Moving On

Now that I’m past the stress of the certification application and exam and I’ve recovered from the mild heart attack Mikey gave me Wednesday, I figured it was time to move on to something more fun – like pictures of the pups playing in the snow!

Our second snow of the year dropped a couple of inches of soft powdery stuff on us. The pups had a lot of fun playing in it Saturday morning, although Reyna wore out pretty quickly.

I Gotta Start Locking That Door

Duncan and I picked Reyna up from physical therapy at 4:30 and were back home by 5:00. We followed our usual routine, which included going outside to play for a little while, then coming back inside so Reyna could bark and spin and I could finish up a few little things. At 5:30, I walked into the living room from the hallway. Reyna was still spinning and Duncan was laying on his bed. And then something I never expected happened – I heard the dog door flap. That struck me as odd, since neither dog was near the dog door. When I looked towards the door, I realized a cat had come into the living room. My first thought was that one of the local semi-strays had decided to move in. Then I realized it wasn’t a stray, it was Mikey. Mikey! He’d apparently gone out while the dogs and I were gone and he’d decided it was time to come back inside. I think Reyna was just as startled as I was, which gave me time to grab her so she didn’t run after Mikey and possibly scare him back outside. He calmly (although with his tail puffed up a bit) trotted past the three of us, hopped over the baby gate, and went into the bedroom. I’m still shocked by all of this. I have no idea where he was while the dogs and I were outside playing – the dogs obviously didn’t realize he was out there, and I certainly never saw him. I’m thrilled that he decided to come back inside, since he could just as easily hopped the fence and disappeared. I think I’m going to have to start locking the dog door when the dogs and I are away.

Oh, and I did a head count after that – everyone is where they’re supposed to be. Now.

Passed!

Woo-hoo, hooray, and yay for me! I love that exam results are provided within minutes, rather than days or weeks. They used to give numerical scores, but not anymore. I guess it doesn’t really matter, because passed is passed. In a few weeks, I’ll have a fancy certificate to hang on the wall in my office. Now I just need to get an office.

Not Exactly The Betty Ford Center

Reyna has been to physical therapy twice. I don’t know if she enjoys the therapy portion, but I know she likes the people and she certainly doesn’t seem to mind being fed chunks of venison. Monday, she managed two 10 minute sessions on the underwater treadmill. Today, she was able to go 12 minutes both times. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but considering her current physical condition, I’d say she’s doing pretty well.

Right now, the therapists are working on retraining Reyna’s gait. The way she’s had to compensate for the hip pain has caused her to completely change how she walks, and how she walks now is not good – it actually causes more problems. So, they’re using the underwater treadmill to force her to relearn the proper way to move. As she progresses with the treadmill, they’ll also change the volume of water and the speed of the treadmill to make her work harder. Once she’s gotten the hang of the new gait and has built up a bit of muscle in her hips, they’ll start using additional therapy methods. What’s interesting – although not surprising, really – is that the therapy does not make Reyna tired. Instead, it seems to wind her way, way up and make her very bouncy. Even after two sessions, she seems to be moving a little easier at home. Of course, that could also be due to the increased amount of pain killers. I guess we’ll just have to see how things progress.

The folks at VetHab are very nice. There’s one in particular that Reyna likes. I’m not sure if she just senses something really friendly about him, or if its because he’s the one that feeds her venison when she’s on the treadmill, but she was absolutely thrilled to see him this morning. Since I can’t be with her during her therapy, they very kindly agreed to take a few pictures and a bit of video of her in the underwater treadmill.

The container in the bottom of the picture is her broiled venison.



She doesn't look too happy here, but she's obviously not fighting them. I think its just the way she has her ears that makes her look upset.


The leash isn't actually pulling her along - they use it to walk her into the treadmill and to provide a bit of support and physical contact.


This is the video they took today. She's clearly handling the underwater treadmill with no problems. The guy feeding her and talking to her is the one she likes so much, and she's definitely interested in the venison.

I See That Cat Quit His CRaP

(No, CRaP is not a typo).

