Need some good kitchen help?

Jacey is available.

When she hears your microwave timer go off, she will run to the kitchen to supervise you as you remove your dinner (not hers!) from the microwave.

If, by chance, you've gone stone deaf--or if you're just a bit busy and don't immediately leap to your feet when the timer goes off--Jacey will come back from the kitchen and stand over you--whining and fussing--until you go to the kitchen to get your dinner (not hers!). Then she will follow you back to wherever you sit to eat dinner (me, in the living room), and watch you eat every bite. And then she'll follow you back to the kitchen when you take the empty dish.

And if you should be so uncoordinated as to spill the tiniest drop of your dinner (not hers!), she'll clean it up, even if it means licking every square inch of carpet within four or five feet of the spill.

And she'll do all this while absent-mindedly burping her own dinner...

The blocked, finished doily

I need to practice my blocking skills. It's hard to block round--and especially oval--doilies and keep them symmetrical. (I do have a blocking board marked in circles, but the circles wouldn't have been a huge help...and the board was too small for this piece, which wound up measuring about 15 by 13.) Also, I probably should reblock the leafy insides of this and stretch the clusters properly.

That will have to wait for another time. I was working on a baby afghan when this testing opportunity arose, and I want to get back to the afghan. (I'd like to get it finished this week...then take something else--something smaller--with me to Augusta for the weekend.)

Originally posted: 9th-Jul-2007 10:02 am

Summer's Blush doily

I'm all kinds of excited here. I get to test a new pattern for a terrific doily designer over on Crochetville. Woo hoo!

Originally posted: 5th-Jul-2007 09:56 am

Finished...

The afghans are finished.



They measure about 50 by 77 inches. Precisely folded, one will just fit inside an office file-storage box. So now I just need to wrap the two boxes.



The camera wouldn't cooperate on the large picture of Daniel's afghan, but it was the same stripe pattern as Ashley's:



The colors are still (perpetually) off in the photos: the blue in Daniel's afghan is darker, and the teal in Ashley's afghan is greener.

And, just because I like doing the numbers: each afghan was something in excess of 29396 stitches.


Originally posted: 2nd-Jul-2007 03:32 pm

An announcement...

Yep. FINISHED.

Pictures, measurements, details, etc., should be posted later today. I'm going to bed now.

Originally posted: 2nd-Jul-2007 01:17 am

I'm flying...

12 days to go. I've done three of the seven border rounds on both afghans; eight rounds (total) to go. And I'm off work on Friday.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 28th-Jun-2007 09:59 pm

It's a new countdown...

14 days to go. I'm through the body for both afghans: 172 rows each. I've woven in all the loose ends; that had to be done so the border could be worked over those ends.

So I'm left with the border rounds to work. I'm planning 7 rounds per afghan (if there's enough yarn). So that's 14 rounds--in 14 days. One round probably will take 90 minutes or so to work.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 26th-Jun-2007 09:20 pm

Afghan countdown...

15 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 148 of 207 rows--59 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 160 172 of 207 rows--35 rows to go (the border). Need to average 6.3 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border*: BBBAAAA
Ashley's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border*: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

*One border round has been figured as the equivalent of 5 rows.



I'm off from work on Tuesday, so I'm hoping to get a bunch done. My next day off after Tuesday is Friday.

Originally posted: 25th-Jun-2007 11:51 pm

Flying along...

17 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 148 of 207 rows--59 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 140 160 of 207 rows--47 rows to go. Need to average 6.2 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border*: BBBAAAA
Ashley's: 12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A 8B 4A 8B  12A--then the border*: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

*One border round has been figured as equal to 5 rows.

Originally posted: 23rd-Jun-2007 10:56 pm

Afghan countdown...

18 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 138 148 of 207 rows--59 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 128 140 of 207 rows--67 rows to go. Need to average 7 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's: 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's: 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A 8B 4A 8B 12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.



Originally posted: 22nd-Jun-2007 08:13 pm

Afghan countdown...

19 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 116 138 of 207 rows--69 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 128 of 207 rows--79 rows to go. Need to average 7.8 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 22nd-Jun-2007 12:41 am

Afghan countdown...

20 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 116 of 207 rows--91 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 116 128 of 207 rows--79 rows to go. Need to average 8.5 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 20th-Jun-2007 11:42 pm

Afghan countdown...

22 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 116 of 207 rows--91 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 109 116 of 207 rows--91 rows to go. Need to average 8.3 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

I probably won't get anything done Tuesday night; I work until 9 pm, and I have to be up Wednesday at 5 am for work. Wednesday night is the greyhound club meeting--if I have the energy for it--then I'm off work Thursday and Friday and hope to get a lot done.

Originally posted: 19th-Jun-2007 02:36 am

Afghan countdown...

23 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 108 116 of 207 rows--91 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 109 of 207 rows--98 rows to go. Need to average 8.2 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 17th-Jun-2007 11:40 pm

Afghan milestone reached...

24 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 98 108 of 207 rows--99 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 96 109 of 207 rows--98 rows to go. Need to average 8.2 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Fewer than 100 rows left on each afghan, and I finally have more rows worked than left to work.

Originally posted: 16th-Jun-2007 11:01 pm

Afghan countdown...

26 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 92 98 of 207 rows--109 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 95 96 of 207 rows--111 rows to go. Need to average 8.4 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's:  12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 15th-Jun-2007 12:41 am

Afghan countdown...

27 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 84 92 of 207 rows--115 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 90 95 of 207 rows--112 rows to go. Need to average 8.4 rows a day.

The pattern runs thus:

Daniel's: 12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA
Ashley's: 12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A 8B 4A 8B   12A--then the border: BBBAAAA

What's underscored is completed.

Originally posted: 13th-Jun-2007 11:59 pm

Afghan countdown...

29 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 82 84 of 207 rows--123 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 76 90 of 207 rows--117 rows to go. Need to average 8.3 rows a day.

Have I mentioned? It's 143 stitches per row. 172 "real" rows (the rest are the border rounds). 24,596 stitches (plus the border). Per afghan.

But it's really only two stitches: double crochet and front-post double crochet. Three of one, three of the other, all the way across. Can you say "boring"? I rarely can stand to work a second afghan in a pattern I've just completed. In this case, I had just finished this afghan for my cousin's baby:



The afghans for Daniel and Ashley are the same stitch pattern, just worked with a larger hook, thicker yarn, bigger color blocks before I change to the alternate color, and a wider border. (The colors are way off in these photos.)



Better color:



I'm really looking forward to finishing these. I know the kids will appreciate these once the cold weather sets in. And I'll appreciate having them out of my sight...

Originally posted: 11th-Jun-2007 11:38 pm

Afghan countdown...

30 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 64 82 of 207 rows--125 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 71 76 of 207 rows--131 rows to go. Need to average 8.5 rows a day.

I got a little work done Friday morning while I was waiting for the FedEx delivery of proofreading work. I worked on the proofreading all day Friday, and I got an extension to work on the rest of the stuff Saturday night after I got home from the grooming salon. It's finally done (after all night Saturday), and I'm spending my Sunday afternoon/evening off working on the afghans again. One thing I'm sure of: Daniel and Ashley will find these things are warm.

Originally posted: 10th-Jun-2007 09:11 pm

Afghan countdown...

33 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 64 of 207 rows--143 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 63 71 of 207 rows--136 rows to go. Need to average 8.4 rows a day.



Originally posted: 7th-Jun-2007 11:42 pm

Afghan countdown...

34 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 56 64 of 207 rows--143  rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 56 63 of 207 rows--144 rows to go. Need to average 8.4 rows a day.


Originally posted: 6th-Jun-2007 11:24 pm

Greyhounds in movies

Probably all dog lovers watch for their favorite breeds in movies and television. Greyhounds show up briefly in the good Pride and Prejudice (in the long version on DVD--Darcy has a pair on his estate).

