I guess beating the servants works...

This was supposed to get posted Sunday night, but the internet was slow, and Mom was really tired. So just pretend that it is Sunday when you are reading this.

I really appreciate you getting all over Mom for her complete lack of photo-taking, because she’s gotten better. Sort of. Let’s just say that she had good intentions.

First, yesterday, Mom and Dad took me to an open grassy area and played football with me. Mom didn’t get any pictures, but this was because technically I’m not supposed to be off a leash at all (unless I’m in the ‘dog run’ – which is a bit of a misnomer, as the only dog that could actually run in there would be a miniature Chihuahua or maybe something smaller), and so Mom was “running interference”. I didn’t dash off or anything, but it made it look all official. And I got to race around to my heart’s content, so I’m not bummed that Mom didn’t get pictures. And I totally understand why she didn’t, because I'd rather run around and play football with no pictures than not get to play football. So it was okay.

And today. Today. Mom and Dad were going to take me hiking today. Mom got this fancy map that has all these trails that I’m allowed on, and so we were all rarin’ to go. Kinda. Dad was tired from not sleeping well, and it was cold and sort of cloudy, so we decided to go in the afternoon. So we hung out in the morning, and Mom took some “action” shots. She thinks she is such a smarty pants!

And after some quality hanging out time, it still hadn’t warmed up a ton, so Mom decided to do some grocery shopping. She has to drive in to Hurricane for groceries (about 20 minutes away). She did her shopping, and then, on the way back, Dad called her because Mr. Bufus was "not acting right". He was having problems piddling and when he did piddle, he was piddling blood.

Even I know that this is Not. Good.

So Mom came home with the groceries and found an Emergency Vet Clinic open on Sundays (anything open on Sundays in Utah is a rarity). Yes, all of us have the amazing ability to only get sick after hours or on Sundays. It’s a highly specialized skill. The clinic was in St. George. Which meant that Mom had to drive back through Hurricane, and into St. George. When it was all said and done, Mom was gone for a couple of hours, and by the time she got home, she was very tired, and it was too dark to go hiking anyway.

As for Mr. Bufus? He has a bladder infection, and is on a bunch of drugs, and Mom has to give him fluids twice a day. And she still has to give TaiChi fluids every day… So, yeah, Mom is completing all of her practicum hours to be a veterinary tech, if she ever wanted to become one. He has to go to a vet in a couple of days to have them check on him, but in the meantime, he gets lots of wet food (and I'm not allowed to sneak in and eat his food. Well, not much, anyway). He should be all right, but Mom will be playing nurse for a while.

So she had good intentions, and she promises that when we go hiking (hopefully tomorrow, although Dad has work in the morning, and Mom is pretty worn out after today) or any place else that we go, she’ll get pictures.

In the meantime, here are my action shots! Heehee!


These are mine.

You would REALLY like to give me some of your hamburger, wouldn't you?

Oooh, I am so irresistible!

Thanks, Dad....

Oh, and Mom is all excited because on the drive back from the vet, she saw a Ford GT. (Here's a stock photo - and it is even the same color as the one Mom saw.)


She didn’t know what it was, but thought it looked cool. And thought it was pretty funny when the highway patrol guy pulled up next to the Ford GT and rode along side it, looking at it for about a quarter mile. When she got home, she looked it up, and apparently they only made a little over 4,000 of them, so I guess this was a pretty rare sighting. I think she's in love! ;-)

*kissey face*
-Fiona

Rainy weather, and a vet visit

Alas, no hike today. It rained really hard yesterday afternoon and then again last night, so while it was only partly cloudy this morning, Mom said the trail would be really muddy. I didn’t see a problem with that, but apparently Mom said something about how she would have to remove the mud from my feet with a hose, and that didn’t sound too appealing.



Rain, rain, go AWAY!

Also, she and Dad had a business meeting, and by the time that was done, big dark clouds had started to move in. And besides, Mom had to take TaiChi to the eye doctor to do a check up.

So, on to TaiChi for a minute. She’s doing Really Well. She won’t ever see out of her right eye again, but since her cataracts (waterfalls? I didn’t know you could have waterfalls in your eyes, but apparently when you get old you get these waterfalls. Maybe your brain starts to leak? I didn’t think to ask) were so bad that she probably couldn’t see much more than shadows anyway. But her snooter works really well! She can smell a steak from a mile away! Heehee!

*ahem*

Okay, back to the doctor’s report. Her good eye is very good. She has more of these waterfall thingys in that eye, but it’s not horrible, and all of the other measurements they do on her eyes are Really Good in that eye. They also took her blood pressure because she had really high blood pressure when she first went to see the eye doctor, so they put her on blood pressure medicine. I guess TaiChi’s life is just super stressful! You know; sleeping, eating, sleeping some more – that can all be VERY stressful! Heehee. Note from Fi’s Mom: her high blood pressure is/was just a combination of old age and her chronic kidney issues; if you’ve got an OLD dog, it’s worth having your vet check his/her blood pressure, if they don’t already do it. It doesn’t take very long to do it, and can help prevent some pretty serious issues. In short, her blood pressure went from Super High a month ago to being almost normal; she was 190 a month ago and was 120 today. 100 is normal for dogs, and since she always gets stressed out at the vet’s office, her blood pressure is probably at least 10 points lower at home. She will stay on blood pressure medicine for the rest of her life, but since it gets delivered in a big dollop of peanut butter, she doesn’t mind! And since I get to lick Mom’s fingers after TaiChi gets her pill, I don’t mind, either!

So, TaiChi is doing Really Well and Mom and Dad are Very Happy about that. So is TaiChi. She clearly feels much better. Which is good, because I love my little big sister and she’s much more fun when she feels better!

Heh. We are such buddies. And she's just squinting because of the flashy thing - it's not a permanent thing.

Even if she steals my toys....

Because we had Fall-like weather today (rainy, and cold), Mom broke out TaiChi’s jacket. TaiChi gets cold fairly easily, and so she has a couple of jackets. Granny and Grandpa made her a really cool fleece jacket (that Mom can’t find a picture of at the moment…), and then she also has a heavier jacket with a hood.


I think she's quite sharp looking in her coat!


And because it was kind of dark out when Mom was taking the pictures, I got to display my Super Dog powers!

I can haz laser eyes!

And now, I must get back to catching up on bloggies. Because Mom has been slacking.

*kissey face*
-Fiona