Instead I’ll talk about Miss Yara, who today started her third week of treatment. That meant that she got a B-12 shot today, administered by me. This did not go over well. She knew right off that something was up when I tried to give her the injection. She kept trying to walk off or roll onto her back and she cried. Seriously, I think my neighbors are going to call animal control on me. It was heart-wrenching. I felt like the worst mommy ever. I think we’re both not looking forward to next Monday.

Other than that, though she is doing phenomenal. I’d estimate that she’s gained about 14 pounds since starting the treatment. She’s filling out very nicely and several people today expressed in excited tones how they couldn’t see her ribs anymore. It was nice to walk down Washington Avenue today and hear how pretty my dog was rather than have people grumble at me as they passed me by. I also don’t miss the evil stares or the people dragging me out of the middle of crossing streets to accost me.

(2.) Saw this on Digg today and found it quite an interesting read: President-elect may have to give up his Blackberry. I daresay I don’t know what I’d do if I had to turn in my Blackberry, I’ve become quite dependent on and very fond of it. Honestly, these days I can’t be expected to remember any appointment or event — work-related or merely social — if I haven’t put it in my calendar!

(3.) I was doing a bit of house website cleaning and stumbled upon this photo that was never posted:

And now I’m off for the night. Ta ta!

(2.) I am now registered for classes for next semester. This is very much an awesome thing. Less awesome is that finals are only weeks away. Gah!

(3.) I’m working on two huge origami projects at the moment. One is a wedding gift that may take me the remaining nine months until the date to finish. The other, I’m hoping, will be ready soon enough to send out with some very festive portraits of a certain GSD. ^_^

(4.) In her continuing efforts to make me always be a liar about her status, Yara decided to eat a full two scoops today for breakfast. Then she spent about an hour pacing around the living room for no apparent reason that I ever determined. Perhaps she knows that I found this priceless gem of photographic outtake-age:

That is all.

Today was pretty lazy, even by my own standards. The plans I had fell through, which worked to my advantage given I was feeling decidedly lazy. I managed to accomplish pretty much nothing all day, except to putter around with this here website. Something I hardly ever get a chance to do these days. Honestly, it wasn’t as fun as I used to find it. Mostly it was frustrating, and I found myself having to walk away from the computer for hours at a time because I would have become so agitated I was fearful I might break things. How I ever sat here and wrote PHP code or painstakingly edited graphic files is beyond me.

Yara was in a crazy mood most of the day. She kept coming over and nuzzling me. Usually that’s an indication that she’s bored or wants some attention or even that she might need a trip outside. But there was nothing for it today, I’d pat her or try and play with her and she’d just walk away and lie down in the kitchen. It was totally random. At one point I’d given her a treat and she didn’t even take it at first, instead she went and got her octopus and deposited it in my lap and then she took the biscuit . . . into the kitchen and ate it.

Yara may also have finally gotten full! It took a grand total of nine days from the start of her treatment before she started going back to her old food ways wherein she’s not finishing all that I’ve given her, usually breakfast. I’m not surprised. I’d expected it sooner than that even. She was eating something around seven cups a day.¹ Wednesday and Thursday she begrudgingly finished her breakfast, but yesterday I decided to just give her one scoop in the morning. I did the same today, and she ate both meals without much issue.

And some big news! (Well, for those that don’t follow my Twitter or Facebook updates.) I got a call yesterday from Fidelco and they have informed me they’ll be reimbursing me for the vet costs related to Yara’s tests and treatment. Even more, they’re going to supply the supplements Yara needs at discount cost (i.e., they’ll obtain the supplements and other treatment she might need via their vet at the reduced, no-markup price they get it and charge me exactly that). Really sensational news so far as I’m concerned. I’m so pleased they’re going to help me out. Robbie’s supposed to call me with all the specifics next week, but all the treatment details will have to wait until after Yara’s check up on the 2^nd.