In the original film version of The Lion in Winter, there is a greyhound in the scene when Henry comes out of Philip's room after just learning that his sons have betrayed him. Henry stands on the stairs, screaming, "God damn you! God, damn you!" while a red-fawn greyhound (like my Sam) stands behind him on the stairs, with his head cocked to one side, listening.

I'm watching the new(er) film version of The Lion in Winter--this one with Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close. Henry comes out of Philip's room after the betrayal scene, and this time he doesn't scream. He just sits down on the stairs and murmurs that he's lost all his sons. He hugs and pats and mourns...in the ear of a red-fawn greyhound.

Afghan countdown...

36 days to go. Daniel's afghan: 44 56 of 207 rows--151 rows to go. Ashley's afghan: 55 56 of 207 rows--151 rows to go. Need to average 8.4 rows a day. (I work until 9 on Tuesday night, so I probably won't get much done tomorrow.)

Originally posted: 4th-Jun-2007 09:41 pm

Boring craft countdown...

I'm working on the afghans for Daniel and Ashley. I really want to be working on a new doily, but I won't let myself do that until I get these afghans finished, which I'm foolishly hoping will happen by the wedding. I'm going to keep a running countdown.

The wedding is 14 July. I need to have the afghans finished by 12 July so I can wrap them before I leave town on the 13th. That means I have 38 days.

Each afghan is 172 rows plus, probably, 7 rounds of border; each border round will take about as long as five rows. That means the equivalent of 207 rows per afghan...at 15 minutes per row. And there are two afghans. Right now, each afghan has 44 rows done...163 rows (each) to go. I'll need to average 8.6 rows a day until the wedding.

TCM is showing the Wizard of Oz right now; Spirited Away comes on at 9:45 Eastern. Movies to crochet by...

A happy camper...

I ordered this blocking board in the evening of 24 May. The warning on the Joann's site was that I should allow 2-3 weeks for shipping. Since I needed the doily blocked by 16 June for a bridal shower, I just crossed my fingers, since a 3-week delivery would get the board here by the Thursday before the Saturday shower.

The board came today. 8 days! Yippee! The doily is pinned and drying now. Pictures will be posted as soon as it's completely dry, but that won't be before Saturday evening--or maybe even Sunday. (Note to self: Buy white towels. If I had some thick white towels, I could have gotten out more water before I pinned the piece, but I'm not about to squeeze cream-colored threads in my spruce-green towels.)

Blocking doilies

The doily is finished--everything except the blocking. The blocking (and photographs) will wait until the arrival of this. When you make something that needs to block to a specific shape--round or square--a grid is essential. I was trying to figure out how I could draw a grid that would be safely waterproof when a post to the Flickr knitting group sent me racing to the Joann's site to order a blocking board. I ordered the 18" x 24" size, which should cover any doily I ever want to make. (For larger items, I can block in sections.)

Sam normally sleeps on the sofa next to me when I'm watching television (and playing on the computer or working on crocheting). Sam has blissfully slept through all sorts of programs. But last night I watched King Kong (on TCM) and the first part of Mighty Joe Young. Between the women screaming and the animals roaring, Sam decided he'd had enough, and he moved to the quieter dining room. As soon as I turned off the movie (went back to a Harry Potter movie), Sam came back to the sofa to sleep.

Sam: the film critic.

Who broke the Internet?

IMDB is down. For me, anyway.

And GNIS is down. (That's the US government's site for official names of places.) http://geonames.usgs.gov/ It was totally down--as in "Are you sure you typed that right?" down--last night. Today, you can get to the search window, but you get an error when you search.

Saturday is the 100th anniversary of John Wayne's birth. TCM is showing bunches of his movies every day. Today's been the non-John Ford Westerns (Hondo, The Alamo, etc.). Tonight is Wayne-in-the-air: Island in the Sky, the High and the Mighty, The Flying Tigers, and Reunion in France. Tomorrow night is Wayne-in-World War II.

I've been working on the fancy doily today. When I need to give my hands a rest, I do a little genealogy fiddling--even without GNIS (which I need to try to locate an tiny cemetery).

I found a picture on Flickr of someone else's efforts on the same doily. I'm working it in a cream color--almost yellow. I've done through round 18. The pattern is 29 rounds. Round 18 was 256 stitches; it eventually gets up to 400 stitches. The blocked piece--if I have the size right--will be 15.25 inches.

I ordered an out-of-print book of killer doily patterns from a seller on ebay. No bidding: I just bought the thing.

Edited to add: IMDB is back. The government's a bit slower to fix breakages.

Eeeewww! Gross!

I microwaved a bag of popcorn, and I've been tossing some pieces to the dogs.

Sam's standing here, drooling on my knee...



An old picture, but the current look.

Home from Charleston

The dogs traveled well today, and I didn't even give them Dramamine this morning. After about an hour of riding, they both decided they were in for a long ride and just went to sleep. Now, of course, they're sacked out and sleeping like they've been working hard all day. (They're both dreaming--with sound effects.)

They got to the beach on Sunday morning, the first time (as far as I know) that either had seen a large body of water. Jacey was spooked by the waves at first, but got more relaxed as long as she could watch them--keep them from sneaking up on her. Sam tried to drink the water, shook his head, then tried a bit later, as if he though he'd find a freshwater wave sooner or later. We didn't stay long, but the weather was beautiful.

The leader of the pack

On the message boards for the local greyhound group, there's been a discussion about dominance in dogs--dogs asserting their dominance, owners maintaining control from the dominant position, etc.

So Jacey picks today to challenge the existing pack structure of me > her > Sam.

I got up to go to the kitchen for some ice--and Jacey is operating under the mistaken idea that it's dinner time. She raced ahead to the kitchen
door, jumped up and down, came back to me, jumped up and down, then got behind me and PUSHED (her head against my butt). I was moving slowly as I tried to work a kink out of my ankle.

I didn't move faster. And I didn't feed either dog when I got to the kitchen, so I'm still the top dog around here.

For now.

Happy Gotcha Day, Jacey-Kasey

A year ago, your separation anxiety sent you on binges of destruction when I left you at home. Today, you dance gleefully into your crate at the command “Jacey in the box!” You know a cookie is coming.

A year ago, you were terrified of the spiral stairs. Today, you fly from your nest of pillows on my bed upstairs, down the hall, down the stairs, to the kitchen doorway in less than 10 seconds when you hear (or dream) a noise from the kitchen.

A year ago, you hid behind Sam and me when a stranger approached. Today, you push Sam out of the way to be first in line for some lovin’ from strangers.

A year ago, when Sam snapped at you, you ducked. Today, Sam’s intimidated if you growl at him in your sleep. (Congratulations on that, by the way. Oreo was never able to keep him in line that well.)

A year ago, if I raised my voice, you flinched as if you thought you were going to be hit. Today, … Well, I think the ship’s sailed on that one, kid. (But it’s kinda embarrassing when you do that in public.)

A year ago, I signed the adoption contract on Pinerun Torri. Today, you’re Jacey-Kasey, and you act as if you’ve never known another home, another life.


It’s 8 April. Happy Gotcha Day, Jacey-Kasey!

Wedding presents

(The colors in these photos are off a great deal. The blue in his afghan is a much richer royal blue. The teal in her afghan is a much greener color than the photo shows.)

I'm unraveling what I'd done so far on the afghans for Daniel and Ashley. The afghans were working up smaller than I liked. Yes, there'll be a border on the afghans, but it would take one enormous border for the afghans to turn out a decent size. I've restarted Ashley's afghan with a hook two sizes larger. The rows are nearly a foot longer than before, with the same number of stitches.

I started the afghans in January, but I haven't worked on them much: 40 rows on Ashley's, 32 rows on Daniel's--about 20 hours' work being unworked now. The wedding is 14 July, but no one needs afghans in July. I'll be happy to get these done by fall.

