Thursday, November 20, 2008

Pets, Vets & the long wait...

Last night, on arriving home, something was different.  Jessi (Short for Jessica), our Lab-Elsation didn't come to greet me...she was lying in her doggy bed not moving.  As I approached her bed, Lolli the Lab-Rotweiler started whining ... a weird odd whine that I have only heard once before during the time that Pattat, rest his loving soul, our Lab-Husky was diagnosed with cancer ...  and would keep on whining, getting more serious the closer I got to Jessi.  Eventually, I went to my mom and asked her what is wrong with Jessi.  She said she didn't know but that she had slinked in, almost crawling across the kitchen floor and hadn't even bothered to open the security gate with her paw ... her favorite act of the day ...  instead waiting for my mom to open it.

Now Jessi, has had sight problems since a very young age.  Due to the genetic predisposition of Elsations, to getting cataracts and the Labrador mix, we werent able to save her eye sight and she has been blind for some years now.  She is very happy without sight though and adjusted very well.  At this point tho, we suspect that she had somehow hurt herself, either through getting a fright or while wrestling around with Lolli.  Her hind quarters doesn't seem to be working all that well and seems to want to give way under her the whole time.  We toke her to the vet last night and he said he would have to wait till this morning when his staff came in, to take some X-Rays and run some tests.  He also said that it is either an injury to her spine or due to old-age.  I can't remember how old Jessi is, but I would have to guess that she is well over 7 years.  

She was such a brave little trooper.  When my dad had come home and we decided to get her to the vet (Neither me nor my mom could pick her up), she calmly followed him to the garage, allowed him to pick her up and place her in the pick-up.  When we arrived at the vets, she allowed the vet to prod and poke her and then when he placed her in the holding pen, she sniffed around a bit and happily laid down to sleep.

All we can do now, is wait for the vet to X-Ray her and run the tests on her before we know what decisions we will have to make ...

It is odd tho when you think about it.  In the case of a human being, "mercy death" is concidered to be taboo but when it comes to pets and animals, it is almost a prerecuesite in the case of a bad illness and/or injury.  This is made even more strange due to the adaptability of animals, which in my view, they are much more capable at than humans.  Obviously the one reasoning, is that animals can't speak and/or tell you how much pain/discomfort they are in and the other being that a dog can have, and correct me if I am wrong, 60%? of it's vital organs fail and you wouldn't even know about it untill it was too late.  This already happened to one of our dogs called Soentjies (Kisses in english).

This raises another point ... thinking back, we have had a lot of pets and counting our dogs alone, which we always tried to have in pairs of two or more, replacing the one as they passed away to keep the other happy and in company, there was:

Knersis
  Type:  Pavement Special
  Color:  Black
  Sex:  Male
  English Name:  ?
  Passed:  Lost -

Voetsek
  Type: Labrador
  Color: Black
  Sex: Female
  English Name:  ughm.. "Piss off" ... if someone were to break in, and the dog attacks and they tell it to go away, it keeps on coming ;D
  Passed:  Old Age

Wollie
  Type: Skipper/Foxterier
  Color: Beige
  Sex: Female
  English Name:  Wooly ...  She looked like a ball of wool as a puppy
  Passed:  Old Age - Choked on a bone ... she was gone by the time we got her to the vets

Soentjies
  Type: Australian Ridgeback/Labrador
  Color: Beige
  Sex: Female
  English Name:  Kisses ... She kept on giving doggy kisses in the face of the person holding her
  Passed:  Old Age - Total organ shut down

Krimmel
  Type: Australian Ridgeback/Labrador
  Color: Beige
  Sex: Female
  English Name:  Crums ... She would have crums around her mouth after eating
  Passed:  Kidney failure, hip problems

Pattat 
  Type: Husky/Labrador
  Color: Beige/Off-White
  Sex: Male
  English Name:  Patatoes ... He loved patatoes ...
  Passed:  Old Age - Cancer

Lollie
  Type: Rotweiler/Labrador
  Color: Beige
  Sex: Female
  English Name:  As in Lollie-pop but my mom initially wanted to call her Wollie the 2nd but it brought up too many memories

Jessi 
  Type: Elsation/Labrador
  Color: Beige
  Sex: Female
  English Name:  Short for Jessica ... she was already named when we got her

Krimmel was the only exception to the rule as we obtained her after Soentjies but she passed away before Soentjies due to kidney failure and hip problems.

News on Jessi!

