loriam

Athena will be 3 years old this month and is generally a very happy and healthy girl. Today she was napping more than usual next to my boyfriend's desk. Patric went to say hello to her and pet her and she kept flinching. At first, we thought she might've been afraid but we noticed that she couldn't keep her head still. We tried to play with her and while interested, she had trouble keeping her balance when she got up to walk around. I've read many things online including that the cause might be due to low blood sugar or dehydration. Again, she was interested in eating but just couldn't work it out. Going to the vet tomorrow is a given but I'm just really worried about her. I just want to reassure her and make her feel comfortable until we can get her medical attention. Should I maybe see if she can handle drinking down some low sodium chicken broth? I just don't know what to do... Please help!

While I was at school today, my boyfriend, Patric, texted me to let me know about something that happened at home. He said that Athena laid her head on his lap while he was at his computer and he noticed what he thought was a clump of dirt above her nose. He didn't know it was a tick and pulled it off and the bite wound started bleeding. We're making an appointment with our vet to make sure she's ok since there are still black bits in the swollen area and I know these little creepers like to infect poor dogs with various deseases. But I have to say, I started reading more about ticks and found that most sources say they hide in tall grass in warm and humid places. I live in the Pacific Northwest and it has been really cold out albeit that's why we've been neglecting our garden and the grass is growing pretty tall. We'll be cleaning up possible tick headquarters before we let Athena back out into the garden. I've found a lot of information on how to properly remove a tick but we're already passed that point. Is there anything I can do to clean the wound out before we take her to the vet's? I feel so bad for my poor little girl. and just thinking about ticks being in the yard and possibly in the house makes me itchy and uncomfortable. . .

what a terrible person! i'd have slapped his stupid face silly! there's no way i could contain myself if that happened to athena and me. i'm so sorry you had to deal with that!!!

i think the va and the college take turns at getting my goat. every quarter since i've been back to school there has been some problem with something. it does make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that there are people who have shared my concerns in this situation and have had similar experiences. it makes me feel less alone on the whole thing. thank you guys so much for your support. and YES, Al Jones, this quarter i'm trying for a 4.0 to raise my gpa. i haven't missed an assignment or classes at all (i've been late a few times but tardies don't count!!!) and i haven't scored less than 95% on all my chapter tests and quizzes for all of my classes. excelling at self-discipline and motivation right here!!!

this morning i went to admissions. they looked up my stuff and the woman actually said, "oops!" whoever was dropping people yesterday mistyped one of the student id numbers so i was dropped by accident. i'm soo so soo relieved.

i'm going in early today to see if i can talk to someone about it... thanks for all your kind words everyone <3 i'll let you know how it goes.

i agree with what's been said. indoors = biscuits. outdoors = MEAT. athena would rather eat yummy noms than run and romp and anything else any day. just like me.

sometimes you just have to let it out! good job! you tell those dummies!

athena is... growing up. she still gets into things she's not supposed to sometimes though. her jaws are stronger than ever and that means it's harder to pry them open and retrieve inappropriate noms and chews. so i thought it'd be neat to try training her to let me take things out of her mouth. we were so persistent with the "sit" command and it was the first one we worked on and now she sits quietly whenever she hears a noise, sees children running off in the distance, etc. she just stops and sits, it's eeever so lovely. so i thought persistence would work with this too. i looked up a bit on the net about it but there are different ways to approach it. we started with holding a treat in front of her and when she opens her mouth we say open and give it to her. it's gotten to the point where if we say "open" she opens her mouth ever so slightly. which is AWESOME. but i don't really know where i should go from there. i'm a bit hesitant of putting my hands in her mouth and then treating her afterwords for obvious reasons. maybe the slightly opened mouth will have to work. idk. it's not a very common command. i was just wondering if anyone else has done this training and how you went about it, how it's working out. it's a pretty nifty trick.

so i haven't been lollygagging on the internets here nor there for the past, idk, forever because i've been a SUPER AWESOME student. last quarter i finished with a 3.5 gpa and i'm still going strong. we're halfway through fall quarter right now. midterms are coming up. i come home from volunteering at the food bank (i'm a good effing person) and i check my email. the school admissions office has sent me an email informing me that i've been dropped from 3 of my 4 classes for non-payment. my instructors of those dropped classes have emailed me expressing their concern. and i look through my inbox and check my voicemails for a warning message. and there is none. just the one message saying, "just so you know, we dropped your arse today..." of course all offices are closed at this point so i can't call admissions, my advisor, or the va offices. when the quarter started, i turned in all the paperwork and even got a certification letter from the va. i have my schedule printed out that showed that my classes cost me nothing because they're paid for! T-T i've been studying and working hard all quarter and now i might not even get grades... so i cried. like a baby. it's sooo frustrating putting your all into something with nothing to show. *exhale* i'm sorry. i'm done now. and for those of you who don't know, T-T is a crying face.

