THE DECISIONS WE MAKE

      This is Nigel.

This is also Nigel, on the top.

This is Nigel now, in his pen in my room, wearing a belly band that comes off when he scoots along like a seal.

Nigel has a cart. He has his own 4X4 foot pen in my room. He is routinely taken outside and sometimes he is able to let us know that he really NEEDS to go out and we try hard to accomodate him but sometimes it just isn't possible and then we have cleaning up to do.

Today he has pooped 4 times. The last two times were in his pen while I was making lunch. John had just taken him out. The poop extended from one end of the pen to the other, hitting every pad I had in there and Nigel was squished in one clean corner looking mortified.

And I began to wonder.

Was this the right decision? Keeping him alive? Keeping him in a situation where his every whim is either met or he is at our mercy. What happens on the days when I don't feel well? There are parts to Nigel's care that John cannot do. He cannot catheterize him, which I do twice a day or once, depending on how many times Nigel has been out to pee and how much and whether he actually peed or not.

And that's another thing, our obsession keeping him running with fair regularity.

So he eats special food, designed to produce firm stools.

And he gets UTI infections.

And he cannot climb up and look out the windows, or even lay on the couch without assistance.

Is this what we wanted for him?

No, but. BUT.

On the other hand, when he originally went down in the rear his tail quit being waggable and he has gotten that back.

When this happened, he could not support himself at all for any length of time, not even a second. And now if we position his feet he can stand (kind of) for 10 or 15 seconds before he begins to sink.

So of course on the bad days I remind myself that Nigel certainly didn't ask for this, and that some improvement might mean more improvement will come in time.

That's what I tell myself, anyway.

GOODMORNINGMOMITSTIMETOGETUP

HEYMA ITS TIME TA EET
Hey hey hey
It's almoss FIVE THIRDY!! You up? You up? Dis Conley youse leddin me sleeps wif you you UP?? Here lemme stick my nose in you eer. YOU UP??
Ya let we ousside an forgot??
How meny times gotta tellya not  to put youse hedbone beke on da pilow once we ousside!!
HEY MA WE AT DA DOOR WANNA EET

Ok Ok I nose dey sleepin next dore.

Oboy she mekin food, oboy, lookit dat clck it almoss 5 fordy fibe. HEY MA HURRYZUP

Oh dat ole ledy so slow she moob like a.....like a.....

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooZOMBIETIME. Guess it too errly for she.

hey ma comeon feed we. We no buyin da Zomby aact.

Aaaaaahhhh, dat much bedder. Brekkas in beddy. Now for naptime. MomPerson gonna start londree. Affer all it fibe fordie nine. Time da get sheself started.

OK NIGEL AND LLEWIS, NAPTIME!!!

Dis bin gettin up in da morning. Brung to youse all by'
Nigel, Llewis and Conley

MOVING ON WHETHER I WANT TO OR NOT

Down to three dogs. When we began owning dogs and my Mother was still alive, every new dog and cat brought a chorus of dismay. Oh no, we didn't REALLY need another dog (cat) did we?
Well no of course we didn't NEED one.
We wanted one.
Or two.
Or three. Or.....
And at one point we had 5 and then 4 and now 3.

I have friends with drop-dead gorgeous homes, who travel widely and have beautiful art and gardens and in their closets they have clothing and extra linens and good pots and pans and new dishes and in my closets I have extra blankets for the dogs, throws for the furniture, cases of KOE and enzymatic barf cleaner, stacks of paper towels: cupboards sport dog bowls, dog dishes, dog plates, extra cans of dog food, emergency dog food for sickies, and my medicine cabinet has Flagyl and Tramadol, Rimadyl and GasX, Benedryl,Reglan, a few antibiotics and a couple of tablets of Prednisone...if I cut my finger my choices are purple or green Vetwrap.

The shelf in the other room is a veritable nest of leashes: leather,nylon, show leads, braided leads, 4 foot leads, 6 foot leads and collars-- prong collars, martingale collars, buckle collars, collars with nameplates and tags, collars without, small ones for puppies, and a slew of as-they-grow sizes. Tracking harnesses, tracking leads, surveyor poles with flags and without,  and  gloves, socks, hats, wallets and little tins to use as articles on tracks.

The kitchen drawers contain special treats, Frontline, HeartGard, some old toys and some chewed up bones.

If you come into my house and inhale and say BOY THAT SMELLS GOOD I am cooking for the dogs.
Chances are good if you come in my house and inhale you may also think--wow, she needs to steam those rugs!

Decorations consist of crates, dog blankets, dog beds, little portable stairs so the Bassets can access the furniture, dog show photos, backyard dog photos, and the one or two trophies we have managed to snag.
And on another shelf, somewhat hidden away, are the cannisters and glass urns and the boxes....Walker, Quiller, Mitchell, Zelda and now Cooper. (And the cats.)

