The Lynnster Zone

babbling since february 1997

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I Might Be Typing This in My Sleep, But Probably Not

Posted by Lynnster on June 15, 2009

Thursday was an odd day. First and foremost, it would have been my father’s 67th birthday, if he were alive.

The annual big Relay for Life event was in my hometown over the weekend, and the paper has been publishing the list of donations for luminarias as they come in for about the past month – donations made in memory of those who died from cancer or related illnesses, in honor of cancer survivors, and this year, in honor of caretakers. Well, Thursday was also the day that my father’s name appeared as one of those donated in memory of (by a relative of mine). Not so surprising, though somewhat ironic as far as what day it was.

The paper also publishes snippets of news from bygone days frequently – 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 75 years ago, and sometimes earlier. What was really kind of odd was that 50 years ago, on that same day, the paper showed him and a group of other young men from the county preparing to leave for Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon to attend that year’s Boys State session.

I don’t know. It was just kind of an odd day all around.

I want to thank everyone for the kind notes they’ve been leaving; I could never put into words how very much they are appreciated. There are several of you I have been meaning to e-mail personally for days now, but the kinds of hours I’ve been keeping, and time I’ve been spending lately scrambling around as I have trying to slow down this impending disaster – I sleep at weird times, and when I’m not asleep I’m usually snowed under, and my actual working schedule is usually overnights, so I’m usually awake when everyone else is not and vice versa. Except I also will just (when I’m not doing shift work) go for several hours, pass out for two or three or four hours, get up and go some more trying to get stuff done. But many of you will hear from me personally soon, I promise (and KathyT, I did e-mail you and hope you got it, sorry it took five days before I heard the voice mail, oops).

And thanks to many especially for the kind words about Dobie. He was here for so long, and still my “baby puppy” even when he was old and his health failing, and it’s still very hard to believe that he’s really gone. I have a very nice picture to share that my mom took at Christmas when I had to take him with me because of his failing condition, which has wound up being the last taken of so very many that were taken of him over fifteen years. But I can’t really look at it much yet, so I’ll save it for a day when I can.

I probably need to write some more about all the horrible stuff that’s going on and why things have disintegrated to the disastrous point they have, but I’m not really sure how to put it into words here because there’s really only so much I can say publicly – and for good reasons. But it sucks, because for those same reasons, I’ve sort of been stuck fighting this battle on my own almost, and with no one I could really be open with about the details other than my very closest family and friends.

But I will do all of that soon. Unfortunately a good bit of this week is going to be focused on probably selling what little I have left that is worth anything at all (not much, but a little) that is truly just mine – a few things that would have been, I guess you’d say, family heirloom-type stuff if I were leaving anything behind one day. Not that I’m likely going to have children or anything like that at this point, but you know – stuff I never dreamed I’d ever be forced to part with, not like this. I guess if I outlive my mom (doubtful), there’s still a houseful of family things – but nothing that’s just mine, except these few things it looks like I’m going to have to part with.

It’s not much – I guess that’s the worst joke of all about all this stuff, I’m not dealing with thousands upon thousands here and it’d probably be a whole lot easier to swallow if that were the case – but no, there’s only about a grand or two standing between me and complete disaster. Much less than 2K, really, more like about 1.5. That’s the part that really stinks, that in the grand scheme of things, it’s not really all that much. But the problem is now I’ve run out of time is all.

In trying to think things through – and coming to the conclusion there were really no more options anymore but the one thing I have tried for over a year now NOT to have to do – it’s occurred to me that no matter how tough things might be right now, that really doesn’t bother me nearly as much as thinking about how I’m going to feel about it all a year from now, or two years from now, or five or ten years from now – when presumably things will probably be better, but stuff that meant something to me – things bought with me in mind and given to me for very specific reasons – will be gone. And I just can’t even let myself think about all that right now.

Anyway, this week will be busy busy – and I need to get going now as it is, much to do and much to finish – but I’m going to try and keep at the blog again, even if it’s just stupid stuff. Aside from all the awfulness of late, there’s also some really funny stuff I’ve been saving up to share. And I’ll be trying to get some personal e-mailing done this week and next too, some of you I’d been meaning to touch base with anyway and either the constant need-to-do-this or constant passing out cold from exhaustion kept waylaying. So will speak to many of you soon, and will definitely be back here shortly, as soon as I wrap up one big project that has tied me up for months. ’til then…

Posted in a family thing, ancient history, blah, blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, friends are good, in memory of..., my luck sucks, my so-called life, west tennessee | Leave a Comment »

…

Posted by Lynnster on June 3, 2009

Well, I hemmed and hawed and sighed a while over it, and then I decided I really couldn’t go posting over there without posting over here, too, so… here I am. Just saying hi.

Things are… well, as bad as ever, to be honest. Worse, really. I’m sort of at the end of my rope phase, though I don’t really know what that means because, you know, what’s next? Been drowning a while, just not underwater completely yet, I guess.

I haven’t been writing for a while, really, because (A) there really hasn’t been that much interesting to write about; (B) I’m depressed enough as it is without having to read the hows and whys in black & white; and (C) out of respect for some of the members of my family who do occasionally visit here, I just don’t really want to hash out the gory details of it all on the blog. No parent really wants to know their child (no matter how old they are) is hungry, or frightened, or a lot of other things that are really much worse and it’s really just all better left in the unknown. As unpleasant as the last year and a half has been for me, it’s probably been a lot harder on those who care about me, especially one.

I’ve learned that I can eat on about a dollar a day, or less – that’s just luck, though, since I’ve never been much of an eater and rarely eat more than one meal a day anyway. I’m very tired of repeatedly being in the position of having absolutely no idea how anything’s getting paid this month – where I am again right now – other than rent, which is the one thing I do manage to make every month. For now.

It’s sort of a sick twist that I’m actually in a position where I could at least regain control of monthly living expenses again – if I wasn’t already so very far behind. I got bumped up to QA reviewer for one of the services I’ve been working for for a while now, which is a little more like a “real” job and is steady work, better pay, and something I can possibly eke out a living on – maybe not a great one, but enough – along with the little bits I bring here and there from this or that.

But again, unfortunately I’m so horrifically behind (and have probably paid for a couple of years’ worth of car payments and insurance payments in late fees, overdrafts, etc. just trying to get everything paid but never able to make it on time for months and months) – yeah, that’s still good news, the new work. But it really doesn’t make much of a difference right now when I’m so behind to begin with. If I could just get ahead, or on top of it all at least, for just one month – that would probably make all the difference in the world and I would actually be able to breathe again month to month, maybe. But that’s not likely going to happen, so I just struggle on.

I’m eligible for nothing, for this reason or that reason, whatever. I’ve appreciated well-meant suggestions from well-meaning folks about this or that over the last many months, but one thing I’ve learned in all this is I think there’s some that just don’t get it, it’s beyond a lot of people’s comprehension that one might have nothing.

Like this one suggestion I got about something that was “only $25 or so a week”. Well, that’s nice and all… if you have $25 a week to spare.

Cut off the Internet? Sure, for most that’s an “extra”. For me, it would mean zero income as opposed to the little I do bring in. Though I’ve come dangerously close a few times to losing that, too.

So yeah, I wish I could say things are better, but they’re not, and now you see why I don’t write much lately. It’s crappy enough living it, much less reading about it. I kind have avoided writing much about it (here or elsewhere) too because I’ve seen more of my friends losing jobs, or already bad situations getting worse, lately – and I don’t want to be more of a downer. But most of them will be fine. Especially one – I just know whatever’s next on the horizon there is gonna be great.

