Good things . . . and not --

I was SO excited that Mark would be coming home this morning.  I stayed home from work looking forward to that. But at 5:30 this morning he called me to tell me some guy had pulled out in front on him on a highway and he hit him on the front right of his truck.  Oh, no!  But when the police showed up (finally) he was told that the guy did have insurance so he'll be putting his truck in for repair and driving a rental vehicle of some sort until it's fixed.  He was able to drive it on home although he did have to hang onto the wheel at all times because it kept trying to turn off the road to the right as a result of that wreck.

Well, now that he's home it IS great to have him back at last. With all those folks who've been staying here for the last couple weeks he seemed to have been gone for AGES!   

Okay, so life IS good again.  But then when I went into the bedroom a little while ago I saw "something" on the floor. When I got closer and picked it up I found that it USED to be my glasses -- they had been chewed apart by one of the dogs in there.  (I can't tell which one that was -- luckily for them!!)  

I found the chewed up glasses on the floor just below Joey there on the bed and just in front of Rocky there on the floor, so no telling which it might have been.  They both LOOK innocent anyway.  Well, those particular glasses were from a year or so ago, NOT the new one -- fortunately.

I also had a problem with the equines today as well.  It was very simple to put Arthur's blanket on him -- apparently he was feeling pretty cold already because he made absolutely NO objection to having it put on.  But I decided not to bother putting one on Shadow since she bit me that last time while I was fastening it up.  Apparently she hadn't worn one before so no need to bother anyway, I guess.  As for Duke, I put his on while he was eating.  I fastened the straps under his chest, but I didn't fasten the buckles in the front since he had his head down so far into his bucket.  So I figured I'd just go on out to open up the gates to let them out of the paddocks since the flooded areas have gone down finally, then I'd come back and fasten up his buckles.  But before I could get back he came RACING out of his stall and his blanket blew off over his rear end and he simply stepped out of it!  Gees! So I just went and picked it up out of the mud and left him undressed since he apparently isn't cold enough to care whether he's wearing a blanket or not!   It is supposed to go down to the 30's tonight but it's at least not supposed to be going to freeze -- but it wasn't supposed to freeze last night either but the grass was all covered in ice when I went out to feed them early this morning.  Well, it's not going to stay cold for all that long.  In just a day or so it's supposed to get back up to the 70's.  Looking forward to that!

Sure glad I closed those paddock gates again this evening.  I hear SO much fireworks out there that sounds like gunshots. I hate that! No one is allowed to do fireworks in East Baton Rouge, but unfortunately they are allowed here in Iberville Parish.  And SO many folks do that back behind us.  That's why I decided to keep the horses up in their paddocks near our house and away from all those other folks' properties! Well, at least it's way colder out there this year than it usually is so maybe all those folks won't party outdoors all night this time -- I hope.

The weekend has been lovely -- except for Gigi's work . . .

I THOUGHT Gigi was doing well this weekend.  She and Joe have been playing outside together all day.  

There they are checking out Jerry as he tidies up the pasture for us.

Eventually they both decide they've had enough and they lay down together.

And by the time I let them back in, they've played so hard together that they come in and collapse and stay nice and quiet.  Great! 

But when I let them in for supper I saw the dog door had been broken.  Uh-oh.  The screens all around on that huge porch keeps all the bugs out nicely . . . until now!  Now bugs can fly in big time.  Yuck!  And obviously that's not the ONLY problem out there:

Gigi has not only chewed off the bottom of the dog door, but she has also eaten the corners off all the window sills, and scratched the paint off the floor.  AND when I went out to take this picture I found some orange plastic bits on one part of the floor -- 

Obviously she had eaten whatever it was.  But what the heck WAS it???  So I went out into the yard to see if I could find the rest of whatever it was.  I did find another piece out by the fence --

But it took me another few minutes to figure out that what she had done was pull up one of those things that hold the bottom of the fence down to keep the dogs from climbing under to get out.  Well, fortunately Gigi is way too big to manage to climb under anyway, but I sure wish she wouldn't have eaten that thing.  (Hope it makes it all the way through her anyway.  Gees!)

Well, on the plus side today, Jerry spent four hours cleaning up all the paddocks and pasture.  (You can see him in those pictures at the top.)  And the place looked just perfect when he left.  

And he had brought out a whole pile of hay to the barn porch for me as well.

That makes it very easy for me to throw hay across the fence on the other side of the porch into a hay container fastened to that fence.  Of course I also put hay into containers in each of their stalls, but all three of them prefer to hang out together and eat from the same container, so it's very handy to keep that one filled regularly.

Arthur, Shadow and Duke all love to share the hay container on Duke's porch.

