Cynthia – Page 4

Levi Is Better

Fortunately Levi is doing a lot better. What a weight off my shoulders. I didn’t even realize how upset and worried and terrified I was last week, until now that I know he’s better.

I do worry that he is getting old. I know he’s going to get old. I know there’s nothing that can be done for it. No way to avoid it. I feel like Connor MacLeod on Highlander. He lives 1,000 years and the people he loves only live 100 years at best. But for me, I live 100 years and the dogs I love only live 10. Just less zeroes. Same concept.

Maybe there’s some type of dashboard scorecard out there for the length of a life. I dunno. But one quote always comes to mind from a book I read years ago. A Fantasy novel. “Death lasts so much longer than life.” It’s too true, and too depressing.

So anyway, Levi is doing better, which was the point of this post. 🙂 He’s grumping at the other dogs, being fun police, guarding bones, and acting himself. I hope to take him for a short walk tomorrow to see how he does. Just maybe a half a mile or so. To make him happy and get him out. Hopefully by next weekend we’ll be back at the park again. The park is way too quiet without Levi. Tatum and Jet don’t bark at anyone. Levi has to talk to every person he sees. And I much prefer a little barking on our walks.

I Don’t Get Agility Seminars

A while ago I posted that I went to a . And, well, I just have to post about me and agility seminars.

The format was okay, much like the Stacy Perdout-Goudy workshops I’ve been to here. She set up little course sequences then we all ran them and she’d tell us what she liked and didn’t like and gave us ideas to handle things differently.

For me and Jet, mostly she just told me to run with him more. Probably to speed him up. He’s not a speedy dog, because I didn’t train him to be fast. I trained him to be consistent, and getting 3DQs is first year of competition… I think we have the consistency I wanted.

So we went and we did what she said and we ran the courses, and I just wasn’t really that impressed. I think these types of seminars are more geared toward the fast border collies and other dogs that need some help. Me… I just can’t see the fraction of a second difference that it takes in cues to get a dog to go over an obstacle. I never could. That’s probably why I always had so much trouble running Chase, my border collie. I used to want speed… if you read back on this blog, there are many posts from 2004 and so that I said I wanted speed. But, I learned my lesson, because I know that I don’t have the timing for it, and so I no longer want speed. I want consistency and accuracy and that is what gets Qs.

So anyway, I think I’m not going to go to agility seminars anymore. For some reason obedience seminars make more sense to me. I can understand the training philosophy and see the differences in technique. And I prefer places with pa electricity that have heat. I’m tired of sitting in the cold all day watching agility seminars. Give me a comfy chair and a warm spot and I’m much more happy!

No More Parties for Levi

Last weekend my husband and I went to a friend’s house for a Holiday Party. It was fun, and since they have a couple of border collies, they like to have well mannered dogs come visit, too. So we piled Levi, Tatum and Jet into the van and we all went to the party together.

They had a great time. Levi spent most of the evening going from person to person begging like a goof. Then guarding the chew toys from the other dogs. All his favorite things. Jet and Tatum also had fun. Levi, however, well, Sunday, he was miserable. His back hurt a lot again. 🙁 He was walking with a roach back and a limp. And at night he was in so much pain he was shaking. My heart just broke that I caused him so much pain. It was my fault, since it’s my responsibility to keep him safe and healthy.

Over the next few days he did better only slowly. I worried like crazy. Fortunately, today, Friday, six days later, he’s better. He was getting better yesterday, too. He’s been on Tramadol for the pain. We stopped the rimadyl on Tuesday, thinking we may have to go to the big guns and use steroids. Today we took him into the vet and they gave him a steroid shot, which should help him feel better. He’s 12, it’s a balance between keeping him healthy and keeping him comfortable. He’s also on adequan, duralactin, glucosamine, and he’s going to start acupuncture next Monday. I’m doing everything I can think of for my boy.

So no more parties for Levi. Just a week ago he was going to the park with me, Jet and Tatum and we’d walk for a mile and three quarters. So we just have to work back up to that slowly. I worry about my old by. I know I have to be happy he’s 12 and has had a good long life, but Levi is my heart dog, and loosing him… I just don’t even want to think about it.

Holidays 2011

Well it’s time for the holidays again. Today is Thanksgiving. This picture was from last week. I’m on the left, my sister is on the right. We were making Marzipan with our family. We do it every year, it’s a family tradition. We have a good time and I love getting together with the family… the human family. 🙂 The dogs are not allowed to come, unfortunately. But the dogs get to do lots of fun things even if they don’t involve marzipan. Which is probably good since marzipan has so many calories.

The dogs got to go to the dog park this morning. I took Levi, Tatum, Jet, and even Chase. Though Chase is grumpy around other dogs so he doesn’t get to go much. Actually, I probably won’t take him again anytime soon. He thinks he wants to see other dogs, so he runs up to them, then after five seconds he growls at them and acts like he’s going to attack. So he got to be on the leash most of the walk. I wish he was more dog friendly but he’s just not. So he gets to do things that do not involve any other dogs.

I didn’t find any guitar chords at the park… no one was playing. It was kinda dreary today. The fall colors are all gone, and there’s no snow yet, so it’s in limbo. I’ll try to get some pictures up. But I am full of Thanksgiving Dinner (without the turkey since I’m vegetarian). And I think it’s time for bed!

A New Chair

Well, I took a risk and went out and got a chair. It’s not a new chair. In fact it’s about 20 years old. The lady said it’s be re-upholstered a couple of times, too.

I’ve been wanting a recliner since we moved our TV room upstairs. The room is too small for a couch, but we’ve really needed someplace else to sit. There are two of us humans in the house and sometimes we both like to sit on a chair instead of the mattress on the floor (yes there’s a mattress on the floor for the dogs, not a biggie. LOL).

Used furniture is always scary. Do you watch Big Bang Theory? Where they found the chair on the curb and something was moving in it? LOL that was a funny episode. So the chair is a bit dirty, hopefully I’ll get the gumption to find our little carpet cleaner and clean it up. But it’s in good shape and it’s comfy. It’s really pretty, too. The dogs were very interested in it when it came to our house. And it reclines, which I really super like! But it looks like it’s been well taken care of and it’s nice to have another chair in the TV room again. I’ve covered it with a sheet so that the dogs don’t ruin it.

We can’t really afford a $500 recliner, so this will be it for a while. I could always wear some nursing scrubs when I sit in it. The dogs don’t care. It smells different but I’m sure it’ll take on our own house smell pretty quickly. Hopefully not by being peed on by Muffit. 🙂