View 278 October 6 - 12, 2003 (original) (raw)
Wednesday, April 8, 2003
0900:
Up at dawn to get Sable from the emergency overnight clinic and back to her regular vet. She was glad to see me, but groggy. Pain killers, I suppose. She was sure I could make her problems go away, but of course I can't. She's at the regular vet now. I presume she'll come home tonight. There won't be any pictures until she's recovered a bit. She looks pretty bad, face all swollen, and that collar thing she hates.
This isn't fun.
0930: I have spoken with the vet. She comes home this evening, and we can expect a full recovery although "you can never be sure, but generally when they get to this stage, they'll be all right."
My thanks to all of you who sent your sympathies and prayers. This has been expensive. I'm glad I can afford it, but I have a lot of sympathy for those who find themselves in this situation and can't.
======================================
The election is over, now they have to figure out what to do about all the goofy legislation Davis signed in his last week. This state is not merely bankrupt, it's in debt up to the eyeballs with the worst to come.
Over in Iraq the beat goes on, and Cohen this morning in his column this morning is advising Israel to cut back to the Green Line and dismantle all the settlements. Rebuild The Fence along the old Green Line. Of course Israel won't do that. Politically impossible.
There will be wars and rumors of war. Israel is the only western democracy in the Middle East. It has the strengths and weaknesses of western democracies, but it is in a land that knows not that form and despite our best intentions we aren't going to turn Iraq into a showcase of western institutions including democracy.
Not that democracy is the answer to all problems, once the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. Democracies historically plunder their most successful citizens until they consort to bring in a dictator. Of course we are different, and all things are new, and history isn't relevant to this special people in America. But what if it is?
==============
Well, 800,000 more voted to turn Davis out than voted to put him into office...
===============================
2300: Sable is home, all bandages (for catheters) have been removed, she ate a good dinner -- she wouldn't eat at the vet -- and just to show us, she's sleeping outside although she had the offer of sleeping under the bed. The swelling has gone done considerably, and she carries her tail high the way Huskies do when their happy. She sure was glad to see us.
So that adventure is pretty well done.
I am learning more about rattlesnakes. Roberta called the rangers to warn them about the nest we found. Apparently they aren't that uncommon in fall although I mostly remember small ones in spring until the crows thin them out. Apparently they are also born alive, not as eggs.
Mostly I'll be a lot more careful, but Sable is a hunter and she will hunt gophers. Sasha hunted gophers in those hills for all his 16 years and while we had a couple of snake encounters they were big enough to rattle so we could avoid them. These were too small to have a rattle. There were at least half a dozen, all not a foot long. Sable caught one, and it bit her at least once, on the nose. She had a lump behind her year yesterday, but that is gone today; impossible to tell if it was another bite. Anyway, she seems fine, and she wants to go for a walk but we were told not today. Maybe tomorrow about bedtime.
So all is well at Chaos Manor. Now to catch up again...