Tuesday, my last day off, I finished a shrug I was working on. (Temps were in the 70s that day; I was sweating when I tried on the shrug.) I don't like the way it came out. It's designed to wrap around the body completely, and it feels like a fuzzy straitjacket. I can undo the whole thing and try another pattern, or I can just undo the seam on one sleeve, unravel the thing to be about 20 inches shorter, then redo the seam on the sleeve. That would give me a shrug that isn't designed to wrap around. There's no hurry, though. This can wait until after I finish the afghans.

And on Tuesday I crocheted a bookmark. It needs to be starched and blocked, and I have to get some ribbon for it, but I like the way it came out.

I finished the crocheted bag I was making. (Pictures later.) I wound up using the Cocoa-colored yarn at the top; the Majestic Mountain print yarn I used for the body of the bag didn't have much blue in it (lots more purple), so the Cadet Blue I planned to use at the top wasn't such a good match in real life. I haven't felted the bag, yet. There's a lot of yarn left over, so I'm makng a second bag. I'm making it in Tunisian knit stitch, and I'll felt both bags at the same time. I want to compare the results between the two stitches, so I'll know my preference for any future work. I suspect the Tunisian stitches will give a thicker, firmer bag. (But you can't work Tunisian in the round, so there will have to be a seam.)

Edited to add: Better color samples here...

Too much excitement around here, today

Slow work day, and I got home early. I got to spend some time outside with the dogs.

We walked around the neighborhood some, something we don't do often because you never can tell when someone's loose dog or cat will stray under Sam's nose. We stopped to chat with one neighbor out with her Boston, Holly.

Holly's mom met Sam and Oreo long before she adopted Holly, and she knows Sam's not small-dog safe. She's always kept Holly away from my guys, and we wave from opposite sides of the street or opposite banks of the creek. But today was so lovely, and she picked Holly up to keep her out of mischief and we stood and chatted for a bit. Then we backed a bit apart and she put Holly down. But she didn't have the retractable leash locked, and Holly made a beeline for Sam and Jacey.

Jacey was excited. I don't think she would have been any trouble; Holly was running toward her, not away from her, so nothing was going to trigger Jacey's chase instincts. And Sam was fine, too. Not by his own designs, of course, but I had him in a nice headlock and he wasn't fighting me; he was interested, but resigned to not being allowed to get too close. But Holly's mom was frightened, and trying to pull back on the retractable. She leaned back some, lost her footing, and fell backwards in the street. She put out her arm to break her fall...and broke her left wrist.

At first, I just knew she was down on the ground. I was staying back with my dogs (Holly ran back to mom when mom fell). But when I asked if she was all right, Holly's mom said, "I've broken my arm."

I ran home with my dogs to put them away, out of trouble. A neighbor half a block away, saw me running, saw Holly's mom in the road, and came running, dialing 911 as he ran.

I put Sam's muzzle on him, and left him and Jacey in the living room. (They pretty much had the run of the house, but Jacey behaved herself and didn't get into anything she shouldn't have.) I went back down the block.

Chris, the neighbor with the cell phone, was talking to 911. Holly's mom (in true dog owner fashion, we don't know each other's names, just each other's dogs' names), was sitting in the road, feeling sick to her stomach, and in a cold sweat. She sent me to her condo to get her purse (with her cell phone and her medical insurance card), and her keys. I locked up the place for her. When I got back to her, I took Holly from Chris, and Chris helped Holly's mom get a call through to her husband.

The paramedics came. Holly's mom is 60, she's in good health (except, obviously, the arm), and there didn't appear to be other injuries. (She complained of landing hard on her backside, but her legs were working okay.) The medics hauled her off to the hospital, where her husband was to meet her. Chris took Holly home with him. I was prepared to have Holly here, although I had a SEGA meeting tonight and would have had to leave her here while I went out. (I already was thinking it out: I'd have muzzled my two, blocked off the stairs to keep them downstairs, and left Holly safe in Jacey's crate upstairs.) Anyway, Holly at Chris's house is a good solution. (He lives four condos down from Holly's mom.)

I'm home from the SEGA meeting, where I dropped off 18 plastic Easter Eggs for an upcoming greyhound event. (Long story, but I needed to get the eggs out of the house before Sam got hold of them. Again.) I'm off from work tomorrow, but I'll walk down to drop off a get well card for Holly's mother. I'll sign it with my name,

"Sam and Jacey's mom"

Stuff

I wish I could get to my camera to take a picture, but if I move the dogs will wake up.

Jacey is asleep in one of the nest beds on the sofa. Sam is next to her. He was sleeping on a pillow, but apparently he decided he needed more room.

He has pushed the pillow on top of Jacey and he's got his head resting on it. The only part of Jacey that's still visible is her butt.


Sam's in the proverbial dog house. No, not for his sleeping habits. But he's done one wrong thing after another after another for the last few days. The final straw today was when I told him "No!" over something, he backed off, I turned my back for half a second, turned around and caught him going right back in the "No!" direction. So now he's being "tethered." He's on a four-foot leash, and he goes everywhere I go. He can't wander off and get in trouble. He's not liking it, but it's one way of getting his attention. And it certainly limits the mayhem he can initiate...at least, on my day off today.

Edited to add: Sam moved off the pillow, and Jacey has now pushed it back onto Sam...and she's got her head on it. So now it's just Sam's butt that's sticking out.

Jacey has been dreaming

I'm sitting on the sofa, and Sam is asleep next to me. Jacey was upstairs, sleeping in my bed.

Suddenly, I heard the thump of feet hitting the floor, racing down the hall to the stairs. She flew down the spiral stairs, dashed right past Sam and me on the sofa without seeing us, and went straight to the kitchen doorway.

She was so disappointed to find I wasn't in the kitchen. I think she just dreamed kitchen noises...

She has gone back to sleep, now. Right under my feet. No more false alarms for her.

Sam. Again.

To date: Last April--Two packages of cream-filled chocolate cookies and assorted packages of crackers. August: Ben & Jerry's ice cream. In the fall: Twenty pounds of Nutro Ultra kibble. January: A bag of Valentine conversation hearts.

Yesterday: A bag of potatoes (not his first, I might add). I snatched the bag back, but I didn't know the little *%$@! had stashed one. Later, I found him eating his raw potato, and he growled when I started to take it from him. I just grabbed him by the snout and held his mouth closed while I took back what was left of the potato. (Not much.) It doesn't seem to have made him sick.


Last night, I opened a box of animal crackers. Not the little single-serve boxes, but a larger one (16 oz.). I put the closed box back in the kitchen, at the back of the counter. And Sam didn't see me do it.

Yeah. I came home tonight to two-thirds of a box of animal crackers spread over the carpet. And they're too big to vacuum, except for the crumbled bits where Sam battered the cookies with his muzzle. So I picked up. And vacuumed. And a disappointed (still muzzled) Sam watched.

And after their dinner, Sam and Jacey scoured the carpet for the rest of the crumbs.

Greedy Sam

Both dogs are curled up on the sofa in their "nest" beds. It's pretty chilly in here, so I threw a blanket over the dogs. About 30 seconds after I threw the blanket over them, Sam stood up and turned around, wrapping the blanket around himself (and pulling it off Jacey), then laid down with the whole thing!

Dog pile

Sam commands the top sleeping position. Jacey sneaks her head onto his leg. And Sam trumps Jacey with his tail.

Letting sleeping dogs lie.

They start out side by side, Sam spills out of his bed a little, then a lot, and a patient Jacey puts up with it all.

Are greyhounds high-strung, hyperactive animals?

Not exactly.

We're home.

Sam was harder to get under than the vet expected, but he's been waking up for about two hours longer than Jacey. He's lying in the floor, but he's just acting "tired"--he's steady on his feet when he walks, and he's already visited the water dish.

