Is the glass half empty or half full?

Who cares about a stupid glass when the bowl looks like this:

Yes, that is indeed a very nearly empty bowl. This morning the bowl held a generous portion of ground chicken (sauteed to perfection), some noodles, about 20 dry crunchies, and about a cup of chicken broth, and Mellie ate all but a few little crumbs of it. You may think I'm crazy for being so excited (and I won't deny it) but this is the first time she has cleaned a bowl like this in many, many weeks! Before her stomach issues, a meal wasn't over until the bowl was as clean and shiny as when it came out of the dishwasher.

I saw our Vet last night while picking up meds for Mellie, and was glad that we have an ultrasound appointment on the 21st at the Veterinary Referral Center. He even knows the two doctors we will be seeing. That made me feel a LOT better.

Dry Run and High Hopes

Melanie update: She has been doing better the past four days...eating most of her breakfast each day, only refused dinner one day, and has slept through the night every night since Wednesday - hallelujah.

Yesterday we took a dry run to the Veterinary Referral Center in Malvern, Pa. Look at the beautiful building...I expected an emergency/critical care center to look white and sterile and, well, depressing. This place is the exact opposite. Beautiful building, lovely piece of ground, welcoming foyer with marble and tile & such.

We have an appointment for Mellie for an ultrasound on February 21st (the first available time slot) and having never been there, we wanted to see where we were going and make all of our mistakes without a sick dog in the car. It was only 50 miles or so, and took about an hour and 15 minutes, so that's not too bad. (I'd drive straight through the the Mayo Clinic if they would take care of my sweet girl.) They are so nice there. They refer to Mellie by her name, not as "the dog" or "the animal", and they said that she would only be away from us for about 20 minutes while they do the ultrasound. It's non-invasive, will not hurt her in any way, and will give us some much needed, highly anticipated information. Can you tell I'm anxious? If the vet performing the ultrasound suspects "the c-word which I cannot even THINK about let alone speak of", we will be able to meet with an oncologist that same day. Also, to our great relief, within an hour of the ultrasound, our home Vet will have a full report. Ain't computers amazin'!

Wellness Report

Mellie is doing better. She had a great day yesterday, she's doing OK today...much better than Friday. I took a couple of pictures of her for the blog, but she just looked too sad in them, so I'm not posting them. I'll wait until she's feeling better. My sister and I are taking turns staying at home, basically watching Mellie sleep. As long as she's napping, she's comfortable. She took some warm milk & baby cereal this morning, with her pills crushed up in it. She is such a sweetie.

Here is a picture of me holding Mr. Darcy, getting ready for his "special treat" a.k.a. nasty medicine. He really doesn't mind it all that much. It smells like ripe bananas, and once he gets some in his mouth, he sucks it from the eye dropper like a little baby. He is doing much, much better. The wheezing and sneezing has stopped, but we're still giving him his antibiotic twice a day. There's not too much left in the bottle, and I'd rather err on the side of too many days of meds rather than too few.

Here is a family shot of the bunnies. Left to right, it is Sunshine, Little Boy, Mr. Darcy and Momma Bunny.

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My niece used to work at a Vets office, and a local shelter brought a rescued rabbit in to the office to be "showcased" to the patients, and hopefully be adopted out. Her ears were a little chewed, and her feet were raw and sore, but she was doing great, and everyone had high hopes that some kind soul would come in and see her and take her home. Well... those hopes were dashed one morning when the bunny (hereafter referred to as "Momma Bunny") was not alone in her cage. There were three tiny additions. You guessed it, Little Boy, Mr. Darcy, and Sunshine. The males were snipped.... fixed.... rendered unable to reproduce.... do you get my drift? NO MORE LITTLE BUNNIES, thank you very much. My niece brought them home, and we ended up with them when she went off to college.

Well, Mellie is still resting comfortably at my feet, so I'm going to post another picture, this time of my nephews. Well, not nephews in the Webster Dictionary definition of the word-- they are the sons of a very good friend, so I'm an honorary Aunt. That's the best kind, though...right? I mean, blood relationships determine "Aunt-ship" and neither you nor the child has any say in the matter. Now an HONORARY Aunt, that's something special. Anyway, here are Zach and Danny wearing sweaters I knit for them from Zoe Mellor's book Adorable Knits for Tots. I switched the colors on the sweater on the cover to make it more boy-ish.

