Herman health update

January 10, 2014 / Toastie / Leave a comment

Because I have the blog. Might as well cross-post between Facebook and here.

He spent the day vomiting. Like, everywhere. Long after there was no more food to expunge. Horrific hacks of foam. More like lattes, really. And then he couldn’t stand up for more than a few seconds. So off to the vet hospital. Several hundreds of dollars later, nothing new to report. Sent home with Cerenia and bland food. Wednesday and Thursday were really good days for Herman…the Gabapentin seems to have helped his back leg. But this was not a good day. I guess I should start that exercise of logging my pet’s quality of life from day-to-day.

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Since I don’t post such updates anymore, I should mention that this comes a couple days after a night of two seizures, which follows two other seizures over the last few months.

And he’s got severe lameness in his hip…can’t bear weight on left hind leg.

Pets on canvas

July 4, 2013 / Toastie / Leave a comment

I finally used my credit for five 16×20 canvas prints from mypix2canvas.com which operates locally out of Apex. I had already had one previous canvas of Herman and Aremid together. I spent awhile trying to figure out how I’d arrange these six prints. Two rows of three is what I had planned for months. Ultimately, I realized that one just didn’t fit.

So these five are together:

Aremid gets the most wall-space, and the prints are arranged in a sort-of symmmetry: Aremid-Zellouisa-Herman-Aremid-Zellouisa-Herman-Aremid.

And Mr. F gets his own corner:

Laryngeal Paralysis Surgery

June 12, 2013 / Toastie / 2 Comments

Herman’s going in tomorrow for the surgery I said I was considering. It actually feels a bit sudden because we went in for a surgical consult today, and I had figured we’d be scheduling it a few weeks ago, but the surgeon could fit him in tomorrow, so I decided sooner is better. If Herman has 1-2 good years left, we should get those started asap. Like with my own surgeries, I’m not giving much thought to worst case scenarios. What’s the point? I’m assuming he’ll be fine. If he’s not, it’ll be horrible. If I worry about a horrible outcome now, it will still be just as horrible.

Pic from September 2007, when Herman was a spry 6 or 7 years ago.

Recent pet shots from the mobile

January 27, 2013 / Toastie / Leave a comment

Puppies!

January 20, 2013 / Toastie / Leave a comment

Last night, I had the joy of seeing some puppies that a friend was fostering. I wish I had gotten some higher-quality pictures. I didn’t want to upset them with a cell phone flash.

Here’s four out of the five of them feeding (or trying to feed; some apparently try to nurse on random body parts):

Here’s the runt, not up for the competition:

Obligatory follow-up with pet pics

December 28, 2012 / Toastie / Leave a comment

I have some better photos from the good camera, but those could take years for me to look at.

From the last couple of days…

Mr. F looks splendid against the backdrop of a kitchen rug

Z spends a lot of time on the bed seemingly out of it. So I was happy when she crawled up on top of me for some face time.

Aremid used to play the role of healer, lying next to me or on me in bed while I recuperated from some malady. Z has been doing that a bit.

Herman spends a lot of time on the couch seemingly out of it. He perks up for walks and when I come home, though I haven’t been out much of late.

Instagram 12 for ’12

December 20, 2012 / Toastie / Leave a comment

I’ve been spending some time organizing my Flickr photos, as I’m committed to Flickr as a photo repository for the foreseeable future. I don’t get terribly worked up over privacy issues, but the recent brouhaha over Instagram’s privacy policy did cause me to ponder whether I really need the service as an option for photo-sharing. I’ve only taken a few dozen Instagram photos. Occasionally, a filter adds something. Ok, I admit, sometimes a filter adds a lot because the original is bland.

But I share photos I want to share via Facebook and my blog, and it’s instant enough. I feel constrained by the square format. I’m not part of an Instagram social network. I don’t need to make a statement by killing my account, but I did just use Instarchive to grab my Instagram photos so I can get them up to Flickr. I have probably posted many of these on the blog already. But, as I have time to kill, and I hate when I spend time to create a meaningful image and then never share it, I shall post a top of my 2012 Instagram photos. I will stick this post in the photography category even though I recognize how many would sneer at that association.

1st Instagram

Last night with Aremid

Aremid last time on perch

Hibiscus

Zellouisa sleep

Zellouisa transfixed

Z on her back

Herman bath

Herman 1st time at dog park

Herman peeking

Mr. Featherbottom’s bottom

Pile of Mr. Featherbottom

Happier Herman

December 9, 2012 / Toastie / Leave a comment

I feel obliged to present a happier Herman compared to the picture I posted earlier. He is out of it most of the time. But he’s always been. Take him for a walk, especially when it’s no warmer than 70 degrees and no cooler than 50, and he’s a happy guy.

I hate that, starting in a couple of days, I won’t be able to walk him for a couple of weeks. These hiatuses get more and more difficult as he ages. Compare him today with a similar pose from six years.

Old boy

November 11, 2012 / Toastie / Leave a comment

(September 30, 2012)

I have lots of photos to sort through…recent pet pics, year-old Tulum pics, three-month-old Vermont pics, 15-year-old cat pics… I have no second-thoughts about using this blog for photo-blogging. Lacking a better solution and happy to have unlimited uploads, I’ll continue to use Flickr Pro. I don’t backup my hard drive, and I’m a bit reluctant to have all my eggs in Google’s basket, so I’m starting to upload all the raw images from the past two years up to Flickr.

Anyway, Herman’s been an old boy since I got him over six years ago, and he’s always looked especially old when at rest on the couch. I know he looks quite geriatric and out-of-it here. But he definitely still comes alive when he’s out-and-about meeting people, or at the dog park meeting other dogs. We had better have at least a couple of years left together.