Day 4832

Another cold morning. We had to wear our winter coats when we took Dawn on her morning walk. The walks are shorter now, but Dawn still loves them. Her entire day is better when she gets a chance to smell things in the park. So far her recovery is going well. We've already eliminated two of her meds and will start reducing the remaining Rimadyl tablets tonight. She's pretty steady on her feet now, but we still have to help her on and off the bed.

We had our traditional big weekend breakfast and then I did my weekly grocery shopping. This week it was time to fill my car with gas. I do this about every two weeks. As little as I drive, you'd think I could go a lot longer between fill ups, but my car gets terrible gas mileage. Truthfully I don't need a 5 liter supercharged V8 to go to the post office.

Grocery stores are still a mess. I guess that's the new normal. Selections aren't nearly as good as they used to be and prices have gone through the roof. To keep prices lower stores are increasingly stocking the shelves with their own house brands. These brands are less expensive but you get what you pay for. For the most part these house brands are noticeably inferior. I do my low end shopping at Sam's Club and my high end shopping at Central Market. These two stores are world's apart although both have their own house brands. Central Market's house HEB brands are much better than Sam's Member's Mark brands, but Sam's is still the place to buy bottled water, detergent, coffee pods, garbage bags, and other items that don't go on the dinner table. 

Janet had to be away from the house this afternoon, so we thought we'd see how Dawn would do on her own. We were pretty sure that Dawn would stay on the bed while we were gone, but dogs are never entirely predictable. I left the house to go on my long walk before Janet left, but the house was empty when I returned. Sure enough, Dawn was still lying on the bed. She made no attempt to get up and greet me, but that wasn't unusual. She never does. When she saw that I wasn't Janet, she just sighed, put her head down and went back to sleep.

I was a little worried when she wouldn't eat her dinner tonight. I even tried bring her bowl back to the bedroom and she still had no interest. It turned out nothing was wrong at all. As soon as Janet came home Dawn gobbled everything down and then went outside to pee. The little diva was just upset that her weekend schedule had been disrupted. Dawn is constantly at Janet's side when she is home and she just doesn't like being alone with me. I think she's getting better.  When she was really sick she seemed to tolerate me being nearby a lot better. I'm sure this was just an illusion. She probably just had trouble moving away.

We're not sure Dawn is ready to ride in the car again, but if all goes well we might try to take her on a shorter Sunday outing tomorrow. She'll still need help getting in and out of the car, but she does love her walks. We'll see how it goes. I'll go mall walking in the morning and when I return to the house that's usually a sign to Dawn that she's going on her outing soon. Last week she was real disappointed when we didn't go anywhere. Hopefully we can keep Dawn a happy dog tomorrow.

Nick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4466

Dawn wouldn't eat this morning so I had to get out the canned food. If you have a finicky eater, you always keep a little canned food in reserve. I finally got Dawn to eat and do her business, but she is not a happy camper. Despite my best efforts, she still seems stressed and nervous. I think she's given up hope that Janet is going to return and thinks she's stuck with me now. I wish I could convince her that this is all just temporary, but it's hard to convince a stubborn dog of anything.

Other than trying unsuccessfully to cheer Dawn up, it was a fairly uneventful day. I took my long walk, wondered how to eliminate my foot pain, and eventually got the star tracker out again to try to answer the manufacture's questions. The weather was quite warm today but it was really windy. I felt like I was going to get blown off the trail at some points. I walk so slow when my feet are bothering me that I don't know if it even counts as exercise anymore. You've got to keep moving though, and walking is still a great way to fill an empty day.

One of the big selling points of the star tracker was how easy it was to use. I've just about concluded that this isn't true at all. This thing is actually very hard to use and if you don't do everything exactly right and in the proper order it will crash on you. The one encouraging thing is that the software gets better with each new release. I'm probably just not used to being a Beta Tester. I think I finally found the information that Benro wants to document my many crashes, but that's as far as I went today. I still haven't taken the tracker outside at night.

I should have been down at KSC for the Artemis-1 roll out today but I wasn't even invited. Most of my rocket photographer friends were there. Why was I overlooked? Nevermind that I couldn't have gone anyway. NASA couldn't have possibly known that I was here in Dallas caring for a very nervous dog. I tend to overthink things like this. There's probably a reasonably explanation. All I know is that it took me a long time to become accepted as a member of the Kennedy Space Center press. I'd really hate to start over again at this point.

