winding road in urban area

bathrooms and contractors

E.B. came in last night.  He saw me out in the front yard and ran a quarter of a block to me.  He had been down the street, I suspect, behind a house he likes.  I once had to find him on that house's two story roof.  I saw him up on the top of the house looking like a Halloween cat calling to me to come get him.  I could only stand in the street and watch him.

I walked the neighborhood at one calling to him and then he came back to our house by the time I reached home.

I had a glass company repair man come to the house this afternoon to assess the shower door.  It is going to fall out of its frame.  The door hinge is broken the inexpensive twenty year old door has served its purpose.  Time to replace it.  Of course that means the remodeling job I wanted to do sometime in the future must be done now.  I will call my contractor in the morning and have him come have a Diet Coke® and discuss the situation.  I need to take the useless, giant, silly bathtub out and put a shower with a bench across that entire back wall with a glass wall and door.  A pebble floor, glass tiles, and a marble tile floor of cool, mint greens would look very soothing.  A bathroom shouldn't be too jarring in the morning.

We did have a pink bathroom in Waco.  Pink tile on the walls and the floors.  A pink bathtub.  Our little Boston terrier, Checkers, loved the tub.  She would run and jump in while I was in the tub.

I want a shower with a bench big enough that I can wash the dogs in the shower.  It is going to cost so much to fix the door that I have to get the entire shower redone.  Which means the entire shower wall and floor and fixtures.  And take out the ridiculously useless, Hollywood, middle class idea of what a bathtub should look like which is so large and wasteful.  A shower with a bench is so much more practical.  And useful.

Gracie Rose is still at the vet.  She can come home tomorrow but she has an upper respiratory infection and is on meds.  Dogs often have these illnesses when they come out of pounds and shelters.  It is quite common because it is hard to keep those places clean and disinfected.  

So tomorrow I am home again, averaging grades and talking to the contractor.

This was a very long day.

I was up at six to take dogs to the vet.  They needed a Bordetella booster so the new dog, Gracie Rose, wouldn't give them an upper respiratory infection.  The vet kept her tonight so she could adjust to a healthier life and he could monitor her medications and her behavior.  Our dogs need time for their vaccines to take affect.  Gracie needs time for her medication to help her.

I went to work and taught my last class of the semester at one campus and then went to another to give make - up exams.  It takes an hour to drive there and another hour home.

Tonight, when the dogs got home, they were excited.  One of our cats, E.B., got outside as he has been doing lately.  He has been escaping into the Spring yard.  There are birds and flowers and new green grass.  He loves it outside.  But he must stay inside the house.

Well, when he came back the dogs ran out to give chase and he went back over the fence.  I went out to get him and hit my head on the neighbor's low hanging tree.  I saw stars.  But no E.B.  He ran.

I went out tonight to look for him and he is still wilding in the fields around the house.  

Please, come home soon, E.B. 

Gracie Rose adoption

Yesterday I went to the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and adopted "Cricket"  the Boston terrier.

She looked at me when we met and said loud and clear that her name is Gracie Rose.

She gave me a kiss to seal the deal.

I took her immediately to our vet across town. He kept her over night and started her on a 30 day dose of Doxycycline for her heartworms and the upper respatory infection or kennel cough that dogs in confined shelters often have.  She is still in his kennel and he is watching her.  She had a large mass removed at the shelter and I wanted him to look at it.

I took our four other Boston terriers in to see him this morning to get a Bordetella booster and their nails trimmed.  One of the dogs, Sam, needed a Leptospirosis booster, too.

Gracie Rose is going to get some good food this evening and some mild exercise.  She is going to gain some weight.  Her skin felt slack under my hand as if she had lost muscle mass.  She was once very proud and muscular. Her recent turn of events--her family surrendered her to the shelter because, as they said, she didn't get along with their new dog--has hurt her.  She could be suffering from cancer, too.  She looked older than her reported seven years.  She doesn't look well.  

Her mass may not have been malignant.  We won't know for perhaps two weeks.  She can spend the time eating and getting to know us and playing.  She can get stronger to fight her illness and loneliness. She looks sad.  But she was happy to ride in the car with me yesterday.  She has a lot of life in her.  

If she has cancer, and it is slow growing, we will give her a good summer with us.  One day at a time.  We won't let her suffer needlessly.  And if it is a rapidly advancing cancer, we will help her die with dignity and love.

She will be loved.  She won't be alone.

All of our Bostons are shelter and animal control rescues.  They came to us underweight and sad.  They have blossomed and bloomed.  They get along with each other remarkably well.  I worry that Gracie Rose won't fit in but I am optimistic.