fabrisse | Entries tagged with dogs

The first appointment was on Tuesday. I had Nora in her stroller, clipped in, and had just gotten out the front door. I set the brake and turned to close the front door behind me. When I turned back around, Nora was swaying to propel the stroller.

Sadly, it worked. We had the world's shortest reenactment of the Odessa steps sequence, and Nora landed with the stroller on top of her. A workman saw it happen, helped me get her back into the stroller,and stayed with her for a minute while I threw away the poop that had also been thrown from her stroller.

I talked to the emergency vet while she had her appointment. We're keeping an eye on her, but other than some heavier panting, she doesn't seem to have suffered ill effects from it.

Today, I held onto the stroller while shutting the door. As I bent to grab the front of the stroller to carry it down the steps, she lurched. Nora was fine. The stroller landed upright on the sidewalk. I, however, managed to tweak my right ankle, both knees, and bruise my ribcage from the fall.

I have applied CBD oil as appropriate. I know the vet prescribed the valium for her, but I think it makes more sense for me at the moment.

Just for as long as it took me to wipe and Desitin her little butt, but she is able to feel her back legs enough to help.

She's on a different antibiotic tailored to her infection. We still need keep her sleepy so that she doesn't injure herself.

Nora will have a Physical Therapy evaluation next week.

Nicky is still enjoying his morning walk, but it was cold enough this morning that when I said "home" he trotted down the middle of the street to get back to warmth faster.

We're trying to build my headboard. My new mattress and adjustable frame arrive on Friday.

The little doggie stroller is worth its weight in gold. I used it to take Nora to the emergency vet. I have to put down the back seats to fit it in the trunk/boot, but not having to carry 30lbs of squirming dog in my arms is so helpful. We also got a second soft top loading crate. It's so much easier.

Nora has a UTI. Heavy duty antibiotics, once a day, have been added to her drug regimen. They also gave her a sanitary cut to make it easier to clean her.

I feel so guilty. I've tried to clean her bedding as soon as I realize it's needed, but it can be less obvious than you'd think.

Anyway, doggie duty is easier with top opening crates and a dog stroller.

I'm still walking Nicky at 6 a.m. as his own special treat. Sis is giving him extra cuddles, too. He still takes over Nora's guard duty, but he also naps close to her crate to protect her.

I'm looking after Nora ~ 15 hours a day.

Sis, has night duty.

Nora had soaked through her heavy duty pee pads and managed to poop in her crate without Sis doing anything about it. Apparently, the bedding -- which was wet to the touch and reeked -- "looked dry."

I love Sis. She's working hard and paying most of the bills. But I offered to take Nora's crate in my room or switch bedrooms with her, and Sis said no.

Anyway, baby dog has had her morning pills. I've gotten the house ready for the cleaning ladies (I strip the beds; they make them and then they clean all surfaces. Bless them.)

ETA: I took Nora out of the crate to change her bedding. She was on a small lined doggy bed. I walked to my bathroom to dispose of things and found that she'd managed to drag herself to the front door (at least 8 feet) in that very brief time.

She's a determinator.

ETA 2: Nora's breaks for freedom are, per the vet, bad for her recovery. We're picking up a new prescription for her that should keep her docile and prevent her speeding around dragging her back legs.

Also, I know that science has yet to find the graviton, but I think they should interview Nora. She's pulling something to herself to make 30 lbs of dog feel like a Great Dane.

Nora's rather gnarly scar is something to behold.

At one point this morning, I thought that I had locked her crate, but she managed to get out and pinniped herself ten feet across a room. She's a determined little thing. We're getting her a smaller soft crate that we can keep in one room, so that Sis and I don't have to carry the big one from one room to another. The pet stroller, even if we only use it in the house, has already been worth it from my point of view. Getting Nora from one end of the hallway into the family room is so much easier with wheels. Carrying the big crate on my own was what convinced Sis that we needed one for her room and one for the family room.

Nicky has taken up Nora's usual spot in the window at the front of the house, barking at anyone coming up the street. It's so unlike him. When he wasn't in the front window, he was outside her crate looking in at her.

I would also like to say two things:

a) thirty pounds, low to the ground and not cooperating, is heavier than I thought.
b) I didn't expect so much poop.

My goal for tomorrow is to be able to have a shower.

After major surgery for a ruptured disc on Friday, our intrepid 30 lb heroine is, as of this morning, beginning to get sensation back in her legs. We're going to have to help her pee for a bit. We may be able to bring her home today, but they could also try different medications to see if she can do most of it on her own.

Heavy duty pee pads and a doggy stroller were purchased for the recovery period. There will, if the recovery continues well, be physical therapy to help her get her strength back.

I will see if I can figure out how to get a picture or two up.

In the meantime, I took Nick out for a walk around the block as his own little treat. He was very happy to see her on Thursday afternoon, but he hasn't been allowed to see his sister again because she's in the surgical recovery area and not able to go into a visiting room.

