Month: December 2010

Guinness and the TPLO – Part III

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The night of day three I got all his pills in him with the pill gun. He hated me for about a 1/2 hour, but he needed his meds dammit. I slept on the couch this time to let Lauren get some sleep. To be painfully accurate, I didn’t actually sleep so much as lay there for eight hours. At least he wasn’t lonely.

The next morning I think he figured out a way to scoop his tongue back into his throat and pull the pills out. What’s worse, every time he did that, he ruined three expensive antibiotic capsules. I think I need a horse pill gun. This would have been easier if they’d just given me a needle and syringe. Read More

My Fragile Dead Kindle

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I liked my Kindle. At least for the 30-some hours it worked. The screen suddenly stopped working as shown in the included pictures. I tried rebooting it through the menu and by holding the power switch on for 15 seconds. Neither technique solved my Kindle screen woes. The Kindle seemed to function fine. The menus worked and my computer saw it as a drive when connected via the USB cable, but the screen was toast. Read More

Kindle Wireless Fix

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Like untold others, I got a slick new Kindle 3G + Wireless as a Christmas gift (2010). It connected easily to the 3G network, but it would not connect to my wireless network at home. This was baffling, because I live in the woods and my wireless security is as simple as possible. I wrote a book on networking, and my wireless security is woefully out of date. Why? Because I live in the woods. Anyone who would get close enough to hop onto my wireless LAN would be eaten by my dogs. My dogs love tasty wireless thieves. Read More

Guinness and the TPLO – Part II

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Bringing Guinness to the Veterinary Hospital wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, but it was still an emotional day. Guinness was excited to go for a ride in the car, and limped outside. He climbed up into the back seat of my car, eager for some window snorting. I won’t let him stick his head out the window, but I cracked it so he could enjoy the onslaught of smells from the road. Seeing as how all this transpired at 6:30am, I could not have cared less about the drool on my normally spotless windows. I am not a morning person, which also explains why I forgot my sunglasses. I did get to enjoy the sound of my retinas sizzling as I watched the sun rise directly over the highway for an hour. Read More

Guinness and the TPLO – Part I

GAD 7 Comments

Guinness blew out both of his knees (one while on vacation running from a plastic goose), and he needs to get them fixed. As of today, Mr. Guinness has been scheduled for his first of two TPLO surgeries on this Wednesday, December 22, 2010.

TPLO stands for Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (now you know why everyone refers to it by its initials). TPLO is a procedure used to help a dog deal with what is roughly analogous to a torn ACL in humans. When I look at Mr. Guinness as he struggles to get up and down the stairs, I can feel his pain. You see I completely ruined the ACL in my right knee some 15 years ago and had surgery to have it repaired. The difference is that he has ruined both legs, he needs the surgery more than I did, and he seems to be in more pain than I was. He has no idea what’s coming. It’s killing me though. Read More

Please Don’t Buy a Newfoundland Dog

GAD 143 Comments

Every year hundreds of giant breed dogs are put up for adoption or worse, destroyed because someone fell in love with the fluffy little puppy and brought it home, only to be overwhelmed by slobber, food, vet bills, and the sheer size of their full grown dog. If you cannot make a commitment to this (or any) animal to keep it forever, then please don’t get one. Would you give up a son or daughter because they got too big? Certainly not. Anyone who thinks a Newfoundland is any less than a child doesn’t understand the breed. Read More

Dog Dinner Détente

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If Guinness has one fault, it’s that he can be a bit protective of his food. We’ve gone to great lengths to make him understand his place in the pack, so he has no problems with humans. The kids routinely feed him and put things in his bowl while he’s eating. They’ve taken thing from his bowl too, though they both know better. At least I thought they did. Some days I’m amazed my kids can remember to breathe on their own, but this is a story about dogs, so I’ll spare them further reflection on their continued absent-mindedness. Read More