And More Beagle News

We made it through the night without incident.  It appears, however, that Kirby was holding on to ALL of his waste materials while he was in the hospital.  Just now, he demanded to go out by charging unexpectedly and quite rapidly into the sunroom to stand in front of the windows.  I carried him out and he went a little, then he staggered to a better spot and went a lot more.  Then my neighbor had the audacity to conduct ordinary suburban business in his own yard, so Kirby had to go on red alert and scramble toward safety. By the time I scooped him up out of the bushes and got him back into the house, he had urinated all over me.  We're all fine now, except Tiki, who is used to going out every time Kirby goes out, but I can't manage them both right now, so Tiki stays in.  And Kirby is going out more than usual because he's backed up four days worth of excretions.  Another gross beagle injustice!


It looks like we will be doing a few extra loads of laundry this weekend.

More Beagle News

Kirby is home from the hospital.  He does not have a tumor.  He does not have any of the sort of disc compression that would explain what is happening to him.  It does not seem to be a degenerative disease, because that would not explain how he went so quickly from a little punky to can't walk in about 18 hours.
He does not have meningitis.  He did not get the surgery.  He seems to have some sort of inflammatory disease, which is like saying someone has a cough.  It's meaningless if you don't know the underlying cause--could be the sniffles; could be TB, you know?

Right now we don't have a clue.  It could be as simple as a severe reaction to the tummy meds he was on for his diarrhea, and will go away as soon as he flushes out the residual meds, or it could be something he never recovers from.    He's getting steroids and broad spectrum antibiotics.

Thing is, he still can't walk really.  He's kind of like a baby.  Sometimes he can manage a step or two, sometimes he can't even stand up, and sometimes he can go pretty far pretty fast if he gets some momentum going.  It's upsetting, plain and simple.  But.......he was a basket case in the hospital, anxious and nervous and frightened and refusing to pee to the extent they had to... um.... express his bladder and I neither know nor want to know exactly how that is accomplished.  Being in hospital was causing him so much stress that the vet pretty much directed us to bring him home and see what happens if he relaxes.  That was all Special Sweetheart needed to hear---he peed in the parking lot before we even got him to the car.  That's love, baby:  "I trust you enough to release my waste materials when you're around."

No stairs.  No jumping.  No putting him on the sofa and leaving him unattended.  No letting him skitter around uselessly on the hardwood floors.  No walks.  Is he acting like he wants a drink of water?  Then we bring his water dish to him.  Is he acting like he needs to potty?  Then we carry him outside and put him in a good place and hold up his back end if he can't do it himself.  Is he acting hungry?  Then one of us brings him his supper dish while the other one tries to keep Tiki under control.  Because he follows me everywhere, I am pretty much trapped.  I can't just get up and get a drink of water, because he wants to jump down and follow me into the kitchen, especially now that I sent him away for a couple of days.  Frankly, it's a pain in the ass.

However, he is at home.  He's still himself.  He feels safe enough to let himself sleep, and he's catching up on all the rest he didn't get in the hospital when he was on 24-hour red alert.  I could swear he's just a little more stable now than he was when we brought him home four hours ago.  He's dreaming right now.  His nose and feet are twitching like he's chasing rabbits.  We'll see how it goes over the weekend and see where we are on Monday.

Tiki is not happy.  From his point of view, it was bad when the pack was not all together, but at least he got a whole lot of extra attention and he got to sit next to Dirtbunny.  It's good that the pack is together, but now Other Dog gets supper and second supper but Little Tiki still only gets one supper.  Not fair.

Beagle News

Kirby's back problems have recurred.  Last night he was getting around awkwardly and this morning he couldn't walk.  We've spent all day at the regular vet, the special vet, the doggie MRI place, and the special vet again.  Special Sweetheart is in the hospital tonight and for the next few nights.  The doggie neurologist, who had the day off on account of a death in his family, made a special trip in to examine him, and will be reading reports and test results tonight after the funeral  (thank you, thank you) and we'll know more then, but this is likely a bulging cervical disc impinging on his spinal cord and causing all manner of neurological disruption.  Kirby will probably have surgery tomorrow.

The rest of us are keeping it together.  Even Tiki, who cannot figure what on earth is going on.

True Love

Thor's First Test Drive

Tiki taking a nap

Thor's First Finished Product

Kirby Taking a Nap

Bunny's New Boyfriend

Bunny used to have, in addition to her spouse and dogs, a special friend. It is possible that he was here before Mr. D. I can't remember for sure. It just seemed like he was always there and there was no point to trying to have a life that didn't include him. Last January, the unthinkable happened. I was devastated. I know I couldn't live without my special friend for long, and that I would have to find a new special friend.

