Truman’s on petfinder.com!

I checked petfinder.com yesterday, and the Rescue Rep. has posted him!  On one hand, YAY!!!  People aren’t going to know he’s available unless he’s advertised.  On the other hand…   I’m already getting attached to him, and I wonder if anybody else can take care of him as well as I take care of him???  He’ll have to go to a very special home–where the person is home ALL THE TIME (like I am) to take care of him when he has a seizure. 

I noticed that she corrected a couple of things in the description–his history for one thing; she elaborated a few more details that I didn’t know.  And she took out the part about getting a Greenie after he gets his toenails cut and just changed it to “a treat”.  I wonder what’s up with that?

She DIDN’T change the part about him being 9 years old…  well, it really doesn’t say he’s nine; it says he lived with his owner for 9 years and then she died.  In actuality, he lived with her for 10-1/2 years and then was with her son for 8 months.  If he’s adopted, his new owner is quickly going to figure out (by his vet paperwork) that he’s older than being advertised.

She used the cute scrapbook page I made for him for his main picture, and she included a really cute picture that Kat took of him, too.

Here’s his petfinder description:

Hi, I’m Truman, and I’m a real cutie if I do say so myself! I’d like to tell you why I’m in Rescue. I’m very sad that my owner died. I lived with her for nine years. I went live with her very nice relatives, and we all tried and tried—but they had big dogs and small children and lots going on, and I didn’t do well.. We were all sad but the best thing was to release me to Rescue. I’m happy to report that Rescue is not too bad at all! Right now, I live in a foster home with four other IGs, and let me tell you, they are my pals!

Okay, okay… I admit that sometimes I need to be reminded when it’s time to go outside to potty, but I’m really good at going out with my foster siblings and taking care of business when they do. (And, I love, love, love getting a treat when I come back inside.)

If there’s one word to describe me, it’s happy and playful and goofy all rolled into one. (Ha! That’s not one word, is it?). I just enjoy life—except when I go to the vet, and that just makes me a nervous wreck. . I’ve been seeing the vet a lot recently because I have seizures, which is why I’m listed as a special needs dog. We’re working out how to fix that. Right now I’m on Phenobarbital twice a day. But don’t try to give it to me with cheese because I don’t like it. I prefer my pills be wrapped in a sliver of roasted turkey; trust me, I’d eat dirt if you wrapped it in turkey!

My foster dad is so proud of me because I don’t mind having my toenails trimmed. He gives me a treat afterwards. Did I mention I love treats? And while I’m talking about my foster dad . . . He’s my big pal. I love following him around and sitting in his lap. But most of all, I love cuddling with him. He likes to nap on the couch on the weekends, and I like to cuddle up next to him and nap, too. And at night, I like to get as close to him as possible. I sleep the whole night and don’t move.

Okay… here’s the deal: I’m looking for that special family who will take care of me when I have a seizure—probably someone who’s home a lot would be best. Fast movements and loud noises scare me so I’d really like to go some place without little kids. I really like being with my foster siblings so another little dog would be cool but I was an only for some time and I love people too. I promise I’ll be a good boy, and I’ll make someone very happy.

Well, my foster mom is chomping at the bit to say something so here she is:

Thanks so much for reading about sweet Truman. He is such a joy to be around. He cracks me up because when he barks (which isn’t often); it sounds like somebody stepped on a duck! He really is a sweet little dog and a pleasure to be around. He’s such a gentle soul that you can’t help loving the minute you meet him. Seizures can be very scary the first few times you see them, but when they happen, you just have to remain calm and comfort Truman with soft words and gentle hands. Truman is confused for several minutes after his seizure and tends to wander in a daze. He needs to be kept safe so he doesn’t bump into walls or fall and hurt himself.

Truman is being fostered in ****. Washington residents who want to begin the process to adopt an IGCA Rescue dog, please write igplaygroup@mac.com to learn about the IGCA adoption process and receive an application. We are always willing to consider placing a dog out of state, but applicants are asked to apply to and work with us through their local IGCA Rep.