Poor Jacey. Her eyes are open, and that's about it. She looked more alert at the vet's because she was walking in circles in the crate. But when I got her out, she walked a few steps, then stopped at the doorway where the floor changed colors from one room to the next. I think her depth perception is still affected--and I think she knows it and was afraid that the color change signaled a step up or down. Anyway, she's getting carried a good bit. (Good thing I can lift and carry a 55 pound dog.) She's on a dog bed and shows no interest in moving, getting something to drink, or anything. She's going to have a very quiet night. In a while, when she decides she's interested in food, I'll give them both something light for dinner. They can go back to their regular food and drink tomorrow.

If one or the other of them is "off" tomorrow, I might take them both to work with me. I have to be in from 7 to 3 tomorrow. We probably won't be too busy, so we can afford two kennels for non-paying guests and I'll be able to keep an eye on them. Both dogs need baths, too. There is clear evidence of stressed dogs who have panted and drooled all over themselves. Ick.

UPDATE: Jacey's more herself, now. She's so-far back to normal that she's trotting behind me every time I go near the kitchen. They've both had a bit of dinner and a little water. Right now, they're both sacked out on the sofa.

Right where they belong.

No news is, um, no news.

The vet tech this morning said Sam and Jacey should be done by 2 o'clock, 3 at the latest.

With no news by 2, I went out to run errands (like returning some library books). I went on to the vet's office and got there at 2:50. Sam's out of surgery, but not awake and ready to go. Jacey hadn't been started. It'll be at least another couple of hours.

I know this kind of stuff is unpredictable. They had eight procedures to do today, and they worked on the sick animals before the healthy ones (like my two). And in the past, it's been more like 5 pm before my dog was done (I've never had both in before, like this). And the guy quoting me "3 at the latest" probably wasn't expecting delays...and probably thought that a delay would be no big deal.

But I'm not handling this whole thing very well. I've looked over my shoulder to check on Sam at least a dozen times today...and he's not there. And I was so psyched to get my dogs back by 3, that the delay is not going over well with me. I wish I'd taken my crocheting with me when I went to the vet's. I'd have plopped myself down in the waiting room and just sat there until my dogs were ready. At least I wouldn't be looking around for Sam. I wouldn't be wondering why my phone wasn't ringing, wondering if the cell tower's signal is strong enough in this part of the house, shaking the thing, turning it on and off so it will reacquire the nearest, strongest signal.

And I wouldn't be sitting here crying because the vet's office is running a little behind schedule.

And Comcast is having a bad-signal day. Half my attempts to access anything on the Internet are frustrated by error messages, and bad-signal light combinations on the modem. And while I'm sitting here, waiting for Comcast to maybe show me something (eventually), I start looking around to see what trouble Sam's getting into.

I'm thinking I may pack up my crocheting and just head back to the vet's. I can sit in their waiting room and crochet and go quietly nuts, wondering what every sound I hear from the back really means. (Was that Sam? Is that Jacey crying? Why did someone just run by? Do the techs look tense? Is something wrong back there? And why is it taking so damned long?) I could drive the vet staff seriously mad and scare the hell out of the other customers. But at least I wouldn't be facing a drive back over there in rush hour traffic, where every moron who drives slowly in front of me is in serious danger of having a red Prizm shoved up his tailpipe.

For those of you who weren't here in March of last year and don't know why I'm so stressed: My Oreo broke her leg in a freak accident, needed orthopedic surgery, and never came out of the anesthesia; she suffered a pulmonary embolism. And I know that whole series of events was just a batch of freak occurrences--just really shitty luck. But I'm not absolutely convinced that I've exhausted my quotient of shitty luck.

Hell, I'm taking my crocheting and going back to the vet's. If Sam's awake and ready to go before Jacey, he and I can sit in the waiting room, and I can hug him and cry on his shoulder. (I've done it before.) And I'll be much more patient with lousy drivers on my way home with my dogs. Don't expect to hear any news from me for another couple of hours.

Dental Eve

I'm about to give Sam and Jacey a snack and a last drink of water for the night. The water dish comes up at 11 pm. They're due at the vet's between 8 and 9 am tomorrow for their dentals. Right now, they're curled up on the sofa, sleeping, and have no idea what's in store for them. (Sam is sleeping with his head on Jacey. Jacey is growling in her sleep.) The vet called with the results of their bloodwork. Jacey's thyroid numbers are low, even for a greyhound (they have chronically low numbers). Since she's not showing any other signs of thyroid problems (her coat is terrific--nice and thick, her weight is stable, she's certainly not lethargic), we aren't going to start her on meds right now. Sam's urine showed a slight trace of red blood cells. My vet consulted with another grey-savvy vet, who said it's not something to worry about. I'm trying not to fret about the dentals tomorrow and about having my guys anesthetized.

We'll sleep a little late tomorrow. I'll get dressed as soon as I get up. Then I'll take the dogs out--for their morning walk, they'll think. After the walk, I'll stick them straight in the car--before they have time to start agitating for breakfast. I'll get something to eat after I drop them at the vet's. When I get home, I may go back to bed. It might be nice to have the bed all to myself; on the other hand, I might just lie there and fret. If that seems likely, I might try some housework. And I have to do my taxes, but I'm still waiting for a 1099. (My next day off will be Sunday, and I can do my taxes then...if the 1099 finally shows up.)

I've e-mailed a print job to FedEx-Kinko's. It's the premium list for the SEGC's next lure coursing event. I love being able to e-mail the files over, then call with printing info: four PDF files, each with two pages that print back-to-back, printed on Ivory paper, 75 copies each. No folding, no collating. Call Kinko's to confirm, then pick up the job when it's done. (I'll pick it up in the morning on the way back from the vet's.)

It's 31 Days of Oscar on TCM. Tonight: The Hurricane, Wake Island, and the Maltese Falcon (on now).

Newsy stuff...

The dogs: Sam kicked me in the mouth last night while we were sleeping--managed to split my lower lip. Coincidentally (I swear it wasn't retaliatory), the dogs went to the vet today. They both got 3-year rabies shots, office exam, heartworm test, and the "senior wellness exam" blood work. Total? $182.50. Each. Sam generally gets blood work done twice a year to check how his thyroid is doing (he's on meds). But both dog are going in next Tuesday for dentals, and my vet likes to get the full panel for "elective" surgery like the dental. (It's not that elective: Jacey's gums bleed when I brush her teeth.) The senior exam also includes a urinalysis, so the vet tech and I were outside with the dogs (between rain showers); both dogs cooperated. We want the urinalysis for Jacey, especially, since she's still having urinary tract issues. (There's some inflamation, but she doesn't seem bothered by it.) The vet commented favorably on the dogs' coats; since both dogs get glucosamine, fish oil, flax seed oil, and cranberry pills daily--on top of their super-premium dog food--they damn well better have good coats. Next month we'll make a return visit to the vet for the other shots and the bordatella-vaccine-up-the-nose fun.

The dogs are going in for dentals on Tuesday. This is a HUGE issue for me, and I'm doing this on short notice to get it over with before I chicken out. Sam had seizures (probably from the ketamine, they think) the last time he had a dental. Jacey almost predictably demonstrates some undesirable side effects from any drugs she takes. And Oreo died in surgery last March. So I'm not just enormously enthusiastic about having my dogs knocked out to have their teeth cleaned. On the other hand, tooth and gum trouble are likely to lead to unwanted infections; both dogs appear to be in good health right now (the lab work is to check on that); neither dog is dangerously old for anesthesia (Sam is 6, 7 in May; Jacey is 3, 4 in May). And I'd like to be able to brush Jacey's teeth without making her gums bleed. I could do without having all this expense at one time; but if I'm going to stress and worry about the dogs under anesthesia, I might as well worry about both of them at the same time and get it done. I'll deliver them to the vet on Tuesday morning, pick them up Tuesday afternoon; in between, I may have a house-cleaning orgy. (I'm trying not to dwell on coincidences: last year, my dogs saw the vet and had good check-ups; Oreo broke her leg the next day, and she died the day after that. I'd sorta like to bubble wrap both dogs for the next week or so.)

