A dear friend had a stroke earlier this week. She is younger than me and (while we expect a full recovery for her) it was a good reminder that things can change unexpectedly. I tend to get caught up with work and volunteering and other stuff and sometimes forget to slow down and enjoy the here and now. She's been delighting in her new iPod the past few months and recently attended a New Kids on the Block concert. (I told you she was younger than me!) While I don't always agree with her music taste (many times I do, though), she reminded me how important music used to be in my life and I've been having fun with Itunes. She also got me drinking margueritas again--not often but once in while.

So in honor of Stacy, here are a few things that make me happy and that I am trying to savor:
Indian food
Marqueritas
Grunge and 80s alternative music (and a lot of other stuff from the 60s on)
Fostering kittens!
Walks with the dog
Snuggling with the classic edition cats--when they allow it
Movies with Cary Grant (and Irene Dunne and many others who can do that witty repartee)
Writing in a coffee shop with music playing in my headphones and Alan sitting nearby (how did I forget the music?)
Dancing while doing dishes and with friends
My morning mocha
Trips to the parents' cabin
Foot rubs
Chocolate
Puzzle games
Swimming
Being goofy
Sushi (with a bottle of Asahi Super Dry beer)
A glass of dry white wine
Karaoke with friends
Pasta with lots of cheese and tomato sauce
Downhill skiing
Mint chocolate chip ice cream
Recognizing an actor in a movie and tracing their career through IMDB
Sean Bean as Sharp
Curling up in bed with a good book
Family dinners

Three more sick foster kittens came home with me this week: two orange tabby males, Mango (a little brighter with white boots) and Jack, and a black and white female, Tilly. They're healthier than the last few we've had. They're still in the sneezing stage but they are eating like little piggies and getting into all kinds of trouble. They love the bathtub and the sink and Jack even steps right into the water as it's draining from the tub. You'd think the inner and outer shower curtains were just made for them to hide and climb and play in. The female is long and sleek with longer fur than the other two. She reminds me of a skunk and Alan thinks she looks like the black kitty who is always getting chased by Pepe Le Pew after getting into white paint.

Can I just say how cool bats are? I've had a big fascination with them ever since I did a report on them in 6th grade. My favorites are the little brown Myotis bats who are native to a lot of the United States. It got warm enough for a few to come out of hibernation to hunt this past week and it was so nice to see them circling the street lamp on our corner again. They'd been on my mind after hearing our wildlife rehab department was going to do a bat release last weekend.

Sundance was adopted on Wednesday and the other two, Cassidy and Huck, were adopted on Thursday. So, we're kitten free and the house seems a little empty. The classic edition cats (as Alan calls them) are all getting more attention than they have in while even if it is unwelcome attention at times.

Tonight is our last night with the current three foster kittens. The girls had the run of the house with Alan while I was at work today and now the boy has some outside the bathroom time. I've really enjoyed having lap cats for the past month. Because they're older, it's a pretty good bet they'll continue to be cuddly. Lucky adopters! The highlight of the day today was an e-mail with pictures from Lodi's adoptive mom. It reminded us of why we foster and took some of the sting out of returning the kittens tomorrow. Since we started this fall, we've fostered 12 kittens (11 of them sick with upper respiratory infections) and lost 5 of them. Sometimes it's felt like we've been fighting a losing battle. Knowing that the 6 that made it are in good homes really helps.

If you live in Minnesota, please take the time to make a call or two supporting puppy mill legislation making its way through the state house. There is more information below and on the Animal Humane Society's website at:
http://www.animalhumanesociety.org/node/388.

Good afternoon,

Animal Humane Society is working with 32 Minnesota animal welfare organizations, the Humane Society of the United States and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on the Puppy and Kitten Mill bill (S.F. 7 and H.F. 253) which has been introduced in Minnesota's current legislative session. The bill will give the Minnesota Board of Animal Health the authority to license breeders and hold them accountable to comply with existing applicable care standards under federal and state laws and regulations. In turn, this will allow our humane investigators the statutory authority to more effectively help reduce the suffering of animals confined and living in inhumane conditions. More specifically, the proposed bill will:

Improve the ability to regulate breeding facilities of cats and dogs and ensure that breeders comply with existing laws and regulations and meet specific standards of care,
Provide licensing and regulatory authority to a single unit of government
Provide corrective orders, and administrative and criminal penalties for violations
In our work, we see the tragic results of animals coming out of these facilities
Many states have enacted legislation that regulates puppy mills in this country.

How you can help
Time is critical. Lend your voice to animals today.

The bill will be heard in the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, January 27. Below is a list of the committee members. If you live in one of their districts, please call before Tuesday. (Notes on what to say are listed below.)

Jim Vickerman - Chair (District 22) - 651.296.5650
Sharon L. Erickson Ropes - Vice Chair (District 31) - 651.296.5649
Satveer S. Chaudhary (District 50) - 651.296.4334
Steve Dille (District 18) - 651.296.4131
Lisa A. Fobbe (District 16) - 651.296.8075
Joe Gimse (District 13) - 651.296.3826
David W. Hann (District 42) - 651.296.1749
Bill G. Ingebrigtsen (District 11) - 651.297.8063
Paul E. Koering (District 12) - 651.296.4875
Gary W. Kubly (District 20) - 651.296.5094
Keith Langseth (District 9) - 651.296.3205
Tony Lourey (District 8) - 651.296.0293
Steve Murphy (District 28) - 651.296.4264
Rod Skoe (District 2) - 651.296.4196
Dan Skogen (District 10) - 651.296.5655

For all others, please contact your State Senator and Representative and ask them to support the Puppy and Kitten Mill bill. Be sure to ask them not to support a weaker bill that may be heard.

Click here to locate your representatives and their contact information.

Notes on what to say
Ask committee members to vote in favor of the bill (S.F. 7 and H.F. 253) and to not accept any amendments that would weaken it. (Be sure to state the bill numbers.)

Minnesota is among the top producers of puppies and kittens in the United States, yet there is no State oversight of this multi-million dollar industry. The problem is not the size of the breeding facility; the problem is inhumane breeding practices that lead to horrific conditions.

The bill will give the State of Minnesota the authority to regulate the dog and cat breeding industry in the state (hobby breeders are exempt), protecting both animals and consumers from unscrupulous breeders and inhumane breeding practices.

Please support S.F. 7 and H.F. 253. Minnesota can no longer turn its back on animal cruelty.

Other ways you can help
Be a voice for the animals and become an Animal Advocate.

Spread the word. Ask your friends and family to support the bill by becoming an Animal Advocate and contacting their legislators.

Thank you,

Tracie Jacobson Media Relations Associate Animal Humane Society Buffalo - Coon Rapids - Golden Valley - St. Paul - Woodbury (763) 489-2251

Okay, it's more like trilling cats rather than yowling.

Come Out and Play

Arggh. I'm regretting my decision to keep the kittens another week. They were still sneezing ocassionally so I thought an extra week would be good for them. Our spay/neuter surgery list was really long and although they'd have priority as foster returns, they'd bump some other animals further down the line. I figured kittens waiting in a foster home was better than cats sitting in the shelter risky getting sick for another week. (Besides these kittens (almost cats) are really, really great and we are going to miss having snugglers in the house. The male was already showing some neck biting behavior but it never led to anything. Unfortunately, now the female tabby (new name Cassidy--the tortie is named Sundance) is showing symptoms of heat. Looking forward to a weekend of yowling, crying cats. Yay! Gotta keep 'em separated.

It was a very long week but much less stressful than it would have been a few weeks ago. My job has now been officially divided into two different positions and half of my duties, the customer service side of things has been passed on to Jenney, CS Supervisor extraordinaire. I'll be able to focus on the Animal Care side of things. Yay!

The toughest part of the week was that we lost another little foster kitten who we had nicknamed Button. I brought her home last week because she'd stopped eating while fighting upper respiratory infection and was no longer a good candidate for our regular foster program. Losing them doesn't get any easier and this one was particularly hard because she was eating on her own (like a little piggy!) and seemed to be getting better. She started doing a kind of half sneeze/half cough Saturday night but ate normally and seemed fine otherwise. In the morning, she was a little listless and was wheezing, so I brought her into work with me. She died before we could do anything for her. I think it might have been pneumonia. I thought we were safe because she was eating on her own again and had a good body weight for her size but it just shows how fragile cats can be because they are so small. The other three who were being kept separate because they're from another litter are doing great. Except for the shaved spot, you can't even tell where the abscess was on the tabby female, Pickford. They'll be going back to shelter on Monday for surgery on Tuesday. We've renamed Chaplin to Huck. Chaplin was a fine name but didn't really fit him. We're still working on renaming the two girls, Pickford and Marion.

