Heidi's Skin Improves After a Soak

Today was one of the most inactive days in a long time. They've been slow before but nothing like today.

We woke up around daybreak, or I did then they did as I attempted to break the all-time sneezing record. Sinuses were plugged and I could hear a light rain hitting the tree leaves right outside the window.

I remember thinking last night the grass seems to grow by the hour, long enough to cut but too wet to mow. There is no let up in rain until Friday if you believe the forecast. I hate mowing, then raking the excess cut but by that time I will have no choice.

I shot these morning photos without a flash. Interesting change in color but not sure they are good photos or not. These were from their 2nd trip outside around 8:30am.

Stella could no longer hold it, she had no hesitation walking out into the wet field with a very very light rain falling on her. The true example of motivation.

Late yesterday afternoon, Heidi's skin was once again so bad I put her in tub full of warm water and Epsom Salts. The water came up all the way past her chest, to the bottom of the black hair as she stood. I used a wash cloth to wipe under her neck, armpits and stomach. I wanted the water to soak in those places more than scrubbing.

It seemed to have worked, at least so far today. This is a photo of her around 1:20pm today. It's the best she has looked in a long time. My friend and I didn't see the improvement we thought we would see using the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Was one of the natural ingredients causing the flareups in her skin?

So, I've adjusted the plan after 18 days ... no change in diet except the added raw beef, raw chicken or cooked salmon to her kibble in small amounts. That will depend what I am eating that day. No grains or potatoes in her kibble, like now. No ointments, creams, etc ... I plan to go with Epsom Salt soaks more frequently every week for the first time ever.

That will be every 2-3 days depending on how her skin looks. I'll give her those soaks at least every 3 days no matter what, with the assumption it is killing or pulling the infection out of her skin.

Epsom Salts really helped yesterday with the raw spots and decreasing the inflammation. The skin under her neck and chest were horrendous with inflammation.

With all the continuous rain, I pulled a book off my self that I had read once before but thought it might be good to read it again. The book is called Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz.

Not much more happened than what you see. About the time the light rain would stop it would start again. Heidi made it outside just once before this post and her skin still looked good as this morning. I decided on a day like today it was time to do some laundry and read more of my book.

Sadie is actually out in the field, wet grass and all.

Sadie taking her time then changing her mind about joining Stella.

Once I started calling her name, Stella headed inside just in time to have me fold the first load of clothes. It could be "movie night" tonight on a Monday. I'm not sure that I can handle 3 more days of rain, but the US Tornado website shows things could get exciting tomorrow.

It's days like these I am happy to be retired in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Fit In a Walk

When I wrote that earlier post this afternoon I thought the day was over and most outside activity was done. I'd be spending the rest of the day looking at different blog templates and playing around with them, while the Reds baseball game was on in the background.

Sadie had other ideas and as usual she got her way. The ground had dried out more than I thought it would be although my feet were wet most of the walk. I could tell from the start that Stella's nose was wired for sound today.

Of course that meant she was on her own schedule. When I didn't see her when I took the 2nd photo I figured she had gone into the woods and over the steep bank for the first time ever. That would not be a good idea for her.

About the time I was planning on seeing her much later, smelly from the mud and it going up her legs to her stomach ... that is how wet the bottom of that gully is ... I was saved by the bell, she came into view running fast.

She did a fly-bye with Sadie and they both took off. I guess that is what a morning of cabin fever does to them. High energy, where their noses and ears are working overtime.

I would say this area off to the right corner is where the deer spend a lot of time but I don't see a lot of mashed down hay where they would lay. There is something from scent that drive these two bloodhounds crazy when they get there.

Sadie is double checking to see if I see them. Or she may be trying to find out if I am yelling for them. Not today ... I keep walking without calling them.

Stella going from one place to another and is almost obsessed today with her nose to the ground.

She didn't want to leave but finally made the turn to come home. Once her feet hit the yard she didn't come straight to the house like she usually does ... she had some other smells to check out.

Sniffing all the way to the door.