Me, I’m just here. That’s about all I know to say for now. See ya again soon.

P.S. Dobie, my 15 year old dog, left us on Good Friday. Not really ready to write about that yet, either, but probably will before too long.

Posted in blah, dobie is a dog, dogs, my so-called life | 20 Comments »

Merry Merry

Posted by Lynnster on December 25, 2008

I think this is the first time in my life I have ever been alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It won’t last – my sister couldn’t leave Nebraska until after work Wednesday, so Christmas for us is pushed back a day, my Christmas Eve will technically be tonight and Christmas Day tomorrow.  In fact, I’m on my way out of town shortly today to get that ball rolling.

Several days ago, I wrote about my frustration and sadness about not really being able to “participate” in Christmas for the second year in a row.  After I’d posted that, my godmother, who I love dearly, commented that it didn’t matter how many presents we had or did not have and that we would all still have a good Christmas and enjoy being with each other and laughing and having fun like usual, and well, she’s right, that’s all true.  But I still can’t help but be frustrated and sad that I couldn’t do much, and what Newscoma wrote the other day about her own Christmas pretty much hit the nail on the head for me too when it comes to Christmas:

This year is a lean, mean Christmas but I’ve gotten into the spirit to a degree. No, there isn’t any big ticket items. People are getting small gifts that I tried to put some meaning into. I’m a gifty person. I like seeing people’s faces when they open their presents. I’m weird.

That’s always been the fun for me as well, at least ever since I was old enough to do my own Christmas shopping.  You won’t find socks and underwear under the tree in our family – well, you will, but they’re the least important – we do gifts that others would probably think silly and certainly unconventional, but everybody gets stuff they really wanted (and some stuff they didn’t but are resigned to getting every year, like my brother-in-law getting sheep in various forms – a family in-joke) and we have a blast.  I like getting just the perfect things for people and seeing their faces when they open their presents, that’s the big thing for me.

And ever since my parents got divorced, my main priority has always been making sure my Mom gets the stuff she wanted.  And I couldn’t do much of either this year, and it depressed me.

As it turned out, I actually was a little better off than I thought I was.  I thought I only had one thing to give one person, and as I was getting things together getting ready to go out of town and kept finding things I’d forgotten about – including something my mother was supposed to have gotten for Christmas probably two or three years ago – I actually wound up with one gift for each person that will be at our family Christmas.  So I guess that’s better, but I’m still pretty frustrated and depressed about it all.

Really when it comes down to it, I’m about at the end of my rope in general.  Last week I spent three days in such depression, fear, and panic about just everything in general that when things improved just a little bit and I felt a little bit better, it was really concerning to me just how bad it had gotten.  It’s a little bit scary to get that far down.  A lot of those things that people will say things like, “I don’t know how he/she could have done that”, things I used to be able to say – I know why people do those things now.  I can tell you for a fact that if you get knocked down and desperate enough, things that may cross your mind, if only for a fleeting moment, are the kinds of things you never would have thought would do so.

But I don’t know, for some reason I’m still here, although sometimes I wonder if the only reason I haven’t just thrown up my hands and given up yet is because somebody’s got to take care of the pets, and if I weren’t here… well, the cats would probably be taken care of, but I know what would happen to my dogs, and it wouldn’t be what I would want.

So I just keep going, but I’m so tired of all the panic and anxiety and not knowing anything every month – how is this going to get paid, how is that going to get paid, how am I going to be able to eat next week, etc.  The car insurance and phone/Internet miraculously got paid this month – which the latter, you know, I’d probably do without too, but without Internet, then there’s NO income at all.

I still don’t know how the car payment’s getting made this month or catching up on the utility bill, and then January will come and all the panic just start’s all over again.  Right now I only have one for sure, every month, monthly check coming in and it will only cover either rent, car insurance, or car payment, so that’s what I consider my rent check.  The rest is pretty much all up in the air every month right now, which is just… yeah, panic-inducing, frustrating, and depressing.

But for a couple of days anyway, I’m just going to attempt to enjoy what there is of Christmas this year and put the rest behind me for a little while.  There will be plenty of time after Saturday for the panic and worrying again, so I’m going to see what little bit of Christmas spirit I can muster up and go with it.

Dobie is not doing very well at all and just had a bath today – which just made him all the more furious with me – my Mom doesn’t know it yet, but he’s coming to visit for Christmas too (thus the bath).  I’m hoping hanging out in a warm house with carpet and a bed to sleep in all by himself with me for a couple of nights, and some turkey and who knows what all else there will be, will perk him up a little bit, or at least make what I am fairly certain now are his last days a little nicer.  He hasn’t shown much interest in food lately, but I kind of expect he will be thrilled about the turkey and whatever scraps.  Sure, table scraps aren’t really good for dogs, but he’s old and he’s dying, as far as I’m concerned he can eat whatever he wants (and whatever he WILL eat).

It seems like this year has just been a never-ending cycle of bad news.  Times have been so tough lately and not just for me, seems like half of nearly everyone I know has been going through something or other – friends losing jobs recently, another recently finding out hers will be terminated at the end of the year, others losing family members here right at Christmas.  It’s just all got to get better sometime, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I hope everyone who stops by here had a really super nice Christmas.  Some of you I miss so much and hope to see in the coming months.  In the meantime, I am on my way in a couple of hours for my own Christmasing, scanty though it is this year.  See you again soon.

Posted in a family thing, blah, blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, friends are good, holidays, lynnster's zoo, my so-called life | 3 Comments »

A Little Clarification

Posted by Lynnster on December 15, 2008

Heh.  I just read my last post again and I should really clarify something.

I wrote:

I’m very tired of things like having to choose between buying groceries or putting gas in the car.  Or whether to buy food to eat, or buy paper towels and toilet tissue.

Paper towels normally wouldn’t be a necessity.  In fact, I went many years hardly buying paper towels at all and could usually live without them just fine.

Paper towels, however, are a necessity when you have a 14-year-old dog that has recently developed a rather extreme incontinence problem.

Yeah, it just gets better all the time.  ’til later…

Posted in blah, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo | 3 Comments »

The Usual, Unfortunately

Posted by Lynnster on December 15, 2008

Here’s yet another example of how rotten my luck is (and notably has been for some time).  I was getting ready to work on a project a couple of days ago that I badly needed to work on and finish before Christmas got much closer, and as I sat down at the computer all motivated and ready to get productive – the power went out.  Because at the house next door, they were chopping limbs off a tree… but had to get the utility company to kill my power line to do it.

The power was out for, I don’t know, seven or eight, maybe nine hours.  Just mine.  Not the house where the tree is.

In fact, the worker chopping the tree got through about 3:45, and had made several calls, but over two hours later, the utility company had yet to come back and put the (live) line back up.  So I called them too.  They finally showed up after 7 p.m., and by then it was really too late to do anything.

There’s something else I need to get done, but I need a large shipment of (free) Priority Mail boxes from the postal service to be able to do it.  I’ve been waiting a while.  I realize it’s the Christmas season and all with the mail, but just yet another monkey wrench thrown my way.  At this point, even though I badly need to get this done, I’m thinking maybe I’m better off waiting until after Christmas anyway.  Maybe people will have more money to spend on stuff they want but don’t necessarily need (which is what this project mainly consists of) by then.

In any case, I just can’t really catch a break lately.  There’s always something somewhere throwing a monkey wrench into everything.

