridiculous amount of money to read Vanity Fair every month. Each time the magazine appeared in my mailbox, it was like a little Christmas present and I would save his article for last as it was always my favorite.

When his diagnosis was made, he wrote a brilliant article called the Topic of Cancer for Vanity Fair. It was completely devoid of any self-pity as he made no bones about the fact that he consciously made the choice to smoke and drink to excess and was now paying the price. But he also wrote in very spare (as well as "I have no time to spare") prose, about the topic of religion, those who purported to pray for him and how absurd it all really was. As heart breaking as it was to read his subsequent articles, it was also rather breath taking that he continued to be so prolific in spite of such misery right up to the very end. Hitchens was truly a loss for society and culture, no matter where you stood on the issues he took up.

A very good friend of mine is also faced with cancer in her family. After reading The Emperor of All Maladies and recently being confronted with cancer through others, I am reminded that despite decades of research, phenomenal sums of money and research efforts, cancer is truly the scourge of the human race. It affects so many people and it is disheartening to think that we really have not come all that far when one considers that we have successfully managed to treat so many other once fatal diseases so effectively and yet the victories against cancer are still relatively small. Cancer will touch everyone someday in some way so at some time in your life, volunteer, participate in a run to raise money, support someone who has cancer - do something that makes a difference.

Since it is almost Christmas, I will add some happier thoughts here. PB is thrilled with his new dirt pile from whence he watches over his sister:

Moooommmm, she's escaping again!

Yes, the dog I should have named Dora the Explorer, found yet another tiny little hole under the back fence and dug a *very* shallow depression which she thus escaped from. So off I went, half dressed, half in pajamas having quickly noticed the missing white dog and stood in the middle of the street yelling "Loooollllllaaaa" like some demented idiot. After several yells, she came racing down the street to me. Like many men, one cannot chastise for past behavior which is immediately forgotten - thus I could only praise her for her excellent recall while my inside voice cursed and threatened to send her back to Texas. I took her back inside, finally located the barely noticeable depression and put up lattice, piled dirt and rocks in a little wall and then buttressed it with two bags of sand. I examined the rest of the perimeter once again and was confident she couldn't dig out of anything. Not that she hasn't been looking:

Just looking for squirrels...ho hum.

It's been 4 days now and no more escapades so I think we may be good. Sigh. As a result of the incredibly fattening Satin Balls, Lola has already put on more weight to my delight. She looks much healthier. She does not have a bladder infection but does have a very high protein content so I need to lower her protein portions. She has an eye infection which will be looked at next week but she is coming around to looking more and more as she should. Given that she seems unable to find a way to tunnel out, she has resorted to flattening herself on the dirt and watching the street goings on through the small gap between fence and wall which is very amusing. She looks like she is conducting surveillance. I half expect her to get out a radio and notify the command post of her findings.

You do not see me.

Dexter has finally fully recovered, such that he has resumed his place under the bird feeder, tormenting the birds with no means to back up his threats. He still keeps a close eye on Lola but seems resigned to his fate at the bottom of the household food chain.

That's right, just go back inside where you belong dog.

Dexter rarely rests and has been driving me nuts lately with his ADD. My attempts to read by the fire are often disturbed by Dexie attempting to rearrange the Christmas decorations:

A little more forward I think.

Or else spying Stabby sleeping in front of the fire, sidling up to her like this:

I love you Stabby.

And then attacking with a vengeance which causes her to scream, hiss and leap onto my lap for protection, also not conducive to reading. Sometimes I feel like I run a daycare.

Lola has discovered the joys of being outside most of the day although she is always free to come in and sleep on the guest bed. She and PB spend most of the nice days asleep on the deck once they've had their breakfast and their morning walk. She still tires easily but is able to play for longer and longer periods with the PB who twists himself into yoga poses trying to get her to play.

Wake us for dinner.