Alan smelled natural gas at the end of our driveway when he was bringing in the trash can a couple days ago. You never want to waste anyone's time but with gas it's worth a phone call. Xcel Energy, our gas and electric company, sent someone out that night to look for a leak. They were there until late at night going back and forth up the two streets (we're on a corner) and it looks like they were checking furnaces and gas lines for some of our neighbors, too. All of them are early to bed so I think they had to be woken up. The next day, they were back again in late morning and when I got home that night, they'd rigged up some generators and gas tanks and those horses with the blinking lights on the edge of our lawn around the corner from the driveway. We never heard what happened but it looks like it's on our lot. Eek.

Was it worth it to sit through two nights of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs on VH1? I don't know but it definitely fit my mental speed after a few long days at work. Allowed me to hot compress the sick kitten. Could have done without all the Bret Michaels, though. Never was one for hair bands... except for maybe Def Leppard. Were they a hair band?

Happy New Year!

After losing most of New Year's Eve to an emergency clinic visit with one of the foster kittens, Alan and I finally celebrated by going to see a matinee of Slumdog Millionaire. Great movie with beautiful cinematography! I love the way the story was told in flashbacks with 3 different actors portraying the kids as they grew up. It was sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny, and sometimes heart warming--a wonderful mixture.

Pickford the kitten will be okay. She's staggering around the bathroom right now with her soft blue e-collar on and purring and calling out for attention. She's awake but still coming out of the anesthesia. I came home from work New Year's Eve to find her lethargic, very warm and with a new lump on her side. Things like this always happen at night and on holidays. She didn't have the lump in the morning. She lays on her back so I can rub her belly and I had just done it that morning before work. I took her in and they thought it was a hernia so they recommend x-rays (of course) and then they aspirated it to find it was an abscess. She had old claws wounds that had healed in that spot and so she must have had an injury prior to her coming home with me. The claws were adult sized so it probably happened before they came into the shelter. They made a little opening for it to drain and gave her an antibiotic shot. We got through New Year's Day with hot compresses and some new medication from the shelter. Today, our vet knocked her out and put in a drain. If things go well, it will come out tomorrow or the next day. The other two kittens, Marion and Chaplin, are in the bedroom now and should have a lot of fun exploring. Gambit the dog will have to sleep on the couch for a few days.

Happy Holidays!

Kitten season is winding down but we do still have some stragglers in the shelter. On Monday, I picked up another litter of 3 short-haired kittens to foster: two girls, Marion (tortie) and Pickford (brown tabby) and one slightly larger boy, Chaplin (brown tabby with white belly and paws). These guys are older (and bigger) than any of the others we've fostered, probably about 4-5 months old. While they were waiting for spay and neuter surgery, they broke with upper respiratory infections. They are residing in our bathroom (which is the warmest room in the house and the easiest to clean and disinfect.) Although they aren't really more ill than any of the other URI kittens we've fostered, they seem more miserable. Their larger body weights will help as we work through the too stuffy and miserable to eat stage. We've stocked up with stinky fish canned cat food, generic pedialyte, their prescribed doxycycline, syringes and lysine. I've had to force-feed all three of them since their food has been untouched since they got here. They are drinking a bit on their own but one was showing signs of dehydration so I've been forcing pedialyte with a syringe, too. They are so messy (drooling, coughing and sneezing) that I'm keeping a set of clothes in the bathroom just for working with them. I've also had to wash my face and rinse my hair a couple times. I'm suspecting that Corey, who recommended I take them, knew they were a pain to medicate and was happy to have them out of the shelter for a while. All three are big sweeties and climb into my lap whenever I sit down to work with one of them. The tortie will climb up my leg and back to get to my shoulder when I'm standing if I let her. I had no idea a kitten that size could perch so gracefully. With my legs spread out in front of me and one kitten part way up my chest, we have enough room for everyone on my lap. They lay there snuggled, gurgling and comfortable. The fact that they want to sit on my lap reassures me that I'm not just "that lady who shoves stuff down our throats" to the kittens.

The sneezing is decreasing which means they can rest better, so I'm hoping we're in the middle of the worst of it. We'll tuck them in and then head to my uncle's house for Christmas Eve. Tomorrow morning I'm helping clean cages at the shelter starting at 8 a.m. and then we're headed to my parent's house for Christmas. We'll have to squeeze some feedings in for the kittens, too.

The Children's Defense Fund just released its annual report the State of America's Children 2008.

From their website:

CDF's State of America's Children 2008 report, a compilation of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on poverty, health, child welfare, youth at risk, early childhood development, education, nutrition and housing. The report provides a a statistical compendium of key child data showing epidemic numbers of children at risk: the number of poor children has increased nearly 500,000 to 13.3 million, with 5.8 million of them living in extreme poverty, and nearly 9 million children lack health coverage―with both numbers likely to increase during the recession. The number of children and teens killed by firearms also increased after years of decline.

According to the CDF report, children in America lag behind almost all industrialized nations on key child indicators. The United States has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized nations in relative child poverty, in the gap between rich and poor, in teen birth rates, and in child gun violence, and first in the number of incarcerated persons.

Ah, these kittens are going to tbe the death of me. You might not want to read the third paragraph, if sad kitten stories will ruin your day.

Sidney, our last foster, was adopted on Friday within five minutes of her making it to the adoption floor. She had surgery on Thursday and we didn't have space on the floor for her. I had just cleaned a recently vacanted cage and was carrying her out to the floor, when a couple who was leaving saw her and asked if she was available. Poof--she was gone to a new home. That was the good news.

Bad news was that little Britches who was sitting in the back at the shelter the past few days waiting for surgery had gotten sick. She wasn't doing great, so I decided to foster her. (Poor Alan. I keep getting him into these situations.) This time I was more prepared. We gave her fluids before bringing her home. In addition to her doxycycline, I had Karo syrup and experience with forcefeeding. When I got her home, she was already so weak, she could only walk a few inch before having to lay down. I fed her watered down food with an eye dropper--she was able to swallow just fine--and put her down in her cosy bed with her shelter bedding, a towel underneath for extra padding and the stuffed teddy that had been with her all week. She kept creeping out and I'd find her on the linoleum against the cold tub throughout the evening. She continued to deteriorate, so I brought out the Karo syrup to rub a little on her gums. Low blood sugar can kill kittens quickly and the syrup sometimes brings them back. A near death kitten can be up and playing shortly after Karo syrup and time with a heating pad. She perked up a little bit but there wasn't anything more I could do for her but let her rest. She didn't make it through the night.

I'm including another happy ending to balance the last story out. I got a couple calls from a family that had adopted a kitten from us who was lethargic and sick with diarrhea. Their vet was concerned about FIP, which is certainly a scary thing to face since it's fatal, although it is rare. FIP can hit cats at any point in their lives but often appears in kittens. It comes from being exposed to a mutated form of a common feline Corona virus. Only a small percentage of cats exposed to the mutated form develop FIP. The most common symptom which is used to diagnose the FIP is a fluid filled stomach and often the diagnoses isn't confirmed until after the cat dies. (A full stomch in kittens usually means worms or another parasite, so you shouldn't ever panic about FIP until it's checked out by a vet.) Adults can carry the virus and never develop FIP and it can also be brought on in later life by stress. The very hard part of FIP is that there really isn't a definitive test for it and the vaccination for it is still relatively untested. The family made the tough decision to return the kitten to us and we immediately put her in an isolated cage until one of our vets could examine her. At this point, she has regained her energy and playfulness and doesn't appear to have FIP after all. If she'd had Feline Distemper, the other very scary kitten disease, she wouldn't be getting better and would be dead already. I'm hoping she'll okayed to go back to the adoption floor this week and maybe go back to her original adopters.

Some of you may have heard about George who found his way home 13 years after disappearing when someone traced his microchip. (Everyone who has a dog, cat, rabbit or ferret should have them microchipped even if they are house only pets. I can't tell you how happy we are at the shelter when we have a stray come in who is microchipped. You need to keep the contact information updated, too--many are dead ends.) He wasn't home for long before he was diagnosed with cancer but his last days were with his original family and very happy.

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=the-cat-that-came-back-after-13-yea-2008-12-12

Happy Tail

Large, strong breed dogs like pits, labs and hounds sometimes get "happy tail" while staying at the shelter. They wag their tails so hard against the walls of the kennel, the tips develop sores which can quickly develop into larger problems. In the past when adoption rates were slow, "happy tail" could lead to amputation but with our higher adoption rates, we haven't had to do that in a long time. The hardest part of treating happy tail is keeping the bandage on so we often use e-collars.

