If I Didn’t Have Animals

I found this online today, and I think it sums everything up pretty well.

If I Didn’t Have Animals
by Jim Willis

If I didn’t have animals . . .
I could walk around the yard barefoot in safety.
My house could be carpeted instead of tiled and laminated.
All flat surfaces, clothing, furniture, and cars would be free of hair.
When the doorbell rings, it wouldn’t sound like a kennel.
When the doorbell rings, I could get to the door without wading through fuzzy bodies who beat me there.
I could sit on the couch and my bed the way I wanted, without taking into consideration how much space several fur bodies would need to get comfortable.
I would not have strange presents under my Christmas tree - dog bones, stuffed animals, toys, treats - nor would I have to explain to people why I wrap them.
I would have money...and no guilt to go on a real vacation.
I would not be on a first-name basis with 6 veterinarians, as I put their yet unborn grand kids through college.
The most used words in my vocabulary would not be: out, sit, down, come, no, stay, and leave him/her/it ALONE.
My house would not be cordoned off into zones with baby gates or barriers.
My house would not look like a day care center, toys everywhere.
My pockets would not contain things like poop bags, treats and an extra leash.
I would no longer have to spell the words B-A-L-L-, F-R-I-S-B-E- E, W-A-L-K, T-R-E-A-T, B-I-K-E OR C-A-R.
I would not have as many leaves INSIDE my house as outside.
I would not look strangely at people who think having ONE dog/cat ties them down too much.
I’d look forward to spring and the rainy season instead of dreading ‘mud’ season.
I would not have to answer the question ‘Why do you have so many animals?’ from people who will never have the joy in their lives of knowing they are loved unconditionally by someone as close to an angel as they will ever get.
How empty my life would be.

So Proud!

Tonight was Duncan’s second night in his pre-agility class. The last time we took the class, we received a certificate that said we attended; this time, we’re aiming for the certificate that says we completed the class. Tonight we worked with the equipment that was our downfall last time – the A-frame, the dog walk, and the teeter-totter. The biggest problem Duncan had with all three of those before is that they’re only 12 inches wide, and Duncan couldn’t figure out how to keep his back end on those 12 inches. This time, though, he did beautifully. He went up and down the A-frame without even thinking about it, and he trotted along the dog walk without any encouragement or help from me or the instructors. A few times, he even stopped on the dog walk and sat down, waiting for me to give him his cookie before he got off. Not that long ago, he wouldn’t have been able to get his butt down in that 12 inch space without falling off. Even the teeter-totter didn’t bother him too badly. He walked across it twice; the first time he was a bit nervous when it suddenly moved on him, but the second time he was more interested in the cookies the instructor had than he was in the movement of the board. The really entertaining part of the class is seeing how excited he is about the tunnel and the table (they finally have a table big enough for him to sit on without most of him hanging off) – he keeps trying to go through the tunnel or get on the table when I’m not having him do something else.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

So, while I was working on the video clips for the previous blog, I stumbled across a few videos I took of Reyna on my first digital camera, back when she was just a few months old. The quality is pretty bad, although its better on my computer than it is on YouTube or Photobucket. But, you work with what you have. I’d forgotten just how freakishly cute Reyna was at 3 and a half months old. And so skinny! I didn’t know it then, of course, but these clips were definitely an indication of how Reyna would turn out.

This clip is Reyna with her woobie. Reyna’s woobie was her very favorite stuffed toy, and I think we went through four of them before I stopped buying her stuffed toys. Her woobie had squeakies in the head and all four feet, and she loved to carry it around, sit on it, and sleep on it. In the clip, I ask her a couple of times to “bring it here” which she totally ignores. Amazingly enough, she has the same response now when I tell her to bring me her soccer ball.

In this one, Belle is explaining to Reyna just how she feels. When Reyna was still pretty little, the cats had the run of the house. Reyna was blocked at the hallway, though, so that the cats would have their own space. Of course, all that has changed a bit, and now the species are separated by the door in the hallway. The cats could go through the whole house using the catwalk, but they really don’t seem inclined to do that. Belle’s feelings towards Reyna haven’t changed any since the day I recorded this.

