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I have a dog who is so NOT food-oriented
Jul. 7th, 2018 08:27 pmthat he turned down bacon fat in favor of playing with his ball!
For those familiar with my dogs, this is Oreo.
For those familiar with my dogs, this is Oreo.
He stopped eating overnight Friday / Saturday. He ate over half his dinner Friday, and has been pretty much ignoring any food since then. We put scrambled egg - a real delicacy! - in his mouth on Saturday, and he just let it fall on the floor and ignored then. Since then, any food we put in front of him might get sniffed at, and then he turns his head away.
I'll be calling the vet as soon as possible after they open at 7:30am, and seeing when we can get him in.
I'll be calling the vet as soon as possible after they open at 7:30am, and seeing when we can get him in.
We have a diagnosis on Ziggy
Jul. 12th, 2017 10:10 amIt's not Addison's. It's third-degree {something something} - I think the second word was arrhythmia?
Basically, his nerves are not communicating well enough with his heart to tell it to fire.
The treatment is a pacemaker. That's not in the cards. The veterinary cardiologist gives him maybe a month left to live.
Basically, his nerves are not communicating well enough with his heart to tell it to fire.
The treatment is a pacemaker. That's not in the cards. The veterinary cardiologist gives him maybe a month left to live.
Twas an exciting day
Jul. 6th, 2017 07:12 pmSo, the plan was:
1 & 2 went according to plan. 3? Not so much. About half-way to work the car started having power problems - in neutral, the engine would rev just fine, in gear, sometimes there was no power to the wheels. I pulled off to the side of the freeway about three-quarters of the way to work, turned off the car, and opened the hood. Nothing obviously wrong, all the fluids were good. Tried to start the car, and it went tick-tick-tick-tick very rapidly - and didn't start. And then the power windows failed. And then the four-way flashers failed!
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arkuat called in to work - one of our colleagues came and got him.
I called my mechanic, and got the phone number for their favorite towing company. Called the towing company, got my car taken to my mechanic. Got a loaner car - I was still going to have to get to the dentist!
Got home, got my work computer plugged in, did some work from home.
About 11:30, I got a phone call from the vet. Ziggy's resting heart rate was 36 - normal would be 70-120. They'd gotten him to do some exercise, to try to get it up - normal then would be up to 130. It stayed at 36. Had we noticed any change in behavior - more tired, lack of appetite, seizures? Nope. Teeth cleaning was canceled - they didn't want to put him under anesthesia with such a slow heart rate! They suspect it might be something called Addison's, which is a low cortisol level. They took blood for tests, we should hear back on that tomorrow. If it's not that, we get to go to a doggy cardiologist. I went and picked him up about 12:15pm.
As of 2:30, the car wasn't fixed, so I took the loaner off to the dentist.
Where I discovered that the appointment I had made last week for half-hour slot at 3pm today wasn't on the books.
They got me set up for a 4pm appointment with one of the other dentists. They actually called me in at 3:51, and were done with me by 4:03.
Then it was off to the mechanic. The car was done - the alternator had died. They had just replaced the alternator last November. They get their alternators from a company that just does alternators, and their experience was that said company had a very high reliability. The new alternator was free - we just had to pay for the tow.
Then I came home and cooked up CSA veggies for dinner. Now we need to take out garbage and recycling, and then I'll get to call it a night.
It was one of those days where the choices were laugh, cry, or curse the universe. I ended up laughing.
- Drop off Ziggy at the vet to get his teeth cleaned
- Pick up arkuat
- Go to work
- Leave work early to get a filling replaced
- Pick up Ziggy at the vet
1 & 2 went according to plan. 3? Not so much. About half-way to work the car started having power problems - in neutral, the engine would rev just fine, in gear, sometimes there was no power to the wheels. I pulled off to the side of the freeway about three-quarters of the way to work, turned off the car, and opened the hood. Nothing obviously wrong, all the fluids were good. Tried to start the car, and it went tick-tick-tick-tick very rapidly - and didn't start. And then the power windows failed. And then the four-way flashers failed!
arkuat called in to work - one of our colleagues came and got him.I called my mechanic, and got the phone number for their favorite towing company. Called the towing company, got my car taken to my mechanic. Got a loaner car - I was still going to have to get to the dentist!
