Happy birthday, Spider

Love the crown

Happy birthday, Spider. Looks like fun was had.

Oh you're getting to be a big girl! Happy birthday, Spider!!

Spider kicked splinter out of his bed. She barely fits with his pillow and blanket

Love the pic

Spider got really really sick on Thursday. Well she took a shit that looked partially digested. Then the second one was watery and the 3rd 1 was pure liquid. When we got her home she had blood dripping from her anal area. Called the vet. They decided it was bacterial after fecal was neg for parasites and pis for bacteria. Other then the shitting in the truck and the bleeding and the watery stool she was acting normal and eating normal. No fever. It was the new vet office. They gave me antibiotics and the bleeding stopped and shes still being spider.

And of course this sent jerry manic especially driving through flooding in the pass in the rockslide area. I noticed when i come out of the pass i have a grey blue smoke coming from the tailpipe. Not sure if its normal or the elevation strain or what.

I believe gray smoke suggests steam? You were driving through flooding?

@Lostmaniac Our dogs are doing their best to keep us on our toes ... but my feet are beginning to hurt!!

@amymeme given the situation, yeh, probably water in / on the exhaust. But it could be a head gasket, too. If this is the one you recently got and it came from low altitude you might be seeing gas from a too rich mixture.

Im thinking the rain and the elevation change created some type of blowback. Or steam or condensation buildup. Everywhere i went was lower then here except the pass over the continental divide and it happend both times in the same spot coming down into the slv. And both times it was either raining or had rained recently. It was more white gray then blue grey. Also noticed the continue driving to clean exhaust filter right around the same time (cant remember if it was before or after or how soon)

@aljones i got one of those car sheid plans so if it needs an overhaul i will overhaul it. Ive lost 2 trucks to head gaskets. An 81 Sierra and a 90s silverado. Its not fun. But its an 08 so it should auto calibrate.

And of course spider is her normal self again.

Glad spider is feeling better. bloody anything is always a concern. If much food went through undigested it may have just irritated the lining of her intestines enough the bleed a bit.

In aurora. At a much nicer hotel then normal thanks to the va.  But would you know from the pic that this has turned into a disaster?


Now what I see looks like anything but a disaster ...

Everyone looks mildly comfortable. I'm worried about barking with Kasper the first attempt we make at staying in a motel.

Jenn - you brought up a very funny memory. Our very first trip with Ami, staying in a hotel way up north while hubby did some shifts at a local hospital. At that point, Ami was still mostly an outdoor dog. Super excited about the car ride and the hotel stay. It took awhile that night for him to settle ( involved a long walk late at night in unknown territory.) Welp. The hotel put us near the lobby for quick and easy access to outside. The hotel also offered a buffet continental breakfast... That they started street up about 4 in the morning. Got the big dog's attention big time. Woo woo woo. Full volume.

Sigh. I was walking the streets again...

Lostmaniac wrote:

In aurora. At a much nicer hotel then normal thanks to the va.  But would you know from the pic that this has turned into a disaster?

Now what I see looks like anything but a disaster ...

That was after several long walks. My dogs are very well behaved inside of rooms, for the most part. Its the hallway... and jerry. Splinter gets super excited and starts this high pitched squeak when he sees the leash. And spider mostly doesnt care. I really do mean mostly. I can take both dogs out down the hall down the elevator and out the busy lobby no problem. Add jerry into the mix and spider starts screaming down the hallway and out the door. You know that half scream half howl that only a husky or husky mix can do. Not to mention i have never seen so many people afraid of both my dogs. I mean doesnt splinter look like the scariest dog on the planet?

That was after a several mile walk around the aurora v.a. hospital. Im lucky they are getting old now. It only took a 3 hour walk at the va followed by about a mile of walking nextt to the transit station building later that evening and a few much shorter walks then we did 40 mins at the hotel in the am an hour long walk at the va after jerrys appointment then a short walk in conifer and then home.

So i have become very aware that when spider becomes an anxiety ridden butthole, jerry is there. Even when i try walking her at his closer appointments if she can see him she becomes a screamy mess.

And neuro wants to see him once a month to figure out what is going on so this is going to be a monthly thing and it needs to get sorted out between jerry and spider.

Well different hotel different city. Loyal duke lodge in salida colorado. Dogs are being well.... i guess considering it is kinda set up like it was a 1950s 3 story motorlodge because thats what it is. Its also the nicest motel that would allow 3 dogs and not charge more then the room for the dogs. Squirt went to the kennel, and she didnt even look back when i handed her leash off or they put her outside and the truck drove off. I guess she hates me LOL

Jerry has surgery check in at 615am so i wasnt about to drive through the mountains in the dark and we are at a motel for the night. What we didnt know is that every room was booked and almost every room has atleast 1 dog. There are 5 purebred huskies here and none are together. Spider got to howl at one and it howled back and it scared her. Splinter travels like a champ.

