Random Ramblings - October 29th 2021

This post is mainly petkid-related, but also contains some other random things I wanted to share.  Enjoy!

 

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I took some new photos of Artemis when she was playing in her vivarium after I cleaned it last week.  I'd originally only planned on getting a new shot of her just standing in her vivarium to show how big she's gotten, which is what the first photo is.  But right after I closed the glass doors of her vivarium I heard her making scratching noises, so opened the door back up to see what she was up to, and found her trying to climb her hanging vines.  And then, a few minutes later, caught her peering around the edge of her cave as though checking the coast was clear to come out from behind it.  Anyway, here are the photos:

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I got a couple of new photos of Mollie too, though they're not fantastic, because she kept darting for cover every time she realized I was trying to take her photo.  Here are the two reasonable photos I got though:

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Artemis is way easier to get photos of.  Mollie is not a fan of the flashy thing.  Plus, it's much easier for someone without sight like me to keep track of Artemis' movements than Mollie's, since tortoises move much slower than chinchillas (though tortoises actually do move faster than you might expect).

 

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Both dogs were meant to get groomed last week, but Logan had more knots in his fur than the groomer expected and she hadn't allowed enough time to work on those and still have time to deal with Lilie.  I had mentioned he had knots in his fur, because Logan has fur with a hint of the poodle curl and the silky fineness of a spaniel, which tangles and knots almost as fast as I brush him, and where the dogs had ended up overdue for their grooming due to their August appointment getting cancelled and my having trouble getting them a new appointment quickly, his tangles had gotten incredibly bad.

 

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Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up deciding to leave Lilie with the groomer and bring Logan home to do what we could for him ourselves, which essentially boiled down to giving him a home haircut, since we couldn't comb out the knots, so ended upp cutting them out instead.  We did it that way because Lilie is too excitable for us to manage to do ourselves, where as Logan is much more laid back.  Plus, Lilie's claws were a big issue and we couldn't do those ourselves.

 

Well, Logan looks kind of  scruffy, and his haircut is uneven, but at least he's got no knots and tangles in his fur anymore, which is what the groomer said was the important thing.  She said to get the tangles out as quickly as we could - even if we had to take him to another groomer, or cut him ourselves - and worry about making him look tidy again when his fur grows back enough for him to have a proper grooming session in a couple of months time.  So, that's what we did.  And here's the result:

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Amusingly, Logan actually slept through most of the process.  He must really trust me to fall asleep when I'm wielding a pair of scissors near him, that's for sure.  I know I wouldn't have been sleeping in his position... I think few people or animals would have been that relaxed when a blind person was using scissors on them.  But somehow Logan was sleeping so soundly he was snoring a lot of the time, and didn't seem to care about anything besides the fact I was paying attention to him.  I tell you, my dog's mental.  On the bright side, it made it easier to deal with his grooming needs with him asleep.

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I've been making some holiday themed fabric bags as reusable alternatives to wrapping paper for gift giving this year.  Here's one of them so you can see what they look like:

I thought it would be nice to use bags that can be reused for gift giving, rather than wrapping paper that will just be torn and thrown away.  And I thought it would be even nicer still if I made them myself.  But I wanted them to still look festive, hence the holiday themed fabric.  I still need to make a couple more, and also make tags so I know which bag is for who, but I thought I'd show you one of the completed bags so you can get an idea of what they'll look like when I've sewn each one.

 

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Two weeks ago, I got a call from the hospital asking me to go there to see their doctor again, since he wanted to discuss my test results with me.  I was kind of concerned, since the only thing I could think of was that they saw something they felt needed discussing in the results of the tests they sent off when I was there a couple of weeks before.  Bearing in mind, they said they'd only get in touch about them if there was something of note in the results.  Anyway, I was meant to go last Thursday (October 21st).

Then, a couple of days later, I got a call telling me not to go to that appointment after all, because the doctor wanted a couple more weeks before he saw me so as to be able to have enough time pass between blood tests, because he wanted to check my levels again.  Which suggests he wants to check my heamoglobin and platelet levels again.  And they've made me an appointment for November 8th.

So, now I'm not entirely certain if they found something in those tests they're concerned about, just want to check my levels - especially with how low my platelets were last time - or both.  I guess I'll find out on November 8th.  In the meantime, I'm trying not to worry about it.  Yeah, anyone who knows me knows how well that's working out.  LOL! But I'm trying.

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I feel like I've said this a lot this year, but: our weather's been a bit all over the place recently, with mild almost warm days, rather chilly days, dry days, wet days, days somewhere in between, and days where it can't decide which to be.  We've even had a couple of storms.  Mostly rainstorms - Wales is good at those.  But there was an impressive thunderstorm early on the morning of October 20th.

 

At least, I thought it was an impressive thunderstorm.  Logan wasn't so impressed.  He's still not a huge fan of storms.  OK... He hates them.  Though at least he doesn't get quite as scared as he used to, and only cowers against me rather than whining and barking in fear like he did as a puppy.   Lilie isn't really bothered by them.  Neither is Mollie, except if storms cut off the power and she loses her music or TV.  And as for Artemis... She was sleeping, and I'm not even sure she noticed the storm happened (though I strongly suspect she knew it was coming, since she dug in early the night before the storm).

 

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We tried filming the thunderstorm, but - though it was impressive, asI said - the thunder and lightning were spaced so far apart we kept missing getting it on camera. We did, however, get a video of the rain, where you can also hear my wind chimes tinkling in the wind that accompanied the rain.  And here it is:

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Lilie had a vet checkup yesterday.

 

She has to be evaluated regularly because of the pills she has for her skin irritation issue.

The skin irritation issue (which is a common problem for certain breeds, Westies among them) has moved to her ears, so now - on top of the pill she has every day - she has to have drops in her ears.  At least for a while.  As it stands at the moment, it's twice a day for a week, once a day for another week, and then every other day for a couple of weeks.  After that we talk to the vet again.