Ross E. Lockhart's Blog, page 91

Some days...

Maddie says, "Some days you feel like a flower."

"While others, you just feel like fertilizer."

"Guess which one today is."

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Recovery Day

I'm spending my day on the couch with Maddie, working from home and watching episodes of The Prisoner while she convalesces.

Yesterday's surgery went well. Dr. Kat removed the problematic "Christmas growth" on Maddie's foot, and while she was still under anesthesia, lasered off a number of small growths and warts, cut out and stitched up a couple big ones, and conducted a tooth cleaning and scaling, which led to four extractions. Maddie was a trooper, but it was a lot for a little dog to handle, so she's got a few days of painkillers and a few weeks of antibiotics in store. And a bandaged foot, which needs to be bagged when she goes outside to do her business.

Not to mention the stitches and shaved spots...

Last night was rough, with midnight moaning and complaining that only stopped when Jennifer and I helped Maddie up onto the foot of our bed, where she slept until about eight this morning.

Maddie's napping now, and she seems to be recovering nicely. She's a little dopey on the pain meds, sleeping a lot, but she has a healthy appetite, and only complains occasionally when I have to pick her up and move her.

"I'm awake now," says Maddie. "What's for lunch?"

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Quote of the Night

"As a reader, I insist on being beguiled early or not at all, which is why a lot of the books on my shelf remain mysteriously unread after page twenty. But once I submit to the author's thrall, he can do me no wrong."

--John le Carre, from his introduction to The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, edited by Leslie S. Klinger

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Maddie and Gonk

I've just started sorting through photos from our San Diego X-mas, and will be uploading more shortly, but for now, here's a handful from December 26th at my parents' house, when my old friend Mike the Gorehound came by with his dog, Gonk...


Gonk, short for Algonquin, named for Aunt Morgana's poodle in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (a formative film in Mike's twisted psyche), awaits his New Wave makeover.


Maddie and Gonk, hanging out on the back deck.


Gonk!


Maddie's bandaged foot, here bagged so as not to get the dressing wet. Since getting home, we've seen Maddie's vet, and the bandage has come off. She's healing nicely, but we will need to get her in for a little follow-up surgery (and a teeth cleaning... shhh... don't tell Maddie) within the next few weeks.

The last place I expected to end up late Christmas Eve...

The last place I expected to end up late Christmas Eve was a 24-hour emergency vet, but sometimes the unexpected happens.

The good news is that Maddie is okay. She had a rough day that started with a pronounced limp, which we attributed to her usual arthritis, and included a minor tumble down Jill's carpeted stairs, which we thought was the result of her taking the steps too fast. But It was only late in the evening, as Jennifer, Maddie, and I were concluding a
Christmas visit to my parents' house in Paradise Hills, that I discovered a large, swollen growth on the pad of Maddie's right foot.

So, as Jennifer and I drove back to Jill's house from Paradise Hills, we weighed our options, wondering if we should have the foot looked at immediately, or if we dared wait until we got home to Petaluma.

We decided to stop at ER4Pets in Rancho Bernardo (who rated well on Yelp), where DVM Diana Jones examined Maddie's foot, advised us that the swelling appeared to be an inflamed cyst, and said that we should have Maddie's regular vet, Dr. Cat, aspirate the inflammation and run tests once we got back home, but that she would probably be okay unless the cyst decided to burst.

We loaded Maddie back in the car and continued back to Jill's house. But, shortly after we arrived, Maddie began licking her foot, and, wouldn't you know it, broke the cyst wide open.

So Jill drove us back down to ER4Pets, Maddie riding in my lap (and bleeding on the leg of my jeans). Once there, Dr. Jones patched Maddie up in fairly short order with a bandage topped off with a cute little heart.

So Maddie gets to spend Christmas with a bandaged foot and an E-collar. Just what she wanted!

And me? I'm thankful that it wasn't worse. Maddie's napping at my feet as I write this, visions of sugarplums no doubt dancing through her head.

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The Bath-day Pout

"What do you mean it's bath day already?" complains Maddie, pouting.

"I was just getting ripe."

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About the Cutest Thing I Saw Today...

This is Bailey, who is no more than about ten weeks old. Bailey dropped by Our Best Friends while Maddie and I were working there this afternoon.



And yes, Bailey was About the Cutest Thing I Saw Today, on a day where a rambunctious five-month-old Shih-tzu and a playful six-month-old Brussels Griffon also dropped by (alas, no pictures of either of those), so there was no shortage of cute.


Pensive Bailey

So, what was about the cutest thing you saw today?

Not mush room...

Spotted on the way home from OBF this afternoon...

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Ghosts Follow Me Home

Jennifer and I had to journey all the way out to Sebastopol this afternoon, so that she could get a permanent filling following a root canal procedure on Monday. While she was otherwise occupied in the dentist chair, I wandered downtown (all three blocks of it) to kill an hour window-shopping. And I had to hit Copperfield's, where the following handful of books decided to follow me home:

Ghost of Chance - William S. Burroughs
Best Ghost Stories - J. S. LeFanu
The Ghosts of the Heavyside Layer and Other Fantasms - Lord Dunsany

I passed on a copy of Richard Brautigan's Dreaming of Babylon: A Novel: 1941, because it smelled of mold and cigarettes. Ah, well. I'll pick up a fresh copy eventually.

Once home, we pulled the Christmas tree down from the closet in our office and set it up in it's usual place, hoping to evoke a bit of Holiday cheer on an otherwise dreary, rainsoaked day. But we're not going whole hog with the decorations this year. Just two for now: the gingerdeadman we picked up at Crafterino and a blown glass "evil eye" ward Jill picked up in Turkey. Or Greece. We're not 100% sure on that one. Maybe more ornaments will find their way onto the tree before the big day, maybe not.

And this past Sunday, we finally made it down to the Cow Palace for the annual Dickens Fair. I was particularly impressed with the way Dickensian London had been re-created in the hall out of plywood, sawdust, and red and yellow gels over the lights. So long as you keep in mind that Dickens Fair has about as much to do with Charles Dickens as the average Renaissance Fair(e) has to do with the Renaissance, a good time will be had by all. Recommended. A few pics:

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Holiday traditions...

We had the big, traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Janine's house last night, and afterward, Randy and Maddie serenaded us all with a rousing selection of seasonal songs...


"Hit it," says Maddie.


"Oh, the weather outside is frightful..." sings Maddie.


"Music?" says Aslan the Giant Puppy. "I love music!"



Tickling the ivories.


Randy's big piano flourish.


Maddie hits the high note.


One savage beast, soothed.


The big, showstopping duet.