Here we have Reyna showing off her love of digging, as well as her high intensity level. I never did figure out what she was digging for, but she was determined to got through the kitchen floor. I also have a second, much longer clip of her still digging away in the same corner. She really doesn’t dig anymore (except in water buckets), but I don’t think anyone can say that her intensity level has decreased over time.

And here is Reyna demonstrating a habit that goes on today (and that is very possibly happening right this moment). In this clip, Reyna shows that she never really had the ability to chase her tail without running into something. Unfortunately, she advanced quickly from running into plastic boxes to running into walls. Not that she seems to mind, of course. And just think – at only 14 weeks old, she was already showing signs of the insanity that has followed her ever since...

I have a few other little clips of Reyna at home, and I’m so glad I thought to take them. Even though I have loads of photos of her, these videos definitely show her puppy personality more clearly than any photo ever could.

A Fun Afternoon

The weather has been pretty icky this weekend, but Friday was gorgeous. I got out of class early, so I was able to take advantage of the sunny, 80 degree weather. As soon as I got home, I took the dogs out to the pond behind the house. I'm going to have to try and find a better route other than straight through the woods, because the ticks are definitely out.


Both of the dogs enjoy going to the pond, but Reyna’s the only one who actually swims. Some days, I think Duncan still believes he’ll melt if that horrible, nasty, wet stuff touches him. He has finally gotten to where he’ll actually get in the water up to his chest, but only to drink, and he still gets out pretty quickly. He certainly doesn’t splash around it in and have fun like Reyna does.


This pond isn’t huge, but it’s plenty big for swimming, and the water is pretty clean (ignoring the layer of pollen on top, of course). Reyna doesn’t swim just to swim, but she’ll go after sticks – and occasionally even bring them back. I’ve thought of taking a couple of tennis balls out there, but since she isn’t consistent on returning the items, I figure tennis balls aren’t a good idea. I’d hate for her to leave one out there, and then I have to either swim after it myself or drag the canoe down there.


On this trip, I remembered to take my digital camera and my video camera. Below is a short clip of Reyna swimming. I had a several bits where she actually brought the stick back, but all you can hear during those is the clickity-clickity-click of the digital camera. Holding the video in my left hand and the digital in my right doesn’t produce the best of either. Its hard to zoom with one hand...

On our way back, the dogs decided to play a bit, and I managed to get most of that on tape, too.

The One Place You Can Yell “Bitch” And No One Gets Upset

Various local kennel clubs held their annual dog shows at the fairgrounds this past week (Tuesday thru Sunday). The German Shepherd Dog Club that Duncan and I belong to had their specialty shows Friday and Saturday evenings. Last year, I worked one night as a Steward Trainee; this year, I worked both nights as the only Steward. Basically, that means I got to stand on a cement floor for about 6 hours each night, helping the judge and keeping all of the humans and dogs in line. The majority of the time I had a lot of fun, but I didn’t particularly appreciate being yelled at by the dog show divas (i.e., the male handlers). The worst part of both nights was the calling for the dogs. I did so much yelling, I ended up hoarse Saturday and Sunday. And, oh, how my feet and back ached afterwards. Oh, well, its only once a year. I couldn’t always tell why the judges chose one dog over another, but I did get to see some absolutely gorgeous German shepherds.

On a slightly related note, I pulled off my first tick of the season Sunday afternoon. Sigh.

Worse Than Mama’s Spit

Last night, Duncan became obsessed with licking Reyna’s lower lip. This went beyond his normal kisses – he was fixated. Made me wonder if she had a piece of kibble stuck there. At first, Reyna just sat quietly and let him lick. After a minute, she started staring at me with a mildly annoyed look on her face. I saw her upper lips start to curl, and just as I said Duncan’s name, she went for him. After she finished snapping at him, he started trying to lick her lip again! She tolerated that for an entire second and a half before expressing her displeasure. It turns out that she had a piece of dead skin stuck to her lip, and Duncan was apparently trying to remove that for her.

