wordinista | Entries tagged with sydney

I am a firm believer that dogs are a girl's best friend. It is a by now well-known fact that petting your dog (or cat; let's not discriminate here) can lower your blood pressure. And this is a good thing!

HOWEVER.

Dogs that run joyously away from you and leap -- also joyously! -- into trees and underbrush while you are ALL THE WHILE attempting every single recall trick in your considerable arsenal? NOT SO GOOD FOR THE BLOOD PRESSURE.

Oh, Sydney. Honey. The joy-related deafness is such a problem. And here I thought she'd never ignore me if I had food in my hand.

I think I need a little lie-down now. Jebus.

Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: THE SOUND OF BLOOD POUNDING IN MY HEARS

So a 33 year-long streak ended yesterday.

I got my first bee sting. Hornet, actually -- if you want to get technical. I was ~~wrestling the walrus~~ giving Sydney her bath, and felt something tangled in some of the fur underneath her body, by her hind leg. It felt like a leaf or something caught in the fur, so I pulled it out.

AND PROMPTLY GOT STUNG. TWICE. ON MY FINGERTIP. UNGRATEFUL LITTLE STRIPED BASTARD.

Needless to say, Mr. Hornet was not long for this world after that.

Aaaand now I need to stop screwing around on the internet and start working on being something remotely resembling productive.

Current Mood: ditzy

I love sleep. I do. I love it because I do not get enough of it.

Last night, Sydney woke us up at 1:30 AM, pacing around the room. We both knew she had an upset stomach, because for some reason, she vomited at about 8 or 9 Sunday night. There seemed to be no reason for it, so we chalked it up to her getting into something and called it good.

No, instead she wakes up at 1:30 am, pacing and panting. I took her outside where she treated our lawn like an all-you-can-eat salad bar -- finally, finally she did her thing, and I took her back inside.

Where she puked up the grass she just ate. Sigh.

So, doggy G-I issues can be complicated, and we wanted to make sure it wasn't an obstruction of some sort, or bloat (when George and AJ were kids, they had a dog that died of bloat, so he's a little paranoid whenever one of the dogs has an upset stomach). Her stomach was making some of the most godawful gurgling noises, so at about 2 AM, we decided to trek over to the 24 hour Emergency Vet.

The good news! It wasn't an obstruction, and it wasn't bloat.

The bad news! Fricking expensive trip to the vet to find out she just had an "upset stomach." She got a couple of shots -- one was an anti-nausea medication (Metoclopramide, which also "increases gastric motility," and I'll be looking that up shortly) and the other was Cerenia, which, as far as I can tell, is supposed to decrease vomiting in dogs. She also got some Cerenia tablets for her to take tomorrow and Wednesday. She also got some bland canned food, and I'm to feed her in little doses all through the day. Right now she's passed out on the floor, asleep, and you never would have known she was sick at all. Little black and tan pain in the ass.

We got home at about half past three in the morning. At seven-thirty Darwin was like, "OH HEY, LOOK, IT'S TIME TO GET UP," which he does every morning between seven and seven-thirty, it's just that this morning it was less welcome than usual.

George text-messaged his boss to tell him he'd be coming in late this morning, and I took both dogs for a walk so he could get an hour or so of extra sleep. I'm planning on a nap as well, but I've got a few things I want to finish first.

TO DO LIST:

~~Empty dishwasher~~
~~Clean kitchen~~
Vacuum
Dust living room
Laundry (load #1, DONE; load #2, drying)
~~Bathe dogs (am thinking about putting this one off until tomorrow, because Syd's been through enough, and bathing her is akin to wrestling a wet, soapy walrus)~~ EDIT: Well, that was the worst idea ever. But it's done.

NAP TIME NAO.

Current Mood: exhausted

Sydney's cough is improving significantly, and she seems to be settling into herself. Unfortunately, the "self" she's settling into has pretty lousy doggy manners, so I'm gonna have to work on that in the immediate future. Now what we're tackling is a skin condition -- might just be dry skin, might be a contact irritation, might be an allergy of some sort -- it's too early to tell. I do know that she was being fed pretty cheap food, plus whatever the shelter fed her, so my money is on a food allergy, which could take a month to clear up. Whee.