I had a virtual meeting with my financial advisor recently and for the first time I can remember he talked about moving some of my assets into gold. This has never happened before. There has been one crisis after another over the years but maybe the current one is even worse than I thought. I really don't think Putin would nuke a Western country because it would mean the end of the world. Crazy men do crazy things though, so who knows. I remember growing up in an era where all people thought about was nuclear war. People built fallout shelters in their backyards and every other Twilight Zone episode seemed to be about some kind of nuclear disaster. I remember doing the duck and cover exercises in grade school although they wouldn't have helped much. If you are really worried about nuclear war, you need to move to a remote rural area with favorable prevailing winds immediately and start stocking up on canned food and fresh water. If you wait until conditions get worse it will be too late.

I'm not going anywhere because I still think in the long run sanity will prevail. Until then I'll just keep on keeping on. I took this week's trash out to the curb tonight and I'm really hoping that Dawn's appetite will return in the morning. All things considered we've done pretty well, but she's still Janet's dog.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4101

We had quite a storm last night. A strong wind and the sound of thunder woke me up and I had trouble getting back to sleep. I checked my phone to make sure that we weren't under a tornado watch and then I checked on Dawn. For a dog that is scared of everything, she is remarkably unaffected by storms. Severe weather doesn't seem to bother her at all. Eventually I dozed off and when I woke up this morning, the sound of thunder had been replaced with the sounds of the bulky trash trucks picking up all the junk that had been piled at the curb.

It was too wet to use the hedge trimmers I bought yesterday. I made sure that the pumps on the roof were working and then slowly drank my morning smoothie as I looked for something interesting to watch on TV. Dawn wouldn't eat her breakfast this morning which kind of worried me. Whenever a Dalmatian won't eat, something has to be wrong. I remembered hearing her stomach rumble when I woke up in the middle of the night, so I suspect that she got into something bad in the yard. Janet and I decided to wait and see if her appetite returned for dinner before becoming too alarmed.

The sky looked unusually dusty this morning, but the wind was blowing so hard that all the dust disappeared by mid afternoon. When I went on my long walk, I almost got blown over a few times. With the wind in my face, today's walk was quite a workout. I saw five large trees that had gotten blown over in the park and was extremely thankful that none of our own trees were damaged. Over the years we have lost about half of our mature Oak and Elm trees to storm damage. The trees are old and nearing the end of their natural life. Sadly, I think the rest of them need to be removed to insure that they won't fall on the house during a future storm. Violent storms are just a fact of life in Texas. Luckily, the worst of last night's storm went to the North of us.

I've got to think of something interesting to augment my daily walks. The walks eat up a lot of time, but they aren't like the many projects that used to occupy me for months at a time. I've lost interest in so many things. When I look around the office, it feels like a stranger put a lot of the stuff here. I'm no longer interested in making large Giclée prints or having gallery shows. I don't think my large production printer even works anymore. It's been decades since I've played in a band. I don't even write songs or play musical instruments these days. I don't collect things either. In fact, the last several years have been devoted to getting rid of many of my collections. I don't even find these waning interests strange. It's been this way my entire life. I don't expect my current interest in space and astronomy to last forever, but I'm sure I'll always be interested in something. I wonder what comes next.

Luckily, Dawn's appetite returned in time for dinner. She was eager to eat the same things she refused to touch for breakfast. Who knows what was wrong earlier today, but I suspect that it was an upset stomach. Dawn seemed kind of moody today as well. She gets that way when Janet is gone for any length of time. It's a shame that Dawn has decided to be a one person dog, especially since I spend a lot more time around the house than Janet does. We're working on becoming friends, but it is a very slow process.

I guess I'll watch the Artemis-1 static fire on NASA TV tomorrow. At one point I was planning to go down to Stennis Space Center to watch this in person, but I'm glad I never pursued it. With Covid restrictions still in place, I probably wouldn't have been approved anyway. Maybe by the time this gigantic rocket makes its way down to Kennedy Space Center things will be back to normal. This is one launch I'd really like to see. Until then, I'll continue walking, keep learning more about astrophotography, and keep trying to win Dawn's favor with cheese.

Alison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3393

I mowed the grass for the first time this year. I had to mow twice because the weeds were overpowering the mower. One pass took care of the top of the weeds and after I lowered the blade, the next pass took care of the rest. I used to spend hours weeding the lawn every Spring until I discovered that these weeds died on their own around April. Mowing the lawn seems harder with each passing year. The wheels aren't powered on this mower and the hills seem steeper than they used to be. One of these days I'm going to give up and hire a lawn service like all the other neighbors.