Various And Sundry

Per’la had another round of Nasty Eye a couple of weeks ago, and now she has a cold. Belle and Loki are fine, but Mikey and Khar both have Nasty Eye Lite. Parm, on the other paw, is dealing with Really Nasty Eye, and doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with all that extra crud. I’m having trouble convincing him that letting me scrape it all out every now and then will make his life more pleasant.

Courtesy of recent truck issues and rising gas prices, I really miss my car.

Two weeks ago, I definitely had moles (or voles – without actually seeing one of them, I have no idea how to tell the difference). I haven’t found any more tunnels under the fence, but I had several raised mounds in the yard where the critters were tunneling. Duncan did not like that, and did a very good job of digging up all the tunnels and access holes he could find. I didn’t see any new ones for the last week, and figured that the critters were either tunneling too deep to disturb the ground, or they’d decided that Duncan’s Yard just wasn’t the place to be. This morning, though, I discovered a tunnel from the fence straight to a small flower bed beside my swing. Duncan wasn’t happy to see that, and spent 20 minutes digging up the tunnel and trying to shove his nose as far in as possible. He also found an access hole near my tree that he dug up. I talked to my neighbor on that side a bit ago, and they had moles for 5 years. I guess they decided it was time to try new hunting grounds. Hopefully, Duncan will discourage there efforts...

I started another export class this week. Once again, I’m in class for six weeks. Thankfully, the assignments for export classes are a lot less intensive than for my MBA. It shouldn’t be too bad, as long as I can remember to participate five days a week.

I’ve been taping the ACC games since Friday for my Aunt Susan. I have to say that, as much as I don’t really care who wins the games, both semi-final games yesterday were real nail-biters. Since I have to watch the games, I’m grateful that they’ve been interesting. I know its unlikely (especially since the score is 69-59 UNC, with 8:30 left in the game), but it would make me smile if Clemson beat UNC today...

Duncan's pre-agility class starts tomorrow. The first session is orientation for the people, then we have six weeks of classes with the dogs. We got the equivalent of an "incomplete" last time, because Duncan couldn't coordinate his back end well enough to handle the ramp and dog walk. Since he's older and a bit more together now, I figured we'd try it again. Paws crossed!

Happy Birthday, Reyna!

Today is Reyna’s 4th birthday. Some days its hard to believe she’s been a part of my life for that long; other days it feels like she’s always been here. Last year was a rough one for both of us, and there were times when I wasn’t sure if she’d make it to the next week, much less all the way to her next birthday. But she did. And she’s doing so well now.


She’s changed in the last year, matured, become more affectionate, and she’s actually settled down quite a bit (although she’s still insane, there’s no question about that). I look at her and I see this wonderful, gorgeous, brilliant animal, and I think of all the drama and annoyance and struggle we’ve been through together, and I know that she’s worth it. I also know there will be more drama, more annoyance, and more struggle. But that’s okay, because she’s worth that, too. And that’s enough of the sappy stuff.


Reyna had a very big day today. First, she got to go on a long truck ride. The she got to chase sheep. And then roll in a mud puddle, play in a water trough, and chase more sheep! And then she got another long truck ride, and a visit to her favorite bakery, where she got treats and lovins. Then it was play time at home, and a quick nap to recharge the batteries. And she’s finishing off her day eating CAKE! Now, really, how much better could a dog’s birthday be???

More Visitors?

As I mentioned before, Duncan is taking his hole patrol duties very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he found two more entrances into the yard. They were covered with leaves, and I wouldn’t have seen them if he hadn’t shown them to me (and before someone pops up with the idea that he dug them himself, these holes go into tunnels, and the exits for both tunnels are about 8 inches outside the fence). The holes are almost perfectly round, with no loose dirt inside the fence. Every time we go outside, Duncan does a sniff test on each hole. I can tell that whatever odor he smells is stronger occasionally, because he’ll really fixate on a hole for several minutes. I still don’t know why the animals would bother with these tunnels and holes, since the holes are the size of the spaces in the fence and the exit holes are even smaller. I’d think it’d be easier to just pop through the fence...

Run, Sheep, Run

Saturday, the pups and I went to Pittsboro to see a trainer about instinct tests for herding for both dogs and carting for Duncan. I’d have to say that the day was a definite success; both educational and highly entertaining.

