Thoughts on Swollen Dogs and Queen Michelle's Spanish Holiday

I have to work today.  We have Open House at the school and I have to be there this afternoon.  Meh.  Then back to the daily grind tomorrow;  where did my summer go?

Yesterday I had a mental ticker over my head all day as I ticked off one chore after the other.  I got both dogs to the vet for their yearly shots and new supply of heartworm pills.  I got my car washed and vacuumed.  Got the license plate light repaired on the Teenager's car.  Went to visit my mother at The Glen.  Sat in 100 degree heat while she smoked four cigarettes.  Went to the grocery store (forgot half my list...) then came home and made shrimp primavera for dinner (wild caught Gulf shrimp!).

Meanwhile, I noticed that Checkers, the Boston Terrier, either had an allergic reaction to her shots (never happened before, though...) or got stung in the backyard, or poisoned by a frog.  Her whole little face was swollen like nobody's business and her muzzle was red, red, red.  She acted fine and was breathing fine, but I called the Emergency Vet (mine was closed) and they told me to monitor her breathing and to give her half a Benedryl.  She stayed swollen all evening but by midnight it had started going down some.  However, then her fur started looking lumpy and weird and her belly was all red; maybe the poison was working its way out of her.

This morning she still acts fine, is much less swollen, and her coat looks back to normal.  I gave her another half a Benedryl to work on the remaining swelling in her face and she seems fine.  I'll never know what happened but it was scary.  The other dog, the Lab, keeps coming up to check on her while she's sleeping.

Otherwise in the world, the story that keeps catching my eye is still the Michelle Obama vacation; not sure why I keep going back to that when there are other political happenings going on, but the hypocrisy of it just galls me.  I was reading this account, picked up from Drudge, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which tries to clarify some of the misinformation.

For example:

Other officials, asking not to be named because the first family considers it a private matter, said some reports of the trip have been exaggerated. Mrs. Obama is not traveling with 40 friends, one official said, but with two friends and four of their daughters, as well as a couple of aides and a couple of advance staff members.

Okay.  Six friends.  So why 60 rooms?  Or 50?  Is that misinformation, too?  I understand we have to have security and secret service, but 50 rooms?  Can't they double up?!

Robert Gibbs wouldn't comment other than to say  "She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip. And I think I'd leave it at that."  The article quotes Anita McBride who points out that as a "public person," the First Lady draws scrutiny.  It's a matter of semantics that Gibbs is playing, isn't it?  She's a private citizen, but a public person, and this trip, at least a large portion of it, is funded by the taxpayer.

Professor Jacobson points out that this trip is "the latest in a line of seemingly imperial indifferences to optics in these difficult economic times."  And Allahpundit says,

As for the taxpayer expense for security, transportation, etc, (a) those same expenses would be incurred to some (lesser) extent during a U.S. vacation and (b) given the aortic hemorrhaging that is our national debt, what’s a little vacation paper cut here and there?

Yes, indeed, those midterms are right up the road and the optics of this trip, and the one to follow later in the month, will be fresh in the minds of the voters.  I guess maybe the Obama supporters don't begrudge their king and his queen a lavish lifestyle on the taxpayer dime, but I clearly remember every time George Bush went to Crawford, Texas, they came unglued.  Laura Bush vacationed solo, too, as the Post-Gazette points out, but she mostly went to national parks.

Oh well.  As for me, I'm just looking forward to another trip to Natchitoches sometime this year.  Or maybe we'll run up the road and check out El Dorado, Arkansas.  Steve will have to be elected president before I can afford any lavish five star hotels in Spain and cordoned off beaches.

C'est la vie.

Friends

Urban Wildlife

I have a possum. An opossum. Whatever. This picture is not my possum, but some random internet possum. Looks like mine, though.

Yesterday morning I pulled into my driveway around 7:45, just in time to see a creature run out from under my neighbor's house, across the driveway and under my house. WTF??????

We have lots of cats in the neighborhood. It was not a cat. The last thing I saw was a rat-like tail slinking under my house. Not a cat. But not a rat - too big. And furry. Not a cat - too round.

So I went inside and forgot about it. I mean, we've had raccoons around here through the years. One time I had a family of four living in my garage; that is, until the mama got her paw stuck in the door and then moved the family out once she got free.

