Copperhead bites Zeus and Foxy!

Foxy and Zeus, Snake Hunters...(sort of)

This is why I’m glad I live in the city. Don’t get me wrong – I love the country. And Gypsy Kitty, Alley Cat and Haskell are all current on their snake bite vaccines for trips to the ranch or mountains. It’s just that my dogs are accident prone, and if we lived in the country stuff like this would probably happen to me on a monthly (if not weekly or daily) basis.

Plus, one of the reasons we bought a house without an elevated deck in the backyard was because one of our dogs is famous for falling off of them while scratching his ear. We have enough problems without having to deal with the constant fear of snake bites.

From: Grammy Pammy
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:40 AM
To: Deals; Trevor; The Lazy Gnome; Turd
Subject: Copperhead bites Zeus and Foxy!

Hi, Ya'll--

Late last night-about 11:30-- Michael and I were just getting ready to turn in when all the dogs started barking and running off the patio into the dark yard...then one of them yelped...Michael grabbed the flashlight and I called the dogs back to me and herded them towards the back door...Foxy ran ahead of me, through the kitchen and hid under the guest room bed...Zeus stayed under my feet, but started whining and crying.

Michael called me back to the yard where he found the snake just off the patio's edge and was preparing to shoot it. I told him I thought at least one of the dogs had been struck.

Zeus was acting hurt and I finally found a little blood on his forehead...I couldn't find any wounds on Foxy, but I could tell she wasn't feeling good...so, after making sure none of the other dogs were hurt or acting strange, we loaded up Foxy and Zeus and headed for the emergency clinic in Arlington.

By the time we got there, both dogs were very painful to the touch and their heads were beginning to swell...Both were examined and both were found to have been struck on the head. They were started on morphine for pain and an IV plasma exchange to prevent the hemo-toxin in the snake venom from clotting their blood and were given an antibiotic. (Snake bites are dirty bites)

This morning they are doing OK--both ate their breakfast--we're waiting for the plasma exchange to finish--they will stay in the hospital until at least this afternoon...we may be able to then transfer them to our vet here in Cedar Hill, but all depends on how the dogs are doing...

Anyway, hopefully, the snake-bite vaccines they just completed last Saturday will help them through this...

When we got home about 2:30 am, we measured the snake and took some pictures...I've attached two...the snake measured 30 inches...looked well fed, too!

Will keep you posted....life in the country ...Ugh! (Can't wait to see the bill for this one!)
--GP

________________________________________

From: Deals
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:54:33 -0500
To: Grammy Pammy; Trevor; The Lazy Gnome; Turd
Subject: RE: Copperhead bites Zeus and Foxy!

OMG! This explains the emergency text message I got from Schnitzel early, early this morning about wanting to move back to the city.

I am so glad that they are doing okay (or are at least feeling well enough to eat)! Poor Zeus E. Pott and Foxy Fu! I like how two of your smallest, most fluffy pups tried to take on a snake!

Keep me up-to-date on their progress. I’ll have Gypsy pray for them when I see her at 1:30.

Love,
Deals

P.S. Does the fact that Zeus took on a snake give him back his “man card” in Michael’s eyes?

Here are the pictures of the snake. He was an aggressive little bugger. Although, to be fair, I’d probably strike too if I was being attacked by two overgrown puff balls. Too bad it didn’t have the foresight to slither back into the woods before Michael found his shotgun.

They grow up so fast...

Today is Haskell’s 4th birthday (or 3rd anniversary of me finding him).

I had dinner plans tonight with family, but convinced my aunt to come over afterwards to sing to her “God Dog”. Bert was also lured over – but only because I had something she needs for a project at work. This sounds super, sneaky-secretive until I reveal that she’s collecting Victoria Secret and JCrew catalogs. Bert is a graphic designer, and her new job requires her to keep abreast of the latest advertising trends. No matter my address, I always receive a steady stream of both. I think both Vicky S and JCrew have me tagged with a GPS, I swear. But one person’s (recyclable) trash is another’s treasure. I’m just glad I could help out.

Anyway, neither Bert nor Mimi could stay longer than it took to sing Happy Birthday and watch the dogs eat their individual serving of Frosty Paw ice cream, so I decided to immortalize the moment on YouTube.

You’re thrilled, aren’t you? Glad to hear it…

Tragically, my movie editing software (Windows Movie Maker...I need a Mac, like, yesterday) is on the fritz, so all I have is the rough birthday footage. No cute music or director’s commentary for you. Sigh…I know you are disappointed.

Haskell doesn't care, though. He's just happy the "party" involved him getting an ice cream. And any extra birthday "cookies" Auntie Bertie snuck him when I wasn't looking.