Earlier this fall, we had our first live dog birth since I've been working at the shelter--a really big litter--and we are remembering how much more work a litter of pups can be than kittens. They've been in two different foster homes but had to come back because the last family couldn't keep the mom in the pen with the pups. There's about a week left until they can be separated--they're eating on their own but not completely weaned. This last little bit of time is important to their socialization than their health. She is really sore and deserves a little time to herself. Yesterday, I took our momma dog out for a walk to give her a break from the puppies and it wasn't until it was too late that I realized she had happy tail. I will have a set of scrubs at work from now on to give me an option for changing clothes. The vet was worried about her and her pups pulling the bandage off and I was worried that a regular e-collar would be hard on the puppies. Gambit left my legs bruised and sore when he had his stint with an e-collar. After we got it bandaged, we were able to use a cervical collar that had come on another happy tail dog from one of our other shelters. It wrapped around her neck like a neck brace with straps that wrapped around her body and front legs. So, part of the problem was taken care of and now we'll have to see if the pups leave it alone.

Oh, the Mall of America... What more can I say?

Both Noni and Lodi were adopted within a few days of going to the adoption floor. I was there for Lodi's adoption and it was nice to tell her adoptive mom everything that she had been through. We have little black Sidney still and she has a ways to go. She climbed onto the bed to visit me for the first time today which was a very big step. If we caught her on the bed, sometimes she'd stay and sometimes she wouldn't. Most of the night she stays in a corner of the closet. We're hoping she'll move to the bed soon. She has a tendency to slip away and hide whenever she's given access to the rest of the house and, because the door to the basement was accidentally opened, she is now hiding somewhere down there. Food always brings her back, though!

Working in an animal shelter there's always a small risk that I'll bring something home on my clothes or shoes from work that will spread to the pets. I've come home covered in poop, blood, and vomit. I've been accidentally exposed to scabies while bathing puppies (which made me itchy--at least in my mind--the risk to me was pretty small) and a few other parasites. I try really hard to change right away when I get home and minimuze exposure. Saturday might have been the worst so far. I was sneezed, drooled and coughed on by at least eight different dogs with a very liquid form of kennel cough. It was in my hair, on my jeans, and all over my arms and body. I went through six different lab coats that day trying to stay ahead of the germs. When I got home, I had Alan meet me at the door with a robe and scrambled down to the laundry to de-germ while he held the dog back. After a long, hot shower, I felt much less like a walking commercial for Musinex and could actually greet the dog. A good glass of draft cider and good company makes even the respiratory infection gremlins disappear.

The blog lately has been mostly about kittens and this post is not going to stop the trend. (Things are pretty good right now; we've been working on the house and through episodes of The Wire on Netflix, I've been working on a story revision, and we have new gutters to go with the new roof, just in time for snow. On a sad/happy note, we are not going to be at Wiscon next year because Alan's sister is getting married that weekend in California.)

Foster Kitten Update: Lodi and Noni went back to the shelter on Monday for an exam before surgery, then came home again for one last night because we were out of space in the kitten room. Both had surgery on Tuesday and spent the rest of the day curled up together in the litterbox in their cage. The next day, Noni was back to her old self and Lodi was still a little scared. Noni was adopted that day by someone who had lost a cat recently that looked exactly like her. We see adoptions like that quite frequently and also people are looking for an animal just like their old pet personality-wise. While I've loved all my past pets, most of mine have come to me through serendipitous accidents, so, the idea of trying to find one just like an old one is a little foreign to me. Obviously, replacing a pet with a duplicate is not going to happen (at least until cloning is more common) since everyone is going to be a little different, but it's nice to see people so attached they want to try. Anyway, Lodi was still at the shelter this afternoon when I left but was doing much better and soliciting attention, so I'm hoping she'll be adopted tonight or tomorrow. I found out that she has the same talent I'd noticed before in Noni--they can both stand on their hind legs for quite a long time with any other support. Noni always did it in front of the TV stand where she studied her reflection, thinking it was another cat. They are both such beautiful cats and have totally won me over to the idea of long-haired kitties.

I brought Sidney home because her littermate was handlable right away and had already been adopted. Sidney came around in time for an exam but completely freaked out when they tried to take her to surgery, so I brought her home for some socialization. She's black and little and round both in her face and body. She hisses everytime you pick her up but then settles in to purr and snuggle. I was hoping to work with her just a week or so before bringing her back for surgeyr but that will depend on how quickly I can catch her in the basement. We still have about 1/4 of the basement filled with my grandma's stuff, so there are plenty of places to hide.

My big accomplishment today was replacing the wiring in a stained glass floor lamp that the puppy (now 3 years old) chewed up in his first six months. I had always known it was easy to do but kept forgetting to buy the kit. The hardest part was feeding the wire through the base and stem. I have a love/hate relationship with wire hangers. I try my best to keep them out of our closets but I'm always thrilled that I can find one when I need it. In addition to threading wire through the lamp, I have used them in the past year to thread cable through the wall, pick a lock, free a sock from the vacuum hose, attach a handle to a broken bucket and fish something important (for the life of me I can't remember what) out of a drain. [Actually, my big accomplishment wasn't really fixing the lamp but finding my favorite ratcheting screw driver complete with all of its bits which had been missing for over a year and was in the side pocket of an old bag.]

Gambit is apparently recovered (although still gassy) but will be on the EN food for a few more days. Veterinary bills totaled about $545.00.

Kittens are bounding through the room like a pack of velociraptors with furry feet and are getting into everything. They sound much larger than they really are. They only weigh about four pounds between the two of them but then again they do have eight feet. Lodi, the smaller and shyer of the two, and the one who was so sick I was afraid she wasn't going to make it, has really come into her own and will even stand up to the dog now. Right now she is snuggled up behind me on the back of the couch purring. 'Noni is perched on an enormous pile of freshly laundered blankets stacked on a chair and is fiercely attacking them. She's been gnawing on everything the past couple of days. We must be getting into teething time.

Very long weekend this week. Our dog, Gambit, stopped eating and drinking sometime during the day Friday and then starting vomiting late that night. When blood started appearing in the vomit, I decided it was time to visit our local emergency clinic. He's had a bad stomach and not eaten with a little vomiting a couple times before which he got over on his own but it was never this extreme. An x-ray ruled out a blockage and blood-work ruled out other serious things. So, he probably got into something he shouldn't have and not knowing what it was won't allow us to prevent it in the future. He got an anti-nausea injection and some fluids and they sent us home with a syringe and stomach medication after a couple hours of no vomiting. Of course, he vomited soon after leaving the clinic. I sat up with him the rest of the night/morning for clean up and to keep on eye on him. In the morning, he still wasn't eating or drinking but the vomiting had ended and become diarrhea, so I called my vet and he had me come in for some more anti-nausea pills and canned EN food. We monitored his hydration by looking at the elasticity of the loose skin on his back and his gums. I was planning on bringing him back to the emergency clinic for fluids this evening because his gums were starting to get a little tacky--gums are a much faster sign of dehydration, I think--but then he drank some water and finally ate something at 4 p.m. today. Since then, he's eating and drinking and is back to chasing cats. We are left with some of the worst dog breath I've ever experienced and a little over $500 in vet bills. Why do these things always happen at night and on weekends? Anyways, the good news is the roofers were finally out and finished the roof this past week and our little emergency didn't eat up all the roof funds like it did when he had kidney failure a couple years ago. Another question, why is it so much harder to open the mouth of a sick dog than a healthy one--shouldn't they be weaker?

On the foster front, both kittens are still occasionally sneezing and we have a very full surgery list Tuesday and none scheduled for the rest of the week, so Noni and Lodi are with us for another week at least.

Also, after a long bout of writer's block, I've had a very productive week and I received my contributor's copy of Exquisite Corpuscle with a very old story by me based on one of Alan's poems. The book also includes the work of many talented artists and authors.

Speak Up For Wildlife

Yay! Evey was just adopted! Our first successful foster complete!

Kittens make politics better. I will no longer face the final day(s) of election coverage without a cuddly kitten on my lap. (A dog curled up on the couch next to you doesn't hurt either.)

I dropped Evey the foster kitten off at the shelter today to get her exam and be ready for the surgery truck tomorrow. She'll have spay surgery tomorrow and go to the adoption floor right after. She'll be available to go home on Wednesday. We ended up having her with us for a whole month because she developed the sniffles and it took a while to get over them without resorting to drugs. We'd gotten quite attached to her but are also relieved that we managed to have our first successful foster. One of the pets broke her out of her confinement early on in the foster and so she freely mixed with our other cats and dog, a big no-no. Two of the cats are paying for it with the sniffles themselves but so far it hasn't gotten any worse and they should be fine. Our oldest cat is missing her playmate and was sitting at the front door looking forlorn for a while tonight. Did I say that we named her Evey after Natalie Portman's character in V for Vendetta because she was so fierce when she first faced the dog? Update: Alan informs me he named her Evey not for her fierceness but because she didn't realize her cage (small dog kennel) door was open the first few times we tried to let her out.

