Stella Supervises A Busy Friday

It was cold enough Thursday night after midnight that I had to shut the windows while we slept. The hounds don't like 47°. I left the small kitchen window open just for a little air flow. I forgot today was Friday but with cool temps predicted I had a couple of things on my list I wanted to get finished today. It went so smooth that I was finished by 1:30pm.

I guess this is a sign it's near October ??

I do much better with plants buying them after they have grown instead of trying to grow them.

Stella was ready to walk this morning. She woke from her sleep when she heard me about to leave and actually whined with excitement.

Snow boots were in order to keep my feet dry so my cargo shorts could get wet as we walked through the very wet grass. I actually had to break down and put on a sweatshirt for the walk.

Stella was into hunting for deer scat this morning ... but I stopped her from eating it each time she found it.

She follows the path most of the time.

And ... she has not taken off on me while off the leash.

The path is hard to see but she will follow it every walk we take. There are certain spots in the field that she has to go check out something but lately not too far off the path.

You can barely see the water droplets.

This is the exact spot that Heidi was sniffing yesterday. I forgot to post her photos here but I did post them on my Wordpress blog that's on this blog sidebar

I am not sure if it is a cat or a raccoon.

This was the first thing on the list this morning. It is just a small pile to move by hand. Next week I will have him dump a tractor bucket full right on the new pile I make today by the fence.

The picture does not really show the steepness of the erosion. Anyway that is the spot that I am going to put the rip rap rock. Why not use a wheelbarrow to move the stone?? I figured it would be about the same amount of time to move the rock by hand as it would to dig out the wheelbarrow that is in the very back of my small organized carport shed.

Stella assumed her supervisory position.

A good start.

She decided that she would follow me back and forth from the pile of rock to the fence. I didn't think she would last that long ....

And I was right ... a few minutes later she decided sleeping in the sun was the better option.

Asking if I am finished. She had things to do inside, like eat lunch, no matter that it was just a few minutes after 11am.

I started that rock job at 10:50am and finished at 11:12am.

The next thing on my list was washing windows. Not only the inside and outside of the regular windows but the two windows in each storm window. About an hour later when I was down to the last two bedroom windows, here comes Heidi heading for the door to be let outside. She walked across the yard to 'her' spot and soaked up some sunshine for a while.

Believe it or not that mailbox pole is NOT wobbly ... it is solid ... thanks to the great job of the Indiana Highway Dept 13 (joking) years ago when they had to move it further back after they widened the highway shoulder.

By 1:30 I was finished with my window 'washing' project and was enjoying the shade. At first I thought Stella might be exploring new ground in territory she is not allowed. I really don't want her in the front yard just in case there is a rabbit, a stray dog etc ... that she could chase and end up in the highway. All the years living here, Heidi has been the only hound allowed to be in the front yard.

Stella was only sniffing for the best place to take a short nap to catch that early afternoon sun in the western sky.

Once that mum blooms, it's going to be all crimson flowers.

Stella was eventually end up like this on the couch tonight while I watch the UCLA at Colorado football game. This photo was taken last night with my iPhone 8+ in low light. I did not edit any part of the photo.

Around 3:30pm I got some good news. An email from my TV ad on Craig's List and sold my Samsung 46" that was replaced a few months ago with the Sony 55". I added some new batteries for the remote and one HDMI cable to the package. I still had the owners manual in a drawer with all the other owner manuals. The buyer is getting a good deal and I am getting the TV out of the living room, while not being used.

I've rarely had any good luck with Craig's List.

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

A Cool And Drizzly Day

Heidi may have been feeling better this morning but that doesn't mean she wanted her photo taken. She had just moved from the dog bed in the bedroom out to the living room to join Stella and I about the time I was getting ready to take the morning walk. More rain was predicted within the next hour right after I published this morning's blog post.

She had no problems eating her morning kibble, even with missing teeth. Of course most of those small bits of kibble are swallowed whole, just some of them are chewed. Either way, after having to skip two meals due to surgery yesterday she was very hungry this morning and told me loud and clear she was hungry as did Stella.

This is one of two blankets scattered on the living room floor. Just yesterday afternoon I had folded them into nice shaped beds only to see her scratch and paw them into the perfect sleeping position.

When Stella and I returned from our short 14 minute walk ... Heidi had moved to blanket #2 and was in the deep sleep mode until lunch was served.

The first sign of rain were drops on the six red blocks we call "Winston's Patio". He would spend a lot of time laying on those blocks enjoying the warm sun, the scenery and thinking about everything during that day. I could barely hear rain drops but didn't see new ones on my arm nor the camera ... we decided the walk would go for as long as it didn't start raining.

Stella started the walk normal ... slower than slow.

Rarely did she move off the path.

In a lot of the field we cannot see our worn path as we have in past summers or falls but she will follow the path catching every slight step around a flower or weed.

