The Doc's Advice

 

I know you've already seen this picture, but I wanted to show it again. As you know, my biggest fear is that Cadie will break her very long legs, and we will have to fix them. This fear isn't totally irrational as my last dog had a broken leg, and the care she required at that time haunts me still.

I had noticed a change to Cadie's gait a while back, and I kept asking people if her legs looked broken. They always answered no, but I was convinced that there was something wrong. So I brought it up with my vet. She had Cadie walk up and down the stairs several times over, then she watched Cadie walk straight across the room.

It turns out that Cadie has a ligament injury on her back right leg. So she's been favouring the right by shifting her weight to the back left (something you can see her doing in the picture above).

Not great news, but obviously it's not a break, so it's not terrible news. However, it means that we are now doing some light stretches after our walks to help ease the injury, in the hopes that Cadie will stop shifting her weight. This will also make a difference to the way we play with the tennis ball, no more high balls, from now on we have to roll them across the grass. I'm glad we caught this early.

Carpe Diem Weather

I wish I could say that I hadn't been blogging because I was doing something important, but that would be a lie. Mostly I've been lounging around city parks like a bum. But, in my defence we've now reached Carpe Diem weather here in Toronto.

The point where you know that the number of warm, sunny days is far fewer than the overcast rainy days or the snowy cold days, and you make sure that you go out, lounge in parks, or sit on patios and soak up every last bit of faint fall sunshine.

And alright, we never had the amazing show of colours here in that Barrie had, or even Brantford and Hamilton, but it has been a nice, long, hot summer that flowed into a nice, long, cool fall, and it seems that we are now headed into the rainy beginnings of winter, with extreme cold and snow to follow shortly.

It's funny how time changes, it feels like only yesterday that it was August and I couldn't find any relief from the heat, and now the harvest is mostly in, and Thanksgiving is a distant memory.

Now the ground is covered in gold. It crinkles and rustles like a dress as we walk over it, is beautifully uncreased in the places where no one has touched it. We should take advantage because soon the ground will be covered in crystal, and crystal is cold, and wet, and makes nothing more than a barely audible crunching sound.

So Cadie and I have been sitting back and enjoying the weather while we can.

Because the times, they are a changing.

Happy Friday!

Today is the most beautiful day of the week for a couple of reasons:

1) it is cool, with a wonderful, bright blue sky and not a cloud in sight (a big change from the rest of the cloud filled week)
2) it's Friday!

I had a tough time getting started this morning, I also had another rough night; I woke up ever hour pretty regularly stare at the clock and try to figure out what the numbers meant. The combination of these things means that I am cranky from lack of sleep, and from a desire be out in the world, not trapped behind a desk. Yes I know I am living for the weekends, and that's not a good way to live, but I don't care, the weekend is where the fun is.

happy Friday everyone

Me and my Shadow

I had a terrible sleep last night, I seemed to wake up every 2 hours, and at 4 this morning rolled over, half opened my eyes, and became convinced that someone had just closed the door to my room. I was terrified. so after hemming and hawing over what might be lurking in the shadows of my room I decided to turn on the light and get up.

I'm nobody's fool, I took a big, heavy flower pot to protect myself, just in case it wasn't my overactive imagination. Luckily I had nothing to fear, the closing of my door was nothing more than an imagining, I should have know that, Cadie was dead to the world on the bed beside me, had there been an intruder Cadie would have been up and trying to make friends with them.

At any rate, I moved to the couch in the living room after that, Cadie always waits until I get myself settled, then she comes out and pushes herself onto the couch at my feet. I can't say it was the best night ever, but at least I had company. And upon reading last night's blog again this morning I think it's time to start taking the vitamin D again.

House Cleaning

I spent the weekend house cleaning. I am the second worse housekeeper that I know of, and the apartment was a disaster, that was sorely in need of cleaning. So I chipped away at the dusting, laundry and bathroom on Saturday and did the kitchen and floors last night. I also spent some time last night preparing for the turtle invasion that is happening later tonight.

