Joyful Dancing Dog

A Good Tuesday

Toby came through his neutering well, so my concerns about anesthesia were needless. He charmed the vet staff with his sweetness and clumsy antics. (His CH is mild, and he's not so clumsy that he evokes pity, but rather amusement. He is so not bothered by his condition that it is didfficult for anyone else to be before long. His sweet goofiness makes clumsiness really work for him.) When the time came to pay for his neutering and his new eye drops (for his chronic eye issues), they told me my total was just over $5. Yep, $5. Someone anonymously put money on my account, leaving me with a credit that covered almost all of today's visit. Thank you!

Sleeping off the day



The other night I cried for Heidi and Penny for the first time since the night Heidi died. I've since been wondering if I'm supposed to just let Penny go so I can heal, since the two events are so inextricably tied together in my head and heart now in spite of being otherwise unrelated. A kind Sgt. Lopez called today from the police department and asked me a bunch of questions about Penny and our situation, and said he wants to find out who took her. It's been three weeks, and if a town cop isn';t giving up, I'm not either.

I'm still here for you, Penny. I know you want to come home as much as I want you here. Go now in peace, Heidi. Go now in peace.


I rarely attach myself intensely to dogs at the shelter, since I'm mainly "the cat lady." Every now and then one gets to me, though, and I've been fortunate that all have been adopted to good homes. Today I got news that Henry--a mostly deaf, mange-ridden, cancer-suffering sweetheart of an old dog--would be getting euthanized on Thursday. His treatment expenses were so far beyond the shelter's capabilities that there was no other option, and I understood completely. I'd been expecting this, so I told him goodbye, and wondered if I was supposed to be by his side when he crossed over. A couple of hours later, I got a call from the shelter with good news--one of their regular donators has chosen to taken on the expense of ALL of Henry's treatment! (Frank, don't think I don't know that you went to her on both mine and Henry's behalf, either, you big softie.)

So today Henry got knocked out so the vet could clean out his horribly infected ears, and they determined that he still has some hearing left in one of them. I'll be helping to bathe him with special medicated mite shampoo every four days for the next month to heal his skin, and I don't know what his cancer treatment will be. He is an old dog with a gimpy front leg in addition to everything else, but the vet thinks he's got a few good years left in him, even with the cancer on his nose. I went to see him after his treatment this afternoon, and he was like a whole new dog. For the first time he had some bounce in his step, and a big smile for me. I went back to the shelter for a third time today just to get some pictures of him. Isn't he cute?




A smile!



Handsome old shepherd



A future ahead.



It's been a good day. Thanks for reading.

Heidi's brother. Er. Sister?

I hand-raised Heidi and Manny together from the day they were born, and even at the start, Heidi was clearly female and Manny male. At 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, Heidi was a girl and Manny was a boy and everything was relatively normal, except for thew fact that I had bottlefed 11 kittens at once, from 3 different litters. Heidi, Manny, and their gentically unrelated brother, Toby (my CH kitty), all developed at much slower rates than normal, healthy cats. Toby has challenges (see link), but Heidi and Manny were healthy, if quite small. At 7 months old, both Manny and Toby have finally reached the size of an average 5 month old cat.

Time to think about neutering. About a month ago, I inspected Manny to see if his testicles had descended so I could get him in to get neutered. His external genitalia had become ambiguous. I've had this happen with a much younger kitten once before, and that kitten ultimately died (he had many other issues as well) with his biological sex still incredibly ambiguous. In spite of my previous experience with an intersexed kitten, I somehow put Manny's issue out of mind mind quite effectively. I told myself I'd check again later, that the light was bad, that his butt was too furry. And then I forgot all about it until tonight.

I made appointments today to get both Manny and Toby neutered tomorrow morning. Tonight I checked them both out again, and Toby is clearly ready to go. But Manny is now presenting as nearly 100% female, with the only indication of his previous maleness being a slightly larger greater than usual spacing between anus and furry vulva.

Um. Okay. So Manny is a girl. What an unfortunate name.

'Cat Man Do'

So true. So very, very true.

Need a smile?

A "Fighting" Tree of Oz

Ma-aa!


You better not pick my apples, Dorothy.


Apple of my eye


Leafless in the fall

The Munchkin

Dancing




Munchkin with Attitude