Amphibians and mammals

A slight break from the wool and spinning:

A week or so ago it was raining pretty good on and off all day.  At one point, we heard this odd whirring chirp right outside our door.  Thinking it was a bird that had taken shelter we peeked out the window, but no bird.  Jeff opened the door and the chirping stopped.  We assumed he had scared away the bird.

The whirring chirp resumed an hour or so later, and this time I went to look.  There on the porch rail was a bright green tree frog.  Man, those things are loud when they're up close.

He let me get in pretty close with the camera before hopping away.

Ribbit, Ribbit

Then last night we got photographic proof of how tolerant greyhounds can be:

"You don't mind if I prop my feet here, do you?"

More cute doggy pictures

I swear, I still am knitting and spinning, but these two are so cute!

Getting Closer. . .

It's fun watching the relationship between these two dogs progress. They went from very hands-off playing, to laying NEAR each other and now. . .

"my foot is cold"

"My hat smells funny"
"Your belly is comfy"

Also, it is AMAZING how much fur Mimsy sheds. I'm not sure if it's because she's still shedding the last of her winter coat or if it's because her fur is black and we notice it more on the beige carpet. Either way, I'm vaccuuming more!

Greyhound Sleeping Positions

Perpendicular



parallel



With Daddy

Mimsy!

It became clear pretty quickly that Mimsy fits our new pooch's personality. And as fun as it would be to have Callooh and Callay, well, ya gotta go with what feels right.

Day 1 went really well. We had introduced them at the kennel, and they liked each other really well.

She settled right down on the car ride, laying down after about only 5-10 minutes of standing. She very easily tolerated being picked up to get out of the car, and managed to navagate the two stairs up into the house from the garage. We walked her around, and she just kept walking in a circle around the circuit of our house! very cute. Then we took them outside in our backyard and watched some synchronised peeing!

Inside into her crate and she settled down without a fuss.

My friend came over later in the evening, and we again walked her in the backyard, letting Callay stay off-leash. More sniffing and peeing.

About the only odd thing that happened was at one point while I was outside and both dogs were inside (Callay wandering free, Mimsy in her crate) I hear barking. I go inside and I see Callay barking and play-bowing at the crate, and a bewildered look on the new dog's face. I tell Callay this is not appropriate and stare her down. Then she lays down right in front of the crate.

Mimsy settled right in when we took them upstairs (carrying her since she just was spayed) and she laid down in the crate without protest, and slept through the night. The only time she whined was when I got up this morning to go to the bathroom, at which point it was time to get everyone up.

The walk this morning was interesting. We took them on leash in the neighborhood. I'd forgotten just how rambunctious a high prey drive, young dog can be the first time they see a squirrel. hoo. She was trying for all her might to slip the lead, and a couple of times I grabbed her around the chest to hold her. We made that a rather short walk. We'll try again later today.

And now, some pictures!

Fun at the lake

I always enjoy watching Callay swim. Well, "Swim" really. More like she floats in her life vest and holds on to someone else who's swimming. This past trip we were making the most of the use of the lake and getting Callay some "hydro therapy" getting her to actually swim and use those muscles that have atrophied a bit with being sick.

The first couple of swims were off of the dock, with Jeff lifting her in by the handle. Then we beached the boat and went swimming off of a sandy beach, letting Callay go in at her own pace. With Jeff and Mom out in the water calling to her, and me holding the leash (but not MAKING her go) she went right out into the water and swam of her own accord!

After a bit she got tired and wanted to rest on one of us floating, so Dad tossed in a blue funoodle. She rested her paws on it to help her keep her head above water, and was walking on the bottom, pushing the noodle along!


I was helping steady her bum when this picture was snapped.

Then we got back in the boat. She likes going fast. All the wind in the face like running but without all the exertion!

New addition!

Since Callay is pretty much all better, Jeff and I decided to head on out to Greyhound Friends of NC to pick out a sibling for Callay.

We met a few doggies, and came to the conclusion that Callay doesn't really like boys. Her reactions to them were either ignore totally or be rather annoyed by their presence. They were permitted to sniff her royal hindquarters, but if they sniffed at her breath she kept avoiding them.

So it was down to two girls, who currently go by "Sister" and "Tuff"

Callay liked both of them. Lots of face contact and tail wagging. Unfortunately, Sister seemed a bit skittish around us, and with as boisterous as we and our friends tend to be, I can't imagine she'd be that happy. While we probably could bring her out of her shy shell, it's not guaranteed and she probably wouldn't be terribly happy.

Tuff, on the other hand not only got Callay to actually RUN for a bit, they still did some great space-sharing, and some simultaneous trotting. I was having too much fun watching them to get too many pictures, but here they are (one is of Tuff from the website)




Callay was tired from all the fun


A fun car shot just for the heck of it.

Tour de Fleece Day 2

A bobbin and a half full, and most of the batts pre-drafted and ready to spin.



Callay isn't sure about all those other greyhounds in the house.

More random cuteness

Going through old photos of Callay I came across a few particularly cute ones of her "swimming" at my parents' place on Lake Oconee. I put swimming in quotations because, well. . .





She didn't exactly work on her dog paddle

Cute distractions

There's been too much lack of posting, or posting of not great things. So here's something cute instead!

Callay was feeling better for a while, and this is a photo from that period of time.

No neck pain, and eating well. This was from mid-April.

