Dog Gone It

It's all about the dogs - or so it seems the past week.  First, we took Mocha up to Eliot, Maine for two days of Newfie Fun Days.  And fun days they were!  She traveled up the 8.5 hours with no problems and was very well behaved the whole time we were there.  Kind of crazy to see her, all 127 pounds of her, compared to bigger Newfs.  There was carting classes, water rescue demonstrations, stuff to buy, grooming classes and so on.  What was amazing was how all of the dogs got along and there was not a bark to be heard.  My mother won two of the raffles and was kind enough to give us a big, wooden, handmade/hand painted bench with a scene of a Newfoundland looking over the water.  We only had a couple of days but got to get in some quality time with friends and family and stayed one last time in the Cafe.  It was at the Cafe where we met Newfie Captain Oliver - the dog that inspired us to get a Newfoundland.  He and Mocha got to play and visit every day.  At night we brought food home and Mocha just socialized and went to bed in our room.  She loved swimming in the cold waters of the ocean and walking along the beach at night and in the morning.  It was tighter quarters for Mocha coming home (with the bench) but she did great and we made the trip in record time of 7 hours.

After we were home for a few days, Britni the beagle's right eye suddenly clouded over and looked like she had an eye infection.  Very lethargic.  So Lucie took her to the vet and they gave us the bad news that she had sudden onset of glaucoma.  The right eye pressure was at 98 and she was blind in it.  The left eye was at 28 (normal is 10-15) and she would probably go blind in that one soon.  The pressure was putting her in terrible, migraine like pain and we were going to have to make a decision about eye removal and possibly putting her down.  Shocking how quickly it happened...  After an emotional night and day, we took her to a doggie opthamologist who examined her and said she could probably save the eye and treat the other one.  So we went ahead with the procedure and sure enough, the next day the pressure in both eyes was down to 10!  She doesn't have full vision in the right eye but it looks normal now and she is back to her old self.  We have to put drops in her eyes the rest of her life to control the pressure but she is home.  What a relief!

The Crack of Dusk

The Great Earthquake of 2011 and Hurricane Irene came and went without much excitement.  I was on vacation that week (good choice!) and on the day of the earthquake I had taken Mocha for a walk at a new place (a fish hatchery area out in the middle of the woods - kind of lonely but interesting).  We got back and Britni was in a chair by the pool while I brushed out Mocha.  Next thing I know, Elliott is asking me if I felt anything because the whole house just shook.  Nope - didn't feel a thing.  And the dogs didn't do anything weird like you sometimes read about.  The hurricane caused a little more excitement - lots of branches and leaves down, strong winds, had to pump the pool out two times and we lost power for 9 hours.  But no damage and no flooding in our immediate area.

The hurricane did knock out my dusk to dawn outdoor motion light though.  It has a setting where, at dusk, it will come on at about 50% power. That acts as a sort of night light without blinding the neighbors all night.  Once it detects motion, it goes full power for 5 minutes, then dims again.  The wind and rain must have somehow gotten to it because it wouldn't work during the hurricane and after.  It was getting power - if I put it to "test' it would come on and the red LED would light up when it detected motion but it just wouldn't light up at all like it should.  I planned to replace it on Friday but Thursday night it came back to life.  Strange.  Works fine now.

The other day a rock nailed me on the way to work on 95.  When I left, I found this nice crack.  I will wait until after we return from our trip to Maine to replace it.  I think this will be the third one...