I applied for a couple of jobs recently.  The very next week, both organizations announced major layoffs and a hiring freeze.

I’m very tired of things like having to choose between buying groceries or putting gas in the car.  Or whether to buy food to eat, or buy paper towels and toilet tissue.

It’s too bad I have to buy groceries at all, since it seems like nearly all the things I have to buy that are necessities have gone up 75-100% practically in the last few months.  Some of them have even gone up that much – yet the packaging has gotten smaller, there’s less of whatever it is in the package.  Other stuff is the same price but now, like, 11 ounces of whatever instead of 16.

Seems like I’ve been saying for months when will this all end?  Seems like it’s not going to.

People close to me will help, but by the time I’ve gotten another round or two of groceries and other necessities or bills paid, there’s nothing left and I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to make $1.49 or so stretch out for weeks again.  I need to put gas in the car again later this week and I’m thinking, OK, now how am I going to do that?

I eat maybe three, four times a week.  I know that’s not good.  But I do things like last week when I made the mistake, after having craved it for days and being hungry as heck anyway, of spending a little extra (less than ten bucks) on a spaghetti dinner from a fave joint around here.  Now I’m wishing I hadn’t and had that ten bucks back.

I have cut back virtually everything, pretty much, until there is no more.  The utilities are almost two months behind again, as that’s pretty much stayed for months now – it’ll get paid somehow.  I wouldn’t have Internet anymore I suppose, except since that’s my sole source of income I can’t very well not have that – of course if the utilities get cut off – well, you know.

Christmas?  I don’t get to participate in Christmas for the second year in a row.  I mean, we’ll have it, and it’ll be fine and nice and all that.  But I can’t buy anything for anyone, and just be opening presents I’ll wish nobody would have bought me since I can’t do anything myself.  I do have one thing for my sister that I just happened to wind up with, but I didn’t really intentionally go out and get it as a Christmas gift.  That’ll be it.

I’ve built up some residual recurring income.  It’s small now, but it will get better.  It’s just stuff that takes some time to grow and is going to continue to.  But it’s not going to solve any big problems right away, that’s for sure.

I do some work but there are issues with that too.  Always issues.  I’m actually constantly working, almost around the clock, sleep here and there when I finally crash, get up and get to work on something else again.  It’s some income, but not enough.  Working on other things too but again, more stuff that’s going to take time for anything to come of it.

I’m just really, really tired of it all.  Sorry.  I probably wouldn’t read here anymore for all the repetitive doom and gloom there’s been either.

Dobie is in such decline that I don’t really think we have much longer.  He is so frail and skinny now, it just breaks my heart.  And that in itself – him getting so frail and thin and pitiful, as well as blind – has posed all kinds of new problems, like today when he got stuck somewhere I wasn’t sure for a while I was going to be able to get him out of.  Last week he got a foot and claw stuck in the old furnace grill and I wasn’t sure I was going to get him loose from that either.  I keep thinking what if he does something like that sometime when I’m (rarely as I am) away from home and is stuck like that for hours?

He and the only other extremely elderly pet left are really throwing me for a loop.  Neither of them are eating as much as they should, although the cat is really doing all right otherwise for her 17 or so years.  It takes her hours to eat when she does eat, though, and she spends most of her time in there talking to her food.  Which is kind of funny, yes, but she’s always had this habit of talking to inanimate objects, starting with a roll of duct tape that was on the floor once years ago.

I always was big into Christmas.  I was thinking the other day of how nice it always used to be between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We’d have the tree up and on every night, and my parents had all this Christmas music on a couple of reel-to-reel tapes that were usually playing every night, and I’d just hang out laying with my head under the Christmas tree listening to music and looking at the lights and ornaments most every night.

Back when people used to have time to enjoy stuff like that, anyway.

I’d do the same at my grandmother’s house.  I remember what all the Christmas decorations she used to pull out every year looked like – probably because I was always helping get them out and put them up – even though I haven’t seen most of them in 25 years.  I guess my aunt still has most of them, I don’t know.  I don’t think there’s really anything I wish I had of all that stuff, except for maybe the little lighted Christmas trees that probably actually originally belonged to my great-grandmother.  There were two of them – one was silver and one was green – they weren’t anything special, just aluminum or tin with a light inside, and colored cellophane or something that made them look like they had lights on them.  Probably from the Fifties or Forties, maybe earlier.  They always sat on the end tables in my grandmother’s living room which, before that, was my great-grandmother’s living room.

I’m older now than my mother was when I left home for college.  Have I already written that here before?  I can’t remember.

So, enough joy and good will to men from me for now.  Maybe sometime I’ll have something better or funny to write about, there just isn’t lately or I’m too busy anyway.

I was about to write that at least Tojo has been staying mostly out of trouble lately, but I just reached over to move him as he was standing over Maggie looking like he was about to jump on her (again), and he bit me (not hard).  So there’s that, too.

Posted in a family thing, ancient history, blah, cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, getting older sucks, holidays, lynnster's zoo, my luck sucks, my so-called life, neighborhood rants, the economy sucks | 6 Comments »

Here We Go Again

Posted by Lynnster on September 26, 2008

Things will get back to “normal” here soon, September has been the busiest and craziest month full of stuff and I am real annoyed about not having had time to get back to things, especially the music blog because I’ve got a couple of big announcements to make.  But hopefully next week.

My mom’s 20+ year old cat Snow – the one who took a little vacation this summer for a couple of weeks and scared us to death – died quietly in her sleep almost two weeks ago.  So it had been a rough month already.

Then this morning my fluffy white angel left us.  He was about 17 years old, so not all that unexpected, but I would have liked to have had a little more of a break after his buddy Schuyler, who hasn’t even been gone two months yet, and Miss Snow.  And of course Lulu, my Beagle-Dachshund, earlier in the summer and Rocky earlier this year.

I know I was very fortunate to have had these last eight years with him because, for one thing, he was actually almost near death when I took him in in 2000, when he had to have basically a facelift because some dog or cat had gotten hold of him outdoors and nearly torn one side of his face off.  Once his fur grew back, you never really could tell what had happened and he was all gorgeous and white and fluffy once again.

And he almost died again two or three years after that when he stopped eating and developed fatty liver disease.  For a couple of weeks he was barely conscious, and I babied him and force-fed him food, water, and medicine from the vet until he finally started getting better again and eating on his own.  I can tell you in no uncertain terms that once he started staying more conscious and alert again and improving, that whole force-feeding thing did NOT go over too well, and he probably started eating on his own again not so much out of really wanting to eat, but wanting me to cut that foolishness out and stop bothering him with it.

And we kind of just went through that again this week on a lesser level with me trying to get water in him to keep him hydrated and comfortable.  He was so sick, but not so sick that he wasn’t getting mad at me for repeatedly bothering him with that nursing kitten baby bottle full of water.

Anyway, I know we were fortunate to have had eight pretty good years together and especially considering the two other times he almost died, which were now both so long ago.

Which now leaves me with just the two elderly ones – Dobie will be 14 in November, which is really old for a bigger dog, and Little the cat at 16 or 17 (I can never remember).  Both of whom already had frightening stroke-like episodes this summer, but are basically doing fine.

Though Maggie, the black and white cat on my shoulder above, is not so young herself now at 11, and Missy’s not too far behind her in years now.  Everybody here’s old now, really, except the “puppies” and Quincy and Tojo… and Quincy is approaching middle cat age at this point too.

I feel pretty old today too.  2008’s been a pretty exhausting year, in lots of ways.