NexGard continues to work well, especially today. I could not find one tick on either of them but pulled 6 off of me from my neck and legs within 10 minutes of sitting down at my desk. I wonder of those beef flavored chews taste good ... maybe I should be the one taking them.  j/k

The sun finally came out in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Cool Temps - New Blogs - Some Fetch

With house rules stating that after April 1st, clothing will be t-shirts and cargo shorts, it's days like today where there is a temporary bending of that rule and a sweatshirt is allowed to be worn. Why? 52° at 2pm is why. How the weather experts said it would be mid 60's today, makes me wonder if I should come out of retirement for part-time work.

I'll get to the new blogs I found today, and other stuff I did today but first a short story on how my two bloodhounds are different. They look the same in color but that is about the only thing they share in common ... except sleep and eating.

Some of those differences are ... Stella will not fetch a bone, Sadie loves it. Stella can and will open doors to go outside, Sadie will wait for me to open the door for her. I found out just today that Sadie will not touch a banana but Stella will gobble it down as fast as possible the first time I turned my head and wasn't looking. Stella will howl for food while Sadie will give you "the stare" for me to feed her. They are great friends though.

When I realized it was still too wet for a walk in the fields, I just wasn't in the mood to have soaked shoes and cool temps combined ... it was time to play fetch with Sadie. As you can tell she was really excited (joke) as she saw me walking out with my camera and her bright orange bone.

She started off well but just like me she has a very very short attention span. It wasn't more than a two or three runs that she went into her pose that tells me "come and get it" ...I held out until she brought it back to me.

Whoever thought a bloodhound would love to play fetch? She has since she was a puppy in 2008.

This is the pose I was telling you about. Yes, you have seen it before, it very similar to the pose she has when she is demanding a walk in the field.

I held out though and then when she laid the bone at my feet, I threw it the opposite direction. As you can see, Stella doesn't like playing fetch, unless it's a frisbee.

The last toss to the left proved to be the last of the day. She lost her attention, found a different smell, focused on that and headed for the house ... without the bone.

Stella was still hot and heavy on a scent she had picked up underground. Maybe a yard mole track since they don't operate I'm told until 7pm or 7am. Luckily Stella is not into digging holes or craters trying to capture moles.

It was late this morning as I was finishing all my online reading and a cup of coffee. I was about to log off the computer and get up when a blog on someone's blog sidebar caught my glance ... "Encinitas" was the title. I had to click it since that was my old neighborhood from 1977 to 1984. Before I could even finish reading the first post, click here, I decided to start reading their blog from the beginning.

It wasn't soon after I started that with more coffee that I saw they had visited and stayed in other areas I had lived over the last 40 years. Those being the Pacific Northwest and around the area of Dillon Lake, Breckenridge Colorado. Needless to say the mind was flooded with old memories as I read and looked at their photos.

It's a great blog to take a look at. It has an interesting story along with great photos, plus a few places that you don't see on other travel blogs. The blog has been added to my sidebar and it's name is Trekking With The Bs.

Of course that blog had one listed on it's sidebar that looked interesting. After opening it up I had seen it years ago and through all of my blog changes I had lost their link. Today I saw they had 24 posts on the topic "Indiana". She had taken some photos of buildings that I have seen multiple times and a few places I'd been to before I started blogging in 2011. Like one does sometimes when it's local ... you take places or buildings for granted when others see the beauty in them. I need to get out more without the hounds.

When the weather is not optimum sometimes it means more time for book reading, online reading or doing stuff on the computer with spreadsheets or changing the blog design. I am still not finished with my template design although I have decided again that the current fonts, the crimson and white color combination is what I like. I would like some separation between the posting area and the sidebars.

I don't have the programming knowledge in how to draw a thin single vertical line between the sidebars and posting area. I assume I could do that in Blogger under their css section of the template adjustments. I see other templates that has each of those in their individual section. I'll am going to take a look at those templates, replace it with my fonts and colors and see if I can some up with something that works.

So I've played around this afternoon with that. It's still a work in progress.

Heidi really has me stumped today. Just a few days ago I thought I was seeing progress in her terrible skin issue. Then it exploded a few nights ago. Nothing had changed in her diet, bedding or activity ... it just went nuts with redness and chewed hot spots.

