Keep Smiling!

Speaking of Willow .... one of the doctors just called me, she has another Urinary Tract Infection. I think she got to experience life WITHOUT one for just a few days, in the past several months. Note to self: get periodic urine cultures. So tomorrow I get to pick up another drug for her. She'll currently be on 5.

It's so sad that people at my vet, and the Vet School know Willow and me by now. I can call up either place and tell them either my name, or Willow's name, and they know who we are. I just had to call up Internal Medicine at the Vet School ... Shelley answered. "Hi, this is Carol XXX ..." "Oh, hi ... how's Willow?" "Well, I need to bring her in for a quick stick on Thursday to get a platelet count" ... it's also sad that I dont need to ask for a time, I just tell them what I need done, and when I'll be there. I'm QUITE familiar with the fact that they do outpatient/walk-in lab work in between 7 and 8:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We're there practically weekly.

When I call my main Vet's office, I can ask for some "Willow food" and they know what I'm asking for. (An 18-lb bag of Prescription Diet Z/D Ultra dry dog food).

Today is Memorial Day. No work today. I dont work on Mondays anyway, so ... no work today. *grin*

'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' marathon. Woo-hoo!! My latest TV addiction. Love this series.

I need to do some housework. Guess I'll go do that, while watching CSI. Whee.

PepperJack Cheese = GOOD!

Well, Willow's platelet count is back down ... apparently, it's dropping again. Normal/average is 200,000. 2.5 weeks ago, her count was at 95,000... today, it was down to 54,000 ... we're putting her on another antibiotic, they're playing on the chance that it might be an infectious disease ... something attacking her platelets or bone marrow. So she's going on Zithromyacin (dont know the actual spelling yet -I'll pick up the drug tomorrow), which she'll be on for 5-7 weeks. The doc said we should see a reaction fairly quickly tho, so we'll know if it's working or not. She'll go back for another platelet count next week.

If this doesnt work, we'll go to the immuno-suppressive therapy (drugs like the steroids) which will tell her immune system to quit attacking her platelets. Unfortunately, she doesnt react well to the steroids ... that's when she loses lots of weight, she doesnt have any energy, is hungry and thirsty all the time, it really takes a lot out of her.

(cross-posted with LJ)
Got a lovely note from the pet-sitter yesterday. When I'm doing 12 hour shifts away from home, I have a pet-sitter come in mid-day to check on the dogs, give them meds if necessary, snacks, put them in crates, let them out, whatever needs to be done ... since it's about a 45-50 minute drive to/from work on top of the 12 hour shift ... I dont like leaving the critters for 14 hours.

ANYWAY ..... yesterday, I got a note from my petsitter. When she got to the house, Riley (the collie) was barking up a storm. She never saw Bailey or Willow or heard a peep out of them ... usually, all three are at the fence being very vocal when someone arrives. I call them my 'dog alarm'.

When she went through the house and out the back door to the deck, Bailey and Willow were standing behind Riley ... she could only see his butt. When she walked down in to the yard, she saw they'd cornered a "FAT LONG SNAKE, grey/brown - all coiled with it's head up - trying to strike Riley. " All three would jump back when it'd strike at Riley, then the other two dogs would snap at it when he danced out of the way.

She said it was hell trying to call them off, Willow is the only one wearing a collar and she didnt want to leave them alone long enough to go inside and grab leashes, she had to drag Riley off by the scruff of his neck and then Bailey and Willow followed (they listen a lot better - Riley is the stubborn one, harder to control).

When she left (dogs inside), the snake was still in the backyard, stretched out by the fence ... about 5-6 ft long.

When I got home, I checked all dogs ... no injuries ... no harm done ... checked the yard, no sign of the snake, tho the dogs helped me investigate every square foot inside the fence by looking, sniffing, and listening. (Well, THEY did the sniffing and most of the listening!)

Even tho my petsitter described it as grey/brown, it sounds like a black snake. I've seen two in my yard, in the past few years. Very handsome snakes ... very large ... very intimidating ... non-poisonous.

I cant help but ponder a few things. What if it'd been a different kind of snake(we do have poisonous snakes around) ... what if petsitter hadnt come along, what would the outcome have been ... how many incidents have I missed, have they met snakes before that I havent known about?

You Are Periwinkle

You're very intuitive and sensitive. You often know other people better than they know themselves. You're also quite optimistic, and you think well of yourself and others. You know your dreams will come true.

Do you ever wonder ....

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Nice doggy."

This CRACKED ME UP ... how well they know me!!!

Last week, my kids' Aunt R came to visit. That was great, having her around! It seems like it's been so much longer than a year since they've seen her. The kids have really missed her.

We planted stuff. And the stuff is still alive!!

I didnt sleep much last week. I was running on about 3 hours of sleep a day, since I was doing the 12 hour night shift at night, and I didnt want to waste time sleeping during the day. Unfortunately, that was bad by my Thursday night shift (I was pulling an additional 4 OT hours on top of my regular shift). I kept falling asleep on the job, but finally got thru the night. I slept most of the weekend. I think I'm still catching up, and I'm back to the 12-hr night shift again. This week, I have NO plans but sleep during the day, with an occasional errand to run (and an occasional bit of yard work if it gets sunny).

Anyway, back to the visit ... she helped me plant the flowers that I've been accumulating the past few weeks, tho now I've already been starting to acquire more ... *halo* We planted a knock-out rose shrub, two purple things (I forget what they are right now) ... a red columbine, blue columbine, yellow nana coreopsis, bleeding heart, and some purple salvia ... I still have another blushing knock-out rose to plant, and two silvermound plants.

How many people travel across a handful of states on vacation, with a fishie? It was nice to have the extra fishie in the house... and ya know, not an unusual concept at all.

____________________________________________

The title? My method of staying awake tonite and tomorrow night. This is my last week of night shift, these are the final two evenings I'll be in the office. Then I'm off for almost a whole week before I go back to my original weekend shift. Monday and Tuesday, I'll be here in the office ... Weds and Thurs, I'll be working from home ... then I'm off til the following Thursday.

While I was thinking about what to write ... maybe what all has happened lately ... I got to thinking about the word "Saturday". Do you ever run a word through your head so many times that it just doesnt sound right any more? Saturdaysaturdaysaturdaysaturdaysaturdaysaturdaysaturday ... then I was wondering about that 'u' in the middle. It sounds like it could be spelled Saterday or Satirday and it really would make absolutely no difference. Three vowels sounding exactly the same. With just the slightest accent, you could even pull off Satorday or Satarday. Yet, there can be only one. *enter Highlander theme music here*

*ponder*