Back To Blogging Again

It has been quite a while since I have tried to post here, and I don't remember as much about how to do this as I thought I did.

In the time since I have been away  my husband and I have become grandparents for a second time.  We now have a 7 month old grand daughter.  Her brother is 11 years old.  So our little granddaughter was a bit of a surprise for everyone.

Our little Fuzzy Pomeranian has good days and not so good days.  The vet told us he has severe liver problems and a heart murmur.  Today is one of his not so good days. 

Bandanas!? Has the CDC gone bananas?

I never would have thought that I would live in a United States of America where the Center for Disease Control would recommend that our nurses, doctors, and medical workers use bandanas
as masks during a deadly viral disease pandemic.  Nurses in my city are soon going to be reusing their mask for 5 wearings. They work 12 - 14 hours wearing that mask, and then at the end of the day will put it in a paper bag and mark it with an x, take that contaminated mask out the next day and put it on again, after there are 5 x's on the bag they will get a new mask, until all of the masks are gone.  After they run out of masks, I don't know what their options will be.  I hope something better than a bandana.  When bandanas as protection for our medical workers comes to pass, I believe that CDC leaders and our President and other politicians should be forced to spend a day in a hospital shadowing some of our medical personnel wearing a bandana to protect them against coughs and sickness.  I imagine they would move heaven on earth to get masks and protective gear for medical personnel if they thought that would happen to them.

Our political leaders who are dithering and not working full speed with everything they've got had better realize that everyone who loses a relative to this virus will remember the slow government response when it comes time to vote again.   Every wife, husband,  mom, dad and grandparent, aunt, uncle,brother, sister,and friend of our nurses and doctors and other medical workers whose lives are being put in danger by the lack of action to get production moving on medical supplies will also remember this dangerous lack of action by our leaders when they vote again. If we all survive to vote again.

It was sad, maddening, and disappointing to hear our President say that the Federal government isn't a shipping clerk, and then words to the effect that the states need to take care of this.  In my opinion, he should have been saying he is there to do everything in his power to help our people, tell him what we need, and he will work as hard as he can to get it done.

Are we on our way to becoming a bandana republic?

UPDATE ON DOGGIE DENTISTRY

It has been a week and one day since Fuzzy had his doggie dental surgery.  He ended up having nine teeth removed.  

He is a little eleven year old,  8 1/2 lb. Pomeranian and has a delicate trachea which is easily irritated so I was worried about the intubation that they did during anesthesia. We dropped him off at the vet's just a little before 9 am. They said they would call and let us know how he was at 2 pm, and he could come home somewhere between 3 or 4 after they were certain that he was wide awake and safe to come home.

At about 1:30 pm they called and said we could come and get him.  He was awake and ready to come home. We left home immediately to go and pick him up and as we got out of the car to go into he vet's we could hear him barking. We were on the parking lot and hadn't even gone inside yet.  I couldn't believe it was him barking, but it was.  Apparently the intubation  hadn't hindered his ability to bark.  No wonder they called us to come and get him so quickly. He was really making a racket.  We have never left him anywhere before.  He was overjoyed that we came back for him.  

Once he was home,  it became clear that he was still feeling the effects of the anesthesia. His normally curled up bushy tail was drooping. He kept licking his lips and front paws.  I imagine his mouth was feeling strange.  He was also pacing and acting agitated.  He was a little wobbly in the hind legs, so we had to block his favorite chair so he wouldn't try to jump up on it. And then he started making a wheezing noise.  That worried me that his trachea may have been swelling. So I called the vet's office to check if there was anything we should do or watch out for.  I even took the name and number of an emergency after hours vet. When I started preparing dinner for my husband and I,  the sound I thought was wheezing was getting worse.  Then Fuzzy started begging for his food.  It turns out he wasn't wheezing after all, but with his throat irritation that was the sound of him whining for his food.  Earlier, when he was making that sound I guess he was whining because he didn't feel good and wanted me to help him.  He had to wait a little longer for his food according to the vet's instructions, but when I gave him very small servings of pureed chicken, smashed boiled potatoes, and  cottage cheese with most of the curds mashed out of it, he ate very slowly, but ate every bit of it, except for a few curds that must have been too hard for his sore mouth. It was a couple of days before he could pick up any of his dog toys without his gums hurting, making him yelp in pain.

By day four he was pretty much back to normal.  Fuzzy always loves to spin. Usually he pirouettes his way out of rooms instead of just walking away. It was day four before he felt like spinning.  One week after having his dental work he is feeling really good.  He has no more of the bad odor that he had before his teeth were taken care of.  He is running, playing, pirouetting, and able to pick up his ball and his toys. His eyes are bright and he is really full of zip. Today he decided my husband had enough sleep and ran down the hall and jumped up and pounced his front paws against the door hard enough to pop it open and wake my husband.

I am thankful that we could afford to have his teeth taken care of at this time. He seems to feel better than he had been feeling. Before the doggie dentistry he never did have problems eating or seem to be in pain, and certainly wasn't lethargic, but the odor coming from his mouth was really bad. His blood work showed high levels of inflammation in his body. I believe it was just a matter of time, and probably not too long, that he would have been having very serious, emergency problems from his teeth.  