I’ll be taking Audi up to Mom’s tomorrow, and lay him to rest in her gorgeous back yard next to his buddy Schuyler, and Miss Snow.  I’m so sorry now that I didn’t take Rocky and Lulu up there too, and Audi’s old best friend my best cat ever, who was also old when he left us and has been gone several years now.

My mom saw a black cat with green eyes around the neighborhood that she had never seen before shortly after Schuyler left us.  It would be really weird if she started seeing white cats she’d never seen before too, fluffy or short-haired either one, or both.  Or all three, a black cat and two white cats.  That would be really weird.

I will miss my fluffy angel kitty.  He rested all morning curled up in my arm with his head on my shoulder while I slept, and I woke up again right when the time came, and he left just like that, curled up with his head on my shoulder.

Now Tojo’s out here this afternoon aggravating everyone else, like most days.  Life goes on.

Posted in * cat photos, cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, in memory of..., lynnster's zoo, updates to the zone | 13 Comments »

News from the Nursing Home

Posted by Lynnster on August 3, 2008

Living with an elderly cat in decline has certainly become a challenge lately. Of course, there’s also the fact that I have two more elderly cats who are doing okay for now, but Schuyler, my black cat, is presenting all kinds of new challenges lately.

I previously mentioned the recent loss of normal toilet habits. That’s gotten better in some ways. We now have this routine where I think he may be about to go, so about forty times a day, I pick him up and we go to the litter box, and about three or four of those times, we’ll have success. The rest of the time he just jumps out because no, he doesn’t need to go.

Or then we’ll have an episode like we did a few minutes ago, where we made it to the litter box and had a successful pee, and then a very short time he later he started acting like he needed to go again. So off we went again, and immediately he jumped out of the box. And then about five minutes later had an accident in the living room.

I would think he’s getting senile, but he’s apparently mostly with it. In fact, most times that I’m either not paying attention or asleep and he can’t make it to the litter box in time (honestly, I don’t know whether he’s even trying to anymore), he’s picked a ceramic bowl that used to hold keys and whatnot and really hasn’t been in use in some time to go in. Which is fine. Bowls can be washed, and that’s way better than a lot of places he could be going. And he’s going there every time, so I can’t complain too much about that.

Otherwise, he really seems to be doing okay and has even put on just a little bit of weight, which is not much considering he’s so pitifully thin and he was always such a big, stocky, strapping boy. He still purrs constantly, and he still keeps busy cleaning everyone else as well as himself (I’ve always called him my “hairdresser cat”). He’s eating better and keeping it down and other things have improved.

So really, we’re doing okay, but the forty or fifty times a day trips to the litter box is about to wear me out. I’m not going to complain much though; obviously we’ve been blessed with more time than I thought we had a few weeks ago.

And speaking of elderly cats with issues, Little has improved to the point of being on the verge of getting fat again (longtime friends and family will remember she used to look like a little basketball years ago). And the very strange sweet and lovable and clingy disposition that developed after her stroke-like episode (with the vestibular disease) a month and half ago – well, that’s all gone. She’s back to her normal crabby self and hissing at everyone in her path all the time.

With all that’s gone on this year with Rocky and Lulu’s illnesses and then deaths, Dobie and Little’s episodes with the vestibular disease, and now Schuyler and his particular challenges, I don’t know what I would have done if I was not working at home these days. We wouldn’t have been able to manage all this at all.

I’m also happy to report we are finally totally flea-free (or at least almost), no thanks to Frontline Plus. I keep reading where people are concerned that the company changed the formula because so many people are having such bad luck with it now and not killing fleas as it once did, and then there’s always the possibility, I guess, that the fleas are just becoming immune to it, but it no longer works here, I can tell you that; and, I believe Frontline Top Spot works better – or at least it seemed to last I used it. We have been using all that stuff since it first started coming out, from Program to Advantage to Frontline and then Frontline Plus, and then I was able to get by for a few years with some over-the-counter stuff and only on the dogs before the dogs next door moved in. Our experience with Frontline Plus this year was a nightmare, whereas going back to Advantage a month later, we had peace within a week, if even that long. Between that and the original Dawn dish liquid flea traps (still working, I’m going to keep one down 365 days a year now whether I see a flea or not), we’ve had super success. Pooh on Frontline Plus.

And Tojo the psycho kitty’s been out here for about twenty minutes now without causing any chaos or making anybody mad. He’s getting better. Sometimes.

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, getting older sucks, lynnster's zoo | Leave a Comment »

Yuck

Posted by Lynnster on July 28, 2008

“What am I stepping in?”

Definitely one of my least favorite phrases to utter while walking around the house.

(PS Yep – new music blog here.)

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo, my so-called life | Leave a Comment »

Dobie’s New Little Friend

Posted by Lynnster on July 25, 2008

Not been a real good week for animal issues, both near and not so near to me, like one particularly horrible issue of animal cruelty noted in one of my most recent posts.

This next was a little bit closer.

One afternoon last week, Dobie and the young demon spawn and I were outside on one of our usual afternoon breaks in the back yard. There was a sudden commotion at the back fence with all the dogs barking like mad, so I walked back there to see what was up.

And found a puppy, who was of course barking right back at them. I had heard him, but not seen him before. He, I’m sure, belonged to a young couple with a kid (or two, I’m not sure how many kids they have) who has lived in one section of that house for some time now. I figured he was theirs because the husband asked me if I knew anyone who had any puppies a while back.

My four younger dingbats finally got bored with barking at him and I rounded them up and sent them back inside, but Dobie wouldn’t budge from the fence. He’d bark. The puppy would bark back.

He was the cutest little thing, probably about four or five months old. Definitely was going to grow up to be a smaller dog than Dobie, but a few things about him reminded me a lot of when Dobie was a puppy, especially his head and his ears. Pretty much the same goofy looking floppy triangular ears, and a too big for his face clown nose, same as Dobie.

A little darker in color than Dobie; actually he was about the same color one of Dobie’s brothers who I called Jaws had been, who had been such an odd darker shade, more brown but kind of strange, that he was almost a dark green. The puppy was was brown and lighter, but sort of in that same odd shade zone.

I really wanted to get back inside but Dobie just wouldn’t budge, and I finally gave up trying for a while. They just stood and barked at each other for a while.

Then this game of sorts started between the two of them. The puppy would edge up closer and closer to the fence. Then Dobie would bark, and the puppy would take off running away and go zoom around the yard two or three times, then run right back up to the fence and start edging slooooowly up closer again, and the cycle would start anew.

This must have gone on for 20, 30 minutes, maybe longer. Even though I’d wanted to go in, I didn’t mind too much because Dobie was obviously having fun (though he wouldn’t want anyone to know that), and being 14 years old and having slowed down tremendously the last several years, he doesn’t get a lot of “fun” and “playtime” anymore, especially since his young nephews and niece are such attention hogs.

The ease-up-then-run-away-when-Dobie-barks-and-come-back-again game just went on and on, and I laughed and laughed. And kinda got teary-eyed too, several times. I didn’t mind staying out anymore, I was glad he was obviously having fun, my old guy.

Toward the end of our time out there the puppy had stopped the running away and was obviously no longer terribly concerned about Dobie – not surprising, because that’s usually what happens. Dobie might scare another animal for a minute or two but it doesn’t take long for them to realize he’s nowhere on the scale of being a threat. Having been the only puppy among three older dogs the first couple of years of his life and having had a mother who would only let him eat when she decided he could for the first ten years of his life – well, Dobie’s just never really gotten much respect. The four young goofballs who wound up (begrudgingly) as his charges when their mama died kind of defer to him as an elder, but they’re never frightened of him (I think I saw Petey look concerned all of once when Dobie was mad at him about something), and Dobie’s never been anywhere even remotely close to being an Alpha.