Dash got another bath today because he pooped on himself during the night. We cleaned him up the best we could around 2 AM, but when daylight arrived it was clear that we could have done better. It's sad that Dash won't eat the chicken, rice, and vegetable dinner we've been fixing for him. He did so well on this diet. Now that he's become an extremely picky eater again, we basically feed him anything that he will eat. The list seems to change every day. These frequent changes in diet are making his stools loose again. We've been through this before. So far, Dash's eating habits have returned to normal after a week or so. I've always thought the vestibular disease caused these episodes, but maybe it's something else. When Dash has an upset stomach, the important thing is to find something he can hold down and keep him taking his pills. So far, there's been no vomiting. It's always harder when there's a problem at both ends.

It's nice that warmer weather has returned. It's not so nice that the bugs came along with it. Every Spring we have a terrible problem with ants. They're everywhere. Old houses are full of cracks and these cracks are superhighways for ants. Mostly we are seeing small sweet ants. They're easy to kill, but they just keep coming. At least this onslaught is seasonal. Ants can be very irritating.

I didn't think that Dash's walks could get any slower, but they have. We just inch along these days. I try to get an early start so Dash won't get overheated. Unfortunately, an early start means nothing to Dash. It almost always feels ten degrees warmer by the time we return home. I don't know what we're going to do this Summer. Today was a beautiful, very mild Spring day and Dash was already too hot. He does best when it's about 40 degrees.

It's time for a haircut again. It seems like I just got a haircut but I guess it's been almost three months. Time seems to go by so quickly now. When I went to see the doctor the other day, it seemed like I'd just been too. It had been six months since my last appointment. Bills only arrive once a month, but it seems like I'm paying bills continuously. When I was busy with work, a month seemed like a very long time. Now that life has slowed down, time goes by much more quickly. Maybe when nothing happens, time doesn't exist. Those people who study black holes ought to look into this.

I've got to look for a birthday card tomorrow. There used to be a nice Hallmark Card store in the neighborhood, but it went out of business several years ago. I don't like the cards you find in grocery stores, but I don't feel like driving all over town either. It's not worth the effort. No wonder people just sent birthday greetings on Facebook.

Livy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2832

If I'd waited just one more day, I wouldn't have had to repair the refrigerator myself yesterday. The appliance repair folks called and said the thermostats finally arrived. They want to come out and install them tomorrow. Oh, well. It was a learning experience.

It's going to be a busy day tomorrow. In addition to having the appliance repairmen out at the house, I've got a vet appointment for Dash. I hope the vet can shed some new light on Dash's ongoing problems. I"m worried that something is seriously wrong. I doubt that she'll have a definitive diagnosis, but maybe we can narrow down the range of possibilities. Dash has some very obvious symptoms. We just have to connect those symptoms to a plausible ailment.

I have a feeling that we'll be going to see a specialist again. All Dash's basic vital signs look good. If there is some new form of cancer lurking inside of him, it's probably going to take a MRI to discover it. The dog frequently has nausea in the morning and is not interested in eating. This could be a symptom of idiopathic vestibular disease. His rear legs seem weak and sometimes he drags his feet. This could be an early sign of degenerative myelopathy. His cancer could have returned too. Basically, almost anything could be wrong at this point. We've just got to find out what is causing all these problems.

I mowed the grass again this morning. Fall has definitely arrived, so hopefully this is the last time I'll have to mow this year. You never know in Texas though. We could get a lot of rain and the growing season could start all over again. I'm amazed at how tiring it is to mow the grass now. This task used to seem so easy. One of these days I'm going to have to give up and hire someone to maintain the yard. I'm not ready yet though. I keep thinking that the activity will do me good.

I wrote a letter to my luddite sister this afternoon. You'd think it would be easier to just call her on the phone, but this is how we communicate. I can't recall ever calling her on the phone. I think there are too many phone calls and far too few letters. Writing a letter helps to focus your thoughts. It's also a good way to avoid getting tangled up in family fights.

Dash is getting pretty good at leaving his injured dewclaw alone, but I still put the cone on him when I go to the post office or leave the house. We've made real good progress this week. I'd hate to ruin it all by leaving him to his own devices for an afternoon. Maybe after another week the wound will have healed enough so that we can retire the cone permanently.

