A Glitch

I didn't get my dogs today. There was a bit of a glitch with the plans. I have been told that I'm not getting Sammy, the senior chihuahua. He has found a home elsewhere. That disappoints me since he's the one I wanted more. I will still get Skeeter, the puppy, but not until tomorrow at lunch time. That sort of sucks. I wanted to get him on my day off so that we could spend some time bonding before I had to leave him alone with my other dogs. Now I'll have to bring him home at lunch and almost immediately leave him and go back to work. Oh well. I suppose he'll be okay. I know that Roscoe will love to play with him. Celie and Rosie aren't very playful dogs, and Roscoe suffers because of that. He has no one to play with. Now he'll have a puppy of his very own! Watch for videos on YouTube!

Juno

I just finished watching "Juno." I liked it. It was cute. Still, I think "Atonement" was better. The first time I heard "Anyone Else But You" by "The Moldy Peaches" I immediately launched iTtunes and bought it. I like that song! It's cute, too!

Next movie I'm going to watch is "The Fisher King" from 1991. I've never seen it. I don't expect to like it. We'll see.

More Furchildren

Okay, I hope mom's not reading this. If you are, I hope you'll forgive me!! I'm adding two furchildren to my family: Skeeter and Sammy.



Sammy is a 12-year old chihuahua.



Skeeter is about 3-4 months old and is a dachshund-chihuahua mix. He's a very unique-looking dog, isn't he?!

I'll tell you more about them later, after they've arrived.

Another Movie Surprise

I watched "Jakob the Liar" a couple of nights ago. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it a lot. It's about a Polish man who lives in the Polish Ghetto during WWII. His Jewish friends thinks he has a radio and can listen to news of the war. That's all I'll tell you. Except that, if you've never seen it, you should. I gave it four out of five stars on Netflix.com.

I "Rescued" an Owl Once

Or maybe I just helped it.

Back in the 80's I lived in military housing in Germany. The structure was a big rectangular building, three stories high, with lots of apartments. There was also a sort of basement level where everyone had their "maids room" (which we used for storage) and the laundry room.

One morning I had to be at work pretty early. When I left the 2nd story apartment it was just before sunset. I went down the stairs and noticed the entrance door was opened. I also noticed an unusual sound coming from downstairs. It was a rustling sound. I stopped and listened. I heard it again. I went down the steps to see what was making the noise. What I was surprised to find was a large owl that had obviously flown into the building and become trapped. It couldn't find its way out.

So, being the crazy animal lover that I am, I decided to help the owl. I tried to catch the owl but it flew away. The second time I tried to catch it, it hit its head on the underside of the stairs and landed on a the wheel of a bicycle. Fortunately the owl was a little dazed and had its back to me. So I carefully grabbed it with both hands around the body and wings, and carried it up the steps. When I got outside away from the building, I threw the owl up into the air. It flew away and I never saw it again.

Stranger Than Fiction

I watched the movie "Stranger Than Fiction" a couple of nights ago. I hoped it would be good, of course, but I didn't really think it would be. But I liked it!!! Just thought I'd let you know. If you haven't seen it, rent it and watch it. It's the one about the guy who hears someone narrating his life. He finds out an author is actually writing a book in which he is the main character.

No Sugar Tonight!!

I handed Sugar, the pregnant dachshund over to Sherry today. Sherry noticed that Sugar was in the earliest stages of labor. (If I understood correctly. She's having a little discharge.) So those Dug babies will come very soon! Good thing I arranged this when I did!

Temtation vs. reality

I have with me, right now, a very pregnant little dachshund. She sort of belongs to one of my neighbors who was (is) looking for a home for her. I said no when asked. Then I found out she was pregnant, and that she had been pregnant before, and that those puppies had either died or been killed by mama. I almost immediately went over and got her.

But not before I got on the web and looked up some dachshund people to ask for help.

To make a long story short, I have found a dachshund rescue person not far from here who is willing to take Sugar (the pregnant dachshund), supervise the pregnancy and birth, take care of all their health needs (mama and babies), and then find good homes for them. I seem to recall that she said she already has a home for the mama.

Tomorrow I will be driving Sugar half way to Dream-a-Dream Dachshunds in Pflugerville, Texas. Sherry, the person who runs Dream-a-Dream, will be meeting me half way.

I think these are going to be very cute puppies. I'm almost 100% sure that the daddy is a pure-bred pug, so these puppies will be "Dugs." Or I suppose they could be "Pugsies" (for pug and doxie).

Sherry will be keeping me informed about Sugar and her puppies, and will send pictures. I'll report here when I hear something.

Sugar is a very sweet little dog, and she deserves a permanent home where she's part of the family. That's not what she had here at her previous home.

Oh, the temptation is keeping her myself. The reality is that I have enough pets and wouldn't be able to give her the time or care that she needs. Darn it.









Don't let the pix fool you. She has a LOT of energy. It was awhile before I could get her to keep still so I could snap these photos.

Yearbook = Annual

I think I figured it out. High School yearbooks used to be called "annuals," a long, long time ago.

Thanks to everyone who helped me remember.

Profound? How about just smart?

