My guys and girls.

My daughter's dog has been with me since Thanksgiving.  She was going to come get him but the virus slammed the brakes on that.  Loki is longer than he is tall, weighs 45 pounds and thinks he is a lap dog.  I'm having a real problem with Loki, Honey, and Roxie trying to kill my lizards and I won't have that.  I have huge lizards and skinks in my yard and I want them there.  They keep the bug population under control.  I also feed the birds.  I have flowers for the bees, but I don't have bees.  I have seen one bumble bee and one honey bee and both were dying on my patio from poison.  It is disgusting what we have done to our environment. 

Anyway, little miss priss, Roxie, learned she could squeeze out of the yard.  I have caught her 4 times.  The first time, she was across the street on the corner.  The second and third times, I saw her wiggle under the gate.  Well, I dropped the gate to where she can only stick her tongue under it.  So she wiggled through between the gate and fence.  So I'm out there this morning attaching hardware cloth (wire) to the gate so she can't wiggle out.  I do not let her in the back yard without me now and I won't trust her again.  She only weighs 7 pounds.  You would think she would be afraid of her shadow, but she is not.  I gave her a bath and haircut yesterday.  She was so mad at me.  But she is cooler now.  She has so much hair.  I think she is more Bichon than poodle.  She has the fur of a Bichon.  I have never had a poodle with hair that dense.  It is almost like she has two coats.  And I am so glad she found me. 

My sanity

The first picture is Rumble. My granddaughter named her.  I call her Rum.  The second picture is Tiger.  Every time I sit down at the computer, this is where she is.  My keyboard and I are shoved to the side and she occupies almost half the desk.  And she lays on my keyboard.  I get some really interesting websites.  They keep me sane in this pandemic. 

Surviving this mess

In this time of high stress, please take care of your pets.  They can't get this virus and they need us but not as much as we need them.  Having them will relieve your stress.  And if you run low on food, contact the local SPCA, rescue groups.  There are groups out there making sure that there is food for our pets.  I could not survive this without my pets.  They keep me sane.  And they are so entertaining.  So, let's get through this together and keep those babies close.  They will stick with you no matter what.  Stay safe. 

One of the last pictures of my old man.  This is Picasso.  I named him this because he had a splash of color on his chin.  At his prime, he weighed 19 pounds.  I lost him last year.  To old age.  He was 20 when I had to let him go.  I miss him.  I will lose Jock next.  He is 13 and has the beginnings of congestive heart failure.  He quit sleeping on the bed with me.  I gave him a comfy bed under my computer desk.  He spends most of his time there.  He is happy.  And to add insult to injury, he had allergies.  He gets an antihistimine twice a day.  Love my babies.  And it hurts to watch them fail.  Really hurts. 

This is my boy on his bed.  He had just finished tearing up a toy.  He tears them up to get the squeaker.  Then he is through with the toy. 

And this is Jock and Picasso not long before Picasso left.  My babies.

My nuthouse

As I sit here typing this on my keyboard, Tiger, my granddaughter's cat is occupying a third of my desk.  My mouse is sitting in front of my keyboard.  At leas she is not sleeping across the keyboard.  Loki is still with me.  He is a sweetie, but he is a huge puppy and my house shows it.  But he and Roxie do dearly love each other.  And if I ever figure out how to add pictures using Linux, I will be adding pics of them.

Roxie, continued

I I got an email from them asking how my service was.  So I unloaded on them.  I told them that I could have gotten as good a diagnosis from a homeless person on the street as this vet gave me.  No, the fenbbendazole (finally looked up the spelling) did not help her.  I dropped another $149 to another vet to get the meds I needed to get her well and oh yes she did have giardia.  Then I got a call from the so-called vet.  Makes me wonder if she is even a licensed vet.  She said that in her opinion Roxie had had parasites.  Why no test.  Her: I didn't think I needed to one and in hindsight I should have.  Ya think?  She was so sorry I was upset. Me: Well no thanks to you, my dog is alive.  I then asked her if she would have been happy if she had gone into the ER with chest pains and the doctor had told her that in his opinion she had indigestion and sent her home?  Her: Well,no, of course not. Me: But you felt free to do this to my dog?  Do you even have a license to practice vet medicine?  Her: No confirmation so it makes me wonder. 
Then I got a call from someone in accounting asking me what the problem was.  I again unloaded.  She told me that the doctor had diagnosed to the best of her ability.  I told her that at 10 years old I could diagnose this problem with animals.  So what was her excuse?  Well, she did what she thought was right.My reply was that I was really pissed about having to make a donation to the state of Texas because that is all it was.

Roxie

Roxie has been with me about 3 months now.  She is a sweetie.  She came at the right time.  Jock is beginning a downcline.  He is developing congestive heart failure.  And Roxie watches out for him.  When he goes outside,  so does she and she will sit on the porch until he comes in, then she comes in with him.  A few weeks ago she had a really bad case of giardia.  I took her to Texas A&M Vet Clinic.  I got there around 8:30 PM.  Got in.  They ran a parvo test even though she had had two parvo shots because my vet wanted to make sure she did not get it.  And I waited, and waited, and waited.  The attending vet wanted to do an x-ray.  I was good with that because she is a puppy and I wanted to make sure she had not eaten anything to hurt her.  Then the vet wanted me to pay to have the x-ray read.  Really?  She is a vet and can't read the x-ray?  I can read an x-ray and I have no qualifications.  So I did.  So rolling around to 2:30am, yes 2:30am and the vet, if she is one, comes out and tells me she thinks, yes THINKS, Roxie has parasites.  No, she is on Heartguard Plus so no parasites.  Well, I think that is what it is.  Did you run a fecal to make sure?  No, but I think that she has parasites.  Me: Well I want a fecal to see what she does have.  Her: In my opinion, she has parasites.  Me:  I am not paying for your opinion.  Her:  I am giving you 3  cans of prescription dog food, nope I paid for them, and 5 packets of fenbendasol to treat the parasites.  Me: She has giardia.  This will not help.  Her: Well if she is not better in 24 hours bring her back.  All this for $649.00.  And my dog is still very sick.  So I drove out of town to another vet, paid emergency fees, and a fecal test, got meds for her and by Saturday afternoon, she was fine.  So all told to get the meds she needed, I shelled out $798, $649 of that was wasted.