Internet Issues

I've been itching to do a blog post, but my internet at home hasn't been working.  It is SO frustrating.  We've gone months now with shoddy service, but as of two days ago, our shoddy service turned into no service.  Charter's coming out tomorrow to attempt to fix the problem, but meanwhile, Clint and I are at McDonald's taking advantage of their free wifi so we can get a few things done.  I have my iPhone, but I can't accomplish anything on its itty-bitty screen, plus it's been giving me issues lately too.  For some reason I can't get that phone to go online anymore.  I tried to watch a YouTube clip this morning, and it wouldn't even bring up the clip.  Overall, technology is just making me want to pull my hair out.

I just had a little class reunion with three of my students!  Damn, I wish I had dressed a little nicer today.  I was outside this morning doing yard work, so I look pretty white-trash.

Okay, onto more important stuff now, such as e-mailing my summer employer (aka: Becky) and researching what the hell to do with a gallon-and-a-half of goat's milk a day.

Three Legged Dog

There's lots to write, and I am WAY to lazy to write it all.  Jodi says I have to write about our Long Beach Aquarium trip....waaaaa! When we used to have separate blogs, we could both write about mutual trips, or I could just post a link from my blog to hers that described the trip (I am a slacker). Jo says we have to take turns on mutual trips now since we share a blog. Sigh. 

For starters though, Dusty is doing really good. She is actually sitting on the couch with me right now. I took a half a day off on Tuesday and picked her up from the vet that afternoon. As an afterthought, I stuck her leash in my purse, assuming this was wishful thinking, because she probably would have to be carried out. When I got there though, I was surprised! Immediately, the receptionist pulled out her iPhone and showed me a picture she had taken of Dusty. In the photo, Dusty was standing, and she looked like she was grinning! The receptionist and the vet tech told me that as soon as Dusty woke up from her surgery, she was walking around and barking. They had already walked her on the leash several times. The vet tech went over her recovery and medications for about 20 minutes, and then they brought her out. She RAN to me! It was an extremely lopsided, gimpy run, but I was absolutely stunned and delighted. Dusty was SO happy to see me there, her little tail was thumping and her whole body was shaking. Here's Dusty:

The cone around her head is to prevent her from biting her sutures. So far, I think the cone is irritating her more than the missing leg. She has to wear it for two weeks. We put her in the t-shirt because she started scratching her stitches with her hind leg.  Other than that, I just have to give her pain medication and antibiotics every day. I am trying to potty train her too, but this is difficult right now since the cone prevents me from rubbing her nose in her...uh...you know....and the missing leg prevents me from being stern with her. 

So....the Aquarium trip... It was FUN, and we saw a lot of fish.

P.S Jo, cut me some slack, I have had a few glasses of wine! I will write more later!

Yes, More Pets

After all of the lamenting I've done about losing my URL, I had to get on here and say that I am officially over it.  Between Clint, my sister, and the emotional/technical support I received from long-distance friends, I was able to get to the root of the problem pretty quickly and take steps to move forward.  I still left some followers behind and have zero web presence, but Shan and Jewls helped me to make my peace with that.  Plus, to my complete delight, Leavenworth found me.  Sorry, I know that sentence doesn't make a lot of sense.  "Leavenworth" is simply what I have dubbed one of my followers (currently stationed in Germany), and he or she was the one who I was the most concerned about never seeing (so to speak) again.  It's hard to explain, but L has been with my blog for so long, and has gone through so many ups and downs with me, that even though we've never technically met, he or she feels like an old friend (albeit a very quiet friend).  So in a random streak of inspiration, I left a message on my Glazey blog, and L was able to follow those bread crumbs back to the new URL.  Clint's response when I exclaimed this afternoon "Oh my gosh, Leavenworth found me!" was a simple "Good job babe."  He totally gets me sometimes. 

Yesterday Shan and I got to visit with Kristyn.  It was awesome.  We talked each other's ears off for hours.  Kristyn got to my house at around 3ish, and we all hung out for about an hour or so, then went to La Casita for dinner.  Once back at my house, Shan left, but Kristyn and I hung out for a couple more hours.  Clint and the kids came home that evening (they were out shooting), so Kristyn got to meet my kids for the first time.  Trin and Elijah both love her to pieces, which cracks me up since Kristyn's not a kid person.  It reminds me of those people who don't care for cats, but always seem to have cats gravitating to them.  Elijah was asking me today, "When's Crystal coming back?" (okay, he's a little off on the name).  I had to explain to him that Texas wasn't right down Main St.

This morning we went to church, but that was an unpleasant experience because we somehow got blindsighted into a memorial service for a young man that we didn't even know.  That's a story in of itself, so I'll skip that for now.  After church, we met Steve and Becky for sushi.  Later, we purchased four chickens and two goats.

I was hoping to slip that last sentence in, but it's not blending very well.  Dang it.  I just know that all the people who think we own too many pets as it is are going to have a field day with that one. 

The four chickens are named: Polly, Zebra, Olive, and Princess Buttercup.  Can you guess which one I named?  ;)  The goats will not be at our house until either Tuesday or Friday, so their names have yet to be determined. 

