We are still at Lake Cacuma, Santa Barbara, California. Will be here thru March I assume.
I haven't kept this up as I had some unpopular comments which made me think it was a pain. But even tho no one reads it I use it as a journal, so guess I will try again.
We have been working here, mainly with bathrooms and picking up trash. Then as the season wound down we continue to clean bathrooms and have worked into raking. Now we have a plan to paint a bathroom, and take over the newly remodeled rec center in keeping that clean.
It has been easy work, they provide supplys willingly, they are pleasant to work with, and good with giving positive feedback.
We will be here thru March it would seem as Leroy wants to go back to his kitemakers retreat and get his doc appts.
We spent Christmas with cousin Donna, the day, and that was fun. We had a really nice time and met some of their close friends and it was special. Christmas Eve day we went to a movie and out to eat. Bonnie gave us the money for the movie and we had a gift certificate that covered the meal. What could be better than that.
We have found an agility group in Santa Barbara that lets us come to practice on fri nites. It has been fun to meet some really nice dog people again. Its where we fit in the best it seems. One nite after class Sallee ran into a skunk, man did she stink. She found out that not all black and white kitties are cats. One of the ladies who lives in a cool house on the hill above the city took us to her house and bathed Sallee in a claw foot tube that sits out on her patio. It was really cool. She even sent us on our way with a cup of coffee, a cup and a towel to keep.
Anyhow, its a ice group and Iris has just come alive. I can hardly believe it. She is finally going faster and acting like she really enjoys agility. I love it, and I am having so much fun. Not sure if its because she is feeling so good or if I am becoming a better handler. Maybe both.
Iris had eye problems and seemed to have problems seeing so we took her finally to an eye specialist. She has a problem with dry eyes that are common out here. So she was put on restasis eye drops and that has improved. She was also discovered to have Horners syndrome but the best version of it that was caused by a bump to the head. Surprise, she bumps her head constantly. She is as clumsy as I am. Then we continued to have the bowel program and her not being able to poop and trying constantly and etc so we took her in. He thought she had a cancerous anal gland and did surgery. After the surgery he informed me that he was afraid she had rectal ca. He removed a mass and sent a biopsy in. The biopsy came back and the 4 days I spent crying were not warranted. She has a condition called peri anal furniculosis or peri anal fistula. It can be pretty bad but it is manageable if we take care of her. So even tho she is on prednisone which would make her feel good, she is tapered down now and she still seems to feel good. She can see, her butt doesn't hurt, and she can have some normal poops and not need to go every 20 feet or every 15 min. I am so happy for her and now we have about 5 more years together. So her enthusiasm is so exciting.
We are doing a Susan Garrett's recallers class online and it seems to be helping, with recalls, and bonding, and getting her excited about things. I love it, it is so great.
I practice with Sallee but think she is to far gone and too old to learn a new way of doing things. She and Leroy set a bad precident and she just doesn't respond to much, which is to bad, she is so smart, but to hyped up and to spoiled.
I plan on getting a new puppy and wanted one of Iris relatives but Jony White only had two pups and she is keeping both them, tho she may give one up this summer and then it will be 9-10 months old. If we stop by to see her I will decide then, but she will be having another litter this year so maybe, who knows. Right now, I am just enjoying Iris so much I am not concerned about a pup.
No comments:
Post a Comment