Category: Collies

Logic

Logic is DETERMINED to get out of the back yard. Why, you ask? Because he doesn’t think he should have to poop outside. He prefers the living room. And he thinks that he should only ever have to lift his head from his velvet fringed pillow when someone wants to skritch him or offer him food. (And no, he doesn’t actually HAVE a velvet fringed pillow. We own Collies, not poodles. Ha!)

Stupid dog.

He didn’t poop in the living room today, but I did spot him in the front of the house, on the driveway, only about 2 minutes after I put him and Linus in the back yard for their morning constitutional.

Apparently, he’s digging and pushing his way out under the fence in the very back between our hard and the ditch, and then walking the ditchline to the neighbor’s yard, and then coming to stare in our back door. Jerry has blocked the original passage point, but Logic rerouted. And over the weekend, Jerry drove fence-spikes down into the ground to hold the fence better. Logic has found another passage point.

DAMN. This dog, as sweet as he is, is an absolute pain in the ass. He will NOT pee or poop on a leash (never has), so taking him “for walks” won’t work. He’s GOT to be let out and given some time to be there, but he doesn’t WANT to be outside. He wants to be inside. All the damn time. Until that point when he’s absolutely desperate to pee or poop, and then he whines and paces neurotically until you let him out. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that we’re not always HERE when he starts that up. Hence the living room issue.

LAST weekend, I was steam-cleaning the living room carpet at 7:15am on Saturday. It looks like we have new carpet in there, which is nice. But no, it’s the same light beige nightmare that’s always been in there. What were the previous owners THINKING?!

Stupid dog.

Out of the Woods

We’re back.

The plan was to maybe stay tonight, but we opted to come home and let everyone sleep in their own beds. Which will be a pleasure.

Last night was … uh … challenging. Alice woke up at 2:30, coughing, and could not settle back down. Even with cough medicine, she kept flinging herself on me and on Jerry and trying to go back to sleep (she WANTED to sleep), and then coughing herself awake again. And then Helen woke up. And then at 7am, Helen woke up and wanted us up. “GET UP! IT’S MORNING TIME!”

I took a three hour nap with Alice this morning, and Jerry napped for at least an hour with Alice this afternoon. And Helen and my mom went off for a long time to the playground, playing really hard, so Helen was doing the “I’m Not Tired But I Will Not Stop Moving Just In Case” dance all evening.

She was asleep by the time we had driven the 2 miles from the campsite to the park entrance. Passed OUT.

Helen had a WONDERFUL time, though the tent spooked her a little bit in the middle of the night. Alice had a pretty good time being outside, except for the uneven terrain and the fact that she’s not very sure-footed yet. So she kept face-planting in the dirt and gravel.

Jerry got bored, but he didn’t take anything to read or do, so I guess that’s to be expected, somewhat. The dogs enjoyed themselves and are now completely filthy. I’ll be calling the groomer’s on Monday.

I did okay. I had a great time, and we figured out how I could do Sitz baths in my parents’ RV so I wouldn’t have to traipse all the way over to a public restroom that may or may not have been cleaned well enough for such things… I’m in pain, sure, but I’d be in pain even if we had been here all weekend. Enjoyed the S’mores and continuous eating that is the pattern of my family’s style of camping.

Made another patchwork puzzle ball today, too. It probably smells like woodsmoke.

Chain Reaction

I’ve been up pretty much since 3am.

It started with Logic snouting me, which usually means that he needs to go out. So we went out. He peed on a tree, and that’s all. I was ready to kill him, but we walked around to the back of the house and I thought maybe it was the venue preventing him from performing, but no. He peed on a few more trees, and we came back inside.

The commotion apparently woke Helen, who was in our room at about 3:30. I took her back downstairs and changed her into a dry diaper, putting a towel over the damp spot on her sheets, and invited the dogs into her room for the remainder of the night (she likes that).

Then I went back upstairs and TRIED to go back to sleep. Of course, I couldn’t. I obsessed about my surgery on Thursday. New thing to fret about and tell the anesthesiologist… When they intubate a patient, they pull the bottom jaw outwards to open the airway. I have had TMJ surgery, and doing this could be damaging. So I laid there and obsessed about that for a long time. I’m sure it will be fine. I’m sure I’ll be drugged so I don’t care, and drugged afterwards so that any pain and swelling in my joints from the intubation process will not be problematic. But it doesn’t mean I can’t lie around and obsess in the meantime.

Finally got back to sleep around 5:15, I’d guess, and Helen was in our room again at 6. At 6:20 I just got up.

I wish that child weren’t such a light sleeper. It’s annoying. She always has been, though. Even as an infant. Even as a FETUS.

Hopped Up

Alice’s right ear is still not cleared out from the multiple infections she has had since November. She got tubes in her eardrums on April 6, so the pain and screaming has stopped, but she’s still oozy and gross. She’s been on antibiotic eardrops for 10 days, and that hasn’t completely dried it out yet, so we went to the ENT yesterday and got more orders.

Alice will now have 5 more days of eardrops, a 10-day course of Augmentin, and she’ll be on a “steroid taper” for three days. I was told by both the nurse at the doctor’s office and the pharmacist that the steroids will probably “make her hyper” so I should give it to her absolutely first thing in the morning. She got 3/4 of a tsp this morning, she’ll get 1/2 tsp tomorrow morning, and 1/4 tsp on Thursday morning.

Maybe in a few hours I’ll change my mind, but I’m kind of interested to see what Alice is like when she’s hopped up on steroids and “hyper,” since she’s such a mellow kid. This has the potential to be entertaining.

[In other news, the collies just went to the vet for their snipping appointments. I hope and pray that this doesn’t change their personalities, because I know that I’ll feel guilty forever if it does. We’ll have to hop Linus up on steroids if he gets any more mellow…]