Crafts: I've finished the first 32 rows (of 172+) of Ashley's afghan. I've done about 30 rows of Daniel's. I've learned not to do the black part of his afghan at night; there's just not enough light to see clearly. I've also done four squares for the BC Convention afghan, and I'll take pictures after I block them--and before I send them off to join companion squares. I've wanted to learn Tunisian crochet; I went to a Web site, followed the videos, and practiced the stitches on these squares. Now, if I can learn how to keep the stitches from rolling up...

I <3 greyhounds

(Like you didn't know that.)

I took Sam and Jacey to a Garden and Patio Trade Show today. The greyhound group was invited for a second year. We take our pets to let people who've never seen a greyhound in the flesh find out what they're like...and we take adoption information to give out.

Jacey was a bit growl-y at the beginning...about the other dogs, not about the people. (The people stopping to pet dogs were hers--and not for sharing.) She doesn't bark, and she doesn't growl loudly, but I kept my hand under her chin so I could feel when she was growling. It took a couple of eyeball-to-eyeball discussions (her eyeballs and mine), but she calmed down. But she pushed out to the front of the pack when people came by, and she loved all the petting, including from the kids.

Poor Sam was nearly driven crazy by the people coming to our booth with bags of nuts in their hands. (The nuts were available at Trader Joe's booth.) Sam didn't know what they had; he just knew it was food and it was in cellophane bags that crackled so invitingly. He sat politely in front of anyone with the cellophane bags, and I'd pop a piece of kibble in his mouth. It was funny to watch him be so hopeful.

We were there about four hours. And we certainly convinced people that greyhounds are not high-strung dogs. At one point, all six dogs present were sacked out on beds (or the bare floor) snoozing...resting up for the next crowd.

A quiet day...

Daniel's blue/black afghan is through row 20; just 152+ to go. Ashley's teal/fuchsia afghan is through row 24. I'll try to get some pictures in the next week.

I'm going to give my wrist a break and go do some genealogy input. Jacey's asleep here on the couch; Sam's asleep on top of Jacey. We're all being rest-on-our-asses lazy. (Or rest-on-someone-else's ass, in one case.) It's nice.

Jacey

I'm trying very hard not to giggle. Jacey is asleep on the couch and doing a Jacey symphony: growls, snorts, hoots, whistles, humming noises. (This is the noisiest I've ever heard her.)

Sam was asleep on the couch, but he's gotten down and backed away like he thinks she's about to come after him. He keeps staring at her as if he thinks she's gone mad. He has no idea that he's just as noisy sometimes.

Sam and the Valentine's Candy

I went grocery shopping. It's awful how needing "just a bit" of stuff turns into such a big bill. The stores have Valentine's candy out already, and I bought a bag of the conversation hearts.

I got home, killed a little time, then went to the greyhound group meeting tonight. I got home to the dogs and found...

Well, remember a few months ago, when Sam covered downstairs with 15-20 pounds of dog kibble? Even though he was wearing a muzzle? With a poop guard?

A bag of conversation hearts doesn't give him quite as much ammunition, but it gives him...enough. Dining room, living room, over and under his bed, and even a few halfway up the stairs. Which prompts two questions:

1--How the hell is he getting them up the stairs? He's muzzled. With a guard. He can't put them in his mouth, and surely he's not wedging them between his toes!

2--What was he doing taking them upstairs? I'm not silly enough to think he was taking them up to Jacey in her crate. He doesn't willingly share with her--especially if he can't have any, himself. Perhaps he planned to put them down just out of her reach, to tease her. But I think he really just wanted to stash a few pieces away where I might not find them when I came home.

I've been home for about half an hour, now, and I've vacuumed up all the candy. Sam's walking around forlornly, hoping to find a piece I missed.

Dream on, boy...

Seventy-plus French knots later...

It's finished--with time to spare!



Now to wrap presents...

Oh, golly...

A picture of a greyhound that is not mine... (Check out the tags on the picture.)

Greyhounds

SEGA continues its efforts in supporting November as Adopt-a-Senior-Pet month. There are two 9-year-olds remaining who need a home, but someone has expressed an interest in adopting them. And we've got a 10-year-old bouncing back to SEGA for readoption; the family has a recently widowed mother-in-law who is moving in with her two cats, and the greyhound is "a cat zapper." SEGA will find him a home. SEGA has placed two 11-year-olds and two 10-year-olds so far this month.

Hugger at home 11-year-old Hugger's foster parents have flunked fostering. They adopted him. (Taken from the SEGC message board home page.)

But this comes in the face of some bad news for SEGA members. 12-year-old Teresa had to be put to sleep while her owners were out of the country; they're coming home to five dogs instead of six. (It was a case of owner-of-four-dogs marrying owner-of-two-dogs.) Teresa had been ailing for a month or so. Teresa was a champion agility and obedience dog, and will be much missed. (She was the teacher's demo-dog when Oreo took obedience classes. Teresa showed how the dog should respond after training. Oreo was the demo-dog for how you teach the behavior, since an open-mouthed Oreo would follow the treat anywhere the teacher moved it...and ever-after greeted the teacher by sniffing her pockets.) And 11-year-old Walker died this weekend, too, after a long bout with cancer.

Today would have been Oreo's ninth birthday.

Edited to add an update: Another 9-year-old has been adopted today!

A public service announcement...

Today: A friend's two greyhounds got out of her fenced yard and took off in opposite directions. Patti called our "Lost Hound Cooperative," which went into action: messages on the Yahoo Message Board, MapQuest maps posted on the Web site, phone calls to SEGA members in the area. Patti grabbed her cell phone and took off after the escapees.

Fortunately, today's weather here was sunny and only a bit cool, and lots of people were outdoors. Area residents spotted both dogs, knew they didn't belong loose on their own, and grabbed the dogs. (It helps that both dogs are friendly, social dogs who go right up to total strangers to be petted.) The rescuers called the number on the dogs' tags. But that number was ringing in Patti's empty house, and people wound up leaving messages on the machine.

Patti got the messages eventually, but if she'd gotten the news earlier, she could have saved herself a lot of worry. So both dogs are home safely. And Patti's getting them new tags...with her cell phone number on them.

Are your pets tagged?

Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month

November is Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month. Our rescue group has placed two 11-year-old greyhounds this month, but we still have three 9-year-olds and one 10-year-old looking for homes.

In an effort to spur adoptions of seniors, one placement worker drafted a list of greyhound owners and asked each of us to make a pro-seniors post one day this month. Today was my day to post.

Why adopt a senior?

The edges are all smoothed off. He's been around. He "gets" glass doors, mirrors, slippery floors, squeaky toys, mom leaving to go to work. And he understands the idea of "going out to potty."

He appreciates comfortable routine. He's had the "new boy" experience and is grateful now to just drop down onto that open, available bed and be the least trouble he knows how to be...

He knows that ear-scritches are vastly to be treasured. Kisses on the head are a prize nearly equal to "cookies." And cuddles on the couch are absolute heaven.

But he hasn't seen EVERYTHING. He's still curious about what's around the next corner on your walk. He's wondering if he's allowed to catch squirrels at your house. He wants to know what games you know and what toys you have. He wants to meet your friends and coworkers.

He wants to be YOUR DOG.

And he'll enrich your life far more than you'll be able to enrich his.


That's for Oreo, who would have been nine years old next Monday.

Jacey

You know how in cartoons there'll be someone sleeping, with their lips pressed together, and every time they exhale their lips flutter and vibrate?

Jacey's doing that right now, and it's all I can do to not laugh out loud at her.

Dogs. Nature's stress-relievers...

This week

I’m home on the sofa, watching King Kong, and I am absolutely beat. (Oh, dear, Kong’s stamping on natives. Would you believe I’ve never seen this movie before? It’s the Fay Wray version.)

