Where did I leave off?

Oh yeah. . .paraplegic dogs. . .

After a trip to the regular vet, and 2 trips to the emergency vet, the dog was admitted. Every time we took her somewhere, she'd seem to improve, then we'd get home, and she'd be worse than she started.

Vets basically said it's either a major case of arthritis, or a disease older dogs get which causes disks to deteriorate. They scheduled an MRI (for a dog!), and eventually surgery.

Apparently, the MRI showed a chronic disk condition, but possibly also something they call a spine stroke. They surgery basically went: open, nope, it's not a disk problem, close.

$3500 for them to basically not be able to do anything except have us haul her back end around in a sling (which was a plastic trash bag). Dogs can apparently recover pretty well from a spine stroke. As of now, the dog can't do stairs or jump, but can walk around on her own.

And bark. And chase the cat. And lick anything that stays still long enough.

To add to the fun, and make this have almost something to do with the house, between trips to the vet, the other dog manage to find holes under the fence and escape. Twice.

Those holes have since been blocked.

So some people have something to read

My wife's ex boyfriend (from years ago) had 2 dogs, one of which they had when they were together. Every couple of months, he would call and ask her to take the dogs.

When we lived in an apartment, the answer was no. When we moved to the new house, the answer was no.

Then we got the fence, and the answer was yes.

We happened to be driving down to NC to go to a wedding, so it was actually a convenient time. We drove 18 hrs back (really bad traffic) with 3 adults, 3 kids, and 2 dogs. And we survived.

Dogs + cat = pain in the neck. Obviously, the dogs like to chase the cat. It probably doesn't help that the cat is either stupid or really daring and trying to toy with the dogs.

At 5 am, this is a really bad thing. When afterwards, one of the dogs ceases to use its rear legs, its an even worse thing.

Frist Post!

On March 3rd, 2008, we became the owners of a brand new house. Brand Spanking New.

We got a good rate, in a good neighborhood, with good schools, good road access. . .1348 sq ft, on about 13k sq ft lot.

Then the fun begins. It's our house, and our lot (sort of), and we can do whatever we want to it.

The first project to undertake was finding out about a fence. I found out about a week before the closing that my house fell under a Wetlands Protection Act waiver. The waiver basically allowed for the construction of a house on this lot because it's been designated as a residential lot for years, prior to the act.

The waiver also says that nothing can be done more than 30 feet past the foundation of the house on any side. That effectively reduces the amount of usable land to about 9000 sq ft. Needless to say I was annoyed.

Since anyone who's possibly going to read this thing has already heard this story more times than they ever wanted to (including the first time), I'll sum it up. . .the Chairman of the Commission decided he wasn't getting any help from his compatriots, and didn't see any solid reason to deny me anymore, and I had acquired all the necessary paperwork (they asked for paperwork that didn't exist, so engineers had to draw some up), so they said ok.

Now I have a nice vinyl fence surrounding my back yard. It keeps some of the weeds at bay. Next time I buy a house, I'll make sure there's no Japanese Knotweed on the lot. Apparently it's terrible to fight. As one website stated, make the fighting the growth of this plant your new hobby.