We still have 2 little girl fosters left (one of the vet techs named them Benoni and Lodi--apples?) from another litter which Alan has nicknamed the Fluff 'n stuffs. They came in feral, hissing and swatting. All the litter were variations on black or brown tabbies but one little orange tabby male. The orange tabby was friendly from the very beginning and won all of our hearts. They waited for a foster home for socialization and gaining weight for a long time but never went out, so I decided to take the 3 who remained after 2 hit the right surgery weight. The little orange one was losing weight in the shelter, a bad sign, and they all were showing symptoms of upper respiratory infections. We lost the little one the first weekend which was heart breaking, but I managed to nurse the other two through not eating and being so stuffy that their bodies shook with every breath. A combination of force feeding watered down canned food mixed with ground up lysine tablet, a nightly dose of doxycycline, saline nose drops, a humidifier and a lot of love seems to have gotten them through the worst. Sunday, they started eating on their own again. They are beautiful cats and will be probably be long-haired. Benoni is a tabby/calico mix with a cute little orange tip on her tail and Lodi is about a third size smaller and a black tabby. They will continue residing in our bathroom until they are symptom free and ready to go back to the shelter.

Criminy... Alan waits until halfway through the debate to suggest a drinking game using Joe the plumber.

Letting go...

We had to say goodbye to the little foster kitten yesterday. His urinary tract blocked up again and this time we couldn't get it unblocked. He was going to die horribly without an expensive surgery that probably wouldn't solve the long-term problem. Because of his very young age and his health history, both the shelter vets and an outside vet advised putting him to sleep. It was exactly what I would have told any of our foster parents, but it didn't make it any easier. Urinary tract problems at that age are really rare and usually mean something is wrong. Everything we went through with him only made it harder. I never would have thought a little kitten could get under my skin in such a short amount of time. Losing foster kittens is just part of volunteering--they wouldn't need fostering if their immune systems were developed and they weren't so vulnerable. We named him Leif in honor of the the Viking kittens.

Because we have an overabundance of kittens waiting for fostering to get up to spay and neuter surgery weight and because having a kitten in the house--without adding to our already high number of cats (3)--is so much fun, I was planning on continuing to foster anyways. There were a few litters with moms, a couple groups of 3-4 kittens and a single. I took home the single female brown tabby who seemed to be the healthiest. She has little elf-like ears that look like lynx ears without the tufts and big paws that look polydactyl until you actually count and realize she just has huge toes. The tabby stripes are complete except for a little bit of light brown on her tummy, so she looks very different from our eldest tabby cat, Tora, who has white on his face, paws and tummy. We keep her separate from our other cats and don't let the dog get too close. They already have a very different relationship than he had with the other foster who was fascinated with the dog and whose little butt became an obsession for Gambit. This one is fierce and puffs up when he comes nearby. He fled across the room when she spit at him from four feet away yesterday and Alan said he jumped over the arm of the couch to get away from her later that night. (Is there anything better than seeing a kitten doing the sideways hop, puff up and spit?)

Foster Kitten Part 2

I'm sitting on the couch with my notebook in my lap and a purring kitten on my shoulder. The foster kitten's stay has been extended since he had a few weeks to go before he gets up to neuter surgery weight. It's amazing how fast they change. He's recovering from first worms, then an upper respiratory infection and now a urinary tract infection very quickly. He is now definitely a "he." His eyes are still the blind-looking blue of a very young kitten but he's looking more and more cat-like and less rodent-like with his formerly spreadeagled rear legs, triangular shape shifting to lean kitten legs. One rear leg is little thicker than the other--the vet thought it was either an older injury or congenital--but it doesn't seem to hurt or to be slowing him down at all. This week he learned how to jump and run which is making it a little harder to keep him separate from the resident cats. In the couple accidental encounters we've had, the kitten has gone bounding up to a cat and promptly scared it away. He gets along well with the dog. (After the dog snuck in and raided his litter box a couple of times, we pretty much gave up on the idea of keeping the two of them separate.) The dog is learning boundaries (finally!) and that his larger size means he has to be careful. All of their contact is still monitored constantly. I wanted to name him "Tom" because he's got the same coloring as the cartoon cat. Alan favored "Playa." I'm open to suggestions--keep in mind that the goal is to choose a name that will help get him adopted, although the adopters always have the option to change the name.

It is so nice to have a cuddly cat for a while! We have one who will sit next to us on the couch when the dog isn't around (Kochan the semi-feral) but the other two are hands off (Tora the biter) and pet me on my own terms (Piper the diva). Pictures to come once I get them uploaded.

Alan and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary this weekend. It was actually yesterday but I work Saturdays, so we met for dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant, Sushi Tango. We'd been meaning to try it for while as it's in the same little Woodbury strip mall as our favorite Indian restaurant, India Palace, and conveniently located about halfway between our house and my work. It's a little noisy because of the industrial ceiling and cement floor but had a pretty full menu, good beer selection, friendly service and lower than normal prices. Despite Alan's skepticism, I ordered the signature dinner plate and polished it off completely. Alan said I got my sushi look early on which is kind of a blissful face that accompanies stuffing my face with raw fish and rice and drinking Asahi beer with good company.

Our mutual anniversary gift this year was a very geeky Wii, but I think it was a great purchase. I will be using the Wii fit as soon as it arrives in the mail and we've already had some fun with Sports and a new Mario game. We finished the evening off with an episode of The Wire courtesy of Netflicks and then some Mario. I helped Alan by zapping stars which was about all my overstuffed, end of work week self could handle. Today we are going to take the dog for a long walk at one of the local preserves and get some writing done. Perfect weekend!

We have a house guest over Labor Day and maybe a little later as he/she's a little young to be on his/her own. He/she's a little high maintenance but we are happy to accommodate.

Wanted

Tall, dark and handsome Akita is looking for a life and running partner. Likes: long runs/walks on the beach or anywhere, exploring, leaning on a friend, car rides and back scratches. Dislikes: kennels and locks. References available upon request.


[P.S. No more wearing sandals until Kaden is adopted.]

I have got a crazy job. I knew this going in but didn't really understand the true extent of the craziness until recently. My normal duties are managing staff and the flow of animals through the shelter and can include things like helping out with a customer who is surrendering their animals because of foreclosure and setting up a cage for a pair of ferrets. This past week, I also chased an escape artist Akita through the neighborhood three different times. The second time we caught him as he walked down the drive-through lane at Arbys visiting everyone at their open car windows. The third time one of my fast thinking staff took her car and we learned he likes car rides. We also learned that very large dogs attract a lot of attention even when they are in the back seat. The Akita, Kaden, is still at the shelter. He's a very nice dog, a good walker on the leash, but a handful getting in and out of the kennel. With regular exercise, he should be easier to handle. His kennel is now locked to prevent him pushing past unprepared visitors.

I saw my first (and second and third) botfly larva removed from the neck of a poor little kitten. They were crazy big and one of the creepiest things I've ever seen. They had to be the inspiration for The Wrath of Kahn.

I got called back to the shelter just before close one night to try to help with a kitten who had gotten its head stuck in the bottom of a cage while hiding after a customer set it on the floor. Removal involved dismantling a whole bank of cages but the kitten came out just fine and was placed on hold that night and adopted the next day. A volunteer and I managed to get the cages put back together and didn't even misplace a single screw!

I named two kitten brothers Bo and Luke after which one of the vet techs immediately apologized to them. Choosing names on the spur of the moment is not easy, even if you are creative! My ice cream flavor theme for a large litter of rats didn't go so well the week before. (Most ice cream flavors are too long for the name box in our computer software.)

I endured a 1/2 hour hot (my air conditioning is out) car ride with a coonhound who I brought back to the shelter after he had donated veterinary surgery to have a mass removed from his foot. Our two large dog kennels were in transit other places so I had to put him in the back seat. He alternated between bashing me in the head with his e-collar, breathing extremely stinky dog breath on me which was concentrated and funnelled into my face by said e-collar and trying to climb into the front seat and onto my lap. Did I mention that this was a coonhound? Not a small dog at all.

I can't really talk much about the hard parts of the job without having this post be a major bummer. Seeing adult cats fly out of the shelter (through adoptions) this summer despite the large numbers of kittens makes all the craziness worth it. Seeing people willing to take in an older cat for foster for six months until things are slower makes it worth it. Seeing happy people go home with animals makes it all worth it. Seeing the excitement in a stray when her family comes to find her, makes it all worth it.