Got home, got my work computer plugged in, did some work from home.
About 11:30, I got a phone call from the vet. Ziggy's resting heart rate was 36 - normal would be 70-120. They'd gotten him to do some exercise, to try to get it up - normal then would be up to 130. It stayed at 36. Had we noticed any change in behavior - more tired, lack of appetite, seizures? Nope. Teeth cleaning was canceled - they didn't want to put him under anesthesia with such a slow heart rate! They suspect it might be something called Addison's, which is a low cortisol level. They took blood for tests, we should hear back on that tomorrow. If it's not that, we get to go to a doggy cardiologist. I went and picked him up about 12:15pm.
As of 2:30, the car wasn't fixed, so I took the loaner off to the dentist.
Where I discovered that the appointment I had made last week for half-hour slot at 3pm today wasn't on the books.
They got me set up for a 4pm appointment with one of the other dentists. They actually called me in at 3:51, and were done with me by 4:03.
Then it was off to the mechanic. The car was done - the alternator had died. They had just replaced the alternator last November. They get their alternators from a company that just does alternators, and their experience was that said company had a very high reliability. The new alternator was free - we just had to pay for the tow.
Then I came home and cooked up CSA veggies for dinner. Now we need to take out garbage and recycling, and then I'll get to call it a night.
It was one of those days where the choices were laugh, cry, or curse the universe. I ended up laughing.
(no subject)
Aug. 15th, 2015 05:38 pmI have a dog that is smart enough to come in out of the heat. It's currently in the low 90's outside - she stayed out about five minutes, even though there was something worth barking at in the tree.
Ziggy went to the vet yesterday
Mar. 21st, 2014 05:50 amfor dental work. He got his teeth cleaned, and they had to take two out. He's got five days of painkiller, and ten days of antibiotic.
He was groggy yesterday evening, but seems to be recovered nicely this morning.
He was groggy yesterday evening, but seems to be recovered nicely this morning.
Yesterday afternoon about 3:30-4:30 I checked the Animal Humane Society web site. Nothing exciting. I got home, we did the weekly grocery shopping, got everything put away. About 9pm I checked the site again - and there was a new listing. Paris - a one-year-old female Lhasa Apso cross, white/cream/brown.
We were walking up to the door of the Coon Rapids building as they were unlocking it at 10am today. We found Paris' cage, got them to open it and let us take her into one of their 'get to know your prospective pet' rooms. We walked out at 11am with a new dog.
The icon is from the picture on the AHS site - I haven't been able to get one with her face yet.
YAY!!!!!
We were walking up to the door of the Coon Rapids building as they were unlocking it at 10am today. We found Paris' cage, got them to open it and let us take her into one of their 'get to know your prospective pet' rooms. We walked out at 11am with a new dog.
The icon is from the picture on the AHS site - I haven't been able to get one with her face yet.
YAY!!!!!
Tina Louise did not work out
May. 13th, 2013 07:46 pmShe has an allergy condition that requires daily baths. That's beyond what we can reasonably promise.
We've expressed an interest in another of their dogs, but the write-up says they'd prefer to put her in a home where she'd be an only dog, so I'm not enthusiastic about our prospects. Ah, well - another dog will come along sooner or later.
We're currently in conflict between "want a female dog" and "want another dog now" - for the moment, female is winning. We'll see how long that lasts.
We've expressed an interest in another of their dogs, but the write-up says they'd prefer to put her in a home where she'd be an only dog, so I'm not enthusiastic about our prospects. Ah, well - another dog will come along sooner or later.
We're currently in conflict between "want a female dog" and "want another dog now" - for the moment, female is winning. We'll see how long that lasts.
(no subject)
Apr. 13th, 2013 12:19 pmWe just added a new dog to the household - Casar (pronounced say-zar), a black & white 18 pound Havanese. The Underground Rescue web site calls him Castro, there are some pictures at http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/21037991
I'll take pictures of my own and make an icon sometime.
