Musical Beds

Typical day at the office. If only that worked for people too. . .

Adopt the Internet

More than 320,000 pets are waiting for homes on Petfinder.com. Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet today and find forever homes for as many as possible!

Here is one of our guys that has been around for way too long:

Name: Charlie

Mix/Breed: Domestic short hair, Tabby and White

Sex/Age: Male/neutered, 7 years

Personality: Charlie is a real love...a very affectionate 7 years old guy. He was surrendered to Hopalong because the child he grew up with started developing allergies to him. Charlie is easy going and calm. With slow and proper introductions, Charlie would be fine with other cats and gentle dogs but would now probably be best suited to a household with adults only.

Wordless Wednesday: Jackson at Work

Working with Sean Connery

I have been working with Sean Connery for the past 10 weeks or so. Sometimes it's heaven, and sometimes he annoys the sh*t out of me. I can't help it, I love him, but sometimes he can be so demanding! I guess it's to be expected though. . .

If you know me at all, you can probably guess that Sean is an animal. A cat. A RAGDOLL cat. The most purrfect cat ever. He gets along great with my feral office cat and with my kids. In fact, I believe he thinks he is one of my kids. When pocket stays home, he takes her place in the dog bed line up.



I'm kinda in love with him.

Wordlessly Wednesday : the rhemus monkey

Quality of Life

I think it's funny how reoccurring themes come up in our lives. . . or they may not be reoccurring, but come up all at once to teach us a particular lesson. Something that has come up for me recently is quality of life. It's a strange lesson to learn, but I've been faced with that notion repeatedly in the past few months.

First, Mole's back went out and I had to determine what was an appropriate level of exercise/fun. Then we had some very sick puppies come through and we had to decide if long-term high quality was worth the short-term low quality. Then I had a foster dog with sever medical issues. . . it was a constant question about what qualifies as quality? Then Abby's body started shutting down and I had to figure out the exercise/fun quotient for her. Then we had another sick puppy scenario. . . It's been almost constant recently.

Awhile ago, when mole was first diagnosed, we slowed down a bit, but I decided that his quality of life was more important and that we need to continue our normal hiking/exercise routine. Time wears on and he gets worse. I decide that he is too important to me and that I need more time and he stops going on hikes. Fast forward to when Abby was diagnosed and I have a completely different opinion - Abby still goes on hikes despite her issues.

It's funny how we can come to completely different solutions to the exact same problem. And it's not that I love Abby any less than mole - or that I value my time with mole more than I value my time with Abby. For Abby, I decided that she needed to have a high quality of life despite the obstacles that come our way because she had such a poor quality for such a long time. If, in the long run, it means that I have less time with her, then so be it. But I could not make that same decision for mole. I felt that even a lower quality mole life is way higher than a lot of dog's highest hoped for quality.

Just this week I was faced with an interesting decision - where to place my special needs foster puppy. The decision was a tough one. One of the people would cuddle him continuously and treat him like a precious little baby, and the other would let him romp and play and be a dog. Both clearly loved him and would care for his special needs, but which would be the best life for him? Where would he have the highest quality of life?

It was in making that decision that made me rethink my decision about mole. He LOVES to hike and play and be a dog. My keeping him confined kept him comfortable, but he sure wasn't as happy as he used to be. It showed in small ways, but it became more and more apparent. But making the decision to allow him this was tough. He hurts more often then not now, but we are able to manage the pain. But the fact that he does hurt makes it all the more difficult to allow him to do something that might make him hurt worse.

But seeing him age quicker and quicker makes me want to make the time he does have here with me as special and as fun as possible. Because of that, I have decided to take him hiking again. We aren't going to go as far as Abby and I go, and we are going to go on flatter trails, and we are going to go at his pace. . . but we are still going to go - at least once a week. We have already gone once, and seeing how happy he was made my resolve to continue to do this stronger. And he really didn't need any more pain meds than usual - at least not this time. I understand that might not always be the case, but how can you say no to this face

Fostering. . . Again

I was planning on taking the year off from fostering - although I knew that if a medical case came along that I would probably be the one to take him in. We never hope for medical cases - you never hope to come across a dog that has been so neglected or abused that they need it, but we often do. Some we take and fix up and adopt out, some we can't help at all. But when this little guy showed up on the needs rescue list at a south bay shelter, he was impossible to pass up. And being tiny (only 3 pounds) it seemed like my house was the most obvious place to put him.