This morning, getting ready for work, I let Checkers out (she's a Boston Terrier/French Bulldog mix.) Normally she will go out, do her thing, sniff around a little, and come on in. She stayed out longer than usual so I went out on the deck looking for her. And there she is in the back corner of the backyard sniffing what looks like a dead cat. No! Can't be!

I called her off and walked, cautiously, over to check it out. It's a possum. He (she?) was curled up as if sleeping, rat-like tail curled around him. The long, pointed snout sort of surprised me; I've never actually seen a possum up close. But then I had to figure out what to do about it. I wasn't thrilled about a dead possum in my yard.

I decided to wait for Steve to come and let him bury it. Meanwhile, my dog smelled like dead possum.

Of course, by now you have figured out he was not really dead - just playing possum. When I went back out a few minutes later he was gone. Gone! A little online research and I learned that possums will emit a putrid odor while playing dead which is why my dog smelled bad.

So where is possum now? I have no idea. What I read said that they won't usually attack, but I saw pictures of some terribly unfriendly looking possums. I just hope if Checkers finds him again, he decides to play dead again.

AKC 2008 Favorite Dogs

The AKC has released its Top Ten list of most popular dogs:

1.Labrador Retriever
2. Yorkshire Terrier
3. German Shepherd
4. Golden Retriever
5. Beagle
6. Boxer
7. Dachshund
8. Bulldog
9. Poodle
10. Shih Tzu

My grandpuppy, Bailey, (above) is ranked number two,
but obviously they did not see Checkers, my Boston Terrier, because they left her off the list. She's number one for me though! :)

They also didn't have Steve's dog, Abby, who IS a German Shepherd but she is a WHITE German Shepherd and the AKC does not recognize them. Idgits.

How Checkers Spends Black Friday

And So it Goes....

And so it goes. It's been twenty-four hours and the world has not imploded.

Today was a good day, actually. Fall is here. The election is (thankfully) over. Nobody attacked me on my blog today. Conservatives seem to maybe, just maybe, be getting the message that they need to regroup, regather, refocus their message. As I've said, over the past few years, conservatives lost their way because they tried to be centrists and "all get along." Everyone sing Kumbaya. But now conservatives are waking up and we'll come back.

So today with the election over and me not willing to take part in the "what went wrong" game, I pushed away from the computer. I sat outside with my son today on the deck, enjoying the fall breeze, and we picked out his senior ring. So many options! White gold? Yellow gold? What color stone? What shape? We have to pick out designs on TWO sides! What designs? He wanted a Canadian flag. Seriously. I said, ""Honey, you aren't Canadian. I know it's a shock... but...."

I met the plumber at my mother's house (she who did not want to talk about the election - she is just sick.) But her pipes are clear, now.

I bolstered my courage and went to WalMart, bought nail clippers for Checkers, and THEN I actually clipped four of her nails before she said, "OK! Enough!" and rebelled. So I took her for a walk.

The leaves are lovely right now. We have lots of hackberry trees and lots of hardwood trees on my street and the leaves are falling like rain. All shades of red, gold and yellow. As Checkers and I walked, I picked up several which I brought home and put in my trusty, heavy Shakespeare book to press. Later I will put them on my Thanksgiving table.

The new refrigerator came this week. I put the first major food group in (beer) right away and then Steve and I went to the store and stocked up on all that other stuff that goes in a refrigerator. The plumber came yesterday and hooked up the icemaker. It now makes both crushed and cubed ice. I tested out the crushed ice after Checkers and I got back from walking. It works really well and then, well, all that crushed ice .... I poured a tiny bit of Crown Royal on it and well...

The mums are blooming in the backyard. Fall is here. Holidays are coming - and that is going to just ROCK because for the first time in .... hmmm...let me see - seven, eight years? All of us will be together for Christmas. I can't wait! I'm totally excited about that!

So, life goes on. In the end, I thought John McCain ran the campaign he wanted to run and he gave a gracious concession speech. What happens from here, we will survive. Maybe it won't be all bad. I'm trying to be optimistic and give Obama a chance to screw it up before I criticize him. I am hoping he proves me wrong.

But in the meantime, we have other things to do. I have a STACK of unread books on my nightstand and three months of unread magazines. I'm looking forward to holidays, to holiday cooking, to family and friends, and to the rise of the conservative party in 2012!

DoggieScopes

Need a break from politics? Check out your dog's horoscope! Since I don't know for sure when Checkers was actually born, I'm calling her a libra. The horoscope fits.