I know, I know…its not the best mnemonic ever created, but its one I can remember - and that’s the most important thing, right? I’m sure I’ll forget it as soon as the exam is done, since its not likely anyone will ever ask me for the 9 Knowledge Areas after that. And its no worse than IPECaC, which is the one we were given in class for the 5 Process Groups.

Sooner Than I Thought

I found out yesterday afternoon that my application for the PMP certification has been accepted (and so far, without landing on the audit list). The next step is to schedule the 4 hour exam, which I just did. Unfortunately, my options weren’t as varied as I’d hoped, so it looks like I’ll be taking the exam next Tuesday. I’d hoped for a little more time, but the next opening is March 1, and that’s farther out than I like. I’ll be doing a lot of studying over the next 6 days. On the upside, Reyna’s in PT for 3 of those days, so it’ll be quieter at the house than usual. Keep your paws crossed for me!

Rehab For Reyna

Reyna’s appointment at VetHab was at 1:00 this afternoon. Dr. Sherman was nearly 30 minutes late getting to us, but its hard to be annoyed about that when you consider that he spent about an hour and a half with us. I really like him, and Reyna seems to like him, too (ignoring the fact that she tried to bite him a few times…). He told me about his approach to assessing and working with orthopedic problems, and then he asked for Reyna’s life story. And he really listened. He asked a bunch of questions, answered all of my questions in detail, and then he asked more questions. And he listened. He spent most of the appointment on the floor with Reyna, baby talking to her, petting her and bribing her with Pupperoni. Reyna was very sweet with him, right up until he started examining her.

We went outside to do some walking so he could see her move, both at a very slow speed (so she couldn’t cheat) and then at a slightly faster walk. Then the painful part started. He tried to have her lay on her side while he checked her legs, but she didn’t particularly like that. While she was on her side, though, he tried to exam her feet and wrists. That’s when Reyna bypassed her normal warning signals and went straight to trying to chomp him. Twice. Apparently, her wrists hurt. When he moved on to her rear legs, she got really agitated, so we muzzled her and had her stand for the rest of the exam. She was definitely happier standing, but by that time, happy was a very relative term. As he went through the exam, Dr. Sherman showed me a few of the problems that he was talking about, and had some very nice, clear explanations for much of what he was saying. Not so much of the vet-speak, which was nice. After the exam, he looked at the x-rays and files that had been sent over by our regular vet and the vet school (he prefers to talk to the owner and exam the dog without any preconceived biases he might develop by reading other vets’ comments).

So, the results of all this are: her muscle mass is crap in her hips and along her spine (no surprise there). Her left hip has good flexion (leg moves forward) but bad extension (leg moves backward), and her right hip has decent extension but bad flexion. Her left shoulder is extremely painful, and both wrists have the equivalent of shin splints. Dr. Sherman wants me to step up the Tramadol, and he put her on Gabapentin and Amantadine for pain, as well as generic Pepcid to help keep her stomach settled and extra fish oil for the anti-inflammatory benefits. He’s also planning to make her some neoprene wrist supports to help prevent future shin splints. Reyna starts rehab on Monday (he wanted to give the meds time to kick in, as well as get past the storm that’s forecast for this weekend), and she’ll go three times a week for a few weeks. All I have to do (for now, anyway) is drop her off and pick her up. She’ll spend the whole day at the rehab facility, which will let Dr. Sherman work with her at a pace she can handle. Dr. Sherman said that she’ll never be like she was when she was two years old (thank goodness!), but he’s confident that we can get her back to where she enjoys playing with her ball and she can go for walks with me and Duncan.

I really hope he’s right.

Snow!

The snow started Friday evening (a few hours earlier than the weather people had said it would) and continued coming down until Saturday afternoon. And then we had MORE snow Saturday evening. We ended up with about 4 inches of snow after it was all done. The pups and I got out as often as possible to play. Saturday was great, because the snow was soft and powdery, and even Reyna didn’t have any trouble moving around in it.





By early Sunday, though, Reyna was tired of the snow because it was just hard enough that she couldn’t break through and walking on it was difficult for her.




