Thursday, April 28, 2005

The animals

Since they're a big part of my life, I thought I'd introduce and show you pictures of my animals.

In the order of acquisition:
Camalot

Camie was in a litter of 11 puppies that an 11 month old mommie dog had. She came to us at 3 weeks old because her mother did not take care of the puppies. She's a pretty good dog, as far as dogs go, but just not exactly what we expected. Her mother was Alaskan Husky, and her father was Saint Bernard and German Sheperd. Quite a combination. Compared to some of the dogs I've seen at the clinic, she's great, but gosh, she can be a lunkhead at times.

Alyeska:

Aly is a Siberian Husky. She's obviously gorgeous. She is also one of those one-in-a-million huskies that will do as she's told. She's our only purchased animal, and was obtained from a local musher. She is pictured here with her lunch, a chukkar.

Max..aka "Kittius Maximus"

Max was my first weakness at the clinic. He showed up as an 8 week old kitten who's owner was going to put him to sleep. So I called Jerry and told him we had a cat. He's a monster weighing in at 15 pounds, and is a real sweetheart, though he has issues with the other cats in the household.

Chrissy

Chrissy is a bit of a freak of nature. I got her when she was 20 hours old. Her mother came into someone's garage, had 2 kittens, and left. She never came back, so I raised Chrissy on a bottle. When she was 5 weeks, I rehomed her with an elderly woman who wanted a cat for a compation. A month later, I got a call that I needed to come get Chrissy, because she'd gone nuts. And she had. She acted like a completely feral cat that had never been touched by a human beforeo in her life. I don't know what happened, but it took me a month of locking her in my bathroom to get her anywhere tame enough to handle. She still is a flighty psycho cat, that has panic attacks and spins around on her tail. She also rolls around on the floor curled up into a ball. Very, very strange.

Madison


Madison is a generic Barn Cat. She was found with her two brothers, Jeep and Snapple, in the middle of my mother-in-law's driveway. No mother to be found, soaking wet. So I raised them from about 3 weks old. They were going to go back to the farm when they were old enough, and we did take them back out there after they'd had all 3 sets of kitten vaccinations. However, Maddie would not come out of the carrier and hid for about 3 days without eating. So we ended up bringing her back home...cat number 3. Unfortunately, unknown to use, Maddie and her brother Jeep were both born with Feline Leukemia, which caused their vaccinations to not work. Jeep came down with Distemper, which I thought could not possibly be distemper in a vaccinated kitten, so I brought him home to take to work with me. He gave distemper to Maddie. Jeep didn't make it and Maddie almost died. As a result of the Distemper, she has neurological problelms and falls down often.

Paris

Paris is named Paris, because, well, she's of the opinion that she's a supermodel. She came out of the blue and chose Jerry as her owner. She was huddled in a rainstorm in our neighbor's lawnmower - she was maybe 6 weeks old - and when we tried to catch her, she ran right up to Jerry and wanted him to take her home. She's been his little girl ever since. She absolutely loves him and had a bit of an adustment period when Nolan came home and she no longer had Daddy's lap to herself.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Doctor's Appointment

The past couple of nights, Nolan's had some crying episodes; screaming, unconsolable fits, which is *not* normal for him, so we took him to the doctor.

It looks like he has a hernia, and has an appointment (the soonest we could get) on May 23 in Boise with a specialist in the field.

So the hernia is an Inguinal Hernia, and we'll find out at the appointment with the specialist if he needs surgery or not. Normally, the practice is to wait until after the child is 6 months old to repair a hernia, unless it is large enough to make it dangerous, or if it's an emergency, such as a strangulated loop of intestine.

The reason for the wait is because the smaller the baby, the greater the risk of problems under anesthesia. In Nolan's case, he already weighs as much as many of those 6 month old babies. He was 16 pounds 2 ounces at his appointment. And he's growing out of his *6 month* size clothes. SO, they may schedule his surgery for the next day after the initial appointment, depending on the size of the hernia, if indeed the has one.

It's a bit irritating, going to the doctor's office. You practically have to research the symptoms and know what the problem is before you go in, or they tell you "oh, that's normal, nothing to worry about" I had to insist SEVERAL times that there was a bulge where there shouldn't be a bulge before they got the doctor to even come in and check the inguinal canal. ARGH.

Oh, for you statistic lovers out there, 16 pounds, 2 ounces at his age (almost 12 weeks old) is above 100th percentile.

4/27/2005


Nolan and Mommy Posted by Hello

Cutest Picture Ever Posted by Hello

MMMMMMMM Posted by Hello

Carseat Posted by Hello

Monday, April 11, 2005

Vaccinations

Nolan got his first set of shots last Thursday. So I shall tell you about the experience. It was an experience and a half.

First of all, it's a nightmare trying to get an appointment to get vaccinations. Here, the doctors apparently don't do them, you have to go to the South Central Health District office to have them done. There are currently 3 health district offices within driving distance from me. Gooding (10 miles), Jerome (10 miles) and Twin Falls (20 miles).

