A day late, but

Attack dog.

(Kaylee threw up this morning, which is bad when combined with diarrhea, so we took her to the vet for an x-ray. We still don't know exactly what the problem is, but we know why she's in so much pain: gas. I am so not surprised that Kaylee is gassy! Right now she's barking to herself in her sleep, the poor little thing. Chasing all the dogs she saw at the vet's, I imagine.)

If it's not one thing ...

I swear, it's not like Kaylee doesn't get plenty of attention (see the number of posts on this blog involving her as an example). She's spoiled rotten. Easily the most spoiled of our dogs. Easily. By far.

But, as if having an eventually fatal disease isn't enough, she now has to have horribly bad case of the runs. Really bad. Bad enough for a vet visit. We're talking blood here. And the little chowhound isn't eating, either. Well, not much, at least. And her liver values are a little high. That's not a good thing.

Sigh.

Hopefully the meds will kick in soon and she'll be back to her usual cheery self. She better be, dammit. She's my baby doggie. But, if nothing else, it's the vet who saw her today that's on call this weekend, and she said that she had no plans, so call her if anything at all gets worse. I love my vets' office, but there are times when I just wish they could fix my babies right away.

What's in a name?

Full name: Kaywinnet Lee Frye

Nicknames: Kaylee, Kay-Kay, Kay, Winnet, Winnie, Kay-Win, Kay-Winnie, Kay Li, Little One, Little Brat, Angel, Angel Pie, Poopy, Poopy-Head, Baby, Baby-Head, Stinker, Brat, Bratling, Mama's Girl, Kissy, Kissy-Girl, Snorty, Snorty McSnort-Snort.

(Namesake)

See? Snow.

Seedling update

It's been a while since I showed you pictures of the sprouts, but they've now quite overtaken the corner of the living room. Everything that we've planted so far, except the spinach, has come up.

We were hoping to get the heartier souls out into the garden this weekend (we just had 3 cubic feet of soil delivered today), but there's the possibility of SNOW this weekend, so we'll just have to wait. Maybe next weekend.

Here are the chayote that I got from the store (you can still see the sticker on one) that have been happily growing on the top of a cupboard in the dining room.

Imagine what they'll do when I put them in the ground...

Cephalopod!

As a belated bithday present, I got an octopod from Design Toscano - something I've wanted for a couple years now. Thanks Josh & Laura!

People suck

The rescue group I work with, Shar Pei Savers, is in the process of rescuing five shar pei from a puppy mill. They are all beautiful animals that have been horribly, horribly abused in their short lives. Click here to read what I posted on the Shar Pei Savers blog about it.

I just don't understand how someone could be so awful to those poor dogs. One of the reasons I want to win the lottery is to afford the lawyers I'll need when I have the time to do to people who do stuff like this what I want to do to them. ... if that makes sense.

On a whim

On a whim, Jeff built me a pergola.



Since we lost the branch from the big maple tree in the ice storm, we've lost a lot of shade in the backyard. We noticed it yesterday and decided to build a pergola. We concreted the posts in last night and Jeff had the whole thing up by noon today.

We'll plant my chayotes on each side so the vines will cover the sides and top, and we're thinking of putting up a bamboo shade on the west side (toward the fence).

Jeff's pretty cool sometimes.

Kaylee & The King

The quilt on the king bed ... and the reason we got the bed in the first place.

I love the king

The bed that is.

Well, and Elvis, too, actually.

But in this case, I mean our new bed. Oh. my. God. Who would have thought that just a little more space would make so much difference! I can actually sleep through the night without being kicked or pushed out of bed by an ever-expanding dog.

Plus, I found an absolutely wonderful quilt for it at Old Time Pottery for $22, so that's even better. White, lime green, orange & yellow. Called Hip Hop. Not a typical quilt. I'll try to get a photo soon.

In other news, Jeff got the raised beds made and weeded the front garden. Progress is being made.

We ARE those people we made fun of

We did it. We bought a king-size mattress so that our dogs could comfortably sleep in bed with us.

Or dog, rather. Or, more specifically, Kaylee. :)

Since she's been sick, and starting her fevers in the middle of the night, we've been letting her sleep in bed with us, so we can tell when she's sick. However, even sick as a, well, dog, she seemingly expands to twice her normal size, pushing Jeff and I to the edge of our current queen-size bed.

And I'm just not going to take that anymore! ... OK, I'll take it for a few more days until the bed gets delivered, but then, not anymore!

Damn, I'm tough, huh? :)

Sick puppy

Kaylee went over a week without a fever - unfortunately, she woke us up at 2:00 AM, shivering so hard that the bed shook. I've been recording when she has her fevers and when they end in my planner, maybe hoping to find a pattern. So far, no luck. Maybe someone else will see something where I can't.

• Sunday, Jan. 16 start approx. 7:00 PM, ended approx. Tuesday, Jan. 17 by 7:00 AM
• Saturday, Feb. 19 start approx. 7:30 PM, ended Monday, Feb. 21 by 10:00 AM
• Friday, Feb. 25 start early evening, ended Saturday, Feb. 26 by noon
• Friday, Mar. 4 start 8:20 PM, ended Saturday, Mar. 5 9:30 AM
• Wednesday, Mar. 16 start approx. 4:00 AM, ended Friday, Mar. 18 by 7:00 AM
• Tuesday, Mar. 22 start approx. midnight, ended Wednesday, Mar. 23 by 5:00 PM
• Friday, Mar. 25 start 5:45 PM, ended Saturday, Mar. 26 by 6:00 PM
• Monday, April 4 start approx. 2:00 AM - not ended yet ended Monday, April 4 by 5:00 PM

Most of then happen on the weekend, which is the only thing I can see. The first one was her worst, I think because we didn't know what was happening and didn't get her temperature down as fast as we do now. And now she's on colchicine, and we think that's lessening the severity of the fevers.

I sure wish I could figure out what was triggering this!

As seen on TV!

I'll admit it: I'm a huge sucker for "as seen on TV" kitchen items. I don't buy them from the infomercials, but if I see them in Big Lots or somewhere like that, I'm likely to pick it up.

This weekend, I bought the Quick Minute Microwave Food Dehydrator for $3.99 at Old Time Pottery (so just slightly less than the online price). Amazingly enough, it actually worked well! I made potato chips, and they must have been good, because we ate them all.

Now, I know what we can do with at least some of the potatoes that we'll be harvesting from the garden this fall!

Indy had a little lamb...