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.

Work force: The plan calls for a delay of salary for five days this fiscal year essentially moving a week’s worth of payroll off this year’s accounts. Also, the Governor is asking to withold the 3 percent 2009-10 salary increase previously negotiated with several unions. Also, state workers will be asked to contribute a greater share to their health insurance costs; require workers and retirees to contribute to Medicare Part B premiums.

As a state employee, I have to admit all these budget cuts make me very uneasy about job security. No one at SED has lost their job at this point, nor has anyone been “encouraged” to retire early. Although, I can’t say everyone wasn’t mildly concerned when the Commissioner announced his resignation.

I’m not exactly thrilled with the idea of not getting a raise next year and losing a week of pay AND having a higher premium or deductible or BOTH. But I would certainly rather have my job at the end of the day if it meant having to suffer through any or all of that. From what I’ve been hearing, though, the unions are not happy with this plan and are being quite rigid about their already agreed upon contracts. I can understand that, considering some of them were several years behind when they finally went through earlier this year.

Oh, well.

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.

Most of the status updates are the same in both places (and other microblogs) since I generally update via Ping.fm, but since they’re the main places I check I figured I’d link everything together.

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.

McCain was very gracious, though his supporters were somewhat immature and disrespectful, in my opinion. President-elect Obama’s speech literally brought me to tears and made me quite glad again to be part of this country. Something I haven’t felt in a long time. I’ve never been a fan of the constant bickering between the two parties and while bipartisanship is easier said than done, it’s always heartening to know there are those in government who really do strive for it.

I’m also deeply intrigued by the House and Senate races that now gave us a Democratic majority in both. I’m wary, to say the least, but very interested in how this will play out the next four years. I sincerely hope that Obama proves as good as his word and really does bring about the changes needed to get this country back on track.

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.

I’ve no further comment.

• 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.

A custody battle is brewing over 25 “service dogs in training” in the Phoenix area.

The future service animals are owned by the Eye Dog Foundation for the Blind, a California-based non-profit group that operates a training center in Phoenix.

But a large group of volunteers, foster families that agreed to help raise the dogs, are refusing to return them.

“I couldn’t feel comfortable handing this dog back to a foundation that is not functioning and feel good about it,” Diana Anderson said.

Anderson and 24 other volunteers entered into agreements with the foundation to provide the dogs a home and bring them to training sessions at the foundation’s facility in South Phoenix.

The goal of the foundation is to train the dogs and then place them with the blind.

But volunteers like Eldon Ploetz say the foundation is in shambles, that dogs are not receiving the necessary training, and they claim not a single dog has been placed with a blind person in more than a year.

Ploetz and his wife have helped raise and foster Kiesha, a German shepherd.

In late September, Ploetz received a letter from the Eye Dog Foundation’s attorney stating, “DEMAND IS HEREBY MADE that you immediately return Kiesha to the Foundation.”

The letter continues, “I understand that you have breached at least two parts of this Agreement. You have not followed the instructions of the staff, and you have not attended all the Training Classes.”

Other volunteers received similar letters.

But the volunteers claim the trainers are not properly certified, and the ones that have been hired have not stayed on with the foundation.

Additionally, they say the Foundation had been shut down for weeks and they have neglected the dogs.

“We understand they cut off the food for the dogs that were in the kennel,” Ploetz said.

Ploetz’s wife said she would rather go to jail than give the Kiesha back to the foundation.

“They are valid concerns,” said Dacoda Whittemore, a former operations manager who worked at the foundation’s training facility for only a week.

Whittemore said the dogs are “absolutely” receiving better care with the foster families, “not just because the management isn’t functioning properly, but there’s no staff qualified on the foundation at this point to be able to take and care for these dogs properly.”

Dexter Morin, a former trainer at the facility agreed with Whittemore, submitting his resignation earlier this month.

Before leaving, Morin turned over several dogs to the foster families rather than leaving them at the training facility alone.

In his resignation letter, Morin wrote, “I contacted the puppy raisers to inform them of my concerns of leaving the dogs on the premises without the guarantee that they would be attended to.”

Morin goes on to state, “I in good conscience turned them over to the puppy raisers for the safe keeping of the dogs.”

The Eye Dog Foundation and its attorney have declined our repeated requests for an on-camera interview.

In a statement to ABC15, the Foundation’s attorney, John D. Clark, wrote, “The contract clearly states that each of the dogs belong to the Foundation, and gives no ownership rights whatsoever to any of the puppy raisers.”

The letter goes on to state that “the Foundation directed each of the puppy raisers in writing to return the Foundation’s puppies to the Foundation within five days. It now appears that the puppy raises are refusing to comply with the Foundation’s directive.”

I can’t imagine how they’ll recover from this, but certainly their current actions suggest that they’re closer to folding completely under than anything else. It’s really just a sad situation and to be truthful I’m quite appalled and disgusted at EDF for their completely callous attitude regarding their dogs.

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.”

I’m also very pleased with the company itself, even if their prices are a tad high. My order arrived within two days of placing it and there were items missing. I emailed them straight away and they sent out the replacement items, along with an extra set of microfiber cloths and grubby sticks. Talk about customer service!