1. This is a rough estimate. The scoop I use to dish out her kibble isn’t a measuring cup like I was using prior to the “add a cup” suggestions. It holds something between 1.5 and 2 cups. And Yara was eating four scoops a day for those initial nine days.

Also went hung out with Rachel tonight. We met up at Crossgates and had dinner at Friendly’s, since I was craving a milkshake. Yara was so cute during our meal, she spent the entire time watching a baby at the booth across from us. It was really adorable, especially since she was resting her head on my foot the entire time like it was a pillow.

Since we were felt so stuffed after eating, we felt obligated to walk the mall.¹ We stopped at Penney’s to see if Yara’s photos were up yet, and they still aren’t. Jean wasn’t around so I couldn’t badger her more. On our reverse trip through the mall I joked that so far it hadn’t been a “real” trip since I hadn’t yet made a child cry. And not five seconds later did Yara very nearly scare a little girl so badly she very nearly broke into tears. Poor thing. She was on one side of a table and we came up kitty-corner to it and startled her, which in turn made Yara jump a little in surprise and scared the girl even more.

Still, we headed on to Borders and wandered through the aisles, looking at books. And then decided to take a trip to Michael’s to pick up some odds and ends Rachel needed for some crocheting projects. I got to see her mom again, since she works at the store. We browsed around for a bit and finally decided it was time to head home, during which I snapped the below photo because it just was too cute not to share:

1. Crossgates is over a mile in length from one end to the other, so it’s a pretty decent walk back and forth.

Back in May I opened an insurance policy with VPI for Yara. Research showed me that there were probably better companies out there, but this one had the added incentive of both having automatic payroll deductions and a substantial discount through being part of CSEA. Anyway, I filed my first claim after Yara’s yearly physical and got back a whopping $60. I was hardly impressed, but I figured this would be a good backup to have in case of emergency. Like a car accident, perhaps.

Today I finally get official word that all of the claims I’ve made regarding Yara’s EPI — all the tests and treatment — have been denied. Every penny. And any pennies that will occur in the future. Because EPI is both a hereditary condition that is common in GSDs and was a pre-existing condition. Granted I didn’t know she had the condition when I started the policy, but that’s hardly the point.

As if my day couldn’t get worse, I get a knock at the door from the landlady¹ and she is carrying an armful of papers. She hands me one and proceeds to explain that I’m in default for my November rent and this here document is to notify me of my court date. The long and the short of it is that I neglected to drop my rent check in the mail and they never got it. Oops! No real harm done, if you discount my near cardiac arrest. The kicker is that this may actually prove useful to me in other avenues, but I’m not going to elaborate on that here.

Later, I hear dogs barking and growling and whining all up and down the hall. And again I hear doors being banged on. Curiosity gets the best of me and I decide that right then would be as good a time as ever to take Miss Yara out. Well, lo and behold it’s the landlady banging on doors; this time she has the super in tow and together they’re “checking apartments for dogs and cats not on lease.” The super goes on to explain that they’ve had lots of reports about dogs relieving themselves in common areas of the building. I’m not really sure how the two are exactly related. I mean, no one really has an excuse not to clean up after their dog if they have an accident in the hall. Generally you’re dog’s in the hall because you’re heading out to do just that, so it’s not really a hassle to go back and grab some paper towels or whatnot. But if you have a dog that shouldn’t be in the building, chances are you’re even more careful about that kind of stuff, right?

1. Landlady here referring to the leasing agent that generally works this building. The actual “landlord” as it were is a company that happens to own quite a few different properties in the Capital District.

Being Veteren’s Day, I had the day off from work, so Yara and I went to waste some time at Crossgates. It was a pretty normal mall trip: we made a kid cry, we made others super happy, we got asked the same questions nine thousand times. It was actually really crowded, though. I hadn’t really thought about the fact this is one of the few days off parents and children share before the holidays start. People kept walking into me and Yara and by the time I’d even started trying to shop I was already more than ready to go home. We did stop in to say hi to Jean at Penney’s and no, she still hasn’t hung up the portraits. Oh, well.