Anyway, so we hung out at the fence a little while longer and the little puppy even came closer and I petted him a little bit. He was really sweet and friendly and, you know, just full of puppy-ness.

It crossed my mind at the time that it was a little worrisome that apparently his owners were just letting him run around – that yard is not fenced in at all, other than the neighboring fences at the back. There’s no enclosure, and he was just running free.

I think the run-away-zooming-around game must have just completely worn me and Dobie both out just watching the puppy zoom around the yard over and over and OVER for as long as he did. I was getting really tired, and Dobie was either tired too or just bored with it all, so when I made a move to head back to the house, Dobie came along this time and we left our new little friend at the fence. And came in and both took a very long nap.

I had to call my mom a couple of days later and tell her about Dobie’s new friend, and we just laughed and laughed some more. We didn’t see him any more the rest of the week, really, except for one day when we were all out and the puppy was out and way off to side of their house, but Dobie and the four dingalings could see him so they all barked at each other for a little bit, and then we came back in.

Monday morning, we went out at our usual time for the first potty break of the day. There was another commotion at the back fence, so I walked over to see what was going on.

The young ones have always had a habit of barking at inanimate objects that were not previously there before, whether in our yard or in the neighbors’ yards where they can see; in fact, my next door neighbor just a few days ago started parking her car further down the drive and right next to our side fence, so they barked at the car the first night it was there. Dobie’s never really done that habitually like they do, but he will sometimes.

So I got back to the back fence to see what they were barking at. And then I saw it, though it took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at.

Just a foot or so from my fence, there was a stick, about the size of a croquet stake, sticking up out of the ground, with a small bunch of yellow plastic flowers tied to it. And a small blue plastic dog food and water bowl placed at the bottom. That bowl’s what really took me a minute to register what I was seeing.

I just burst into tears, couldn’t help it. Daisy and Buster and Bruiser and Petey finally got bored with it, as they usually do with inanimate objects that weren’t wherever they are previously, and went elsewhere.

Dobie wouldn’t budge again. Just kept standing there barking at it with his increasingly hoarse as he gets older bark.

And then it occurred to me that he apparently knew, that he wasn’t just barking because they were previously-not-there objects. So then I started crying even harder, at which point I knew without a doubt that he knew the puppy was dead and buried there.

I don’t know what happened, though I would guess he probably either got run over by a car or was killed by one or a pack of the roaming dogs I sometimes see around. It wouldn’t have taken much, he was so little. I’ve got cats bigger than he was.

And I was so heartbroken. Because of the needless loss. Because my old dog that I helped his mama birth, who probably doesn’t have all that much time left, had such a nice day the other day messing around with that silly puppy zooming all over the yard. And now here his new little friend had gotten run over or killed somehow, and probably because he’d been left to run around unattended. And I know Dobie knew, and that broke my heart too.

Dogs – and cats – know stuff. When Rocky was dying – Rocky who’d always been “Dobie’s cat” – Dobie laid down next to him and stayed there until 20 or 30 minutes after he was gone.

They don’t forget things; well, most of them. The four young’ns were really too young to remember their mama very much and I don’t know that they do. But when I mention Lucy or Dez or Batman or Dare or Molly or Satin, the young one’s mama & even though she wasn’t with us but for about eight or nine months – any of the cats and dogs we have lost since Dobie was born nearly 14 years ago – there is recognition in Dobie’s eyes.

And especially if I bring up his mama, who has been gone about four years now. I call everyone “baby” from time to time, but he knows when I’m talking about his mama, whose name really was Baby. And he looks sad, and I wind up crying enough for both of us.

But I know he knew where the puppy was. Maybe it was the scent, even buried in the ground, but I know he know he knew.

I guess otherwise I would have never known what happened, but I can hardly stand to see that tiny little grave back there, right almost up against my fence. I’ve avoided going back that way most of the week. It just makes me so sad to see it.

God, this has just been an awful year, though I guess it makes sense since I have/had so many all reaching elderly stage at the same time. Losing Rocky, losing Lulu the Beagle, Dobie and Little both having their freaky stroke-like episodes at almost the same time while Lula was still sick. Now Schuyler, my formerly big and strong black cat now just skin and bones and weighing nothing; it’s coming, it’s just a matter of when.

I’m so tired.

(PS I have to add this because it’s kind of funny in a not funny but really funny sorta way. In Schuyler’s decline, one thing that has happened is that he is not controlling his bowels very well; he just can’t make it to the litter box most of the time, though in recent days I have been able to see it coming and grab him and get him there.

Unfortunately one of the spots he goes to the most is a place where Audi is, more often than not, laying around. Can I just say of all the cats in the house, the one I would like LEAST for Schuyler to be pooping on is my VERY long-haired white cat?!?!?!

Cleanup has been excruciating. Oddly enough, Audi doesn’t seem to mind or notice – I don’t know why!!! He’s old too, 16 or 17, maybe he’s gotten senile and just doesn’t care. Ugh.

We’ve gone a few days now, though, without Schuyler pooping on Audi so, fingers crossed. Heh.)

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, in memory of..., lynnster's zoo, sad stuff | 2 Comments »

Throwing Them to a Pack of Hungry Wolves or Lions Would Be Well Deserved (Even Though You Can’t Do That)

Posted by Lynnster on July 24, 2008

A word of warning – this is a particularly vile and horrific tale of an episode of animal cruelty, so don’t go on to the next paragraph if you don’t want to. I usually try to avoid reading such things when I run across them because they break my heart and I can’t take it, but it was too late and my brain had already registered it when I came upon this one in my hometown newspaper. I would link to the story (which was really just a news brief from the sheriff’s report of that date), but the paper requires registration/subscription for most such things so there’s no point in me linking it.

The Henry County Sheriff’s Department was called out to a home in Buchanan, Tennessee – a community down by Kentucky Lake and a few miles outside of my hometown of Paris – about the death of a man’s dog. A teenager gave the Sheriff’s Department the information that the nine-month-old Golden Retriever puppy had been tied to a tree and attacked and killed by a pit bull.

The report said three suspects were spoken to, all of whom denied involvement (of course), but one of them was the owner of the suspect pit bull, and the puppy was found dead in the woods behind that suspect’s home. Although the paper didn’t say, due to the way the report was worded and the fact that the information was supplied by a teenager, I am kind of assuming the “three suspects” were probably also young people.

Well, goodness knows since I’m such a softie for animals anyway, I’m horrified, and who in their right mind wouldn’t be? It was a nine-month old puppy, for goodness’ sakes. It was still basically a BABY. Close to fully grown, yes, but still a very young dog, basically a baby dog.

I look at this old and in failing health 14-year-old clown of a dog underneath my desk right now, who I literally helped birth, and these four dingalings running around my house who I would have also birthed four years ago if their mama hadn’t gone into labor while I was at work. And then I think of that poor little nine-month-old baby – a Golden Retriever, for the love of whatever, one of the sweetest, most gentle breeds on the planet!! – who must have spent his last moments horrifically terrified and in an incredible amount of pain. For NO good reason except for the entertainment and the sick whims of some people who obviously need some very serious psychological help.