On my way home from the post office I stopped at the storage warehouse to see when my annual rent was due. Just as I thought, it is due at the end of the week. Damn. One more big bill to pay. I have a feeling that I am going to be perpetually poor. The stock market continues to do well, but it isn't enough to replace a regular income. I've got to cut expenses. One obvious way would be to get rid of a lot of stuff in the storage warehouse so I could rent a smaller space. Lots of luck with that. I guess I've got another year to think about what I can part with.

I sure hope the vet can figure out how to get Dash eating again. Making sure he eats enough to stay healthy has become an all day activity.

Rosie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2831

I fixed the refrigerator this morning. I remembered what the appliance repairmen did the last time they were here and did exactly the same thing. I was a little worried about electrocuting myself since I didn't unplug the refrigerator before I started taking it apart, but the repairmen left it plugged in too. The repair won't be permanent because there is still a thermostat that needs to be replaced, but I think I did a good job. Everything is working perfectly now and I saved $175 by not calling in another emergency repair.

It took me about two hours to get the refrigerator running properly again. I put all the frozen food in an ice chest while I was working and nothing thawed. I could do this again if I have too, but I would prefer to have the two thermostats replaced so the automatic defrost circuit works properly again. I wonder why it is taking so long to get those parts? Either the repairmen have forgotten about me, or the parts are on backorder. I'll call tomorrow and remind the guys that I'm still here.

Dash is still not eating well. I eventually got him to eat enough to make sure he is still getting proper nutrition, but it was an uphill battle. Feeding Dash these day involves lots of little meals and judicious food substitution whenever he refuses to eat something. I sure hope that his vet can come up with an explanation for this odd behavior. He'll turn up his nose at something and then two hours he'll scarf the same thing down like it was his favorite meal. He won't eat wet and dry food mixed together anymore, but he will sometimes eat dry for if it's mixed with a broken up rice cake.

Walking Dash has become equally problematic. I'll put his harness on, lace up my boots and then he won't go out the back door. It took four tries to get him interested in an evening walk. The first three times he refused to leave the house. The fourth time he walked eagerly out the door and headed straight for the back gate. I don't know what's going on in that dog's head anymore.

Once I was sure that Dash was ready for a long nap and wasn't going to lick his injured dewclaw, I went outside and began cutting the pile of branches I had thrown off the roof yesterday into smaller pieces so I could take them back to the alley. Cutting up the Elm Tree branches took me even longer than fixing the refrigerator, but I did get the job done. Now there is a neat pile of wood in the alley that will have to sit there for another month before I can take it to the curb for October big trash pickup.

Dash was happy to see Janet when she returned from the Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament this evening. She brought him some hand made dog treats she won in the silent auction. For some reason Dash had no problem at all eating these.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2830

It never ends. I was just getting ready to go to the grocery store this afternoon when I heard a horrendous noise. I went outside to see what had happened and discovered that a big chunk of our elm tree has just fallen on the roof. I wasn't expecting this. There was no wind today and the large branch that had fallen was alive and filled with leaves. I didn't do anything immediately, but knew how I was going to be spending the rest of the afternoon as soon as I returned from the store.

I guess I should have expected this. The day certainly didn't get off to a good start. Dash wouldn't eat anything this morning. He even turned up his nose at the canned food he normally loves. This was kind of a crisis, because it is essential that he takes his phenobarbital pills to prevent seizures and they must be taken with food. I finally got him to take his morning pills inside several balls of cheddar cheese. We needed him to eat more than a little cheese, so we scrambled an egg for him. He ate the egg and then immediately went back to sleep.

Dash's poor appetite has me worried. I called his regular vet and made an appointment for early next week. Then I called the emergency vet who bandaged him up last Tuesday to see whether the antibiotics she prescribed might be part of the problem. Since Cephalexin does cause loss of appetite with some dogs, she decided to stop the medication and see if we notice any changes in the next 24 hours. I think this will be OK, since the dewclaw wound is healing nicely and doesn't seem to be infected. Hopefully, the antibiotics are causing the problem. Otherwise this might be tough to diagnose. I'm always worried that Dash's cancer could have returned. That could certainly cause a loss of appetite.

When I returned from the grocery store today, I pulled a heavy duty reciprocal saw up to the roof with a rope and began sawing apart the elm tree that had fallen. This was a very large branch and I was surprised that it didn't seriously damage the roof. I guess the little branches with green leaves fell first and cushioned the blow. This job would have been a lot easier with a chain saw, but I'm scared to death of chain saws. I won't go near them after a friend of mine practically sawed his face off with one. Wood is heavy. I feel like I sawed about a thousand pounds of wood this afternoon. Too bad we've already had big trash day for September. I don't know what I'm going to do with all this wood until the next big trash day.

