Horses are good company -- The Witcher

This morning I accidentally put my own pills into the dog's food bowl instead of her pills. I only noticed because she ate around 2 of them and i looked down and saw them / recognized they were wrong.

So, I did a little internet searching and learned that pills she ate were probably not dangerous. They said you can give your dog activated charcoal just to be safe, and you can buy that at the "human pharmacy" (as opposed to the vet pharmacy but this is such a funny phrase). Activated charcoal will safely bind to the medications and prevent them from being digested.

So I drove to the nearest pharmacy, which is Walgreen's, and I hate going there, but it's 5 minutes away so I end up going there sometimes anyways. Walgreen's is over-stimulation central, incredibly bright lights, busy, always have to wait in a line, products are locked up in a hostile way, impossible to find stuff, and the employees are clearly underpaid and under-trained. Also hardly anyone wearing a mask, but that is par for the course right now in curséd America. I asked 4 different people to help me find activated charcoal, and I was getting more and more upset each time.

Even when I explained what happened, my dog accidentally ate some pills and I am stressed about it, there was no expression of sympathy or understanding from any of these people. Finally someone had to "call into management" and she told me that no, they don't stock it. Walgreen's has shelves and shelves of cheap plastic seasonal crap, a whole wall of supplements and vitamins, another whole aisle that is just greeting cards. No activated charcoal. The worker told me that I'd have to go to Wal-Mart or Farm and Fleet, which are giant big-box stores. Meanwhile I'm hunched over and starting to panic from having to talk to all these strangers, and none of them helping me. I quickly left the store.

Well, I was going to Jesse's house anyways, and when I arrived she was like, "I have activated charcoal!"

SAVED!!

*I'm trying out lowering my topomax dose from 75 mg to 50.

*The weather is cooler thank goodness.

*I survived a large family gathering over Labor Day.

*I called Building inspection for city of Madison; a guy is coming tomorrow to look at the AC unit.

*Forgot to link it here-- I wrote a blog post at WordPress about working on anti-harassment for WisCon; in response to Jim Hine's io9 article. He RTed it so it got a fair number of hits!
https://accessthis.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/not-looking-away-a-follow-up-to-jim-hines-article/

*I'm reading a long DA:I fanfic called "Stuck in the Puzzle". I don't know this fandom at all, but the fic is really good so far.

*New photos of the dog:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sasha_feather/

Sorcha is still whining incessantly. I see from my journal that this has been going on for more than a month -- probably more like six weeks. I'm taking her back to the vet on Wednesday to get her thyroid levels checked.

Other things we've tried:
I moved my bed so she can see me better from my crate.
I turned a night light on overnight.
Sitting with her on the couch to watch TV and movies. Three feet away in my chair isn't close enough-- I have to be like, touching and petting her to stop her whining. And I can't type with her on the couch because she paws at the screen and keyboard.
Distracting with treats.
A thundershirt. (Had to take a break from the shirt today because I may have left it on too long yesterday.)

The worst is when I try to lie down for a nap and she won't let me sleep.

I posted on the Greyhound bulletin board-- run by the rescue group-- asking for advice. So far, no help.

She does not seem to be in pain, not that I can tell. She still runs hard at the park, some days, and still hops in and out of the car, walks fine, etc. It seems more like anxiety, but that strange thing it how it started relatively recently.

Any ideas??

First, a brief me-health update: I completely forgot to give myself my shots this week. I even forgot to pick up my Enbrel from the pharmacy. I only remembered just now because my knee started hurting. I really don't like forgetting things. I am also getting PT again, for my shoulder.

Second, Sorcha-health update. Twice on Sunday her back legs sort of gave out briefly and she staggered and caught herself. It looked like a drunken stumble. This was alarming and I took her to the vet the next day. The vet said she has a lack of reflexes in her hind legs. They offered me a referral to a doggie neurologist which I said I would think about. It doesn't seem that they did any blood work, which I may call back and request. It looks the medical term for this symptom is "ataxia". While she normally has tremors in her hind legs, they seem to be more pronounced lately, and happen while she is walking, not just while she is standing.

----

Third, Reading Wednesday!

I am Currently Reading

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon.