The hay is stored behind that brown plastic tarp to keep the hay dry if it rains.
But it's very easy once it's stored there to just throw it over that fence for the horses.
Sure appreciate Jerry keeping that porch full of hay!

Well, it's been a really nice weekend.  Wish Mark had been home to share it.  But knowing that he'll be home next year -- and all the rest of them!  -- makes it easier to accept being alone for now.  

I did consider going to check out some of those 50% off stores, but when I saw some of them on the news I decided to forget it and just hang out at home.  Saving money is fine, but I just do NOT like to deal with huge crowds and there definitely were horrendous crowds.  

On the plus side, it's nice that there will be another whole day before having to go back to work.  That part is great anyway!

Time to go back to normal, huh? . . .

I've gotten a couple of inquiries lately about whether I'm still alive and well since I haven't been posting!  Guess I've just been pretty darned lazy lately!  

Wendy came down from Ohio last weekend so I spent my time with her, not up in my office.  Well, actually she came over here from Mississippi where the guy she's dating had driven down to go hunting with a couple DOZEN of his friends!  Obviously, Wendy didn't need to be the only female hanging out with 30 guys, so she drove on over here to spend the weekend with me.  Loved it!  But it was just the two of us.  Mark is offshore at the moment.  So Wendy and Gerard are planning to come back down next month sometime when Mark IS at home.  I'm looking forward to getting together so we can all get to know each other well. I've talked to him on the phone and he sounds like a terrific guy -- I'm really looking forward to meeting him.

I haven't done a darned thing over the last two days off.  But today I'm about to go out and clean up the back porch.  Gigi had a very heavy king size comforter out there in her dog bed.  But she suddenly decided to take it apart -- and she did!  The ENTIRE porch was covered with the white micro fiber lining that she managed to pull out.  Thank goodness it wasn't goose down anyway.  So I swept it out her portion of the porch and over into the other portion.  So now that it's a nice day, I need to go out there and pick it all up and put it into trash bags.  Sigh.

Today really IS a lovely day though.  It's been sunny and warm -- 70-ish -- during the days all week.  No rain.  It does get pretty darned cold at night, but after Shadow bit me putting on her blanket the last time, I'm not going to bother blanketing her until it stays cold all day later on.  And since Duke starts to sweat the moment it gets warmer than the mid-70s he probably doesn't want a blanket on until it goes down to the mid-20's!

I've at least been working with the dogs to try and get them all back together again.  I'm SO tired of keeping them all separated.  So Joe and Rocky have been out in the living room with Boo again the last couple days.  Joe LOVES sleeping on the sofa where Mark normally sits.  When Mark is home Joe loves laying down next to him with his head in his lap.  

And he lays right where Mark normally sits whenever he's gone.  But since Joe and Boo got into it last summer, I've made Joe and Rocky stay in the bedroom and Boo in the living room, so Joe is absolutely thrilled to be back on the sofa again now!

He doesn't have Mark now, but he still LOVES that place on the sofa.
He's been there all day today!

Well, I guess I better close this out and go get that porch cleaned up before it starts to cool down again.

Oh - I was about to say "Life is good" and that reminded me of this terrific shirt Wendy brought me.  Isn't that great!

I LOVE it!

Neighbors . . . and us --

There have been land guys adding dirt to the property across the street to raise it up a few feet for the last six months.  We were interested at first, but it got pretty boring after a few months of the same old thing all the time!   But when I came home from work last week, there was the beginning of a house . . . at last! 

 

Looks like it's going to be a pretty nice place, huh?  The properties on that side of the road DO require that the homes be at least 2100 square feet on the 1 1/2 to 2 acre properties -- something that does not apply to the homes on our side.  But on the plus side, WE are allowed to have horses -- they're NOT.  Anyway, that home is right across from where Vickie and John will live so it's good that they will have a nice view.

 

 

As for my weekend, the best part is that Gigi, Joe and Rocky all get along just fine together, as it turns out!  I've been putting off letting them get together, but Saturday (on her six month birthday!) Gigi apparently decided it was time to go play with them, so SHE opened the gate between the two dog yards and they all played together for 2 or 3 hours, apparently with no problem at all because I didn't hear any barking or growling - although I didn't actually see them together at all until I went out to let them back in!  Apparently they enjoy each other just fine.  Great!  Except, of course, that Joey ran up onto Gigi's porch and into her crate and ate all her food.  Gees!  Joe gets only ONE cup of food twice a day because he had surgery on his hip and knee and they told me it's absolutely critical that he not gain weight if he's going to continue to function well.  Gigi, on the other hand, eats SEVEN cups of dry food with two can's of canned food mixed in with it daily -- and she is barely a good weight.  I want to not see her ribs at all, but that hasn't happened so far to date.  She's growing so fast she isn't getting heavier.