Confessions of a mad woman...

June 11th, 2009 was quite the day.

Why?

Well, for one, it was Trevor and my last “dating” anniversary. Who knew we’d last seven years? And, more importantly, who knew we’d both forget about it?

To be fair, there was a lot going on that day with THE FLOOD and all. And it isn’t like we didn’t eventually remember (although, it was a good day or two before Trevor turned to me and said, “Hey, I think we forgot our anniversary!”).

Of course, I still managed to give Trevor something on our anniversary, and quite by accident, too. No, no. It was nothing dirty (get your heads out of the gutter!).

Let me set the stage:

I had just had the morning from Hell. I had been soaked to the bone, hailed on, nearly hit by a falling tree, and had returned home only to discover a leak in my new ceiling. I was – literally – at my wit’s end. And Trevor was, conveniently, nowhere to be found. I left several messages on his cell phone including the one below:

“I’m dealing with things beyond my maturity level at the moment! I need you to call me!”

Trevor found this particular message to be hilarious, and has insisted on keeping it stored in his voicemail. He also feels moved to quote the message at dinner parties, weddings and various social occasions – always at my expense. Apparently, any time used to embarrass his fiancé is time well spent.

So, I am embracing my panicked voice message, and taking ownership of the situation by posting it on my blog.

Not that there are many people left on the planet that Trevor hasn’t already told, but still. I’m taking control. Or, at least, owning up to my inability to deal (well) with certain (extraordinary) situations.

I can again hold my head high.

Or up, at any rate...

And to think I used to love working in Excel...

Wedding lists are the bane of my existence.

Seriously.

I hate them. And they are driving me insane, which is obvious from the email thread below:

From: Trevor
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 12:23 PM
To: Deals
Subject: Rehearsal Dinner

Do we also need to get a list together for the rehearsal dinner???

________________________________________
From: Deals
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 3:07 PM
To: Trevor
Subject: RE: Rehearsal Dinner

Shut up.

I mean, “yes, dear”.

I hate you.

Errrr…I mean, “I love you.”

________________________________________
From: Trevor
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 3:14 PM
To: Deals
Subject: RE: Rehearsal Dinner

wow.....

Yep. I’m handling with my usual grace and maturity.

Trevor is one lucky man, let me tell you.

Tweet, tweet, tweet…

I was just reading through an email from my mother, and discovered that the woman is on Twitter.

What?! Really?! I’m not even on Twitter.

Here is Grammy Pammy’s explanation in a forwarded email conversation between her and my cousin, Rusty:

“And, BTW, thanks for wanting to follow me on Twitter...I am still trying to figure that one out, though. I joined (on a lark) to follow the local weatherman -- don't hear from him, but I am hearing from other people...!! Kinda weird...don't know why anyone would want to follow me, --oh, well...”

Love. It.

I'm guessing this means a pipe is in my future?

You know things aren’t going well when a small parade of construction workers walk past your office, open a closet door and says, “No good. No good at all.”

Then, twenty seconds later, three burly looking men sporting hard hats and orange vests appear in your doorway and mumble something about needing to run a pipe through the middle of your office. When you look concerned, one of the construction workers tries to ease your fears by assuring you that putting the pipe through the middle of your office is a physical impossibility.

After mumbling something sarcastic to each other, the three men exit as suddenly as they arrived.

Awesome.

Who came up with this anyway?

This morning I had to go to my annual AP training workshop for the museum. This is something I do every year, and rarely look forward to – mainly because I always manage to choose the one workshop with at least three or four individuals who’ve never turned on a computer before, much less entered TEKS into an online database.

Fun.

Anyway, the workshop is generally held in a museum computer lab near my office, but none of those workshops fit in with my schedule this year. So, I had to go to the main AP office. We were each assigned a laptop with a sticker on the top with the computer’s “name” on it. All the computers were named after various countries. Mine was “Iran”.

I should have known from the get-go that this would set the mood for my entire workshop experience.

Needless to say, Iran was in a pissy mood this morning. No one – not even the onsite computer experts – could figure out what was wrong with it. Of course, there were no extra computers for me to use instead. So, I spent two hours negotiating with the machine until the workshop finally ended and I got to leave.

Next year, I’m requesting “Estonia”.

Crazy is as crazy does...

Apparently, I am like a magnet for crazy people.

Really. I'm surrounded.

And then I remember one of my favorite Albert Einstein quotations, and get a little worried:

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy:
am I or are the others crazy?"

Fortunately, I'm not the only one who thinks the crazies really are...well, crazy. So, for the moment, I'm sort of secure in the fact that it is not just me.

Maybe.

Hey, Einstein wasn’t sure, either.