While the dogs rested at home, I took H, my little sister through Big Brothers/Big Sisters, out for some holiday events. First we went ice skating. I would like to say my extensive hockey experience (ha!) helped me show her the ropes but all it did was make me quicker getting my skates on and off. Here's H, precariously balanced on the ice:

Is this fun?

After ice skating and hot cocoa, we went over to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens for their annual Garden d'Lights. I had not been before but although small, was very impressive and well worth seeing. Be prepared for ridiculous amounts of traffic and parking issues for both events. We spent about an hour between both events and almost 2 hours dealing with traffic and parking. The joys of the season.




















Merry Christmas!

Lola

Lola arrived last Saturday. I should have known it would be a fight to the end given my initial experience with the "rescue" who shall remain unnamed. It could have been the first contact I had with them when I was informed they had meant to call me back but were "trashed from the Homecoming game the night before"; or the fact that the head of the rescue had no idea how to email and had to leave post it notes on the computer screen for the younger volunteers to send needed emails; or the fact that even when I got an email, I could hardly read it because it was so illiterate and misspelled.

It took well over 3 months to arrange what should have taken a month at the most. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt as I suspect they are doing the best they can with no money and not many volunteers but when, on the day Lola was to be picked up in Amarillo, I received a phone message that began with the words, "You F---ing B---h, you owe me money for my time and gas etc. ad nauseum that took up 10 minutes of voice mail, all because a volunteer was angry that the transport that *I* arranged from Seattle because they wouldn't call him directly, was a little late, I had had it. The work me came out and I told them in no uncertain terms where we stood and where we would stand in the future should I get another voice mail like that.

So it should have been no surprise that when I finally got poor Lola, she was grossly underweight, has a bladder infection, had nails that almost curved into her pads they were so long, was flea ridden and filthy and clearly has been neglected despite having been in foster for so long. I was irate when I saw her and realized the condition she was in. But all that is behind her now.

Her first night with me, I gave her a bath and she promptly made herself at home on the sofa:

This suits me just fine thank you.

Lola has a fantastic temperament. She is incredibly sweet, very people oriented, clearly is familiar with being inside the house most of the time and loves the cats, Baby and everyone she comes in contact with. She is the anti-Baby in personality. Nothing disturbs her, she prefers to be inside and follows me around the house, never barks and is scared of nothing. They are a perfect match. Baby spends more time in the house now, wondering what's so interesting in here and she is venturing out more, wondering why he is always outside. Baby has become far more people oriented already and she is exploring being able to go outside and run.

To my immense relief, there has been no jealousy on Baby's part and they get along fantastically well. If anything Lola keeps Baby in his place. She has growled at him a few times (which quickly got her sent to time out) and she takes his bones and bully sticks without complaint from him though I always make sure there is enough to go around, they are supervised and nothing is left out for them to fight over. It has been absolutely seamless integrating her into the zoo and I am hoping there will be no delayed reaction.

Lola's only downfall is that she clearly had no boundaries whatsoever in her various homes. She gets on the furniture, puts her feet on the counter, is rather pushy with wanting pets etc. So we have had a few conversations and clicker training episodes as a result. She is incredibly smart and learned immediately that things are a little different here. She now knows the rules and is only allowed on the guest bed:

This life of ease is *exhausting*.

Lola also sleeps a LOT for a 3 year old, probably due to her infection plus the fact that she is terribly thin and malnourished. Her usual position for most of the day is here in front of the fire:

This ain't Texas weather!

Lola has also been introduced to the new world of bully sticks and bones which she loves. She likes to eat her bully stick in front of the fire and she is very dainty about it.

Where have you been all my life bully stick?

I took Lola to the vet last night. She had a full and I mean full exam, fecal, blood tests, nail trimming, microchipping etc. Thank god, by some miracle she is parasite and heart worm free. Heart worms were a special concern as there is a nationwide backorder for the arsenic drug Immiticide which is used to treat heart worm. While we don't have heart worm here in WA, it is extremely prevalent in places like Texas and can kill a dog.

