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Morning All, I’m ignoring the weather. Rabbits after midnight, we all need a little luck. I’m dealing with tech issues again. I have had Straight Talk cell service for many years without issue. My home phone has been with Verizon using their device to travel cell lines ($25/mo.) Verizon notified me they will no longer enable me to use the device after December. Have read Verizon wants to discontinue all home phone service that use old telephone line. I ordered a device from Straight Talk for my home phone, plan is $15/mo. I understand the concept of Fios and phone service but if you live in a rural area there is no Fios. My brother has no phone service AGAIN and Verizon isn’t going to replace their ancient equipped. He lives on 16 acres which is surrounded by woods and no cell reception. The local electric company is laying Fios cable in his area and will bring it to his door BUT not offering phone service at this time. I know this is the way of the world now but doesn’t make it convenient if you are a dinosaur. Ok, finished venting. Sheila I’m not a fan of sour grapefruit but do eat watermelon. Bj, thanks for the note about electrolytes it is a serious concern. Karen, smelling smoke has to be upsetting for you. ((Hugs))) Everyone, I do read and care but short term memory is kicking in. Be safe

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Shirl, I always enjoy reading your posts.

I am spending the morning here waiting with my Big Joe (was told it would be four hours) to be seen at an emergency vet clinic about fifty miles from my home.

I'll spare everyone the boring details, mostly because I am typing on my phone.

Thanks to all that responded to my "affordable housing" post; I had hoped to respond to each of you individually, but with my Sweet Joe sick, I have had my hands full. Apologies.

I am sitting in my car, waiting, by some small miracle the temps are cool just now, unusual for Sacramento Summer.

Please keep the morning posts coming, helps keep my mind away from dark thoughts.

Thanks.

Anne

So I have been following the McKinney fire in the Yreka, CA area. Just over the border. My best buddy neighbor was also burnt out of our community and she bought a nice little place in Yreka as her sister also lives there. She had to evacuate last night. She went to her sisters. Now where we lived before she was not involved in the evacuation as she was on her way back from selling her place in Yuma. She just came back to devastation. The rest of us got to watch it burn on the news. I am staying inside as the smoke is really bad. Fingers crossed she doesnt lose another house.

Anne, Prayers for Big Joe. We hate it when are animals are sick. Keep us posted.

Back again. This is the way mind works, sporadically. Lol. Still searching and there is a device to allow telephone service over the internet. When my brother has Fios/internet at his door this would allow him to have telephone service. I watched a video of instructions for installing VOIP and did not understand one word. The terminology is beyond me. Maybe we can hire someone to install the device or maybe the electric company has a tech. At least there is hope. Lol

At least I am not talking about food.

Anne ((hugs)) for you and Big Joe

Good afternoon Shirl & Anne & Karen

Shirl, where's your friend Edith? Have her over for a glass of wine? Anne, sending lots of good thoughts for Big Joe. Karen, those fires are so scary! I hope your friends home is spared. Good luck on the phone situation. I just saw your update.

It's warm here in central FL and it looks like we may be breaking another record today for the high temperature three days in a row. Two grass cutters ago left because he couldn't keep help. The last grass cutter was fired because they couldn't keep up with what needed to be done. The new grass cutter starts tomorrow and they're supposed to be here every Mon., Tues and Wed. I sure hope these folks are a keeper but they're a very large company and are all over the state of FL.

It's hard to believe today is the last day of another month so don't forget Rabbits anytime after midnight.

Anne, so sorry to hear about Big Joe. Prayers for a speedy recovery. Please let us know how he’s doing.
Sandi

Shirlv wrote:Back again. This is the way mind works, sporadically. Lol. Still searching and there is a device to allow telephone service over the internet. When my brother has Fios/internet at his door this would allow him to have telephone service. I watched a video of instructions for installing VOIP and did not understand one word. The terminology is beyond me. Maybe we can hire someone to install the device or maybe the electric

I'm following your brothers phone service dilemma as a friend of mine is having the same issues with Frontier. Their Verizon cell phones only work when the wind is in the right direction and their land line comes and goes. The phone company came and checked her land phone, said it was ok but the problem was down the road and they couldn't fix it and suggest she get a satellite phone. I guess land lines are becoming obsolete before the everyone gets cell service. They are installing Clear Wave 5 all over town here. Every home has at least one box buried in their front yard. The crews are digging the holes with shovels and the weather has been record breaking heat much of the time 90's with heat indexes up to 112 some days. I feel so sorry for them. I'm waiting to see how people like it and also because with our county being in a high covid area I don't want people inside hooking things up.

Anne I hope you were able to get help for Joe. Vets are also scarce here and emergency service is mostly unavailable or so far away dogs can die before you can get them help. I worry because Poodles are prone to bloat and usually if they don't get into surgery in a hour they die.

Karen I know the smoke must be making you nervous and bringing back bad memories. Sending hugs to you and hoping the fire doesn't get to your friends home.

