Animal Updates
The presidential debate is on right now. We are sitting on the couch with our laptops, and Rebecca is keeping track of political blogging in time with the debate. I, on the other hand, am sitting here, prepared to blog about something entirely different, because otherwise I might go crazy. So I have decided to provide the animal update I alluded to in my last post. And maybe when I’m done with that I will post a job update and/or a gardening update. I’m just gonna keep going until the debate is over. Here I go.
By the way, Obama rocks. McCain is an idiot, for many many reason, not the least of which is that he selected Palin as a runningmate.
OK, so our Josie-girl, who is now 12 years old, had some cancer (hemangiopericytoma) in her left foreleg, which we had removed last July. By around November or December of last year, we started to notice that the lump on her leg seemed to be reappearing. But I kept pushing it aside, thinking maybe it was just scar tissue or something like that. But it wasn’t, and in April we found out for sure that it was a recurrence of the hemangiopericytoma, and ultimately decided to amputate her leg to contol the cancer. Although the first full day home was very very hard, she is now doing really well. Interestingly, her being three-legged is actually less noticeable when she is running than when she is walking. Here she is on youtube. Isn’t she a cutie? And here are some pictures of her on Rebecca’s flickr account. You can look at other pictures of her post-surgery in this set too.
Did you know that McCain has outlived his father by 2 years and his grandfather by 12 years? And he looks like hell. Have you noticed? The man is OLD, and if you compare video footage from 2004 and 2008, you can see it–and hear it–very clearly. As a matter of fact, someone has recently suggested to me that perhaps McCain selected Palin because he doesn’t really want to win this presidency, and he’s basically intentionally sabotaging himself. An interesting thought.
About a month or so after Josie’s surgery, Rebecca started really talking about getting another dog. She said she really wanted a “project” that was just hers; she really wanted to be a dog mom. So we got a dog. And that didn’t work out, which was very sad. So then we went to the Durham APS to look at a few dogs. We went one afternoon late in the day, thinking we could just have a look. And we did. We saw one dog. The way you meet a dog at the Durham APS is you pick out the dog, then you tell the staff the kennel number of the dog you want to see, and you go into a little room and a staff member brings the dog to you. And the room is little. And the dog is excited. And it’s really hard to get a good idea of the dog’s personality in that environment, but I understand that they need to keep the environment controlled. So we went that one day, and we identified some good potential dogs, but there wasn’t time to meet any more than just that one. And that one dog was very high-energy, and we didn’t think she’d be a good match for our Josie. So we passed on her.
Does anyone feel like this debate moderator is acting a bit like a marriage counselor? He keeps telling the candidates to “talk to each other.” Which is just strange.
So the next day, Rebecca had some free time early in the day, so she went back to the Durham APS on her own to look at a few dogs. She saw three dogs. The first two were very high-energy, and that was a lot to handle in that little room. And then–then Rebecca met Ellie. Ellie was a puppy, about 6 months old. She was about 23 pounds or so. And Rebecca said to me that day that her default position was sit. So she said that’s it; this is the one. After only about 5 minutes or so. She called me and said she had found our dog. So I took off work a little early that day and went to the Durham APS to meet Ellie. I spent time with her in that little room. I held a ball and she sat waiting for me to throw it. I rubbed her belly. I kissed her little face. I picked her up. Rebecca was right: She was the one. And I went home and told Rebecca all the things I had observed about Ellie in the 20 minutes I spent with her–she has a freckled belly, and white paws, and a white chest, and a little bitty bit of white at the tip of her tail. And she is super-sweet and a very very good dog. And Rebecca thought that was funny because she had only spent maybe 5 minutes with Ellie, and hadn’t had the time to observe all of the things that I had. Here is the picture from Durham APS site of our cute and sweet little Ellie from (from my flickr account). And here are some more recent ones from Rebecca’s flickr account. As you can see, she has very big ears! The Durham APS said she was a Pit/Lab mix, but we don’t think she has any Lab in her at all. She is too little. We think she is probably part Basenji, part Pit. She is now 9 months old and about 32 pounds, and we don’t think she is going to get much bigger. She has now graduated from puppy class and is taking regular obedience class. And she really loves to jump and run fast. She is going to be an agility dog, we think.
Is anyone else wishing that McCain would stop saying that he’s not Miss Congeniality? And did you see that dip in the graph on CNN for the Democrats and the Independents when he mentioned Sarah Palin’s name? And when he said the war in Iraq was a success? Rebecca just observed that the Independents are moving with the blue line (democrats). This is good. This is very very good. And Rebecca just observed that the Republicans are not having an overly negative reaction to Obama’s talk about Iraq.
I think that is it for the dog update. The cats are also good, although they wish that Ellie would stop thinking that they want to play with her. They are trying to deliver that message by hissing, but they do not have front claws so it is difficult for them to deliver the message more powerfully. Sap got out the other night, which was surprising. She immediately freaked out, and the little kitty who seems to have laryngitis in the house was suddenly capable of quite a loud meow. I found her, and grabbed her, and brought her inside. And I think she was grateful.
I love Obama. He never gets rattled even when McCain acts like a total jerk. He keeps his cool. You gotta love that. I’d have punched someone out by now. Probably several people. And I’m not a particularly violent–or particularly strong–person.
The debate is not over yet,so I don’t know what I am going to do now. Maybe I will go get Ellie out of her crate and give he a belly rub. She likes that. She also likes it when I pick her up and put her on my hip like a baby. It’s very cute.