I was dreading this evening because Janet is away at a Dalmatian Rescue event. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as I expected. I managed to get Dash to take a decent walk on his own. He took all his evening pills and I was even able to get him to eat a small dinner. I had to hand feed him, but considering the problems we had this morning, this is progress.

The refrigerator doesn't seem to be working again. It seemed too warm this evening when I was preparing dinner. Maybe Janet just left the door open a long time when she was loading in new groceries. We'll see if it cools down again by morning. I guess it would make sense that there would still be problems. The appliance repairmen still haven't returned to install the new thermostats they ordered. It's entirely possible that the coil has frozen again. I'll have to call the repair shop on Monday and see what the delay is. They should have been able to find a thermostat by now.

I hope Dash is feeling better tomorrow. It might be a really long day. I don't know any magic formula to get Dash eating again. I guess if things continue to deteriorate, I can always try feeding him whatever I'm eating. I'll have to make a point of eating something healthy though.

Sage is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2825

Dash is getting so weird about meals. Today, he turned up his nose at everything I offered him. We still have quite a variety of dog food on hand, since we had to switch Dot's diet quite often toward the end. We always feed out dogs high quality, nutritious food, but I think Dash would prefer a Happy Meal from McDonalds. Dash was never a picky eater while Dot was around. If he didn't eat quickly, Dot would eat everything in his bowl. I guess he can relax now and contemplate what he'd really like.

Today was worse than usual. Dash didn't finish his breakfast until well after lunch. I began to think that he might have some sort of medical problem, but eventually he got real hungry and ate everything in his bowl as if it was his favorite treat. Dinner was the same way. He had barely touched his dinner by the time I had to leave for a meeting, but somehow Janet convinced him to eat while I was gone.

At least Dash isn't fixated on his dewclaw anymore. The only time he had to wear the cone was when I left the house to take some mail to the post office. I still don't completely trust him. In fact, I'd better go check on him now. He's been awfully quiet for the past thirty minutes.

It was a quiet day, but surprisingly I did manage to talk with a few people. I went to an animal rescue meeting this evening to begin planning for the group's next big event. Most of the volunteers in this group have known each other forever and it's always nice to see everybody. We don't seem to meet as often as we used to, but maybe we've just become more efficient.

I wish I could become more efficient. Without the deadlines that forced me to be productive for so many years, I don't get nearly as much done. Other than my meeting tonight, I seemed to spend my entire day watering the grass, paying a few bills and trying to get Dash to eat. There just isn't much incentive to do things fast anymore. Sometimes I even look for ways to slow things down. I think I've almost perfected slowing breakfast down. Often, it's almost lunch time before I am finally finished.

The roofers haven't come over yet. The refrigerator repairmen hasn't returned either. I don't even want to call the watch repairman, because I'm certain he hasn't fixed my watches either. Jeez. We haven't even gotten our refund on the Visa gift card yet, and that problem started months ago. I wonder if anything works smoothly anymore. I haven't seen much evidence that it does.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm not expecting much. I think I'd be happy is Dash just eats his breakfast.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2710

This is a weird way to live. I usually wake up tired and disoriented. Usually, I've been up several times during the night with Dot and no matter what time it is, it always seems too early. Often, Janet has already walked Dash, because she needs to get to work. Neither of us wants to wake Dot while she is calm and resting.

Lately, Janet has already left for work by the time I get Dot up for her morning pills. She has no interest in food, but often wants a walk after she is fully awake. If she won't drink water, I take her outside and hydrate her with water from a large syringe before we go anywhere. Sometimes this initial drink of water will kick start her drinking response. Other times, she just looks at her water bowl like she doesn't know what it is.

Mornings are stressful. I don't want Dot to have a dry mouth while she takes her pills, so I've been taking her outside and feeding her some of the Dogsure liquid as I put each pill down her throat. This takes a long time. If this process takes too long, Dash starts barking and often destroys the calm environment I need to feed Dot. I try my best to get Dot to eat while Dash is sleeping, but he's got a keen sense of smell and always seems to know when there are tasty treats nearby. This is not what I want. Dash is getting fat and Dot keeps getting thinner.