Yesterday afternoon and today, Reyna’s activity has consisted of relaxing under the deck while Duncan and I play with his Jolly Ball.

Everywhere A Vet Vet

Reyna had an appointment this afternoon with a new vet (same practice) because of the trouble she’s having with her left leg. I liked the new vet – she took the trouble to review Reyna’s chart before we got there, she realized that Reyna’s name is actually Vereyna but that we call her Reyna (and she pronounced both correctly), and she patiently listened to my concerns. Reyna wasn’t too sure about her at first. The initial meeting was cute, in a sad sort of way – Reyna was so excited to see the vet, right up until she realized it wasn’t HER vet. The instant droopiness was rather pitiful, actually. By the end of the visit, though, Reyna had given the vet a little kiss and took a cookie from her (which is a bigger deal than you might think, since Reyna almost never takes cookies from new people). We’ll definitely keep this new vet on our list of possibilities.

The visit confirmed my suspicions. Reyna has lost over 6 pounds since her check up in November (I KNEW she was too thin), and it appears to have all come from her hips. She has almost no muscle in either hip, which is definitely a problem. She also has very little range of motion in either hip and in her left ankle. The vet put Reyna back on Tramadol for a while, to help with the pain. She also recommended that Reyna go somewhere for rehab, but I was ahead of her on that – I’d already made an appointment. Reyna goes to VetHab next Tuesday for an evaluation and rehab plan. I also talked to the vet about the fact that Reyna's been spinning into the furniture a lot lately - most frequently plowing head first into the entertainment center. The vet said there's no sign of any problems with Reyna's eyes, so we're thinking her problem is that her back end is too weak to support the spinning properly and so it throws off her balance. Poor girl...who knew that good hips were so necessary?

Reyna also has a meet-and-greet appointment this Thursday with another new vet – only this guy is less than 10 minutes from the house. I’ve heard good things about him, so we’ll see how it goes. Whether or not we stick with him will depend on several things, not the least of which is how Reyna responds to him.

Thats Just Craptastic

I called the vet’s office this morning to make an appointment for Reyna – she’s limping more and more on her left leg – only to find out that our most favorite vet in the whole world is gone. Gone! The only thing the girl was able to tell me is that he’s opening his own practice sometime soon in Durham. Durham! He’s gone to Durham! Now, the rational part of me knows he didn’t do this just to make my life harder than it already is. But darn it, that’s whats happening, because now I have to find a new vet. And I really hate having to explain Reyna’s medical history to new folks. I mean, have you seen her file? Its huge! But since the vet was the only reason I kept making the drive out to that particular practice, and he’s no longer there, I may as well find a vet closer to home. Sigh. Even Belle liked (tolerated) this guy. Do you know how hard it is to find someone Belle won’t attack? Its not easy. Urgh. And I’ll have to get copies of everyone’s files, too. Good thing I don’t have a job – I wouldn’t have time to deal with this properly if I were working.

Edumacated

Last week’s class was less than fascinating, but the instructor did a very good job considering the material he had to present. Now that I have my membership number, I have to submit my application, and if that’s approved, schedule the 4 hour exam. Assuming I pass that, I’ll have a nice certification that should boost my resume. The class was focused on passing the exam, and I’ve acquired a variety of study materials and practice tests. With any luck, I’ll be able to schedule the test for early/mid February. As long as I study, there's no reason I shouldn't pass the exam the first time.

The downside of the class was that the pups were extremely unhappy with my absence. It was obvious Monday evening that they’d decided I’d simply abandoned them. Duncan was particularly upset, and he still seems to be holding a bit of a grudge. I’m taking him herding this week, so maybe he’ll forgive me then.

Better Now

The really nasty head cold that attacked me a week ago has finally loosened its grip. Just in time, too, since I’ll be in a class Monday through Thursday this week, scheduled for 8am to 6pm. The class is a boot camp for a Project Manager certification exam, and if my certification application is accepted and I pass the exam, it’ll add a nice boost to my resume.

