IVDD

 

          Bondi has IVDD.

          “What’s that?” I know you wanna know.

          IVDD is Intervertebral Disc Disease.

          We knew something was going on about a week before we took her to the vet and in hindsight, we should’ve taken her sooner, but we didn’t know.

          IVDD is common in long back dogs. It’s a spine problem where the cushioning discs between a dog’s vertebrae get damaged and press on the spinal cord. This can cause pain, trouble walking, or, in severe cases, paralysis. It’s most common in long‑backed breeds like dachshunds, but any dog can develop it.

          Bondi would squeak sometimes when you touched her just right. And by squeak I mean a yip of pain. I did plan to take her to the vet but it was the weekend. Sunday, Bondi went outside, to the very back of the yard, and laid in the grass. And there she stayed. All by herself. It wasn’t normal. Monday morning, when I could call the vet, Bondi’s left rear foot was knuckling under. Luckily, the vet could see us in the early afternoon. By that time she was dragging the whole leg.

           I knew it was something with her spine. It had to be. “What do you want to do?” I asked my handsome mountain man.

          “What do you mean?”

          “If she has to have surgery it’s between six and ten thousand dollars. You wanna do that or have her put down?”

          It’s a cruel world where you have to choose between those two options.

          “I don’t wanna spend that much money,” Mike said.

          I hear him. He doesn’t want to spend that amount of money and he doesn’t want to have her put down. An untenable situation.

          “It’s not just the surgery, which we’ll probably have to go to Cornell for that, but it’s also the recovery time and follow up visits.”

          I’ve been to Cornell University Hospital for Animals with my beautiful Jody. She had to take her German Short Hair there for treatment and it took hours to get there!

          “How long does it take to get there,” I wondered, and opened a website called Distance Between Cities.

          “There are 55 miles from Wyalusing to Ithaca,” it says. “We could not find a driving route between the two locations.”

          Basically, you can’t get there from here.

          I asked Copilot. “Most people can make the drive in a little over 2 hours,” and gave me driving directions.

          “It’s a lot of back roads,” Jody said when I asked her. “I can make it in... probably an hour and half.”

          “We might have to decide before we see the vet,” I told Mike. If we weren’t going for the surgery, Dr. Lori would want to do the euthanasia sooner rather than later. She doesn’t like to do them but she also doesn’t like to see an animal suffer. She’s a good vet.

          “We’ll have to put her down,” Mike said with sadness in his eyes and his voice. “How do you feel about it?”

          “Same.”

          Dr. Lori examined Bondi and believes she’ll recover with medicine, time, and therapy. She’s seen lots of these cases. We’re both relieved.

          Bondi hasn’t seemed to mind being in her kennel for most of the day.

          “Why don’t we put her on the table to make it easier for you to get her in and out,” Mike said.

          What a great idea! It has made it easier for me, and probably more comfortable for Bondi, too. I can support her back as I pick her up and she can see a lot more.

          Something else Dr. Lori recommended was laser therapy. “It can help reduce pain and inflammation, help her muscles relax, speed up recovery, and be more comfortable during crate rest,” she said.

We can’t afford surgery but we would do what we could. We wanted to give her the best chance at recovery so we agreed to six sessions.

“We’ll do twice a week for the first two weeks, then once a week after that,” she said.

We tried to leave Bondi in the kennel during the night but she is so unhappy. You know what that means, don’cha? It means I don’t get any sleep.

I asked Dr. Lori specifically about Bondi sleeping with us. “As long as she doesn’t jump off the bed.”

The only way we can assure that is to restrain her. I secured a leash to the bed and the other end to Bondi. She can get under the covers but isn’t able to reach our feet, like she’s used to, but even then, after a while, she’d get too warm, creep to the top and sleep between our pillows for the rest of the night anyway. Now she has to stay at the top of the bed, but at least she’s with us and happy.

The first night she was restless and couldn’t settle very well. After a couple of nights, she adjusted to being tied and is doing better.

 

Knapp Weed is blooming.

So is Chicory.

Rough-fruited Cinquefoil.

          Yellow Loosestrife.

          Antlers are blooming, too!

          This guy was in our yard.

          So was this one.

          And this guy was in our yard. You may notice he’s got a couple of hitchhikers.

          “They look like leeches,” you say.

          Yes, they do, and they are. Turtles are used to dealing with pond leeches and won’t be any worse for wear when they jump off — not that I think leeches jump (at least I hope they don’t! That would be scary.)

          We were on the golf cart, cruising our back roads when I got some of those photos. Here’s a few more from that ride-about.

          Wonder what he’s making.

          One of the reasons I wanted to go on this ride was to check the road-kill deer. When the skull is picked clean, I intend to bring it home. One of these days I’ll paint my collection of skulls, some I’ve had for years!