So down to three now. And it is so quiet. Way too quiet. I have begun searching for that new addition.... and when it is very very still I can almost hear my Mother saying "Oh BEVERLY, Not ANOTHER one!" But is it faint, and I can ignore it.....

CH. MIDNIGHT ACRES HIGH NOON, Hct:  "COOPER" APRIL 5, 2012

COOPER

Tomorrow Cooper will undergo exploratory surgery to see if there is anything we can do to help him eat and keep it down.

If there is not, I will let him go.

Without the surgery, he will die slowly, starving, so this is kind of a no-brainer.

I will be there so I will be able to see what is in there and make the choice.

I hope I can live up to his standards.

They are pretty high.

THE GLASS SHOW AND MOSTLY PICS

The glass exhibit is over and the kids are heading back to Tennessee. We are left with good memories, a new lamp and I have a wall-mounted glass bird. Black with beautiful sunflower yellow speckles and streaks down his back.

Over the weekend we held the show, went to dinner, cleaned the back yard and wore ourselves out. Koda, Stacey Adam's lovely Aussie-with-a-tail visited as well, altho he went for a walk with Conley he did not meet the Gang of Four head on, but spent the afternoon in the yard while Stacey, Christopher and John cleaned the yard up and I cooked stuffed Manicotti.

The banner in the window of the Salon Artists Gallery, where the glass was being shown.

A pair of birds done by Chris Szaton of Marble City Glassworks

A section of the glass exhibit. Flowers napkin holders, with tumblers and a pitcher behind them.

The pendant light section.

These are paperweights done by Matt Salley, the other half of Marble City Glassworks. He does these and Christiopher does the birds, and both of them do other items together.

My new bird, from the front.

...and the back

Our new living room lamp.

Koda, a wonderful dog

Stacey helping to clean up the backyard of cut down saplings and a winter's worth of plant debris.

Half of Marble City Glassworks, my son Christopher cleaning the yard with

his girl, Stacey and his Dad, John. It looks fabulous, the yard.All in all it was a great weekend, and I think they sold a lot and did well. I also got to see my daughter (Stacey) andher husband John Arguello, and meet their neighbor, Bonnie. My sister-in-law drove in to see the exhibit and we all went to dinner.
Last night we said goodbye to the kids and I wish Stacey A and Christopher and Koda a speed and safe trip.

Glass can be viewed and custom ordered at

www.marblecityglassworks.com
or viewed at their Etsy store
http://www.etsy.com/people/MarbleCityGlassworks?ref=ls_profile

BITS AND PIECES

I find it fascinating that the dogs get me up at 4 or 4:30 in the morning and, apparently energized, go out and check the entire yard and then, once I am up for good, go back to sleep. I mean, they are ASLEEP--- that level where they would not even hear me if I left. But if I rattle the treat box moving it aside, I have them awake and underfoot

Yesterday I took Conley and went for a walk with Stacey and Koda. Stacey power-walks or something akin to it and I was trying to keep up, but Conley and I fell behind. Conley snuffled every bush as he went but Koda, a herding breed and determined to follow instructions, did not. I can teach the Belgians to hup along and not check out every upright plant, but not the Bassets. Those noses are just the key to the world of smells, and the siren song is too strong. On the other hand, the Bassets could care less if everyone comes in when called, but the Belgian has to go back out and bring them in. Everything in it's place, I think is the herding dog motto.

I met someone yesterday who rescues mixed breeds but not purebreds because rescuing purebreds "only encourages show people" to continue breeding and everyone knows--according to this person-- that they abandon the dogs that are not show quality. Of course this is absurd, but I kept my mouth shut. I was not at home but in a public place with other people and she was a customer and so I was quiet but when she asked whether I had dogs I said yes, I show and breed Bassets.

It was a bit of a lie, since I am doing neither at this time, but was worth it for the look on her face. Heh. I am a rotten person.

Conley, when I am in the kitchen, places himself between me and the counter or sink. It is a damnable habit and one I would stop. No matter how often or with what force he is ejected, he returns.  It isn't so much that he is waiting for me to drop something but that he is creating a situation where this is much more likely to happen. We say the Belgians need only one instance to learn something, but Bassets are not dull and need only one time with a food dropping off the counter to recognize a golden opportunity.And they are perfectly capable of projecting this into the future, so that they anticipate the event. Between leaning over the dog to the counter and the slipperly drool on the floor, Conley has created the perfect environment for an accidental dropping of foodstuff. And he knows it.

The softest spot in the house is the only place a Basset belongs.