Nothing but a Hound Dog

We went to the local gardening center this weekend for gardening supplies. Gardening supplies only, mind you. I have some tomato seeds coming soon and I want to get them started as soon as they arrive, so I had to have some potting soil and peat moss, etc.

Well, you know how fairs and such occasionally have adoption tables set up? Our center was having an open house complete with beekeepers and adoption tables. Guess what we came home with.

Sammy is a Plott Hound. He's twelve-weeks-old, nearly 20 pounds, and a really sweet, energetic dog. He had a good vet visit today and he's already very much a part of the family. He's going to be in puppy classes soon, but he seems to be a pretty quick study. Julie seems to not be put-out with our new addition, but she's also not exactly cozying up to him. He's already learning that she isn't interested in playing and if he'll just sniff, she's okay with it. She can't see or hear very well though, so he tends to sneak up on her a bit.

I'll try to get some pictures of Julie up tomorrow. She's very camera shy though; she hears the camera open and she runs (she can't hear much else, but she can hear that).

Mug!

A couple of weeks ago, I won a blog contest over at Sarah's blog. It was one of her beautiful mugs:

Do I even need to say that pictures don't do it justice? It came on Wednesday as a well-needed "good" part of the day after Julie's eye problems. It holds a nice-sized cup of tea (with a little milk and honey).

Speaking of Julie's eye, I took her in to the vet today and he was flabbergasted at how much better the eye looked. Now remember this eye had ruptured and was deflated like a balloon. It did not look good, she was in pain and his recommendation had been to either remove the eye or pain management, but it was not very likely to recover. I'm really glad I trusted my instincts on this one because the eye does, in fact, look almost completely recovered. He didn't know how to explain it; he had never seen an eye recover like that. He said maybe we caught it early enough and it healed over in time for the fluid to reinflate it, but other than that, he just had never seen an eye heal like that. It was nice to see that he was very happy for us as we are; he was in veterinary medicine for stories like this one.

Poor Puppy

My puppy isn't exactly a puppy anymore. She's fifteen years old, a breast cancer survivor, and she is part of the family. Anyone who has pets knows that they are family members and we hate when our furry children are in pain. My furry child is in pain. She's had cataracts for a while and she had an eye infection on top of that. This morning when I was going to put the antibiotic drop in, she wouldn't let me near it. (She had seemed fine until then.) I finally got enough of a look to see that her eye seemed deflated and took her in. The vet said the eye had ruptured. Our options were to let them remove the eye under anaesthesia or to keep with eyedrops and pain meds and let the eye continue to shrivel on its own (extremely small chance that it will get better). It's a hard choice, but her age kept me from letting them put her under. I thought that she'd probably be in pain after surgery as well.

She doesn't like having her picture taken; she can actually hear the camera (not much else) and goes running before the flash (which she thinks is lightning) can catch her. So, it's been a while since I've gotten a really good picture of her. This one is from around this time a couple of years ago.


I have some stuff to show on another day. For now, please keep my furry girl in your thoughts.

New Socks and Julie Update

Well, the entrelac socks are toast for now. I knit the entire cuff and leg was having trouble getting it over the heel. I still love the entrelac, but I'll have to revisit it at a later date. For now, I started another pair.

The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill in Spanish Moss.

I've just finished Chart 7 (Edit: Darn it. I'm actually just starting Chart 7, having just finished Chart 6. Trying to get ahead of myself.) of Hidcote:

Not too much further now. Still difficult getting the color.

We got Julie's lab reports. The tumor was cancerous, 1-4 on an aggressiveness scale of 1-10. We're hoping they got it all with the surgery. The vet wants to do a lung x-ray in six months and says if it's clear and no lumps, she should be okay. She got her stitches out and for now, everything's looking okay.

Julie Update

Thank you for all the supportive comments and well wishes for our furry baby. She's home now, a bit groggy, but seems to be doing well. As soon as we got home, she was walking around smelling everything to make sure all was as she left it. Now she's all cuddled up in her Elmo chair.

We won't know about the pathology until next week sometime, but she's happy to be home.

I hope to get my yearly knitting summary and my knitty resolutions for the new year out in the next couple of days and I hope to blog a bit more regularly. Thanks again for all the good thoughts. If I didn't answer you personally, it's simply because I don't have your email address (Blogger doesn't always give it to me).

Animal Lovers

I know I've been posting very sporadically the last few weeks, but I just haven't been doing a lot of knitting. I've been doing a little and some spinning and I plan to do a summary of all completed objects in 2006 sometime soon, but today, I'm a bit sad. I know so many bloggers are also pet owners/animal lovers and I want to ask for your good thoughts for my Juliette today. I found a lump on her abdomen last week and the vet thinks it's mammary cancer (doggie breast cancer). She's having surgery today to remove it. We'll know how good or bad it is sometime next week. Please think of Julie today. She's been with us all of my adult life and she's such a sweet girl. Thank you!