Some Days, I Really Hate Being Right....

There are times when I do things that I know I shouldn’t do on my own. Today was one of those times. I’m working on cleaning up the garage so that I can get my car in there, and one of the ways I decided to increase my space is to hang the dog crates on the walls. One of the garage walls is unfinished, so instead of sheet rock, its just the bare studs, and the occasionally sharp, pointy nail still sticking out. There are 4 crates – 2 big and 2 travel, and hanging them is a good idea. So, I went to Lowe’s and got some big hooks to screw into the studs. I measured the crates, figured out the best way to hang them, and put the hooks in the studs (thanks again, Brian, for the laser level).

This is the point where I told myself that I really should wait for John to get here tomorrow so I’d have help getting the crates on the higher hooks. I knew I’d have trouble getting those heavy things up high enough on my own. And *this* is the point where I told myself, what the heck, you don’t know what you can do til you try. So, I set the ladder up in front of the wall, got up on the second step, and managed to get the crate up to where it was propped on my leg. And I tried, I really did, to get the thing high enough, but even I knew I was pushing it to go up another step on the ladder. After several attempts, I decided that I was right, I needed to wait for help, and that my best course was to get the crate back on the floor without damaging it or doing something really bad, like rupturing another disc in my back.

Well, the trip down didn’t go quite as smoothly as the trip up. As I was stepping down, I slipped, and started to fall forward. I had a quick flash that, if I dropped the crate, I was in a prime position to catch myself on one of those exposed nails, which would be a bad thing. Unfortunately, trying to hold on to the crate didn’t help much, either. My foot came off the ladder, the ladder slid backwards, and I went down. Backwards, which meant no nails, but which also meant no way of stopping myself. When the dust settled, I was on the floor on my hip, hoping I’d not broken my wrist. I hit it on something, the ladder, the garage door supports, the crate, who knows? It’s swollen and purple in a few areas, but it still works. My hip is purple in a few spots, too, and I have a feeling it’ll be sore for a day or two. I thumped my knee on something, and my back has decided that it is also upset with me. No ruptured discs, just very grumpy.

I’ll be fine in a day or two, but the worst part isn’t the actual falling. Its that I’d already given up. Not that I have an interest in falling on cement floors, but I’d rather have done it while I was still thinking I might succeed, when it would have been a real “told you so.” Falling after admitting defeat really is just insult to injury.

The Poor Girl Just Can’t Catch A Break

Reyna’s having a rough time these days. On the up side of things, her tail is beautiful again, she’s off the puppy prozac, and the aspirin seems to be keeping her hip pain to a tolerable level most days. On the way down side, though, she’s now having seizures. The only part of her that shakes is her head. The first time I saw it, I thought for a second she was rubbing her chin on the floor to scratch an itch, but that wasn’t it. She lays down on the floor in a sprawled position, not one she would normally use, and her head twitches and shakes back and forth between her front paws. She looks at me the whole time – at least her eyes are looking in my direction. I’ve not tried moving around to see if she can follow me. The seizure usually last about a minute to a minute and a half, and then she lays still for a bit, and then shifts position to get more comfortable. I’ve seen 4 in the last month, which is apparently enough for the vet to be very concerned (especially since I’ve been gone almost two weeks of the last month). Based on my description, he thinks they are partial seizures, and not something like epilepsy. He wants me to videotape the next one, so I have my camera on the kitchen counter, all charged up. Once he see the tape and decides if what he heard me say and what he sees match up, he’ll decide where we go from there. Most likely, the first step will be a complete round of blood tests, to see if they can find a problem. If not, who knows? I’m hoping that, for some freakish reason, the combination of prozac, aspirin, and glucosamine are what set these off. That’s highly unlikely, but it’d be nice if that was it, since she’s all done with the prozac. Just another wait-and-see sort of thing...

It’s Official…

Duncan really is part pony. He weighed in at a whopping 101.5 pounds Wednesday (and he's only 15 months old). The vet thinks his hips are okay, but he couldn’t really tell, because Duncan was fighting him the whole time. He said that, if they are bad, they’re surrounded by a huge amount of muscle, so there won’t be any trouble with them, anyway. I’m not sure, but I think he was saying that Duncan is really strong...

We're famous! Sort of....

Check out February, and then tell Jeff what great pictures he takes.

The Newest Canine Good Citizen

September 13 (yes, once again, I am a slacker), Duncan took and passed his Canine Good Citizen test. He is officially a Good Dog. Of course, everyone who knows him already knew he was a good boy, but now he has a certificate to prove it. What’s really neat is that, since he’s AKC registered, his certificate has his full name: D’Can’s Dark Warrior Dreaming. Passing this test means that he can now take specialty classes, so he started canine freestyle two weeks ago (we missed orientation the first week and class this week because of my business travel), and he’s signed up for Pre-Agility, which starts later this month. And no, he’s not going to do Agiliy, at least not until he’s full grown, and most likely not even then. But the Pre-Agility class will help build his confidence and get him used to going over, around, under, and through new obstacles. And considering how cowed he is around Reyna, he needs every confidence-builder he can get...