This morning her skin was so bad that as soon as I started to pet her, she rolled over on her back so I could see how bad her skin looked on her stomach, legs, paws and armpits. She had a bath a couple of days ago so shampoo might be the cause although it has been used before with great results. I think today it will be a 20 minute soak with Epsom Salts, a cold water rinse and a night off from the ointment to see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks to the people that commented or emailed me their thoughts on my blog changes. The feedback helps in what needs to be done.

It's football weather in May, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

Woke Up To The Sound Of Thunder

When you are told when you pick up Stella in August 2015, that she is afraid of thunder, this morning was another great test for her.

The thunder was so loud and so close I thought it had moved inside the bedroom. It was amazing that it was more of a shock to me than it was her.

All Stella did was raise her head, look and listen, then laid her head back down and went back to sleep. She has never what I called "freaked out" over thunder and storms. My first basset hound Harry had that honor and I was at fault for his fear. The most that Stella has done during storms since living here, is pace a little and very rarely whine.

It was raining lightly the first trip outside. I am not sure if any of the three hounds made it off the carport floor while I poured their breakfast inside. After checking the weather radar the storm had moved on NE and there was nothing west of us. Basically whatever the storm had been doing was while we were sleeping.

Heidi remained asleep, Stella and Sadie came outside for their 2nd trip of the day about an hour later. As I stood next to the corner of the house I could hear water coming down the gutter spout so talking myself into clearing the gutters on Friday worked.

While Sadie headed to the field, Stella did her sample tests to see how wet the field was. She took off the opposite direction but hardly got into the field before running out.

You can barely see Sadie's tail dead center of the photo. I've always been happy that the bloodhounds use the field as their 'drop tanks' and not the yard. That was just one of the things I didn't like about camping last June with Sadie, Winston and Heidi. Picking up poop in a bag was not one of my favorite camping jobs.

As Sadie heads back towards me, Stella is going in the direction that Sadie had come from. It's almost as if Sadie is asking her where has she been.

The angle of this photo makes them look so weird. Stella looks HUGE compared to Sadie and that isn't the case when they stand next to each other. I wonder how the camera distorted the photo like that?

Right after Stella walked a away from this spot, a Cardinal flew on a tree limb right above where she was. I thought she might be taking a chance when it flew to the ground ... because Sadie loves chasing birds out of 'her' yard and I didn't know what Stella would do.

Stella didn't seem to care the Cardinal was there and Sadie never left my side and just stared at the bird. The Cardinal is the state bird for Indiana and also the nickname of the local high school athletic teams. I've always liked the color.

Stella actually went into the field just long enough to do what she had to do and then came trotting back to us. It will be overcast skies the rest of the day but no storms until late tonight.

I was playing around with my blog last night and made some drastic changes to the template. It was no longer white but a dark blue, and the post area had a black background. Those were the stock colors for that template. 

I asked and Cat M replied that yes, the photos did look sharper but the blog did not look as clean and crisp as it did before. I remember those two words being used last January sometime when I changed the blog's template from the tan background that I had for years to the white background it is now.

I liked the change in color last night and even chose a font that was much different, modern and much smaller. You are going to ask me what it was and I can't remember the name of it now. There was a problem though.

What I was seeing on my 27" Apple monitor along with my 13.5" laptop was great. I could read everything, the colors looked great and I was going to leave it that way. Until Cat M emailed me a screen shot of what she was seeing on her computer.

The new template was unreadable!!  The fonts were chopped up and blurry. The colors were so dark you could not see the links along the sidebar or the page titles in the bar across the top of the blog. So I decided to go back to the previous template and change the color from the crimson to a bluish color as trim and keep the white background.

About the time I was making those changes the thunderstorm took out my satellite internet reception so the blog was stuck in that drastic change for anyone that was reading it from a different location here in 'the tropics' last night.

Then really late last night I decided I liked the Crimson better as a trim color but I did change all the fonts.

Let me know if you have any problems reading the new fonts.

It is looking more and more like a day of reading books here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.