Sunday Randomness #275: Bringing puzzles back into our lives Early June sees puzzles 13, 14, and 15

A 300 piece Dowdle puzzle, "Pet shop"
 

A 300 piece TrendZ puzzle, Organic Farmer's Market

A 550 piece Ceaco puzzle, "Selfies"

Sunday Randomness #413 : B-B update and uncovering the wood floor

Top picture taken Dec. 4, 2023

Bottom picture taken Dec. 16, 2023

B-B's incision site is nicely healed with fur starting to grow in again.  
 

And we started tearing out the carpet:

It was rather funny the first day because B-B was scared of the new wood flooring and didn't want to walk on it to get to his nighttime spot under the bed.  We had to coax him with treats to get him to go on the wood floor.  Once he realized it was solid he was okay.  On the other hand, B wanted to help with taking up the carpet tack strips-she didn't mind the wood floor at all. We had to keep shooing her away so she wouldn't accidentally get hurt on a tack or staple from the carpet pad before we had a chance to pull them all out and shop vac up the residue of wood splinters and lots of dust. 

Sunday Randomness #417 : A Month of Medical Pt. 4

Mego escorting B-B back inside so that B can be in the backyard for a bit because...

---if we don't keep them separated to a certain extent they want to play.

But they do have their moments where they will be peaceful.  B-B gets up on the couch very slowly and very carefully.  We're at the stage of weighing his actions with his recovery.  Will letting him on the couch help speed his recovery?  Yes. Can he get on and off without injury?  At this point we believe the answer is yes.  We've monitored him closely and inspected his wound for any signs of complications like swelling, puss, stretching, excessive heat, etc...

All looks good and he's healing nicely after a week at home.  

So much so that we separated these two  who attempted some mild play in the house.  Silly puppies.  They're definitely going to be excited when they can play together again.  But not yet!

 

Sunday Randomness #417 : A Month of Medical Pt. 3

The first night ended up with me sleeping on the floor next to B-B.  He moaned unless I was petting him or holding on to one of his paws and gently squeezing.  (It's a thing he likes-it seems to soothe him when we handle his paws and gently squeeze them.)  

Next day he slept on the yoga mat and mattress pad.

Incision site looks nice and clean.  

He's been a good boy and let us put corn bags from the freezer on his belly.  The first time he actually sighed and closed his eyes like it felt so good. (We put the inner bag with corn inside a ziploc bag and the pink you see is the corn bag pillowcase.) 

Learning to eat with a cone on.  Rice and the bland canned food that they said is the dog equivalent of saltines.  He's been amazing with taking all his medicines.
 

Sunday Randomness #417 : A Month of Medical Pt. 2

The three priorities for Triage at AVC.  B-B was in priority 2 for Bowel Obstruction.

After checking into AVC they got B-B on an IV to see if the fluids would help anything move.  He had his second set of X-Rays around 10:30 to 11:00 p.m. and they called to say that nothing had budged and they wanted to operate to open B-B's stomach before anything more happening such as a section of his digestive system getting cut off to the point of getting infected or, worse, necrotic.  We gave them the go ahead and they said they'd be calling in a couple of hours.  I set a timer so that I wouldn't sleep through the ringing of the phone.  He came out of surgery just fine-and was recovering around 1 a.m. Saturday morning.  Thank you AVC Vet Team!

We went to visit him around 1 p.m. and he looked all sad and doped up with his red and blue surgical tape holding on his IV.  They said as long as he kept recuperating well and held down some water and food that we could take him home Saturday night.  We fed him solid food that they provided (canned chicken and bland gastro-intestinal canned dog food) and he ate well but we didn't try to feed him all of it at once. He was drinking water so around 8 to 9 p.m. we got to go get him and bring him home.

First night home was rough-he started out on the dog cot-his choice.  We gave him a couple of options from the dog cot to a yoga mat with a mattress pad.  B laid down right by him on her own.  She sniffed him with concern the first night.

 

Sunday Randomness #71 : Some library displays and a question from doormats...

We've started some new displays at the library and we have a revolving sign-up every two weeks.  I've gotten to do two displays so far and I made up the interim signage.  See if you can guess which display we put up in between displays for a day or two.  My first display I just looked for any items that had "devil" in the title somewhere.  I just thought it would be funny with the summer we've been experiencing.  The second display was just an excuse to try to find cookbooks with men on the cover.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I would have guessed that there were more women cookbook authors but women also grace the cover of cookbooks more often than men.  Men generally have fewer self-portraits and more food on the cover of their books than women.

