The Hounds Battle Hot Weather

It's been a busy week since our last post here. The hounds had a visitor on their walk that they never saw. He stood there waiting for them to chase him, the bloodhounds never lifted their heads to see him. Searching through the photos I found too many to post and not pass up, so I have about twice the usual number. Heidi continues her hot weather hibernation.

Sadie Has A Lipoma - Vet Trip

The morning didn't start different just because Stella did not want to go on the morning walk. It all started when I got up and stayed up a little before 5am. I couldn't sleep so I decided to use the free data period to download the macOS beta version to my MacBook Air since it seems to be working so well on my iMac. All the hounds slept until 6:15am when they figured out I was awake and could feed them food.

They did their normal routine of going outside as soon as they woke up while I pour the breakfast kibble into their bowls. Everything was right on schedule. As I was standing next to Sadie while she was eating I noticed on her right side near the bottom of her stomach was a pretty good size lump. I rubbed my hand over her left side that was normal so I could tell the difference.

She did not show any signs of pain when I rubbed over the lump and I could tell it was soft. It seemed to be outside of her stomach but close to the skin. I knew I needed to have the vet take a look at it. Luckily when I called to verify their walk-in hours, they had changed to 9am so I could drive over immediately instead of waiting until 2pm. Since Stella was due an annual checkup I decided to take her with us get their shots at the same time.

Back to the walk ...

That top picture shows Stella barely looking around the corner of the house when I called her name. Sadie and I were ready to go and Stella was not around. As I walked back toward the house she was sitting in the carport just a foot away from where that picture was taken ... acting like she was hiding from me. As I approached her and telling her "let's go for a walk" ... she turned and headed for the door to go back inside. So that is where I put her and I left a little confused.

Sadie didn't mind though ... she is walking and that is all she cares about. As we walked I kept trying to look at her right side to see how that lump acted as she walked, trotted and ran. I did not see any changes in the size of the lump nor did I see Sadie flinching as she trotted in the field.

It's funny that each time I tried to take a picture of her right side she would keep turning so I could only see her left side. She also did that this morning inside when I was trying to get photos of it.

If you look closely you can see it lower middle ... once you see the photos below of her left side you can tell the difference.

By the time we got back to the yard Sadie realized that Stella was not there and took off for the last place Stella was standing. When I got to the door I looked in the window to see what Stella was doing. She was sitting here with her head down like she does when she is pouting. As soon as I opened the door her and Sadie were very excited to see each other ... and of course Stella wanted to go outside.

On the left side you can see how Sadie's stomach line goes straight back. I sat down in the outdoor chair thinking that Stella might go out into the field or even try to wander to the neighbor's backyard but she was onto something else.

They look different sizes but they both weight 79 pounds today when they were at the vet.

The vet wants me to keep an eye out on the fatty tumor to see if it gets bigger. If it does I'll bring her back in and she said she can take a sample by needle to test it. I am not an expert nor a vet but I was thinking that is what she would do today. Soon after getting back home I decided I was going to get a second opinion.

The loss of hair on Stella's ears is from allergies. Last year it was something else and not her hair loss. Looking at her vet record today she was down to 65 pounds in April 2017 when i took her in for loss of weight. She has gained all of her weight back.

Obviously by the way the hounds acted, a rabbit, or a cat had been walking along the wild ragweed and over to the burn pile recently.

Nothing like having a little wet early morning grass.

While Stella ate grass ... Sadie was trying to figure out who had been in her yard.

Finally the morning excitement was over and Stella decided it was time to come back inside, grab a leash and head for the vet.

Stella saw the cat over in the window sill but didn't bark, howl nor whine ... she didn't try to get away to go take a look either ... she just sat there looking at the cat.

Sadie sat next to me wondering what was going on since she only goes to the vet once per year. The vet said that growth on her eyelid was normal for an older dog and was not contagious when I asked. Stella just started to get on one her eyelid also. I have seen more of those growths on Sadie and Stella in the last two years than I had in the previous 29 years of having basset hounds and bloodhounds.

Heidi stayed home alone to guard the house. It was hard enough taking two bloodhounds to the vet at the same time instead of all three hounds. Sadie and Stella acted perfect and sat there watching people come and go in the waiting room and smelled a rabbit in a small carrier on their way out. They got their nails trimmed and didn't show any kind of resistance like they do with me trying to cut them. I also brushed a lot of hair our of Sadie and very little out of Stella when I got back home. Heidi barely sheds at all.

When she was laying down today I could get a good shot of the lump as I call it. I did some reading online and it's nothing to worry about but the articles did say today's exam was just "an educated guess" and even the test with the needle withdrawing some fluid gave false positives. Some recommended a biopsy to make sure it was malignant.

I'll keep a close eye on it.

A beautiful day today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Dog Days Of Summer

I have to remind myself that these really are "the dogs days of summer", it's normal for this time of year. I also have to remind myself that during last winter and all winters before ... I begged and prayed for days like this, wanting to trade 5° with a windchill below 0° for 90°+ "and I don't care how humid it is." So with that in mind, it wasn't surprising to feel a little 'heat' this morning around 8:30am as we took off for the first walk of the day. No, that isn't the same photo as yesterday but pretty close, of Sadie sprinting to the field.

