Rex went to the vet today. He's going to be treated for heartworms but he's still in the preparation stage, taking a big dose of doxycycline twice a day. He's not objecting to the pills because I'm hiding them in about half a can of canned food mixed in with his dry food. He may object when I try to stop feeding the canned food, but for now he's pretty happy. Rex is bunking with Sherman, who is also taking doxy and getting canned food, so having them together makes it easier. Both boys are eating their own food and not going after the other's, so it's working out well.
Rex was sweet and friendly with the vet. It was very nice to take in a dog who didn't require a muzzle (Trooper or Sparky) or sedation (Vince). Rex's former owners may not have provided him with all the care that he needed, but it does appear that they raised a well-socialized dog.
The vet did detect a minor heart murmur, but couldn't tell if that was a congenital condition or if it was due to the heartworms. It was very minor in any event, and hopefully the treatment to resolve it completely.
The heartworm treatment protocol has changed since I last went through it with a foster. The first injection will be given on September 11th, followed by two more over two days, around mid-October. It's going to take a while, but we will see that Rex gets through this. When he's ready for adoption, he's going to make someone a very happy and lucky adopter.
Sherman is an English Bulldog. He arrived at night and needed a place to rest, decompress, and chill for a few days so he could be evaluated. That's where we're at now. So far, so good. He's been in Sparky's old shed and kennel combo by himself since Saturday night. He's happy to see me when I bring food. So far he's been very easy to accommodate. He came in through Green Dogs Unleashed.
Shermahas the hat trick of tick borne diseases, testing positive for ehrlichiosis, Lyme, and anaplasmosis. But at least he tested negative for heartworms.
I hadn't put anyone with Sherman because he's unneutered, but he got a new roommate today.
Rex is a new shepherd with Promises Animal Rescue. He came from North Carolina where he managed to pick up heartworms. I'm going to get him into the vet and get the treatment underway as soon as possible. He's a nice boy, and he's already neutered. Apparently he was given up to a shelter because the owners couldn't afford the heartworm treatment. Of course, if they had kept him on the preventative, that would never have been an issue. The tips of his ears have been eaten by flies, so I'm guessing he wasn't well cared for at all. He's a nice dog and should be easy to place after the treatment is complete. He has a strong prey drive though, so no cats, chickens, or rabbits.
Rex and Sherman are a bit of an odd couple, but they seem to be getting along very well.
He looks worried here in this picture taken when he first arrived, but he will be fine. He ate dinner this evening without the usual German Shepherd hunger strike.
I've been having my usual hard time getting back to the daily routine (rut?) after a vacation. My interest in working is very low so I'm not being very productive and therefore I don't feel like I have time to do anything else. That starts a downward spiral where I just sit at my desk and try to work but don't, but I don't get anything else down either. My body starts to ache and my mood turns foul. I know the solution but simply don't do it. Finally, on Sunday I dragged my butt back out on the trails with Maya and TJ. It was a cool day and TJ was full of energy so we did a full five miles.
Maya meets turtle
After about the second mile, my body loosened up, and then my mind and mood cleared up. I started work on Monday with a much improved attitude, but my motivation fell off sharply after noon. Later in the day I went out with Maya and Theo and we got in six miles. Hopefully that will be enough to hold me for a couple days because Tuesday's forecast is for rain.
TJ checked out the turtle too, but we left him alone, unharmed.
The dogs were very happy to be out walking again and their enthusiasm rubs off on me.
This is old news to anyone who has seen my Facebook feed, but I'm still catching up and getting back into the swing of things after vacation.
Saturday was National Dog Day. I'm not sure what that is about and I only knew about it from seeing posts on Facebook, but I celebrated by getting Axel adopted into a new home. These folks had contacted me prior to my trip to Kansas but I didn't have time to make it happen before I left. I had to board Axel while I was gone to lighten the load around here, and that was unfortunate for Axel, but necessary. In the long run, a week's delay won't much matter. I contacted the applicants when I returned, they had already submitted an application, so I drove out to Staunton with Axel to do a home visit that resulted in his adoption.
They were excited to have him and he was equally excited to be with them. Reports from the adopter have been positive. He loves kids and was good with their 5 year old. They fenced their property for him and although he's been checking the perimeter, he has stayed in. Axel had jumped out of my dog yard on a couple occasions but he didn't run off, he just showed up on the porch wanting to come inside. This seemed like a dog who really wanted a home, wanted to bond with his humans and be part of the family. They have the same attitude and it seems to be working out well for everyone.
I'm very happy for Axel and happy to have one less dog around the house, although that only lasted one night.
Axel was always quick to roll over for a belly rub because he really likes attention and he's a very trusting dog.
He got a bath on his first day in his new home and he cleaned up very nicely.
I have been going out to Kansas to help my mother with spring planting for the last couple of years. I've also gone out in the fall to help with garden clean up. This was the first time I've been there to see the things I planted in the spring in their full summer glory.
The cannas were spectacular this year.
I did some clean up this trip as well, cutting off iris and daylilies that were finished blooming, mostly in the front yard. The containers that I planted in the spring were mostly still doing very well, however, and it was nice to see them.
This is actually three large containers and you can't see any of them. I like that.
I can't take any credit for the morning glories, they come up as volunteers every year.
This is portulaca in a strawberry jar.
The lantanas did very well.
Keeping shade plants like coleus, caladium, and begonias alive through the Kansas summer isn't easy. She's been watering daily.
This is my mother's pug, Jake. He is one very loyal and devoted little dog.
I've wanted to see a total eclipse of the sun ever since I knew about them. When I heard about this one several months ago, I scouted the map of the path of totality for a place I'd like to go. I noticed a spot in Nebraska directly north of where my mother lives in Kansas. Fairmont, Nebraska was smack dab in the middle of the path of totality and a short two hour drive straight north from Salina, KS. I combined the eclipse trip with a visit with my mom, who accompanied me up north to see it on August 21st.