Shadow is actually the issue. We are ground floor with the stairs right outside. Because he cant see when he hears people and dogs on the stairs or car doors he barks. Then splinter barks then spider howls then splinter does the screeching howl that an 18 lb terror does.

Is it just colorado or does everyone travel with their dogs. Usually it was ranchers and veterans but here its everyone. Like geeze.

And i really like the thought of buying something in texas and going for winter. Let me rephrase i LIKED the idea of texas until today. Today it hit 69. I thought i was overheating the dogs were actually like they were overheating and the windows were open and the truck was going about 80mph.... so i turned on the ac and decided i dont think me or the dogs could handle texas most of the year.

We hit 88⁰ up here on the hill which means in the valley, they were in the 90s. I'm toast. Or maybe I should say, melted jelly Sorry. I just don't do heat. Ever. Never have.

So as soon as hubby comes in from the garage, I'm gonna manage to chip up some romaine, radishes, cukes, onions and maybe peppers if they're in the fridge, shred a Walmart rotisserie chicken, slosh some chunky blue cheese dressing on it and call it dinner. Lady time I ordered, they threw in some ciabatta rolls by mistake (they didn't want them back, probably some one else's order) so if hubby is really hungry, I'll grill up one or two of those for him. Otherwise, that it! I pooped.

Lol with the weather doing what it is, jerrys aurora appointments in may are going to be fun. If its over 80 spider will not get out of the truck herself. Atleast shadow will not be going.

I am home now and its a little warmer then normal and way windy

Your highs are beginning to look like my lows! Been sleeping with the back door open for the last few nights.

Or high yesterday was 88⁰. Tuesday night low will be 33⁰. We have another day or two of "summer" but supposed to go back to seasonal or slightly below starting Monday. I need 2 weeks of 50⁰ ish or below to trick my artichoke seedlings into thinking they had a winter so they will give me flower buds! I would really like to plop a couple of steaming home grown artichokes on a plate in front of my husband with a big pot of garlic butter. He loves the things. I find them a bit tasteless.

I love artichokes its one of the big reasons i want a year round greenhouse. Followed by Brussels sprouts. Both will grow here without a greenhouse but i do not want bitter ones and thats what will happen with the single digit humidity most of the year. Not sure what happened to the strawberries, im fairly sure the raspberry died. The wax currants and chokeberries are coming back. The snow berries need to be killed while i can get to them because they are poisonous to dogs. The prickly pears started to come up last month but then it got cold and they turned purple. One of these days i will get a prickly pear before the birds or whatever that eats them.

On the prickly pears. I have 3? Types that grow wild in my yard. They are 100% all edible but unlike in other areas, ours are very small and and have very large spines. We dig them up within the fence but they do have very pretty flowers and the bees and hummingbirds and butterflys and moths love them so we let them go crazy.

I also have liliac and lavender i think... whoever did the landscaping like 15 years ago put all edible and medicinal plants in and they have gone mostly wild because most of it is technically also native like the chokeberries and wax currants and snow berries have antiseptic properties but all are native, just not how they were planted.

Me spider and splinter have to go pick jerry up in salida today. I thought about going early and taking the dogs up to mt shavano but weather is calling for low 50s and thunderstorms. I may walk them at the rainbow trailhead IF they havent shut the gate. I alao have to be careful about how many roads are washing out with rapid snow melt.

Spider is giving me issues on the leash lately that are new and i really dont like. I like that she is friendly and wants to engage with people. But i dont like her dragging me in their direction when they havent acknowledged her or wanting to say hi to her. Im just not all about when strange dogs do that to me. And i discovered how many people are scared of her or just dogs in general and narrow busy trails are now an issue all the sudden. And she has always been an extrovert and in the house it borders pushy but not in new places. In the last 2 days she has wanted to say hi to every single person that passes her. Usually in a new place she is so anxiety ridden she doesn't even notice other people or dogs

Playdate with spider and tucker went well. She snapped at him when they initially first met but by the end on the 30 min walk they were side by side and tucker was licking her under the chin. They tried to play but im not a huge fan of letting 2 dogs wrestle with them both on leash. In a few days we are going to add splinter into the mix.

Glad the initial went well. Hopefully with spider being good with Tucker that will help ease splinter to accepting that Tucker isn't an issue.