          You can’t get in a hurry about this stuff, don’cha know.

Sitting on the dead deer was a Baltimore Checkerspot.

          Who knew?

          “Knew what?” you ask.

          Butterflies feed on sap, rotting fruit, poop, minerals from the soil, and dead animals!

          Speaking poop...

          I was picking it up from the dog run when this humbee came to check it out. It’s the first Hummingbird Moth I’ve seen this year — and he was interested in poop!

          But back to skulls...

          Here’s two sitting on the back of a truck! I’m jelly!

          A Great Blue Heron.

          “What is that?” I wondered aloud, spotting something white with turquoise edges.

          Mike backed the cart up, I got off and kicked it. Can you guess what it is? 

          Mike is a good husband. He was thinking of me when he offered to make a section of the dog run fence open up so he could bring the zero-turn mower in and mow the dog run for me.

          “I can mow it,” I told him last year.

          This year, I’m happy to let him do it. It takes him ten minutes — maybe. It takes me about half an hour to mow it.

          “You can trim it up with the push mower,” Mike said.

          You know he loves me to do this for me because he doesn’t like to mow around stuff, and I have stuff!

          He does such a good job that I didn’t feel the need to get the push mower out — until after the third time he mowed it.

          “When you get the mower out, will you  get that little section outside the dog run that I can’t get with my mower?” he casually asked.

          Since he does my mowing for me, I decided to get the mower out and mow that little section for him.

          I had to laugh, when I went to get the mower. There’s a vine I let grow on the mower corral and it’s decided to claim my mower, since I wasn’t using it.

      

          “What is it?” you wanna know.

          I thought it might be Burr Cucumber but I haven’t seen any burr cucumbers on it. AI says it’s wild grape, but I don’t think it is.

          Going across the Rainbow Bridge into Wyalusing I noticed wires obstructing my view of the Susquehanna. It appears the supports holding the wires got tired of holding the tree up, too!

          “What have you been painting this week?”

          I’m so glad you asked!

          One of our friends became the grandmother of a baby with developmental disabilities.

          I think that’s the kindest, most respectful way to say it, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

          I made her a card but rather than transfer the image I printed it on a 5x7 piece of watercolor paper. My watercolors interacted with the printer ink and it came out awful.

          I scrapped that idea and printed it instead.

          And man! Was printing a bi-fold card a challenge!

          I fooled with it for more than an hour before I figured out what I was doing wrong.

          “Didn’t you ask Copilot, your AI buddy?” you ask.

          As a matter of fact, I did. And even though it was giving me the correct procedure to print a bi-fold card, I was adding an extra step that was messing it up.

          “What were you doing?” I know you wanna know in case you’re ever faced with the same problem.

          Instead of just selecting the size in the layout window, I was also selecting landscape. That was the wrong thing to do. There isn’t any need to select landscape and if you do, you get this.

          I laugh a little and shake my head. I’ve had this problem since before Halloween last year.

          At any rate, I’m glad I finally figured out the error of my ways and I truly hope the card brings her comfort. People hear things in their own way, especially when their hearts are tender. But I wrote this with love and the hope of easing a burden.

 

          My handsome brother-in-law sent me a picture of Bentley framed. A good frame can make all the difference in the world, don’cha think?

          Speaking of my paintings...

          The gals at the vet office have been encouraging me to make a poster and hang it on the board there.

          “A lot of people would get them,” one of the gals said.

          Here’s the thing. I don’t want a job. I’ve been staying fairly busy already with the commissions I’ve had.

          “If you don’t want a lot just price it high,” someone told me.

          I was still hesitant about doing it. Then I thought I’d price it for I’m willing to do it for, then tack on extra bucks and donate that to the local shelters and rescues. If I get too many commissions, I’ll raise the price.

          Ruger went to his home this week. I took him to the hospital where Lori and her daughter work. Lori got teary-eyed when she saw it. She commissioned it for her daughter and her daughter couldn’t stop thanking me. They thought I’d captured Ruger well.

          Later in the day Lori sent me a text. “She absolutely loves it! She has shown it to everyone!”

          I know I told you I was tired of my sketchbook...

Guess what I did this week.

Don’t laugh. 

          When I took the girls out before bed I saw we had an orange moon! I took 29 photos, all the while changing my settings, trying to get a decent shot. This is the best.

          Let’s call this one done!

Done!

There's More!

 There’s more!

“More what, Peg?” you ask.

More pictures! Not only did I not show you all the pictures from last week, there’s more this week! Twenty more! 

“How many were left from last week?” you ask.

More than forty.

Let’s start this time with a few of the road pictures.

Some of my most favorite people.

Speaking of people...

We were coming back through Towanda and saw Jeremy Lewan setting up his camera across from the courthouse.

“Can we go around the block?” I asked Mike. “I didn’t get a picture.”

