Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Alien Returns

I'm on another streak of misfortunes. Some brought on by myself, others just happened to have shown up at an inopportune time. Mira's tumor has grown back. It was helpful to have my blog as a timeline reference. It has only taken 6 months for the tentacles to re-appear. Now it's deciding if another round of surgery is worth it.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Big Bad Labrador

*disclaimer* I harbor no prejudice toward any particular breed. I am of the belief that bad owners make bad dogs.

There is a house kiddie corner to us which happens to border a small path that allows access out of the neighborhood. It is a rental house and once was home to a judge mentally impaired couple and their children. This family had a pitbull terrier eloquently named Scrappy. Scrappy had the short "fighting style" cropped ears and was built like a brick shit house. It was common to see him dragging the 9 year old son around the neighborhood. To add to this Scrappy sired a litter of puppies and he was very protective of them.

One day I was passing through the path and the side window of said house was open. Through it I heard a women shout "what the hell are you lookin' at". I didn't even consider she was directing her profanities as me and kept walking. Except named person stumbles from the back porch and looks me over with glazed eyes and says she's sorry I was not who she thought I was. Weird, but I proceeded to move on. Then from behind I heared the familiar scratching of nails on cement picking up speed. When I turned around my world slowed down. It was just enough time to know that Scrappy was coming straight for us and I had to act. So I widened my stance and accepted that I might have to boot kick this dog in the head. Just when the world resumes speed again out from behind me striked Duke just in time to jump on top of Scrappy and attack grizzly bear style. I saw a flash of white teeth and heared the deadliest sound come from Dukes throat.

In fairness to Scrappy if he wanted a fight he had an open invitation. As soon as Duke showed aggression he high tailed it out of there. The best part was on the way back I came across the women's husband and his cronies drinking in the alley. The asked me if I crapped my pants when Scrappy came at us. I asked them if Scrappy crapped his when my Lab sent him packing!

The saddest part came a few weeks later when I saw how the cycle of these losers continues. The young boy was passing us and Duke barked at him, Duke doesn't like boys 10-15yrs old, who does really? But the boy glared at Duke and told his friend that Scrappy could kill him.

Some people shouldn't breed.

Monday, March 23, 2009

The Unsolvable Equation

I am hands down a left sided brain personality. Life is scientific, explainable, black and white. If something doesn't fit, I usually dismiss it as irrelevant. I can usually fit my life's problems into equations. Ok before your eyes glaze over I'll give you an easy probability that even my dogs have solved.

< 7am + shower = low probability of a morning walk

> 9am - shower = high probability of a morning walk

Balancing equations are definitely the most difficult. I had one this weekend.

passionate people + my suggestions - communication

Now factor in

my suggestions =\= others suggestions

It's one of those that you can try until your head hurts from thinking, your heart hurts from pouring and you've banged your head against the chalkboard enough times. Eventually it's one of those equations that you have to leave on the chalkboard unsolved and walk away.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Out with the Old in with the New

If you have been following my phone drama I believe I was on replacement #4. It literally shut down and wouldn't turn on again. After words were exchanged with the lovley 17 year old telus representative. My options were to buy another phone - $300-500, or buy out my contract -$600. So I did a little sleuthing and figured out a way to get a little bit of my money back. I asked for a free phone, one of their flip models and hacked my plan down to the bare minimum - $10/month which works out to be around the buy out price at the end of my contract. This way I can fix my HTC touch crap under warranty and sell it on ebay for a few hundred. So what am I using now........




ya baby, ya.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The Biggest Loser

Feb 26/09 ..... Mar 10/09

Mira -68.7 ..... 65.2 lbs

Duke - 74.5 ..... 72.7 lbs

Sadie - 17.7 ..... 17 lbs

My dogs are fat. Obese really. I don't believe it is lack of exercise as either my husband or I take them out usually every day, if not every day then every other day for sure. When Dustin takes them they come back almost dead as he will take his baseball bat and tennis ball. It's definitely the food. They were doing really well on the calorie reduced vet food, the problem was that it costs almost $100 for a 30lb bag. So I cheaped out and bought the Costco stuff. As of the Feb 26 weigh in Mira has been back on the vet food, and the others mixed 50/50 with the Costco stuff. It seems to be helping.


Today I went out to pour more the the vet food into a smaller container and it spilled all over the garage floor. Did I mention how much this food is???? All I could see was little gold nuggets dumping out before my eyes.........Guess who is "eating out" tonight?

Monday, March 16, 2009

Oh the Horror!

Sadie is not impressed with her replacement jacket. She lost her favorite one in the river incident.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Friends

They come in all varieties. I have friends with babies, work friends, dog friends, family that are friends and my best friend, my husband. I love them, I hate them, they drive me crazy, and I go crazy without them.


Mira's friend was actually intended for Duke. Duke's trainer, Amanda, said that I needed to make training more fun for him. She showed me this toy that you put a used water bottle in. It makes this crinkling noise that brings out Duke's inner Labrador! Mira thought it was pretty cool too, but she is part flat coat so who can blame her.

Sadie's friend is the little diffuser plugged into the wall beside her. It is called the DAP - or dog appeasing pheromone, it keeps the crazy away. Ok well not entirely but I can definitely tell when it's time for a replacement.

Duke's friend is the couch.

A Ray of Sunshine?