May Day 2005
May Day was last weekend. This weekend is Mother’s Day, but I might write a different article about that later. It’s just incredible that it’s May already. The weather here, however, seemed to have slowed time, as it was unseasonably cool, even cold. Every night for a week we went out and put sheets over the garden to protect the young sprouting veggies from frost. Yesterday it was more like spring in Kansas, and today it was, well, mixed. Some hot sunshine, some cold rain. Becky’s already harvesting handfuls of radishes, by the way. Today we bought tomato plants.
Cinnamon was limping all week favoring right front leg so I took her to the vet Thursday. He said it was probably due to aggravated arthritis in her shoulder. He said it would probably clear up after awhile, unless she aggravates it again. He wants us to get a bunch of blood tests for doggie “old age” things like kidney function and diabetes, etc. I was starting to consider it, but then he used the “guilt” routine. People who really love their pets and care about their quality of life as they enter “old age” would want to know this information. Well, that alienated me. Now I don’t know what I’ll do about it. I took her back on Friday for bath and manicure. She seemed pretty happy afterwards, despite the limp. She licked my face and said, “My quality of life is pretty good, long as you keep me clean.”
As we were thinking about weddings we’ll be attending between now and Christmas, we got to thinking about Christmas and how much vacation time Becky will have left at that point. So, I’ll just mention that it could questionable whether we can make another trip to CA for Christmas. If anybody else has Christmas priorities affecting their travelability, they might bring them up so I can try to weave them into the fabric of my thought processes.
I probably have some pictures it would be nice to include here, but it’s also getting kind of late so I’ll hold off on that for now. However, I got one of those new Yahoo 360 accounts. Actually, I got two of them. The first one was under “harpshot” and the Yahoo URL for that won’t work, because Yahoo has the ID as harpshot in some places and as HarpShot in other places (different capitalization) and there doesn’t seem to be a way for me to coordinate them. So, you can also find me using http://360.yahoo.com/jcliff54. If you get there, there’s a photo album started, with five photos, woo-hoo.
If anybody else needs or wants an invitation for a Yahoo 360 account, let me know. You can only join by invitation but, once you have one, you can send invitations to nearly everybody you know.
Enough for tonight. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day! Whoa, wait a minute. She-Spies is on!
P.S. Check out my recent website project, Pryor Oil Company vs. EPA. Still in progress but it’s shaping up.
Kathie says:
You know, there is no cure for old age. The vet I used to work for helped animals stay as healthy as possible as they aged, but he also knew that the way we treat our family sometimes is a bit cruel. I never really knew what he meant until I went on an emergency call with him to a horse ranch. These people had owned this old horse since it had been alive…and they were so in love with her that they couldn’t bear to put her down. So they just let her suffer. Her insides had stopped working, she could barely breathe. She was miserable, and anyone could see it. She simply lay on the ground and moaned with every exhale. It broke my heart. When the doctor suggested we put her down, the owners said no…just give her more drugs….can’t you make her better…please giver more banamine (horsie morphine…)…I was sickened and saddeded and even more discouraged when I realized that the doctor had to let her continue to suffer instead of put her down.
I’m not saying that we don’t need to care for our pets. When they’re sick, we take them to the doctor. But they wouldn’t understand unnecessary testing or unexplained drugs. So I think you did the right thing (at least in my book). Cinnamon will tell you when she’s not well, and until then, let sleeping dogs lie. pun intended.