Mike is generally adverse to go around the block but he did this time. When we got back to where Jeremy was, Mike slowed and put my window down.

“Hi Jeremy!” I called.

“Hi,” Jeremy called back. 

When he saw my camera he gave me his most charming smile.

“I watch you every night!” I called back over my shoulder as Mike drove away.

“Appreciate you,” he said.

“You don’t watch him every night. He’s not on every night,” Mike pointed out.

That’s true. Jeremy is one of several meteorologists at channel 16. “He knows what I mean.” I remember when Jeremy was new at the TV station. He was so nervous he could barely get through the weather. Now he’s an old pro — and easy to look at.

Speaking of being a pro...

You’d think, after all the years I’ve been cooking, that I’d be a pro.

Well, I’m not.

I burnt this saucepan so badly that I had to put water in it and heat it up twice before I had it scraped clean.

“What did you do?” you wanna know.

Well, let’s start at the beginning.

I feed the orioles fruit juice instead of buying jelly for them. The cheap jelly contains high fructose corn syrup that’s not good for them. The fruit juice is free. I dump it off canned fruit before adding the fruit to our yogurt. I’d been freezing the juice in ice cube trays and putting that out for the birds, but once it melts they have a bowl of liquid left. Granted, they still consume it, but what if I thicken it a little? I don’t want to buy fruit pectin because now something free has turned into an expense. I think I paid four dollars for the last box of pectin I bought. 

“What about corn starch?” you ask.

I know, right! I decided to try that. It’ll thicken juice, right?

I was cooking fruit juice and corn starch together and it was taking too long to come to a boil. I’ll just toss the scraps in the weeds, I thought. You know, a quick trip out and right back. I get out there and walk a little way from the house, toss the scraps, and look up. What does my little eye spy? The concrete pad where the lumber company used to load and unload trucks. It looks like it’s sinking more, I thought and walked over. The cracked pieces of concrete are lower than I remember and one of the cracks was even wider than before. The whistle pig who lives under it doesn’t help matters, I’m sure. 

I walked out towards the road and looked at the cracks. It’s gonna fall on the road one of these days, I thought after I had studied it for a while.

“It’ll be here longer than you,” Patti said when I pointed it out to her.

By the time I did all my ramblings and musings and got back to the house, my fruit concoction was burning. I’d forgotten about it.

I poured it into a muffin tin, being careful not to include any of the burnt, and froze it. Those stinkin’ ungrateful birds! They won’t eat it!

“The whole batch absorbed the burnt smell,” Copilot, my artificial intelligence buddy said, “and birds won’t tolerate that. And secondly, cornstarch made a pudding-like gel instead of jelly-like gel and birds don’t like that either.”

Okay, methinks. I’ll go back to frozen juice. Let’s not make a problem where there isn’t one. And tossed the fruit gravy out for the critters. They’re not nearly as picky.

Maybe I’m just becoming a forgetful old woman. 

Speaking of which...

I was making something that called for garlic salt. I can’t even remember what now, that was more than a week ago. But this I do remember, I took the top off expecting there to be a shaker lid. There wasn’t one.

I can’t say I was totally surprised. Since I use my spices more for measuring than for shaking, I’ve been known to pull the shaker lid off and toss it in a drawer. I searched and searched for the right size shaker lid and couldn’t find one. I resorted to the old-fashioned way. I took a pinch and sprinkled it on. When I put the lid back on was when I noticed it had a flip top and lo and behold, there was the shaker top.

Aye-yi-yi!

Speaking of critters...

We were coming back across our pretty little creek and see a doe and her fawn. Mike stopped on the bridge and the doe stopped to look up at us. The fawn took this opportunity to grab a little snack.

“Want me to pull over so you can take pictures?” Mike asked.

“Sure.”

He pulled over in front of the Kipps’ house and I made the short walk back to the bridge. 

Mama stepped over baby and went for the opposite shore. 

When they were gone I looked down to the water and see a shed snake skin. Actually, seeing it on the computer, I think there might be two sheds there. The same snake twice, because it’s his favorite shedding spot, or two different snakes, there’s no way for me to tell. 

Just a little fun fact for you. In snakes it’s not called shedding, it’s called ecdysis. A new skin forms under the old one, a thin layer of fluid builds up between them, that’s why their eyes look cloudy, the snake rubs its nose on a rough surface to start a tear, then crawls forward. The old skin turns inside-out as it peels off and usually comes off in one long tube. So you’re looking at the inside of the snake skin. The shed skin is made of the same stuff as fingernails, it’s dry, low-nutrition, and hard to digest, so nothing eats it. 

More than you wanted to know?

I was taking pictures of little birds mobbing a larger bird and got one that almost looks like two eyes and a smile.

I got a picture of the eagle nest above Ulster as we drove past. The young eagle, wings spread, was drying off after a rain shower.