Lola is in relatively good health considering but she will need antibiotics for her infection which we are still trying to narrow down and won't know until her labs come back. Baby, Dexter and Stabby as well as Lola had to be treated for fleas and of course her weight is our biggest issue. I spent a small fortune on excellent food from Mud Bay today called Taste of the Wild. It was tricky to find something with a lot of calories that is nutritious but not too rich for her as she clearly has been fed poor quality filler food and not much of it. In addition, M, Baby's foster mom sent me a recipe for fattening her up. They are called Satin Balls (don't say it) and I dutifully went to the store and purchased all the goods. It took me an hour to cook it all up as I don't have a skillet big enough to cook 10 pounds of beef in and Lola absolutely will not eat raw food right now. The process:

Even I can make this!

I have to confess, with the molasses in there, it smelled pretty good. But I controlled myself and saved it for Lola! She gets two cups of food for breakfast and two for dinner and a cup and a half of the Satin Ball recipe for her midday meal. She had no qualms about snarfing it all down so it shouldn't be long before she's plumped up. The kids got to lick the bowl when I was done cooking:

Phase I - they start out equally.

Phase II - Baby is relegated to the edge. Story of his new life!

Dexter meanwhile, is seriously peeved with the arrival of a new dog and the fact that he does not get to partake in Satin balls.

Hey! Where'd the bowl go???

Dexter has had a rough time adjusting to Lola even though she has been a saint. She doesn't look twice at the cats let alone chase them. Stabby couldn't care less. Dexter however, has taken her arrival very personally and has taken every opportunity to hiss, growl, fluff himself into a giant orange ball and generally try to claw her eyes out. He has evidently come to realize she is not leaving and has taken up his station under the Christmas tree, camouflaged by the tree skirt and looking for an opportunity to launch, as Ben puts it, a slightly off center frontal attack. Poor Dexie. He is not capable of perfectly coordinated offensives.

I see you and I hate you.

The only bump in the road has been the discovery that Lola had been sneaking out of my yard every day to explore the neighborhood. My neighbor came over to tell me he had watched her crawl through a tiny 5 inch gap in the fence in utter disbelief and that when she was done touring, she'd happily return home. I almost died when he told me. At least she is friendly and seemed to know exactly where home was. But the thought that Baby might have enlarged the hole and gotten out almost gave me a stroke. Sooooo, a completely new fence was built yesterday as well as new gates and the fortress is impregnable now. You can see the new fence in the video below.

To my delight, the dogs have already begun playing together and they race around the yard, chasing each other and play fighting. We are far ahead of where I thought we'd be at this time so all the grief of the adoption process was worth it.

Happy dogs:

The Countdown

It's begun! The countdown to Christmas, the countdown to Lilly and the countdown to lowland snow (the last is a little dubious). The fireplace and windows are done. My gardener came last Friday and did a massive yard cleanup from the hurricane that was fall. PB can finally lie on the grass and not come in covered in pine needles looking more like a giant hedgehog.

My friend Ryan from work and his wife gave me a fantastic deal on some gorgeous leather furniture for the cost of a tank of gas. They delivered it Thursday night which allowed me to move my giant sofa to my bedroom. It will serve as a huge bed for whichever dog wants to sleep on it.

Last Thursday was also our inaugural day of skiing. It was a gorgeous day but icy although Ben insisted it was "hard packed" rather than icy. Uh huh. We stopped at our favorite lunch spot on the way down, Zeke's on Highway 2. They serve 1/3 pound Elk burgers which is our standard post skiing meal. I start to fantasize about them about an hour before we leave Stevens. Perfect start to the ski season.

Later that day, Ben and I met for our usual Christmas Tully's coffee prior to going to cut down our Christmas trees. By the time we start traipsing around the back 40, it's pitch black, which even with the aid of a flashlight, makes picking out the perfect tree a little more challenging. Being the girl, I tend to take *far* longer picking out the perfect tree and then even longer sawing it down. It's quite amusing. We loaded up our cars and I white knuckled it all the way home as I wouldn't say I tied down my tree quite as securely as recommended by Washington State law!