There are lots of inferior candidates out there. If you want to see him in a flashy color, like a prom date in a baby blue tuxedo with ruffled shirt, then you pretty much have to go with The Artisan. He's flashy, but small and underpowered. You can tell he's popular with dilettantes and posers because he's widely available in pretty much any crappy store with a kitchen department. Also, the fact that he's available in so many colors makes him perfect for the woman who cares more about how things look than about how things are.

My old boyfriend, well they don't make them exactly like him any more, but the classic Heavy Duty boys are always in fashion. Or they should be. They are getting harder and harder to come by. These days, they assume that if you aren't going for looks, then you must be going for size, hence, The Professional. But really, what woman needs that much mixer? The extra quart is just kind of....there, not doing anything useful or serving any purpose. I don't need him to be pretty. I don't need him to be gigantic. I just want someone who's there to be himself, doing like he do, day in and day out, complimenting my attributes and combining with Bunny to make a beautiful partnership that will last for decades, and handle biscotti dough.

 

Why is Dirtbunny so tired today?

WARNING: THIS POST IS RATED "P" FOR POOP!

I think Kirby is in love with his vet, Dr. Ginger. She's shaped kind of like me, and has hair kind of like mine, but she's younger, her boobs are bigger, and she's got a nose stud. I'm a little jealous. It hs been about three weeks since we last took him to the vet, and I suppose he's a little lonely for her, so he's decided to have ... oh hell I'm just going to say it .... diarrhea. He's happy and goofy and in a wonderful mood, but he has to go. A lot.

Last night, he went five times. The first three, Mr. D took care of, which is not to say that I didn't get to hear all about it. Mr. D does not like being woken up in the middle of the night for dog crises. I'm hearing impaired, so I can often sleep through dog drama, but he can't, and he resents it.  So after the third time, he announced that he was done and he stormed off to the other room and closed the door behind him and left me alone in the room with a sleepy and confused Tiki, an illin' Kirby, and a very expensive persian rug that I like very very much. Naturally, because I was so addled with sleep, I promptly went back to the land of nod.


Two hours later, Kirby woke me up. I don't know how, because he never barks and he won't try to nudge me awake or anything, but there he was, pacing the floor, looking up at me, and panting like crazy.


I have a theory that most people are either asleep or awake. Not me. Under the best of circumstances, I have a long period of about 20 minutes to an hour, depending, of semi-conscious where-the-hell-am-I and I have a very hard time forcing myself awake. I was able to register, barely, that Kirby needed to go out. A little while later, I realized I was going to have to take him out. Then I decided I needed shoes and pants and glasses, and I managed to drag myself up and stagger (literally. I was stumbling and weaving.) around to get shoes, and on the way, I stepped in.... umm...... something squishy on my expensive rug that I like very very much, and so then I ended up wiping my feet on the bathroom rug before I could put my shoes on, only my feet were still a little......ummm......smeared and Kirby was dancing around saying HURRY UP I GOTTA GO!!!!! and so I staggered out to the kitchen with my smeary feet. And then I remembered that Kirby likes to wander outside at night, so I needed to leash him, and that meant I had to find his bling and that took a while and Kirby is about to explode but we finally make it outside, me staggering and weaving the whole time. Poor guy. We spent about ten minutes out there in an lightning storm while he took care of business and tried to feel better and I managed not to lose my balance or fall down.


Next, we went in. I took off my shoes and wiped the smear off my foot. Then I wiped his poor little doggy butt before he wiped it himself on my furniture and then I got to clean the.....ummmm.......stuff off my expensive rug that I like very very much. There was a moment there when I thought I was going to vomit on top of the, um, stuff, but I managed to keep it down and then I finished and took the cleaning stuff out to the deck to put in the poop can just as the skies opened up on me and got me good and drenched. By now, because of the storm, Tiki was all upset and anxious, so the three of us got in bed, they put me in a rather constricting sandwich nd we finally, blessedly, fell asleep, and stayed that way until my alarm went off at 5:45 am. At which point I hit the snooze for half an hour, and then I sat up and groggily stared at my cup of coffee for about fifteen minutes, and then I started to drink my coffee and I slowly woke up.



Four things:



1. That coffee didn't just come down from the sky. Mr. D brought it to me and set it down by my bedside for when I was ready for it. He makes awesome coffee.


2. These are the shoes I wore outside last night:

They don't match. I suppose it's a big accomplishment that I got Kirby outside safely at all. They still have, um, stuff in them that I have to clean up at some point.

3. We are going to the vet today. hurrah

4. I did a really good job on the stuff that was on the rug, which is rather remarkable in light of the problem with the shoes.