But exhausted! Between Larry and I we've been to the doctor 4 times this month and that doesn't include visits to Dr. Sanity. Oh and of course that doesn't include all the time he was in the hospital and rehab last month. And Larry has 2 more visits next week. One for his eye and one for physical therapy. He's hoping to be transferred to crutches at the physical therapy visit. I don't want to burst his bubble but I think it going to be a more gradual process so I just keep my mouth shut.
The other thing we did was adopt a dog. We brought him home Wednesday and it feels as if he's always been here. No pictures yet, can't find my damn camera cable.
When Larry was in the hospital in Oakland he said "I need a dog" I promptly got in touch with my friend who is the director of the hospital for the Humane Society and said "Larry needs a dog" Carol is the person who found Max for us so I knew she would know the right dog when she saw it. It had to be big
and it had to like cats. Well, he's definitely big, a combination of
Brindled English Mastiff and German Shepherd. His face looks very
Shepard, all black and eyes that just make you melt. He was raised
with 2 cats and 2 small dogs. The family had to downsize and there
just wasn't room for 110 lb dog. Carol said the owner was weeping when
he turned him in and it's easy to see way. He's about 18 months old as
mellow as can be and CUTE. She sent us pictures of him on Friday, we went to visit on Sunday and fell in love. I went to the
shelter fully prepared not to like him but one look at his face and it
was love at first sight. Even better he walked over to Larry who was
in his wheel chair and put his great big head in Larry's lap. Larry
just lite up like a Christmas tree. It was the first time I've seen
him really smile since he came home from the hospital. The owner said he
was leash trained but my version of leash trained and his are 2 very different
things. I spent half the day yesterday yanking on the leash telling
him "don't pull on the leash" and feeling terrible for doing it. We
solved that problem by making a visit to Healdsburg Dog House.
Natalie has a wonderful harness that circles his body and the way it's
designed you can very easily reel him in if you need too, teach his to
walk properly at your side and we can leave it on for a long time as we
want (I have a feeling it's going to be a long time, he's very smart but he's also 110 lbs and can be some what "difficult" to handle him. We will be going to dog school but that will have to wait
awhile as he's going to be Larry's dog I want Larry to do the bulk of
the training.We'd been home about five hours when I glanced over at the
couch. Larry was sitting there, Colin had his head on his lap and was
sound asleep. Last night I couldn't get to my camera fast enough but
Larry was stretched out on the couch sleeping and Colin was stretched
out on top of him sleeping.The owner said he was
leash trained but my version of leash trained are 2 very different
things. I spent half the day yesterday yanking on the leash telling
him "don't pull on the leash" and feeling terrible for doing it. He had to got back to the hospital yesterday to get his foot checked, they had removed a foxtail from his back foot when he came in. In order to get in there on the appointed time I had to take him to Dr. Sanity's with me. She frequently has other dogs come to sessions but I was a little worried about his manners of lack thereof to be more accurate. He behaved very well. And best of all while Colin got his foot checked Carol and I got to spend some time talking to each other.
We used to talk frequently when I was doing volunteer work with Pets Are Loving Support. But I stopped doing that years ago so our conversations have been via email and phone. It was a total delight to see here happy and smiling. Her husband died 4 years ago (hard to believe). She still gets together with 4 other people that were in her hospice support group once a month which gives her great comfort. That's about it except for the ugly tenant wars and I've turned those back over to Larry. My brain is fried to a crisp, I angry at them for being so stupid, and angry at myself for being so intolerant. I'm perfectly happy going back to taking care the the money side.
OMG, I just got off the phone with my 21 yo nephew who is madly in love with Sarah Palin. I keep telling him I'll eventually convert him from the dark side. This kid is as smart as a whip, intelligent, funny, witty, loving, caring, supporting but he doesn't have a lot of guidance in his life. So while his little brother is attending UNR ( University of Nevada of Reno), he's still attending the local jc trying to find his way. He's so funny he decided that his apartment was occupied by 2 ghosts so he went to the local Catholic Church he attends in Hollister, got a bottle of holy water and sprinkled it in all four corners of his apartment. He says the ghost is now gone. One I established the holy water was not stolen ( don't even ask) I agreed that the ghost was probably gone. This is why I LOVE to talk to him!
I remember when had him up for a visit when he was about 3. He's ALWAYS loved mechanical things. We had a VCR that had died and Larry was going to toss it out, I said NO, let's keep it for Chris it will keep him entertained for hours. And sure enough it did. We started of just giving him a screw driver. Pretty soon the questions started coming "what do you think will happen if I do this, or this or this." He ended up with a pair of scissors and a wrench in addition to his screw driver. He had the time of his life.
Well it's time to take Colin out, gee I wonder who's going to do that? So I'll close for now. I think things have settled down enough that I might get some regular posts going. But in the meantime I'm thinking of all of you.
If this post seems a little disjointed - it is there's been a lot going on and between dog wrangling and loading the wheelchair into and out of the car my lower back is killing me!