We are having an unusually cool last day of July- its only 82, last I looked!
Anne, you and Joe have been constantly on my mind past couple days. Prayers he is comfortable.do keep us updated.
So glad we have solid phone service and several choices. Many are going with Starlink for Internet then cell service for voice, which is great if you have a signal.
We are lucky, so far as we have not had smoke from any direction. That CA/OR fire is scary and Gov has declared state of emergency for county affected. Slowly the Mariposa (Oak Fire) is coming under control but 160 structures, mostly homes, have burned. I so feel for folks who face possible loss again. Karen I'm glad you are safe, thus far. I hope you got a HEPA filter to run. I bought last winter while we had CoVid to reduce virus load as all my Drs and our dentist have put one in each room. Knock on wood, so far I haven't needed it for smoke, which was a big reason I bought it and 2 spare filters!
Can't believe its almost August. Trying hard to avoid memories of 4 years ago ...I knew the end was near, but he still wasn't ready to accept that...
As to phones, what is FIOS?
End your July well, happy, and safe.
Velda

I finally got most of the grass mowed in Maurice. The back corner gets too wet and I'm afraid I will bog the mower. I got the part where I park the truck and trailer mowed high and then low. The rest was just mowed high. Hopefully I can get back over there and mow again but there is rain predicted all week. It kept clouding up but they passed. I was mowing at noon and I think I got too hot and now I have a headache.

I made a meatloaf this morning. I didn't have any tomato paste or tomato sauce so I used a can of mild Rotel. It turned out good and I can only taste a little spice.

Shirl, I was going to suggest a satellite phone but I don't know how those work. They are probably expensive. I am starting to see a lot of post on the RV sites about Suden Link internet. I'm wondering how hard it would be to get a portable dish aimed. I tried to use a portable dish for Directv a few times and I threatened to throw it in the lake.

Anne, hope Big Joe gets to see the vet.

I have never seen grapefruit sold in a jar but then again I have never looked for it. My dad liked to eat grapefruit a lot. I have to put so much sugar on it I seldom ever eat it.

Martha

I drove to Denver today, and am staying at Chatfield SP, which is very nice because it has full hookups. I had to buy a Colorado SP annual pass, but hope to use it in the spring. I have 7 days in another state park, so will get that use out of it, and then will have it until July 23 of next year. Going over Berthoud Pass, my tires were OK, but heated up coming down. Sunday is not a good day to drive because of all the people going to and from the mountains, but no choice because I need to get wheel problem solved.

It is hot here, but supposed to cool down in the next hour from 90 to 83 because of some sprinkles. It has already become cloudy. I am worn out from cleaning inside of windows, shaking rugs and damp moping floor, changing the sheets on my bed, and changing towels in bathroom. I have two loads of laundry but have been waiting for it to cool down a bit. It is really getting hard for me to change sheets on my bed because my left shoulder is so sore with arthritis. I use that arm to tuck in the sheets on the far, left side, and also tuck in the bedspread I use as a coverlet/blanket. I tuck in a lot more on that side than on the other side because it makes it so much easier to make the bed in the morning--just pull everything over to the right and smooth it. I was seriously wondering where I could hire someone every couple of weeks to change my sheets???

Just heated up a cup of beef vegetable soup. I made this last week and have frozen some. I froze the rest of the container I had in the refrigerator because I will probably not eat any more this coming week. I like to have a couple of different things frozen so that I can eat more of a variety.

Waiting to hear about Joe.

Had a few more thunderstorms but here they didnt last long. Just long enough to freak my dog out. Guess they had alot up by Crater Lake. There was a fire up by Diamond Lake and now there are 4. I am safe where I am as these are in the hills. Got my N95 for the smoke outside and yes Velda I have lots of filters. I buy a box of 12 individual grapefruit sections in a box at Costco. They are really sweet and last me a long time.

Well you all know I wont remember RABBITS. I am not up past 9pm but I can always hope I will remember in the morning (yeah good luck with that).

I keep checking for news on Joe

Another boring day at work. Had a stylist come over from another shop today to work with me. She is nice but SO slow! It doesn't much matter since it was so quiet today but if we were busy it would have been frustrating.

Judy, I read that for colonoscopies, you can now take pills instead of the liquid, so you might want to check on that option.

Romeow had a small emergency just after I got home from work. I was laying on my bed going thru emails and he came over and put his paws on the side of the nightstand to stratch his claws like usual (luckily he doesn't do any damage to it) when all of a sudden he starts screaming and going into a panic! I look and he has one claw stuck in the hinge of the door on the nightstand! I had to scruff him and try to get the claw out. I kind of panicked too because it was really jammed in there! But I was finally able to get it unstuck. I am so glad that happened while I was home!! He probably would have ended up ripping his claw out trying to get loose! I hope he doesn't do that anymore. If he does, I will shoo him away and try to discourage him.