I'll take pictures of my own and make an icon sometime.
More on Andrea's Angels
Apr. 6th, 2013 09:58 pmAfter my last post, I decided to have one more go at finding an alternative contact for Andrea's Angels. I was hoping to find a phone number - what I did find was a Facebook page.
I left a post on the wall with a quick summary of my attempts to contact them, asking if there was an alternative contact method. This was about 2:30pm. I then when off to the Minn-StF Board Meeting. I came home from the board meeting about 6:30pm to pick upiraunink, and thought I'd do a quick check to see if there were any replies. Nothing in e-mail, nothing on my facebook - well, look at that! My post to their wall had disappeared.
I don't think my opinion of their professionalism can get much lower at this point.
I left a post on the wall with a quick summary of my attempts to contact them, asking if there was an alternative contact method. This was about 2:30pm. I then when off to the Minn-StF Board Meeting. I came home from the board meeting about 6:30pm to pick up
iraunink, and thought I'd do a quick check to see if there were any replies. Nothing in e-mail, nothing on my facebook - well, look at that! My post to their wall had disappeared.I don't think my opinion of their professionalism can get much lower at this point.
iraunink and I have given up on getting Hansle from Andrea's Angels. We filled out the adoption application on Thursday, March 29th. They explicitly stated 'if you haven't heard from us in 72 hours, contact us' - so on Sunday, April 1st, I used their web contact form to try to contact them. On Wednesday, April 4th, I sent an e-mail straight to their gmail address. We have heard nothing back from them. I'm very angry with them, because I was very excited by the thought of having a Havanese (which I have wanted for fifteen years) who was about the same size as Ziggy.So, today we went to an adoption event hosted by Underdog Rescue, and met Castro. He's a Havanese, and he's about twice as big as Ziggy. We filled out an adoption application - I expect we'll be hearing back from them early in the week. The lady who will be checking our references lives in South Minneapolis, and Castro is fostered within walking distance of Theo Wirth Parkway - I anticipate little problem with this. I am additionally encouraged by the fact that Underdog Rescue has a phone number to contact them on their web site.
She injured her back last Wednesday, and had been going downhill ever since. She had no control of her back legs and tail, and had minimal to no control of bowel and bladder. We had an appointment with the vet, we discussed prognosis, and decided that it was time.
We had Precious put to sleep this morning
Apr. 30th, 2012 05:01 pmShe has been going downhill for the last few months. In the last week, she stopped eating anything other than hamburger, lunch meat, and cheese, and she stopped eating that sometime Friday. She was down to ten pounds at the vet this morning.
We had Mac put to sleep
Sep. 2nd, 2010 09:40 amabout an hour ago.
The MAST cell tumor had spread to at least his right lymph node, and that one almost literally exploded over the last week. It started weeping a pale pink fluid overnight Monday/Tuesday, he stopped eating, and looked like he was in pain.
The two girls are both about seven now, so I shouldn't have to do this for another 5-8 years.
We'll miss him.
The MAST cell tumor had spread to at least his right lymph node, and that one almost literally exploded over the last week. It started weeping a pale pink fluid overnight Monday/Tuesday, he stopped eating, and looked like he was in pain.
The two girls are both about seven now, so I shouldn't have to do this for another 5-8 years.
We'll miss him.
We had Mac put to sleep
Sep. 2nd, 2010 09:28 amabout an hour ago.
The MAST cell tumor had spread to at least his right lymph node, and that one almost literally exploded over the last week. It started weeping a pale pink fluid overnight Monday/Tuesday, he stopped eating, and looked like he was in pain.
The two girls are both about seven now, so I shouldn't have to do this for another 5-8 years.
We'll miss him.
The MAST cell tumor had spread to at least his right lymph node, and that one almost literally exploded over the last week. It started weeping a pale pink fluid overnight Monday/Tuesday, he stopped eating, and looked like he was in pain.
The two girls are both about seven now, so I shouldn't have to do this for another 5-8 years.
We'll miss him.
