dog discrimination sucks!

I’m in a newer category of the discriminated-against: the dog person.

I’m not going to claim that I have it worse off than a lot of other people that are discriminated against by race or gender characteristics – that’s just not fair or right.

But dog people are definitely discriminated against. We’re restricted in parks, we’re restricted on beaches, we’re restricted in hotels and by any transportation system, we’re restricted in rentals, we’re restricted in neighborhoods.

I’ve met with more bad people in my life than I’ve ever met bad dogs (and to be honest, I’ve met more dogs total than I have people), but people aren’t restricted nearly as much. Which is ironic because we put “bad dogs” down, but let “bad people” go… I don’t get that! As far as I can see, we need to practice spaying and neutering of humans even MORE than we do of dogs (or cats)! And I’m all for spaying and neutering your pets.

I am currently in a new apartment search – oh joy, so much fun! – which is awful enough, in and of itself. And, no, I really don’t want to buy a house. I’ve looked into that before and decided against the hassle. I still dream of moving away some time (soon, I hope!).

Finding an apartment that’s well-maintained, small and efficient, not too big, but with enough storage, that allows 1 dog and 1 cat (both extremely well-behaved), and 1 person (less well-behaved) and not going to gouge my funds is almost impossible.

And if the owners allow dogs, they often put a weight limit of 35 lbs. Which drives me crazy! If you have a dog smaller than 35 lbs, it’s usually a barker – not always, but very often. It’s as if the smaller dogs have to make up for their size deficiencies. And that makes them BAD neighbors – especially in a complex! You’re better off with a larger dog that is quite and mellow, than a tiny dog with a Napoleon complex.

I moved last summer because of MOLD! The most awful thing to deal with, and I’m still dealing with the repercussions, but not the landlord – as far as I know, Lauren’s still renting that moldy hole in the ground. I actually loved that apartment because of the location, but the mold was SOOOO bad it gave me daily, excruciating headaches. I’m still finding contaminated things and getting rid of them as I find them. By the way, running the fan of the HVAC system just SPREADS mold spores. It does NOT help the situation – which is what Lauren tried to tell me. Mold spores are designed to spread on the air. If you don’t have a dehumidifier and fix the foundation, then the mold is just going to get worse!

I moved to a new place that seemed okay – new management wanted to remake the neighborhood, with responsible renters and comfortable living. But I was “personally guaranteed” quite a few things that never happened. In fact I had a window fall in, in my living room, while I was on the west coast!! And this, after being promised “new windows” last summer.

Thank you, Cory Hake for lying to me!

So, 0 for 2 on my landlords. You would think that bad managers would go out of business, but there is no really good way to let unwary renters know what they are getting into. You can only be so suspicious of people, until you get to know them better. If I assumed that all landlords are lying to me, I’ll never find a better place to live.

I’ve had a really good idea for a small apartment complex in any college town, but I have way to implement it. I’m not going to explain it on my blog, but if I had the funds, I’d be very tempted to look into the possibility of converting a complex to see if it would work. I’d have to find someone who knows the business and run it by them, but part of me just wishes I could show the crappy managers of the world that doing a good job is actually possible.

… on the other hand, I wouldn’t want to be on site all the time, either. So…

… back to topic… discrimination against dogs and dog-people sucks! Each dog and dog owner is different. There are good and bad, just like other people. But it’s almost guaranteed that we’re the ones paying the dues, fees, restrictions.

I need to move to a town that really and truly loves dogs… it may be a myth, like the Shangri-la.

loss of a favored website

I very often hop on one of my favorite websites “fantasticfiction” when I’m looking up a new author or book. I love that it is really just lists of books, arranged by author and date published, within a series (if it was part of a series). I like that they are up-to-date on when new books are coming out.

But last week I was looking up a book I was thinking of borrowing from the library and a evil spyware attached itself to my computer (and then a friend’s computer) through this site. It was awful and very sticky. It took the tech guy from my department two days to unglue the stupid thing; and he just went ahead and wiped my whole computer to do it.

I was very disappointed. There are weeks when I’ve gone to that site once a day – sometimes more – just to check something: like the extensive list of works by George MacDonald. I mean, wikipedia has some bibliographic lists, but I haven’t yet found a replacement site that is just that simple.

Crappy!

bad dream…

I woke up this morning with my heart pounding from a bad, bad dream:

I dreamt that I was getting my hair trimmed of dead ends, but the girl cut off 3 inches and charged me $200.

It was awful!

cat-tastrophe

My poor Jenner-cat spent last weekend in the “hospital”. He had a “blocked urethra” which basically means he couldn’t pee.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_urinary_blockage.html

This is really, really bad.

With the urethra blocked, the bladder fills and can’t be released. Which in turn stops the kidneys from working. Obviously this is very bad and is a cruel way to die.

And not cheap.

He spent the weekend catheterized to flush his system and came home Monday. It was a quiet, empty house that Aggie and I came home to on Sunday (we went to the parents’ once the vet said that Jenner was safe).

But the next few weeks are dangerous because he is most likely to relapse within this time. And he will have to be continually watched for this condition the rest of his life, and have special – read ‘expensive’ – food.