I'm off to work on the Scrappy Hat, and watch Mellie sleep, of course.

Blankie? What Blankie?

Yes, it is Blankie Update Friday, but I have no progress to report.

This week started with a sick rabbit. Mr. Darcy has been wheezing and sneezing. Trying to get a liquid medicine into the right rabbit (there are four rabbits), twice a day, which takes two people to do, and my sister leaves for work before the sun comes up and I (normally) get home from work after the sun goes down... You do the math. He has been surprisingly good about it, though.

On Tuesday I got a call at work from the Nanny (she comes three days a week and walks the dogs at lunch time) that Mellie, my 9 year old Brittany, who has had on-going issues with a sensitive stomach, has had a flare-up. I raced home to get her into the Vet before he closed the office for a week. He's fishing in the Florida Keys this week. It is a long overdue and well deserved vacation for him. He's the best Vet in the world, and I love him and trust him completely.

Wednesday, I went in to work for a few hours, came home to check on Mellie, and she vomited two blood clots. I placed a panicky, tearful call to the Nanny (who also happens to work at the Vet's office - she is his "right hand man", assisting with surgeries, doing xrays, etc.) and she calmed me down. Love her, too! She suggested crushing Mellie's pills and mixing them in a little liquid to make sure they are dissolving and coating her stomach. Mom came over and walked in the door as I was on the phone with the Nanny, so she calmed Emma and Tara until I got off the phone, then calmed me, too. I have the best mom in the world. I am so lucky and love her sooooo much.

Thursday, Mellie was doing much better, had a good night's sleep, but I didn't want to leave her, so I took her to work with me for a couple of hours. That's right - she's my little working girl! I wouldn't have gone in at all, but some work that I was supposed to have had LAST WEEK never arrived, and it was emailed it to me 11pm on Tuesday night, and needed ASAP, of course. That's right, a week late. But she did not provide the required materials - I was supposed to run out and get them. What's that saying... "Lack of preparation on your part does not necessarily constitute an emergency on my part." Yeah, right. So Mellie and I went off to work, and thanks to Bev for getting the materials and Pat for making thousands of cuts into thick matte board with a big old honking papercutter whose blade is getting very dull, the job was done by 1:oo-ish. Big hugs for Pat and Bev!

That brings us to today. Blankie Update Friday. As good as Mellie was yesterday, she is 10 times worse today. She had a very, very bad night last night, and doesn't want any parts of her crushed up pills, even though I mixed them in warm milk (her favorite) and added a little honey (yummm, tasty). It is 7:00am, and all I can do it sit and watch her.

What little knitting I have gotten done this week has been on the pink baby blanket. As much as I have been frustrated by the endless, repetitive lacy pattern, and the miles and miles of pale pink fingering weight yarn, it has been therapeutic this week to have something that required a little thought, but not too much. I picked up the Mitred Square Blankie once or twice, but choosing the next color to knit was just too much for me. I have trouble making decisions on the best of days, let alone while sitting here watching a sick dog, feeling like I am neglecting the other two, feeling like the worst dog mom in the world because I can't do anything to fix my sweet Mellie.

Christmas Cuteness

Who wants to see some cute pictures of the babes? I hope you said "I do", because here they are.

This is Emma (on the dog bed) and Tara (on the ottoman) lounging around, getting rested up for the Christmas excitement to come. Mellie declined the invitation to have her picture taken. She thought she was having a bad hair day, and didn't want it recorded on this blog for all the masses (ha!) to see.














"Hooray - presents! Grammie and Grampa brought presents! We love presents! We love Grammie and Grampa!" Emma has her head in the bag, while Tara watches patiently. Again, Mellie used the bad-hair-day excuse. I think she was just too lazy to bother getting off of the sofa.













Here's Mellie - caught on camera at last! She is sneaking away with one of the new bones from Grammie and Grampa.














Here's Tara, enjoying her new bone. Note the use of her paws - holding the bone upright so she can chew it better. So very intelligent... When we first got her from American Brittany Rescue (a GREAT organization), she didn't know what toys and bones were for. How sad is that? She was wary of people, too, but quickly learned how to wrap everyone around her little finger, or should I say dew claw.














And here's Emma, of course. She is posing with her new bone. Doesn't she look regal?


