And the lost one has returned
Jun. 1st, 2010 02:08 pmPrecious got out of the back yard yesterday morning. :-(
When I left the house this morning, the plan was foriraunink to go around and put up "Lost Dog" posters today. I saw a "Found Dog" poster at 40th & 10th that sounded very much like Precious - small black & white dog found near 40th & 12th on 5/31, with a phone number. I stopped and called iraunink, giving her the phone number. 6:45am was a touch earlier than I was willing to call the number.
About 9:30,iraunink called to tell me Precious was home. The person who had found Precious took her to their vet, who found her chip, looked it up, and called us. iraunink confirmed that she was our missing dog, and the finder helpfully volunteered to drop her off at home (since iraunink has no car today).
Yay!
When I left the house this morning, the plan was for
iraunink to go around and put up "Lost Dog" posters today. I saw a "Found Dog" poster at 40th & 10th that sounded very much like Precious - small black & white dog found near 40th & 12th on 5/31, with a phone number. I stopped and called iraunink, giving her the phone number. 6:45am was a touch earlier than I was willing to call the number.About 9:30,
iraunink called to tell me Precious was home. The person who had found Precious took her to their vet, who found her chip, looked it up, and called us. iraunink confirmed that she was our missing dog, and the finder helpfully volunteered to drop her off at home (since iraunink has no car today).Yay!
It's been a day, or maybe a day and a bit
Dec. 25th, 2009 10:24 pmFor my fellow Twin Citians - is it raining where you are?
As some of you know, we had a run-in with a guard-rail on our way home from Christmas withiraunink's mother last night. Mad dash across three lanes of highway, both front & back bumpers hit the guard-rail. No deployment of air-bags, a small bump on my wife's head, a broken finger-nail on my part. Just a single car accident - we were in a traffic gap. We've been watching for signs of concussion, haven't seen any.
We decided we really didn't want to leave the house today. Which was a problem, as we really need to go grocery shopping, so there wasn't much to eat. Fortunately, we found a Chinese restaurant that was delivering (Star Moon, near 48th & Chicago).
About 5pm, I declared that on second thought, I really wanted to move the car today. By Minneapolis Snow Emergency Rules, I'm not allowed to park in front of my house starting at 8am tomorrow, until either 8pm or the street is plowed "to the curb". Which means 8pm, because there's no way they're getting to the curb again this winter, which means I'm not going to be able to tell when. (OK, if it's a work-day, I'll park in front of my house when I get home about 7:30pm - but that's not tomorrow.) The plow did go down our street today - leaving about a two-foot wall of snow between my car and the street. Very wet snow. And the overnight forecast calls for lows in the mid- to low- 20's. That wall is going to turn rock-solid. So, I went out and moved it. Fortunately, the plow didn't leave a wall on the other side of the street!
We do need to make it out tomorrow in time to get the dogs to their hair-cuts at 10am.
I did manage to get my quota of Dragon Cave holiday specials today. Yay!
As some of you know, we had a run-in with a guard-rail on our way home from Christmas with
iraunink's mother last night. Mad dash across three lanes of highway, both front & back bumpers hit the guard-rail. No deployment of air-bags, a small bump on my wife's head, a broken finger-nail on my part. Just a single car accident - we were in a traffic gap. We've been watching for signs of concussion, haven't seen any.We decided we really didn't want to leave the house today. Which was a problem, as we really need to go grocery shopping, so there wasn't much to eat. Fortunately, we found a Chinese restaurant that was delivering (Star Moon, near 48th & Chicago).
About 5pm, I declared that on second thought, I really wanted to move the car today. By Minneapolis Snow Emergency Rules, I'm not allowed to park in front of my house starting at 8am tomorrow, until either 8pm or the street is plowed "to the curb". Which means 8pm, because there's no way they're getting to the curb again this winter, which means I'm not going to be able to tell when. (OK, if it's a work-day, I'll park in front of my house when I get home about 7:30pm - but that's not tomorrow.) The plow did go down our street today - leaving about a two-foot wall of snow between my car and the street. Very wet snow. And the overnight forecast calls for lows in the mid- to low- 20's. That wall is going to turn rock-solid. So, I went out and moved it. Fortunately, the plow didn't leave a wall on the other side of the street!
