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?