"On the plains of Oklahoma, with a windshield sunset in your eyes like a watercolor painted sky, you'd think heavens doors have opened."
Fly Over States



Thursday, August 28, 2008

El Loco is in the House (no, I don't mean Jezebel or Evelyn)


Yesterday, I took the girls to the vet for Jezebel's last regular melanoma vaccine. It was black as the inside of a cow when we left the house and the sun still wasn't up when we got to the veterinary hospital. Fortunately, a crew of four electricians was working on something so I felt safe enough to take the girls out of the car and hang out on the lawn waiting for the sun to rise. The electricians finished up just before the place opened and drifted off in their respective vehicles. I was sitting on the park bench with a girl on either side (they like to sit on furniture). Each electrician slowed down as he passed to compliment me on my beautiful girls. :)

Once inside, we waited another hour and a half to be called. Jezebel snuggled on the sofa with her head in my lap while I read. Evelyn was too busy looking around to doze. At one point, a large Border Collie came in (I didn't realize they were that big - compared to the pig in "Babe," they look smaller). Next thing you know, I hear a low pitched growl and I immediately looked over, thinking that Border Collie was talking smack to Evelyn. But no. The Border Collie looked harmless as a Labrador, wagging its tail, nervously. EVELYN had her head down, hackles raised and teeth bared!! What the???? She must have slipped a cog!! That Border Collie would have made mince meat of her.

Hard to imagine such violence could erupt from this sweet puppy.


I figure the Border Collie said something snotty to her in dogspeak but there is just no excuse for such rude behavior, especially for a Samoyed! It crossed my mind that she was acting out of fear but perhaps I am just being one of those parents who blames everything on the other kids (next thing you know, I will attribute it to ADHD). The fact is, she was clear on her side of the sofa and wandered her little sassy butt all the way to the back to get in the Border Collie's face! And where was my mind that I was not paying attention?

Jezebel lost about a quarter pound in two weeks but that is not a problem. She has been eating well. We switched her dog food to a higher grade right after the last visit and perhaps it has fewer calories. More likely, because El Loco has been out of town, she hasn't been eating nearly as many treats and snacks.

I asked them about her muzzle changing color and they assured me this is expected and normal.


They said the hair will grow back but it may be a different color. When I look closely at it, it looks like it is coming back white. It looks like she has less hair than two weeks ago, and I think she does, but the real thing going on (I believe) is that the grey skin behind it has turned pink and that makes her muzzle look a little bald. She is sneezing and snorting less and we believe her poor snout is starting to heal from the radiation.


I would not be surprised if no hair grew back on the black part around her snout that meets the muzzle but I think it will look fine no matter what. If it doesn't grow back at all, I don't care.

I worked at home yesterday and managed to get most of the blue parts of the Patriotic quilt quilted. I am new at this and when I got to the end of the quilt, it was really a problem in the lower right corner (bumpy). The back looks not so good, either. I am probably going to end up doing some thread ripping. Oh well, that goes with it.

I have the Surf, Sand and Snowflakes Challenge organized on the HGTV Message Board. What that amounts to is that several ladies are using the same fabric line to make blocks and will post pictures to see how we interpret them. Presumably, they will all look different and it will be really nifty keen to see them all. When you are just presented with a fabric not necessarily of your choosing, it makes you stretch a bit. That is a good thing. Here are some pilfered pictures (from someone's Flickr account) of the fabric line we are using:





The fabric line is Marcus Brothers Surf and Sand.

I'd be tempted to say that person on the Flikr page was a little dotty for taking pictures of fabric except it would be the pot calling the kettle black. I have some of the fabric, myself, and took a picture (and I do that a lot!):


I have several half yards of the rest of the collection en route from the online stores.

The husband is back home from Spain and I have periodically gone downstairs to hug him, just because I can! He has come upstairs a couple of times to hug me for the same reason.

Off to work on files...

2 comments:

Saska said...

Looks like he's been eating a chocolate bar and got it all over the muzzle!

Love the fabric...will look soft.

Nancy said...

As long as you don't start feeding Evelyn Ritilan or some other drug, I think you can be excused from blaming her behavior on outside factors! :-) And of course now that you're aware of it, you will be paying attention to her in the future. It could well be the uncertainty of the vet's office. My cats have always been more verbally aggressive, or at least the small females have, my big males have historically tried to hide behind me!