The trainer has a flock of sheep, but for testing purposes, she only uses three. She also has goats, geese, chickens, a cow, three dogs and a couple of cats. She said that, during testing, she looks for more than just interest from the dog. Too much interest in the sheep is just as bad (and potentially worse) than no interest. She also watches how the three sheep respond to the dog, as well as what the goats in the next pen do. Apparently, the goats get very agitated if the dog being tested has too much prey drive.

We worked Reyna first, then Duncan. Then we did a bit of carting with Duncan, and then worked Reyna with the sheep again, and then Duncan again. Oh, and the stick she’s carrying isn’t to whack the dogs, its to block them from going in certain directions and to keep them from getting between her and the sheep. If I understood correctly, the dog is always supposed to be on the outside, with the sheep between the dog and the handler. Or something like that. She said if I decided to do more of this, she’d have me work with her dog while I was figuring out what I was supposed to do, so that I wouldn’t frustrate my dogs. Makes sense to me.

Reyna had a bit of trouble grasping the idea at first. I think she was just too surprised by the idea that she was not only allowed to chase the sheep, but she was actually being encouraged. The sheep stayed pretty relaxed (according to the trainer) and the goats weren’t at all interested in Reyna. Although, she was very interested in them… After a few minutes, Reyna seemed to have at least a general idea of what was going on, and she seemed to be enjoying it. One thing the trainer noticed with Reyna is that she doesn’t like to change direction too much. She figured it probably hurts Reyna’s hips, because the dog is supposed to stop and rock backwards to change direction. The second time through, though, Reyna figured out she could do a quick hop to the side and change directions, without ever rocking backwards.




Duncan was very interesting to watch. The sheep did not like him at first, and one of the goats was upset when Duncan was in the pen. The trainer said that it was most likely because the sheep and goat could tell that Duncan had less self-control than Reyna did. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that Duncan was lunging and whining for the first few minutes. The sheep and goats seemed fine for Duncan’s second run, though, probably because he’d finally calmed down a good bit. Isn’t that strange – I’d never thought I’d ever say that Duncan was more wound up than Reyna about something, or that it would take him longer to calm down… Anyway, Duncan took to chasing, er, herding the sheep pretty quickly, and seemed to think it was a wonderful game. He kept grabbing at them, and I had to explain to the trainer that Duncan has always been pretty mouthy. She said that it was pretty obvious he wasn’t trying to hurt them, and it didn’t seem to upset the sheep, so I guess its no big deal. She said the next time we go, she might have him try herding the geese. I don’t know that that’s a good idea, but they’re her geese…




The carting session went as smoothly as I figured it would. She has a very light-weight PVC cart that she uses with beginners, and Duncan was totally oblivious to the fact that he was dragging something. The next time we go, we’re going to measure Duncan and then add some length to the cart, because the only probably he really had was that he’s just too long for that particular cart. She had the shafts as far back as she could, and Duncan was still bumping the cart with his back feet half the time.

Visitors?

Something dug two holes into (or out of) the yard. I saw the holes yesterday evening, but have no idea what critter dug them. Both holes veer off to the left just after crossing the fence line. Whatever type of animal is using these holes is small enough to have just gone through the fence, so I’m not sure why they would bother with all that extra effort.

The scratch marks beside this one are Duncan’s contribution.

Duncan also added to this one, digging up a bit more dirt around the entrance.

Duncan is on hole patrol, and is taking his duties very seriously. I’ve seen him outside several times today, sniffing around the holes and looking into the woods behind the fence.

Its Official

This was waiting for me when I got home Friday. Its finally all over....

Happy Day!

Reyna is officially off the Phenobarbital! The only medication she is taking now is the Rimadyl for her hips. And she's been feeling so good that most days I can give her just a quarter of the prescribed dose. Its amazing, really. I finally have my dog back, attitude and all.

Some Exciting News

Josh and Stephanie are expecting a baby in late August/early September. Josh called Friday and said that the ultrasound showed just one baby (not the twins or triplets that I thought would be really fun). They’ll find out if it’s a boy or girl in about eight weeks. Peyton really wants a little sister, though.