Most of the time she will walk without stopping, even stepping on your foot as she walks around you ... IF, you are in her way.

This is her idea of tracking ... entirely different from Sadie.

The neighbor behind us picked his corn last week without telling us nor making a sound. I heard nothing while the field was cleared last week.

For once she is looking around at me to see if I am coming or not. I think these pictures show just how slow she moves.

For as long as I remember since she arrived in August 2015, this is their normal position while I watching tv or reading a book. They might flip positions depending who gets on the couch first or who might get up for water.

I've had my Garmin VivoSmart 3 for 15 months, wearing it all the time except when taking a shower. I cannot think of anything I would have done to cause this but just like that, the band broke. A search on DuckDuckGo, my new search engine since last June, showed me that I wasn't the only one with this problem. Due to the design of the watch, a replacement band is impossible.

So with the attitude of what could I lose if I contacted their support via their email address, I sent them a nice email stating the problem and letting them know that I have loved the performance of the Garmin. Yet I would hate to move to a new Fitbit or even the Apple Watch Series 4 as a replacement.

Within 48 hours after sending that email I had a reply asking for the serial number of the watch, my mailing address and where did the band break in relation to the hardware. The following morning I had an email giving me a shipping number for my new replacement at no cost. Disposing my watch at a qualified electronics recycling center or store was recommended.
 

I took this photo with my iPhone the other night while I was waiting for Stella to decide if she came outside to pee or just stand and sniff the air. A few minutes later as she turned to go back to the house I found out she just wanted to get some fresh air.

With the temps at 60° and intermittent light rain today ... it's was a day of reading books, and watching part of an 8 hour movie I picked up a the library yesterday called 'The Looming Tower', a new limited series. It reminded me of a book I read in 2002 named 'The Cell' by John Miller & Michael Stone. Although there is a book out by the same name 'The Looming Tower'.

For Mac users ... I have both the latest version of the new macOS Mojave and iOS12 on my computers, phone and table. It is very stable, fast and some nice new features. It will take about 6Gb of date to upload so I did my update during my free data period between 2am-8am. It did not take that long, that is just the time period I have free 50Gb of data that I don't pay for.

I will never use all the new features on the phone but it does seem to make my iPhone 8 Plus run faster when I am on the internet. It will be a phone that I keep for quite a while because it has a great camera for low light situations with hardly any editing needed.

I also got tired of the newer Safari version not blocking advertisements even after adding the updated Ad Blocker Plus ... so I moved my default browser back to Firefox. Over the pats couple of months they have worked out their bugs where it run much faster and also works well with the new Mac OS.

I want to say thanks to all that made blog comments or sent emails of support since Sadie's passing.

Not as warm as I like but it was a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Explores New Territory

After her surgery yesterday for some dental issues and an infection, she was energized as soon as she woke up this morning. Obviously she was feeling better than she had in a long time. When I didn't see her in the backyard or the southern side yard I had to go outside to see if she wandered off, which she never does. She was exploring with her nose to the ground in a part of the yard that I cannot remember her ever being in alone. Only those times she took walks in the field, did she walk back in that part of the yard.

Stella & Heidi Had Surgery Wednesday

Sorry for the lack of photos but this is more of an informative post about some unexpected events this week. Last Friday the large lump under Heidi's left eye came back. It had been doing it's disappearing act for a month or so. About the time I would call the vet for an appointment it would disappear or go down in size so I wouldn't call. I just thought it was caused by seasonal allergies ... it wasn't. While on that vet trip to find the cause plus it was time for Heidi's annual checkup and shots, I took Stella with me.

This picture doesn't show it but she is gradually getting back to her old self but she still has not wandered off into the field alone. The only times she goes into the field is with me when we are taking the walks. She still goes to the back of the car and can still smell Sadie's scent with her strong bloodhound nose. I see bloodhound nose smear marks on the back where she has tried to open the door of the car. If you look hard you will see a fairly large tumor on her right lower eyelid and another inside her left front leg ... it's the dark spot between her legs, the center of her chest.

We have had a few days of rain but when it's sunny you can find Heidi outside enjoying the sunshine. She sat there and didn't move for over 30 minutes.

So back to the surgery story. With the lump showing up last Friday, we are at the vet bright and early the next day by 9am. What I thought was a sinus infection turned out to be a bad tooth in the very back. One that had three roots and needed to come out. I have no doubt she had been feeling miserable most of the time because of this, instead of seasonal allergies. With evidence of the lump, proved the infection had moved from the tooth area into soft tissue. Meaning ... no tooth pain.