I haven't posted in ages. Once you are late, it's very hard to start up again. So instead of making a big deal here's a quick catch-up.

All late winter into spring, balancing two jobs with too many hours--crazy!
May:
My birthday and the Walk for Animals - set-up (rain, cold, cold, rain) walk day (rain? no, no rain! lots of wonderful dogs, other critters, people, volunteers)
Last day at Rain Taxi (very sad, but I'll still be volunteering for the magazine, check out the latest issue just out!)
New full-time position at the Animal Humane Society (scary, exciting, sad because I love working with the volunteers, but I will be there more and may actually see more volunteers)
Week at Rio Hondo writing workshop (with Alan - New Mexican mountains, snow melt streams, hot tub, amazing food, amazing writers, fuel for revising)
Wiscon (with two of my favorite people in the whole world as guests of honor!)
We have book: The Sun Inside by David J. Schwartz!

June:
Dave has another book! (Reading tomorrow Dreamhaven - Thursday, June 12th, 7:00PM)
Alan sold a novel!
The new job is kicking my butt but I do think I'll have it under control soon. I planted flowers this past week--something I wasn't able to do last summer! After a few months of leaving the house at 8:30 a.m. and not getting back until after 8:30 p.m., I am also enjoying having dinner with my husband and playing ball with Gambit while it's still light out.
Life is good.

Minnesota Pet Lovers-we need your voice for animals!

Please call your legislators in the next few days.

The “dangerous dog” bills are on the Minnesota House and Senate floors and need your action right away. Please contact your State Representative AND your State Senator and ask them to vote YES on the bills below.

S.F. 2876 authored by Senator Ellen Anderson

H.F. 2906 authored by Representative Michael Paymar

These bills address a real issue relating to dangerous dogs, which is accountability of the people who own the dangerous dog.

H.F. 2906 and S.F. 2876 strengthen existing law by giving animal control authorities the tools they need to better protect the public from dog bites and dog attacks. They address repeat offenders and the culpability of dog owners who endanger the public. They clarify existing language, require the sterilization of dangerous dogs, increase the dollar amount of insurance required (for a victim of a dog attack), provide due process for a dangerous dog designation, provide for prohibiting further dog ownership, and increase penalties for those who create dangerous dogs through irresponsible actions. The maximum penalty is often paid by the dog,
but there are relatively light penalties, if any, placed on the owners.

• Please mention these points when placing your phone call:
  
• Ask them to support dangerous dog bill S.F. 2876 and H.F. 2906
  
• Tell them you do NOT support any amendments that would include a dog breed ban in Minnesota.
  
• The problem is the not the breed of a dog.
  

Call your State Representative to support H.F. 2906
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/hmem.asp

Call your State Senator to support S.F. 2876
http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/members/index.php?ls=85#header

If you don’t know who your legislators are, go to:
http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder.asp

Thank you!

Annual Humane Society Book Sale

The shelter in Woodbury where I work is filled with books as well as animals for the annual Animal Humane Society Book Sale. We're having it at two locations, Woodbury and Golden Valley. The hours are slightly different between the two sales because we had different hours back when they were setting it up. Thursday night is $5 at the door but the rest of the weekend the sale is free. We'll have books, CDs, DVDs, videos and classic vinyl records. It looked liked everything was under $10 and most is priced $1-$5.

Here are the addresses:
Animal Humane Society, 845 Meadow Lane North, Golden Valley and 9785 Hudson Road in Woodbury.

Here are the hours:

Woodbury

Thursday, February 7
5:00 - 8:00 pm

February 8, 9 & 10
Noon - 6 p.m.

Golden Valley:

Thursday, February 7
6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Friday, February 8
11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 9
9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 10
11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

I'm coming out of my winter cocooning to say that we saw Cloverfield today and really liked it. No spoilers here. We usually wait until someone we know sees a movie or a lot more reviews appear but this time we didn't. Coming out of the theater into the frigid winter evening was not so much fun.

Things that make me feel old: the twentieth anniversary of Joshua Tree. This album accompanied me to Japan for my semester abroad and was my jogging music. At that point in time, in that neighborhood, a white woman jogging attracted a lot of attention. I only saw one other person--a very athletic looking Japanese young man--jogging the whole time I was there. (I needed to jog or I'd have to give up our daily oyatsu office treats.) I'd put my headphones on and it was much easier to ignore all of the staring.

Funny things: A few days ago Alan and I were watching TV and an e-surance ad came on. Alan speculated that there was probably fanfic for the hot main character. Tonight, after working late and with my brain fried, I decided to check it out. I should have known because of Rule 34. Anyway, I found this hilarious: http://kissmesuzy.blogspot.com/2007/04/high-risk-insurancethe-time-is-right.html. It's safe to read through the first few comments, after that read with caution.

Scary things: We saw No Country for Old Men over the holiday and I've found a new scariest bad guy eva! He doesn't have the charm of Ralph Fiennes's Amon Goeth or Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter, but he made me want to scream at the screen each time he started his little game. A friend said he's had nightmares all week after seeing it. Great movie!

Christopher Barzak Day

Today is the release date for Chris's book One for Sorrow! I first met Chris at the 1998 Clarion writing workshop in East Lansing. I very quickly fell in love with his writing--probably from the first thing of his I read. It didn't matter what story he was telling, I just wanted to sit in my inner tube and float down the river of his prose. But Chris's writing is more than just beautiful prose--he is a marvelous story teller. He takes everyday people and, through a fabulist sleight of hand, lands them on the precipice of the extraordinary. Go check out his book right now! You won't regret it. And, if you haven't read any of his short fiction, you can find a list of them (many available online) on his website at: http://christopherbarzak.wordpress.com/news/.


For other people's opinions of Chris, please see Mumpsimus.

Happy birthday to my one and only, Alan!

And a belated one to Mr. Barzak!

We had a really lovely weekend at Diversicon with Dave Schwartz, Mark Rich, Martha Borchardt, and all. Got to see Mark and Martha play as Keg Salad again-they need a MySpace page! Listened to two chapters of guest of honor Andrea Hairston's awesome new hoodoo (vodou?) novel which needs a publisher. Chatted with wonderful people about books, writing and movies and got lots of titles to Netflick. Bought lots of used books-not as many as last year-and a big bag of seventies era F&SFs. (The bid was only $1 for them so I had to up it to $2-little did I know there were many more bags of magazines for the auction.)

Happy birthday, Ms. Bond! Many fabulous returns!

What I learned over the last two days. 1. The smell of puppy poop is very difficult to remove from your skin when you can't take a shower and use your beloved scrubber until later that night. 2. A squirmy puppy will get its poopy self all over you including your forehead and the back of your neck behind your hair. 3. Six poopy puppies... well, we're not even going to go there. 4. There's nothing like exposure to sarcoptic mange to make you feel itchy all over.

P.S. The puppies are much less poopy and will hopefully soon be mange free.

Tired. Sick. Need to go to bed.

Can't stop watching Gambit charge and retreat from the June bug on the living room floor.

June bugs! Summer must be here.

I am the big 4-0 today. Except for the fact that it is a multiple of 10 and so invites some looking at life milestones, it doesn't really have a huge amount of significance for me. Life is very good and the only thing I can complain about is lack of time to do everything I want to do. One thing I am thinking about is getting a tattoo to celebrate. In my twenties, I held off because I didn't know how I'd feel about it when I was 40, 50 or 60. Now that I'm 40, I don't see my attitude changing at all and of course, a tattoo isn't such a big deal these days. My mom surprised me last night by saying she was thinking of getting one, too. (She first got her ears pierced when she turned 40.) My dad looked at both of us and didn't say anything. He's had years to learn that that is probably the best response! At our family get together last night, I did get to tease them both a little about being so old they have a daughter that old.

I've had two days of ice cream cake, gifts, flowers of both the delivered and natural kind (our crabapple tree is in full bloom today) and lots of good food. Sushi is on the horizon. Who could ask for more?

Here was my fortune from lunch today:
Age can never hope to win one whose heart is young.

[This is me sticking out my tongue at the stupid thing.]

OMG! Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed's dog, Snippy, looks just like our dog, Gambit.

Snippy
http://www.aetv.com/genesimmonsfamilyjewels/gsfj_meet.jsp

Gambit
http://www.goblinmercantileexchange.com/index.php?s=Gambit&submit=Search

How could I resist? Doesn't everyone want a Daemon?