For most of this week I haven't had much luck getting Dot to eat in the morning. I gave up again today and fixed my own breakfast after taking Dot back to her bed. I have to make sure all the food is put away before letting Dash out of the bedroom because he is on a special diet. Everything takes so long that it is usually around noon before I have finished my breakfast and put away all the dishes.

Every day I worry that Dot has finally run out of time. It doesn't seem right for a dog to refuse food during the day and only eat after sunset. Dot was still sleeping and hadn't eaten anything when Janet returned from work around 7 PM. I took Dash for a walk and was surprised to discover that Janet was able to hand feed Dot an entire cup of dry food while I was gone. She subsequently drank a lot of water and then proceeded to eat some more dry food from her bowl.

Once again, Dot had eaten enough to survive. In one brief spurt, she had managed to consume her entire two cup daily quota. This would be the last time Dot ate for the rest of the day. When it was time for her evening pills, she had already lost her appetite.

I didn't accomplish much today. I miss going out to the restaurant on Fridays, but my homemade pancakes and sausages were delicious. I picked up the prescription I forgot yesterday and got food for the weekend at Central Market. That was it. The dogs are wearing me out. At times it's really hard to know whether we're doing the right thing. We had some good moments today, but Dot is agitated now and seems uncomfortable. Maybe we waited too long.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2705

Dot didn't bounce back today. I tried everything I could think of, but she just wasn't interested in eating. Two day ago she was eating more than enough to sustain her. Now, we are right back to where we were a month ago. It all happened rather suddenly. Jeez. It doesn't seem like a month has passed since we initially became convinced that her body was shutting down. I was so proud of Dot's remarkable comeback. She was determined to beat the odds.

I'm worried again. If Dot can't eat, she doesn't have long. She was even having trouble drinking water today. For the first time, we used a syringe to make sure she was getting enough water and wasn't becoming dehydrated. We took her outside and used a large syringe to slowly squirt water down her throat. I was surprised at how well this worked. We had to give her the water slowly so she wouldn't choke on it, but she did swallow normally and seemed to appreciated the water.

Later in the day it occurred to me that we could use the same technique to make sure she got some food too. We still had a can of the Dogsure liquid supplement we bought the first time she stopped eating. She drank about a third of the can using the syringe and at least for a few moments, seemed to regain her interest in food. We were able to get her to eat a little bit of fresh salmon Janet went out and got for her this morning. Nothing else worked today. Dot wasn't eating ham, cheese, turkey, or the Ultramix stew.

Surprisingly, Dot still wanted her walks. The weather was cool after some severe storms last night and Dot was eager to go to the park. I didn't think she'd have the energy, since she wasn't eating, but she did surprisingly well. These short walks are very important to her.

Last night's thunderstorm woke everyone up except for Dot. She slept through the whole thing. Dash, on the other hand, was terrified. I finally got him to come under the covers with me and he calmed down a bit since he couldn't see the lightning anymore. He could still hear the thunder though. This was some of the loudest thunder I've ever heard. It sounded like mortar rounds landing next to the house. Dash curled up next to me and shivered and shook for the rest of the night.

We try not to leave Dot alone anymore. I went to the gym right after breakfast while Janet was doing some things around the house. When I returned, she left to do her errands. I was surprised to look up while I was on the hand bike today and realize I was the only person in the entire gym. I don't think this has ever happened before. It's a very large gym and there's always somebody there. Janet told me later that it was graduation weekend and that the old people who frequent this gym were probably watching their children or grandchildren graduate. Sounds plausible.

I hope Dot's appetite returns tomorrow. She's got to eat something. It would break my heart to have to put a dog down that wasn't ready to go. I'm not giving up on Dot yet. She came back from the brink once before and maybe she will again. When I walked Dot this evening I could see her determination. We'll give it everything we've got tomorrow.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2085

Sometimes I hate computers. I only had one job today. It was an easy one. I just needed to burn a few DVD's for a client. I hit the "burn to disc" button on my computer and almost immediately started getting error messages. Unfortunately, every time I got an error message, I wasted a blank disc. Some of the messages said it was impossible to calibrate the laser properly. Other messages said that the operation couldn't be completed because of some obscure error code number. I Googled the error code message and discovered that hundreds of people were having the same problem that I was. None of them seemed very happy with Apple. Many people said that their DVD burner worked just fine until they upgraded their system. A few suggested that Apple knew about the problem and that's why they no longer made computers with DVD burners. It didn't really matter what the reason was. My optical drive was broken.

