Andi’s exciting life.

Rosco started squinting his only remaining eye yesterday, which I was not happy to see. That’s always how his problems started with his right eye, and eventually it got so bad that it had to be removed. We got him in to see the ophthalmologist, and he has a corneal ulcer. She wasn’t clear on why this happened except that it’s an “old eye.” I told her that I was very worried because if he loses vision in this eye, he doesn’t have a spare. She seemed sure that it wasn’t the same kind of problem that he had in the past, but we’re not feeling very confident about that. They did a debridement, which is rubbing the dead tissue off his cornea with a rough Q-tip (with local anesthetic), and this seemed to make him feel a lot worse than when he went in. Now he is wearing an E-collar to keep him from rubbing it and on antibiotic drops, and he goes for a recheck on Wednesday. He’s just lying around taking it easy, and we have to carry him in and out of the house because it’s not clear how well he can see. Hopefully it won’t take long for him to feel better and get his already not-so-great vision back.

We already had to be careful with Falco around him because he will snap if Falco reaches for his face, but that situation is worse now because Falco wants to touch the E-collar and Rosco is in pain and can’t see well. We have to be extra vigilant about keeping them separated, and I think it’s likely going to be like that from now on. Such is life with a baby and an old dog I guess.

First, let me give the bad news. On Monday, Rosco had to have his right eye removed. He has had chronic problems for the past eight months that are painful and caused him to lose most of his vision in that eye, so we decided that the best thing for him would be to just have it removed. I just picked him up today, and he seems to be handling it very well. His vet is in Pacific Heights, AKA the rich neighborhood, so I had to walk my one-eyed dog down the busy streets with all the beautiful people. He was walking proudly, completely oblivious to what a horror show he looks like with one eye stitched close. In a couple of weeks, the stitches will be out and the hair will have grown out a bit, and he’ll just look like he’s winking all the time. We have already fondly started calling him “Lefty” and “Squints.”

Moving on, I have exciting news about Falco that I have been reluctant to share because of the fear of jinxing it. For over a week he has slept through the night almost every night! He first did it three nights in a row on his own, sleeping from about 6:30 p.m. until around 5:30 a.m. He had a night of waking up a couple times again, and I decided that I would try letting him cry (more like moan or fuss) for five minutes before going into his room and feeding him. The first night I tried it, he went back to sleep on his own within the five minutes. I was surprised and shocked and happy. I kept doing it for subsequent nights and it kept working. The past two nights he has woken up at around 4:45 and needed help to get back to sleep, but I bet he’ll be pretty consistently sleeping all night long pretty soon. It feels so luxurious to go to bed and not get up again until morning!

Yesterday was Falco’s four-month well-baby visit. As you know, we had been dreading it because he had to get vaccines and he seemed so uncomfortable and upset after his shots last time. Matt was able to come to the appointment too, and I expected to need the moral support. He was very good for his exam, as usual. He weighed 15 pounds, 6 ounces and was 26-1/2 inches tall. (That’s about the 50th percentile for weight and 95th for height.) Eventually, it came time for his shots. Luckily, we had the nice nurse this time, Stella, and not that mean guy from last time. She asked us to let Falco lie on the exam table instead of holding him in my arms, which I ended up liking better. When we layed him down, he was laughing and laughed through the restraining, alcohol, and the first shot! After the second shot he was sort of half laughing and half crying. When she got to his other leg for the other two shots, he cried a little for the third shot and started crying loudly after the final one because it stung. As soon as I picked him up and we gave him the pacifier he calmed down, and he just whimpered a little until we got him in the car. He slept the whole way home and was pretty much back to himself by the time we unloaded him from the car at home. I’m not sure if it went so much better this time because he had Tylenol on board before the shots or just because he is bigger and sturdier, but whatever the reason, he did fabulously and we were very proud of him.

To top off the day yesterday, I put him on a blanket on the floor before his bath last night, and he rolled over! He had been trying to do it for the past week or so but hadn’t been able to get past rolling onto his side. Last night he did it four times, so it wasn’t just a fluke. I was very impressed. Oh, also yesterday, he played with his first truck. We got him this big cement mixer truck that we figured he was too young to play with yet, but when we showed it to him while he was sitting in my lap on the floor, he pushed it back and forth and spun and dumped the back. It was cool to see him play with something besides just a boring rattle that he puts in his mouth, and it made me look forward to sitting on the floor and playing with him when he gets a little bigger. Here’s a teeny video from my phone of the rolling over event:

Our ongoing struggle with Falco is daytime sleep. He apparently thinks naps are for babies and would rather stay up all day, but he gets fussy if he doesn’t nap. I can usually get him to take two naps a day, but they might only be 30-45 minutes long. I have read that babies often get better at napping around 5-6 months of age, so I’m still hopeful it will just improve with time. Even if it doesn’t though, I’m so glad that he sleeps so well at night that I don’t really mind the napping situation that much. Even when he’s fussy, he’s still pretty good and I can deal. If we’re ever really desperate for him to nap, we just go on a long car ride and that does the trick. Speaking of naps, he is actually taking one right now so I need to go get some chores done and end this mega post!

Rosco has developed the annoying habit of staying outside forever when we let the dogs out instead of coming right back in with Adelaide. Yesterday, he did that and we forgot he was out there. We left to go get lunch at Mel’s Diner (AKA “the restaurant” since it’s the only one we ever go to). A few minutes after we got home, Matt reported that Rosco had run away. Then we realized that he had been left outside the entire time we were gone, a couple of hours. Matt went out to look for him in the highly windy and cold weather at our place while I stayed home with Falco.