Here's Grammie (a.k.a. Mum) decked out for Christmas with the bow from one of her gifts. This is just after dinner Christmas Eve, and we all opened one present each before she left to sing in the church choir. I tried to convince her to wear this bow to church. I think it would have been a nice addition to the traditional Christmas Cantata....

If you'll look very closely, you will see evidence of actual knitting. What looks like a misshapen blob on the table is actually the jaywalker socks I've been working on. Yes, they are a Christmas present, and yes, I know Christmas is now over.... Gotta get working on them there socks.


















And here is Grampa (a.k.a. Dad) opening one of his gifts. The mat says "Welcome to my garage. Not just parking space, but a world class destination." You have to know him to know just how appropriate this is. I stopped by their house on the way to work the other day, and he was on his hands and knees scrubbing the garage floor. I don't even do my KITCHEN floor on hands and knees. He's the original "Mr. Clean"-- it's a sickness.















Finally, here is sweet Mellie, zonked out from a day of partying and such. Please don't mention her hair - she's very sensitive about it.













I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate. Personally, I'd like to see Festivus become a national holiday!

"And now for the airing of grievances...I've got problems with all you people!" Frank Constanza, Seinfeld, season 9, episode 10.

Pre-Christmas frenzy.

I am still without my car, so am driving around a big behemoth of a rental vehicle. I got tired of stopping for gas every couple of days and dropping $20 into the gas tank, so filled it this morning. $37 dollars...can you believe it? How do people afford these gas guzzling monsters? The rental company has been trying to find a smaller vehicle, but no luck. How hard can they be trying? It's been almost 2 weeks since my car accident. Oh well. My problem is that I need 4WD. Why? I don't know. Do I think it will snow? No. When it does snow, do I drive in it? No. Not if my father is able to take me to work. Why is my father still driving his 40-something daughter to work when it snows? He taught me to drive in the snow, and it was such a traumatic experience that I am paralyzed with fear at the first flake in the air. But that's a story for another day.

Well, I have been a very bad knitter this week. I hope the knitting Santa wasn't peeking in my window to see how much progress I have made on my current WIPs. Knitting has taken a back seat to Christmas preparations.


Here is my first Jaywalker sock. Complete except for the kitchener stitch at the toe, but that doesn't really count. I like to have several socks done to that point and finish all of the toes at once. I think that is a throw-back to when I first learned to knit socks, and had to have a book open with diagrams of the steps of kitchener stitch before attempting it. I would put off finishing the toes until I ran out of DP needles. I think my record is 9 socks at one time worked up to the final two needles and waiting for me to finish them. This is Opal yarn--a real pleasure to knit.






This is the pitiful progress I have made on the baby set. The thing in the center is the bonnet. I'm almost all done with the body of it, and will then just do the two seams at the back of the head, and them pick up & knit a couple of rows at the bottom. On the big circular needle is a blanket that I am making to go with the sweater set. I am just using the same pattern as the sweater, but cast on 363 stitches to make it big enough. I'm using size 3 needles, so from the gauge swatch, this should be approx. 36 inches wide. I used a provisional cast-on and will worry about what to do on the border another time. It's the old "I can't think about that today..." thing, you know?





And for your viewing pleasure, my little Christmas babes. Emma is up on the ottoman, and Mellie and Tara are sharing (!!!) a dog bed on the floor. Mellie (front) does not usually care to share her space, but I guess she is just chock full of the holiday spirit. Yes, that is the Christmas tree in the background. You would think that it would have been decorated by now, but noooo. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, for sure by Christmas Eve!

Dipping my feet in the water....

Well, I am finally joining the blogging crowd in cyberspace. I was introduced to blogs from the sock knitters forum at http://www.socknitters.com/. Blogging - what a great idea. Express yourself, share your views, rant and rave, or just post pictures of your really cute dogs.

Well, lookey there. What a fine group of dogs! That's Mellie in the back, Tara on the left and Emma on the right. This picture was taken shortly after we got Tara from American Brittany Rescue--I can tell by how skinny she was. Not any more! ABR is a wonderful organization, and they do incredible work for these sweet, funny, crazy dogs. If you are so inclined, check out their website at http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org/. Fair warning, though--these dogs are incredibly cute and irresistible!

More later, and yes, I can promise you lots and lots of pictures!

Dianne