I Don’t Know If Anyone Is Still Reading This Or Not.

If you are, thanks. It’s much appreciated. :)

Hope everyone had great holidays!

To kick off 2007 on a depressing personal note, one of the myriad of reasons I have not gotten around to blogging is the sudden decline of my 15 year old dog, Rutger.

For thems not in the know, Rutger has had a host of health problems most of his life (the joys of pure-breds) , beginning with a heart murmur he was born with which a few years ago jumped from a 2 to a 4/5 (the worst rating is a “6”). At the same time we also discovered that he had spinal arthritis, bad. (He also has had the usual periodontal disease. Chihuahua are notorious for bad teeth.) Now, when your dog gets up there, you start thinking about the end and what you might have to do. Ideally, it was my hope that one day, Yon Small Black Dog’s heart would simply give out and I would wake up one morning or come home from class one day to find that he had quietly slipped away in his sleep.

Unfortunately, what we face is the “worst case scenario”. His heart is holding steady, it’s his spine that is degrading. For almost the two weeks, he has had muscle spasms which contort his body almost like a cork screw, pinching the nerves. With a fentynol patch and 20 minutes under a hot pad (set on low) we’ve been able to relax his muscles enough, but this usually happens 2 or 3 times a day. In between spasms, he is fine. Still eating like a pig, walking around the apartment complex and following me around the house. My vet here wanted to put him down, was pushing for it, but he isn’t ready to go. I made the same promise to him that I made the Gerry. As long as he is interested in being around, I will help keep him around. When he stops eating and interacting, then I will help him out the door.

So we’re trying a steroid series with muscle relaxants. I’m not looking for miracles, just to get him comfortable. But we’ve been at either the vet’s office or the emergency clinic at Ungodly Hour A.M. everyday for about ten days.

Muy stress and sleep deprivation.

Other than that, the semester has started and I still am completing my Physical Anthro Honors work for last semester.

For those interested I am taking:

Osteology with Lab
Russian II (yes, I’m a masochist)
Archaeological Techniques
Lifeways of Pastoral Nomads of the Middle East
And my Honors research project

Now that things are settled I will try to get back on this horse and post at least once a week as I was before the holidays. I have a whole stack of interesting books to talk about and of course, Congress is back in session.

I did actually get a phone call from Senator Richard Burr’s office about the School Security Bill I mentioned on here last fall. It’s apparently dead in committee at the moment and no one has re-sponsored it, but his staffer assured me that if it came to his committee he would “take my concerns into consideration”.

Wow.

Respsonsible citizenship pays off, maybe? I guess if you are annoying enough, they do pay attention to you.

In the meantime, here is the teaser trailer for the New Fantastic Four Movie.

Enjoy! I did.