My heart goes out to Dusty!  Here I've been whining about my pitiful blog issues, and meanwhile Shannon  has had to cope with the decision to amputate her dog's leg (and pay $1600 to boot).  But I think the fact that they're investing so much money to save this dog is going to turn lil' Dusty into their most beloved pet.  Wherever you store your treasures, the heart tends to follow.  By the way, I know this is still an emotional issue for my sis, but how long exactly does etiquette require me to wait before I'm allowed to make fun of the fact that she's paying a GRAND and a HALF for a three-legged dog??

Antsy

A three-legged dog walks into a bar and says, "I am looking for the man who shot my paw."

Okay, I know that's a terrible joke, but Dusty's surgery is tomorrow and I am absolutely GOING NUTS.  I wish I could pick her up now, but I have to wait until Tuesday. I have never felt this anxious over a dog before. I was so antsy today, I cleaned up the massive hoard under the little girls' bunk bed. And that is no small feat. Junk has been accumulating under there for years, and I practically needed a HazMat suit to tackle it all.  I found toys, trash, clothes, shoes, dishes, utility bills, remote controls, missing household pets...

I don't even know how I am going to be able to focus tomorrow at work.

Here is a (blurry) picture of Dusty:

Deplorable Day

Today has been a terrible day.

First of all, I feel so bad for Jodi, and this whole blog situation. While it doesn't impact me much, I know she felt a sense of ownership over her URL, and she had some regular followers. That's probably the hardest part for her:  Imagining her regular readers clicking on the fizzyjo link just to find a loan company, and having no way to notify them of her new URL (I'm SO sorry Jo).

The day has just been so much worse than that though. I have a 10 week old puppy named Dusty. Her mother Izzie tore off a couple planks from our deck, leaving a gaping hole (we didn't know about it).  Dusty fell through the hole, and shattered her right leg. I called into work and took her to an animal hospital. It was dreadful. Dusty's temperature was 104 and her breathing was rapid because she was going into shock. When the X-rays came back, I was horrified. Her leg was a broken mess. I called Jeremy, and he was saying I would have to give them the go ahead to have her euthanized. I absolutely fell apart.

I told  Jodi  that I'm not sure why I fell apart like that. I have only had the puppy for 2 1/2 months.  Jodi told me she thinks it is because we have been raising her since she was born. She also thought it was because I was having to bear the burden of being the one to end her life. I think my sister knows me well.

I am not ending her life. After much tears and a very long, candid conversation with the vet and the vet's assistant, I decided to have her leg amputated. This is going to cost about $1,600, and I had to pay $900 today. Jeremy initially revolted against this idea because he thought it was cruel. I have spent hours online looking up three legged dogs and reading forums, and the outcome is pretty good. After the dog recovers from surgery, most of them adapt very well to three legs, and they can do everything a normal dog does. I am PRAYING Dusty recovers well.  I am pretty scared, actually.

My dad called me, and I told him. My dad can be a no nonsense kinda guy sometimes, so I thought he was going to tell me I was crazy. Instead, he told me a story about his German Shepherd when he was a kid. She had given birth underneath an old car, so she was sleeping under the car with her litter. She got bit by a rattlesnake, and she chewed her leg off, instinctively knowing that if she didn't, she would die from the venom. the dog recovered completely and resumed a normal, healthy life. Then my dad said, "Shannon.....I would have done the exact same thing." I needed to hear that.

Jeremy is coming around a little bit. He watched a lot of YouTube videos of three legged dogs running and catching frisbees...

Dusty is staying the weekend at the animal hospital. They have her catheterized, on fluids, and sedated. When we said goodbye to her, she finally looked comfortable, so that was a relief. They are going to amputate on Monday, and  I pick her up on Tuesday.

I should end this entry here, because it is already so awful, but on top of everything else, my laptop crashed, and it has my dissertation stuff on it. I emailed the most recent revisions of the actual dissertation to myself, so I'm okay there. But I had dozens of articles bookmarked on that computer that I had intended to use for Chapter 5, so I have to find them again. My laptop is also the only computer I have besides my iPad, so I currently have no way to work on my dissertation. I am actually typing this on my iPad, which is like texting, since there is no keyboard. Not exactly what I would call efficient.

I hope I'm not somehow cursing our new URL by writing such a wretched entry. Jodi did tell me to write about it though. I feel a little better now.

Fizzyjo: New URL

Okay, I got a new URL.  I feel relatively content with it.  But I have officially lost a huge chunk of followers, and they have no way of finding me now.  And here I was so excited to have my sis on a well-established blog that already had a following, and now we're both starting from scratch (more or less).

Still feeling pretty down about the whole thing.

Goodbye Fizzyjo

I just lost my domain name.  I know it's silly, but I'm having a hard time with it.  My domain name has become something personal to me, and I'm feeling so dejected that it's no longer mine.  The whole thing is so jacked up.  I had my domain name set up to automatically renew on May 15th.  For some reason, it never renewed.  This morning, at 4-something a.m., someone purchased it.  Now when you go to fizzyjo.com, it's some loan company.  To make matters worse, I had a following on fizzyjo.  It took nearly three years of blogging to actually create a web presence, but now when I switch to a new domain, it's all going to be gone.  There is no way for others to find me, unless they are a personal friend of mine. 

I don't even have the will to blog right now.  I know I'll get it back eventually, but right now I just feel so discouraged.  Even this entry I'm about to post has nowhere to go.  I have no domain name.  I guess it's just going to float around somewhere in the empty spaces between all of the real domains.