Decisions Decisions

 Trying to decide which platform to use. If you see this, can you please check out the Wordpress blog and tell me which one you like better? I've be underground for such a long time and want to get back to writing. It will be slow. It may be horrible. It may break my brain. More. I'm going to try.

Deanna Scraps – Deanna Anthony (wordpress.com)

Anyone want a Bailey update?

 Months have gone by with antics of Miss Piddle Pants! Her new nickname currently is Digger, though.

So far, her bladder issues have been resolved. She has been on the special diet and her latest checkup showed no stones. This, unfortunately, will be a lifelong issue for her, so she needs the diet that the Dr. proscribed. I have hopes, though, of feeding her a more natural diet. I have found a homeopathic vet and hope to get her off of or mostly off of the kibble. Her health is what matters and she's doing fine now.

Except for the digging.

We planted grass in the side yard, but last summer we stopped watering and it's gone now. The water bill won out over that project. Now it's just dirt. The dogs don't mind. They run along the fence chasing people on the other side walking their dogs. It's fun. Bailey, though, has found out that digging is also fun. She doesn't make big holes, but I worry that she might dig under the fence, so we discourage it. With the rain season coming up we also have the issue of mud control. So, we put up a little fence so we can block it off when necessary. The dogs don't like that at all, as you may have guessed.

Bailey has been introduced to dressing up lately. Ellie is the dog in the house that loves to get dressed! Bailey got some hand-me-downs. Bailey is not too sure about the whole thing but seems to like her new shirt. She took it out of the laundry basket the other day. 

She seems to think she has to carry it while she's wearing it. 

Maddie is top of the list for us worrying right now. Not long ago she had a mass taken off one of her front elbows. It was cancer free but was making it difficult for her to lay down and she'd limp a little. We've been working on her weight to help with her getting around. She has some back issues and has been on pain meds for quite a while, but lately she's been having more trouble. The only way we can tell if she's uncomfortable is by her mood. She always grumps at the other dogs when they invade her space, but sometimes the level of grump increases. That used to happen on walk days, and sometimes we give her an extra pain pill at night for her comfort. 

Lately she is having a lot of grumpy days and groans a lot when getting up or laying down. And she has been limping a lot on that same leg she had the surgery on. She has a big lump near the top of the leg, and it has gotten bigger, so it's time to get looked at again. 

She's still happy, especially around 3:30 when she knows that Bill is on the way home from work, then right after dinner when she expects something from the dog toy drawer. She doesn't stand too often for very long. We move a comfy dog bed wherever she seems to plant herself for the day.

She has an appointment on Friday with the vet. Hoping for the best. 

Ellie doesn't look like she enjoys dressing up. I think she's just upset that Bailey has her shirt. 

The Continuing Tales of Bailey: Miss Piddle Pants

 

Oh, Bailey.

Miss Piddle Pants.

Yesterday she had a horrible day. I called the vet to make an appointment for her to be looked at because the wet floors, wet carpet and wet kennel has really become a problem. They had a cancellation, so we got to see the vet sooner than expected.

She was happy for the car ride, of course, but once that vet tech went to take her temperature, well, she voiced her opinion of the whole thing with a deep, angry growl that we don't hear at home. I was a bit worried that she'd bite and glad she didn't because it was Mary who was holding on to her while the tech did the deed.

I explained my concerns and related the prior visit with a different vet and waited for the vet to come in to see us.

She had an Xray to see if she had bladder stones and they will see if she could have a UTI. We were inundated with if it's this and if it's that and what would need to be done and chastised for not doing certain things and encouraged to do other things. Until we know the results of the tests, no decisions can be made, according to what you just told me.

We gathered up Bailey and stopped at the desk to hand over the $787 they charged me and we were on our way home.

The vet should call sometime today with results.

I'm sure I'll be growling like Bailey when I hear how much it'll cost.

Oh, Piddle Pants (a.k.a. Bailey)

 

Bailey has a bladder issue.

She gets bladder stones.

The vet wanted us to resolve the problem by feeding her a special kibble. Forever. She was not to have any other kind of food (Nothing!) or it wouldn't work.

Yeah, no.

When she gets ready to pass a stone, she has an uncontrollable release and it's usually big. 

Poor dog. 

We don't scold her when this happens, we just clean it up.

