2AM Miracle

So it's been another really long stretch between posts. A lot has happened, but I have a hard time lately finding the time to blog about it. So, some other time, but before I head off to bed I thought I'd share a little story.

On Sunday night, I had my first migraine. That's not the story, but it happened in the lead-up to the story I wanted to share and it seemed noteworthy. I've had bad headaches before, but this one came with a seriously heavy dose of nausea. So severe that I basically had to hold my breath when I took the quiche I was baking out of the oven and immediately afterward go to bed, because the smell of even really, really delicious food was going to make me hurl, which is something I almost never do. When you consider that the last time I had actually vomited was exactly 6½ years earlier (my birthday in 2005, when my friends took me to a martini bar 2 weeks after S had dumped me), to be that close to needing to make a mad dash to the Temple of the Porcelain God was more than a little significant.

Anyway, the actual story, as the title suggests, happened at 2AM. The pain and nausea had abated, littledog was getting a bit restless - which usually means he has to go pee - and I was realizing that I probably ought to, as well. So we both got up, and after I made my pit stop, we headed downstairs so Tuck could do the same.

It bears mentioning here, though I think I have also on prior occasions, that rather than a standard backyard, we have a sideyard off the kitchen ell, which was originally a cobbler's shop that was moved down the hillside and attached to the rest of the house - we think - sometime circa 1950. The yard access is through a kitchen mudroom, so the door is tucked in a corner of the building with the grass a few feet away.

So I opened the mudroom door and just as Tuck hopped down to go to the lawn and do his business, I realized there was a skunk - a small one, but a skunk, nonetheless - near the outside corner of the kitchen, not more than 8 feet from the door. Naturally, I immediately tried to reverse littledog's course, yelling, "Tuck! TUCK! TUCK!"

When it comes to his potty duties, though, littledog is very businesslike and singular of mind, particularly late at night, and he trotted right out into the grass to relieve himself, easily within 6 feet of le jeune M. LePew. I wouldn't be surprised if littledog never even noticed the creature, as it was dark and his vision isn't terribly good, but I'm equally fortunate that he is nearly completely incurious about other animals.

The other week there were two juvenile turkeys in the yard one evening when I let him out. He gave them a glance, but then turned around and headed right back to the house when he was done peeing. If they're not going to pick him up and give him lovin's, then they're not worth wasting time on, and that was pretty much how it went down with the skunk.

I think the poor little critter may have just been confused out of his mind. After all, here was this strange-looking, and maybe-or-maybe-not disinterested, dog off to one side, and a frantic, yelling human to the other side. With limited ammunition in his arsenal, the skunk made the wise decision and, thankfully, beat a hasty retreat without spraying anyone.

The even bigger miracle is how I ever managed to fall back asleep after that bit of excitement.

Snow Days

I seem to have lost my blogging voice of late, or maybe I've just got too little worth saying. There has definitely been a bit too much dull regularity around here of late. And everyone already knows we've had a lot of this:



That photo was taken at the home of my friends Shawn & Chris. I stayed with them Tuesday night in anticipation of the latest storm, since they live much, much closer to my workplace than I do. As it turned out, the storm wasn't quite as dire as predicted and I likely could have gone home. Since I don't see my friends nearly often enough, though, it was nice to have the chance to catch up a little bit.

Meanwhile, I noticed the night before that that the sweater Tuck was wearing had chafed him pretty badly on one of his legs, and since I was already planning not to head home and didn't have an alternative for him to wear, I figured I need to knit him up a new, non-chafing sweater toute de suite. Fortunately, I had some Berkshire Bulky from Webs that I'd gotten to try out a pattern idea and decided I could spare a ball to keep him warm. In the end, I needed just a smidge more than one ball to finish, but the end product certainly works well.



He was so sleepy, it was all he could do to hold his head up. Clearly, being a model is hard work.

Teh Cute

I indulged myself just a wee bit with my tax refund and got a Flip UltraHD video camera - for cheap from Amazon, so I was still being all bargain-conscious. Anyway, this is one of the main reasons I wanted one. Good quality Tuck videos! This is also my first time playing around with annotations on YouTube.

I'm pretty sure this bone came from his foster mom, Shannan. Of all his toys, this one is his absolute favorite, but a couple of minutes is usually about the maximum interest he can sustain at any given time.

Yummy Bowl

I can't let Torn be the only one posting adorable dog videos. I got asked sort of last minute could pick up tonight's shift at work, and since we kind of need the additional income I didn't feel like I could turn it down. In the rush to get out the door, though, I forgot to pack up food for Tuck, so I had to swing by the supermarket and grabbed some canned salmon and some potatoes to throw together something similar to what's in his regular food.

Anyway, he really liked it and spent several minutes licking the bowl all over the floor, leaving a trail of tiny chunks of salmon in his wake. I managed to capture three minutes of it on video, just for your viewing pleasure.

Tuck Update

Tuck handled the anesthesia and the diagnostics very well on Tuesday and thanks you all for the good wishes. He's still a bit congested, but that's kind of to be expected when someone spends an hour or two shoving a scope up your nose and grabbing chunks of tissue. He's quite the little trooper, though, and absolutely everybody at the specialty hospital fell in love with him.