 And the last picture was when we were out and about.  I just want to know if the neighbors fur babies have ever met each other and how civil was the interaction...

Sunday Randomness #211 : Wall of Tame Search and Find

 Can you find Odie, Miss Fish, Jack, and Buffy?

Sunday Randomness #317: Pets, Pets, and more Pets

Current Pet round-up includes:  Betta Fish with a red piece of pellet food

 Guinea Pigs Ginger and Caramel

 Chickens-White one is Baltimore, Black and White speckled is Bea, and Brown-variegated is  Shantaclaira-these were a gift from some friends who moved away.  We've had them since last June and we get eggs occasionally.

Jack on the tower is master over all

Cornbread dog biscuits

From Cool Pet Treats by Pam Price.

Canine Cheddar Cornbread

1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp. sugar
2 teaspoons chicken or beef instant bouillon
1/2 cup milk
4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
1 egg
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a baking sheet. Combine the oats, butter and boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes. Add in the cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, shredded cheese and egg. Then mix in the flour, adding a little bit more to get a stiff dough if needed. Knead the dough on a floured counter top and then roll to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a 2-inch cookie cutter and bake for 35-45 minutes or until browned. Turn off oven and let sit in oven for a couple of hours if possible to help the biscuits dry out some. If making larger or smaller biscuits then adjust the time as necessary.

These were very well received by all the dogs who tried them. Crunchy, yummy, they even smelled good to the humans as they were baking!

Bubba's Back!

Sarah again got to bring home the classroom gerbil, Bubba. He’s a little, black, friendly, and very active gerbil who’s been with the class since November of 2007. (by the way, the dates on our pictures are not accurate-we keep meaning to update the date and usually forget.) He’s quite tame and Sarah got him out often just to hold him and let him run around a little.

He really uses his exercise ball and rolls all around the house.

Sarah willingly (if not excitedly) cleaned out his cage. Plus we got him a new piece of fresh pear wood for a chew toy.

It’s a fun diversion to have a classroom pet for the weekend. Just a little bit of responsibility without the long term commitment to actually owning the pet. It’s a bit of a sad commentary that most of the classroom pets have come from homes where they were not wanted anymore. I think more research and caution would have resulted in fewer unwanted pets.

We’ve still got our 11 ½ year old and 8 year old dogs, 11 ½ year old cat, 5 year old guinea pig, 2 ½ year old white cloud fish and ~ 6 month old Hissing Madagascar Cockroaches. I was taught that when you get a pet you have that animal (or fish or insect or whatever genus) for its natural lifespan and that’s what I believe and follow. It has resulted in a geriatric pet household for us. Even though some of our pets have exceeded a typical lifespan for their kind that’s okay because we’re willing to have pets and enjoy them at this stage of life for as long as they are here with us. [ I have drawn the line at hermit crabs, rats, rabbits and a few other pets even though the kids have suggested such creatures-one can only do so much. The cockroaches only passed muster because they only live 1-2 years (supposedly.)]

Sweet Soft Tasha on a Sunday

What a sweetheart! Tasha is our matriarch pet right now. We ‘ve had her for 11 ½ years and she is still a sweet girl. The picture on the left shows Tasha in March 2003 when she was 6 ½ years. The picture down below on the left was taken today at the 11 ½ year mark with our cat, KyKay, who is just slightly younger in years but definitely not aging as fast as Tasha. When we took her in for a check-up when she turned 8 years old, our veterinarian (the wonderful Dr. Eric Foster of the Millcreek Veterinary Clinic) said she was doing really well for her age but she was getting up there and could go basically anytime since she’s a giant breed (half great Pyrenees and half golden retriever). Her fur is now mostly white with some gold and her eyes are cloudy. Her hearing is not the same but her tail still wags as happy as ever and she still has to go up to each and every person to sniff them and say hello. She’s much more content to sleep then play and she doesn’t jump up in excitement anymore. But through all her arthritis and aches and pains she still wants to be around people and still loves when little kids come over and want to play with her. Along with Tasha we have another dog, a cat, a guinea pig and 3 fish. More about them later.