Fairmont, NE doesn't have much to draw visitors, but it's population swelled many times over on that day. Still, it wasn't like going to Seattle or some larger city that predictably drew massive crowds. We didn't really know what to expect, but had seen electronic highway signs warning drivers of large crowds on the roads so we left early. Highway 81 north of Salina isn't part of the interstate highway system, but it is a divided four-lane road so the traffic was fairly well spread out. Until, that is, we reached Concordia, Kansas. It's a small town, but highway 81 passes directly through it and there were three stoplights that caused major congestion on the northbound side of the road. We saw a lot of locals outside pointing their cell phones at the highway, filming what must have been the largest traffic jam Concordia had ever experienced. We saw mostly cars with license plates from Kansas, Oklahoma, and even Texas.
It was a great experience to share with my mother.
Once we cleared Concordia it was smooth sailing all the way up to Fairmont. We stopped at a gas station/market just on the edge of town, along with everyone else who was making the trip that day. The employees were good-natured about the invasion, but they would have made more money by charging for the bathroom than they did from the sales of gasoline or coffee that day.
We drove on into Fairmont to scout out a place to park and a good viewing location. I had visited the town's website and knew that they had set up a couple of designated viewing areas which appeared to be baseball and possibly soccer fields. They had suggested parking anyplace in town where you could find a space so we drove down the town's main street and happened upon a pretty little park in the center of town. I was able to park nearby so we set up our temporary camp under the shade of a tree. It was mostly cloudy that day and it was cooler than it had been lately, but we still had no desire to sit out in the sun until it was time for the eclipse.
In light of recent events, I couldn't help noticing a civil war statue in the center of the park. It depicts a generic civil war soldier and even the inscription doesn't take sides.
We had an hour or more before it even started, so I took a walk around town. It looked like they had made a concerted civic effort to spruce up the town for the occasion, wanting to put on the best face for all the visitors, and they did. The streets were clean and festooned with American flags that are probably only displayed on national holidays like Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. There were a couple of enterprising people selling baked goods and bottles of water, and the American Legion was cooking hotdogs and hamburgers at one of the viewing areas. Curiously, I could find no one selling t-shirts. The city park where we were sitting was recently mowed and trimmed to look its best. It was classic americana, straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting - children playing on swings and happy, smiling, white people everywhere you looked. The only thing that made it obvious that we weren't in some Twilight Zone episode of time travel back to the 1950s was the sound of Pink Floyd being played over the town's loud speaker.
We were sitting in the shade of a tree, so I would periodically stand up, walk out to where I had an unobstructed view of the sun, put on the glasses and gaze at the sun. It had been hot and sunny all week, not a drop of rain and scarcely a cloud to be seen. However, on August 21st, it was cloudy and a chance of showers was in the forecast. We had chased a rain storm all the way north, having an unobstructed view of it for many miles as one does in Kansas and Nebraska. As the eclipse began, we were often viewing the sun through clouds of varying density. You could see the moon beginning to cut into the disk of the sun, but it was fuzzy from the cloud cover and I wasn't sure we'd be able to see much once it reached totality.
This is my one attempted cell phone pic. It would be more accurate if I photoshopped a black circle in the center so that only the corona appeared as white light around it.
However, as the time of the totality approached, the clouds actually began to thin a bit and we could see a patch of clear sky making it's way towards us. We moved our chairs into the open and just sat there looking up, glasses on, watching as the moon eclipsed the sun. It grew dark rather rapidly and a golden retriever sitting nearby grew rather anxious. When the eclipse reached totality the sun went completely dark, I could see nothing at all and I thought, "damn, a cloud must have moved in at the last moment blocking our view." But then I removed my eclipse glasses and there it was, a perfectly clear view of the sun's corona, surrounding the black disk of the moon. The corona wasn't bright enough to be seen through the protective viewing glasses, but they weren't needed now anyway.
It was the most incredible sight. The sky wasn't completely dark because of light that was visible on the horizon, beyond the shadow that the moon cast onto the earth. It gave the sky a color unlike any I had ever seen, sort of slate, blue/grey color, against which the sun's corona appeared white as it surrounded the jet black disk that was the dark side of the moon.
If the Kentucky Derby is the fastest two minutes in sports, a total eclipse is surely the fastest two minutes in astronomy. I had read something prior to the event recommending that you just watch, don't waste your time trying to take pictures or post to Facebook and that was good advice. There were many incredible pictures taken by NASA and professional photographers that my iphone camera could never hope to match. But I have a memory that is unique to the time and place of our viewing and unmatched by any photo I've seen.
This is a blog about my life, which largely revolves around a dog rescue operation. I write mostly, but not exclusively, about dogs. I am gay, with a very understanding partner (now husband!); Democrat; liberal; Kansas native and a current resident of "real" Virginia. My husband and I live on 7 rural acres near Charlottesville, Virginia. We have multiple large dogs of our own, and we have fostered large breed dogs for several different rescue organizations. German Shepherd Dogs, Great Danes, and Rottweilers are among our favorites, but we love most large breed dogs and mutts. ALL VIEWS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE MY OWN.
Rex went to the vet today. He's going to be treated for heartworms but he's still in the preparation stage, taking a big dose of doxycycline twice a day. He's not objecting to the pills because I'm hiding them in about half a can of canned food mixed in with his dry food. He may object when I try to stop feeding the canned food, but for now he's pretty happy. Rex is bunking with Sherman, who is also taking doxy and getting canned food, so having them together makes it easier. Both boys are eating their own food and not going after the other's, so it's working out well.
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