I thought I'd burn the DVD's using my laptop, but there were problems there too. The hard drive on the laptop was almost full and I needed to transfer about 10 GB worth of photos before I could use the DVD burner. In addition to having very little free disc space, the laptop needs a new battery and I've got to run it using AC power. Hey, the optical drive still works though, and I was eventually able to burn the DVD's. These types of problems never used to occur when I got a new computer every three years. I can't afford that kind of extravagance anymore though, so everything is gradually falling apart.

Dot has become totally unpredictable. I took her out in the backyard after dinner when I thought she might need to poop. I walked her around with her harness for almost ten minutes and she did nothing. As soon as we went inside and I started unloading the dishwasher, she pooped on the largest and hardest to clean throw rug in the living room. Then she slipped and fell in the poop. I cleaned up Dot first, and then I tried the best I could to clean up the rug. Thank goodness for those new enzyme cleaners like Outright and Nature's Miracle. Without them, this rug would have been a lost cause. As it is, it will still take days for the rug to dry out enough for me to see if my efforts were successful.

Last year at this time, Dot was still having incontinence problems and I was mopping up pee almost every day. Now, I'm cleaning up poop. It wears you out after a while. Dash is acting weird too. For the second day in a row, he refused to eat his breakfast. There was no brisket on the kitchen counter today, so I couldn't use that as an excuse. I don't know what is wrong. He eats the very same food for diner without a problem. He still barks and begs for treats while I eat my own meals. It's just breakfast that he refuses to eat. Whenever Dash acts weird, I worry that the cancer has returned. If his appetite doesn't return soon, we're going to have to run some more tests. It's always something, isn't it?

I'd like to start reading my new book soon, but who knows what surprises tomorrow has in store for me. It's hard to believe it's September already. The dogs get their monthly heartworm pill in the morning. I haven't tired of my breakfast fruit smoothies yet, but it's going to be a tough choice tomorrow. I know that's there's bacon in the refrigerator. I'm wondering if it's even worth the trouble to get the optical drive in my computer repaired. I could get a brand new external disc burner for half the price of a repair. In the old days, today's problems would be a good excuse to go to the Apple store and buy one of those super fast black cylindrical towers. Times have changed though. Now the tech toy money gets used to pay vet bills. Oh, well. I don't need a super fast computer anymore and I probably couldn't afford one anyway.

Maybe nothing will break tomorrow and Dot won't poop inside again. One can only hope.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1679

Dot is going in for surgery tomorrow morning. When we visited her early this morning, there was a lot to be encouraged about. Her temperature had remained stable. Her white blood cell count was slowly returning to normal. She even wagged her tail when we arrived. The doctors were still worried though. Dot hasn't eaten since last Thursday and was still refusing to eat this morning. The specialist wanted to do a CAT scan, and told us that based on Dot's vital signs she could safely handle the anesthesia. I was worried about the anesthesia required for a CAT scan, but everyone assured me that Dot's vitals signs looked very good. We gave the OK for the CAT scan and Janet and I went back to work.

Later in the day, we got a call with the results. The doctors had found a golf ball sized growth in her small intestine and wanted to do surgery tomorrow morning. They were confident that this growth was the source of her problems. Janet and I are both reluctant to subject an older dog to surgery, but we listened to what the internal medicine specialist had to say. She told us that since the growth had not yet become large enough to perforate the intestinal wall and cause systematic infection, the chances for a successful outcome were excellent. She didn't call the growth a tumor because, as she explained, there were literally dozens of benign growths or lesions that could attach to the intestinal wall. She said that surgery on the small intestine was routine these days and that Dot would have the same surgeon that performed the thyroid surgery on Dash earlier this year.

If we did nothing and Dot still refused to eat, she would die. Even if she did start to eat, the growth in her intestine would continue to grow larger, until it eventually caused the intestinal walls to burst. Dot was still weak when we visited her this morning, but her eyes were bright, her tail was wagging, and there was no question that she wanted to go on living. As frightened as Janet and I are of major surgery, we decided to give her that chance.

I think we made the right decision. The surgeon who will be operating on her is superb and was largely responsible for saving Dash's life. The specialist took the time to explain exactly why it was so important to remove the growth now, before it grew even further and caused her intestines to rupture. When I talked to the specialist on the phone earlier in the day, I imagined that the growth she was talking about was the size of a grape. When we heard that it was already the size of a golf ball, Janet and I became convinced that we had no choice.