 

Anyway - when Mark comes home Wednesday, he will need to install that new dog door in place of the smaller one on her porch door so that when they play together I will be able to lock that dog door so Joey can't go in there and eat her food and steal her bones and toys. 

 

Poor Mark - always SOMETHING waiting for him to come home and deal with.  This week he not only has that dog door to deal with, but three pieces of furniture I ordered online that are going to have to be put together, plus several other furnishings that I bought locally that need some repairs.  (We're finally putting furniture in the guest rooms upstairs besides just the beds.)  Wish that guy who used to help us with that sort of thing hadn't moved up north.  I'm sure Mark would appreciate some help!   

Poor Joey . . .

Well, after Joey whined through most of the night, he convinced me that he needed to be checked out.  I couldn't find any cuts or swellings after the horses got into the dog yard yesterday, but he refused to get up and walk around last night.  Then around 1 AM he began whining and whining and whining CONTINUALLY!  I brought him food and water and opened the door for him but he wanted none of it.  So obviously he must have been extremely uncomfortable, or probably in pain.  Pitts don't normally indicate pain like "normal" dogs do, so for him to carry on like that all night it made it obvious that something had to be wrong, whether I could see it or not.  So this morning I took him over to LSU to be examined.  They spent about 2 1/2 hours at it!  And they did find that he has a problem, all right, but there's nothing they can do about it directly.  He has a sensitive area along his spine near the bottom, but that could be from having run too much and too fast.

 

But more importantly, he was apparently kicked in the head when Duke and Arthur broke into the dog yard!  No telling if that was done by Duke or by Arthur, but my money would be on Arthur.  When the dogs ran up to the fence and barked at him, he would turn around and back up to the fence looking as if he was going to kick.  So when they were on the SAME side of the fence I'd be willing to bet he was the one who kicked Joey!

 

There was no scratch or swelling on Joey's head when I examined him, but they explained after his exam  there at LSU that they believed his head had been hit because the pupil in his right eye is significantly larger than the left one.   And sure enough . . .

 

This picture was taken with a flash -- you can REALLY see the difference in size by the reflections.

 

Look how much larger that right pupil is.  Poor guy!

 

 

And the poor little guy doesn't want to do a thing - he just wants to lay down and sleep near me.

 

This is the view from the stairs as I came down from the office.

And here he is when we first got home from LSU. 
He didn't even give me time to put the blanket there on the sofa before he climbed up and fell over to sleep!

 

It's certainly good that all he wants to do is sleep at the moment, though, I guess.  They said he needs to be kept quiet.  They suggested he be kept in his crate, but that really isn't necessary -- he doesn't want to move around no matter where he is.  He just wants to sleep, preferably covered up with his blanket.

 

They also gave him pain meds, but I'm going to have to get one of those "pill poppers" before he'll be taking those.  There is no way I can possibly open his mouth far enough to stick them in there with my hand -- his jaws are incredibly strong!  And he managed not to take them even after I mixed canned chicken in his dog food and hid the pills in there.  He either managed to eat around them or else he spit them back out because, when he finished, the entire bowl was shiny and clean but those three pills were laying there all by themselves!

 

He has an appointment at AVS on Tuesday.  If he isn't feeling better by then, they'll be doing x-rays to see what's going on.   And of course if he starts to feel WORSE in the meantime, he'll be going back over to LSU.  I didn't let them do x-rays today because they wanted to keep him over night and anesthetize him to do them and I know that wouldn't be necessary over at AVS.  He's easy to keep still.  Anesthesia is NOT necessary.  Well, I hope he's feeling better by Tuesday and doesn't need them anyway.  Cross your fingers . . .

 

Well, time to go back downstairs and keep him company.   Poor Joe.

Always SOMETHING . . .

When I came home from work this afternoon, I stopped out at the end of the driveway to go across the road and get the mail.  But before I even opened the truck door, I saw Rocky running toward me off the front porch!  What the heck! . . .  I had left both Rocky and Joey out in the back dog yard today.  I planned to work longer than usual since I had no appointments, so I wanted them to be able to go out when they needed to.  So when I saw Rocky but not Joey, I immediately thought, "Oh no!  I don't know how they got out, but if Rocky is the only one out here, Joey must be gone!" 

 

So I drove on in and opened up the garage so Rocky could go straight into the house.  He obviously wanted to go in, but it was all he could do to get up the three small steps into the house!  Poor guy! So I helped him in and headed out to the back to see how he had gotten out -- and to look for Joey!  Well, the minute I hit the back door it was obvious what had happened -- there were Duke and Arthur eating grass inside the dog yard!!!  And the gate out of the dog yard into the back pasture was wide open.  I ran out there to close it but couldn't.  There was so much space between the gate and the fence that it wouldn't stay closed at all.  Ever since Arthur arrived, when the dogs bark at him he's been backing into that fence (looking as if he plans to kick) and apparently he has managed to bend the posts over enough that the gate is completely out of line at this point.  That opening always was a little bit wide so we stood one of those concrete stones laying there in the bottom of the picture below in the opening so that even a small dog couldn't go out that way. 