Baby squirrels! Last week, one of the vets, Jim, brought in a box with holes drilled in the top and told everyone he was fostering four Peruvian lynx cubs. They were actually baby squirrels found after he'd livetrapped and released the mother out of his attic. It brought back memories of the time when I was 11 years old and tried to raise a baby squirrel who had been kicked out of the nest in the fall. That story did not have a happy ending. Though very sad, it was a good experience--I remember having to get up for feedings every two hours. That little guy was so young (and bald) that we didn't know ay first if he was a squirrel or a rabbit. I had him long enough to see his eyes open and his fur get glossy and full before he got very sick. These guys are already that old. They are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and are starting to get very fluffy tails. They sleep most of the day but are good climbers and pretty active when awake. I'm hoping they've gotten enough of their mother's immunity to make it. Jim asked if I wanted to spend some time socializing them so I took them into my office and had them one at at time on my lap as I returned phone calls and e-mails. One of them climbed out of the box and was halfway up the inside of the my pants leg before I noticed his escape. The box is now secured with a rubber band. I got to feed them with a syringe on my lunch break. Jim had shaved a spot off on a different leg for each of them so we could tell them apart. We had quite an audience watching through my office windows. I don't think there's anything cuter than a baby animal who is still on milk (or milk replacer in this case.) I got to see (and play with) them again today when I stopped by the St. Paul shelter at the end of the day. One of the other staff took two of them to foster so Jim only has to juggle the frequent feedings for two now. Their tails are fluffier and they are a little bigger. I'll try to get photos next time. They were a little too wild for me to handle both the phone camera and squirrel. Everyone else was still on duty and I didn't want to interrupt their work.

Amazing, beautiful, open all the windows weather. I'm actually sitting here in a t-shirt! In Minnesota, in March! Our first thunderstorm was late last night and I was awake to hear it because of a ill-considered, evening mocha. We are supposed to pay for the weather later today with more thunderstorms and the possibility of hail and tornados. Despite that, we are headed to a nearby theater for The Host and later I have The Merchant of Venice at the Guthrie with my family and uncle who is here from Beijing.

We were at Borders last night for some writing time in the cafe and were pleased to see Hal's Ink and Jon Armstrong's Grey on the new book table.

I'm partway through Wizard of the Crow and loving it. I've got Kristin Lavransdatter, recommended by the wonderful Mr. Schwartz, sitting stand by. How can I not love a book that has the spelling right? Over the last month, I've also discovered and developed a fondness for Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

If you have a dog or cat and missed the news of the food recall, you should check out my post at One Tough Puppy right away.

Here's a link:

http://1toughpuppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/pet-food-recall.html

So two whole months have passed without a post. I wish I could say it was because I was so busy but, while I was immensely busy (juggling two jobs, travel to Erie to visit Alan's family, frozen and leaky pipes, lots of reading deadlines, city citations and levies,) I was also struggling with some writer's block. It didn't seem right to be spending time on the blog and not doing other writing I was supposed to be doing. I think I've broken through the block -- it was primarily stress induced -- so I can post again.

I've reached the end of my week (at least for the humane society) and have a warm dog cuddled up on the couch next to me. We've been doing a lot of Netflicks watching and I've been reading up a storm. I haven't been able to get to the library so I was browsing through all our books to see what I missed including some free books we brought back from various places. Boy, have I been reading some bad stuff lately! Some things really stood out, though, so I thought I'd take some time to make a few recommendations:

I just finished Kirstin Allio's Garner: A Novel which I loved and highly recommend. (Garner was the LitBlog Co-op's Read This selection for last winter.) It's set in a small town in New Hampshire at the turn of the previous century. The language is lyrical and the characters quirky and unique. I'm going to take another look at at least parts of it because I'm not completely certain I understand what happened in a couple of places but the unreliable narrators are part of the novel's beauty. Allio is definitely someone to watch.

A couple nights ago, we finally watched The Descent and both of us loved it. I've always been addicted to scary movies so most of the time, I'm the one who pushes Alan to watch them with me. Alan was very excited when he heard that Neil Marshall of Dog Soldiers was coming out with another movie. We somehow never made it out to the theater to see it, so we had to wait for the DVD release and then remember to bump the movie up our Netflicks list. If you somehow missed the trailers, the story has a group of women embarking on a caving expedition. It had strong, believable women characters, a very scary setting and terrifying plot twists -- what's not to like? I've been claustrophobic as far back as I can remember and I think that having asthma makes it worse. I'd probably be okay descending into a large caverns despite some acrophobia. The tight spots are a different story, though, and one scene made me hyperventilate and physically sick. (I watched the movie a second time (with one of the commentaries) and I had the same reaction. Even thinking of it makes me panic. Terrifying! It was great! But there's much, much more. Highly recommended if you like chills like I do.

More recommendations to come.

Thanksgiving Evening in Front of the Vast Waste of TV Land

"You know what movie this is?"
"Yes, it's Conan the Destroyer. I saw it when you had the info on."
"But do you know which one it is?"
"Is it the annoying one with the girl and the island?"
"I don't know why everyone disses this movie. It has Grace Jones in it."
"Grace Jones is the best part of this movie."
A short discussion ensues about the annoying and not so annoying characters in the movie as the heroes move to rescue the magical Asian character from being roasted alive.
"How is this different from The 13th Warrior?
"You're kidding, right?"
"Other than Grace Jones, of course... They both have sword fighting."
On TV, the bad guys are riding across a vast plain.
"Well, they both have villains on horseback dressed in black with skulls on their heads. And, the main characters have accents."
"They're both taciturn."
"Yes, both have taciturn main characters with accents."

For the past five weeks, I've been obsessively plowing through Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books. I first encountered Sharpe through our local PBS station's airing of the Briitish series of TV movies which also inspired a long-term crush on Sean Bean. I'm a voracious reader but I don't think I've ever been so obsessed with a series of books and certainly not sustained an obsession through this many different books in a series. [I pooped out after initial obsessions with Stephen King's Dark Tower series, David Weber's Honor Harrington books, and Anita Hamilton's Anita Blake series.] The great thing about starting to read these books now is that I am able to read them almost completely in timeline order versus the order in which they were published. In some cases, I have pursued this order by maximizing my use of the Washington County Library interlibrary loan system. In other cases, I have driven from one library branch to another library branch and visited the adjacent St. Paul Library system to feed my habit. Internet library search is a wonderful thing. During lulls between copies of the book, I've finished a few other books. One, The Requiem Shark by Nicholas Griffin is a novel about the pirate Black Bart which I highly recommend. There's a good review of it up at Salon. Pirates - yay! Sam Enthoven's Black Tatoo, a YA dark fantasy, was next and was one of the freebies from World Fantasy. While there were a few times I looked up from the book to frown in consternation, I was nicely pulled through the book by interesting characters, surprising world building and sword fighting. Sword fighting - yay! I am awaiting the last three Sharpe novels and have to content myself with my new obsession, watching the Sharpe's movies through Alan's B-day subscription to Netflicks. Because it is his birthday gift, I am limiting myself to one of his two movies at a time which he puts up with since he knows the movie will be probably be watched and returned within 24 hours. I will plow through the whole series of movies in just a few weeks. Interspersed amongst these, we'll have our usual Alan's obscure foreign movie picks coming in at a regular pace, too. I was a little disappointed by the first two films in the Sharpe series (the Wellington character made me want to barf) but I've been told things pick up with this next one, Sharpe's Company. [I would be watching it RIGHT NOW but someone is playing something on the Gamecube. The dog is between us destroying his new rawhide bone. We all have our obsessions, I guess.] I currenlty am reading John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades which like his previous novel, Old Man's War, has soldiers, aliens, intrigue and bloody battles. Bloody battles - yay! Unlike the first book, which I did really enjoy, the main character isn't annoyingly perfect and brilliant and always saving the day. On my bedside table waiting to be read, I have Partick O'Brian's Master and Commander and Sabatini's Scaramouche. So everything I've been reading the past few weeks has conveniently though not intentionally had battles or swashbuckling in it. I've been trying to figure out my obsession with the Sharpe books and this focus on warfare. The Sharpe books aren't as well written as some in the genre (?) but I've always been a forgiving reader if the story is compelling, the characters interesting and the writing not so bad it throws me out of the story. I think that Cornwell has hit on the right mixture of romance, intrigue and adventure for my taste and it probably doesn't hurt that I still picture Sean Bean as the main character. Another time, we'll have to have a discussion about why Sean Bean has to always play bad guys in American movies.

I was supposed to be working from home this morning but the website I need is temporarily down, so I thought I'd take some time to do a quick post-WFC rundown.