Today was Greyfest, the big greyhound festival. I did $145 worth of nail trims and ear cleanings to raise money for SEGA. There was only one dog who wanted to bite; he was fine for his nails, but wanted to take my hand off when I tried to clean his ears. His name was Mr Spock. I’m willing to concede that Vulcans might be fussy about their ears, but logic should preclude biting as a solution. (Oh, dear, Kong’s grabbed Ann out the high-rise window and is taking a stroll through New York…and about to disrupt the subway…)

Anyway, the crocheted greyhound brought SEGA $100 in the silent auction. I didn’t spend much money—just bought the new SEGA cookbook (people-food recipes and dog-treat recipes). In the “Blur of Fur” competition they clocked running greyhounds with a radar gun. The fastest dog today was doing 45 mph…and that wasn’t a particularly young dog: just one who loves to run. (It’s Kong against the airplanes, now, and I think we know how that turns out.) Sam and Jacey didn’t go to Greyfest; I can’t look after them, keep Sam out of trouble, and do nail trims at the same time, so the dogs just had a quiet day at home.

On the way home from Greyfest, I stopped at Costco and spent a fortune: two dog throws, one new dog bed, and a ton of vitamins/supplements: Cranberry pills (Jacey), glucosamine (all of us), flax seed oil (Jacey and Sam), calcium (me), fish oil pills (Jacey and Sam).

(Oh, no. It was beauty killed the beast.)

Edited to add: The Blur of Fur winner was Venus, formerly RC Desert Secret. I just looked her up on the greyhound database. She was born 17 November 2001--which was the day I adopted Oreo: Nice coincidence...

Happy Gotcha Day

I ordered a pattern to make sweaters for the dogs. The pattern comes from the same woman who created the crocheted greyhound pattern. I ordered the yarn, too: "Aran" colored yarn for Sam's, "Cherry Red" for Jacey's. (I get free shipping from Joanns through December 31. That made ordering from Joann's cheaper than ordering from anywhere else.) I also ordered a needlepoint kit to make a Christmas stocking. I made stockings for both my nephews when they were little, and my sister Santa still stuffs the stockings with candy every Christmas. Well, elder nephew (he's twenty-three) has a girlfriend who'll be spending her third Christmas with our family. There's no announced engagement, but that could come any time. (She's in vet school at the University of Georgia, and he is living and working there in Athens to be near her.) So I'm going to make Ashley a stocking...hope I can get it done in time.

Sam celebrated Gotcha Day (on 5 October) by clearing off the kitchen counter. Again. The bread was safely on top of the refrigerator. The bag of potatoes was not. Of course, Sam's muzzled, so he couldn't do anything with the potatoes beyond opening the bag and rolling the potatoes around on the kitchen floor. But he did that very well.

The Militant Greyhound

Check out the militant greyhound. (I know, the first sentence of the write-up says Cleopatra was an American. I've resisted my editor's itch and not sent the guy an e-mail about it.) Other breeds are available, but I'm quite sure the greyhound will reign supreme after the revolution.

If he can bother to get off the sofa.

The dogs pretty much are fine. The vet adjusted Sam's thyroid meds two weeks ago and started Jacey on some new stuff for the bladder issues. I'm not happy with the results in either case, although it may just take longer to see the results for Sam. For Jacey, I'm seeing results, and it's not pretty. (You probably don't want to give a dog with separation anxiety something that "might make her a bit excitable.") So I've cut her dose to 25 percent of the original dose, and we'll see what happens now.

Do not overstuff...

It’s done.



I haven’t made very many stuffed animals, and I suppose I broke the cardinal rule. (Repeat after me: Do not overstuff.) The dog isn’t designed to stand on its feet. There’s no way that could happen unless you inserted some sort of rigid support system (at which point it stops being a stuffed animal and becomes a potential hazard to unsuspecting persons throwing themselves on the bed where the dog might be). But I stuffed the back legs so that they were pretty rigid. (Hey, I had the muscular Sam’s legs as a model. He never raced, he’s been a couch potato for four years, and he’s still got a nice, tight butt.) Then, when I sewed the back legs together, they stuck out at right angles. Attaching them to the body didn’t fix the problem. So I cut off the feet, unraveled the legs up to the knees, pulled out a bunch of stuffing (but maybe not enough: Do not overstuff.), recrocheted the legs and feet.

I left the front legs alone. The body has a flap that fits between the front legs, so they weren’t going to assume any flaky angles. But they’re undoubtedly fatter than they ought to be. Do not overstuff. For the body, I concentrated on getting enough stuffing in the neck area to make the head stay upright. It, at least, is not overstuffed. And I got the tail right: you put just a bit of stuffing in the top end so it’s not totally limp.



I love the ears, though. The designer cleverly has you crochet over a length of yarn that later works like a drawstring to give the ears their characteristic “curl.”

Sam was wonderful for the photographs. The first one you see here actually was the last one I took. Sam first came over and laid himself down on the throw and put his chin flat on the ground: his usual bored-with-photography pose. The pictures looked okay because I posed the crocheted greyhound around him, and Sam tolerated the head on his, etc.



But then I moved the greyhound away from Sam for some solo pictures of it. I laid it on its side and draped its tail up over its back leg. Sam looked at the greyhound, looked at me, and perfectly copied the pose.

(And in the background, Jacey moped: “No one wants to take my picture.”)



The greyhound will go with me to the SEGC meeting Wednesday night. I’ll hand it over to the people organizing Greyfest, and they can place him up for auction at the silent auction. Sam and Jacey will be happy to see him leave. As I was assembling him last night, they spent much of the evening dodging flailing legs. (It didn’t help that I had to redo parts of two already-attached legs.)

I’m moving on to a knitting project—one that doesn’t involve polyester fiberfill, shaped pieces, and a monster assembly operation. If I ever propose making another crocheted greyhound, I hope my LiveJournal friends will try to stop me by reminding me what a pain this has been.

And if you can’t make me stop, at least make me remember: Do not overstuff.

The pattern is available here. Greyfest info here.

Saturday

Got up early today to take the dogs to a Meet and Greet. Sam hasn't been to one in years, and Jacey has never been. But Sam dropped right back into pet-me-pet-me mode, and Jacey got it figured out pretty quickly. Today's M&G was at the Marietta Farmers Market. One of the dogs there was the charming--and very tempting--Billie Holliday, the tiny little Oreo look-alike. Billie has been in a foster home for two weeks and is doing well, but she desperately wants her own home and her own person to love. (She's in a foster home where the two live-in dogs don't like her. They don't fight with her; they just totally ignore her attempts to make friends and her invitations to play.) If my condo complex didn't have a two-pet limit, I'd take her in a heartbeat. As it is, I find myself very tempted to see just how serious the complex is about enforcing the limit. (I know at least one condo here with three dogs in it--but they're all small dogs.) I keep telling myself that A--I can't afford a third dog, and B--It would not be fair to take her in and then have to return her because the condo complex did insist on enforcing the limit. I know she'll find a good home if I just leave her in the adoption program and let the system take its course. But oh, what a sweetie...

We got home from the M&G and all three of us collapsed and slept for hours, exhausted by the heat as much as anything. I've been up a while, working on the crocheted greyhound. (About 20 more rows on the last leg to do; then assembly--which probably will be difficult. It often is.) I'll probably stay up late tonight. I can sleep late tomorrow; the Yappy Hour brunch (in downtown Atlanta with the dogs) doesn't start until 1 pm.

Jacey at the vet's (again)

Poor Jacey had to have the needle-in-the-bladder experience Tuesday. Three times.

The urine sample I took to the vet's showed signs of a lingering infection, despite two weeks on antibiotics. And it is important to determine whether the infection is in the bladder or not before treatment, so the vet needed a sterile sample from the bladder. Hence, the needle.

