Dieting Dogs, Learning Curves, Life in General

This week has certainly been a challenge on a lot of levels.  First, putting dogs on diets is trying for all concerned.  It is true that Poosa is bordering on the obese and her ribs have disappeared and she weighs 37 lbs and really should weigh more like 28, and she is not quite 6 years old and I want to have her around for lots of years, so getting her trimmed down would be a good thing.  And Chauncey, my other Cocker Spaniel, is a bit chunky at his 42 lbs. so it wouldn't hurt him either.  Now that Dr. Nell comes to the house for Sasha I can get her to look at everyone and so we are on a mission.  Nell showed me exactly how much food each dog should have now, and I have two bowls as well, so gone are the days of just doing dry food and leaving it out all the time.  


Now, Poosa gets 1/2 cup of the dry twice a day and I also add 1/2 can of organic pumpkin to that as that is supposed to fill her up with very few calories.  Chauncey gets the same 1/2 can of pumpkin but he gets it added to 1 cup of dry.  And we now do this twice a day and otherwise, no food, although I can add a can of green beans as a snack in the afternoon if they seem desperate.  The pathetic starved looks I'm getting don't help at all, and then to add to the situation, when I went back to my bedroom last night to check to see whether by any chance Sasha had eaten, I discovered that the cat food bowls up on my dresser were absolutely clean!  Didn't take an Einstein to figure out that Poosa had used the cat furniture to climb up on my dresser and eat the cat food! I know Poosa loves to climb, but I really thought the top of my dresser was safe!  Ok, now we had to rearrange things so that Sasha, who isn't all that perky at the moment, can get to the dresser without high jumps but Poosa can't.  Having dogs on diets is definitely adding a level of complexity to my life that I didn't really need, but there it is.


Then, Sasha seems to be having a hard time with the chemo this round even though the dosage was lowered.  Nell stopped by yesterday to give her an anti-nausea injection but I haven't noticed any big change so far.  If Sasha holds true to the pattern from the first round, she should start perking up in the next day or two, I hope.  Needless to say, we are all keeping a close eye on her.  I've also had to learn more about feeding cats, so we are going to do canned cat food (much to Laoise and Thackeray's delight, and I hope one day, Sasha's as well), in addition to the dry, but the canned food can't be out more than 12 hours and needs to have bowls cleaned to avoid food poisoning.  And on it goes.


I am finding that even though I'm reasonably intelligent, I am being confronted with learning curves at just about every point in my life, from how to feed my pets to how to work appliances, etc.  There are days when I just can't deal with learning one more thing and so I wait until I can cope again.  My new washer and dryer are very lovely and in fact I did manage to master them yesterday, 5 days after they were installed, and I like them a lot, but I just couldn't even think about reading the instructions until I absolutely had to.  The oven worked fine last night to do my Sunshine Burger, but I don't know if I have it on the right setting or not as I've never had a convection oven before and so I'm not familiar with all its ins and outs, but my dinner was fine and I guess that is the main thing.  I got an electric can opener (red and very nice) since I'm now opening so many cans each day and even that nearly defeated me and that should be quite simple.  I did get it to work when I realized that the cutting mechanism wasn't properly positioned, and it was minor, but just another example of learning curves coming at me from every angle.  I have a new touch pad instead of a mouse (well, in fairness to the system I could use both) on the theory that the touchpad will help alleviate my wrist pain, but yep, another learning curve.  The touch pad, which is a bigger version of what is found on laptops, is made to work with my wireless keyboard and it actually has much more intuitive and expanded functionality, but again a learning curve added to a coordination curve.


And I am dealing also with minor health issues, but nagging and unhelpful.  This is apparently the worst allergy season on record and that has caused my ear and sinus infections but the usual allergy medications don't work for me or are ones I can't take because of my thyroid, which is also out of whack, and that certainly doesn't help.  So, on top of everything else I haven't been feeling very well, adding to my general malaise.


There has been very little construction here for nearly a month, which has both an upside and a downside.  I've had a lot less to deal with and fewer people in and out, which is the good part, but there are still lots of little things to be done and while the end may be in sight it is still a long ways down the road.  This past week did see more electrical work completed so that my septic tank is now properly wired but the outside box for the yard lights which was also supposed to have come into the house at the same time as the septic wiring, hasn't yet, and I don't know why.  And I don't have an outside light by my bedroom door so now that weather is slightly better so that Chauncey likes to explore his yard for hours in the evening, I don't have a light to help me see from my bed when he returns.  Minor little thing but aggravating, but all my outside lights are at the painter's and only the front door got a cheap substitute so we could pass the electrical inspection.  Hopefully all the outside lights will be regularized soon.


Last week also saw more plumbing with lots of digging to get the water pipe up to the size required for my sprinkler system and I also now have a main water shut-off in the house, something I have wanted since I moved here nearly 5 years ago, so that is all good.  I can actually see an end to the plumbing aspect of all this because I think all that is left on that front is testing the aforementioned sprinkler system, but I'm not sure about that.  There could be other things as well.


And Leigh is back on Monday, according to the current plan, so the pace will hopefully pick up so that I get baseboards so I can have my books and dvds back from storage and I get my new front door and maybe the glass cabinet doors for my kitchen.  I'm also looking forward to having actual closets with shelves and doors, and to getting my garage cleaned and organized, but that is a lot more complex than it sounds and I know it won't all happen overnight.  And eventually all our cat walks will be re-installed and the cats will certainly appreciate that.


Anyway, that's the update on this end.  It will all sort eventually and if some things actually reach completion that will help.  The school year is winding down so I only have another 7 weeks I think it is of Study Zone and fewer for Student Link.  Our weather is sort of warming up--yesterday was beautiful and I could even have the windows open, and I've put away my fleece on the theory that it is not right to be wearing fleece at the end of April, so I sure hope the trend continues.  I hope this finds you well and happy wherever you are this day, and I'll write more later as the saga continues.