Tag: Harriet

Pets, Photography

Nine Years

Shelly

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I got Harriet nine years ago today. It was a Wednesday night, a week before Thanksgiving. She promptly tried to beat the hell out of Elliott, which was hugely intimidating. I’d never dealt with fighting dogs before and wondered what I’d gotten myself into. By the next morning, Harriet was ready to make nice, and though the two had their share of scuffles, they were bestest friends.

It’s been both a long and short nine years. There were times when I wanted to wring her little neck, but mostly, she’s been awesome good fun. And to be fair, even when she’s at her most exasperating, she’s also deeply funny. Boxers aren’t called clown dogs for nothing.

To celebrate her got day, I bought her a new woobie, and we’re having homemade french fries (about the only people food treat she can have these days).

Art, Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Miscellanea

Shelly

1. Harriet’s feet seem to be well on the mend. She’s not trying to sneak off and chew them, and the hair is growing back where it was worn away. Her ears are still sore, though. I don’t know if they’re just going to take longer to heal, or if I’m going to have to go back to the vet for drops. I was dubious about using wipes on her ears in the first place, because they only reach the upper parts, and the real infection is much farther down the ear canal. I’ve got six more days of wipes, so I guess we’ll have to re-evaluate at the end of the week.

2. And about those feet! They are snowy white for the first time in literally years. Very exciting. For all the stupid crap she’s had to deal with the past few months, it seems as if at least the allergy problem has been solved. And since that was, to me, the most difficult one to narrow down, well, I’m doing the happy dance.

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See the shiny white hair between her pads? A couple of months ago, that was stained red, from saliva.

3. WTHIWWP?!: If you’re going to belittle another person’s artistic abilities, you might want to first make sure that yours aren’t laughable. I read a huge screed on another blog about how X, Y, and Z are amateurish dingbats, and then I went and looked at the ranter’s own artwork. My, but that’s a very low bar! Not to mention the weirdness of being that obsessed with other people’s artwork and whether or not they are doing it “right.”

Photography

Angry Flower

Shelly

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This is what greeted me when I got home yesterday. “You are dead to me!” she said. Obviously, I slept with one eye open last night.

She had to go back to the vet, yet again, because over the weekend she chewed a hole in her foot. She’d been doing so well, too. Thankfully, it’s a fungal infection, not allergies, so we were sent home with antifungal/antiseptic wipes, hydrocortisone spray, and another round of antibiotics (as her previous staph infection was much better, but not 100% healed).

She spent yesterday in the Cone of Shame and is in it again today. Harriet thinks it is a mean, mean trick to play on a poor wee doggie.

Pets

Good News Bad News

Shelly

I had to take Harriet back to the vet on Wednesday because her rash came back. I started thinking about the timing. It first showed up after she finished her initial course of post-op antibiotics. And then it showed up again after she finished the second course of antibiotics. Given that (and I told the vet this) the spots were filled with pus, the logical conclusion seemed to me to be an infection of some sort, not hives. And guess what? The second vet diagnosed a staph infection. She probably got it when she had surgery.

Harriet is on a 21 day course of cephalexin, with instructions to get a refill and leave her on it for a full six weeks if the rash is not completely gone in 18 days. I also got a bottle of antimicrobial shampoo for her. I haven’t used it yet, because I wanted to make absolutely sure that she was responding to the antibiotics first. Which she seems to be. The rash is almost gone again, except for a few spots on her knees, where the skin was pretty badly broken open. Those are healing nicely, though.

I would be more upset about the initial misdiagnosis, except that the course of prednisone did kick her pre-existing allergies in the ass. She’s not itching at all now, nor is she chewing her feet. I’m impressed! This is the first time in years that her feet have not bothered her. Now, to see if she stays itch-free after the pred is out of her system.

Pets

24 Hours Accident Free

Shelly

Last week, Harriet had a bad allergic reaction to God only knows what. She broke out in hives. Because the hives weren’t going away on their own, and because she was starting to develop infections in a few spots, the vet put her on a two week course of cephalexin and prednisone. Prednisone causes the body to retain sodium, so common side effects include increased thirst and more frequent urination. Fun!

When I’m home, Harriet is having to pee about every hour or two. Not a huge problem, as long as I pay attention and don’t get sidetracked. I’m usually a light sleeper, so there’s only been one night so far that I’ve slept through her “gotta go out” restlessness. And I’ve changed my work schedule so that my hours are spread out over six days, instead of four. Even so, Harriet had an accident while I was at work on Monday. Yesterday, she managed to hold it until I got home, which made a full 24 hours accident free. A small but very important milestone!

One more week to go, and then I can hopefully start sleeping again.

(This also partially explains why I’ve been blogging Extra Lite. I just can’t afford to get side-tracked. If I do, I’ll be washing towels until the cows come home.)

Pets, Photography

Unstitched

Shelly

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This is why you should always take a careful look after the sutures are removed. Which I thought I’d done. But then I took a close-up photo of the incision, and when I opened it in Photoshop, what did I see? A teeny weeny blue stitch that the vet tech had missed. I could have removed most of her stitches myself, because they were looser, but I had to take her back to the vet’s office to have this one taken out. It was pretty well embedded, and I figured they have better tools for that than I do. The last thing I wanted was to clip it, then have the ends disappear into the skin.

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Harriet did not want to get off the bed, so she hoisted up The Leg of Defiance. Loosely translated, it means, “I would prefer not to.”