It was really amusing at the Portrait Studio, though, which almost made up for it. There were a ton of families there getting holiday photos taken and a slew of kids in an assortment of red and green dresses and sweaters. It was really too adorable to stand. And completely belied the atmosphere because every single one of those kids were very much not pleased to be there or be in their holiday best or waiting have their picture taken or to seeing my dog or whatever. Honestly, if the mob of parents weren’t standing their steely-faced, I would have been rolling on the floor. It was truly the highlight of my day. I think that makes me a bad person, but it’s the truth.

Hmm, I thought I had more to post about, but now that I’m sitting here typing it out I’ve completely forgotten most of it. Eh, another time I guess. I’m going to go watch my new Blu-ray. :-)

But the one comment that sticks in my mind, sadly, was made by someone I ride the bus with somewhat frequently. She remarked at how much better the dog was looking and then went on to say, “I was really starting to worry about her. She was looking so thin and there was one day I saw her stagger and I thought, ‘Wow, she must be so weak from being so malnurished.’” I’m rather proud of myself for not saying something rude to her, but really I’m just amazed at how totally stupid people can be. Anyone that’s paid any attention to Yara would know she was never weak or sick or in any bad way other than the weight loss itself. In fact, several coworkers and friends can attest to how much energy she has had through all of this. The comment about staggering really blew me away and I’m not sure where that came from. But I imagine if she really witnessed the dog stagger it was from the bus lurching or Yara being clumsy and tripping over my foot. Really, though, I’m just left speechless.

Anyway, as the title alludes to, we made yet another trip to the vet’s office today. Yara had her second B-12 shot and I picked up the remaining six doses to administer myself at home. We also weighed Yara . . . she’s back at 51 pounds! Literally there was a chorus of “whoops!” at the vet’s from the gathered techs when the weight was read off. So awesome.

Our next check up with Dr. Gundersen is in three weeks. By then Yara will be off the FortiFlora and Tylan and we’ll determine where to go from there.

Sarah described Fay as the “sassiest puppy there is” and she certainly lives up to it. She’s very sweet and affectionate and quite the cuddle buddy, but she’s also very independent. What I noticed most abuot her today was that she is by no means intimidated by other dogs. In fact, she pretty much held nothing back with Yara. Yara didn’t seem to mind, but both Sarah and I commented we wished she’d put the puppy in her place if she didn’t want to play. We eventually had to physically separate them so Yara could have some downtime.

Anyway, most of the afternoon was spent giggling over the dogs playing. Yara was pretty much using her superior size and strength to her advantage by just standing around and letting the puppy pull with all her might. But Fay certainly wasn’t dwarfed in any sense; at one point she leaped squarely on Yara’s back and nearly flung herself into my television! Mostly they just chased each other around my apartment or played keep-away with a toy, but they were hardly as crazy as Yara and Irie were a few weeks ago. Thankfully, we didn’t have any accidents this time and no toys were damaged during this visit. However, one hair clip was sacrificed as a chew toy for the betterment of canine diplomacy.¹

It was a very fun afternoon, but stay tuned because in two weeks they’ll be back to visit and this time Irie’s coming, too!

EDIT: In an effort to remember to check Facebook more often, I’ll be cross-posting images from here into albums there. Sorry for the repetition. ;-)

1. Fay kept climbing on my back and I eventually realized she was trying to get at my hair clip so I let her chew it up while Yara crashed out for a few.

Also Sarah and Fay will be here tomorrow so I am sure I’ll have tons of adorableness to post from that.

For now, that’s all I have. Must run and get stuff accomplished before the rain starts.