Once we got home, we set up my tree and moved furniture around. I was then able to decorate and provide the cats with a thousand Christmas delights (ornaments) and PB with yet another reason to stand outside and stare malevolently inside at the new intruder (the tree).

Hopefully PB's stocking won't catch fire...

PB is a little peeved at the fact that he can longer lie on the sofa with me as it is just big enough for me but not him. The cats however, are thrilled with the new furniture and believe the sofa was provided entirely for them.

Just big enough for two oversize cat egos.

So the house and yard are ready, Christmas cards have been written, gifts have all been purchased and the few dog items I needed for Lilly have been acquired. We are ready for the Lilly countdown! Lilly will be picked up in Amarillo this Tuesday evening and arrive in Fife, WA next Saturday afternoon. It has been incredibly long in the making as it has been very difficult working with the rescue in Texas but I think we are finally set.

Experience with PB taught me to clear my schedule and make sure I have nothing big coming up so I can devote my time to helping both Lilly and PB adjust to each other. I took a couple days off of work to ensure that happens, consulted with our fabulous behaviorist and reread some of my dog books that focus on multi dog households as it's been awhile and Hudson was quite sick by the time PB arrived on scene. I can't wait for her arrival and I think it will help the PB immensely once we are all settled as he has become more needy lately. Having a companion and playmate to hang out with will hopefully alleviate some of his dependence on me as the center of his world.

As always, we are playing the name game. I am thinking of changing Lilly to Lola but haven't decided for sure and of course Baby still presents the biggest name challenge. In the meantime, here is a photo of a maremma who is a dead ringer for Lilly. Unfortunately, they took her profile off of petfinder so the real Lilly photos will have to wait.

Not the actual Lilly. But close.

As for our countdown to snow, the weather has been suspiciously calm, cold and quiet. We can only hope for mountains of lowland snow this year but I refuse to acknowledge the possibility it won't come! PB has his dew claws crossed and waits patiently on the deck for his beloved snow to fall.

Where are you snow?

Stuff

Busy days for us. I have had some work done on my house in anticipation of winter. I am not sure who is enjoying the upgrades more, me or the animals! The first upgrade was a new gas fireplace insert, just in time for fall storms and winter snow. I am taking the cost of it out of Stabby's allowance because she hogs the fireplace from the moment I turn it on (with the handy remote) to the moment I turn it off.

I can't believe you made me suffer without this for so long.

Unfortunately, the floor in front of the fireplace also puts her on a level that the orange menace can reach and he waits outside on the deck benches for her to fall asleep in her blissful ignorance. No sooner is she snoozing in front of the fire when a ninja attack is carried out. Poor Stabby.

What? I bear nothing but goodwill. Mwah mwah mwah.

In addition to the new fireplace, new vinyl windows are being installed as I type. My house looks 20 years newer with these heat efficient, noise dampening, crystal clean windows. We are ready for winter...and whenever I relist the house for sale.

The PB is completely unmoved by my attempts to make the house even more livable and comfortable, still preferring to be outside, even in the fall wind and rain. Yesterday I found him outside with leaves on him and he never even opened his eyes. He is a polar bear after all and eagerly awaiting snow!







I myself am eagerly awaiting Lilly. Trying to get a timely response from the Texas rescue is causing me to lose what's left of my mind. The house visit was completed last week and the report sent the day of the visit. I have heard nary a word from them so called again today wondering a little more forcefully what is going on and when I get her. I have transport lined up and waiting for the word from me. We should be all clear to go if only I could talk to a live person. I'd post a picture of lovely Lilly....but they already took her post off of petfinder. Not sure if that's good or bad!

Last Thursday, my friend Bonnie from work and I decided to take advantage of some spectacular fall weather and go for what I thought was a little hike. Bonnie is from Georgia and still adjusting to mountains, altitude and cold! So I looked up a few hikes and picked Mt. Washington which I mistakenly thought was 4 miles round trip. Turned out to be 9. Oops. Sorry Bonnie. However, the view at the top was fantastic and we both agreed it was well worth the extra mileage. Ignorance is bliss!