This is what we brought home:
A cold - despite getting plenty of sleep and no drinking
A burned mouth from hot cheese in excellent Austin Tex Mex food that has turned into a killer toothache

Two awesome freebie bags. We could actually check these bags which allowed us to bring more home than we thought we'd be able to.
From the freebie bags:
Night Wars - Graham Masterton
Pandora Drive - Tim Waggoner
Shadowmarch - Tad Williams
From Black Rooms - Stephen Woodworth
The Mount - Carol Emshwiller - this will be a great Christmas gift for someone
Some recent F & SFs
George and the Angels - Glenn Maganek
The Fair Folk anthology
Best Short Novels 2006 - Jonathan Strahan's SFBC anthology
The Black Tattoo - Sam Enthoven - an ARC - beautiful cover
A Princess of Roumania - Paul Park - nice to see this promoted so much - another gift
Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard anthology
Genetopia - Keith Brooke

We also came home with:
(Hot off the presses)
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet #19
Electric Velocipede #11
The Sense of Falling - Ezra Pines chapbook with illustrations by Mark Rich
(as well as)
The Ephemera - Neil Williamson
Summer of the Apocolypse - James Van Pelt

We were lucky to score the Neil Williamson since none of the book dealers had copies and we got one of the few Neil brought with him. Reading the first few stories on the plane going home reminded me all over again why I was so excited when I first found his writing. This collection is highly recommended.

Much more busyness so no posting lately. A couple of things making me insanely angry. The last straw was this interview of ignorant homophobe Paul Weyrich from the Free Congress Foundation by Michele Norris on NPR this afternoon. I almost slammed on the breaks in the middle of traffic, it made me so angry. It happens right away so you don't have to listen to the whole thing.

Conservative Groups Call for Accountability on Foley

If you don't want to listen to it (and I don't recommend it if you are trying for a low stress day) he said that Foley shouldn't have been in charge of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus because the Republican leadership knew he was gay and as we all know "gay men are preoccupied by sex."

Busy, busy week. I feel like I'm juggling about a million things right now. I posted at One Tough Puppy about the new job a little bit and the money-pit but lovable dog. The job is going well. I love working around animals and the people who volunteer are great. I spend a lot of my time on the phone since we're starting our annual phonathon. It is probably the hardest thing to recruit people to help with but is also our largest fundraiser so we have to keep trying. At home, I've been plowing my way through all the Diversicon books and only have two left. Alan brought me more library books today. I love how he helps feed my habit. Work prevented us from a more formal 3rd anniversary celebration tonight. We'll be doing something this weekend when we are both available and have time to relax. Tonight, we opted for pizza and a quiet night on the couch bookended by pets. Life is good.

Last weekend, we headed up to my parent's cabin in northwestern Minnesota for Friday night. The next day, while my parent's took care of the dog, we headed up to Duluth to the Northern Lights bookstore for Alan's book signing. The drive is beautiful with lakes and mixed pine and deciduous forest. We found the bookstore right on Canal Street in the peak downtown tourist area near the lift bridge and the lake walk. For a small store, it packed a lot books in and had a great selection of Great Lakes related and regional materials. I decided to treat myself to a book, although we'd recently hauled two books full from Diversicon, and went around browsing and trading through books. I found the winner, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Rufiz Zafon translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves, on their Booksense Picks shelves. It was a pick back in February when it came out. Despite its satisfying thickness, I blew through it this week. I'm still gathering my thoughts about it and will write more but I highly recommend it. It was kind of a literary mystery set in Barcelona during the 40s and 50s with a great gothic feel and compelling characters.

It was Alan's first visit to Duluth and long overdue. We poked around Duluth a bit before doing part of the North Shore Scenic Drive up to Gooseberry Falls State Park. On the recommendation of one of Alan's co-workers, we stopped for pie at the New Scenic Cafe and, tempted by the menu, ended up eating an early dinner and taking the pie with us. At Gooseberry, we toured the falls and then took the Gooseberry River trail to the lake and Agate Beach. Alan grew up next to Lake Erie, so it was nice to finally be able to show him Lake Superior, which has a quite different feel to it. We headed back in the dark to the cabin and cool sleeping temperatures. The next day we swam, read, ate good food and played with the dog until it was time to go home. After chasing squirrels and chipmunks all weekend, as well as swimming and playing fetch, he was a very tired dog on the drive home.

Very busy, very social couple of weeks passed.

We had a last minute weekend with the families of Haddayr and Karen. Wonderful people. Great discussions. Nice relaxation. Some birthday, ice cream cake goodness for Alan. What more can I say?

Alan got Netflicks from my parents for his birthday. Yay!! Now instead of checking the mail for rejection letters we look for movies. So far we've seen:

Irma Vep which was a strange but compelling movie by the director of the very twisted Demonlover. While both movies had unsatisfying endings, they were worth the trip.
and
Dog Soldiers which was an interesting twist on the traditional werewolf movie by the writer/director of The Descent. The werewolves were cheesy but the acting was strong (including Kevin McKidd from Rome) and the characters sympathetic.

Up next are Dave Chappelle's Block Party and Walk the Line. Suggestions for movies to add to the queue would be very welcome.

Diversicon was last weekend. We've only been once before two years ago when SP Somtow was guest of honor and Mark Rich was special guest. We missed it last year because we were out of town. This year we had the magnificent Kelly Link as guest of honor and very cool Bryan Thao Worra as special guest. I missed most of the panels due to absent mindedness but also because I was helping out or gabbing with Gavin at the Small Beer Press table. It's a small convention but packs a punch with programming, lots of time to meet and visit with the highlighted guests, and lots of other interesting attendees. Highlights included seeing Lyda glammed up as Tate; stocking up to feed my reading habit with two bags of used books from the dealers room; an affordable live auction with booty including more books and original Mark Rich artwork; a long chat with Eleanor Arnason (check out her new blog here); Bryan Thao Worra's awesome presentation on Laotian mysterious places (see Dark Wisdom #9 for his article on the Plain of Jars) and mythic creatures (toe sucking forest spirits!), music from Mark and Martha as Keg Salad, and a great film discussion with Andrea Hairston that included one of my favorite films, Lonestar, and a new, eye-opening take (to me) on Rush Hour. Andrea will be guest of honor next year, so you'll have to come and ask her about it.

Once again, the past two weeks reminded me how blessed we have been with such a great group of friends and writing/SF community around us. As one of my new co-workers said on the way out the door today, "Peace out, y'all!"

Discussing musical taste, that is whether someone has good musical taste or not, led to a slight disagreement this evening. I would tend to be more inclusive in defining someone's musical taste. For instance, in addition to such obvious things such as music purchased, music played and music shared with friends, I believe that songs one chooses to sing at home, out of the view of the public but in the presence of roommates or family, should also be included. The manner of such singing, and if there is also dancing, could also be considered. What do you think?

*WARNING - Hex Spoiler*








Last night I tuned BBC America for Hex and found out Cassie had died. I swear I caught the episode last week but did not remember losing the main character. I immediately zapped into on demand just be sure, and yes, the last episode showing up was #6, the one I'd watched. I sulked a bit and decided I must have missed it and they were just slow to put up the next episode. I checked back later and found out they'd put up last night's episode, #8. Same thing today, episodes #6 and #8. I feel so betrayed. I haven't felt like this since I was a kid and somehow skipped the whole Gandalf dying in Moria scene and found out he was dead when I opened the next book. I cried that time. This time I wasn't sad (she could be so mean to Thelma) just angry with Comcast or BBC America or whoever blew the surprise for me. I expected some commiseration from Alan but he already knew she was going to die having read all the episode summaries on some website or other. What's the fun of that? And why the hell am I getting so hyped up about a consistently inconsistent show I know is already cancelled without a nice series wrap up at the end?

This new job is going to do wonders for my writing discipline. With the way my schedule is structured, I need to lose a few hours each week during the day and have been alternating camping out at the two nearby coffee houses. And, in case I ever entertain the unproductive idea that I will work at my desk (not just catch up on blogs and news), overcrowding has someone needing to use my computer, desk or chair any time I'm away from my desk for more than ten minutes. I've been avoiding the heat by heading out early to make use of their free air conditioning, too. This week has taught me that although I think I can get writing done at home, I'm really just treading water since they're too many distractions.

About the new job... I'm about one week into it and am loving the work. I'm coordinating volunteers part-time for the local humane society shelter, a position that draws on my weird assortment of past volunteer and work experiences. It's amazingly close to home and I can keep my low paid but promising job with the start up company while having a steady paycheck during our slow season. Best of all, it's so good to be working in an animal shelter again.

We're back from Readercon and post Readercon activities. The air is hot and dry, our house is almost unbearable and all the lawns are getting crispy, a very different situation from water-logged Massachusetts. We lost a kitchen chair and one of my sandals which is pretty good considering I didn't have as much time to puppy proof things as I would have liked. The sandal must have been hiding deep underneath a chair or the couch. The poor chair broke at some point, then was yanked apart and then chewed. We think the dog jumped on it to get to a cat although the pulling apart could have happened first. It was the chair facing out into the room under the table and thus more accessible than the others. I did also get the good news that I have a second interview for an interesting job tomorrow morning.