He is all over the media now with the horrific story of what happened to him - and it IS a terrible story. And everything that has been said is completely true. He is in a lot of pain when he defecates. And, unfortunately, because of the scarring, most of the pain he is in isn't productive, so he tries to go more often then a healthy dog does. He has been with me for only a few days, and my heart breaks with all his crying - and I can't wait until he goes in for surgery tomorrow so that he will finally be pain free.

But, when he isn't in pain, he is just about the cutest thing on this earth. He is a total puppy in every way - much to the chagrin of my old grumpy dogs! Luckily he isn't too annoying, and when everyone refuses to play with him, he goes and plays with "dean" - a stuffed dog that some friends got me YEARS AND YEARS ago after a very special puppy I worked really hard with was finally adopted. He also loves to play fetch and tug. He has no weird fears of people, places, or things. When he is all fixed up, he is actually going to be one very well-rounded and socialized puppy. It's truly amazing what dogs can go through and still be friendly and trusting after it all. He is going to be a great companion to someone soon.

If you are interested in donating to his medical fund, you can go here.

One of the Worst I've Seen

In my deleted blog I would occasionally write about work related things, but I was very careful not to divulge too many specifics. But today something happened that I just have to share.

Warning: not for the faint of heart

I saw a cat that had NO FACE.

I have seen many terrible cases of skin cancer on cat's faces, but today I saw the worst case imaginable. Skin cancer is usually seen in cats who venture outdoors with un-pigmented skin on the ears and nose. If it is on the ears, the remedy is usually easy and involves completely removing the ear pinna. Removing the cancer from the nose is a bit tougher and usually requires a specialist's touch. Most people will do the surgery on the ears, but few will spend the money to do it on the nose. Owners often opt to euthanize their pet when the cancer covers the entire tip of the nose. Some owners will wait until the cancer has invaded the sinus cavities and the cat has difficulty breathing. Very few owners will wait so long that the cancer has spread around the face itself and has eaten away the entire nose.

I'm not sure what today's cat's owners were thinking. I have never seen a cat with cancer that bad. The cancer had not only eaten the ears and nose, but it had continued to spread and had taken the soft palate and cheeks as well. The cat was constantly "sneezing" but I think it was actually saliva coming through the soft palate of the mouth rather than nasal mucous. I felt so bad.

I'm Still Burping

One of the lesser known perks of my job is the dinners put on by drug company reps. They usually put on dinners so that they can sell a new product. They always have some speaker talking about a disgusting subject. They often offer CE credit. And, for the most part, the food is good.

Yesterday's dinner blew all the other dinners out of the park on so many levels. The topic was dermatology (ie: disgusting skin bugs and infections!) It was actually very interesting and some info may prove useful for a friend's suffering dog. The speaker was very funny - unlike ALL the others. And she only used one semi-gross (but really sad) picture during the meal - again, unlike ALL the others. But the highlight of the night was the meal itself. Let me break it down:

Wine (2 choices):
White
Red - so good with everything on the menu

Appetizers:
Warm spinach & cheese dip with costinini
Fried mozzarella (not in stick form, but in whole plate size form!)

Salads:
Ceasar salad
"Italian style" (lettuce, tomato, red onions, cheese, vinaigrette)

Pasta:
Zitti
Cheese ravioli - with delicious GREEN sauce
Eggplant Parmesian - Don't worry, I didn't eat it.

Meat:
Chicken parmesian
Sliced beef
Chicken Picata

Sides:
Baked red potato
Asparagus

Desserts:
Warm apple strudel w/ ice cream
Cinnamon vanilla ice cream sandwiched between puff pastry & chocolate
Coffee

Can you believe this menu? It was so delicious! No one will ever be able to compete with that - not even the wine train!