There’s not much to update…. The government has actually managed to do something right and is getting my unemployment money into my account in a timely fashion. The pups are still enjoying their newly varied diet and have discovered that they really like still-frozen fruit more than thawed fruit. Reyna seems to be having some trouble with her left leg, but I can’t tell if its her hip or ankle, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on that. We’re all so glad the cold weather has taken a break – the pups and I have spent most of the last couple of days sitting outside, enjoying the warmth. Of course, it figures that it would warm up right when I’ll be stuck inside all day.

Temporarily Closed...

...due to illness. Please come back later.

Fun With Food

The pups have been trying out some different food options over the last couple of weeks. This all came about due to the need for Duncan to lose a couple of pounds and my concern that Reyna was just a bit too thin (and constantly hungry). We started with adding green beans to dinner, which has been pretty successful. To keep things interesting, we’ve been trying some other veggies. Both pups seem to like the peas and carrots combo, but they really liked a vegetable stir-fry I found that has asparagus, snow peas, red bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, and zucchini. I found out they love hard boiled eggs, and I’m still debating giving them eggs on a regular basis. Some folks say an egg a day is good for a dog. On the fruit side, the pups’ taste differs just a bit. They both love bananas (although they’re a little confused if they’re presented with half a banana – they prefer smaller pieces). They both like blue berries, but Duncan doesn’t like more than a few at a time. Reyna likes strawberries and blackberries, Duncan not so much. Duncan really like raspberries, though. You know, I tend to think Reyna will eat almost anything, as long as its in her dinner bowl. And speaking of Reyna’s dinner bowl, she has a shiny new one.


Reyna has always been a fast eater, but her speed has increased lately. Unfortunately, German shepherds are at a high risk for bloat (the stomach swells and can twist; this can kill a dog in an hour or so), particularly if they happen to be fast eaters. The other day, Reyna ate her dinner so fast she made herself sick. About 20 minutes later, her new bloat bowl was on order. It arrived yesterday and has already proved extremely effective. For the first time ever, Duncan is actually finishing his meal before Reyna. Not much before, but considering how much faster Reyna normally finishes…. She’s finding the bowl a bit aggravating, I can tell. She’s gotten pretty good at pushing it into a corner to brace it, but I saw her using her feet on it this morning. Its supposed to be unflippable, but we are talking about a pretty smart and motivated girl.

Score One For The Government

For those of you waiting anxiously for the results of yesterdays meeting, I do apologize for the delay. I wanted to make sure the website would actually let me in before I made my report.

My appointment was at 2:30, and at 3:55 (yes, 3:55, not 2:55) I finally sat down with a lady from the claims department. At 4:05, I was getting in the truck. I love those hour-and-a-half waits for less than 10 minutes. I did get results, though. The lady reopened my claim and said I would be able to file this morning for 4 weeks. Amazingly enough, she was right! If all goes well, I should have 3 weeks of unemployment money in my bank account by Friday. The reason our meeting took as long as it did was that I thought I’d only have two weeks of money coming because of severance pay. The lady said that the rule was changed back in October, and severance no longer blocks unemployment pay. She also said that I could file a request for late/back unemployment payments, since there were several weeks I didn’t file due to getting severance. Its not a bad idea, but I don’t know how difficult it would be to do that. Plus, I can’t find anything online that supports what she said. Even the ESC website still says severance delays unemployment. I’ll keep that idea in the back of my mind and ponder on it. At this point, I’m just happy the system let me file this morning.

Dreamin'

A little while ago, both pups were sound asleep, Duncan on the couch and Reyna on the rug. Interestingly enough, they were dreaming at the same time. Reyna had all four legs moving at high speed - maybe chasing a rabbit? Duncan's back legs were going like pistons, his front paws were twitching, and I swear I saw him spitting out wool.