And don’t get me wrong, there’s no “pit bull outrage” here. It’s not that pit bull’s fault, it’s the fault of whoever its owner or owners are and the fault of those involved in this horrible act of violence. You won’t see me calling for the outlawing of pit bulls – if I had children, I would have no hesitation about letting them be around The Most Famous Pit Bull in Nashville (I won’t link, we all know who I’m talking about). Supervised, of course, but then I’m not going to let any young child of mine be around ANY dog fully unsupervised. I myself would gladly share a bed or a couch with TMFPBIN. She’s a lovely dog and much more well mannered than my brats.

Granted, pit bulls are a breed that are capable of severe damage or worse but heck, so is Dobie – and it would be more than a little overconfident and a reach to even just state that Dobie would be the Forrest Gump of “killer dogs”. I’ve seen him make mincemeat out of pigs ears and fleece chewmen, but only in the case of someone trying to hurt or kill me might his natural instinct kick in to attack, and even then the amount of damage he might cause is questionable if not totally non-existent.

My young ones are a little more in touch with their instincts about being protective – well, except Daisy because she’s a girl and never has needed to be with her three bumbling brothers and Uncle Dobie around, and Bruiser’s actual instincts in that direction are pretty debatable too. When he growls, he doesn’t know what he’s growling about, he’s only growling because his brothers are. But let another dog be in their territory of the back yard (even ones that they’ve seen outside their back yard and could care less about), or were someone to be trying to hurt me or Daisy, yeah, they’d go after them.

Still, Petey is my only real fighter and the only one capable of anything at all. I’ve had my hand right in the middle of things when Bruiser and Buster were fighting with another dog, and right in the middle of their TEETH at the time, and I can tell you there’s no real danger there with those two.

Not to mention the fact they all live with cats who are much smaller than they are. Petey could SIT on little Missy and kill her, but he’s also the one that is most frequently scared to death of the prospect of being about to get beaten up by Audi the white cat, who regularly tires of all their BS and goes after them. And doesn’t have any front claws.

But my real point here is ANY dog can be trained to be vicious and mean and attack and kill, and this episode with this poor puppy in Buchanan was just not this pit bull’s fault. It’s the sick person or people who trained that dog to be that way, and the fault of the disgustingly sick persons involved in this episode who got their kicks out of orchestrating it.

Granted, larger dogs by virtue of their size and general makeup are capable of causing more damage, but you can train a poodle or a Yorkie to be vicious and bite and attack. The dogs I have been most scared by in my life were the Chihuahua who lived next door when I was small, who was just plain mean (though not trained that way by her elderly owners, she was just mean, period) and a former co-worker’s two Schnauzers, who were known to sink their teeth into the ankles of people who unfortunately turned their backs on them. One would do better to be more wary of the small breeds than worrying about most big dogs; it’s the little ones you’ve gotta watch out for. And ANY dog is liable to have a negative reaction if they are surprised or messed with.

But this one that is suspected of killing that poor little Golden Retriever baby obviously had been trained to attack and kill, which is wholly the fault of the sick people responsible for training it that way and for putting that puppy in that position.

Reading about it will likely give me nightmares for a long time to come; I am having difficulty shaking the image from my head, knowing how terrified and in how much pain that poor dog must have been in. But what probably bothers me even more is that I fear this episode will wind up not further investigated and fully prosecuted dependent upon the results of the investigation, and basically swept under the rug.

From what was reported in the paper, I think the evidence is already pretty much NOT in the suspects favor, and there are animal cruelty felony laws in this state and – at the very least – I think those responsible (or their families, if they’re minors) should be subject to the maximum fines, and those responsible ordered into strict psychological counseling, both of which are possibilities under current Tennessee animal cruelty laws.

Like I said, I don’t know for certain if the suspects in the case are teenagers or young people, though I suspect they are. And we all know of the tremendous evidence collected over the years that serial killers and other violent criminals often have a past history of animal abuse in youth.

If it were up to me, I think I’d probably just as soon tie the three to some trees and let a pack of wild and hungry bears or wolves or lions or tigers at ‘em. I’m not sure if people who would do such a horrible thing deserve much better than that.

Or at the very least (and obviously more reasonable and no more killing involved), the same scenario under the care of an expert animal trainer. Let those responsible feel the terror that that nine-month-old puppy felt in its last moments on earth, even if they’re going to get to be untied and live to tell about it another day.

In any case, I’m just sick about this and sick that people that live in my home county could be capable of such a horrific and vile act – my home county which used to be a place where nobody ever locked their doors or their cars before meth addiction became epidemic in rural West Tennessee and the meth heads started stealing everything they could get their hands on. It just makes me sick.

I really do hope the Henry County Sheriff’s Department will fully and truly investigate the case, and will fully prosecute it if they can. Or if that doesn’t work, I hope the puppy’s owner will take those suspects and/or their families to civil court and sue them for everything they’ve got and win, and that court-ordered psychological counseling will be a part of it.

It shouldn’t be a case of “oh, well, they just killed a dog”. At the very, very least, these people responsible are seriously mentally ill and need help. I hope they get it and I hope this case doesn’t just get swept under the proverbial rug.

And maybe if spmething does get done about the case, I can stop thinking several times a day, every single day, about and being horrified and sick to my stomach over what that poor terrified little puppy, who was still basically a baby, must have gone through. ‘Cause right now I am having a horrific episode of my own, remembering what I read in that in that article over and over again.

Petey, around four or five months:

Daisy, around four or five months:

Dobie, around four or five months:

I just can’t even imagine the terror. Nor do I want to. That Golden Retriever puppy was only a little older than they were when these were taken, and I just can’t even imagine the horror.

Posted in * dog photos, animal cruelty, cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, in my head, lynnster's zoo, outraged, simply horrified, west tennessee | Leave a Comment »

Ladies Who Lunch

Posted by Lynnster on June 29, 2008

So today I met up with KathyT, her sister, and her youngest daughter for Huey Burgers (except Melissa had the Huey’s Club, the rest of us had the original Huey Burgers) and just had a fabulous time visiting with them. It’s always great to see Kathy, and her sister Karen is just delightful and funny as well. Melissa’s a really cool kid and is going home with a huge trophy – and is also getting her braces off soon, I hear. (Man, I remember that was one of the best days of my life, getting those things off for good after three long years.)

They had thought about going to Graceland but had decided not to, but they wanted to go to Mississippi since Karen and Melissa had never been, so that was a sort of easily solved two birds killed with one stone. I hopped into the van with them after lunch and we took off down Bellevue, which becomes Elvis Presley Blvd. and then becomes just plain old Highway 51 at the Tennessee-Mississippi state line. (Well, I guess it’s always Highway 51 anyway, but you know what I mean.)

So yeah, we went to Southaven and then even on down into Horn Lake, where Kathy bought a new headlight and the cute guy at Advance Auto Parts installed it for her even though he really didn’t want to.

Then we came back to Memphis, having driven past Graceland on the way down, but since it’s on that side of the road coming back – yeah, we pulled into the pull-off and got out and walked around the wall and gates a bit. Karen took a picture of me and Kathy and Melissa under the National Register of Historic Places sign that I hope will be so bad (because it no doubt will be of me, they always are) that Kathy won’t put it up on her blog. (Haha, just kidding… I think.) And Kathy took a bunch of pics of some of the graffiti on the wall.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun hanging out with them and thanks once again to Kathy for lunch & the company, I had a great time. And my dogs thank her profusely since virtually none of us finished our entire burger/sandwich or fries (I almost ate my whole Huey Burger but not quite), so Kathy sent me home with a literal doggie bag LOADED with french fries and what probably amounted to almost one entire Huey Burger or almost. It was a feeding frenzy the likes of which you usually only see in the wild on the Discovery Channel, Dobie almost took one or two of my fingers off.