Mt. Rainier in all its resplendent glory.

It may look warm and sunny but do not be deceived. It was *freezing cold* and sunny.

The valley around North Bend.

In other news, the motorcycle has been retired for the winter and my skis moved to the front of the garage in anticipation of what appears to be shaping up to be a fantastic winter of skiing. Crystal, Mt. Baker and Whistler will all be open as of Friday. I had to forgo crew and hockey for now because they are expensive sports and it was recreation or windows. But we live in the PNW people and there are too many free outdoors activities to count so I have nothing to complain about!

In anticipation of ski season, Ben and I went to see a new ski movie which has won numerous awards. We saw it at the King Cat Theater in Belltown last Friday but is available on Blu Ray. (So much for the "premiere") The name of the movie is All I Can. Best on a big screen but if you can't manage that, still worth watching. I was in awe. (Of the skiing too...not just seeing a movie for this anti-TV chick so you can all keep your comments to yourselves!)

Before the movie, we went to an interesting restaurant for dinner called The Icon Grill. Different menu and good but not great. Maybe we were disappointed because the week prior, he took me to a fantastic little Italian/Greek restaurant in Bothell named Vivendo. For those of you that live near, it is worth making the trip to Vivendo.

Last but not least, a couple excellent books I just finished. The first is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.




This book has received an enormous amount of press coverage as well as word of mouth recommendation. I had heard about it from numerous people and tried to buy it while I was in San Francisco earlier this year but all the bookstores were out which says something as I was in Palo Alto on the Stanford campus. I finally bought it last week and finished it in 3 days. I could not put it down.

It is a difficult book to describe but in short, it's a novel about identical twins born to a nun in Ethiopia (are you already starting to see the complexity of the story?!). Verghese is a doctor and you will have renewed faith in doctors when you read a book that is this nuanced and multifaceted. Verghese is an extraordinary writer who defies the usual stereotype of the rigid doctor who sees people only in terms of diagnoses, science and rates of cure. I will say no more about the book other than: read it! If nothing else, you will fall into the category of literary outcast if you can't say you have read this book.


The second book I recently read was Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna.




This book is a fictional account of a writer who the author puts in the lives of Frieda Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Trotsky amongst others. I love Barbara Kingsolver because every one of her books is vastly different. She takes on such disparate subjects yet she has a fantastic way with words and the manner in which she imagines her characters. Also definitely worth reading. When I have time, my next Kingsolver book will be Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. If any of you have read it, let me know what you thought.

And on that note, it's time to extract Stabby from behind the dryer where she is hiding from the window guys! Happy soon to be Thanksgiving to all.

Guide to Stalking

I thought I was nurturing the wildlife in my backyard when I put out my bird feeders but it appears I am luring them to their deaths. Several days ago, I came home to find a sweet, fluffy, tiny, very dead bird on my kitchen floor mat. The Polar Bear and I were both traumatized. He does not like a mess in the house and I do not like dead animals. Especially ones that my own animals killed. I know it was Stabitha who did it because even though the orange menace goes into paroxysms of murderous excitement sitting under my bird feeder, he is physically incapable of moving quickly, gracefully or efficiently. So I yelled at Stabby who yawned, lifted her head briefly and then buried her head back into the sofa.

You told me to earn my keep.

Poor Dexter can only manage to stand beneath the feeder for literally *hours* and hope a bird falls into his mouth.

Please, please, please...

I have no idea what is going on behind me. I am a saint.

That lasted only until the squirrel arrived. Even PB cannot resist stalking a squirrel. Next thing I knew, he was rocking climbing, Dexie was camouflaging himself behind a leaf and Stabby was mocking them both:

You distract and I'll grab him.

If you look closely below, you can see yesterday's squirrel laughing it's way out of the photo on the left and PB trailing far behind. He is a giant oaf when it comes to stalking small prey.