Readercon was fun and mellow with lots of interesting people. It suffered a little from its lack of parties, although that didn't stop us from making use of the Irish pub in the hotel. Oh yes, we spent way too much time in that bar. A desperate search for brunch one morning led a mtoley crew of us to a strange meal amidst birthday partying kids and jungle noises in the nearby mall's Rainforest Cafe. I enjoyed readings by Brett Cox, Paul Park, Patrick O'Leary, Jeff Ford and others. I'm still a little brain dead, so you'll have to excuse me if I forgot yours. The most memorable reading was for Twenty Epics which my husband hijacked to read an excerpt from the stories of everyone who wasn't present. I almost died during his rendition of David Schwartz's story because at times he sounded more like my Aunt Joyce than David doing his great uncle's accent. If you'd like to hear it for yourself, you just need to buy him a shot and hand him a copy of the book. Although I hit more programming than I ever have since my first convention, I only caught one half of two different panels because I had to sneak out to readings I promised I'd attend. I missed guest of honor James Morrow completely and only heard a few words from China Mieville one of them being, "tentacular" a great, great word. Sometime during one of "let's do shots" periods in the bar (I stayed with beer) we started up the "which SF author would you do" thing that was first played during the DC World Fantasy, I think. I had to pull in Lauren, who had just been voted onto the island, to balance out the mostly male, mostly gay panel because they kept vetoing the inclusion of guys with pony tails. If you want more details than that, you'll have to buy me a cider.

We're back from my parent's cabin a day early so we can do some work around the house. It was a glorious, long weekend and Gambit's first visit. He got to explore the woods, swim as much as he wanted to and take his first boat ride. He was very well behaved and we're pleased to have a dog we can actually swim with instead of having to watch for claws and fend off attempts to climb onto us. He's very fast and can beat me in a flat out race, although he has a tendency to keep circling back to cut me off and make my front crawl into a much slower breaststroke. There was very little barking, which with the swimming, helped win my dad over. The last few years with our old dog had involved lots of senile barking at anything that moved including every boat passing on a busy lake. Gambit's passed out next to me on the couch right now and the cats are having a little peace because he's so tired.

Being Wisconsin, where these things are legal, we had lots of fireworks. They've done amazing things for the home market and we had couple nights of professional quality shows from different cabins. It was a beautiful sight from the boat after dark and at one point there were alternating explosions from both sides of the lake. I was going to bring Mentos and Diet Coke to duplicate Greg's experiment for our fireworks but didn't need to and will save that for a weekend when we have kids at the cabin.

There were all these new buoys around the lake which my dad said were marking Eurasian milfoil outbreaks. People raced right by them ignoring the problem and chewing up the plants to spread them to other places. Lake residents formed a lake district over the last two years and have gotten funding to work on the problem, but it's going to be an ongoing thing. Once it's in the lake, it's there for good, I guess, and it still might get completely out of control ending up stifling all the native life. The other big topic was the number of large muskie on the lake and the lack of the smaller northerns. Muskie don't bite very often while northerns do so the fishing has changed. We had a number of boats just off the point by our dock saying they were tracking some huge fish on their radars there. The water gets really deep fast and a couple times I wondered what was sharing the water with me. Muskies were always the monsters of legend on our lake.

A little depressed today -- I've not been sleeping well, plus it is so damn hot. The house managed to stay fairly cool all week but it's starting to heat up and I'm sweating just sitting here. Like they tell you to do in all of the job search books and trainings, I did my follow up calls for a couple of part-time jobs I sent in resumes for earlier in the week. I really thought one was a great fit, although I could see them thinking I was over qualified. Both are in the interviewing stage of things. While I still might get a call, it's not as likely, I guess. In small breaks between loads of laundry and washing wood floors, I've been watching soccer and then a Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson movie, Come September, a little confection of a movie. I've enjoyed looking at the clothes and beautiful scenery and dreaming about being Lollobrigida and having her clothes. I have a very stinky dog dreaming beside me on the couch and sleeping kitties at various elevations throughout the living room. I can't give the dog a bath for a few days because I just gave him his monthly dose of anti-tick stuff. Next time, I'll remember: bath first, then medicine. We're headed up to my parent's cabin for the first time with Gambit along. Between the woods and the lake, he'll be in dog heaven. In the past, it's been the only time my dogs have been able to run around off-leash outside of a fenced in yard. With the dog park so close by, the off-leash part won't be as big a deal but the never-endingness of the off-leashness will be novel. If he's like other dogs we've had, he'll run and swim his butt off the first day and crash the rest of the weekend. Eventually, he'll learn to pace himself so the wiped out part comes after we get home.

Being only partially employed is not the end of the world. A friend called today to say they have surgery scheduled after a quick diagnosis of breast cancer. It looks to be an easy tumor to remove and we're hoping that's what they find. It kind of puts things into perspective, though.

I've been busy sending out resumes and doing a few interviews. Ever since my hours were cut because of seasonal slow down, I've been trying to decide whether to get a part-time job or full-time job. I've been applying for both and I guess I'll wait to see what comes up. I was feeling so lost that last week that I attended a three day job search boot camp at the Workforce Center. It was overwhelming but incredibly helpful. I've retooled my resume and started looking at my "portfolio." They really stressed that I needed a navy blue or black suit for interviewing. I'd been at my old nonprofit for so long that I didn't have anything that fit the bill. After buying and returning two different suits, I finally found one on sale yesterday at Marshall Fields that I love and that fits like glove. I also scored matching designer shoes on sale for cheap, cheap, cheap. (They said plain pumps would be best for interviewing but really, they're just shoes, right? Can't I have a little style?) I usually try on suits with skirts since they tend to fit better than suits with pants -- unless I can mix and match sizes. Last night, I tried it on for Alan and he got a strange look in his eyes and said it made me look very tall. I have to admit that it made me feel powerful. I guess that's where the whole power suit thing came from.

Jumping off from Gwenda and Jackie's comments to the post below, I've put up our first topic of conversation on 1 Tough Puppy: Cost of Pet Ownership.

We've officially joined Gwenda in the "leave your pet behind with the pet sitter guilt club." Our fabulous pet sitter, Lynn, left us a note saying that hyper puppy Gambit had caught his dew claw on the couch cover that day and it had bled a bit. She recommended checking it and seeing if it warranted a vet visit to have the nail clipped or removed. I checked it that night and the next day and it seemed to be getting better and wasn't causing him any discomfort. Then we went to the dog park yesterday. A pained yelp and a little blood later I decided it was time to head home and make that vet appointment. Another pet owner warned that the toe could be broken, which was quite painful, and recommended that I keep some pain stuff like Demerol on hand for pet emergencies. Luckily, the pain wasn't bad once he settled in and they got us in this morning - thank goodness for Saturday morning office hours. I was hoping for just a nail trim and bandage. It was that but also a sedative, local anesthesia, antibiotics and three days of E. collar. $200 worth of stuff. Ouch, especially so close on the heels of Wiscon. Of course, I hadn't gotten around to completing the pet insurance policy, yet.

So, we've instituted the BIG PLAN - 1 Tough Puppy - a blog dedicated to pet issues of all kinds. I'm hoping to provide a forum for advice and discussion and a place for recommendations and reviews of pet products. I'm hoping it will generate a little bit of Adsense revenue to help us pay down the surgery debt. It will definitely keep me from posting my long pet rants on this blog. If you are interested in joining in, let me know. Some of you have been so helpful here with support and advice and I know others would benefit from your wisdom, too.

Thanks everyone for your support. I thought I'd lighten things up a bit with the best news I've heard all week (other than personal visits by bears.)

Meerkat Manor

Oh Yeah! (Picture Alan's falsetto here.)

I won't be able to fly out to California for my uncle's funeral, although it sounds like we will probably have a memorial service here in the Twin Cities, too. I didn't get to see my uncle very often when I was growing up but I have great memories from two family trips out to Davis to see him. My uncle, Robert Price, was a marine biologist who taught for years at UC Davis and specialized in seafood technology. When I was ten, we borrowed my aunt's parent's RV and drove down the coast on Highway 1 ending up at Disneyland. We spent an amazing, magical time on that trip exploring the tide pools on one of the rocky, northern beaches. I remember looking into a tidepool and seeing nothing. Then, my uncle brought me closer and it was teeming with life. It was just like Pagoo and, at that moment, I couldn't think of anything better than having an uncle who was a marine biologist.