Off To The Vet We Go

Last weekend, I realized that Reyna had a lump on her right rear leg, between the foot pad and the ankle. I had noticed her licking at that spot earlier, and then on Saturday afternoon, I realized she was limping a bit and she would sit in a way to keep that spot off the ground. When I examined the area, she was pretty sensitive about it, and there was a noticeable swelling. Not something easily seen, because of the fur, but definitely easy to feel.

Monday afternoon, we went to the vet’s. It was nice to realize that the last time we were there for a problem was back in November, when Reyna got caught in Duncan’s collar. We’d made it almost three whole months without an incident.

The vet took a sample of the lump and was able to tell me that there were no cancerous cells, which was a HUGE relief. He did see inflamed and infected cells, which made sense. He said it looked like an acral lick granuloma, but the problem with that theory was that dogs don’t get acral lick granulomas in that particular area. But, this is Reyna. We both agreed that, with her obsessive-compulsive personality, its entirely possible that something scratched her, she licked the spot to make it feel better, and then just couldn’t stop. I hadn’t noticed her licking the area all that much, but this pesky job thing does keep me out of the house a good bit.

So, for the last week, we’ve been treating the area like an acral lick, and I’m to call the vet tomorrow and update him. Thankfully, the swelling does seem to have gone down over the last few days. Unfortunately, since we started messing with that spot, Reyna’s been licking it more than ever, so I’ve had to really keep on her about that. She has this funny habit of licking really fast as soon as I tell her to stop, almost as if she knows I’m going to make her stop and she has to get in as many licks as possible before I get to her. It would be cute, if it weren’t so darn annoying.

Buffalo Bones

As we’re all aware (and if we weren’t, we are now), Reyna is mildly allergic to beef. Because of this, buying beef soup bones for the dogs is pretty much out of the question. So, a couple of weeks ago, I bought three bison bones, instead. They were each about 8 inches long, and still had chunks of meat on them. I had to get three, because Reyna and Duncan each get a bone, and there’s a spare. Because Reyna will take Duncan’s bone, and Duncan takes the spare. And then Reyna takes Duncan’s bone, and Duncan takes the spare. This usually goes on until the bones have been eaten. If there are just two bones, Reyna takes Duncan’s, and Duncan looks pathetic until I give him Reyna’s old bone. And then Reyna takes Duncan’s, and Duncan looks pathetic. Its just something they do.

On this particular day, I put all three buffalo bones on the living room floor after thawing them (Reyna doesn’t like her bones to be icy). Reyna checked them out and then ignored them (she doesn’t actually like them colder than room temp… she’s a bit picky about that). Duncan just stared at the bones, almost as if he couldn’t believe his luck. After about 15 minutes, Reyna picked up one of the bones and took it outside. I usually don’t encourage that because of the ants, but its cold enough that ants aren’t an issue. I didn’t pay too much attention to what was happening until I heard a lot of leaf rustling. When I stepped out on the deck, Duncan was standing at the corner, looking underneath. Reyna was burying the bone in the pile of leaves under the deck. When she was finished, she came inside and laid down. Duncan came in and sat by the chair, and just watched Reyna.

10 minutes later, Reyna hopped up, grabbed the second bone, and headed outside. This time, I grabbed my camera as I followed her out. While Duncan and I watched, Reyna buried the bone next to the tree in the back yard. And by bury, I mean she dug a hole about 3 inches deep, dropped the bone, and then pushed a bit of dirt and a few leaves on top of it.

Not exactly the most effective burial, but she seemed happy with it. She also seemed rather surprised when she looked up and realized that Duncan and I were both watching her.

She came back inside and laid down, like nothing had happened. I could tell that Duncan wasn’t too sure if he wanted to come back in, or if he wanted to go check out the bone. But he came back in the house and sat down, watching Reyna. A few minutes later, Reyna got up and went outside, but stopped on the deck when she realized Duncan and I were following her (notice the streak of dirt across her nose). Instead of going with her original plan, she just went back in the house and laid down.