Uncle Tim is moving, and it is going to take a couple of days for him to have his tank up and running again, so in the mean time his 2 turtles will be staying with me. So I had to go down to the storage locker, carefully bring out the spare tanks, and carefully haul them upstairs. From there I just had to clean them and fill them with water. But then I started to have some worries, what if Cadie tries to eat the new turtles, or jumps in and drowns in the tank. So that meant that I had to rearrange the furniture so that I could be sure that she would be safe. Anyhow, Tim's turtles are very pretty, so stay tuned and I will post some pictures of them.

Cadie hates cleaning, she doesn't see enough of it to really understand what's going on. All she knows is that her things are being picked up and moved around. Usually she hovers behind me or cowers on the couch. (poor Cadie, last night I took the cushions off the couch and vacuumed there as well, displacing her again). In total I would say that I spent a good 3 hours a day (6 for the whole weekend cleaning). The really heartbreaking thing is that this is just the obvious stuff like dusting and floors. I still have a mountain of bills that need to be filed, the fridge looks like a bomb has gone off, and I'd like to sort through my tea towels as well. Oh well, at least it's a start. And if I'm vigilant this time it won't ever get so dirty again. Ha! who am I kidding, I hate cleaning. What am I saying, it's not that I hate cleaning, I can't clean, it upsets the dog.

Oh the other hand, I did do some cleaning that made me feel really good. I cleaned out my facebook friends, and deleted my ex and his friends. This cleaning has made me feel really good about things.

Memory Lane

One of the things I have wanted for the longest time is a digital frame. I feel like we have so many wonderful pictures, capturing adorable moments for posterity, sitting idly on the internet, or forgotten is someone’s my pictures file. Just this morning I found this fantastic snap shot of Cadie as a little puppy. She’s so tired and tiny in this photo that it almost makes me forget how tough those puppy months were.

I have some friends who take beautiful pictures of their pets. My photographic style is to “get lucky” to wait until I manage to catch Cadie in a perfect position. Alternatively I shoot like a maniac and hope that of the 25 pictures shot during that moment in time that 10% of them or more will be useable. This is not a good technique I know, but I have some pretty good pictures as a result.

Still I have to ask myself: what is the purpose of taking pictures if we forget to put them some place where we can see them. I do have a frame that I’ve been meaning to fill for some time with photos. The problem is that this is an old school frame, requiring hard copies, and I haven’t made time to turn my digital pictures into hard copies, so the frame goes unused.

At any rate, I’m glad I have the pictures, and I’m glad I found these pictures, puppies, like babies, are only small for so long, and while I couldn’t handle owing a perma-puppy, it’s nice to be able to look back at those days nostalgically.

The Best One of All

Cadie loves her tennis balls. Last night she got really lucky. It was pouring after work, and hot weather meant that the water was warm; it felt like walking in a running shower. Cadie isn’t much for walking in the rain, and frankly this is one of the quirks that I love about her. So we went out for about 15 minutes. But I decided that I would make it up to her by taking her out to my building’s backyard. We share a fence with a private tennis club, and sometimes the yard will be full of lost tennis balls. So much the better for us. Cadie has an impressive collection. She has at least 1 bucket full of tennis balls, and a dresser drawer that is half full of tennis balls. In spite of this enviable collection, each newly found tennis ball is a treasure that only Cadie can fully appreciate.


As I said, last night she got lucky; the yard was full of tennis balls. She eagerly ran to each tennis ball in turn, while I followed along behind her. Eventually, after having sniffed every tennis ball in the yard, she ran back towards the porch, ducked under and selected a tennis ball from the bucket.

I used this opportunity to grab a couple of other tennis balls. This is going to sound like I spoil her, but, the highlight of Cadie’s day is finding a new tennis ball, so if I see 2 or 3 loose tennis balls I grab them and hide them in my dog walking bag. Then I place them strategically, while Cadie isn’t looking. This way she finds a new tennis ball almost everyday.

So while I was filling my bag, Cadie selected a sodden tennis ball from the bucket, and then indicated that she was ready to go in. So I helped Cadie in the house, by taking the tennis ball, and lifting her up to the landing, (the stairs here are grates, very uncomfortable for little dog feet). While I was helping her, I made up my mind that I would give the tennis ball a bit of a dry, nothing special, I grabbed some paper towel and just did a light drying. Cadie eagerly grabbed the ball and headed for the couch.

