dogs....

they are bound and determined to drive me crazy...
Last weekend Gobo broke out in a bad case of the itches. He seems to have a bad reaction to bug bites. Not sure if it was mosquitoes or if a bee/wasp got him, but he wasn't doing well. He scratched and chewed himself raw in a few spots. We dealt with it and he is doing much better, though is likely to stay shaved down and in pj's for a while while everything heals up.
This weekend, being a holiday to boot.. Willow decided that it was her turn to have some fun. I gave them some treats to distract them while I went around putting fertilizer spikes out for the veggies. The ones in the garden were fine, but there were a few pots of tomatoes on the back porch. She decided that I must have buried treats for her and dug one of them up and ate it.. I managed to stop her before she got more of them (she thought they were delicious..) and luckily they were organic spikes and non toxic, but I still had to keep an eye on her. She threw up a few hours alter and left some messes over night. All to be expected, and thankful it wasn't much worse. She's all back to trouble making normal now.
Just hoping there will be a nice long break before the next dog related excitement...

Why is it always weekends??

I was planning on trying to get a bunch of things done yesterday. It was warm and sunny, there were things I could do in the yard. We have a neighborhood meeting Tuesday night that I need to get paperwork ready for. I was trying to clean my desk and the kitchen. Laundry would have been nice to get done. Gotta start getting things ready for my step daughters to arrive in a month. Lots of things to do...
Nope. Instead we had a crisis. A small, furry crisis.

The big baby of the weekend has been our little 3 year old Pomeranian, Gobo. He was born with several birth defects and has had ongoing problems of one sort or another it seems. Last year he started having all sorts of skin problems and fevers. Vets couldn't figure out what was going on, because he'd always clear up the day before his appointment. We thought we'd figured out that he was having a food allergy, and after a few changes, she seemed to be all clear again. Yesterday something set him off and I discovered that he had chewed a large strip of fur and skin off his back. Not good. So I gave him a good shave and rubbed him down with some ointment and gave him some benedryl (vets had said it would help with the itching and fever) and put then he got all dressed in his little purple pj's to keep him from getting to it.
He was still all jumpy and itchy and the only thing that would calm him down was if I was holding him. So I spent most of yesterday with a little dog pouch strapped to my chest.
This was not the first time, and probably won't be the last time with him. I actually managed to get a few things done, (ok, I got my desk partially cleared and watched a bunch of Doctor Who online while he napped) so I was happy. Even though I didn't get all the things done that I'd really wanted to do, I simply can not feel as though I "wasted" a day being tied to the dog.
He is feeling better today and is currently napping on the other side of the room, though I suspect he will come over soon and want me to pick him up. Now that the swelling and redness have gone down, it looks like this round might have been due to some sort of bug bite or sting, which is much better then the other options for what might have caused it and it should start healing soon, though he will be in the pj's for a while.. (The bare patch is about 1 inch wide and nearly 3 inches long, so gonna have a big, itchy scab for a while..)
And yes, yes, he was named after Gobo Fraggle, though if people ask who are not familiar with our weird Muppet ways, we tell them it was a contraction of "good boy".. it just saves the headaches of trying to explain the entire history of Muppetdom.. and, honestly, that is kinds of how I got the idea for his name.. we couldn't decide which Muppet to name him after and once when I was telling him he was being a "good boy" it got kind of slurred into Gobo and it just kind of went from there.. though he's not much of a brave explorer... unless mommy's there to protect him. lol

wow.. time flies...

Dang, I didn't realize it had been so long since I was last on here...
life happens I suppose... :)

Let's see, what has happened since I last posted..
well, all of our mice and gerbils have died of old age.. Well, the gerbils had health problems and just died on us.. but the mice all got old and died. Though right at present, I've got a wild mouse we caught about 2 weeks ago in a tank downstairs.. We caught her in a live catch trap and dumped her in an old empty tank until we could release her out in the woods.. cept the silly thing went and gave birth to a litter of, I think, 7 2 days later, so she's been getting a nice cozy little tank to nest in while we wait for the babies to get old enough to release. So they have about another week while I work on building a release box for them that will hold some nesting material and a food stash, since it has already frozen and dumped snow a few times.