He poked once. Oops, that was the colon. He poked again. Still not right. She needed to have a super-full bladder to make it easier to hit the target. (Bless her heart, she just stood there through the whole thing--not a whimper, not a twitch.) So the vet said to take her home, fill 'er up, bring her back in four hours. I could have left her there, but since she has separation anxiety issues, I didn't want to do that. And I didn't want her to associate the vet's office with "the place where Mom takes her and abandons her."

So I took her home. To encourage her to drink, we got nice salty french fries on our way home. She liked that part. But she turned up her nose at water--at first. So the diabolical mom squirted some maple syrup onto the bottom of an empty dish and let her sniff. And start licking. That's when I added water. She lapped faster and faster trying to get the syrup out before the water diluted it too much. (Then Sam came over and drank the rest of the water.) And we did it again. (Sam's part, too.)

Consider: How do you get the dog's bladder full--but not too full--at exactly the right time and the right place?

Answer: You don't.

Before we started back to the vet's, she was whining to go out. Instead, I took Sam out so he'd be okay to leave at home. Jacey, left in the house, decided to relieve that aching bladder. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board.

I took her early to the vet's. And I took more maple syrup...and her dish, and a bottle of water. She obediently drank more water. Then she started pacing, started to whine, started to squat... "No-no-no-no-no!" She jumped up. I hollered to the staff, "I know we're early for our appointment, but you'd better move fast or she'll flood the waiting room." They moved.

Bingo! Success with the needle. And while they spun the sample to get the proper sediment to test, Jacey got to go outside. Three times. The poor, water-logged dog was positively perky by the time she finished.

The test showed that the infection in the bladder has been cleared up. This means it's safe to put her on hormones to tighten the muscles to stop the "slow leak" she developed from taking the Clomicalm (for her anxiety). (You don't want to tighten the muscles and trap an infection inside the bladder, which is why the vet needed to be sure where the problem was. But the minor leak has meant an almost constant presence of urine in areas that shouldn't have that presence; hence, the remaining infection, which won't respond to antibiotics, but will clear up once the leaking stops.)

These hormones are not something humans take, so you can't fill this prescription in a general pharmacy. And the vet can't do it. He knows of one pharmacy in the metro area that can compound the formula. I looked up their address on MapQuest yesterday, so I could go there after work today. MapQuest conveniently neglected to warn me about a critical one-way street. I detoured, I wandered, I circled, I finally found the KenMar Medical Building and pulled in the parking lot...to be greeted by a banner that read "The KenMar Pharmacy temporarily has relocated to 55 Whichert Street." I hauled out the map book, re-detoured and re-circled, and found the building. (Free parking for 20 minutes and under. $3 for 21 minutes to two hours.) I found the pharmacy. They filled the prescription ($28). I was back in my car and in line for the parking lot exit--in 25 minutes. The pharmacist said that if I need refills I should call ahead and they'll have them waiting. I'm hoping not to need a refill. This 30-pill prescription should last through Christmas, by which time I'm really hoping she'll be all well. (One pill a day for five days; two pills a week for two weeks; one to two pills a week thereafter.)

Today I took the dogs down to a neighbor's to try to get some nice flower-enhanced pictures of them for the 2007 SEGA calendar. I just timed it right since the neighbor is planning to pick flowers Thursday morning. Between Sam's butt-sniffing and Jacey's "Can I play dead?" pose, you've never seen two dogs less interested in having their pictures taken.





But I did get some nice shots. And I have another week or two before the photos are due.

No longer an e-bay virgin...

I won my first auction on eBay.

"Won," of course, is a complete misnomer since I'm paying for the privilege. And I was the only bidder.

Believe it or not, I didn't order it for the dog sweater pattern. (I wanted the teddy bear pattern.) I found a dog sweater pattern on another site. The largest size--"X Large," they called it--is supposed to fit a dog with a girth (i.e., chest measurement) of 24 inches. Well, Jacey's chest measures 26+ inches; Sam's, 30+. I don't hold out much hope of this book having a sweater that will fit either of my dogs. And my dogs have polar-fleece coats that I made years ago. Jacey will inherit Oreo's Winnie-the-Pooh coat.

Oreo in her jammies:




I'm taking it easy on the crocheted greyhound. Work on it is proving to be hard on my hands (I wind up with aching hands the next day), so I'm only working on it a bit at a time. But I have a couple more pictures of a sulking Sam with bits of his "rival":

A flashback

I've been cleaning up e-mails and old stuff on my old computer. I came across a copy of a message board post I made in April of 2004, when SEGA was looking for stories about adopting "bounces"--dogs that get turned in to the kennel after a brief time in an adopter's home:

I never had dogs growing up. I thought long and hard about adopting a dog and was trying to figure out what breed would fit in well with my lifestyle. My neighbor has an Australian shepherd so one thing I knew for certain was that I didn't want a dog that "needed a job."

Then I saw the Animal Planet episode about the greyhound named "Go." (It's the episode with Maggie McCurry.) I started reading up about greyhounds and decided that was the breed for me.

I didn't know of any adoption groups in the Atlanta area, but I got one of those "Clipper" flyers in the mail. At the top of one page was an ad for electric fences. The bottom half of the page was an ad for Adopt-A-Greyhound Atlanta. So I called Carl and made an appointment.

When I got there, there were two females I was looking at. (Too many of the others were barking--a no-no for a condo-dwelling dog!) One was a light fawn named Calypso Pretty, the other was a black 4-year-old named Oreo--a bounce. Oreo's coat was still in good shape, and the idea of a dog that already was used to a home appealed to me as a first-time dog-owner. So Oreo won me mostly on her looks, and partly because I figured the behavioral kinks were already worked out. (It doesn't seem to have occurred to me that she might have been returned because of a problem that I should be worried about. The story was that she was owned by an older couple whose son looked after her, then the son moved out of state and the couple couldn't cope.)

Oreo has turned out to be a prima donna. And a mama's girl. And a delight, with smiles and helicopter-tail-wags for her favorite people.

In looking for a group that had activities I could take Oreo to, I found SEGA. And because Oreo was so well-behaved at home from the beginning, she gave me the confidence to take on fosters who hadn't lived in a home. And because Oreo was so easy to handle--and most of the fosters were, too--I didn't hesitate to adopt a second dog. (See, Oreo? It's your own fault that you've got to share with Sam.)

These days, Oreo is too often in diva-mode, and isn't well-behaved around other females; this means she's missing some outings that Sam gets to go on. But she still meets us eagerly (even frantically) at the door ("Where have you been? Do you know how worried I was, relying on *him* to protect you?"). She wakes me in the morning with kisses if she thinks I'm sleeping too late. When she wakes up from a nap, she comes over and lays her head in my lap for kisses and cuddles (which she just did while I was typing this message).

The people that let Oreo get away don't know what a gem they lost. But I do. And finders, keepers...

...losers, weepers.

Jacey at the vet's

Jacey went to the vet today. She's got either a bladder or a vaginal infection, and my money is on the bladder thing (she's always peed "funny"). So she's on antibiotics for two weeks. If there's not an improvement, she goes in for them to take a urine sample with a needle to determine what the problem is. (Jacey, trust me, you really want to get over this now--without another vet visit.)

The very minor incontinence issue might be from the infection. But it might be a "known minor side effect" of the Clomicalm she had to take. If the incontinence continues once the infection is cleared up, the vet might put her on some hormones that would have the effect of tightening things up "down there."

Meanwhile, she was a good girl at the vet's. And she's four pounds lighter than she was on her first visit, when she was still overweight from her stay at the greyhound kennel.

Greyhound update

The crocheted greyhound has a body (not stuffed as yet; pictures later) and about a third of one rear leg. My hands were very sore after last weekend's marathon crochet session, and since I need flexible hands to earn my living, I've left the crochet hook alone until today. I've adjusted my grip on the hook and yarn--partly to alleviate the sore hands and partly to eliminate the unfortunate corkscrewing tendency produced by too-tight stitches. (I'm planning to redo the front leg I did last weekend because it corkscrews too much.)