It’s only been three days and already I can see that she’s doing so much better. Her stool is, as Sharon puts it, “a poop color” now and more normal looking than I’ve ever seen it. She’s eaten every bite of her food since Monday evening when I first started adding all the supplements and medicine. And I can tell that her stomach is staying full rather than emptying almost immediately after relieving. Even her ribs are less prominently showing!

And while she never acted sick, she does seem to have perked up. My grandmother voiced my thoughts when she said that it’s probably because she actually has nutrients in her body now. And everyone’s in agreement that she had to have been suffering somewhat from having all that food pass through her. I can say she seems especially interested in having her belly rubbed the last few days.

The one somewhat negative is that her stool is loose. It’s not quite diarrhea, but it’s not firm like it was before. I called the vet today and voiced this concern and was told that chances are it’s a reaction to the antibiotics, but that if it gets any worse to bring her in. As she’s definitely improving already from this treatment and we know it’s not the food she’s eating, we didn’t want to make any changes.

We’re back at the vet’s Monday afternoon for her next B-12 shot and a quick follow up check on her progress.

EDIT: By the way, you might notice some changes going on here while I work on the new design. Sorry if things go missing suddenly or break for no reason. Hopefully I’ll get everything straightened out sometime this weekend.

The bad news is that she has exocrine pancreatic insufficency and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Which means she’ll need to be on an enzyme supplement. For the next month, she’ll be on antibiotics to kill the bacterial overgrowth and probiotics to rebuild the proper bacteria in her intestines, as well as weekly B-12 shots for the next two months. The vet also suggested a prescription diet of Purina EN as it’s lowfat and low in fiber, but frankly so is the food she’s on and I think it’s better quality. Not to mention since I switched her to the reduced fat EVO, her stools went from kind of tan and mushy to completely normal. We’ll see on that.

Anyway, the enzyme supplement will probably be required for her entire life and is roughly $100 a month. The antibiotics, shots, and probiotics will hopefully only be necessary for the next month or two. But at this point nothing is certain. Will continue to keep everyone updated as I find out more.

Edit: [Update — Nov. 4 @ 7:00 AM] Spent over $250 at the vet’s yesterday getting all of Yara’s supplies and her B-12 shot. We’ll be going back next week for a quick follow-up and to receive another shot; I’m planning to purchase the other six doses then and administer them myself. Two meals down and Yara seems completely unaffected by all this stuff added to her food, she very happily cleaned her bowl both times. She does seem very interested in all the fuss made over its preparation, she sits in the kitchen watching me aptly.

Dolly lost two pounds and has had her meds reduced. My father says her energy has mellowed a bit with the adjustment to her meds; she’s gone from being a holy terror to just annoyingly stubborn. Specifically he points out that she now listens to no one, including him . . . and she’s still eating poop.

Oh, and two of my puppy raiser friends have gotten their new puppies. Hopefully I’ll get to meet both little girls sometime soon!

Having lunch at my mother’s tomorrow. Sounds like she’s cooking a literal feast, which would be less alarming to me if she hadn’t said only four of us will be eating all this food. Last time she did something like this she’d turned “dinner” into a cookout slash party of some twenty or so people I didn’t know. I very nearly turned tail and ran away. Honest.

Supposedly my new laptop shipped. Hooray!

And in other news, I upgraded to WP 2.6.3; no database changes, so hopefully nothing should be broken.

• From the small bit of information I’ve managed to gather here and there, we believe Yara is suffering from pancreatitis. Test results to confirm this are still pending, but I’m thinking of switching Yara to the reduced fat EVO and see if that helps any.
• School continues to keep me busy. Midterms are next week and I’m doing my best to not stress myself out completely.
• Seems there’s an issue with my new laptop and HP has delayed its shipment indefinitely. From what I’ve been reading on different forums, said issue may be more complex than the “lack of availability” line HP gave me. I’m on the fence if I’ll just give up and find something else.
• Speaking of computers, my PC at work went all BSOD¹, leaving me with absolutely nothing to do most of Friday. IT never came to fix it so I’m expecting an equally dull Monday.
• I think I’ve come down with a cold or something. I feel pretty much fine (aside from a massive headache that may be unrelated), but I’m very stuffed up and everything tastes kind of off. . . .
• Got my absentee ballot in the mail yesterday. I’m happy to say that Albany County will not be voting for Osama.
• Oh, and it dawned on me that Tuesday marked eight months at VESID. My, does the time fly. :-)