Come back! I was just kidding...

PB's leg is healing nicely. His foster mom gave me some good first aid suggestions which seem to have sped up the process. Obviously he is not limping around the yard! In fact, I went out to lunch yesterday and this is the face I returned to:

I swear mom, I have no idea what happened.

I left the doggie door open and true to LGD form, he would rather be outside, even in the pouring rain. He obviously decided yesterday's downpour would be a good time to dig himself a new hole which entails digging ferociously, kicking up a bunch of dirt in his own face and then using his filthy front legs to try to rub the dirt off his face. The above is the end result. His mama was not pleased.

Today, my mom and I drove up to the Skagit Valley to pick up her tulip bulbs at Roozengaarde. We took Jake and PB with us so they could enjoy the car ride and a trip to a local park I found. We picked up the bulbs, went out for lunch (where PB enjoyed some left over pot roast) and then proceeded to Little Mountain Park. The best (and pretty much only good) part of the park were the two viewpoints which afforded sweeping views of the Skagit Valley, the San Juans and presumably Mt. Baker if it hadn't been cloudy.





We walked around a 2 mile trail which seemed suspiciously less than two miles. Jake went crazy with all the sniffs and PB stopped about 83 times wondering if this whole thing was such a great idea after all and hey, I thought we were headed to Canada. Why did we stop here? Fortunately with Jake there, PB continued back to the car.

Uh, you want me to walk out there?

Stay tuned for the feast of available Maremmas for adoption that has ended my long famine. There are now so many available, I am not sure which one to take but it *finally* looks as though I will end up with a new dog...just not sure which yet!

Triangulation

I recently put out my two bird feeders in anticipation of winter so both the squirrels and birds could stock up. It took a few days before they realized bird Costco was in their midst. It didn't take any time at all for the Orange Menace and Stabitha to realize bird TV had resumed its regular programming.

This morning, I came home to this:

Like shootin' fish in a barrel...

At work we call this triangulation. The cats just call it luring...

Conehead

Two nights ago, I took the PB to the dog park at 0230 in the morning. It was a beautiful morning - cold and clear and there was a thin layer of fog at head height above the field. PB was thrilled and raced around chasing rabbits.

Midway through the rabbit chasing, I heard what I thought was one of the roosting birds that shrieks when we walk near it. Turns out it was PB shrieking in pain but I didn't know that til later. I continued walking along the path and up ahead I saw his white form standing next to the path I was on, waiting for me to walk by and intercept him. This is not normal PB behavior and something was clearly wrong.

As I got closer, I saw he was holding his left front leg high up near his face. It was, I thought, my worst fear. He had been chasing rabbits and gotten his leg stuck in a hole and injured foot or leg. But as I reached him, standing pathetically, stoically resigned to his fate, I realized his left foot was caught in the loop of his martingale collar and he was slowly choking himself out. Dumb dog. I clucked at him, removed his foot, imagined the mockery I would face at work if they ever found out my dog had choked himself all on his own and off he ran, back to chasing his rabbits. I thought that was the end of it.

We got home and I left shortly after to go to crew. When I returned, it was light out and I saw his foot. It looked awful. The skin had been completely flayed off in one part and there was a line around his foot as though it had been caught in a trap. It was red and raw and of course he was licking it obsessively. His actual ankle joint also seemed swollen and he was ginger when moving on it. I was certain there was no way his collar could have caused that kind of injury. More likely, he got his foot caught in something in the field, wrenched it back because of the pain and got it stuck in his collar. Because it was pitch black, I have no idea what was out there and even though I brought a flashlight, the time delay between when he screamed and when I found him meant that I couldn't even pinpoint where he was when it happened. The park is 40 empty acres when we go at night. My fervent hope is that it wasn't a deliberate trap or device someone put there with the intent to harm dogs.

The end result was yet another trip to the vet. We couldn't get an appointment until that evening so in the meantime, I plied him with all sorts of bribes and ridiculous amounts of attention. He is a master of woe is me, I'm about to die, walking the plank hopelessness!

