It’s a sunny, crisp morning and I was trying to figure out what I am going to do with the day, and Lily is dropping some subtle hints:
Ok, Lily. I will finish cleaning my home office.
*** Update ***
What happened to Sarah, Proud and Tall. Do we need to bust her out of the old folks home?
WaterGirl
I love Lily.
My theory: Lily’s not nagging you, she’s anticipating where you’ll be and is there to welcome you.
Baud
Take all that goddamn stuff off her chair.
Lapassionara
What a sweet heart.
Ok, I need some guidance. This is not marked “open thread.” Does that mean no comments except as they are within the scope of “dogs,” “hints,” or what is going on today?
rikyrah
Lily is so beautiful :)
John Cole
@Lapassionara: There are no rules really and no one follows them anyway but you’ll know you’re over the line if I need to pull the blog over and tell you all to go fuck yourselves.
Amir Khalid
@Lapassionara:
All Balloon Juice threads are open threads. Comment on whatever you like.
jeffreyw
Open threads? Don’t need no stinking open threads!
Jerzy Russian
From the title I thought Lily was pooping inside again. I figured you had stepped in one of her hints. I am relieved to see that the actual situation is much more mundane.
Lapassionara
@John Cole: Thanks. I lost a post yesterday, after I had commented. I was busy at work, so only checked BJ once, and there was a long thread. I had asked Steve in ATL a question about his visit to StL. Then, several hours later, I could not find the post at all. Did I dream it? I think it was an AL post, with some tweets in it.
Also, too, thank you for hosting this blog. I am not sure how I would have stayed at least somewhat sane during this reign of error without it.
jeffreyw
Thread needs more birds!
Daphne Black
Speaking of dropping things, last night I was putting laundry in the dryer when I heard a small thump in the empty hamper behind me. I thought I had knocked over the stain stick or something. It was a freshly killed mouse! My ginger cat Ruari was sitting on the stairs above it, I think it is the first time I have seen a cat smirk.
Jerzy Russian
@jeffreyw: A college of cardinals! Is that a lady cardinal on the left next to the feeder? Hard to tell on the phone.
Mary G
Seeing Lily is a good way to start the day.
jeffreyw
@Jerzy Russian: There are three female cardinals in the pic – top right of the table, bottom right, and on the left side of the feeder.
Jerzy Russian
@jeffreyw: I am at the laptop now, and wow. I did not initially see the other two ladies on the right side. I guess that is part of the point of their different colors: the ladies go unnoticed at the nest, while the gentlemen attract all of the attention away from the nest.
stinger
I love that little doggie! Reminds me of one of mine, in many ways. That’s a stress-lowering image, and in delightful contrast to some photos that have graced the top of recent posts.
Is it just me, or do the perpetually smooth, bland faces of Jar Jar and Daddy’s Little Lapdance seem horrifyingly expressionless? They are the parents of three young children, and ought to show SOME emotion or reaction SOMETIMES. Jared in particular never appears to be amused, attentive, proud, thoughtful, or even particularly alert. Just made out of wax.
Rats — there went the blood pressure.
danielx
@John Cole:
Cole: word of advice. Do not read the clinical report of your MRI. I made that mistake after having a lower lumbar MRI scan and am wondering how it is I’m alive and walking upright.
MomSense
@stinger:
Botox. I’ve been advising Javanka to ease up on the injections so they can be tearful on camera and in front of a jury.
Ohio Mom
@danielx: It is true, medical reports are written in a different language, and things you might think are critically important, aren’t.
I remember being freaked out about one of my pathology reports that seemed to say I had more than one tumor in my (now former) breast. The surgeon said, “We only measure the largest one.” “How many were there?” “It doesn’t matter how many there were.”
That unsettled me for a long time.
Elizabelle
I love Lily.
@WaterGirl: How is Henry’s recuperation going? Is he being quiet enough?
@MomSense: Jared, in particular, always looks like the undead to me. He does look more animated when he’s with their small children.
Citizen_X
@John Cole:
Over the line? That reaction’s our goal here.
Steeplejack
@stinger:
Colbert called Jared a “haunted Ken doll” the other night.
TaMara (HFG)
Lily is sooo tiny. Nothing like a package of labels to give perspective.
Scout was up every hour last night with digestive issues, so I’m feeling like roadkill at the moment. But regardless I am going to garden. Suppose to be 70 degrees today.
HeleninEire
@jeffreyw: Yeah. I think of it as the “raven rule.” Named after frequent and valued commenter raven. I follow it religiously myself.
TaMara (HFG)
I was wondering about SP&T the other day. I think the dRump admin has done her in – she was a frail thing if I remember. ;-)
stinger
@MomSense: Good point!
I found some tips for Jarvanka on how to address a judge in court. Probably best not to start chatting with her or him about the party in the Hamptons where you last met, which is the Purse Designer Royal’s preferred method of easing tough negotiations between Daddy and his visitors.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Was I ever naive when I was worried about keeping Henry quiet enough. That will surely come later, but I was not at all prepared for how terrible Henry would seen when he got home. Poor Henry, he was crying and shaking and hurting and it was awful. Two different painkillers, but it didn’t seem to control the pain. Epic fights to give Henry his liquid pain medicine. As you can imagine struggling with your tiny dog when he’s already in pain is really heard. Twice a day, 4 squirts each time, for 10 days.
