You thought I forgot I had a blog, right?

Nah.  I didn't forget.  But like most of you, I'm sure, I've been busy up to my eyebrows with the holidays.  This blog is so 'new' that I sometimes forget even a paragraph is better than nothing.  And I suppose I'm stuck on 'profound' and I'm just not a profound kinda gal most of the time.  I read other people's blogs and I find them incredibly profound. 

 

Surprisingly, I'm posting this not only when I'm not feeling profound, but while I'm icky.  I have a cold/flu-y thing.  I stayed in bed most of the day, except for a rather necessary trip to the credit union and the grocery story.  Of course, this is the first day I've had to write on my current works-in-progress, so naturally, I didn't write a single word.  In my defense, I did open the document in my word processor.  But that's as far as I got.  I can't remember now what, exactly, distracted me.  I think it might have been a call from my nephew letting me know he made it back to his place in the city safely.  He'd come down for Christmas weekend and while it was a balmy 50 degrees on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, it started snowing like crazy about two hours before he was able to head home.  I left a message on his cell phone that he was more than welcome to stay the night with us rather than drive the treacherous canyon that is our only route to civilization, but he elected to brave the infamous Highway 6. 

 

I'm not the only one who's sick, by the way.  My poor Black Lab, Dozer, has gout.  I'm not exactly certain it's called Gout in animals, but that's the best way I can describe it.  A couple of months ago, her front paws swelled up something awful after a weekend of bird hunting with my husband, youngest daughter and our dear friend Mike who visits annually from California.  Her poor feet were so swollen, they'd more than doubled in size.  She snapped and cried when I tried to examine them.  At first, it was only one paw and we were certain she'd picked up a thorn or something.  We were worried about blood poisoning, so even though it was a Sunday, we called our vet (the incredible Dr. Boyd Thayn) at home and he agreed to meet us at his animal hospital.  A few anti-inflammatories and antibiotics later and Dozer was good as new.  Poor thing.

 

I'll be calling Doc tomorrow for a new prescription.

 

Our other dogs are fine.  Especially Lady of Lyonesse.  "Lea" is almost five months old now and has officially 'outgrown' Dozer.  She outweighs Dozer by probably 10 or 15 lbs now and they are exactly the same height.  Lea's forelegs are so thick, we can no longer wrap our fingers around them.  She's going to be HUGE.  Most Mastiff's are huge, of course, but the females are usually smaller than the males.  We're thinking there's a possibility that she will be larger than Pete when all is said and done.  Of course, she is the daughter of the great Dopper Madala, and he's quite a large dog himself.

 

Pete is still growing too.  When he arrived, I did a little measurement comparison on his head.  Dopper Madala's head was so large that when I placed the heel of my palm just over one of his big, floppy ears, my fingertips couldn't reach his other ear.  When I tried this on Pete the day he flew in from Oklahoma, I could touch both of his ears.  Not so any longer.  There is a good inch or so to spare.

 

So what about you?  Are you a big dog person or a little dog person?  Cat people are great too, but I'll save my cats for another entry.  In the meantime, I'd love to hear about your dogs! 

 

Hugs,

Marjorie