It is a big decision to have procedures done on your dog (or cat), especially when they are older or have some medical issue, but for Fuzzy I think it worked out to be a healthier choice for him.

DOGGIE DENTISTRY

Compared to my blog header picture that was taken a few years ago, Fuzzy is getting pretty gray around the muzzle. The fur on  his body is black except for the little crest on his chest and a little white on his feet and now the gray/white on his muzzle. It looks like his fur is white on one side, but it is just shiny black and I forgot and left the flash on when I took the picture. He usually looks pretty wide eyed and happy, but maybe not this much. The flash surprised him.

Last week when Fuzzy went for his doggie vaccinations we found that he had some dental problems. His teeth need to be cleaned and most likely he will lose some of them. He is 11 years old and the vet said his teeth looked fine the last time he was in 2 years ago. Unfortunately, they aren't now.  

I am more worried about him getting dental work done than I was when I had to have my wisdom teeth out. Apparently, I have sympathetic dental phobia for my little Fuzzy.  It is worse than the dental phobia for my own dental work. He will be under anesthesia  and be intubated.  The intubation protects dogs from any debris getting in their airway while they are under anesthesia. 

He will go to the vet early in the morning and they will call us at about 2 pm.

Pensive Pomeranian pose (and he doesn't even know about the planned Doggie Dentistry).  Poor picture quality because Pic Monkey suddenly needed sign in and agreement to terms for me to use it no charge. Since at this time, I'm not in the mood to study their Agreement to Terms; here are poorly lighted, oddly angled photos done without editing tools. My husband's birthday present to me was going to be photo editing software.  I just hadn't decided what brand yet.  Perfect timing for that gift.

Doggie dental work is something we never had done on our other dogs. They never needed it as far as we knew. Fuzzy is the fourth dog we have had in our married life of 42 1/2 years. Our dogs have always lived to be 12 to 14 1/2 years old.  I don't know if I will be able to teach Fuzzy to let me brush his teeth at his age, but I will try after he heals completely from this procedure.

On a more pleasant subject, I hope that everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day/Evening.

                                       Here's a rose for you!  

David Austin - Christopher Marlowe Rose from my yard 2016.

                                         Happy Valentine's Day!

A BUTTERFLY CLOUD, THE HUMMINGBIRD EMPEROR, AND A GRAND WACKY TIME

It's still hot summertime here, but this season is winding down.  I saw my first Monarch butterfly of the season today. My camera is never where I am when there are butterfly encounters.  The butterflies are especially tame right now.  I walked past the zinnia bed yesterday, and I was softly surrounded by a small cloud of several bright yellow butterflies.  One of them wing-brushed my face...Enchantment.

The hummingbirds wage war on each other over the zinnia beds.  The tiniest hummingbird of all is the most territorial.  He is the Emperor of the Zinnias.  He feasts on zinnia nectar, and when he has his fill, he briefly perches on a small bare spruce branch and oversees the Zinnia Kingdom.  Any hummingbirds that trespass are immediately attacked as he loudly chirps hummingbird expletives at them.  After he scares them away, he refreshes himself at his zinnias and then returns to his branch to keep guard.

It's been so humid, it seems like the flowers could just suck the moisture out of the air, and save me the daily watering.  The petunias are pitiful.  Some of them may revive when it cools down.  The roses are sending up only a few small blooms, and even the mighty zinnias are tattered and leggy.  The goldfinches feast on the seeds/petals daily, leaving petal confetti in their wake.

On the upside, my crepe myrtles are blooming beautifully. The ornamental sweet potato vines, glowing yellow green and maroon are in their glory, bright and fresh-leafed. 

We've had our grandson here several times this summer.  Kids seem to grow fast in summer.  He is six years old now.  His face is changing.  His baby face is almost gone now, only to be glimpsed when he is sleeping.

Recently, when he was here, we were outside watering the flowers and playing with the garden hose.  We have a wacky hose that takes on a wild life of it's own if you happen to drop it or hold it lower down than the nozzle.  I have gotten a surprise super soaking with it several times.  It surprised my grandson, too, he was holding the nozzle and everything was fine.  Then he grabbed it lower down on the hose and it went wild. It sprayed him right in the face, and then all over the place.  He thought it was hilarious.

I'm starting to miss summertime and it's not even completely over yet.

SUMMER SERENITY

My flower garden was lush earlier this week.

Even in a small flower garden, serenity thrives.

Summer is passing quickly. The cicadas' call marks the time.  Last night I was surprised to see a few lightning bugs rising up out of my zinnias.  It has been so hot and humid here that the robins, chickadees, and even the squirrels sit around on the tree branches and ground looking deflated, mouths open, trying to catch their breath.

On days when the thunderstorms miss us, and the sun hammers down, I spray the spruce tree branches with water and water the ground beneath the old spruce.  The shade and the coolness of the water in the branches seems to drop the temperature there under the tree a bit.  The birds and squirrels all gather round under the tree in their shady little oasis. They crave the cool, misted shade so much that they don't fear me.

This is my favorite zinnia of the season so far.  I am hoping to be able to save some seeds from it.  It is the prettiest, bright, clear pink coral color.  It came from a packet of California Giant Zinnias.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.