Pearl and her paws

Pearl - as many of you know by now - is a hunter of squirrels. There are many days I will look out the window in the kitchen and see her running back and forth from the two large trees we have in our back yard trying to catch a squirrel. She will cry with the most pitiful winy barking sounds (basically saying "please come down from the tree so I can eat you!) while her tail wags for all it's worth. Her face show nothing but joy while she hunts. It is her drug, her addiction, her purpose in life to catch squirrels.

Well, it appears she tangled with one squirrel that somehow caused her to damage a nail on each of her front paws. She was not thrilled after the incident.

I take her to the vet Wednesday afternoon to get her looked at and they tell me the nails need to come off for they have been partly pulled off the quicks. They take her to the surgery area while I wait and when they return Pearl now has two bandaged front paws. Now I have a real unhappy dog. Two numb front paws from anesthesia and they are bandaged to boot. We have all seen the clip where someone puts bags on a cat's feet and they hate it. Just keep that mental image in your head and you can guess how Pearl feels about it.

When I get Pearl home I now have to tend to her so that she doesn't try to remove the bandages as well as feed and take her out to relieve herself as needed. I dabbed some no-bite spray on the bandages to keep her from chewing them off and that is working well.

The veterinarian tells me the bandages can come off by the weekend.  I can tell she is bored already and it is only Thursday morning.

I'm making furniture!

the love of my life Susan found the following site when she was looking on if one could make a couch:
http://ana-white.com/

There she found a couch she wanted me to build:
http://ana-white.com/2011/06/simple-white-outdoor-sofa

All I can say is this:
THIS WEBSITE IS GREAT!
I've made the couch and all I need to do now is paint it. Once I get it done I will be taking pictures  and posting them here.

Squirrels

Let me start by saying Pearl loves squirrels....as in catching them to snack on. She has turned into quite a hunter catching several of them. Well, she caught one on Wednesday and decided she didn't want to share. Jacks are like that. Understand with Jack Russel terriers - specifically females, one has to be very careful. It is a known fact keeping two female Jacks together can be a problem. In some cases they will fight to the death in an effort to be the alpha dog. In our case I don't see Abby challenging Pearl for that spot. Anyway I diverge so let me get back on topic.
  Pearl was quite pleased with herself and decided to eat the entire squirrel. Normally Pearl is quite skinny (Susan complains she is too thin) The following picture shows Pearl after her feast. She is all tummy!

The other thing we discovered was she got a cut from fighting with the squirrel near her collar. This combined with other things made her stink to high heaven. I gave her a bath and she settled down for the evening on the bed with us.

When I got up the next morning I noticed the gate to the laundry room was closed and Pearl's gate was open. Susan told me Pearl needed to go outside and she didn't want to hear her having "trouble". I had to laugh. Serves Pearl right for stuffing herself. 

Hurricane Irene and the joy of not having power for a week

When the hurricane blew its way in Susan and I spent our time at home. Now and then the lights would blink. Our neighbor Brenda calls and tells us they have lost power that morning. It is now late afternoon. The lights go out for a minute then come back on. We have a chicken in the oven. We keep thinking - we just need power for 30 more minutes. Well, that is all we got then@ 5:30 the power finally went out.
Susan and I prepared ahead of the storm - got batteries, charged up cell phones, did laundry, and avoided going to the store. No point losing food.
Well, Sunday morning rolls in and the sky is clear. I go out and see the fallen trees and hear the hum of generators. I finally convince my wife we need a generator. This will make the third time in several years we have had a major outage. Between ice storms, Isabel, and now Irene I have had enough of sitting in a dark house.
I head to Home Depot and get one of the few remaining generators. I then head to find gas to run my new toy. This takes an hour just to find a place that had power. This was now a week ago.
Power got restored today.
We went to the beach house for the weekend. Funny thing is the hurricane went right over the beach house but there was no damage and no loss of power.

August 2011 - Time flies!

Funny how time flies. We now have TWO new Jack Russell puppies! We got Pearl ( left) and Abby (right) back in January. They were so tiny! Abby is the runt and she could fit in the palm of your hand. (3 lbs) She is now 9 months old now and only 8 1/2 lbs. She will sit on your hand and forearm. Pearl is a bit larger, around 12 lbs. Being Jacks they get themselves into all kinds of trouble. For example Sunday evening there was a storm. Afterwords I let both of them out. They both love to dig. Well....in this case they discovered mud puddles! I had to use the water hose to clean them up. They were not happy.

The beach house is coming along slowly. We try not to incur debt when making repairs so it is a cash only basis. Two rooms are done and the front porch is screened in. We try to take our time and enjoy the place as well as do some work each time we are there.

Susan starts back at school this week. The school has a new principle and she seems to be very well received by the staff.

October 2010

Life has changed a bunch for us. We lost Molly a few weeks ago due to old age. She was 14 which is old for a Jack Russel terrier. We miss her very much.

Susan is now teaching Second grade. I have changed jobs but still work for the same company. We have acquired a beach house in the Outer Banks that we are renovating. The work is going quite slowly, but we are enjoying the journey of the project and the beach itself.

One year later...

Susan is doing quite well. She is back on the bike, riding from her school to my work once or twice a week. On weekends she tries to ride with her father while I play the part of sag wagon. Afterwords we will go for breakfast to the River City Diner. Her life has be improved in so many ways after having the procedure done. I can not thank everyone enough for all the support and love they have shown to Susan and I during that tough time. We love you all!

Susan is back at work!

Susan is back at work, teaching first grade. She is back in her old classroom, and is doing well.

Update

Susan is doing better. She is now able to walk unaided, but if she over does it, she needs the crutches. Her muscles are still giving her issues, though it is improving.

It's been a while!

The recovery has been a slow process. The day to day routine doesn't change much. I make all Susan's meals, and she does PT twice a week. There have been a few setbacks with her knees acting up, and swollen ankles. I have to keep reminding Susan to take her time and to let me do things.
Susan is now on crutches, and can move around the house. She is still under movement restrictions, as well as fall risk. Doing something like taking a shower is a big ordeal, and is quite tiring for her. I have to do things that are below her knees for she can't reach. On the 29th, she is going to the doctor to be x-rayed to see how things are progressing.