Since I have changed vet service since my trip on the 15th with Sadie, Heidi's past vet years ago told me he did not clean dog's teeth when I asked for an appointment, then told me reasons why. Stupid me ... I didn't go somewhere else. Like with any person's teeth not being cleaned, plaque builds up and that is never a good thing. That is what happened to Heidi. The new vet cautioned me that once they started cleaning old plaque, sometimes that is the only thing that is holding a tooth in place ... a warning that more than one tooth might be coming out.

Which is exactly what happened while they were cleaning them. So she had three teeth extracted and should be feeling much much better. They have been seeing great results with chews called Oravet Chews so we came home with a couple of free boxes to try out. An added bonus, while she was under anesthesia I told them to cut her nails back as far as possible since I was never able to without having one of them bleed. She came to me in 2011 with extremely long nails and I have never been able to gradually get the quick to retreat so the nail could be shorter. The vet said that does not always work. So ... she also got a nail trim while she was out.

With Sadie not around, Stella does a lot more of this (sleeping). She doesn't stare me down to go on walks. She does not sit at the open door looking outside through the screen or window at squirrels or birds on the fence ... she eats and sleeps.

I was told years ago by a different bloodhound breeder, there are two kinds of bloodhounds ... trackers and couch potatoes. She gives her puppies a test at 45 days old and can tell who is what. She was not Sadie's breeder but was giving me answers at the time for Sadie's puppy behavior. As you could tell from reading the blog over the years ... Sadie was the tracker, Stella is the couch potato. So now I have two couch potatoes and a house that is almost too quiet at times.

If you look on her upper left front leg you will see one the tumors she had removed yesterday. That was large enough they had to put in staples for it to heal. We go back on October 10th to get the staples removed. That small spot on her head was also removed. It was about the size of a tick but was a growth instead. The other was the dark spot on the corner of her eye in that picture. It was getting larger and the same kind that Sadie had on her right eyelid.

The vet was more concerned about a different kind of growth and smaller, located in the corner of her eye next to her nose. She came with that small growth when I brought her home in August 2015. From my view it was not getting bigger and past vets never were concerned about it. The new vet was because as he was looking at it, he lifted her eyelid for a better view and the growth popped out showing him and I that it was bigger than it looked. It had been growing inward instead of outward, and it was putting pressure on her eyeball.

So after Friday's exams, surgery to fix Heidi's infection and clean teeth were going to happen the same time Stella was getting tumors removed. Yesterday at 8am.

For the first time in 31 years for 6 hours I did not have a hound with me at the house. It felt strange.

This is Stella supervising my paint job last week as I finished on the north side of the house, on the 19th.

Some of you might remember three years ago when I wrote about getting Stella that she was coming with severe separation anxiety. Over the last 18 months there has been no signs of that anymore. the couple of times I have been out of town for seven to eight hours visiting friends, she did not try to tear down the house to get out. Yet, the previous owner as adamant about not putting her in any kind of kennel. She would freak out based on prior owner's experience.

So I called the vet on Tuesday telling them there was no way Stella would stay in a kennel before they sedated her and that I would like to sit with Stella in the waiting room right up to the time they were ready to sedate her. That was the plan, they understood and agreed.

What a shock I had early Wednesday morning as the three of us were waiting outside the building for them to open at 8am. The vet showed up not knowing of my request the day before with his vet tech and receptionist. He said "stay here and I'll open the back door so you can put them in the kennels while we open up."

I decided to try that knowing that if Stella started going crazy as she neared the kennel, then we would wait in the waiting room. Both Heidi and Stella walked inside right to their own kennels, turned around toward us, sat down and he took their collars/leashes off. Stella showed NO SIGNS of anxiety being closed up in a narrow kennel with an 8' or taller ceiling and tall concrete block walls. The vet tech told me when I picked them up that she was confused and surprised when she went to get the Stella for surgery ... because Stella was sleeping and had no signs of being stressed out.

Where was the severe reaction the previous owner told me about?

So to conclude this long story ... both surgeries went well. Heidi's tail was wagging like new as she trotted for the door this morning to go outside before breakfast. Coming back inside this morning she was barking for her breakfast. Yesterday afternoon once Stella felt better from really waking up from the anesthesia after we got home she started 'talking' to me. She was so happy she did something I have never seen a bloodhound or a basset hound do .... howling while rolling on her back. Her way of touching someone is nudging with her nose instead of any kind of licking. By the number of non-stop nudges I could tell she was a happy hound.

There isn't a day that I don't think about Sadie and at times I wonder what happened the last hour or so of her life. Yet new routines are slowly developing with Stella and Heidi. It is much different not to have a bloodhound wanting to go for a walk early, before 8am, compared to a bloodhound that is sleeping right behind my desk chair as I type this and could care less if we take a walk or not.

If I can get some photos of the hounds today I will add them back to this post later on.

Things are getting better in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana but at times it's hard. It's never easy losing a hound. I do know it takes a long time to get over it, if you ever do. Luckily I have two hounds to hang out with.