 One of the difficulties is getting Jenner to drink more water. Just like kidney stones in humans are mostly prevented by drinking lots of water, it helps cats for these blockages of mucus and crystals as well.

I’ve acquired saline to inject under his skin for the next week, from the vet; as well as antibiotics. Jenner’s body will absorb the saline and that will help until I figure out how to trick him into drinking more. Sticking a needle under his skin and getting a cat to hold still as a bubble of saline forms, is not easy.

I bought a drinking fountain, that filters water and is supposed to attract cats because it’s fresh and more interesting than a bowl… Yeah, Jenner’s very suspicious of it and was down right scared of it the first night.

He finally checked it out after 3 days, but it’s not “safe” yet.

It’s funny that my beast of a cat is frightened by a little trickle of water.

But I need him to drink and drink and drink.

If he doesn’t and becomes blocked again, I’m afraid I’ll be out of options.

slaughter horses

www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/06/30/horse_slaughter/index.html

I’m actually not sure about this. Part of me says that if it’s humane… even though I love horses. Over population of any species must be controlled some how… which leads me directly to humans, but that is another argument.

However, the article was right about (1) horse sensitivity. They aren’t as stupid as sheep and cows, and most notice everything around them immediately. (2) at this point, I’m not eating beef that has been pumped with drugs and you can bet any animal that has had a minimal of care will probably be pumped with things you don’t want to consume… yuck!

But mostly, anyone that treats any animal cruelly just to eat it, or because they don’t care, has serious problems.

Being humane most important; that and controlling population if that’s what the “problem” is.

way too hot!

I’m ready for winter again. Ready for cooling breezes, friendly sunshine – merciless – and not feeling as if I stepped into an oven when I walk outdoors.

Fall is just as good, once the heat has left.

The heat is just so oppressive. I feel as if I should be the bear that hibernates for the summer instead of winter. I could curl up in front of the air conditioner vent and read until the sun and heat’s power has diminished.

Wake me up when it’s over.

poison ivy blues and a warning against Ivy Dry

There’s nothing quite like having to deal with a bad case of poison ivy. It is just not fun.

I thought that my bout would be a small one because I washed really well when I realized what was happening. But I made a big mistake in using a newer poison ivy product.

IVY DRY.

Beware of this stuff if you react particularly badly to poison ivy. It made my case sooo much worse. In fact, I think it help spread the oils, particularly on my hand – which I have washed and washed, but spraying it with the Ivy Dry, made it swell so that I can’t close the last two fingers on my left hand.

However, I’ve made it through the first week and week 2 is usually better.

the case of the biochem thief!

I brought in some oatmeal Monday, so that I’d have breakfast there if I wanted it. Wednesday morning I went to get some and it was all gone! Along with 6 cans of soup and an unopened bag of sourdough pretzels.

I was so mad. Whoever took my food went out of their way to not take the microwavable dry soups and rice (I have 4 left) or the can opener that was sitting on top of the cans, but they hauled more than they could carry in one arm load, unless they bagged it.

I bet some jerk of a grad student pilfered on their way out of the building. I hope the department puts in a camera, as they are thinking about.

The worst part was, I didn’t get any breakfast!

a weekend alone

…if it can be called that.

My brother left this morning to fly to Philly to visit Risa. I’m glad he got to go. It’s got to be hard to be separated as they are right now. He’ll be gone until Monday night.

He left around 3:30am and the pups joined me on my bed. Luckily they went right to sleep. Unluckily, I did not.

I took them to the park with Aggie for our morning romp. I figured there wouldn’t be any people for them to chase. It was sopping wet from the rain last night, but I can deal with that.

Just as we were finishing and had reached the bridge to cross the creek, the army (or marine) boys came running by on the trail. Ella went berserke. Lou too. They totally don’t listen to me when they are chasing feet.

Once I finally got them back to me, they were so happy with themselves – especially Ella. She couldn’t have been more pleased. I’ve got to find a way to get through to them that this is really, really BAD!

bad week… coonskin cap anyone?

It’s not been a good week. Jenner started limping around about the 11th and I took him to the vet on the 13th; she thought maybe a strain. But last week it got worse and swelled up badly. So I had to take him back on Thursday. He has a internal abscess, infection and fever. I admitt to being suspiscious of Ella because she’s taken to stalking him, but now I think that I remember hearing a cat screech one night. When I checked outside there was nothing but Jenner sitting calmly where he normally does, so I didn’t think anything of it. The vet says even a grazing bite can do this, so… antibiotics for two weeks. Antibiotics of which he fights violently (but not viciously, thank goodness) and made him sick this morning.

I can feel the fever and he limps around on three legs – it’s miserable. I want him comfortable. He wants outside so badly, but that’s probably not a good idea.

Aggie fought and killed a raccoon this week too. Wednesday morning we almost made it out of the park before this happened. It was a horrific fight. I tried to stop her, but I was too far away when the damage was done. The raccoon was too hurt to survive. Aggie received a bad bite on her nose; which she deserved, except that it looks awful. It’s getting better and she’s oblivious as usual, but she’s back to wearing her bell all the time – this time, to scare of potential prey.

And besides all of these problems, work’s been hell.