Wouldn't you know it...as I am typing the blog we got news on Jessi...  The vet said he is very happy with her this morning as she is walking around, nudging the nurses and looking much stronger.  The X-Rays showed narrowing of the spinal vertebrae due to old age.  He said that she is too old for surgery but that medication should definately help her.

She is such a sweet heart!  I can imagine her bugging the nurses :D.  Always full of love, care and attention and would sit on your feet so she knows she is close to you, as she can't see you.

Phew!  What a relief!  Yet, this just shows that she is no spring chicken any more and some things are inevitable ... when, I won't know but at least I still have time to cherish her ... My sweet heart doggy!  She's getting a huge hug and some Beeno's when I get home!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Hobbies, Woblies and other this & that's

A while back, I decided to try and find an alternative hobby, seeing as PC's & playing music on Electronic Keyboards is not particularly conducive to my wrist ache's and pains ... ummm yea ... now I have yet another pet peve giving me grief which I am refusing to give up ;P.

My batteries in my R\C Helo died on me about a month ago, refusing to charge, so I went out and bought some new ones this weekend after spending an exhaustive time running around in gift shops and scrap-booking shops looking for something else and ending up empty handed.

I don't know wether it was due to the Electronic Keyboard playing on Friday & Saturday or from gripping the radio control with one hand while picking up the Helo (after crashing into the couch), but now my right hand's fourth finger, on the first joint, is hurting everytime I flex it.

To the "norms" out there, that would sound like just plain whinging over a sprained finger and I would have agreed ... had I been a norm.  Unfortunately, more-often than not, these things tend to be permanent.  Joint problems is a real pain ... pardo the pun ...  Sure, it's not going to hurt ALL the time, hiding away every so often and luring me into a false sense of security, biding it's time so it can leap out at the most inopertune moment ...  Going to the doctor?  Yea right ...  Unless something is broken and/or torn, there is virtually nothing my GP would be able to do, apart from giving me Anti-Inflams which is not going to do anything as the pain is not Inflam based but rather joint position based ... and which he would be reluctant to do in the first place given my families history with pain medication and the fact that too many AI's will start to negatively impact on your digestive system, especially liver and kidneys.

At any rate, complaints aside, I haven't had a LOT of practice with it, but slowly and surely I am getting there.  I can now at least hover it in one place without it weaving around like a crazy dragonfly on drugs, smashing into everything it can and being magnetically drawn to fixed objects.  My next challenge, will be to start getting it to move forward, back and from side to side without losing control over it, which becomes difficult as all the messing about with controls could cause it to end up in the wrong orientation, which is something I haven't gotten used to yet.  It's what is called "Nose in flying" when the helo is pointing towards you instead of away from you and somehow, my brain just can't figure out what's happening even tho it is as simple as the fact that the left, right, forward and backward is reversed.  One would think it simple, as land-based R\C's has the same issue and I don't have the same problem with them, however, given the additional dimention of up and down, as in flight, seems to confuse the issue... sheesh... weird...

I am however enjoying it tremendously ... apart from finger strains ... and one thing I must admit, thank goodness for replacement parts!  Even tho it is a "Trainer", with a dual rotor setup instead of a tail rotor and soft flexible skin,  things still break.  I had gone through 3 sets of blades, one main landing gear and one rear landing gear ... not to mention two confused doggies and stressed out furniture ...  I finally got some "Unbreakeable" blades which helped a heck of a lot as they withstand impact better than the standard carbon fibre blades.  The only draw back is that they are solid plastic and thus heavier than the more flexible and light carbon fibre blades  but that's not concerning me, as at this point I much rather prefer NOT having too much speed and lift.

Also, on another front, I have been on the ***** council for about two years now but it's becoming way too draining to visit ***** or even going to ***** council meetings.  I advised them yesterday that I am struggling with acceptance as well as energy at the end of the day and that I am not able to perform my duties as expected from me.  To my surprise, I get a response today, stating that they fully appreciate my situation, that I should complete the current round of visits on my own time and that they will be looking into getting me discharged.  Things are looking much brighter now, as I was really demorilised and depressed about not being able to perform my duties properly and having them understand, means a lot.

~ Drake ~

P.S.  If you were wondering why I was masking out ***** ... for some reason I just don't feel comfortable talking about it in the open ... and yes, that is a flaw, but Social Angst works in mysterious ways.  Also, my dad has taught me that there are two things you need to avoid discussing ... lest you become the target of redicule, ranting, raving, flaming etc.  and even though I wouldn't mind standing up for my self, this is not the place for that ;D