1. Blue screen of death.

I did hear back from Dr. Gundersen that Yara’s blood work came back negative. Her kidneys and liver are fine, electrolytes are normal, protien levels are good. By all accounts she’s healthy. Nothing new there. Her thyroid test results have yet to be completed, but she’s scheduled for the next batch of blood tests a week from Saturday.¹

That, of course, is hardly where the drama resides. Last Friday while I was on my lunch break, I was told by another colleague that a gentlemen came to our office “looking for someone regarding abusing their guide dog.” As there are three of us currently in our office alone that are guide dog users, she asked him specifically whom he was referring to, but he wouldn’t give her a name and I assume he left shortly thereafter as I never ran into him. My colleague seemed very concerned that it had to do with Yara, (though admittedly a few other coworkers felt it may be in reference to another person on our floor) but I brushed it all aside. To be honest, I was hardly surprised that the gentlemen may have been looking for me specifically; I hear on a daily basis from friends and strangers alike that Yara’s excessively thin.

Anyway, Monday I received a call from Becky that a report had been made against me at Fidelco. Of course, I’ve already been in contact with the school about the entire matter. In May, when I first found out Yara had lost weight, we all went to the school, had Yara weighed again and talked with Robbie about the matter. Plus, at the urging of Patty, I called Robbie last week, hoping for some insight on other Y’s with a similar issue and/or any advice. All that notwithstanding, Fidelco still has its own obligations to meet, so Becky was coming to “check on us.”

Wednesday, I met her and Mary at my office and they both easily confirmed the obvious: Yara’s very thin. Becky observed that Yara also “clearly hates [me]” as she was doing her usual “this is my mommy” sitting thing where she leans on my leg with her right foot planted on top of my left one and stares up at me. We walked a few blocks and talked a bit about the complete standstill I’m at with what’s causing the weightloss. Yara was quite good, save for the uncharacteristic dog distraction she was having with Vince, the dog Mary was working with. We eventually let them have a brief hello to get it out of her system, but I’ve chalked it up to the fact she hasn’t seen a shepherd since the Walk.

When we were practically back to my office, Mary asked if there was anywhere to eat where they could take the dogs in. And, of course, in downtown Albany there’s tons of places to eat and they’re all pretty used to guide dogs coming in. Becky went and “got herself a dog” from the van and we set off. Yara was hilarious during this walk as she now had two shepherds that she had to outperform. She had to be first off the curb and in front of all the other dogs. She was just so silly!

We ended up going to El Mariachi; all the dogs were really very good I thought. Hannah was especially funny because she wasn’t really sure whom to listen to even though Becky was working her, so she’d just randomly target me or jump up when I was giving Yara a command. Vince, on the other hand, kind of reminded me of Raechel’s last puppy Spock, he just kept spreading himself out more and more. But anyway, I had a very nice time. We chatted about a bunch of stuff and I actually heard some news about Spock, which was really kind of random and funny.

After we finished, we all walked back to the van, Yara still wanting to show off and be first. Becky said she had this “wild, crazy” look on her face, too. Back at the van, she was really hilarious and kept trying to get inside and was whining so loud. I couldn’t believe it, honestly. It’s always very windy in that part of Albany because of the tall buildings and we all were practically shouting to be heard and Yara’s whining was even louder than all that!