We started all the dogs on grain free food and the best quality that we could afford. We also started supplementing it with home-made food (Turkey, rice and lots of vegetables). She also gets some natural supplements to support her bladder and kidneys.  We've been doing this for quite a while now and the episodes subsided. She's had an occasional accident in the house and we watched for any evidence of passing a stone, but it can be hard to find. The fact that we haven't found any stones is good news, I think. The supplements are to help break them up before they get big. Since she can't tell me, I'm assuming they're doing what they're supposed to do.

Lately, though....

Her accidents have been more frequent, but I don't think it's because of the bladder stones. She's never really learned how to ask to go outside when she needs to at night...when we're sleeping. She lets us know that she took care of the problem herself by leaving a big, wet, stinking puddle on the carpet next to the bed right where our feet hit the floor. Sometimes it's out in the hall and once in a while she even makes it off the carpet.

Starting to piss me off.

We scold her a bit. I wag my finger at her and remind her to piddle outside. And we call her Piddle Pants. She knows. She does.

Bill is off on his annual fishing trip and this makes the dogs mourn. They don't know why he's not walking through the door at 4 o'clock. I think Bailey is showing her disappointment by peeing in the house. Mary and I were out all day and Bailey stayed in her kennel with no mishaps. That night she flooded the carpet in the bedroom and again on the kitchen floor. 

So last night she slept in her kennel. Got up this morning, no accidents in the kennel. 

So, I don't know. We shall see how it goes. In the meantime, the carpet cleaner needs to be revved up again. The big fans come out. We have to be certain the carpet dries thoroughly. We can't have any mold. Not one spore.

Pictures! How I organize: Revisited

 In 2019 I did this post showing how I organize all my photos.

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of people ask how to sort their pictures. I see a lot of people printing the same pictures over because they don't have a system. I totally get that! I have done it SO many times, EVEN since I've had such a detailed system.

Some of the changes is how I edit. I pretty much just use my iPhone. That's what I use all the time. Although, I do have to dust off the 'big' camera for an event soon.

I used to use this a lot! I think I changed to just editing on my iPhone because I would get a little obsessive with editing, trying to make it perfect. I need to let go of the idea of perfect. So I just use my phone.

All my photos are on iCloud, and I buy a bit of extra storage space, but I still download to my computer and then save to an EXD (external hard drive).

I also cull pictures as I'm editing. I tend to take a LOT of photos sometimes, and after getting 2020 in albums, I had a LOT of printed pictures left over and even more that were left unprinted. 2020 had TONS of doggo photos because of... well, ya know... the plague year.

This year; not so many pictures yet.

I used to sort and load everything into Historian, a program by Forever (Creative Memories), but for some reason I can no longer get into that program. Maybe it's my computer. I don't know. I've tried and tried and it just won't load. One day when my laptop dies I'll be able to get to it again. 

Another new thing is I have started using Amazon to print photos! The quality is good and, guess what? With Prime there is free shipping! (duh) I don't know why it took me so long to try their service. Shutterfly can be really expensive in the shipping costs.

I don't like organizing on Amazon's site, though, because, for some reason, it pulls photos from every place on my computer so I have duplicates like crazy! So I still upload to Shutterfly because I have that really organized, but I upload what I want to print to Amazon. (Hope that link works)

My record of pictures has not changed, except I went from digital (that really long excel sheet) to hand written again. I guess technology is starting to bamboozle me, because I had trouble with that, too! (I still blame the laptop.)

For some reason, I had this log book on the shelf. Don't remember why I bought it, or where I bought it, but there it was, shining bright red at me as I was trying to figure out why I couldn't get my computer to do what I wanted it to do (It's the computer's fault, honest!)

I know this is excessive, but I copied everything into this book.

The Table of Contents page has a key to the colors I used showing if it's Printed, in Shutterfly or Amzon and if it's Scrapbooked. The green writing is for Trips. I went through and noted trips from every year so I can find them easily.

The red P means I've printed them! So I don't print duplicates unless I choose to.

I will admit, this is a lot. It took me a long time to get it all copied in the book, but there is plenty of room for notes, corrections or additions. And it's a great way to practice my penmanship. Really kind of meditative, too. 

So, again, you have to do what is comfortable for you when it comes down to keeping track of your photos. I still think it's wise to print, at least your favorites and big events, and save them online, in the cloud, on a photo site, whatever. Printed pictures can be lost or damaged. Digital photos can be lost, too!