Sis and I are back from our South American cruise. I'll write more on that later, but let it suffice that we were confined to our cabin for two days (sea days, fortunately) thanks to bad colds. I would also like to shout out LATAM airlines for having a really comfortable business class and multi-lingual stewards.

I was awakened by my sister this morning because Nora's back legs weren't working properly. She's not paralyzed, per se, but she can't walk right, can't jump at all, and was clearly in great pain. Sis took her to the emergency vet -- I carried her to the car, since Sis has a bad shoulder -- and I looked after Nicky. Nora will be at the vet overnight, have an MRI tomorrow, and, possibly surgery to help her bulging disc, which is what they think is the cause.

Not the best New Year's beginning.

Nicky is sad because his sister didn't come home with my sister. I'm sad because no one wants to see an animal in pain. And Sis is sad because she loves her dogs.

We have pet insurance, so most of the expenses should be covered, but the fact is the bill has to be paid and the insurance reimburses rather than the insurance taking it directly.

MOM:
Mom had a stroke. Among other things, that means she has balance issues. Most of the time she won't use a cane because "it makes me look old." Mom's 88.

On the plus side, I managed to get her to walk outdoors for about 15 minutes twice last week. For that she'll use the walker that she has, but she doesn't want the neighbors to see her.

Much of the time, my soignee mother is, these days, walking around the house in a t-shirt and a diaper. Why yes, we do have a glass front door.

I'm cooking, which I don't mind. But I'm also doing the laundry, taking care of the dishes, and picking up after the dogs if they have an accident. We have a maid service that comes in once a week for the heavy duty housework, thank heavens, but it still feels like a burden. Especially when I have to clean some of Mom's undergarments.

I know that a stroke means she has certain memory issues, but I don't feel safe leaving Mom to have her fortnightly nurse's check or weekly PT on her own. It's not that I don't trust them. It's that I can't trust Mom to remember things they need to know -- like whether she's fallen -- if I'm not there to be the family's external storage drive.

Mom also complains that I'm a tattletale or correct her too much. If she's forgetting to tell the doctor something, I will interject. It's worse if, as she's implying, she might be deliberately hiding some of her problems from them.

DOGS:
The dogs are cute and fluffy, but even though we have a backyard so they don't need to be walked daily, they are work.

I'm the only one who remembers to feed them. Nicky has decided that I'm his human, so he'll cry if I'm not petting him when he's next to me. No matter that I'm using the remote to change the channel or playing a game on my phone, my hands are to be used for petting.

Both dogs sleep with me. I'm the one who gets up in the night if they need to go downstairs and out of doors. They also snore. My sleep is shot at the moment for a great many reasons, but snoring dogs are among them.

It wasn't so bad when Nora slept with Sis, but it's exhausting.

LASTLY:
I'm not a suburban person. I have no goals to walk toward. The closest Farmer's Market -- which I still haven't been to -- is 15 miles away in Savannah proper. The closest grocery store is 4 miles away. I'm driving so much. I don't like driving, though on the plus side I get to listen to the jazz station on Sirius rather than Mom's favorite, Joel Osteen.

None of this is really that much. I know not having found work I can do from home is at least part of the problem.

But right now, I feel pretty ground down

Gastroenteritis is no one's friend. I had to have IV fluids last week and I am on a bland low fiber diet for another week. I haven't been online at all this week, not even to check email.

There was also bad news from Sis on Wednesday night. Scout, aka Babydog, had to be put down. She was such a sweet dog. Pneumonia and old age are not a good combination. When I am properly back online, this is being written on my kindle, I will post some pictures of her and tell the funny stories.

Current Mood: sad

One of our Westies, Oliver, has been known to bite. He doesn't do it when he's on a leash on a walk; he has done it when someone comes into our yard without permission. In total, he has bitten three people, other than family, in his 8 years. He is a great watchdog. He has prevented one break-in for certain -- I was living with the parental units when he did. He also got a compliment from a police officer who was on a stake out. Said cop had to move his car because Oliver kept barking at him thus giving away his stake out position. The guy mentioned that a dog like Oliver did more to keep a house safe than a gun.

A couple of months ago, while I was on the phone with my sister, Oliver went crazy with barking. Sis looked out the window, looked out the peephole, and opened the door to show Oliver there was no one out there. There was. He bit the woman multiple times (this is the third person from the paragraph above).

Today, the insurance company called and essentially told my parents that Oliver was too great a liability. It doesn't matter that in not one of the three cases was the family or Oliver in the wrong. We won the cases as they were on our property without our permission (which is explicitly stated on the "No Soliciting" sign on the fence).

The family will be asking our dog walker if she knows anyone who can take Oliver. If not, he will probably be put down. I'm trying to figure out if I can take him. The extra $25 per month (if it's still only $25) and the $300 deposit wouldn't break me, but it would put me in a rough position financially. I worry about his barking in an apartment that's less than a third the size of his current living situation and his no longer having a companion through the day.

I just needed to vent a bit. I'm so angry about this because as Dad once said, "If Oliver didn't protect the house, we wouldn't have a reason to feed him."