Oooh, wildebeest!

Ok, first and foremost:  Yesterday, Dawn got a clean bill of health on her 2 year checkup, meaning she is officially in remission from her cancer.  REMISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the best news I have heard in I don't know how long, and I'm actually a bit overwhelmed.  I can't find the words I want to be able to find to express how I really feel about that, but I am pretty sure most of you out there have a good idea how I feel.  Wow.

Dawn, way to go.  I wish I were there to celebrate with you, but have a glass of wine for me, and a toast.  I don't know what I would have done without you the last 6 months or so.  I'm sending virtual hugs and all my love and thanks and happiness for you!!!!!!!!!!!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled silly blog entry:

I swear, watching this webcam of the pond in Botswana has totally warped me.  I was well on the way to start with, but.....  I'm obsessed with missing something and completely riveted when I see something other than guinea fowl and egrets.  Last night, the most gigantic herd of wildebeest appeared out of nowhere, and then proceeded to line themselves up in perfect order along the shore of the pond to drink.  Fascinating!  It's now almost dusk at the pond, and things are pretty damned quiet.  Bummer.  Somebody needs to show up and entertain me.

Stella is doing her best to entertain me, but I'm ignoring her.  Opera has never been my thing.  She's been a little BUTT so far this morning!!  Aside from the 6:30 wake-up (ok, I can excuse that--the sun is up, our little circadian clock says it's time to wake up), she's been spastic and biting like crazy and jumping in her pen, a habit that MUST be broken.  Not one is it essential that she get gate-trained, one of those jumps put her snout deep into my left eye socket at a pretty high velocity.  Should be a pretty good black eye out of the deal, but at least there was no vitreous fluid leaking anywhere.  I think she's reached the terrible-2-weeks. 

The good news is that she does respond to training really, really well.

OMG, there's a crocodile that I swear is about to strike at a heron!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow!  C'mon Mr. Croc...this pond has a zillion herons.  I wanna see this.  Wait....is it a croc?  Or is it a Nile monitor lizard at a funky angle?  Now this is drama, boys and girls!

Anyway, she responds to all the training methods that we're trying with her, unlike a certain golden retarded.  The only problem is that we can't spend 24 hours a day working on training methods.  But, as I've been telling her, the honeymoon is over, and real training is about to begin.  She's 9 weeks old today, and she's proved that she is very capable of understanding our commands and the clicker system.  Just don't anybody tell her that the "treats" we dole out ever couple of seconds are actually single pieces of her kibble puppy food.  She thinks she's getting spoiled rotten.

Either this is a really lazy crocodile, or the camera angle is misleading and he's really about 12 feet away from the heron--too far to strike.

The boys are all headed off to an air show at Beale AFB today, which means Anna and I are on our own.  I'm thinking of being daring and leaving Little Monster alone just long enough for Anna and I to go have lunch or something, just to see how she does to being left alone.  I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'm thinking.

A big part of that is, of course, how I feel.  And how I feel so far is exhausted.  I really didn't want to get up at 6:30.  I may end up down on the floor with Stella napping again this morning.  That's what I ended up doing yesterday for an hour; then, I took about a 3 hour nap late in the afternoon, and still dropped right into bed at bedtime.  

Now, I need to leave the computer for about 60 seconds.  Who wants to bet me that the croc makes his move during those 60 seconds?  The stupid heron is even asleep now!  Dumb bird...or else he knows something we don't.  Hrm.  Well, here goes nothing.

He didn't strike, but he's closer, and his head is waaaay up, like he's thinking about it.  And the heron went back to sleep.

Oz is doing better, but not better enough, yet.  He's eating at least a little canned cat food and tuna a day when I take it up and put it right in front of him, and eating dry food when he feels like it.  We have 4 bowls of dry food out there, but I can't leave the tuna or the wet alone for long or the other pussycats demolish it.  That's ok after he's had his fill--don't want them to feel left out.  I think a lot of the improvement I see in his shape, his coat, eyes, everything, is due to being at least almost properly hydrated now.  He drinks lots of water, and I think thata has made all the difference.  He has a urinary problem anyway, so going without water for any period of time is not cool for him at all.  There are two good sized bowls of water upstairs now, one of which is not reachable by doggies at all, and the water level is dropping significantly each day.  I've seen him jump on and off the cabinet where the dishes are, so I know his strength is good for getting up there where the stuff is.  Still, I'm not 100% ok with where he is, and if I'm still at this same place Monday morning, we're heading off to the vet asap.  He's not a young cat, but he's not an old one either--10 1/2 isn't old for a healthy cat, at all.

As for me, I am in pain.  That pretty well describes my existance right now.  

They moved the camera!  No more heron and crocodile, just guineafowl.  :-<

Anyway, pain.  Nothing of earth-shattering importance, just annoying pain.  Joint pain, muscle pain, fascia pain, incision area pain, pubic pain, neuropathy pain, lymphedema pain.  Everywhere that was swollen or still somewhat is hurts, which is weird--like, the tops of my feet hurt if you touch them, which is way strange.  So, nothing of great concern on my part, just fatigue and pain.  I'll live.

I just wish I knew if the heron did!!