 

 

When I took the picture below, I had already run Arthur out of the dog yard, but Duke was paying absolutely no attention to me.  He just wanted to stay and eat that special grass.  I had to eventually go put his halter on him so I could LEAD him out.

 

Once I got him out, though, he stood right there at the gate trying to come back in.  So I had to take the lead rope off of him and use it to tie the gate shut so he couldn't get back in!

 

Then I ran over to the hardware store across the road and got several 2-foot long heavy chains and tied the gate to the fence post and stood THREE of those concrete stones in there at the bottom to keep the dogs in.

 

 

And speaking of the dogs, I found Joey laying on the bed inside the back porch.  It looked to me like he had behaved himself and not gone outside when Duke and Arthur came in and that gate was open.  That was a tremendous relief.  But I've since discovered that something definitely did happen to him -- apparently something serious enough to run him back inside, because I've since found that he can barely walk!  I don't know if he just got worn out chasing after the Arthur and Duke - or if one of them went after HIM!  But he is in such pain that he wouldn't even get up to eat this evening and that is NOT him.  That is definitely a serious indication of a problem of SOME sort!  If the poor guy still can't walk tomorrow I guess I'll have to take off and get him over to either AVS or LSU for an exam.  I did check him over myself and didn't find that he had anything broken, and I couldn't see any signs that he had been kicked or bitten, so I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that he's just completely worn out for now.  I guess we'll see in the morning.

 

Always something . . .

 

Quite a weekend --

Jerry was here all weekend again - what would we do without him!  Anyway, he got a lot more painting done on the barn and next weekend he's going to finish painting the exterior roof edge (whatever THAT's called - I forget).  Then I'll FINALLY be able to get gutters installed on the barn.  We're hoping that will help make less of a muddy mess out there when it rains.  Of course, there won't be any gutters on Lizzie's side of the barn, so we're thinking we may need to add a "porch" for her.  Well, okay -- so it's ME who's thinking that.  Still . . .  Maybe I can eventually convince Mark that that would be a good idea.  I'm crossing my fingers. 

 

We went over to Roberto's for dinner Saturday night with Jan and Mike.  Yum.  We've eaten there when there were too many loud drunk folks who really annoyed Mark, but we have never actually eaten anything there that wasn't absolutely wonderful.  Of course Saturday there WERE people over in the bar area yelling and screaming at the football game going on, but the folks very considerately sat us all the way over on the other side of the restaurant clear in the back where the sound wasn't all that disturbing.  It was kind of fun to hear, actually!  Great evening.

 

Oh - and I also got a super-tall tufted leather headboard for our king-sized bed this weekend.  Love it!  But then there's Joey . . .  That little guy doesn't like ANY "new" or "changed" items.  Mark and I got new slippers on Friday and every time I try and walk past Joey he freaks and races around sniffing and scratching at the new shoes.   So anyway, when I let him in after Mark and Jerry got the headboard put up, he threw an absolute FIT!  He growled and barked and the hair on his neck stood straight up.  "New" is definitely NOT good from his perspective, that's for sure!  It took me an entire day, but by "petting" that headboard and talking sweetly to it, he finally seemed to get the point that it was NOT a bad thing.  Good grief!  Why on earth is he like that??!!!  Neither of the other two dogs seemed to even notice that anything at all had changed.  Zippo.  Joey, Joey, Joey . . .

 

Unfortunately Calyn, that tentative pet-sitter, never did show up this weekend.  I guess it's possible she wasn't able to reach me on the phone, but even so, she COULD have sent me an e-mail if she couldn't make it -- and that never happened.  Guess it's back to putting a note up on the bulletin board over at the vet school.  Sigh.

 

Well, it's supposed to rain off and on again all this week.  But on the plus side, the temperature is supposed to go down to the low 80's.  I know it is theoretically fall at this point, but it's still been in the high 90's with horrendous humidity.  You can't fool me -- it's STILL summer down here!  Hmmm.   New York probably IS a much finer spot, Wendy.  (Maybe one day we can visit that place in high summer, huh?  ;-D  Well, we'll see . . .)

Joey update . . .

I finally got around to updating the "Joey!!" page at the top of this blog sheet.    Hey - we've had him since June 2010 -- exactly 3 years!  It's about time, huh? 

Anyway - check it out.  He really is a very special boy.