I also got the good news that it was going to end up costing me several hundred less than I'd thought, which was very nice. Still, I'm looking at a couple thousand in total expenses for this round of diagnostics and it looks like at least some surgery is in his future. So if you haven't picked out some Tuck swag, feel free to go find a little something for yourself or the frenchie lover in your life. And if you want something but don't see it, let me know and I'll try to make it happen.

New Chairman Tuck

Tomorrow is Tuck's big appointment, so do think happy thoughts for us. And if you haven't done so, do please consider going and buying some Tuck swag. We were able to negotiate and pare down the estimate for this workup, but it's still going to cost nearly $2500 by the time all is said and done and anything to defray that cost a bit would be exceedingly helpful. Besides, who wouldn't love a little piece of his awesomeness?

The Beloved Frenchie Needs You

Next week Tuck's going to have some major diagnostic work done to see if we can get to the bottom of his recurrent respiratory infections. When I say major, I don't necessarily mean invasive procedures so much as majorly expensive. As in, a few thousand dollars that we don't particularly have.

Anyway, considering his bouts with pneumonia and upper respiratory infections have cost us easily that much in a bit over a year - and that's with me getting meds at cost and providing most of his care myself - the hope is that we'll find something that can be fixed. Barring that, I'm hoping at least to know whether there are things we can do to improve his care from a preventive standpoint.

But still, thinking about the cost over the past few weeks has been nothing short of gut-wrenching, particularly since things still aren't terribly rosy for David's business. The other night, though, Rabbitch suggested that I should shamelessly exploit capitalize on Tuck's adorable mug and start selling it. On mugs. And t-shirts and what-have-you.

To that end, I've been working the past couple nights on putting together some images and creating an online store on Zazzle. The Chairman Tuck image above is the latest and, I think, the best yet. So rather than ask for donations for this particular cause, I'd appreciate it if y'all went on over and bought a little something. Christmas is coming up before you know it, so buy several little somethings. You'll be getting some extra adorable stocking stuffers and maybe, hopefully Tuck will be able to breathe a little bit easier because of it.

p.s., If you go to the storefront, scroll down and look for the "Product Lines" section in the right sidebar. Everything is organized by design there.

A Message from Tuck

Tuck spent the last few nights hospitalized with yet another bout of pneumonia. This was the fifth time in just at a year. Still no real insight as to why he keeps getting sick - it's like none of the pieces fit together to complete the puzzle. At any rate, after three days here without me, he was quite happy to see me this evening, and he'd like to express his gratitude to those of you who offered their good wishes.




In Other News

Despite the ongoing damp around these parts (Seriously, London is sunnier and warmer than we are right now! So is Seattle!), I decided I really needed to press on with the chicken coop. The chicks are now 4 weeks old and getting big. So I rigged up a tarp over clotheslines in the sideyard so that I could work on it in relative dryness. It has proven to be a Very Good Idea Indeed, and I managed to get quite a bit done on my weekend off. The floor and the framing for the four walls are all erected, and I've even put on one outer wall. There's a hatch (Get it? Hatch?) in the floor for an eventual hinged ramp for their comings and goings and I've framed in where the window's going to go. I'm going to put up some very lightweight insulation and have sorted out roofing, ventilation and how I'm going to construct access doors. No pics as yet, though.

I've also very nearly finished my grandmother's lap quilt. Last night I finished piecing together all the blocks, so all that's left is the binding and I can get it off in the mail. All just in time for us to head out to Washington state for some of that Seattle sunshine.

Actually, we'll only be spending a couple of days in Seattle. We're headed out that way for David's nephew's high school graduation and his sister's 25th wedding anniversary. To say that it promises to be interesting would be a huge understatement, particularly since they all decided to boycott our wedding last year. You know, 'cause it wasn't a "real" wedding and all. Still, if they're trying to play nice, then we're at least willing to go along for the ride and see what transpires. If nothing else, it should be good for a blog post.

Cute And Not So Much

There continues to be relatively little to blog about Chez Tête-de-Laine, but this is my off week and my surprise birthday party is Saturday (the date being the only thing that won't be a surprise). Aside from it being porcupine season again (I treated 10 dogs with quills last week, including two who belong to a famous actress. And who were brought in by her less-famous male partner, but now there's only one degree of separation between us. And that last sentence contains a clue to whom I'm talking about.), it is also apparently baby animal season. The other night some dude cut down a tree and found a nest with these in it.



Baby squirrels are just too freakin' adorable to step on. They wag their tails when they're nursing! They're also very unsentimental and will suckle food directly from a hard plastic syringe. Who cares if it feels like mom? It has food! I handed this lot off to the Center for Wildlife, where they are sure to do well and grow up to be happy and healthy poofy-tailed rats. And since it's tax day, I'll just point out (yet again) that Center for Wildlife is one of those non-profit-y type places where you could make a tax-deductible donation. And we all know what a difference just $5-10 can make.