About 10 minutes after that, though, she hopped up, grabbed the third bone, and trotted outside. This one, she decided to bury next to the fence, using the same method of shallow hole, a little dirt, and some leaves.

I’m not sure if she was so absorbed in what she was doing that she wasn’t paying attention, but once again, she seemed very surprised to realize that Duncan and I were watching her.

When she was finished, she went back in the house and laid down. Duncan went in right behind her, sat down, and looked pretty confused about the whole thing. Not too long after that, Duncan went outside and headed straight for the tree. Before he could do too much, though, Reyna popped out of the house to see what was going on. Duncan didn’t seem happy with the audience, so he went back inside.

About 20 minutes went by, and Duncan decided to go outside again. This time, he went for the fence. He actually had the bone uncovered before he realized we were watching him.

Later that afternoon, Duncan went outside and got the bone that was under the deck. He took it to the middle of the yard and laid down with it. Didn’t actually chew on it, just laid next to it for about 20 minutes, and then came back in the house.

The next day, the bone buried by the tree was in the yard. It was another two days before the bone buried by the fence was brought out. Only once (that I know of) has one of the bones been brought back into the house. Reyna brought one in last Friday afternoon, and wandered around the living room and hall, looking for a good place to bury it. She tried digging a hole in her bed, but apparently didn’t like the results. She seemed to consider the idea of burying it her chair, but, surprisingly, dismissed that location. After about 5 minutes of looking around for the right spot, she took the bone back outside.

Each morning and every evening after work, the bones are all in different places in the yard. I can tell they’ve been working on them, digging out some of the marrow. I’m glad they’re enjoying them, but I really didn’t expect the bones to generate so much entertainment. I guess I’ll have to get smaller bones next time, because once the weather warms up, I won’t let them keep bones with meat and marrow out in the yard. I have a real issue with how much the ants seem to love those bones.

Playtime

Playtime at our house can get a bit rough, not to mention a bit noisy. The roughhousing is all in good fun, though, no matter how it might actually look or sound. I took loads of pictures of the dogs playing this past weekend, and decided to share some of my favorites. I thought about putting them in some sort of order that might make sense if these were the only images seen, as opposed to the order in which they were actually taken. But I’m too lazy to do that. So keep in mind that these pictures are from different play times during the day.

Here’s Reyna doing her typical run at Duncan, to see how fast she can make him hit the ground. Notice the curled lip and shiny teeth.

Duncan is always braver when Reyna’s back is turned.

Duncan just realized that Reyna slowed down...

And Duncan decides to try for a quick getaway.

Duncan has a habit of loving on Reyna right before he tries to instigate something.

This is one of those moments where everyone freezes for a few seconds. Then, at some mysterious signal, both dogs explode into action at the same time.

Here’s one of Duncan stomping on the brakes.

Most of the time, Reyna chases Duncan. She lets him chase her when she’s in a really playful mood.

I just really like this picture...

Another shot of Duncan trying to get Reyna to play.

This tree is their favorite place for chasing. They will make laps around the tree, changing directions in a split second.

It always makes me laugh, the way Reyna so easily rolls Duncan over. He has never intentionally knocked her down.

Another neat moment in time...

They love each other.

They really do.

Well, maybe not.

One of Reyna’s favorite tricks is to go for Duncan’s ankles. He ends up doing a funny hopping maneuver, and he has the worst time getting back at her when she’s that low.

The standard dominance pose, where Reyna puts her head on Duncan’s shoulders. He does it to her, too, usually when he’s trying to start something.

Reyna’s a happy girl, running after Duncan.

The look on Duncan’s face is pure joy. He loves to run. He doesn’t care if he’s running because Reyna is chasing him, if he’s running after the ball, if he’s running after a dog at the dog park, or if he’s running just for the fun of running. For a dog who is normally laid back and slow, he has some speed, and he loves to let it out.