What was really funny, though, was Daisy was the only one smart enough to figure out what I’d brought home in the box I was holding when I walked in the door. The boys were completely clueless (*rolls eyes*).

It was a gorgeous day in Memphis today, and since I was in the neighborhood I drove by my buddy Joey’s house thinking if they were outside I’d stop and say hey. But they weren’t, so I just headed on home after a stop off for needed Krogering.

By the way, I actually have a piece of Graceland in my possession – a piece of rock/stone that I think came from a walkway, I don’t think it came from the wall. My mom wound up with it when she was down here in college, I think a friend of hers actually did the actual deed, but yeah, it’s a piece of Graceland circa around 1961-63. Heh.

Posted in blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, friends are good, fun with food, memphis, travelin', west tennessee | 1 Comment »

Ancient

Posted by Lynnster on June 25, 2008

So I’m trying to get caught up this week on some things that have been waiting to be done for months, so that I can move on to other stuff I need to get to work on and not still have all those pushed-aside projects hanging over my head on the back burner.

In the process, I discovered an old post about one of my cats that shocked me because I had NO idea this cat had been here this long (since 2000) or is as old as he is.  I know how old he is (now) because I know where he came from.  And that means one of my other cats, whose history prior to winding up with me I don’t know, is about the same age.

Which means they are both about 16, and thus the same age as Little, who is 16 or 17 and who recently had a bout of old age-related illness, as did my elderly dog, Dobie.

Anyway, wow.  I need to try to get a pic of the three of them together ’cause lately they are all hanging out in the same spot (but aren’t right this moment)… I feel like I need to put little kitty rocking chairs there.  Signing off from the Old Folks Home…

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo | Leave a Comment »

It Works, It Really Works: Dawn Dish Liquid & Fleas

Posted by Lynnster on June 22, 2008

I’ve been reading for years about Dawn dishwashing liquid (the original, not the “new” kind) and its ability to get rid of fleas and just kind of went “ehhh” about it.  Not that I didn’t believe it worked at all, I just figured it probably didn’t work as well as people claimed it did.

I was so wrong.

We have had an awful time with fleas this year – which makes me want to cry because for years we were flea-less until the neighbor dogs moved in a couple of years ago, but anyway – this year has been the worst ever, and I don’t think Frontline is working as well as it used to, though it does seem to finally be working, or at least I think I’m finally seeing a dent in the cycle because most of the fleas I’m seeing now are juvenile and baby ones (heh, that sounds funny).

I’ve been reading a lot lately where people are saying Frontline Plus is no longer working, or works for a week and quits, or suggesting going back to Advantage a while and then reattempting Frontline, or postulating that the fleas are gaining immunity towards all of that type stuff.  One of the statements I see frequently I tend to agree with most – Frontline Plus just does not seem to work as well as Frontline Top Spot.  I do think the cycle is breaking, but it’s certainly not with the speed and severity that Frontline Top Spot always had.

In any case – before I get off topic any further – we’ve just had a time this year and among some other things I’ve been trying, and trying to avoid spending any more than the megabucks I finally had to cough up for Frontline and other measures, I finally decided to see if the Dawn legend really worked.  It does!

My flea traps are drowning a number of those suckers nightly, all for the cost of a bottle of original Dawn dish liquid (a whole 96 cents at Wal-Mart right now).  I have played around and tried a few different things now with it all (including another dishwashing liquid) and this method seems to work the best and attract the most fleas to drown.  You need:

  1. Said bottle of original Dawn dishwashing liquid detergent.  Not the now-regular Ultra or anything else.  Just plain old original blue Dawn.
  2. A shallow bowl of water, preferably white.  You can use clear ones, but the white bowls seem to attract them more.  If I use a clear one, I put a piece of white paper under it and that seems to help too.  But my small French White bowls (I call it the creme brulee size) and a Corningware mini-casserole dish I have seem to work best.
  3. Best spot to place the bowl is on the floor.  I’ve tried other and higher spots and they’ll work, but it seems to attract more if on the floor.  You can put it in a corner or out of the way otherwise, they’ll find it, believe me.
  4. A book light or night light.  Many places you read will say a night light and those may work, but my problem is I live in an old house with few electrical outlets and even fewer where there’s any floor space underneath.  I had a couple of mini-book lights, the kind that clip on the book and have the little bendable arm – you can get them at Walgreen’s lately, two for $3 – I just clip them on the side of the bowl and bend the light where it’s over the center of the bowl, and voila.  I have tried some other little book lights since, such as some that Dollar Tree has right now, but they just don’t seem to attract as well as these little lights Walgreen’s is selling right now do.

I have one bedroom that has been hit particularly worse than the rest (Tojo the Psycho Cat’s bedroom) and my flea trap in there is catching 15-20 or more a night and starting to slow down a little, finally.  The rest in the rest of the house are only catching one or two a night now, but it’s definitely all working.

I don’t usually use flea collars because they really don’t do much other than keep the pests away from their heads, but I did buy one for Tojo – unfortunately it was a cheap one and seemed to be making the fleas WORSE than they were, so last week I got the pricier Adams one.  And last week washed all the bedding in the house, too.

Bombing the house, which would probably have been the quickest and surest way to eradicate all fleas, just wasn’t an option – there’s nowhere for all of us to go for a day – and after having spent a small fortune on Frontline, and other stuff leading up to the Frontline which was wasted money because nothing was working – the fact that the Dawn really DOES work, for 96 cents a bottle, is just WONDERFUL.

It’s all working.  We are not 100% flea-free yet, but it’s better and we’re close, and I will swear by this Dawn method from now on.  The dogs (and quite possibly one very mad cat) are going to have a bath with flea shampoo next week and then it will be time to Frontline everyone again, and after that (fingers crossed) with any luck we can go back to only treating the dogs with that stuff.

But I will be keeping at least one or two homemade Dawn flea traps on the floor at night at all times, maybe all year long but definitely during the warm months, probably one in Tojo’s room and another in some other corner of the house somewhere.  I now highly recommend it for any dog or cat owner.  Even if you don’t really have a flea problem or aren’t seeing any, just one bowl set up like that with the Dawn and the book light or night light ever night will almost certainly assure you don’t see any.  It works!

Why fleas like the Dawn so much more than other liquid dish detergents – and why they prefer it as opposed to the newer, “ultra” Dawn – now that’s something to ponder, but I can tell you for a fact that they don’t like lemon Ajax as much.

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, endorsements, lynnster's zoo, thumbs up | 6 Comments »

Actually I Think He Walks Better Than Little Was Yesterday

Posted by Lynnster on June 17, 2008

How ironic – a few minutes after I posted this about Little and Dobie and the vestibular disease, I saw where Ivy had posted a video of Charley the cat at Animal Shak.  Charley has cerebellar hypoplasia, another neurological condition, different from vestibular disease but exhibits very similar symptoms.  The way Charley walks and falls is very similar to how Little was moving yesterday.

Unfortunately vestibular disease is usually relatively temporary and what Charley has is not, but what a great cat!  He seems to take it all in stride.