The good news is that Henry’s eyes are clear and his pain is under control now and things are 1000x better than the day I brought him home. He’s mostly quiet, but he was really alert this morning, so I’m guessing that in a few days we will turn the corner and the problem will be keeping him quiet, as I originally expected.
For now, though, he still takes a lot of care and I bring him out 3x day to let him hang out on the couch next to me without his blow-up cone, bundled up in a blankie to keep him warm and to keep him from licking his stitches.
Thanks for asking!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I thought that was perfect! Speaking of Colbert, what did you think of Amarosa the other night? I had never seen her speak until then, so I will wait to share my thoughts once you share yours. Assuming you do.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): Oh you’re right! I hadn’t noticed that. How much does Lily weigh? My kitties are 9 and Henry is 13, so this should give me more perspective than the last time we talked about Lily’s size.
Shell
No walkies?
Yutsano
@TaMara (HFG): I’ll have to go to Shady Pines this weekend and check on the old bat. Odds are she got herself in another “incident” with an orderly and got her Internet taken away.
That or she discovered Tinder and well…
b
@WaterGirl: I am sorry Henry was so unhappy, but glad he is feeling better. His reaction may explain the surgeon’s lack of concern when my oldest golden had hip replacement. When he explained she would not be able to do any weight bearing, including sitting, for 4 weeks, a few steps allowed for the next 4 weeks, and then slow walking for another 4 weeks, I laughed thinking he was crazy. There was no way my extremely driven golden whose sole obsession is to chase her ball could stay that quiet. Unfortunately for us, she could care less about the pain she was in, it was a battle to keep her quiet for those 3 months. We ended up someone having to stay with her 24 hours/day in a very small confined area, pretty much half laying on/with her for that first month to keep her from getting up. Hope Henry feels better soon, but not too much better.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Poor Henry. I hope he feels much better soon.
bemused
@MomSense:
If robots could give off a superiority attitude, Jarvanka fit the bill. For some reason, the dancers/models in Robert Palmer “Simply Irresistible” video popped in my head but their facial expressions are more animated and lifelike than those two.
WaterGirl
@b:
I laughed at this part! Yeah, before surgery I was trying to figure out how I was going to be able to keep my little energizer bunny quiet for 6-10 weeks.
What a long 3 months for you and your pup. Oh my god, not even sitting? Like your pup, Henry does not want to be in the crate unless I’m in the room with him. Yesterday I ordered a big crate – 3x the size of his normal one – so that his confined space will be more spacious, at least. My bigger dog (42 lbs) is staying with friends for the first two weeks because all they normally do together is play play play. Things will get more complicated when Tucker comes home, but I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Thank you. At least Henry doesn’t have to wear the cone. I got one of the blow-up rings that goes around his neck. I had never tried one of those before, but it’s a million times better than the cone.
Good thing I am majorly behind on TV watching, because we are doing a lot of that.
ixnay
@WaterGirl: @WaterGirl: What is the med that Henry hates so much? I ask because I am a veterinarian, and BJers matter to me. Well, all the 4-footed ones. Most of the 2-footed.
WaterGirl
@ixnay: Gabapentin. I got some on my hand – I could smell it, and it is flavored with something, but Henry detests it. I brought it with me today when Henry got his laser therapy so I could hold him and they could give it to him. When we were done, the tech said, “wow, he really doesn’t like that”.
Racer X
What did happen to Sarah, Proud and Tall?
ixnay
@WaterGirl: Ah. I have not used that, but at a recent continuing ed it was recommended to mix with tasty food and add a flavor enhancer (also probiotic) like FortiFlora. This was for cats, who are notoriously taste-averse. Don’t know how many more days you are looking at, but your vet should be able to come up withoptions. I am late to the game here – what surgery did Henry have?
WaterGirl
Okay, I’m an idiot – can a front pager please see if my two replies to ixney are squirreled away somewhere? After the first one, i re-wrote the comment, intending to copy it before posting in case it got eaten, too, and then I spaced out. Help?
ixnay
@WaterGirl: you can reach me directly at ixnay at roadrunner dot com. Mr ixnay refers to me as a veterinary ombudsman.
WaterGirl
@ixnay: will do.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: best to little Henry and you.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Thank you! Now that we’re past the worst of the medical part, I think this is the lull before the storm – when Henry starts feeling like my little energizer bunny again and when Tucker comes home after the 2-weeks recovery without him. Then it gets really hard again, I suspect. But for now, I will take the lull.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
Docs had me wear a recording EKG for 2 weeks. Not one of my docs that ordered the test could read the results – an outside supplier makes the patch and reads them after you send them in. So I got the company to send me the results. Wasn’t hard to read or tell what the symptoms were, the hard part was knowing what’s normal and what isn’t. It took 3 months to get into cardio to find out that the entire scan is normal. But it was very scary to not know the part that no one outside cardio could tell me.
So I agree, let the docs tell you what the results mean. All of these major tests have to be interpreted and training and experience is absolutely necessary, even knowing the basic science is not anywhere near enough.
Ruckus
@TaMara (HFG):
You are just used to having dogs the size of small horses live in your home. Lily is bigger than a lot of the dogs I see people walking around town. You know dogs so small that one nugget of the food you feed your dog won’t even fit in their mouths.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I’m so sorry for everything you and Henry have been through!
singing truth to power
@WaterGirl: Have you tried liver sausage? Human spray cheese?