Tora and I are going to start walking the doggies first thing in the am -- like 6:30 am -- which ... should be... fun? And then I'll walk them in the afternoons. I've been taking them for walks together, and it hasn't been too much of a headache, except for when Darwin gets it into his head that he wants to wrestle with Sydney WHILE WE'RE WALKING.

I have been catching up on my sleep lately, and no longer feel like complete ass, which is such a relief.

Also? I have managed to keep a houseplant alive for a whole month now. This is big stuff, believe me. I have the brownest of the brown thumbs, and this thing is STILL ALIVE.

I think I may have to break down and see a doctor about my hand. I was pretty certain what was wrong with my index finger was the beginning stirrings of arthritis, but I want to make sure, because if it isn't, and there's something I can do about this, I really want to do it. Because I hate the fact that holding a pen to sign my name can actually hurt. WTF.

So, Sydney has been wrestling with a pretty nasty case of Kennel Cough this past week. This means godawful doggy-coughing -- usually at its worst in the middle of the night (god, why). Lately I am as tired as I was when I was crate-training Darwin and averaging three hours of sleep a night. Four hours at a stretch seems to be the record. The good news is that she seems to be coming out of it (took her for a walk with no coughing, and she was wrestling with Darwin a few minutes ago), so sleep might actually be in the cards for me this weekend. I don't know when I should allow her to go to puppy daycare with Darwin -- she's on Doxycycline, and that seems to be fighting the KC off with a big fat stick, but I don't know how contagious she is while ON the meds. Darwin's been vaccinated against KC, and hasn't been showing any symptoms at all, so that's good. And the vet even said if he gets it at all, it'll be a milder strain.

I know a lot of people think the Bordatella shots are a load of hooey, but so far one out of two dogs has remained perfectly healthy. Let's hope the same can be said for the humans. (Not that we can get sick from the dogs, but the lack of sleep has been taking its toll on both of us, and THAT, my friends, is when those in Casa de Bunneh get sick.)

I am also being slow like a slow thing in getting my laptop set up. I fiiiinally got MS Money all situated, and will probably work on moving over my music next. My pictures are all moved over, but do not even remotely resemble anything near organized.

Must work on that.

First, however. A nap.

No, wait. First going to call and see if I can get Darwin into a beginning agility class (cross your fingers) and THEN a nap.

Current Mood: sleepy

...

...

Wait, wasn't Cassie Edwards that person who was featured on fandomwank awhile back as a fan-author who'd managed to get a book deal? And she made a big deal about taking all of her fics down? And she had to change her pseudosurname to something other than her fandomsurname? And she was a raving bitch to everyone?

Or was that someone else? That name rings serious bells for me, and I don't know why.

Also, note how utterly SHOCKED I am that a former fan-author has been accused of plagiarism. Shocked, really. See this? This is my shocked face.

Also, Sydney is slowly winning me over. In part because she has stopped trying to force Darwin into playing with her. I took her for a brisk one-mile walk (and then came home and got D and took HIM for the same brisk one-mile walk, and I sweartogod, a few weeks of this and I'm gonna be a size two). And FINALLY everyone in the house has CALMED DOWN. If I didn't have to do laundry and clean the kitchen, I would be getting a nap. (I got an MA for this?)

...But she still smells like the shelter. Which smells vaguely of pee. Might have to give her a bath even though she's seeing the groomer Friday.

Also, my husband needs to stop calling me "Dog Wheeeeeeesperer Jr."

Current Mood: still exhausted

So! We... have a second dog. Sammy is now named "Sydney" and... is here. And... yeah. I brought Darwin to the shelter for a meet-n-greet, and he and Sydney got along fine, running and playing like they'd known each other for years. So we started the paperwork and... ended up bringing her home last night. (Side note: Funniest and also saddest moment last night was when Darwin had to walk through "the gauntlet," which is basically the long corridor of kennels where the dogs are kept. Imagine no fewer than 15 pit bull mixes barking ferociously at YOU. Darwin's butt tucked up under him and he made a BEELINE for the exit like, "OMFG GET ME THE EFF OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW.")