There are no promises when you are wheeled into a surgery suite. It doesn't matter if you are a dog or a person, there are literally hundreds of things that could go wrong. We have been through this before and it never gets easier. We made the right decision with Dash. We made the right decision with Spot. And we made the wrong decision with Greta. The key thing with any serious medical condition is that you've got to be able to make a decision. You've also got to be able to live with the consequences, even if something goes wrong. Hiding from problems and pretending that they doesn't exist is almost always the worst decision you can make.

When we came back at the end of the day to visit again, Dot greeted us warmly. I walked her outside in the grass in front of the hospital and she squatted and peed normally. We brought her favorite blanket and let her rest with us in an exam room while waiting to see the specialist again. Her doctors wanted to see if Janet and I could get her to eat something. It is apparently important to preserve normal Peristaltic movement in the intestinal tract prior to surgery. Without any food to process, there is a danger that Peristalsis could stop. Dot wasn't interested in dog food, but when we opened a small jar of baby food, she eagerly ate the entire thing. This was a very good sign. It was almost as if Dot was telling us that the surgery was OK and that she definitely wanted to live.

Tomorrow is going to be a rough day. Not only is Dot having surgery, Janet is having a Colonoscopy on the same day. Neither of these things could be postponed or avoided. I hope we made the right decision with Dot. I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I do know what would happen if we did nothing. Dot deserves better than that.

The thought of having two dogs with cancer at the same time is both emotionally and financially draining. It's hard to believe this is even happening. It goes without saying that this has been a very tough year. Many people think of me as a negative person, but I am totally positive when it comes to the dogs. I believe in them. Dot is incredibly strong willed and tenacious. She may be old, but she loves her life and wants to keep on living. Our efforts may not succeed, but we're going to give her the best chance she's got. When she ate the baby food out of my hand this evening, I think she gave me her blessing.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1678

I keep looking at the last happy picture I took of Dot. Although she was just being transferred from one vet to another, she thought she was going home. Her tail was tucked under because she was still in pain, but she was happy. Dot's eyes practically sparkled as she was eagerly awaiting me to close the tailgate and get out my car keys. I'm so sorry to have disappointed her. Happy dogs make me happy and I am still sad.

We don't know much more than we did yesterday. The good news is that Dot is still alive. The bad news is that her medical team still isn't sure what is causing all the problems. I was afraid that we wouldn't hear anything at all until Monday morning, but we were surprised and delighted to receive a call today from her internal medicine specialist with an update on Dot's condition. I had initially thought that the specialist would leave Dot under the care of her support team during the weekend, but she was in the hospital herself on a Sunday morning, examining Dot and working on a diagnosis.

She told us that based on everything she knew so far, she suspected that Dot's problems originated in her liver. She thought Dot was stable and would make it through the weekend, but she still wasn't eating. This is bad. We won't know anything more until they do an abdominal ultrasound scan on Monday morning to check for hidden tumors, but there are strong signs that Dot may have acute Hepatitis, or even worse, Liver Cancer. I know a lot about Hepatitis after spending the past 30 years living with Hepatitis-C. Hepatitis can be managed and in many cases, completely cured. There are far fewer options available if you have Liver Cancer. For dogs, surgery is just about the only option, since organ transplants for dogs are still just a far-fetched fantasy. We lost Greta to Liver Cancer. We found the best surgeon available and elected to do the surgery, but it didn't work. Greta died four days later. She never even made it out of the hospital. I don't think I could subject a dog to that ever again.

I am not an emotional person, but a sick dog can still make me cry. It was hard to spend the day waiting, knowing that there was absolutely nothing we could do. I will be up at the hospital as soon as it opens tomorrow morning to visit Dot. All I can do though is hold her and hope. The next steps are up to Dot and her team of doctors. I was encouraged to hear the specialist tell me that she thought  Dot wasn't as depressed today as she was yesterday. She is still alert and engaged. That's a good sign, because she hasn't given up yet. Her incontinence appears to have stopped as well. The nurses take her out every four hours so she can pee normally. The doctor was even going to go to the store after we talked this morning and buy some fresh chicken for Dot to see if she could entice her to eat again.

I'm a worrier, but I really wish I wasn't. Worrying only leads to further worrying. I went to the gym today and cleaned all the water off the roof yesterday afternoon, knowing that lots of physical activity makes me tired. Maybe if I'm really tired, I will sleep better tonight. All I did last night was worry about Dot. Thanks for your support. It means a lot.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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