All 5

Here are all five dogs:

Stuart, Truman, Iggy Pop (far left), Annie and Mylo

Truman’s vet visit

Just got back home from the vet with Truman.  He was scared to death the whole time we were there, and wouldn’t stop frantically looking at me so that they had to turn him with his butt facing the vet the whole time so he could see me.  Poor little dog.

#1.  She’s very concerned about his teeth.  She could barely make out a fractured tooth beneath all of the tarter.

#2.  Seizures:  he needs to have blood work done to see how his phenobarbital levels are so I have to take him back at 3:00 this afternoon (before he gets his pill at 4:00 in the afternoon).  He may need to be started on another drug therapy in addition to phenobarbital (which I think means KBr, but I’m not sure).

#3.  He needs to gain a pound or two to get up to a healthy weight.

Also, the bloodwork that Kat’s vet did is good enough for them.  In other words, they don’t need to do more bloodwork before he has a dental.

Oh, no….. Truman is TWELVE YEARS OLD!

Oh, my gosh! I just dug through all of Truman’s vet paperwork. According to Kat’s vet paperwork, he is 9 years 9 months old. Really… why would you come with the number of months? If it would have been me, I would have just said 9 years old. However… I just dug through the entire stack of vet paperwork that came with him, and he was reported to be 11 years 2 months as of 11/01/08, and this age was consistantly reported throughout the paperwork all the way back to 09/01/2000 when he was reported to be 3 years old (so that makes his DOB 09/01/1997).

He’s been having weekly seizures since 12/05/07, but he was reported to have seizures as far back as 06/10/04. He was on phenobarbital since 2004, but his previoius owner declined it as of 11/06/08. I don’t think he was on it again until 04/08/09 when he was with Kat.

He was also reported to be 18.3 pounds in 1/11/08! He weighs 10# now–what a huge difference! There is also a notation on 07/09/08 that he has a “left carnasal slab fracture” which I take is a tooth because it was in the tooth section of the report. That was recommended to be removed, but it hasn’t been because there is a hole in his mouth with a stub of a tooth hanging out of it (which makes me wonder if it hurts and that’s why he’s lost so much weight).

I passed all this info on to the Rescue Rep. I feel really sick in the stomach… Nine-years-old was bad enough, but WHO is going to take a 12-year-old seizure dog?

Our little cutie, Truman!

Heeeerrrrreeee’sssss Truman! The first thing I did is bring out the camera to get some pictures of him. I took a ton, but only these 3 are any good!

He’s a scrawny little thing that we need to fatten up. He’s a little bigger than Iggy Pop, but he doesn’t weigh as much as she does.

It is so funny how much like Iggy Pop he looks! Take a peek:

I’m going to try to get a photo of their faces side by side. Brian had his arm around Truman last night in the bed, and had I not known it was Truman, I would have sworn it was Iggy Pop instead.

He’s only been here one day so we’re still working out his personality and habits, but I wrote up a really good description for petfinder.com anyway. I e-mailed it to the Rescue Rep. this morning. #1. I hope she gets a move-on and posts it SOON (which is why I wrote it for her), and #2. that it’s even good enough for her to want to post it since I spent alot of time writing it!

I wrote part of it from his perspective and part of it from his foster mom’s (me) perspectitve.

Unfortunately he had a pretty bad seizure a 2:00 this morning. His last one was Friday so he’s having them more than I thought. I’ll take him to the vet next week and see what she says. Also, his teeth are awful, and he needs a dental.

The directions that came with him aren’t very good. There were TWO bottles of pills from two different vets and each one had different mg of pills! The note said “1 tab AM, 1/2 tab PM”. Out of which bottle???? I ended up throwing one bottle away because the pills were expired. Also, the label says 1/2 a pill twice a day; not a full pill in the morning. So, I’m assuming the full pill in the morning is the increase I heard about through the grapevine. The label also says he has to be reevaluated in 3 weeks and there are no refills. Well, there aren’t enough pills for three weeks so I’m also assuming the reevalution is due soon. The note says he has seizures every 7-12 days. His note also says “1-5 min warning; 3-10 min Grand Mal; 20-50 min post.” Poor, poor dog.