Greyhound-to-be

Sam points out he's much better looking than his rival...and he has ears, too.




A foreleg and a Sam-leg.

Greyhound-to-be

The cornmeal-colored yarn I ordered arrived today. It's going to make a lovely afghan...but it's not a greyhound color. So I'll use yarn the same color as the teddy bear I made for Creeklyn.

Finished bookmark

I finished the *mumble mumble* without Jacey's help...and got pictures of it tonight. I have a hard time getting the proper color on photographs, and this one is close but not exact:

Greyhound-to-be

I've ordered "cornmeal" colored yarn to make a crocheted greyhound. And I've already bought 40 ounces of fiberfill for the stuffing. I'll take a picture of Sam with the "ingredients" so you can see just how much 40 ounces of fiberfill really is. (20 ounces is about the size of one bed pillow.)

The bear is done...and has clothes!

I was off from work today. I've crocheted since 6 am (it's 10:30 pm now) and finally finished the bear for KT's niece, Creeklyn. KT works tomorrow, as do I, and I'll give her the bear then. I'll hope to hear some good news about Creeklyn's condition.

Barnaby Bear Notes

Crochet notes

Note: After wrestling with a skinny C hook yesterday, I broke down and bought one of the fat (and expensive) Clover hooks. It's lovely, and much easier to work with. But the book with the bear pattern translated a 3.0mm hook as a C hook. This Clover hook is labeled "2.5 mm." I'll keep using this hook for this bear, but I may get a D hook for future bears; slightly bigger stitches will be slightly looser and easier to work. But it'd be nice if everyone would get on the same page regarding hook sizes. (Clover hooks here. Ooh! I may have to get this whole set; cheaper to get the set than to buy them one at a time for $6 each.)

Have I started crocheting aliens from Roswell?



Well, not exactly. The "eye slits" actually are where the ears will go on the teddy bear I'm crocheting. But this is the tiny opening through which the pattern maker expected me to attach the stuffed muzzle, embroider the eyes, and attach the ears:



Ridiculous! Anyway, I unraveled all the decreasing rows, did all the facial features, then reworked the decreasing rows, stuffed the head, and closed it off.



(That's a troll from The Return of the King on the television in the background.)



Now I just have to finish the bear's body {grin}; it's only taken me two days to get through the head! Meanwhile, I've picked up some yarn to make another bear. Sam's napping on it in this picture:




The bear is for coworker KT's infant niece, Creeklyn, who landed in ICU Sunday with breathing difficulties. KT only works at our store on weekends, and we haven't heard anything from her this week. If I don't hear from her Wednesday, I'll give her a call on Thursday and see if there's any news. Your continued vibes are very welcome.

Both dogs get into the act

Some crochet notes (documented here so I'll have notes for the next time I work one of these):
I'm working on a teddy bear from this source: Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers by Lesley Stanfield. The book is British crochet instructions, so their "dc" is our "sc." I'm having to concentrate to keep from misreading an instruction. (It's also a bound book, rather than a stitched/stapled one, so it doesn't stay open at the page with the instructions...a real nuisance.)

And the bear is tiny. The head is not much larger than the size of my fist; finished, the bear will be about 10 inches. This is okay, except that they don't give very logical instructions. You finish crocheting the head, leaving a hole the diameter of a nickel; then you're supposed to stuff and attach the muzzle, embroider the nose and eyes, and attach the ears--all of which require you to be able to get inside the head through that nickel-sized hole. No thank you. Tomorrow I'll unravel the whole decreasing-size section of the head (about six rows), do the muzzle, embroidery, and attach the ears (at that point, the opening into the head will be about four inches wide); then I'll rework the decreasing-size part back down to the nickel-sized hole. And, knowing what I now know about the book's instructions, I'll make sure I don't run into the same tiny-opening problems on other parts of the bear's anatomy.

I'm working this in Caron Perfect Match 4-ply knitting worsted, colors "lace" and "winter white," using a C hook (the book calls for DK yarn and a 3.00mm hook). This weight of yarn crocheted with such a tiny hook makes a very tight, firm piece--fine for a stuffed animal, but it would be hell for clothing or a blanket.

While I was working on this crocheting today, Sam and Jacey got into the crochet thread. Jacey took a ball of thread over to her dog bed; Sam came and stole it away from her...but a bit of the thread was stuck to her foot, so the thread unrolled as Sam ran with it. Maybe I need to get these two their own craft supplies.

A Jacey update

We're still having housebreaking issues, and I try not to let her out of my sight. She's good in the crate when I'm not home, though, so that's a relief.

I'm starting to wean her off the clomipramine. (She came off the Valium in June.) She'll be on a 75% dosage for a week, then 50% for two weeks, then 25% until this batch of pills is gone. It took two weeks for the drug to get to "working strength" in her system, so I'm assuming it'll take about as long before I see any signs of stress as she comes off the pills. But I'd be happy to have her off the pills (for a variety of reasons, including that I could find something else to do with that $60/month), so I'm hoping this goes well. The surest--and easiest to spot--sign of stress with her will be if she starts irritating her feet by pawing at the crate when I'm not home. That was the first sign I noticed--before I even knew she was stressing out.

Craft-y stuff

I'm going to try to post more often, but that means more boring day-to-day stuff, since things are usually not hopping here at Chez Fido. (Hey, I like having an uneventful life.)

Deliveries have kept UPS and the USPS busy today. The letter carrier brought two packages: one from Overstock-dot-com carried the extended version of Return of the King (which I'm watching now) and a book, When Crickets Cry. The other package contained two balls of crochet thread (peach and ecru) that had been on backorder from Herrschners.

And UPS delivered a new order from Herrschners that included a lamp.

Now I'm, um, thrifty. I won't spend $50 on a lamp just because it looks good, if I can find a less expensive lamp that will do. But the new lamp is for craft work, and it's wonderful. It simulates daylight, which is best for sorting thread colors for embroidery, and it's been lovely, just this afternoon, to be working on the mumble-mumble and be able to see it so clearly. And the lamp doesn't burn hot and can be angled to light my work without glaring on my laptop screen or the television (where Return of the King is still running...and running...and running {grin}). Crafters (and readers): Take a look at this. The part that's extended horizontally is the part with the bulb, and it can be at the angle shown in the picture or extended completely straight up. The part that's extended also is the "on" switch; the bulb lights up when the arm is extended, goes off when the arm is collapsed. (The other items from Herrschners: water color pencils for my mother for Christmas, perforated (cream) paper and perforated (clear) plastic for counted cross-stitch. And there's another Herrschners order on its way to me. And I bought some yarn last week at Joann's. I need to shut down that credit card for a while.)

Oh, and I've ordered two new greyhounds. Before you faint--or question my sanity--they're statues. At 63 pounds, they'll weigh about what Sam does--and the size appears to match Sam, too. I'm thinking I might put them on either side of my fireplace. (Yeah, I know: I'm "thrifty"--and I just bought two greyhound statues. But I've wanted a pair of these things for years, this is a terrific sale price [they're often $75 each], and it's a fundraiser for SEGA. But I'm going to have to haul them home when they arrive...)

Jacey takes up crochet...

Literally.

I took a break from the afghan for Shari's baby to work on a mumble-mumble I'm making as a present for mumble-mumble. I paused long enough to go on-line to Papa John's to order a pizza ("perfect pan" with pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers). The delivery guy called to say he was lost (not unusual in a condo complex where every street name begins with "Cedar," but there are street signs). I put down the crocheting and went out to flag the guy down if he cruised past my street. While I was outside, Jacey picked up my crocheting and went to the door to wait for me. She did not, however, pick up the ball of crochet thread. I found about 10 yards of lavender crochet thread stretched across the living room and into the foyer. And this wasn't new thread unraveled from the ball. My crocheted piece was about 10 yards' worth smaller than when I left it.