I didn’t think anything of it, this is our routine really. I went about my business, getting her supper, starting mine. It was after I turned the water off that I head this disgusting squishing sound coming from the couch. So I made up my mind that that particular tennis ball had to go, I went over and took it from Cadie. At first I thought that I would leave it in the bathroom sink to see if it might dry out.

Cadie was like a dog possessed; she refused to leave the bathroom, and sat, straight at attention, never taking her eyes off the spot where she knew she could find her tennis ball. So I kicked her out of the bathroom and shut the door. She spent the next 2 hours scratching at the door. I didn’t know what else to do, so I gave her one of the other balls I had grabbed. No go, she wanted the one in the bathroom. Fortunately by this time the rain had completely stopped and I could take her out for a walk. We did a short walk, up and down the beltline. Then on my way home I tried to plant a new tennis ball.

This was a disaster. The ball bounced a foot off the ground, and rolled downhill into the street. Of course Cadie saw the ball, and was staining at the end of her leash to get to it. The cars meanwhile are trying to hold back so as not to run over the crazy dog lunging for a ball. Chaotic it’s true, but short lived nonetheless, the traffic soon cleared and Cadie got her new tennis ball. I feeling like I had finally won the battle of the tennis ball, happily headed for home.

As soon as we stepped in the apartment Cadie headed for the bathroom to try to find the first tennis ball. It was no drier, and in fact, seemed to be wetter, so I made the decision that I would through it out as soon as the warden’s back was turned. I got my opportunity about 2 hours later, Cadie had some sort of food that she was chomping away on, and I flew to the bathroom to get rid of the ball while she was otherwise occupied.

I only had 2 minutes; Cadie was in the bathroom looking for her long, lost toy by the time I got back. So I lifted her up, and she gave the counter a sniff, and then accepted the tennis ball as lost. By the time I was finished in the bathroom that night Cadie, looking pretty dejected, had already put herself to bed.

Oh well, it’s just one tennis ball, and tomorrow will be a new day, filled with new tennis balls.

Is anyone out there?

Once again I took Cadie home with high hopes that she could expend some energy in my mother gigantic backyard. This time the weather held, and Cadie had a fantastic romp. She chased sticks, lounged in the long grass and ate and tennis ball, it was everything a little dog could want out of life.




While Cadie was living the good life my mom and I sat on the patio, drinking tea and chatting. She’s been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, which means that she is full of stories about the beach at Port Dover, the sales in the mall, and what the future holds for her. My mom is now about 5 years away from retiring and she is starting to think about a plan. You know the things you will do once you are retired and have all day to sit around and watch day-time television. Since my mother is not even a little bit interested in day-time television, especially since Oprah announced her own retirement, which means that mom needs “a plan” something to do that makes getting out of bed worthwhile.



In the middle of our conversation about her future my mother turned to me and said. “Do you know what would be a great idea? You should start a blog about Cadie.” I gave her a funny look and told her that I am already blogging about Cadie. She tried to laugh it off, but her statement is already out there, and now I have to ask, is anyone reading this?

Changing Direction

Having a plan means a lot more responsibility. It means that I can look at it and tell when I’m not on track. The day started out with me feeling like that, but now I think that I am more on track than I was before the Easter break. This afternoon I hit the place that I was dreading, I walked out of a brief meeting and knew that I could do nothing more to improve my situation at work. To be honest in everything that I have been through I never felt so helpless as I did at that point. It was easily my lowest moment. It also left me with a huge dilemma to sort out. I had some great company this evening. I made a delicious meal, had some more great company, and now, with only 30 minutes until bed I feel a lot better.


What’s the difference? I have decided to back off of the fruitless pursuit of fixing my job/career. This is not the time, I have put so much work and energy into this and I have not seen a single improvement, so it’s time to walk away. Treat it like a job, just the way I used to when I worked at Biway or Laura Secord. Instead I’m going to focus on fixing my home, and regaining my sense of pride in myself and my home. This makes me feel like a weight has been lifted from me. So now I am choosing colours, and talking about where furniture should sit. What a breath of fresh air.

I replaced the water in Uter’s tank tonight, so he is swimming away like a brand new turtle. Cadie has settled in to bed for the night, so everyone is happy.