Then, I remembered that when we were driving home I happened to notice an Animal Care and Control van driving away from a house about a block from us, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. I called them to report Rosco missing and ask if they happened to pick him up. The lady said that he was already there. So, we had to all load up in the car and go pick Rosco up from the slammer. Matt went in to post his bail while I sat in the car with Falco. He had to pay some fees and prove that he was our dog and then walk through the entire place and look at every dog until he postively IDed him. It seems pretty easy to ID the dog with a disfiguring underbite and a cloudy-blue right eye that he can’t see out of.

When Rosco finally made it out, he didn’t look much worse for wear after his ride in the paddywagon and time spent in the clink. He was only in his cell for about 45 minutes before we sprung him. Matt said that Rosco probably thought this was the best day of his life and he couldn’t wait to run away again.

I used to think women sounded so mean and callous when they would talk about wanting to get rid of their pets when they were pregnant or after they had a baby. I heard lots of people say they started making their pets live outside or got rid of them completely. Now that Falco is here, I completely understand why those women felt the way they did because I feel the same. I wouldn’t really get rid of any of them, but Rosco, Miu, and Adelaide do nothing but get on my nerves at this point. I particularly hate all three of them today. This morning I came home from the grocery store and found Rosco chewing puzzle pieces that Miu had knocked off the coffee table and Adelaide had one of Falco’s pacifiers under the dining table. The pacifier hadn’t been chewed so I could just sterilize it, and I managed to halfway salvage the two puzzle pieces. This afternoon I found another of Falco’s pacifiers in Adelaide’s bed, chewed and ruined.

Less destructive but equally aggravating things they do are things like Miu yowling outside Falco’s door in the middle of the night while he is sleeping or Adelaide getting in Falco’s face right when he is having a crying fit or either dog asking to go outside when I have my hands full with the baby. I think Falco just takes so much care and attention that having three other beings also dependent on me is overwhelming and annoying. Luckily Matt has been mainly taking care of all of them, but now that he is back at work I am stuck with them all day.

I have to hope that this will get better as Falco gets older and I get more settled into motherhood. Maybe it won’t though. Maybe I’m just a coldhearted pet hater now. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

On Sunday we went down to James and Lynne’s to carve pumpkins. A fun time was had by all, and you can fancy our fine jack o’ lantern workmanship in these photos. Lynne made the vampire pumpkin, I made the one looking up with a sideways mouth, Matt made the one with teardrop-shaped eyes, and James made the bat signal pumpkin.

We took the dogs down with us, and they were having a fun time running around and exploring their back yard. Adelaide got a little too fast for her own good and tried to jump underneath a bench to get onto the deck, hitting her back on the bench in the process. She yelped and ran over to Lynne and I, and there was immediately this huge lump on her back. I freaked when I first saw it because I honestly thought it was a dislocated vertebra or something, but it seemed to be just soft tissue swelling and she was getting around fine. When I saw the lump I thought we were going to be making a trip to the emergency vet, but Lynne had the bright idea of putting ice on it. So, we used a wrap bandage to hold ice on her back for 5 or 10 minutes, which she tolerated suprisingly well, and the swelling went down very quickly. She seemed totally fine afterwards, although she didn’t try running under the bench again. Luckily, no one else sustained any injuries.

Here are some better photos of Adelaide’s sleeping outfit. This thing is working out great. She never wakes me up anymore, and she is always covered up and never gets cold. Plus, she looks like a princess in it, and that’s just fun. Rosco of course wanted to be represented.

Today was a big day. The guys started putting up the
wall tile while I spent the day agonizing about paint
color. We ended up choosing this deep turquoise, and
I am really happy with it. The color makes me wish I
could swim in it, and that is what I was going for.

Oh, and this evening I saw that some of the tiles are
the wrong color. Turns out, Matt and I bought 1 box
of the wrong color. They are very close, so the guys
didn’t notice when they were putting them up. I only
saw it after it got dark out and the lighting was
different. Luckily, they are all at the top, and I
called the contractor about it, who said that it would
be no big deal to pop those out and replace them.

Also, these photos were taken with my new camera,
including that bonus one of Miu.

Rosco was having an ultra-cute moment this morning.

Adelaide is a whippet. Whippets don’t have much fur.
Thus, they are cold all the time. The three years we
have spent with Adelaide have been largely spent
covering her up with a blanket. She wants to be under
a blanket at all times but has no ability to get under
the covers by herself. This isn’t much of a problem
during the waking hours. We just walk over and cover
her up over and over and over throughout the day.
Nighttime is a different story. Everytime she gets up
to stretch or get a drink or whatever, her blanket
falls off, and she comes into our room and wakes me up
to be covered again. As you can imagine, this gets
old.

This is why I constructed this outfit for her. It’s
basically a wearable blanket. Last night was its
first test run. She did come in and wake me up once,
but I just told her to go get in her bed and could
guiltlessly go back to sleep. Not only is it highly
functional, let’s admit it, it looks incredibly
stylish. It can be worn with or without the fleece
turtleneck, and the turtleneck can be worn alone.

Now I just need to make Rosco an outfit because he
looks silly just being a dog in fur when the puppy is
in a deluxe custom sleeper. Whatever his outfit will
be, it should definitely be in a cowboy theme. Obviously.

Adelaide was intrigued by the phone on speaker.