The results

The results from the ultrasound were, like all others, inconclusive. Which on the one hand is good because she doesn't have liver or kidney damage, but on the other hand it doesn't get us closer to an answer for what's really wrong with her. She does now have some swelling in her joints, which could be infectious material that's settled there, or it could be autoimmune. Our options at this point are to start over and do pretty much all of the tests over again, do nothing, or something in between.

Two of the in between ones that made sense were to either treat her with long term antibiotics to try to rout out what's causing the infection, or tap her joints to see what's causing the inflammation. If they tap her joints and isolate some sort of bacterium from it, they can also test it against different antibiotics to see what it's susceptible to, and then only put her on those antibiotics. The test isn't terribly expensive, and that way she doesn't have to be on an entire battery of antibiotics, where perhaps only one is actually doing any good. So after talking it over with Jeff, we decided that we're going to take this approach.

Wish us luck

Spoke too soon?

Callay was feeling a lot better. She was eating, she looked to be putting on weight, she was acting almost like herself again. So much so that I almost decided against taking her to the vet's for another checkup, but I took her to Banfield, since we have something akin to doggy insurance that makes checkups free. Well, she was running a fever, and didn't really want to eat that day, or over the weekend, and even until today. I've kept her going with gentle force-feeding (shove wet food in the side of her mouth until she swallows it) but this is not a good thing.

She's at NCSU yet again, this time for an ultrasound to see the current condition of her internal organs, if something has been damaged by all these antibiotics, if she has some lesion, or if just like all of the other tests, it shows "nothing conclusive"

This is so very difficult. If we just had an answer from this battery of tests. . . But for her to go downhill after 2 weeks of feeling really good. For her to spike a fever while still on potent antibiotics. If we just knew what the hell was causing it, we could decide. . . something. She is still acting like she feels fine. She just has a fever and doesn't want to eat. But say the words Walkie, Cookie, ride in the car, and she's bouncing all over the place. Take her for a walk and she wants to jog the whole way. Do we let her stay where she feels good enough to do all that but doesn't want to eat? When do we stop and just let whatever's going to happen happen? After what we have put into this, how do we stop now? How do we just give up on the best veterinary hospital in the state and just see what happens? I really don't believe they're pushing tests on us that they don't feel are necessary. They do seem to be acutely aware of the fact that their reputation is being tarnished somewhat by the fact that they're doing all these tests and still don't have an answer for me or for themselves. I keep asking how this test or this test will change her treatment. They always have sound answers.

I'm frustrated, sad, and worried that I'm making the wrong decisions for her care. Every test seems like it's a good idea and it will answer something or rule something out. And then it doesn't.

So what do I do?

Back again!

Sorry for the long delay. I'm sure most readers know that Callay has been feeling rather poorly as of late, and I've been more consumed with spending time with her than thinking about blogging. She's back to being her normal self now, and while she may need to live with a low-grade heart murmur for the rest of her life, at least she's feeling like a dog again, rather than just feeling sick.



Aroooo!

Still here

and Callay continues to improve. We're taking her in to the vet's tomorrow for another checkup, a weigh-in and to see what's going on with her ankles (They're swollen)

Hopefully it's nothing. She's still a little stiff and stoned, but other than that she's doing better. She still gets all excited over going outside for walkies and has been eating better since we started putting wet food in with her dry.

Update on Callay

After a nerve-wracking week, wondering if our precious greyhound has cancer, it's been determined with fair certainty that she does not. Although they weren't able to determine exactly what's causing her pain, they're hoping that some time spent recouping, with a decent load of pain meds will make her feel better.


Instead of a greyhound in pain, I have a rather stoned greyhound.

I'll take it.


"whatchu talkin' bout? I'm not stoned. . . Where are the cookies?"

The rawhide you see between her paws is one of three litmus tests I placed around the house to see how she's feeling. She hasn't really wanted food, and has needed coaxing to eat. She's also been acting like her jaw hurts, and so hasn't wanted hard biscuits or rawhides, or even greyhound crack, a greenie. So I left one of each of them on the floor, in places near to where she'll lay down if she's at home. Today the greenie went, and she started in on one of the softer rawhides. I think she's feeling better.

She also has much better neck posture today, actually holding her head up instead of looking at the ground.

My little snowbunny

I think she likes it!

This is probably only the second or third time Callay has seen snow. This morning her tracks showed the efficiency of a greyhound on a mission. Out the door, to the fence, pee, back through the doggy door. I wanted to see if I could get her to do some running. She had fun! But as you can see, at the end she literally bolts for the doggy door. We then warmed up inside, I wiped down her coat and her paws, and she's curled up contentedly on her bed in the office.

Choices, choices

Said Callay "Let's see, I have two beds within about 2 feet of each other. Or. . ."



ahhh, papasan.

A little less progress. . .

Here's how much I got done on the kilt hose last night, after karate:

Two more sets of decreases, and a total of 7 rows. Decreases remaining: 13

I didn't have a chance to measure it. Why, you ask?




Callay decided she wanted to cuddle.

Apparently she is

We've asked her this many times, but this is the first time we've gotten the answer on video. Hopefully you can consider this your cute for the day! (also I wanted to play around with loading up a video on blogger)

All Healed!

My mom was requesting a picture of Callay's surgery site all healed. It's looking really good, and I think that the hair will probably grow back over it and cover most of the scarring. We'll see!




And she was very cute on the car ride up to Michigan!