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo | 4 Comments »

Update from the Nursing Home

Posted by Lynnster on June 17, 2008

You’ll never believe this, but remember a couple of weeks ago when my Beagle, Lula, had just died, and while she was sick, Dobie had this sort of stroke-like episode?  Which wasn’t a stroke, but was canine old age vestibular disease, which has sort of stroke-like symptoms, and in any case, was pretty frightening.

Early Monday morning while it was still dark, my eldest cat, Little, developed the same thing.  But the feline version, of course.  She’s 16 or 17 (I can’t ever remember which of those two years she arrived as a baby).

Much like with the dog version, they say it usually improves in 2-3 days to a couple of weeks, and she’s already improved a bunch from how she was yesterday.  Dobie’s a big dog who’s all legs, and Little’s a pretty small cat, but really her situation was much more frightening and her symptoms much more dramatic.

With Dobie, he had been fine all day and evening and then when we all got ready to go outside again that night, he stood up and promptly fell down.  With Little, the first thing I noticed was that she was laying oddly on the floor, and at first I thought she’d died.  Then when she finally tried to get up and walk – and every time she walked after that – she would hurl herself forward and tumble in a pseudo-forward roll and scare me to death.  She even did that jumping in the bathtub, and while trying to jump out of her (relatively shallow) litter box.

She didn’t have the nystagmus (rapid back and forth eye movement) Dobie had for days afterwards, but Dobie didn’t have the dramatic head tilt she did all day yesterday.  She still has a little residual tilt – and may continue to – but god, yesterday it was just pitiful.

Dobie’s still having a little trouble maneuvering eating dry dog food – I practically had to hand feed him for over a week to make sure he was getting enough to eat – but Little doesn’t seem to have much motor skill problem in that regard.  She’s getting around fine today, just a day later, I haven’t seen her tilt or fall at all today.  Dobie is getting around mostly well, except that when he gets in a hurry or has just woken up, he sometimes loses his balance and/or falls.

I’m kinda confused about the fact that in dogs, they say it usually eventually goes away and never comes back, while in cats, most of what I’ve read seems to say they retain some residual effects and that it can flare up again when stressed, so I’m not so sure that might not be true of dogs too.

In any case, I guess it’s a learning process for us all, and I’m glad they’re both probably going to recover just fine more than likely, but gosh, it’s been like a geriatric veterinary nursing home around here for weeks now and I am just plain worn OUT.  And can’t believe two of them were stricken with this at the SAME time, and there’s two more elderly cats here (and one other not much of a spring chicken herself), and I’m just, like, oh please, please – no more catastrophes (or dogastrophes) right now, please.

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo | 1 Comment »

Getting Better All the Time

Posted by Lynnster on June 5, 2008

The title of the post is perhaps a little premature and expectant, but I really do think Dobie is getting better. He’s still not walking very well and not getting out much, and not eating and drinking as much as I’d like, but he DOES have an appetite and IS eating, just not as much as I’d like to see. He does walk so-so and without falling when he does, and his kidneys and other functions are albeit slow but working fine, so I guess I feel like he’s making progress. He is resting a lot, and doesn’t really seem to feel bad, just a little confused and maybe frustrated at his whacked out motor skills. The fact that I have suspected for some time now he is not seeing very well (his mama went blind about a year before she died) is probably not helping matters much.

It’s not really like he has Alzheimer’s or is senile – he’s mostly all there – he’s just a little “off”. Physically, for a dog that has always been all legs, it’s been a real challenge. He needs to take it slower and easier when he does venture out or getting about, but he doesn’t, and thus he falls sometimes, especially when we have to deal with the one and only step there is outside the back door (in or out).

Petey is being very “helpful” and sticking close by him all the time, but usually mainly when I’m trying to get Dobie to eat and I think Petey’s just trying to appear concerned so as to get any leftovers there may be.

In any case, we’re managing, but wow, this is a challenge… better than things were, but a challenge all the same. I’m just keeping fingers crossed that he keeps improving and doesn’t lose the ability to walk, because I don’t know what we’ll do in that case. I don’t think he or I either one would be too thrilled about doggie diapers and he’s never been much of one to enjoy a bath.

PS And a thank you to everyone who stopped by and left such kind words about Lulu.  It’s been appreciated more than any of you will ever know, thank you.

Posted in dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo | Leave a Comment »

Things Are Not Going So Well Here

Posted by Lynnster on June 1, 2008

Lulu had already been sick for several days, and then out of nowhere the other night, Dobie had a stroke-like episode, which was probably not a stroke as they are rare in dogs… although he is half Doberman and Dobermans are predisposed to them. But it’s more likely old age canine vestibular disease, which the symptoms are similar. He turned 13 in November.

He couldn’t walk at all the first night, and hasn’t walked much today or yesterday, though the days in between then he did walk some, though badly, so that was a little bit of improvement. With him being over 40 lbs. and me not being all that big, it’s been a little difficult, but we’re managing and just taking one day at a time. He’s not eating and drinking much, though he will, but I have to hold the bowls in front of him and keep reminding him to eat or drink some more.

This is an old picture, he was probably about two or three at the time.

Posted in * dog photos, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo, sad stuff | Leave a Comment »

On Another Note (I Hate It When There’s Another Note)

Posted by Lynnster on May 29, 2008

I’ve got so much going on here right now trying to get so many things done and work related, and now to boot have two very sick elderly dogs – I had enough on my plate with one sick one (Lulu), and suddenly out of nowhere, Dobie took a turn for worse last night – anyway, I’m having trouble coming up for air right now.

Be back soon with more details, but for now, just keep us in thoughts and send good karma this way for my four-footed babies if you will.  They could use all the good karma they could get right now, and thanks.

Posted in blah, dobie is a dog, dogs, i never sleep, lynnster's zoo | 5 Comments »

Why Buy $15 Dog Toys When Empty Toilet Tissue Rolls Are Just As Much Fun?

Posted by Lynnster on May 14, 2008

Anyone who has had a dog probably knows that they are often easily amused and can find the dumbest stuff to play with.

Mine have been abusing what was an almost empty plastic jug of coffee creamer (the large size Kroger kind) that a cat who won’t stay off the kitchen counter (Missy) knocked off, and have just had a fine time with it for about three days now. Especially because it makes lots of noise too, if you’re Petey and having fun tossing it around like a basketball on the hardwood floor in the living room.

Yesterday was an extra special day as they finally got all the wrapping off of it, so there was that to play with and tear up and chew on and toss everywhere too. Yep, it’s super exciting at the Zone this week.

Posted in cats, dobie is a dog, dogs, lynnster's zoo | 8 Comments »

Bits, Pieces, & the Like

Posted by Lynnster on April 3, 2008

(1) Somebody (Jag? Aunt B.? I can’t find it now) wrote about these a while back and I was covetous and waiting for them to appear on Memphis grocery store shelves. Finally they have, and now I can NOT stop eating them because they are the best thing EVER:

(2) I just got back from a 24-hourish trip to Birmingham. I drove through a monsoon in Mississippi to get there. Got there and Alabama was, like, sunny and warm and had been all day. Today it was like 78 degrees and felt as humid as any June day in Tennessee. I get back to Memphis and not only am in rain again but immediately have to change into a sweatshirt because I’m freezing. Grrr.

(3) Trying to decide if I should be worried about Dobie having eaten a few Nair wax strips, but considering all the other dangerous, ridiculous, and just plain gross things he has ingested in his 13 years on the planet, I think probably not.

Posted in about the weather, blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, endorsements, fun with food, lynnster's zoo, memphis, thumbs up, travelin' | 5 Comments »

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