There were flash flood warnings coming on the radio from the NWS all day for areas in the mountains near LA and also down by San Diego. Heavy rains in both those areas today. Nothing here of course.

Hoping Big Joe is OK. Four hours is a long time to wait at an emergency vet clinic!

Romeow goes thru his food and water so fast, I have to fill the bowls up twice a day. I decided he needs bigger bowls. I ended up getting him those auto feeder and waterer bottles. I need to find something that floats that I can put in the water container so I can easily see where the water level is at. Haven't come up with anything yet that floats and is smaller than a ping pong ball (I already tried that and it doesn't fit thru the hole in the lid.). So if anyone has any ideas, let me know. I want to make sure that it is something that is safe to have in his drinking water.

I actually bought gas today for ....drumroll.... $4.99/gln!!!!

Hoping to remember Rabbits tonight! Can't believe it is already August! Only 2 1/2 months left of over 100* temps! Yay!!

Thanks to all that sent inquiries and well wishes for my Joe.

I have yet to get a definitive diagnosis, they took urine to do a urine culture; they want to also do an ultrasound of his bladder and prostate. Sundays are for emergencies only, there isn't anyone to do advanced diagnostics like ultrasound and urine culture on Sunday.

His problem (don't remember if I mentioned it earlier) is recurrent bladder infection with frequent urination. While this doesn't sound too bad, over the last two days (of course, Saturday and Sunday) the frequency has intensified - imagine every ten or fifteen minutes needing to go out for hours on end.

It is exhausting - for both of us. Which is why I made the call to take him to the emergency vet clinic.

Probably I should have taken him last night when the problem seemed to intensify - but I was exhausted, when I sat down on the bed about 10:00 p.m. to put on my shoes to get ready to take him, I nodded off just sitting there (I then gave him some meds from the previous bout of bladder infection that seemed to calm the frequency problem enough for me to sleep for a few hours).

So I made the call to wait until morning, up at 5:00 and got going. When I arrived at about 7:30, I was told the wait was four hours (turned out only to be two). When I finally left about noon (I finally got back home about 1:45) I could see on the board at the clinic that the wait was now up to 6 hours. I was thankful to get in.

They are one of only two or three 24-hour vet clinics serving a wide area of at least a million people.

Still and all, I was happy to be bringing him back home. I wasn't sure that I would be - and I still don't know what the future holds.

I am waiting to see what happens. It may be something simple - I am told that an intact male dog, as Joe is, can be prone to bladder infections and enlarged prostate (an enlarged prostate pushing on the bladder can be a cause of frequent urination). Neutering tends to solve both of these problems.

If you may be wondering, and think you might have something to say about the fact that Joe is not neutered - let me just say that I have had many dogs of Joe's breed over the years (Staffordshire Bull Terrier). The dogs I had neutered had a subtle change in personality (seemed more subdued, and seemed to lose a bit of their "spark" and joy of life - difficult to describe. They just seemed kind of 'lost'). Also my neutered dogs tended to leak urine in their older years - and my neutered dogs had shortened lifespans (by three or four years) compared to my intact dogs.

Definitely not a scientific sample by any means - but this has just been my experience. I never had a lot of dogs at one time - I am just talking of my experience of over forty years with this breed.

Am I ready to neuter Joe? Yes, of course, if there is a chance it will return him to full health.

And that's the rub. Joe is ten. Another possibility is bladder cancer. Am I willing to spend a lot of time and money on advanced procedures - not to mention the stress it would put on Joe to undergo these procedures?

I'm torn. I spent a lot of time and money on procedures for my older dogs in the past, without much good result. I have always at least tried to promise myself I would not put another of my dogs through that kind of. . . (leaving out the terrible soul-rending words here) 'thing'.

But.

Joe, to put it in the simplest of terms, is my heart. I have never loved a dog like I love Joe, I have never before had such a magnificent, intelligent, loving companion to share my days. Without Joe here by my side I would never have made it through these Pandemic years.

Due to my age, and concerns that I might pass before Joe, I have thought for a while now that Joe likely will be my last dog.

But. . . I can't imagine living without a dog.

What would be the point?

Anne

hopefully Anne you will get clear information on what Joe needs... and you need...
the grapefruit I get is found in the produce area in the refrigerate sections if they have it not all stores carry it...and it isn't sour I just know that I totally enjoy it ... probably I get back into the trailer I will need to rethink the convenience of the grapefruit I do enjoy it though as well as the juice
it is a good thing that RABBITS was mention as I hadn't even given it a thought.. will hopefully remember in the next hour to mutter RABBITS
need to give mom her ear drops as well
you all have a great day
sheila

Anne, tryi g to figure out of you came her to Atlantic Vet, the only emergency 24/7 vet I know of here, other than UVDavis. If so, I wish you had called! I could have at least come visit while you waited!
All good here. A quiet day.
Velda