He also came with a thick stack of vet paperwork that I need to read.

I just feel so sorry for this little dog it’s not funny.

Carlo/Truman

Brian is on his way to pick up Carlo/Truman, our new foster dog.  The rendezvous is in 10 minutes in Biggs, OR, and they should be home by noon.

I’m really not all that thrilled for him to be here because he’s old and has seizures and I’m afraid nobody will adopt him so we’ll be stuck with him.

He’s on phenobarbital, but he’s still having seizures about once a week.  I wonder if he should be on Potassium Bromide, too.  I HATE to do that because it is expensive and has to be compounded, and I’m afraid that will make him that much more undesirable to potential adopters.  They just upped the dosage of his penobarbital so maybe that will help him out?  Phenobarbital is a much cheaper drug.  He has to take it twice a day.

Anyway, he hasn’t even been listed on petfinder.com yet because there was a potential forever home for him–a family who specifically wanted a special needs dog.  Unfortunately the person who was supposed to do the home visit drug her feet for so long, the family adopted a cat instead and said, “screw you, Italian Greyhound Rescue!”  How unfortunate; I’m sure families who want special needs dogs don’t come around too often.  That is truly a missed opportunity.

So, he’s been in foster care for two months and hasn’t been listed on petfinder.com so my very first task is to find out his personality and write a really good description about him, and get some really good pictures of him that I’m going to make into digital scrapbook layouts to be posted.  I read somewhere that it’s a good idea to write the description from the dog’s perspective.  I’ll try that and see if I like what I come up with.

Oh, yeah.  We’re changing his name back to Truman since that’s the name he’s known for NINE YEARS!  I can’t believe his first foster mom would change it!

Mini Art Quilt

So, I came up with a very simple art quilt that I think my swap partner may like.  Cute and simple, but I think it looks kind of nice, and I won’t mind sending it out.  I’ll decorate it with some button details and maybe some ribbon on the stems.  And, I think I’ll add some rick-rack around the edges to add some whimsy.  I’d like to add a black and white checkered border, but I don’t know what color backgrounds to use to do that?

I started to dig through my fabric stash, but Joann’s has their quilting fabric on sale for 30% off next week so I’ll go shopping instead.

Craftster.org mini art quilt swap

Oh, yay!  We got our art quilt swap partners yesterday!  I got matched up with an advanced quilter (oh no!)–however traditional quilting and art quilts are two totally different things so maybe we’ll be on the same playing field.

I wrote that I don’t like cutesy things, and she wrote that she likes Tinkerbell, Hello Kitty, fairies, toadstools, butterflies and pink cupcakes!  Thankfully, she also wrote flowers, trees and the Eiffel Tower.  Whew!  I can work with the last three.  As a matter of fact, I have a great idea for a flowers theme that I think she’ll really like.  I checked out her wists, and she listed several art quilts from an Etsy seller that she likes.  They are quilts I am truly inspired by.  I think I can make something similar, but with a twist.

I’m glad I have this blog because I gave her a link to my other blog so she could stalk me (not that it’s very helpful to her, but I don’t have any wists set up or even my Craftster profile so she can’t see things that I like).  Anyway, that means I can’t post my progress on that blog.  The send date is July 10th, and that’s WAY too long for me not to write about how I’m doing!  I couldn’t stand it.  So, I’ll post my progress here instead.  Having two blogs is pretty handy sometimes, I guess!

Since I don’t have any wists, I sent her a PS PM this morning to let her know I like all of the quilts she picked out on Etsy.  Maybe that will help her decide on something to do for me.

New Dell Computer!

So……..   I finally broke down and ordered a new computer since this one keeps blowing up with the dreaded blue screen (and I can’t figure out why since I haven’t loaded anything new on it in months and months and I’ve done all of the Microsoft recommended fixes with no success).  