So, in the end, while I am hardly pleased that someone reported me for possibly abusing Yara, I am glad that everyone involved is now on the same page and behind me. I still have no more answers than before as to what’s going on with my dog, but there certainly are a lot of concerned people. And if any further complaints come in regarding the issue, Fidelco can safely assure them that they’ve already investigated and found nothing to warrant abuse.

1. The first available date that she could be fasted for tweleve hours after payday (since I’m broker than broke).

School stuff is keeping me busy, busy, busy. It’s all so interesting, though, so I can’t complain. More hours in a day or less faster time flying would be nice if anyone’s up for some miracle working.

No news from the vet regarding Yara’s tests. In this case no news is actually good news. Dr. Gunderson is supposed to call Monday and I’ve still got to bring Yara in for the GI panel. I found out that’ll be ~$200. A friend suggested asking the local Lion’s Club for help with the vet costs and for reasons I can’t explain I had the courage to do just that. I was really shocked to find out they are more than willing to help out once we all have a more firm idea of how much it’s all going to cost. I’m truly grateful. I did give Fidelco a call and talked to Robbie about the whole weight thing; she suggested mixing in some raw red meat into the kibble in hopes of the bacteria helping her to “absorb” the dry food better. I’m supposed to call her back in a few weeks to update her. So far that suggestion has mostly proved to make Yara a ravenous eater, but it’s too early to tell if it will have any effect on her weight.

Speaking of dogs, my dad gave me an update on Dolly. Seems the Synthroid is doing its thing . . . at least in part. She’s got much more energy now that she’s on the meds, but it hasn’t done a thing to curb her appetite. He did mention that her energy has peaked to the point where she is “literally a terror at work.” She wanders off and has been found all over the nursing home, so he’s going to have to tie her down in the employee lounge to keep her from misbehaving.

In other news, Sarah and Irie might be coming over tomorrow. So fun!

The vet and I agree this is not a good sign, and coupled with the fact Yara’s a veritable poop factory, we decided to run some blood work. The flip side of this is that we’re both quite sure nothing is going to come of this blood work since Yara has no real symptoms other than loosing excessive weight.¹ But I agreed to a full chem panel and a thyroid test anyway since one can never foresee what might come up that we might not expect. She’s also to have a GI panel done sometime soon when I can safely fast Yara for 12 hours.²

If all these tests come up negative, the next step is to biopsy Yara’s liver and intestine and colon which would require her to come in on a Thursday and be put under. That also means she won’t be able to work for a few days due to the anesthesia. You can imagine how thrilled this prospect is for me.

The best part about today is that I got paid, but between this vet visit and purchasing a new PC I have $0 until next payday. [:: sigh ::] Oh, and did I mention that Dolly went to the vet last week and she’s now on Synthroid because she’s got hypothyroid?

1. At this point she’s lost nearly twenty pounds in a year.
2. Read: “Have a day I’m not doing anything since I’ll be somewhat unable to work Yara.”

Anyway, we all took a walk down to Cafe Madison for lunch. I hadn’t been there in forever, but it was one of the closer places I know of that has outdoor seating (and isn’t just a coffee place). We had to wait a bit to get seating outside, since we had Irie with us, but it was beautiful out and very enjoyable just talking. The food was really good and everyone was very interested in both the dogs. Poor Irie kept getting stepped on because she kept moving out into the aisle a bit, but Yara just laid by my side and people watched.

After lunch, we walked back to my apartment so the dogs could have some water. And they were super crazy! Irie got so excited she was leaping into the air and running all over. She actually sort of landed on my lap at one point and I was holding my newly fixed sunglasses, which she promptly squashed. (Good thing I’m due to get my new pair in about a week, but I think they’re going to laugh when I tell them I broke my sunglasses not even a week after having them repaired!)

