Wow, I just took a look at how long it's been since I've done an animal update. It has been well over a year.
You know what that means? That right, well over a year without a snake incident!!
Now that I've written that, I think it's a lie. I seem to recall we had another snake in the past year, sometime. Digging back through blocked memories...everything's hazy but I do recall that the dogs got themselves another coral snake. Fortunately, Denise was home and I was already working in the yard with the shovel so it was a simple matter of mulching the body into the hole I had dug. Since I didn't actually have to deal with snake other than to dig the hole, I think that's why that incident didn't bother me much.
So that's two Coral snakes the dogs have gotten, and managed to not get themselves killed. I really hope this trend continues. I have done my best to keep the "dog yard" leaf-free and closely mowed so it would be unattractive to the slithering set.
So, what else is going on. Well, Elvira has had a couple ultra low sugar bouts (she's Denise's diabetic cat). They are really scary, the cat begins by acting really, really disoriented then thye basically crash. The scariest time came two or three months ago. It was a bad, bad night all around. We had gone to bed a little early because I was getting up at 4am to go fishing. about 2am the phone rang (middle-of-the-night phone calls are the worst!), it was my dad, my Grandmother had had a heart attack and was in the hospital (she ended up being okay). That on my mind, I toss and turn until it was time for me to get up. I'm half asleep and the half that's awake is worried. So, I'm going about my business and am close to heading out then a thought elbowed it's way through my brain. It said "Hey! When you go up, your foot hit something furry!" Well, in a house with two dogs and three cats, your foot hitting something furry isn't exactly what you would call uncommon. "Nononono," it said "Your foot hit something furry...AND IT DIDN'T MOVE!"
Woah, my brain was right. That was highly unusual. I creep into the bedroom (the site of the immobile fuzziness) and there on the floor was Elvira. I pick her up and she's limp (oh crap!) At first I thought she was dead, I mean she's 14 years old and diabetic, so it's not out of the realm of the possible. Then she moves (whew). I think (hopefully) "She's just really, really sacked out". So, I put her down, she takes a step and wham, falls over. I pick her up again, shake her very gently, trying to wake her up and set her back down with the same results.
It's now time for me to get out of the house so I don't miss the boat! Damn, I've got to wake up Denise. She gets up and determines that Elvira has got the low blood sugar thing going on. We get out the Karo and get some down her and I leave. Whew! I was never so glad to get out of town. By the time I got to the boat, Elvira has made a full recovery and had hopped down off the couch and was sitting by her bowl, waiting for breakfast. I tell Denise that that was the best fishing trip I had been on because is I hadn't been up to go fishing we would have slept for at least 2 - 3 more hours and who knows if she would have made it that long.
One more news of note. The last update talks about our dog C.C. being taken by her owner (Denise's ex-roomate Amy). Well from everything I've heard C.C. is doing very well out there on the other coast but it looks like we may have to take her back for a while. Amy and her husband are in the Navy and there is the possibility that they will both have to ship out at the same time. They are looking into alternatives but if none are to be found, guess where C.C. will come to stay for a while....? That's right, right here, we're hoping for another solution because C.C. and Taz have a dominance problem. They fight whenever we try to play with them and it just makes the whole situation tense. Add that to the fact that they'd have to pack her up and ship her all the way across country (and I do mean all the way, they're in Washington State and we're in Florida). I haven't heard anything recently so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they can find someone to keep her close to home.
Well, that's the highlights for the past year or so, overall I'd say we're doing pretty good.
Fred Index