I’m going to take it to Geek Squad and see if they can do anything with it because it is has a bigger hard drive and more RAM than the computer I have in the garage that I run the laser with.  I’d like to move this computer to the garage and move the garage computer out.  I also want to move this flat panel monitor out there and get rid of that big-ass CRT monitor I have out there.

I’ll take the current garage computer to Geek Squad, too, and have the clean off all of our personal information.  I initially thought I’d donate it to a local school or church, but realized my older brother can probably use it since his laptop is on the verge of blowing up.  Maybe it will fit in the same box that the new computer comes in? 

Anyway, I told him I’m NOT UPS-ing that CRT monitor to him because it weighs so much.

So, anyway, back to the computer buying part:  The new computer comes with Vista on it, and after I placed my order, I got an e-mail with all the specs that I’d ordered, and at the bottom of the e-mail was a message that said that a 64-bit operating system makes the computer run faster, but it also means that some of my older software won’t work on it!  WHAT???!!!  I did not know this.

Quickbooks 2008 is captible (yay!), but Corel Draw 12 isn’t and neither is DreamWeaver 8.  I absolutely HAVE to HAVE Corel Draw to run the laser with so I had to buy a $180 upgrade to X4.  And, I already e-mailed the YMCA to let them know I’m stuck until they can order me Adobe CS4 in July because Dreamweaver 8 won’t work on my new computer.

I can’t remember what other programs I need to load…  oh, yeah:  EQ6 and My Memories Suite. 

I just checked the My Memories website, and it is compatible with Vista “as long as it’s run in Administrator mode” (what in the heck does that mean–now I need to get a Vista how-to book!).

Also, just checked EQ6, and it, too, is compatible with Vista (YAY!). 

Okay…  I’m serious:  now I need to check out Amazon for a Vista book, and maybe a CorelDraw X4 book, too.  Me and my software manuals!  I’m running out of bookshelf space!

YMCA website and new (used) Dreamweaver books

About a month ago, the YMCA where I used to work in IL called me up and asked me if I would design a website for them and maintain it.  I told them I don’t have a CLUE how to design a website so I couldn’t do it for them.

Then last week, I got another call; if they bought Adobe CS4 for me to use, would I learn how to design the website for them.  So, OF COURSE, I said a big huge “YES!”  I’m positively drooling over getting CS4 (I have CS2, but I want the new version).

The only catch:  they can’t order CS4 until July because they’ve used up their allotment of non-profit software purchases until then.  Dreamweaver is part of CS4 (has been since CS3), but since I can’t get that until July, they sent me a spare copy of Dreamweaver 8 to use in the meantime.

I asked for the end of May to learn how to use Dreamweaver and then until the end of June to do the actual design.  I REALLY hope this is something I can pull off.  If I can’t, though, I told him, I’d just write him a check for the CS4 purchase and he’ll have to find somebody else to desgin the website.

Meanwhile…  I found some Dreamweaver 8 books on Amazon.com that I wanted, but they were $30+ each.  I dug around online until I found some used ones instead.  The first is Dreamweaver 8:  Design and Construction and the other is Dreamweaver 8:  The Missing Manual.  There were shipped media mail from VA so I wasn’t expecting them for a couple more weeks; they got here yesterday, though. 

I started reading on the first one first because, as I said, I don’t have a clue how to design a good website.  The first 7 chapters don’t even specifically address Dreamweaver software at all–they tell you how to define, outline and sketch out what you want the website to look like.  All good info I need to read.

Yesterday, I also bought 2 more used books.  Both are Photoshop books, and I got them really, really cheap at BookBrothers1 through Amazon.com.  One of those is Adobe Photoshop CS2 for the Web Hands On Training (4-1/2 stars on Amazon, and $37.11 new; but I got it for $8.24 used).  The other book is Photoshop CS2 Studio (5 stars on Amazon and $37.53 new vs. $6.96 used!).

Maybe the second set of used books will get here as fast as the first set.

AND…  I still haven’t finished my One-on-One Photoshop book yet so I need to get a move-on on that one.  I’ve been plugging along through the lessons and really enjoying what I’m learning.  I’m about half-way through the book.  The next lesson (#9) is on layers.