Stella confirmed to me this morning that she definitely has a new routine as I predicted would happen last week. This morning was 'total ignoring' ... not even a response that she even heard me calling her as she walked next to the house heading north, then a sharp right turn up to the northern part of the yard. There was no way I was going to let her walk to the neighbors house.

I could tell though that as she made a opposite turn she was looking for a spot and luckily she did a complete 360° turn back into the field to relieve herself. I still had to walk her direction because as soon as she finished she walked right by the property pole heading north ... I had to jog across the field to make her change her mind. I never got all the way to her before she turned around ...

She walked along the edge of the yard and field as slow as possible. I may have gotten her to change direction but she was still going to show me who was in control as she walked in 'ultra' slow-motion all the way to the start of the path and then acted as if there was never a problem of her potentially escaping.

Sadie didn't care what Stella and I were doing ... she had her own plans and was into tracking scent.

How nice it is to let Sadie be on her own. When I let Heidi or Winston on their own during the walk, they might veer off a few feet from the path to check out something but would always keep walking without me saying a word. Stella just flat out refuses to move when she finds something. Not until I walk within a foot of her or touch her collar does she move in our direction.

Sadie showing that bloodhound speed she has as a ten year old.

It was harder than yesterday but I finally got Stella to move around the first turn. By this point in the walk I am almost exhausted ... not my legs or lungs ... my voice. Way too much verbal herding this morning.

I guess she was trying to prove a point as she walked right on the path by herself and slow as possible.

It was too hot yesterday afternoon to wash the Z4 and the same this morning. I like washing it in the shade with a cool breeze. I have about four more days to get that done before it rains. This time I WILL put the car cover back on it when I am not driving it.

The wind was not blowing but I found the leaves at the top of the ~100' Sycamore tree looking a little different. They were all facing SW, the same direction that our normal winds come from.

This was at the edge of the yard next to the field. I hate seeing this because it tells me the yard moles have returned ... I WILL buy and apply more grub worm killer to save my yard. I didn't do it last summer and it was a swamp as we tried mowing it.

Stella strolled in from the morning walk, very casual and not a care in the world. She would do her normal after walk 'cool down' ... some water, lick her legs and feet to get the morning dew off, then walk in and lean into my desk chair as she lowers herself to the floor to sleep, so I can hardly move if I need to get up. Later she will move her nap right up next to the kitchen island until it's time for her lunch. Rough life.

By 11am I knew I was going to have to do something today otherwise it was going to be a long slow day. I sensed a trip to the library might be in the plans. I also thought of taking the FJ out to check out some of the local area and see if I could pull over and takes some blog worthy photos. I seem to do most of my outdoor activity by 1pm ... unless I have cooler temps like I did on Saturday morning.

None of those possible plans happened.

After view today's Stage 4 of the Tour de France that I had taped from early this morning  but fast forwarding through commercials and some of the race, I was about to leave for the library when I thought a short siesta might be nice. Three hours later all of us woke up and barley moved. It was like we had been hit with some sort of sleep chemical. Thinking the hounds would all run for the door to go outside, they got up from the cool wood floor in the bedroom and moved to their other sleeping spots in the living room and went right back to sleep.

Can the humidity sneak into the house and infiltrate the air conditioned room for them to act that way? Or just lazy like their slave? (me)

My recycling center told me of the changes in their industry when I stopped by yesterday. I am no longer allowed to drop off clean glass or even dirty glass ... no glass is allowed to be recycled. He told me China is paying a lot less money this year for paper, cardboard and nothing for plastic. In fact they have stop buying plastic from the USA. I have a bag of audio cords, electric wiring and plugs from past electronics that I use to recycle for fee but this time I was going to have to pay to have them recycled. I have a feeling within the next year I will be back to paying for garbage pickup and fewer things will be recyclable.

This morning after our walk while I was on the computer, I thought I felt a tick crawling on my leg which is normal after our walks but it was a flea !!!!! Hard to get rid of once they are inside the house. Not happy at all about that. I have found very few ticks on the dogs this year, even without their annual dose of Nexgard.

As usual I ran out of my data yesterday, one day before my billing period ends. I'll get a new 20Gb supply tonight at midnight. I used so much more date this month as I was downloading or uploading my CDs into iTunes. It wasn't that that caused the data increase but having to search for that album cover in Images so I could download that photo to iTunes to match the album. Most of the music had their 'album art' just a click away.

So although I have had free data from yesterday morning until midnight tonight ... photos load much slower, some websites load much slow because the download speeds are a little better than the 'old dial-up' speed, clicking a little over 1Mbps instead of my normal 45-48Mbps. So there are advantages and disadvantages to going over my data limit. Of course if I woke up earlier or stayed up much much later, HughGen 5 gives me an additional free 50Gb of data per month ... but only between 2am-8am.

We will take our 'pre-game' walk at 6:30pm, first pitch of the Reds game at 7:10apm followed up by watching the Cubs in San Francisco starting at 10pm local time. Maybe staying up late last night to watch the Cubs game is why I was tired today?

Asleep or awake, retirement is always good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.