On Becoming A Man

Duncan turned 2 and a half last month, and he’s finally coming into his own. Over the last few months, his personality has changed in several small, almost unnoticeable ways. He’s started being more assertive with other dogs and standing up for himself (except with Reyna, of course, because he’s not stupid). At our last club meeting, he actually snarled at two different dogs who got in his space, instead of just backing away. I was actually rather proud of him. It seems as though a switch has flipped somewhere in his brain, because he’s suddenly responding to certain commands, when 4 months ago he would have given me a blank stare. Or a spin, his favorite response to any command he doesn’t know or doesn’t want to do. He’s also responding faster and moving faster, something I never would have expected. I’m even thinking about entering him in a Rally trial in July, because I think we might be able to get through the course in 4 minutes. And to top it all off, he actually jumped into the truck three times Saturday, all by himself. My little boy is growing up.

The Joy Of Multiples

When one kid gets a cold, they all get a cold. Or in our case, when one cat gets an eye problem, all the cats get it. But they takes turns. First, Per’la got it. Which is pretty normal, actually. Then Khar’pern got it. Then Loki got it. Per’la got rid of it. Loki still had it. Khar got rid of it. Belle got it. Loki still had it. Per’la got it again. Mikey got it. Loki still had it. Belle got rid of it. Per’la got rid of it. Mikey got rid of it. And yep, Loki still has it. And there’s really nothing to do for it except wait it out.

And Its Only Tuesday

This is just going to be one of those weeks. I’m in class all week, which means everything is a bit off, anyway, which doesn’t help.

Yesterday, I tried to find a bag of kibble for Reyna. Because of her allergies, she’s a bit limited in what she can eat (no lamb, beef, or chicken), and there aren’t many allergy formula kibbles out there. Nutro started making a venison and rice kibble a few months ago, and Reyna does really well with that. The problem is that PetSmart and Petco can’t keep it in stock. I checked with Nutro, and apparently their sales staff is horrible at forecasting – they didn’t think the venison kibble would do well, so they don’t have the supplies to keep making it. They won’t be distributing any more of the kibble until late March. So I spent about 3 hours on the phone and computer last night, trying to find an allergy kibble that is reasonably priced, easy to find in the area, and that Reyna might actually like. That’s not an easy combination. I’ve found a kibble that isn’t hideously expensive but does cost more than the Nutro, and I should be able to get it easily on a regular basis, but I’m not sure Reyna really likes it. I got samples of another type of kibble that she does like, but that is ridiculously expensive. So, we’ll start with the lower cost kibble and work our way up until we find something we can both agree on. Finding kibble just shouldn’t be this hard.

I don’t often think about it, but every now and then, it really bugs me that John managed to wreck my car. My poor little truck just wasn’t meant to be my primary vehicle. As if the crappy A/C and wonky heat aren’t enough, yesterday afternoon I started the truck and it was not happy. It was jumpy, ran rough, and did not want to go. After a few minutes of on and off, it went back to normal. This afternoon, it did the same thing. I called my mechanic and popped by his place to have some gas-drying stuff put in my tank. His initial thought is that I got a bad batch of gas last time I filled up. As I was leaving his shop, the truck started acting up again, and the check engine light came on. Not that I like that, but I do appreciate that it happened where the mechanic could immediately check it. Turns out one of the cylinders isn’t firing. Since I have to be in Cary the rest of the week, I’ll drop it off on Monday for him to fix.

I also finally got confirmation that my insurance is all screwed up. I changed this year from an FSA to a high-deductible plan with an HSA. Our HR guy told us in October that we wouldn’t be getting the grace period on our FSA this year, so contributions should have been going to my HSA since the first paycheck of the year. But it wasn’t, for some reason. Benefits finally managed to tell me that we are, indeed, getting the grace period for the FSA, and that I can’t start contributing to the HSA until April 1, regardless of when my FSA runs out. The company could have allowed us to roll our FSA into our HSA as of January 1, but they didn’t. Too much paperwork, apparently. This wouldn’t be a huge issue, except for that pesky nerve test and epidural I had last month. The HSA was supposed to cover my deductible for the year, but I won’t have access to it until April, and I can’t use it to pay for any thing that happens before April 1. Which means my portion of the test and epidural will come out of my pocket. That’s the kind of news I can really do without.

The only really good thing that’s happened this week is that I finally got my reimbursement back from University of Phoenix. It only took them two months to decide they should send me a check for my money. Just in time to pay for kibble and the truck...