Speaking of which, Nyondo informed me last night that y'all have donated around $700 to the Tso Pema Medical Emergency Fund since I wrote this post. It's still a ways from their funding goal, but that amount will make a huge difference - $5 here and there adding up to something big and wonderful. You rock! And if you haven't donated a spare $5 and would like to, head on over to Joy's blog, where there's a Paypal button.

On a less happy note, Tuck started coughing again a few nights ago, so I took him in to work with me Monday night to take some x-rays and his lungs look like this:



I'm feeling too lazy to draw a circle around it, but there's pneumonia in his right caudal lung lobe. I'm a little bit encouraged that it's in a different location from before (and a bit milder), but that may also mean that he's got a congenital problem that's going to keep predisposing him to this sort of infection. We're still waiting on culture results, but I'm hoping to have more information by tonight or tomorrow. Meantime, he's responding well to the current antibiotic regimen and is still giving lots of sweet kisses.

And now I need to go for a bike ride while it's still warm-ish. By which I mean above freezing. And then maybe later I'll tell you a funny story about my new used bike.

While You're Waiting

Since I'm being a slack-ass and haven't yet taken any glove-in-progress photos, I offer you this one, created here.

A Few Photos

Things have been scarily slow at work lately. There's usually a bit of a slowdown going into the holidays, but I've not seen anything quite this bad in recent memory. I have no doubt that it's the economy. I was looking last night at state unemployment data over the past several years. There's typically a transient increase over the winter months, as seasonal positions close, but for the past 6 years, unemployment in the month of November was in the range of 4.5 to 4.8%. In 2000 it was 3.1%. This year it was up to 6.2%. There's not much to be done but ride it out, but it's still worrisome.

One of my patients last night, though, was this young barred owl, who had apparently been hit by car. As it turned out, there was a very nasty open fracture in one wing that was in a location that couldn't really be repaired, which is an indication for euthanasia. Because owls and other birds of prey are federally-protected, however, it's not an entirely straightforward matter. As a veterinary facility, we have a bit of leeway when it comes to providing emergent or short-term care until these birds can be transferred to a rehabilitator, but without the requisite federal permit, we risk running afoul of federal law if we perform euthanasia. So I didn't have a good option other than to keep the bird quiet, warm, and as comfortable as possible until I could transfer it to the Center for Wildlife (click on the button in the sidebar if you're looking to make any year-end donations).



Other than that, I had plenty of time to work on the Japanese sweater front. This is just before I cast off the underarm stitches:



I'm now on the raglan decreases, so things are speeding ever faster toward the end of the main kniting. I may even be done with this in time for Christmas Eve breakfast with Franklin and Sister Sue. This will be the third year in a row we've gone out for breakfast on Christmas Eve, so I guess that makes it a tradition. Hopefully Sue's husband Phil (now our state's Senate Majority Leader) can join us again this year, too.

And lastly, a little Tuck update. The good news is that he's been with us for one wonderful year as of this week. The not-so-good news is that his initial tracheal wash culture yielded a somewhat nasty strain of E. coli, which is resistant to several common antibiotics. I'm still hoping that I can knock this thing out, though, and have ordered a nebulizer to try delivering drugs directly into his lungs to break up the mucus and to get a third antibiotic right in to the source. If this doesn't work, then there won't be much option other than managing it as a chronic lung disease - similar in some ways to dealing with cystic fibrosis in humans. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, as I've watched two cousins die from CF and know what a slog that disease can be. Still, I'd do anything for this little face.

A Productive Night

Only 49 minutes to go in my shift, and so far so good. We never like to use the "q" word around the clinic, but let's just say I ended up with only one inpatient and managed to be productive in several non-work areas. Most importantly for this here knitting blog, I finished ball #2 for the Japanese raglan about halfway through sleeve #2. Actually, it's more than halfway, because I have 21 more rows to go before I cast off underarm stitches and begin the raglan decreases, which means I'm 105 rows along with only about 85 or so rows left, most of which will be decreasing rapidly.



I could have kicked myself for not grabbing the next ball of yarn when I was getting ready to leave the house, but I did have a few other things to keep me occupied, like this:



David has given me the task of getting photos of Tuck for an extra double top secret photo project. He won't tell me what they're to be used for, has only barely given me some guidelines as to what they should look like, and the kicker is that he doesn't want to see them, so I get no feedback. I'm to pass them along in an e-mail which he will forward somewhere without viewing the attachments. Beyond that I'm not allowed to ask questions.

Since I wanted nice photos, I broke out my 50mm/f1.8 lens, which I haven't used for a while but which takes absolutely lovely photos. For about $200 more I could have gotten the faster f1.4 lens, but this one does pretty nice bokeh at a much more affordable price. This is the lens that will be going to India with me in March.

Anyway, I got this one after I got up from my desk chair. Tuck likes to sleep on a blankie under my desk, but he always jumps up whenever I go anywhere, whether he's quite awake or not. It's pretty obvious from this shot that this time fell into the "not" category. Which, of course, just makes me want to smooch him.

Meatless and Potatoes

Just because I'm at work all night long doesn't mean I can't eat well.




And, Plotz!

You just cannot imagine how much I love this little face (even though he's about to shoot a laser out of his left eye).