Man's Best Friend

Steve left a comment on my 9/11 post in which he mentioned the rescue dogs at Ground Zero. This evening I came across this article on therapy and rescue dogs and what they did during those sad days. You should check it out; it's a great little story and will warm the heart of animal lovers everywhere. I love my little dog, whatever she is. I don't know if Checkers is more Boston Terrier or more French Bulldog, but she's a sweetie. Steve's dog Abby is a white German Shepherd and is a sweet dog, too. I have a neighbor down the street who has the most beautiful male German Shepherd in shades of black and brown; a most majestic looking dog. His name is Mojo. And Nikki's Bailey; how adorable is Bailey!

Honestly, lots of the time I can promise you that I like dogs more than I like most people!

(Photo credit: Peter Cihelka: The Free Lance-Star)

Getting Out in Gustav

On the weather front, things seem to be okay. It's raining now but it's just a slow, steady rain; good sleeping weather. The "eye" is supposedly right over us and they are predicting more of the same as they have for days: rain, wind, blah.

But some things do not stop for hurricanes and one of those is Checkers. Of course she had to go out this morning. You may be familiar with my "trick" when she refuses to go out the back door because of rain; I just take her out the side door. She did not even fall for that today. Today she locked her legs at the side door, too, which required me to physically pick her up and set her in a puddle in the driveway. She shook it off and away we went.

Shopping does not stop for hurricanes, either. The teenager has to have a new pair of jeans to wear to work. We have to do it today because he has to wear them tomorrow (and he works most of today). Also the new NHL Xbox360 game is out today so... So guess who is going to be slogging around in the bad weather regardless of my best laid plans earlier in the week to just hunker down? Procrastination is a curse.

Stupid Pet Tricks

It's raining today which is quite a welcome change. I love long, lazy rainy days. My dog Checkers, on the other hand, isn't so crazy about rain. When we get up in the morning of course she needs to go out. So we go to the back door, the one that leads into the backyard which is HER territory; she takes one look at the sodden deck, the soggy grass and locks her little Bulldog legs. Uh uh. I'm not going out there. Are you crazy? She looks up at me with huge round eyes in stubborn determination.

I'm all Come on puppy! Let's go! Nope. Locked legs.

So I learned this trick long ago. If it's raining out the back door, there's nothing to say that it's raining out the FRONT door. I grab the leash and give the old You wanna go for a walk?! and she's all crazy and hyper and Of course I do! I snap on the leash, pop up the umbrella, and off we go. It takes her to about the end of the driveway to catch on that she's been duped. It works every time.

Dog Crack

Checkers has a new love. She used to go crazy for Iams dog treats which I keep in a cookie jar on the kitchen counter. Lately, however, Steve has been buying Schwann’s Dog-Zerts for her, and she goes crazy. She has even begun to recognize the Schwann’s truck when it pulls up. The treats are advertised as a “high-protein snack for your dog” but I think it’s more like crack for dogs.

This evening, Steve went to the freezer and got a Schwann’s ice cream cup (not a dog-zert, a people-zert). Checkers stared him down until we figured out that she thought he was eating her dog treat. I finally got a Dog-Zert out for her and she began to quiver with excitement, hardly able to let me peel the cardboard top off the plastic cup. Once she begins eating the thing, she never comes up for air until it’s done.

Check out Checkers

Meet Checkers. She pretty much rules the house; well no, that's not true. My teenager rules the house but that's another story. Checkers is a Boston Terrier/French Bulldog mix and she is a sweetie. Checkers is pretty smart and understands several human phrases. For example, if you say, "Do you wanna treat?" she will run to the kitchen and jump up and down in front of the cookie jar. This means "Yes, give me a treat NOW!".

She also understands, "Do you wanna go for a walk?" When you say this she will run to the back door and jump up and down in circles.

The best part is when you say "Kitty kitty kitty!" Then she will run to the front window and bark madly, moan and wail. It's great.

Her favorite is "You ready to go to bed?" at which time she will jump on the bed and paw at the covers until she is completely underneath. She will also respond to "Go get your toy!" which means it's time to play fetch or tug of war.

Whenever I'm working on the computer she will jump in the wicker chair behind me and sleep, snoring of course, and doing that dog-twitch thing. I told her I was going to put her on the internet and she snorted at me and then demanded a treat. Like I said, she pretty much rules the house.