Landslide

My precious weenie child, Emmy, wants her breakfast this morning (Sister is sleeping). She is the sparkle in my eyes, my joy. Looking at her in the morning light made me think of this song, Landslide.  I and Emmy and Sister are getting older too. 

By the way, Blogger is acting up.  I can't comment or reply to comments, though I've experimented and sometimes can comment as anonymous.  I'm still reading your blogs friends, but I am worried about that even.  I was told to delete cookies.  Done.  Still having problems.  Get Chrome.  Uh, no! I have a MacBook Air and an iPhone that use Safari as my browser. Then told to delete all followers, save then set it all up again...  WTF?  I don't even know how to do that.  In reading in the help forum, it seems that a few months ago, Blogger changed some things.  I think it is related to the Gmail comments we are getting on our posts.  They want us to use Gmail now.  Try reading the Help Forum.  Not what I want to have to do. Jeez.  Anyway, If you don't hear from me and/or I drop out of the ether, I'll find my way back. Somehow.  Maybe. Guess it depends on Blogger as I can't figure it out by myself.

Is It Dead?

Well, this is how I spent my Memorial Day.  Watching my weenies for twitching, foaming at the mouth, vomiting and seizures.  Yes, quite the cautionary tale.  My sweetest Emmy snored and dreamt a little.  Ornery Sister, was at the other end of the couch and since she has medical issues and both of my little girls are elderly, I watched them like a hawk.

I have had problems with gophers, moles and sewer rats.  They have tunneled all over and in my flower beds.  After trying traps, I bought some poison.  I have never used it before, but they were tunneling everywhere. So, I measured some and poured it down the hole.  I stuffed steel wool over it and cut out some heavy hardware cloth (metal) and put it on top then hammered some spikes in it to keep it down.  I covered it with dirt and flower seeds.  That was two weeks ago.

This morning, I saw the girls little butts sticking out of a hibiscus shrub and knew what they were up to.  As I walked over I passed by the poisoned place and glanced at it. They had not only torn the hardware cloth away, but had also pulled out the steel wool.  I about had a heart attack.  I replaced all and put rocks over it, then hurried in the house and called my vet.  She gave me the symptoms to look for and said they could take hours to appear.  She is 2 hours away and I'm sure not too happy to hear from me on a rare day off. She didn't think after two weeks and rain that they'd be in danger, but told me the steps an animal hospital would take.

So, still no symptoms and perhaps we dodged a catastrophe today.  I wish I had a large margarita, but I don't.  Tonight, after a frozen tv dinner, I'll be watching the third season of Bloodline and House of Cards.  They are both really good.  

Note to self - never use poison again.  I've seen new tunnels and the rat eating at the bird feeder so it isn't dead.  Aye yay yay!

Weenie Patrol

This is a picture of the 'poor man's stained glass' at the front of the barn.  I have always loved the way the morning light shines through the bottles and knew I'd have to replicate it somehow at the city house.

So, morning, though a tad foggy, brought my bottle tree out. The geese and ducks and even the sparrows on top of their house looked at the new bottle tree.

Unfortunately, the ducks did more than look and decided to have a look around the yard.

Except, the weenies weren't having it.  They quickly ran the ducks back to where they came from.

Sister made sure they were gone, until a certain goose that has taken a liking to me opted for a facedown. 

Such a beautiful day even the fish were swimming about, thick as thieves and waiting for a morsel. Sister is just daring that goose to come ashore.  The goose would win in the water, but Sister could take her on land.  But, in Oklahoma, don't blink as the weather will change in a heartbeat. 

A storm passed through and dumped quite a lot of hail. Some boys were fishing at the other end of the lake.  I hope they didn't have far to run. The lightning made us jump so we quickly went indoors. The geese and ducks looked upward; their heads raised to the skies.  Guess they knew what they were doing but I would have ducked my head.

Hello Out There

It has been just over a week since Sister's eye surgery and she can see.  Sister and I are blessed. The best Christmas gift ever.  I have spent most of the week holding her so she doesn't scratch her eyes out so this is the most I can come up with at the moment.   My Bella making a snow angel last winter. It is all good.

Sister's Eyes

Why do we love them so?  She's my heart, my best friend and she's only 8.  If you remember, this summer she became diabetic and after months of tweaking her insulin levels (I don't have to lie down on her on the bed to hold her down for the shots anymore) and the routine blood curve tests, she is finally doing well.  Except for her eyes.  Sister has now developed cataracts, something that seems to go along with the diabetes.

Diabetic dogs have the type I kind; when their insulin is gone it is gone.  I still have to prepare (cook) all her meals as she won't eat the diabetic dog food.  It is a real pain to do so and I've had to buy up all the flax seed and chia, hemp hearts, lean meats, etc., at Whole Foods.  It is all so expensive, (when did lean meat become so expensive), but I do it for Sister.   

After a trip to the vet this morning, I found out that they can do surgery on her.  One eye costs $2100.00 and 2 eyes will be $3500.00.  I will also have to take her to Tulsa and Oklahoma City 8-10 times for weekly checkups for 3 months after the surgery.  The trip takes about 2-3 hours one way.  

She is bumping into things and I know she is nearly blind now.  I just can't stand it.  When she was 4, she became paralyzed from a blown out disc in her back that cost $3500.00 for surgery.  I'm afraid my husband might divorce me when I tell him this news as he would certainly say let her be blind or put her to sleep which I would not do.

I want her to see again.  I know what I am going to do.

Get Stinky

The downside of living on a farm is when your cats come home with something dead and your dogs roll in it.  I kept getting a whiff of something today that was awful; wondered what in the world it could be.  It came from different places in the house which left me looking high and low for the source.  I'm washing my bedding and sniffing around.  I finally realized what it was.  My weenies had rolled in something dead.  Nothing smells worse.

P.U.

The title of this gouache I painted is 'Rolling In Stink".  Now you know where I got the idea from.

How could the sweetest weenies in the world, Emmy and Sister, do such a thing?

Well, they  never met a turd they didn't like either.  They wouldn't know what a leash was for.

So goes living on a farm.  Lots of nasty things for weenies to get into.  As for the cats, I've never seen a cat roll in dead things.