Our older pom, Rocky, passed away in April of 07. Right around the time of all the dog food tainting, though not related. His heart meds had slowly been causing problems with his kidneys, and it all just finally got to be too much for him. I got up one morning and he had just colapsed, his back legs wouldn't work anymore, so I got him settled in his basket and brought him water, offered food, etc. But knew the end was near. A few short hours later, he just quietly fell asleep and passed away. He was a very good dog, very loving and well behaved. He is still missed.
That took us down to just 2 dogs, our other pom, Pepe, and the JRT, Willow. Hubby and I discussed it and decided that we'd like to look into getting another pom, and I started looking around at local breeders, expecting to get on a waiting list, but found one who had a lovely little boy we could have right then and there.. and for free! But, he had a few problems.. He was born with several birth defects, but given my history with dogs, it wasn't anything that we couldn't handle. (I've ahd several dogs with assorted medical issues over the years.) So on Memorial day, 2007, we brought home a very active little pup, just 7 months old and named him Gobo. We took him in to get neutered, of course, though it was more a formality as one of his birth defects would make breeding near impossible, but while he was under the knife, the vets tried to make things look a little neater for him as, well, there just is no polite way to say it, his penis was exposed. The skin that would normally cover his eurethra just wasn't there, so there is some exposed membrane that could cause later problems with infection. So they were trying to move some skin over that area to cover some of that up. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and we found out that he had an even weirder case then first thought, as he does not pee from the tip, but from an opening about half way down.. which they'd covered up.. So we had a bad abcess.. and the poor little guy spent most of the summer being restricted to the house and kept away from all the neighbor kids while he healed up... So, needless to say, he has become a serious momma's boy.
Then in December, I got a call from the same breeder. She'd bought a beautiful little female up to add to her breeding stock, but at 2 years old, she barely weighed 3.5 pounds and was just too small to use. So she wanted to know if we knew of anyone looking for a pom as a pet. Couldn't find anyone (which is odd.. when I don't know of any available, everyone's asking me.. but when I do have one available, no one wants em..). So, she came to join our bunch as well. Turned out, the little thing had just terrible teeth. She had a complete second set of cainines, so she had 4 extra teeth in her little mouth, so it hurt for her to try to eat. So, we talked to our vet, pushed a ton of soft food on her to try to get her weight up a smidge, then took her in to have her teeth done. In addition to the 4 extra teeth, she had to have 12 others pulled because they were loose or soft. She's up just over 4 pounds now (which is where she should be, she's just a tiny, delecate little thing, unlike stout, and very much over weight Pepe, or big, surdy Gobo who is twice her size) and just a joy. We named her Gir, and if you are familar with Invader Zim, the name suits her perfectly.

In august of 2007, I was in a very bad car accident. I had gone to the airport to pick my husband up, and on the way, I stopped for the light, but the very big delevery truck behind me, didn't quite make it. My poor station wagon, which I loved, was completely crushed. The back end just all crumpled right up to just behind the driver's seat. Fortunately, the kids had decided to stay home, so it was just me in the car. I was able to walk away, thankfully, though a good deal of that had to do with the shock. A few hours later, I could barely move. When I saw my x-rays, I was very very thankful. My spine was so shaken and just all over the place, that it was truely a miracle that nothing got pinched or severed. I was in a LOT of pain though, and really couldn't move much. We managed to get the kids back to their mom's for the school year, and bought me a new big car - hubby decided after seeing the car that he wanted lots of space between me and anyone behind me... and got me settled into a routine for trips to the chiropractor before hubby had to leave to go back to work again. The next few months were very interesting. I was in pain almost non stop, couldn't walk, couldn't sit, couldn't stand for more then 5-10 minutes at a time. could barely move my right arm, wasn't supposed to lift anything, etc... but.. no one else home most of the time. But, doc was pleased, said my recovery went better and faster then he expected, and about 10 moths later, I was released from care. I still have occasional pain, limping, and such, my pelvis was twisted very badly as well, and it just won't go back 100%. Mostly I just have to try to loose some weight, which is extra annoying because I had been loosing weight before the accident and doing really well for the first time in years. Of course, after the accident, I coulnd't do anything, so gained everything back, and now it hurts more to do stuff, so it's harder to get myself to do it.. mean mean cycle...

Let's see.. in October last year hubby and I went to Indiana to visit his mom and sisters. I'd only met his mom once before and hadn't met any of his siblings. It was hard on me to make the trip, but it was well worth it, as a month after we got back, his mom passed away.

In November, my oldest step daughter made us Grandparents! Darn her!!! :) I'm much too young to be a grandma.. but then, I'm much too young to have a 21 year old.. :)
The baby is very adorable though. They both came up this last summer and spent a month with us. Bailey and the baby (Gaia) were a joy to have with us, and Gaia was one of the best behaved babies I've ever dealt with. Though their visit really re enforces the need to get a baby or two in this house full time.... *sigh* ... one day.. one day...

Every time we've gotten started on adoption paperwork, something comes up to but a delay in it.. last year, it was my car accident, this year.. well, we found out this past spring that my hubby will be deploying at the end of this year and be gone a year. So, that put another 2 year delay. *sigh*

This year, over all, has been fairly quiet, though extremely busy. and really doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon. Right now, I'm just happy gas has gone back down under $4 a gallon. :)