That’s It For ‘09

2009 is just about over and it must have been a fairly quiet year because there are only a few things that stick in my mind. Granted, my memory isn’t the best, but I’m pretty sure I’ve not forgotten any massively traumatic events. A few things that happened this year: playing in the snow (at both the beginning and the end of the year), herding sheep and earning titles, celebrating birthdays, completing a few scrapbooks, building a ramp for the back porch, playing with Horses!, learning that Reyna doesn’t actually have a heart problem, having wrist surgery, and experiencing record cold temperatures in Canada. The two most significant things that come to mind when I think of 2009 are Reyna’s hip replacement and the layoff. Reyna’s surgery was rough while we were dealing with it, but overall it qualifies as a Very Good Thing. As for the layoff – well, I haven’t made the final decision on that yet. Check back this time next year.

You’re Kidding, Right?

I called the Unemployment office a couple of times Monday. The lady working the switchboard kept sending me to the voice mail of people who don’t answer their phones or return calls. I had to work at the kennel yesterday, but I tried calling again, with the same results. This morning, I was at the office when they opened. I was thinking maybe I’d wait for a while and then someone would push a button and we’d move on from there. Boy, was I wrong. The lady at the desk informed me that yes, my problem would be fixed with the simple push of a button, but it wouldn’t be fixed today. Or even this week. They’re all much too busy to push that button. So I have to go back to the office Monday at 2:30 so someone can push the button. And since the delay is so long, they’ll have to retroactively file my wait week and my first drawing week. And then I can do a normal file for my second drawing week. With any decent luck (although I’m not holding my breath), I’ll have two weeks of unemployment money deposited by Thursday, Jan 7 – just in time to pay the mortgage. I pointed out that the switchboard lady never mentioned that I’d need an appointment for this excessively complicated task, and that she kept sending me to voice mail. The desk lady said the switchboard lady isn’t trained in claims issues, so what else could she do? I replied that maybe they should train the switchboard lady to the point that when someone says they’ve already called several times, she should tell them they need to come in and schedule an appointment. But then again, maybe that’s just too much to expect from someone running a switchboard.

Aggravations

This morning started with an unexpected (and unwelcome) trip to the dentist. Christmas evening I had a late snack of popcorn after closing the kennel and I managed to bite down on a kernel in just the wrong way, chipping a front tooth. Looking at the tooth, the chip didn’t appear too bad – just a bit of jaggedness, not too obvious if you weren’t looking for it. The problem was that it started hurting every time I used that tooth to bite something. Thankfully, the dentist had a cancellation and managed to fit me in this morning. He filled the new hole and told me to come back if it was still hurting within a week. Sigh.

My unemployment claim is still screwed up. According to the lady I talked to this morning, I may or may not hear from the person who can fix the problem tomorrow. If I don’t talk to that person tomorrow, I’ll be at the unemployment office when they open Wednesday morning (can’t go tomorrow morning, as I’m working at the kennel). I hope we get this fixed soon, since we’re now a couple of weeks behind.

On the up side, I got my hair cut after finishing up at the dentist’s this morning. I had the lady take off about three inches. Its not as short as I’d like, since I need it long enough to pull back at the kennel, but it’s a lot less annoying than it was a few hours ago.

Christmas Travels - Part 3

Dad's place is great for us...he's got about 70 acres where the pups can run and romp and swim to their furry little hearts' content. They really love it out there.

Our first night there, Krysti was doing a bit of decorating and Duncan decided to pose by the little tree in the living room.


Reyna, on the other paw, couldn't be bothered by any of that.


Monday morning, we went out for an early romp before heading to Ganna's. The snow had a thick layer of ice on top and the dogs weren't quite heavy enough to break through in most places. Instead, they just slipped and slid and did their best. Just before I snapped this picture, Duncan slipped and fell. Being the loving mother that I am, my first thought was "Picture!" and my second was "Hope he's okay." By the time I got the camera up, Duncan had already started to get back on his feet. Reyna had turned around to see what the fuss was, though, and she slipped and fell. So this picture captured Duncan on his way up, and Reyna on her way down. It really is all about the timing...


Wednesday morning, the pups were more than happy to just relax for a while before braving the great snowy outdoors. Reyna crashed on my air mattress, while Duncan added a little more dog hair to the couch.