Oh I SUPPOSE a bully stick would help...

The raw bone pacifier in lieu of licking his foot...

Despite my distractions (bribes) he continued to lick his foot all day. It was nasty by the time we got to the vet. She examined him and also concurred that his collar couldn't have caused the injury but we aren't sure what could have. His soft tissue in the area of the injury is swollen and stretched out and he had already licked it into a hot spot. Thankfully, no evidence of a fracture or a vascular occlusion. We got some rimadyl for inflammation, orders to keep him quiet and a recommendation for an Elizabethan collar.

So today, I purchased the dreaded cone. I paid a ridiculous amount of money for a "Comfy Cone" which does indeed look comfy.

Why doesn't my dog look happy like the dog in the logo?

I had to giggle at the reflective stripe at the bottom. What? You can't see my conehead coming from far away?

Unfortunately, PB was utterly *terrified* of it, I think because of the noise the velcro makes. I felt like an ogre putting it on. He promptly stripped it off so I put it on a little tighter. He left it on and sat in the middle of the yard with a "Just shoot me now" look on his face. He began stress panting, drooling, his eyes were dilated with fear...it was a Prozac moment.

I'm good with amputation instead...

I left it on while I worked in the yard but by the end, even I couldn't stand watching him slowly descend into utter panic. So I took it off, brought him in and wrapped it with an ace bandage just tight enough to keep it on his leg and then used my handy ice hockey tape to secure it. He crawled onto the sofa with me in utter relief and promptly passed out. Poor PB.

How. Could. You?

Alas, he has licked it so much that it has become a scaly, oozing mess so I have to go get antibiotics tomorrow to add to his pharmacy. We declined the Tramadol for pain since he is so sensitive to meds so he'll have to suck it up.

And to add insult to injury, the cat went and stole his bed.

Don't even THINK about putting a cone on me...

So PB, (like most men), would like you to listen to him whine and also requests your never ending sympathy because his mother is already maxed out!

Briefly

So plans changed in regard to the motorcycle. Oh don't collectively exhale a sigh of relief! I still got one, just not the one I posted. After doing more research, I was advised that if I am going to start with a sport bike, I should at least start with one that's a little more upright than the CBR. Happily, the lime green Kawasaki is a little more upright and being a girl, color is critical! I have always wanted the green one and my wish was granted when I found a 2009 Ninja ZX6R at a dealer in Tacoma.

Ben and I went down last week and he did the test riding, mechanical stuff etc. while I stood around looking cute and imagining myself going 140 mph on it! All checked out well and he rode it home for me (I am not stupid enough to ride a sport bike home on I-5 through Tacoma when I have never ridden one outside of the safety class!). It's more accurate to say he flew it home as he passed me on the freeway going about 110mph. I can only dream. So here it is, the Green Machine. (My mom strenuously objected to my naming it the Death Trap)






I have only ridden it around the block a couple of times as I am waiting for frame sliders so I don't damage it if I lay it down. Even going slowly, it was fantastic! I can't wait to really take it out for a ride.

My poor PB had to go to the vet last week to get his nails trimmed and it necessitated knocking him out. The vet and I tried valiantly to cut his nails which are the size of small tree limbs, without sedating him but he was so stressed and so difficult to cut them with him fighting it that we finally decided to do it right and sedate him. It also gave her a chance to give him a thorough exam which is usually quite difficult. He survived but it wasn't pretty!

Please place my tongue back in my mouth.

He looked so pathetic I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His tongue flopped around, he desperately tried to fight the anaesthetic, he wobbled into walls and his third eyelids slid up his eyes. In short, he looked like a lot of the people I deal with on Friday nights at work. I felt terrible for doing it do him but the dremel just wasn't doing the trick and we needed to take huge chunks of nail off. In the car afterward, he could not even hold his head up and I poured him into his bed. Despite my guilt, I wasn't above taking a photo with my cell phone.

I would give you the paw....but I am SO tired.