I admit that I wasn't very smart when I was in high school. My grades were barely good enough to graduate, and I was clueless about the world around me. When I think of who Sue was back then (1966-1970), I don't think I was as smart as this "Reaction" makes me seem. I was 16 years old when I wrote this.

We were well into the hippie movement of the late sixties when someone wrote to the newspaper saying that hippies were dirty, lazy, and stupid. I think the main point was that hippies were all alike: that even though they wanted to be individuals, there was nothing individual about them. Their bit was called an "Opinion." Mine was the "Reaction."

I kept this because I was proud of it. Wouldn't you be?



(They spelled my name wrong.)

Funny story. I got up and looked at the newspaper that day. (Must have been a weekend because mom was home.) When I saw my "Reaction" published, I said out loud something like, "They published my Reaction." My mom asked what I was talking about and I showed her. She remarked that she'd seen it and not paid any attention to who wrote it. She'd thought the writer wasn't very bright! I guess she was too old at that time to appreciate the hippies!! ;-)

When Did Fat Start?

For some reason I started looking through my dad's high school yearbook last night. (Dad graduated from Mission High School in San Francisco, California, in 1941.) I don't think they called it a yearbook back then, but I can't recall what they called it, and it doesn't say in the book. Anyway, I couldn't help but notice how slim everyone was. That got me thinking about our obesity epidemic here in the USA. So then I got out my senior yearbook. (I graduated in 1970.) Again, everyone was slim. I looked at pictures of the "fat" people in my class. They weren't fat. They sure seemed fat at the time. Now I'm beginning to wonder when teens began to get fat. I'm thinking about looking at some yearbooks from 1970 until now to see when people started looking obese. If I ever get around to it, I'll write about it here.

Prophecy?

Last night I dreamed that I won $10,000 cash. In today's mail I received tickets for a raffle where the grand prize is $10,000 cash. Now, I'm not superstitious. I don't know if I'll win the raffle or not. But you better believe I'm sending in the tickets with a nice check!!

Normalcy?

Well, Saturday has come and gone and everything's the same. Still abnormal.

Fresh Fish

I have a 55-gallon fresh water aquarium in which I keep just a few types of small fish. I have some swordtails. Well, I have lots of swordtails. You see, my one female swordtail had had several babies (called "fry" in the fish world). She did this once or twice before. Twice, I think. I had a female and a male, then one day I noticed one little baby fish. There must have been more to start with but they got eaten by the big fish. I don't have those big fish anymore. A month or so ago I noticed six more little fish. Again, any more than that must have been eaten. About a week ago I noticed that the female, who'd gotten quite fat, suddenly looked thinner. A closer inspection revealed dozens of little tiny swordtail babies!

I'm excited, of course, but I'm also a little worried. The big fish are gone, so the babies aren't being eaten. This means that, eventually, I'll have way too many fish in my aquarium.

I was thinking that I could just separate the female from the males. Well, duh, there are now a lot of females and a lot of males. So that's no longer an option. I know that a lot of fish keepers (is that what we're called?) actually will euthanize some of the fry so the aquarium doesn't become overcrowded. But I would hate to do that. I could give some away, I guess. That would be the best idea, I think, if I can find people who are interested.

I'm also concerned about the siblings mating in the future. I doubt that that's a good thing.

I guess I'm going to have to give it some serious thought, and do some research. In the meantime, I've uploaded a couple of short videos of the fry to my YouTube account. It's at http://www.youtube.com/wacvet/ . Have a look.

USA Today Headline

"American officials predict normalcy by Saturday"

Thank God. Now all this weirdness will be over.

One of the Best Movies EVER!

If you haven't seen Atonement, you're really missing a great movie. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to watch it again. I think I'll buy the DVD so I can. Really. Go rent or buy Atonement and watch it. It's marvelous.

Brach's Jelly Nougats

I love Brach's Jelly Nougats. That's what you see in the picture above. Normally, and for years, you'd have to buy these "loose." In other words, you had to find a store with a candy bin, then you had to scoop some out of the bin into a bag. You'd pay for them by weight. It's no secret that the best ones have the most little "jelly" bits, because that gives them more flavor.

To my surprise, Brach's decided to make "Jelly Bean Nougats" and put them in a 13 oz. bag to sell for easter. Yay! I bought a few bags as easter approached. When easter passed and all the candy went down to 75% off, I bought the remaining bags. That's how much I love Brach's Jelly Nougats.

I have to say, though, that I was a bit disappointed. It seems there were some pieces that were more nougat than jelly. Worse, there were some that were ALL nougat and NO jelly. Well, sure, I ate them. I shared the plainest ones with my dog, Roscoe, who loves to eat candy.

Of course, the photo above, which I, um, borrowed from the Brach's web site, shows the best examples of the jelly nougat. Lots of jelly bits. Now let me show you my photo:


------------POOR-----------OKAY-----------BEST

I think the Brach's company should be more careful to place only the best "Jelly Bean Nougats" into their bags. Anything less is just unprofessional.

Another Cat Goes Missing

Mac, my 10 year old tuxedo cat, has gone missing. That's two cats in three days. He went missing two days after Mokee disappeared. I honestly believe that someone is poisoning pets. One of my neighbor's cats has gone missing, too. I hope I'm wrong. I hope this is accidental. If I should ever find out differently, someone will suffer just like the pets were made to suffer.