This doe looks like she has a growth on her rump.

And the last of the critter photos I didn’t show you last week.

Tiger. He is such a strange kitty. He follows me around all day, then in the evening he spreads out on Michael while we watch TV. If Mike has to get up for any reason, Tiger will follow him.

Now, just because that was the last of the critter photos from last time doesn’t mean it was the last of the photos. There’s still some road pictures left.

Like this one.

And this one.

We were coming back from Steamtown and came upon the scene of an accident. Someone sheared off a pole and traveled on down the bank.

“I don’t even see any skid marks,” Patti said.

They haven’t replaced the pole yet but they did make it lighter on the lines.

Does anyone know what this thing is used for? It’s about twelve inches long, made from something that’s not glass, and comes apart. And I did Google it. I don’t believe it’s any of the things it said it was. 

Speaking of things...

Mike bought new blades for his new mower. I had him lay the three old ones out with a new one so you could see how bad they were. You’d think they would’ve put new blades on before they sold it to us, wouldn’t you?

I thought this was absolutely fascinating.

“What?” you ask.

Look at the gold design on this ball gown from 1865. Would you believe (and I couldn’t) that it’s straw? They moistened it to soften it then it’s held down with catch stitches on the underside. What’s more surprising is that it’s not particularly fragile. Re-dampening it periodically doesn’t harm it and keeps it flexible enough to wear. 

Whoever came up with this is a genius.

 

I found a spider in my bathroom that was as big as a dinner plate!

Okay, okay! That’s hyperbole. Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.

I was getting ready to get in the shower when I spotted him. I was in the altogether, my birthday suit, in the buff, wearing nothing but a smile, naked as a jay bird, so to speak. I was trying to decide what I should do when he made up my mind for me. He took off. I blocked him with my hand so he couldn’t go someplace I couldn’t get him, brought the other hand up behind him, and gently cupped him between the two. Now what? I couldn’t put clothes on or even grab a towel. 

Oh well. No one’ll see me unless they’re standing in my back yard, I thought, and headed for the kitchen patio. I had to get him to tuck his legs in so I could hold him in one hand while I grabbed my camera and opened the door. He didn’t bite me. He’s starting to decompress in the picture. You should see him with his legs the whole way out! He’s as big as a dinner plate!

Mike and I had a fox cross the road in front of us. My camera kept focusing on the trees and not the fox so this is the best shot I got before he went off into the woods. I know we have foxes but I don’t see them very often.

Speaking of crossing the road...

On our last shopping trip we saw two little fawns that didn’t make it across the road. People see the doe and forget there could be a baby following. I’ll spare you the photo.

Raini and I took the garbage down to the end of the driveway this week. I usually let her drag her leash until I’m close to the road. On this day I saw the doe and she didn’t. I got a hold of her leash so she couldn’t chase it but I don’t think she ever saw it. Isn’t she cute peeking around the bush at us?

Speaking of Raini...

She’s a shit head. And I mean that.

Mike took us for a ride and we ended by going around our pond. The milkweed is in full bloom and smells so good! I let Raini off the cart, dragging her leash because I knew she wouldn’t go far (unless she saw a deer) and would come back when I called, while I took a few photos.

When I was done I called Raini. She came back but she came back covered in shit. She’d found a fresh doody pile to roll in. She had it in her ear, the side of her face, it got caught in her collar and the snap of her leash, and the leash itself, some on her side, and when she came at my call, she got it on me! 

Aye-yi-yi.

When we got back to the house she got a mini bath in the back yard and I changed my clothes. 

She literally was a shit head.

On our ride we saw bales of hay wrapped in red, white, and blue.

“Is it supposed to look like a flag?” Mike asked.

I never paid much attention to it but I think he’s right.

I took lots of flower pictures, something I haven’t done much of lately. 

The day lilies are blooming.

“There’s one,” I called. That’s Mike’s signal to stop so I can snap a picture.

“That’s comfrey,” I said. “No. That’s not right. What is that.....?” For the life of me I could not pluck yarrow from this old lady brain.

We even saw a patch of white milkweed.

And I believe these are choke cherries.

Tiger hasn’t wanted to use the pet door to come in. He’ll scratch at the door until I hear him and open it. He’s such a funny cat.

I’d been putting some nuts and seeds out where I saw Alvin. The food was disappearing every day but I hadn’t seen the chipmunk since that first time. Then I saw a bird fly away from the general area. I wasn’t sure what I was feeding. About four days later I saw Alvin again.

Raini was in the yard, sunning herself at the same time Alvin was feeding, but she never saw him. 

I finished Ruger. He’s not everyone’s cup o’ sunshine. Sometimes I look at it and like it, other times I look at it and don’t.

Let’s end with a sunset photo.

Done!