Chapter One was definitely the slowest and densest. Still, I don't think I will finish this book before it's due at the library. It is also heavy and hard to carry around. I may purchase the e-book. This is not an activist book. It's chiefly about parenting and families. It's still quite good and wrestles with a lot of identity issues that I find fascinating. In general it includes a lot of first-hand accounts of parents and children.

Chapter 2: Deaf. A nice overview of D/deaf history and cultures, and the difficulties therein. The politics of this world are really complicated and fraught, and while they make some people's lives profoundly better, the politics can also stand in the way for others. A dense chapter with a lot of information.

Chapter 3: Dwarf. I definitely learned things in this chapter. One of the issues brought up is that this identity is considered humorous to the wider culture.

Chapter 4: Down's Syndrome. Briefly talks about institutionalization, independence, and mainstream vs. special education.

Onto the next chapter, Autism!

I am also reading:

Tangles by Sarah Leavitt. Graphic memoir. I love this so far. It's a funny and heartbreaking account of her mother's Alzheimer's disease.

I recently finished

I love Led Zeppelin by Ellen Forney. I think she is my favorite graphic writer/artist! This book is oversized and NSFW. Includes a handy how-to section, collaborations, and misc. comics. Interesting and fun.

In the GPA newsletter, there's a link to the site greyhound-data.com, where I found this data on my dog:

She ran in 84 races between 2005-2007
She won 19 of them
8 offspring are listed, and they all appear to be from the same litter, born May 2008. I don't know if she had other puppies or not. She came my way in early 2012, so what she was doing in between there is a mystery to me.

Sorcha (SE's Double Take) was born 21 Dec 2003.

Does anyone have advice for how to get my dog out of her crate? Treats are not working (turkey and cheese). Usually if I sit around and wait she comes out eventually, but she hasn't been out to do her business since last night!! This problem seems to have gotten worse since it got cold out. Climbing in and attaching her leash and then pulling on it doesn't really work and causes her to yelp. Singing her name/calling her hasn't worked today.

I am going to lay down for a bit: it seems like when I take a nap, that is when she whines to wake me up and wants to go out.

Before I forget! When I went to have my blood drawn in the hospital yesterday, I remarked on how much I liked the lights to the phlebotomist. She said she liked them too because she gets bad headaches and they reduce the glare.

The lights shone upwards onto a piece of white fabric that was stretched out like a baby bouncer. From there it reflected into the two blood-draw bays on either side of the barrier. It was all reflected light that didn't shine directly into anyone's eyes; it was bright but diffuse.

Wonderful.

---

My elbows are sore today! Bonus. I don't feel like I am talking enough lately, and I am pretty upset about my joints hurting, so I am going to be writing more here.

---

Someone today (my CST) asked me if I had plans for the long weekend. I don't really-- I'm pretty broke. I'll probably just watch Warehouse 13 and go to the dog park, maybe try to get some things crossed off my to-do list. When I told her I go to the dog park every day, she said, "when I'm reincarnated I want to come back as one of your pets." :D

There were hardly any dogs at the park today in the late morning when we went, so I decided to let Sorcha off the leash. She did great! She walked beside me for a little bit, and then when she saw other dogs she galloped off to them. She is really beautiful when she runs. She did come back to me which I was relieved about. She snapped and growled at the other dogs when they sniffed at her, but the other dog owner was like, "Oh, she's just putting them in their place." And Sorcha cozied up to that woman and wanted to get pet. I think Sorcha likes people more than other dogs. This woman was like, "Are all Greyhounds *so soft*??" I said I didn't know. It's true her coat feels like rabbit fur.

We also went to the vet for a quick check-up paid for by GPA. This is called a CVI and is required by state law to make sure I'm not getting a puppy mill dog apparently. Even though she's 8. She weight about 59 pounds. It's hard to imagine this couch-loving, people-loving dog in a big barn in a crate all day long. She is napping right now, stretched out on the sofa in "roach pose".

My life feels so much more right now that I have a dog. She was dropped off at my house at about 7:45 this evening. Her name is Susie but that is probably going to change. Thorin Oakenshield? Neko? Feel free to make suggestions.



A nearly all-white greyhound sleeping on the grass. She has a little light brown (fawn) color on one ear. This photo is from the adoption folks.