So I call Gooding. Nope, they only have a nurse there on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. No good there. Twin Falls, my first choice, since I have to go there for his 2 month checkup anyway, only has them on Mondays, but you can't get an appointment in advance, you have to call on Monday, and hope you can get in. So I call Jerome. Jackpot. They have an appointment on Thursday at 1:45. Superb. That gives me enough time to get him ready, go, and still be back in time for track practice at 3:00

So Thursday Morning, we prepare. We take a bath. We get dressed, I dose him with Tylenol 1/2 hour before the shots, like I'm supposed to at 1:15, as we walk out the door. I made it to the office in plenty of time, about 1:35. I signed in, and sat down. There were about 12 people ahead of me. So I sat there, and I waited, and waited, and waited and waited and waited.

And I got a neighbor. A lady with her kid sat down beside me. Oh, this child was something else, I tell you. He ran around. He yelled. He poked his dirty little fingers in Nolan's carrier. Multiple times. I tried asking his mother to hold on to him, but she doesn't speak English! ARGH! Finally, I got Nolan's carrier situated between my legs and the chair so this little heathen couldn't bug him, and I set about to read my book.

At this point the little monster was standing next to me, facing the same direction I was. As I was reading my book, he sort of leaned up on my leg, and I felt something moving on my thigh. I looked down to be treated to the sight of the world's biggest booger being wiped on my pants.

At this point, you might want to read my blog from December, or more specifically, two particular entries: Creepy Crawly Critters and Childbirth Classes. And then continue with my story:

I had had it, so I grabbed his arm. Oh, my goodness, the world came unglued. Screaming, yelling, panic, torment, torture! At which point his mother gave me a dirty look and moved away from the obvously unstable lady with the new baby.

I sat there in the waiting room until 2:50. Yes, that's over an hour. Why on earth can I never get into an appointment at the time I made the appointment for? I am cursed, I tell you. At this point, I'm getting quite uptight, since I have to be back in Wendell, 10 miles away, by 3:00 to coach track. Argh.

They finally called my name, and the actual shots were not all that bad. Nolan's small enought that there's no anticipation there, just a little squeak when they gave the actual injections. They're pretty good at it, he got 3 injections, and they did two of them at the exact same time, one nurse on each leg. So he thinks he only got 2 shots. :-) He got 3 cute Taz bandaids, and we went home.

SO, as we're leaving the parking lot, the little booger wiper came out the door of the office with his mother, who STILL wasn't keeping an eye on him. I was watching, so luckily my vehicle was not moving when HE ran into the back of IT. Yep, bonk. right into the back of my Grand Cherokee. At that point I hit the lock button, and it's a good thing I did, because he bounced off the bumper, did a little turn, and ran up to my driver's door, where he promptly tried to get in the car with me. All this time his mother is laughing "Oh, isn't he so cute". ARGH! If I hadn't been watching HIM, I could have killed him!

At any rate, the vaccinations are done and don't need to be redone for another 2 months. You better believe I'm showing up an hour early for these, and I'm bringing my dog crate for the little monsters.

Smile! Posted by Hello

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Track and Field

I just have to tell you about my "hobby".

Every spring, I volunteer for the local high school to coach their long and triple jumpers, and to occasionally help with hurdles (my first love.)

Therefore, I can officially say "I coach Jaynie Goodbody"

Heh. How fun is that?

About now, you're asking, "Who the heck is Jaynie Goodbody?"

Well, as of this spring, she's the #2 pentathlete in the nation. And as of last summer, she's the #2 heptathlete in the nation. Yup, from little ole podunk Wendell Idaho. We're awfully proud.

And I've been "coaching" her since she was in Junior High. During her High School career, she's a 3-peat champion in the 100 meters, 200meters, and anchored the 1st place medley relay team, and last year also won the high jump at the state meet. She has school records in the 100, 200, 400, 100 hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, and several relay teams.

Ok. I'll fess up. She's of an elite level that has her own workout, and she does most of her stuff on her own. But, gosh dang it, I'm going to take all the props I can get. I really think we're looking at a future olympian. She's amazing. And I *have* coached her in Long Jump and Hurdles. So there. I can say I've coached an elite track star.

To top it all off, she's an amazing student, to my knowledge she still has a 4.0 gpa. And she is the nicest person. So many times, high school students that have that level of talent can really get big heads, but she's so humble, nice, and just an extremely pleasant girl to be around.

GO JAYNIE! I did tell her she wasn't allowed to try the triple jump. I'd like my school record to stay a few more years. {smirk} She makes us all very proud.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

2 Month Checkup

Nolan's 2 months old, so he had to have another checkup.

His lungs officially work just fine. Yep.

And, he weighs 14 pounds, 4.5 ounces. (97th percentile)
He's 25 and a quarter inches (97th percentile)
His head circumference is 40cm (50th percentile)

And that's that.