Duncan quickly got tired of taking the stairs from the cabin deck and decided that the easiest way was to just go over the side. Its amazing how his jumping looks so much like falling...


"Mom! Are you coming? Or are you going to stand there taking pictures all morning?"


The ice layer had melted in some places by the time we went out walking, so it was easier to tell how much snow had fallen.


Amazingly enough, despite the cold temps (and all the snow on the ground), both pups decided to get in the water. Granted, they didn't stay in for a very long time, but I was still surprised that they got in at all.



I caught Reyna in mid-excited bounce.


Reyna waiting patiently for me to decide I was done taking pictures and it was time for us to start walking again.


I like this picture because it shows the spread of Duncan's toes. The pups were really having to work at keeping their balance in the areas where the ice hadn't melted. I wasn't thinking about the need for toenails before we left Raleigh, and I trimmed their nails fairly short. Poor pups - they could have used the extra gripping power of longer nails.


Duncan had trouble walking in the tire ruts and generally preferred staying in the middle. I think most of his trouble came from the rougher surface of the ice in the ruts - the center might be slick, but at least it was smooth. Reyna typically walked in the center, too, but her problem seemed to be that the ruts were too narrow to be comfortable.


No series of pup pictures would be complete without the wrestling shots. Between the flashing teeth, lion (or grizzly, take your pick) poses, and excited chasing, I'd say its pretty clear that the pups had an excellent time playing in the snow.




As much fun as we all had, though, we were all very happy to get home - back to our own couch, chair and beds. Visiting is fun, but home is best.

Christmas Travels – Part 2

Dad's place got a lot of snow just before we went out, which made the property more beautiful than it would normally be at this time of year, but also made the half-mile drive a good bit more difficult. Dad made a couple of runs along the drive to help clear a path, but it still required 4-wheel drive. I thought the drive was actually a good bit of fun, but I'm not sure the pups were thrilled with being tossed around in the back of the truck. The worst part of the drive was the last. This picture was taken on Wednesday, so a lot of the ice is gone, but I think there's still enough there to give a good idea. To get to the house, you have to go over a creek (lower right corner), up the hill, make a sharp right turn, and up another steep hill. If you miss either of those turns, its easy to end up somewhere you don't really want to be.


The pups and I were staying the cabin in the old pasture, but we had to park at the house. Until Wednesday, the road from the house to the cabin was impassable - even for the trucks, at first due to the ice and then due to the deep mud-filled ruts. I tried to get a decent picture of that road, but none of them really did justice to the conditions.

This is the cabin we stayed in during our visit. It has a bedroom, full bath, loft, kitchen and living/dining room. On the far right is a second little bunkhouse with another bed, bath, and stove. The cabin is plenty big enough for me and the pups, and between the electric heat and the gas "wood" stove, its easy to stay warm. The tire tracks are from Dad's utility vehicle, which he drove through the woods to get between the house and the cabin.


These three pictures were taken from the cabin porch. This first one was taken about 8:20 Monday morning, using my cell phone. I think it came out pretty well.


I took this one later Monday morning - you can't see much detail of the woods, but the icicles are neat. At that point, it was still cold enough that they'd not yet started melting.



This is Wolfie, Dad and Krysti's wolf-dog hybrid. She's 10 years old now, and you can't tell in the picture, but she's actually bigger than Duncan. And its not all because of her fur - she even out-weighs him by at least 15 pounds. She has to stay penned when we visit because she has a nasty tendency to want to kill my pups.


This is a shot of the lake from just behind the house.


This is the same general view, but this picture was taken from the deck Dad built at the edge of the big hill behind the house.


And a closer look at the lake.


This chimney is left over from the original homestead on the property.


A view of the house from the dam...


This is the trout pond that Dad keeps stocked and the little cabin he built over the creek a few years ago. Looking toward the lake from the house, the cabin is to the right and fairly deep in the woods. The trout pond was low on water and frozen pretty solid.


This cabin is to the left of the lake, not too far from the main garden. The pond in front of it (also frozen) is generally stocked with catfish, but has had too many visits from otters lately.