The Boscoe update

Once again, the old codge gives me heart attacks needlessly.  The vet says he checks out pretty damn well for an old dog.  He might need an uptick in his insulin (we'll know later in the day, after they finish his tests) and he probably has a torn ACL in his left rear leg, which is why that leg keeps sliding around under him and going all cockeyed when he walks.

You probably all remember the drama of his first torn ACL and the subsequent surgery (and if you don't, the story is in the sidebar). We won't do surgery this time, but we'll put him on Metacam to ease his pain.

Oh, and remember how I said he wouldn't eat breakfast yesterday, which is what prompted me to panic and call the vet?

He chowed down nicely last night, and again this morning. Goddamn dog.

I told the vet that we were planning a trip Up North in another few weeks, and would that be OK for Boscoe?

Said the vet: "Absolutely. I think he'd like that." And tears sprang to my eyes. We will all like that. Very much. All of us together in the woods, one more time.

Goddamn dogs are nothing but trouble

This morning Riley went out into the back yard, as he always does after the walk, to spy on squirrels and keep an eye on the rabbits. And when he came back inside his paws were all muddy and he'd ripped a substantial bit of skin off of his nose.  Who knows what transpired? It could have been anything, though whatever it was happened in complete silence.

He'll have a lonely day today, because Boscoe is at the vet, having another glucose test.  He wasn't due until November, but he's been pretty rickety of late, and frail, and not always eating with a robust appetite. Yesterday, when I had to bribe him pretty intensely (cheese, garlic stars, hand-feeding) to eat his breakfast, I panicked and called the vet.  So even though he had a good morning today--ate well, walked well--he pays the price for yesterday by spending ten hours at the vet.

I haven't been around to your blogs much lately, and I apologize. You know that I have always viewed blogging as a conversation, not as performance art--I visit you, you visit me, and lately I have not been holding up my part of the bargain.  It's been a busy fall. I'm not home much, and when I am I'm working on stuff for promoting The Book.  And our modem has been failing--we were resetting it about eight or ten times a day.  That's fixed now; we installed a new one on Sunday.  But the book nonsense will keep me away a little longer.  I go to Duluth on Thursday and won't be back til Saturday, and then I have gigs Sunday and Monday.  Thanks for your patience. I think I have migrated my bloglines over to google reader, so once things quiet down I'll visit you at your place. In the meantime, I appreciate your visiting me at mine.