I was really happy that Yara played so well with Irie. She doesn’t get nearly enough opportunity to play with other dogs, and sometimes when she does she’s randomly not in the mood to play. But as you can see above these two had no trouble — they actually destroyed a few of Yara’s toys during their tug-of-wars and chasing. Most notably the octopus. No big loss, though, since after the dogs tired themselves out we headed off to the pet store to pick up Yara’s food. And also replenish some toys and treats, including a brand new octopus courtesy of Sarah. ;-)

All in all it was a very fun day. Hopefully, we’ll get to do this more often, eh, Sarah?

Class officially started today and I think my butterflies are still hanging out in my stomach. I’m kind of glad that our reading isn’t really due until next week as my book still hasn’t arrived. (Oops!) Hopefully it gets here before the end of the week so I can get involved in the discussion board before it becomes impossible to weed through.

I’m thinking of redesigning my website . . . which should strike no one by surprise even though I never finished putting this entire design up. :-p

He talked with me about it over the phone last night and in the end he decided it was worth trying out . . . and she’s an instant hit there. Dad reports that she schmoozed everyone for attention and food and that everybody has fallen in love with her. He’s still not 100% sure if he’ll bring her continuously; the floors there are very slippery for her and she’s certainly not going to loose weight with every staff person and patient feeding her treats all day long.

Either way I think it’s just brilliant. ;-)

I’ll start with the less pleasant news; I’m unable to adopt the lovely Ragdoll kitten I’ve been gushing about for the last several weeks. Turns out my “slight” allergy to cats has grown rather more severe. After a night at a friend’s house without ever being in the same room as his two cats, I broke out in hives from merely sleeping on his sofa (which had been thoroughly vacuumed). Needless to say, I can’t bring a feline home to stay if I’m getting hives from such minimal contact with cat hair and dander. I’m quite upset; compounded more by the fact that the hives have still yet to completely disappear. (Thankfully, for the most part I no longer itch.)

In other news, I’m gearing up for class to begin next week. I’ve taken the entire week off work so as to have as few distractions as possible. (Of course, let us not gloss over the added bonus of my maiden voyage into paid vacations; the fact that I’m getting paid not to go to work is quite thrilling all on its own!) Other highlights of the week include Yara’s follow-up at the vet to be weighed once again and my grandparents coming for dinner.

On the subject of my canine companion, I’m both annoyed and proud of her. She’s doing reasonably well in terms of eating, so I’m somewhat complacent about that. But while she has amazed me with some recent traffic checks, including one involving a fire truck, she’s slipped into a really strange habit while crossing intersections that is starting to quite honestly scare me. I’m not entirely sure what’s the cause or even when it all really began, but lately her new habit while crossing streets seems to be that of either walking so fast and pulling so hard she nearly drags me along or not really moving at all. I’m quite stumped and have already given Fidelco a ring about the matter. So we’ll see.

Still it’s worthwhile to mention that we had some really scary awesome traffic checks the last few weeks. It rained so hard one day that the water rushing down the street near my apartment was up to my knees and flowing downtown like a river, but it didn’t really bother Yara much as we practically swam across. I think she was a bit confused at the curb (or lack thereof) and she was far from pleased about the actually being wet thing. A few days afterward at the very same crossing we were very abruptly cut off mid-crossing by a speeding fire truck. I’m not really sure what was up with the that as there was no siren, but Yara didn’t falter a bit and did her best to stop me and push me back like the smart girl she is. We also got to cross a street near my office while not one, or two, nor three, but four tractor trailers zoomed by parallel to us. Quite honestly I think I was more bothered than Yara was, but I still am haunted by the memory of Dolly being startled beyond comfort in the middle of a similar type crossing.

All in all, it’s been a busy while around these parts.

ETA: Oh, I forgot to mention (and I don’t have a photo to showcase at the moment), but Yara’s gotten way darker. Almost all of her has turned black where before she was more sable. Her legs and belly have gone from gray to tan with big black stripes and her hind feet and neck have gotten so dark that the gray fur still visible looks almost white. It’s really wild. I assume it’s due to her loosing her undercoat, but it’s such a remarkable difference.

You decide.