i'm actually really into my abjds (asian ball-jointed dolls). it was a weird hobby for me to get into cuz dolls creep me out but abjds are kinda special... there are still ones that creep me out but most of them are sooo pretty. i don't have that many because they're kindof really expensive so my doll hobby gets put on the backburner most times, more so after getting my husky. i have to carefully plan and save up for each one. i like coming up with their personalities, little bios and often they help me in my writing/drawing... and being creative in general. i've taken up sewing, photography, and other activities because of my dolls. they're really pretty cool.

link to the article i read here: www.petpages.com.au/a/pet_care/is_dog_yoga_beneficial basically it's a yoga class for people but you bring your dog friend and like, lean on her when you do poses. i'd like to get into yoga and it seems to be a great way for socializing with other dogs and people... thoughts?

i think if you've used any kind of pharmaceutical your part of what is responsible for the suffering of hundreds if not thousands of horseshoe crabs. we've been harvesting their blood to test new drugs for years. we catch them, bleed them, and then throw them back into the ocean. the bleeding process is believed to have no negative effect on them but some other research has proved that it can dramatically decrease their life span. before horseshoe crabs were harvested for their blood (their blood is unique in its fast response to pathogens and the like which is why we use it to test drugs), we injected our new drugs into cute little bunnies and had to wait to see the effects. a lot of people get pissed off when you make cute things like mice and bunnies suffer but what about the horseshoe crab? unlike the lab rats, guinea pigs, etc that are bred for testing with no threat to their population, the horseshoe crab is a species that we know almost nothing about. we don't know much about their breeding or population. they were thought to be extinct not long ago. they're truely a living fossil and instead of showing respect to one of the oldest species still alive and marveling at this fact, we use them to our own benefit. do the advantages outweigh the moral risk? usually i'd say yes because i eat meat. i support the companies who make animals suffer because i like to eat chickens and cows. i've gotten over it knowing that this is the purpose they exist and are bred: consumption. sometimes mice and rabbits are bred for experimentation. i get it. so don't get so mad about animals fulfilling their destinies. they're helping us discover a lot of awesome things! science is dangerous, sometimes terrible, but wonderful. i'd be more pissed that they're using the mice for something as silly as finding out more about gray hair, it happens. we're a society that is so superficial that now our science mice have to be involved in our vanity. but unlike mice and bunnies, the horseshoe crab isn't bred for our pharmaceutical needs. but no one cries about them because they're not fluffy.

athena scream howled constantly every night for 2 1/2 weeks. We had to buy ear plugs. also, young pups should have a potty break every 20-30 mins. this meant my boyfriend and i had to take turns getting up at night to take her out to prevent accidents. as they get older, you could extend the time from every 30 mins to every 45 min, every hour, and so on and so forth until you're confident he could hold it through the night. athena had terrible separation anxiety and often pooed in her crate when we weren't home. it would get all over her and we had to bathe her entirely too often too, not much else you can do. just use a mild, gentle dog shampoo, never products made for people. i use bio groom, a bit pricey but gentle enough it doesn't strip the coat or skin of much needed oils. leash training is good at a young age but a puppy who hasn't has all his shots should be trained in his yard. a park where other people and dogs frequent has all kinds of potential hazards and contagions. find a place in the yard where you want him to "go" and if he ever does have accidents, take him straight there! potty training is tough business but be persistent and consistent. i thought athena would never get it but after 3-4 weeks, she can hold it and lets me know when she needs to go. but leash training with high reward treats or a favorite sqeaky toy should work. cheese is a favorite. As previoisly mentioned, teach him a drop it or leave it. make sure he gets treats and praise when he does this successfully and you should have no problems in the future. unless it's something too good to pass. in that case, good luck. just keep up with training and a potty routine and keep him out of public places till he's had all his shots and you'll be fine. he's absolutely gorgeous!!! mine is white too, they get a lot of attention! good luck!

and you MUST post pictures!