Point #1: Fatty fat fat. She seems to have a hard time breathing, even when she's NOT doing the stressed-out panting. It's like a labored sort of breathing, which I think is weight-related.

Point #2: OMG no manners. Does not seem to know basic commands (or only knows them when food is involved), and also does not seem to understand the word "no" or anything remotely related to "stop." When she wouldn't do a sit, for me, I put my hand on her butt to guide her down, and she fought me. I ended up having to force her into a sit. Repeatedly.

Point #3: She is the beggiest beggar I have ever, ever seen. I think I know how she got to be so overweight. Seriously, she tried PUSHING her way past me to my plate last night. We had a little talk about that.

Point #4: She wants to play with Darwin. All. The. Time. Does not know when to quit! Darwin apparently has the patience of of a saint, because it was hours before he even raised his lip at her.

Point #5: She has a little cough. She got a kennel-cough vacc. at the shelter, but I think she caught a little cold anyway. (Makes sense, since kennel-cough vacc. are kinda hit or miss.)

Point #6: The shelter gave her a dose of Frontline, but she's still an itchy girl. And when she scratches, little tumbleweeds fall off. She's totally going to get brushed today. She has an appointment with the groomer on Friday.

Now the good things!

#1: She is not fearful. Not of me, not of George, not of Darwin, not of the vacuum cleaner, not of bicycles. Curious, yes. Fearful, no. This is a big plus, because I think it'd be the hardest thing to overcome.

#2: Is sweet, sweet, sweet. Sweeeeeet temperament. Also, my hubby is the apple of her eye.

...I realize that seems like a very short list, but I think those are very important things, while the problem-list is solvable.

We got up extra-early to take both kids for a walk this morning, and then fed them when we got back. Darwin seems to know this means it's "rest" time, but Sydney is walking around a lot still, sniffing things and... getting stuck underneath the futon. I gave them a couple of bones, and ... no resource guarding (which is to say, no "DON'T TOUCH MY BONE" bitching), which is good. I do kind of wish she'd settle down a little, but I imagine that'll be a long time coming. She settles down, but only for a few seconds. And right now she's barking at... something underneath the futon here in the office. I don't even know what.

The biggest problem we seem to be having is this: Every time one of us corrects Sydney, Darwin seems to think we're correcting him, and he's such a sensitive dog, he kind of slinks off into a corner and curls up like we've just scolded HIM. You seriously cannot raise your voice in this house, because he'll lower his head like, "Oh, crap what did I do?" So when I scolded Sydney for... anything, Darwin reacted to it, and it broke my heart to see him slink away from me (especially when he hadn't done anything wrong!).

The crate situation went... okay last night. For a long while now, Darwin has had the freedom of sleeping with the crate door open (sometimes, during the night, he'll go from crate to doggy-bed, back to the crate), and he did NOT like having the door closed last night. Not at all. Sydney whimpered a little periodically during the night, but I told George not to respond or feed into it, and she eventually stopped. Her heavy breathing also got better when he set up a box fan by the crate (we figured all that extra weight makes her extra hot). Neither of us slept very well. I don't think Darwin did either, since every time I woke up, HE was awake and looking at me like, "How COULD you?"

I'm a little worried I've bitten off more than I can chew. She's only a year and a half, and I can't remember if that falls into the "terrible twos" category or not. I'm trying to remember when Darwin drove me particularly insane, but I think that was more around the year-old mark. Mom and George both are confident that I can whip her into shape.

...

And she just had an accident. *sigh* I don't know if it's a pee accident, or if she's marking. But if she's marking, we're going to have a serious problem here. Darwin doesn't mark, hasn't started lifting his leg, and that's one behavior I don't want him to learn. Particularly IN THE HOUSE.

I just want to go to sleep for a week and wake up and have two perfectly trained Aussies. Is that too much to ask?

...

Evidently.