We do need to make it out tomorrow in time to get the dogs to their hair-cuts at 10am.
I did manage to get my quota of Dragon Cave holiday specials today. Yay!
5 Things Meme
Mar. 16th, 2009 04:55 pmazurelunatic associates Bujold, the IT industry, dogs, family, and The Frozen North with me.Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold, most well-known for her Vorkosiverse books. I've been a fan of her's since Joel H. talked me into reading The Warrior's Apprentice within a couple of years of it coming out - I got to read it, Shards of Honor and Ethan of Athos very quickly. And I've been devouring anything new by her ever since. This one of my two on-line fandoms (the other is the Liaden Universe), and I've been hosting in-person get-togethers ever since
norabombay came to Minneapolis to look into maybe coming up for school.The IT industry
I've been doing computer support as my job since June 1990. I've done it for a professional engineering firm, an IT hardware company, the Federal Reserve, a manufacturing company, and a non-bank money services company. I try to keep track at least superficially of what's going on the industry as a whole. I've done a lot of stuff - maybe just about anything - that involves x86 hardware. I've been running a Debian/Linux system since January 2000 at home that serves the domains fireopal.org & ytilaer.com, with e-mail, web, ssh & mailing list services. I want to get into a server/network admin role - my next step on that goal is getting an RHCE certification.
Dogs
I'm a dog person. I grew up with chihuahuas. As much as I like chihuahuas, I won't buy one - they're too territorial for my life-style, we'd drive each other nuts. My first significant purchase after I bought my house was a dog - that was Ben, my first Shih Tzu. I've had three Shih Tzu's die on me - Ben had a car accident, Chela died of old age, and Gizmo's liver started eating his red blood cells. I've currently got Mac (Macguyver), a prize-winning former show dog, Josie, who is half-Shih Tzu/half unknown terrier, and Precious, a former puppy-mill mom who is all
carbonel's fault.Family
Wife, Mom, Dad, "The Evil Step-Mother", brother, sister-in-law, three nieces, three step-sisters, two step-brothers (TESM's kids - I've only seen two of the step-sisters and neither of the step-brothers in the last 10+ years), mother-in-law, two step-daughters, one step-son, two sons-in-law, three grand-kids, and a host of relatives of my wife. The step-kids each had one kid - the boy had a boy, the two girls had girls. My brother's in Iraq driving a semi for an obscene amount of money. Dad & TESM are currently living on the road. Mom lives in Duluth. The step-brothers/sisters live in Duluth, Duluth, North Carolina, Oregon & Missouri. Wife's brothers & sisters mostly live in the Twin Cities - the one exception is out on the Left Coast. We get together with my wife's family more frequently than mine.
Oh, yeah - the family fast track. I went from single with no prospects to being a grand-father in 729 days. My first date with
iraunink was 5 April 2000. We got married on 5 October 2000. The first grand-kid was born on 4 April 2002. If someone had told me on Valentine's Day 2000 that I'd be celebrating Valentine's Day 2001 with my wife, I would have told them they were nuts!The Frozen North
I live in Minneapolis, MN. I moved to Duluth, MN to start first grade. I went to college at MTU, in Houghton, MI. The first year I was there the previous snowfall records were broken, possibly shatterd, by 300" inches of snow. There was a spot 20-30 miles north of Houghton that got 360" of snow - yes, 10 yards. I like my snow and cold, and complain bitterly about the summer heat. For that matter, I've been known to complain that we only get a real winter here in Minneapolis once every four or five years! If I were to move away from Minneapolis/St. Paul, the only likely place would be the Pacific Northwest - I'll trade the lack of snow in winter for the low summer highs.
I'll give a try at if I know you, you've just to ask and I'll come up with five things I associate with you. If I don't know you, I may amuse myself by picking five arbitrary things (or not).
Some pictures
Feb. 22nd, 2009 08:15 pmThe promised baby pictures - click on the picture to see more:
We got a new dog bed (pardon the pun) - again, click the picture to see more:
We got a new dog bed (pardon the pun) - again, click the picture to see more:
