Vague Wisdom

I haven't posted much lately. As you may know we had put Gilly to sleep a few weeks ago. I still hear her around the house. Sometimes it's the click clack of her nails on the hardwood floor. Sometimes it sounds like she's knocked something over or was in some other kind of mischief. As I called her to me, I realized she was gone of course. We are starting to look for another dog (maybe two) We'll never stop missing Gilly, but it's also hard to be home alone so much.

We have filled out a few intake forms for rescue organizations and we're keeping an eye out on virtual pets to see what's available at the local SPCA's and animal shelters. We got very close to adopting one puppy but then discovered that she was already taken. Looking at dogs is harder than I remember. As I'm deciding whether a dog will fit into our family I fall a little in love with each dog. So there are these micro-relationships beginning and ending in an afternoon.

We think we might like to get another Dobie. At least, we applied to the local Doberman Pinscher rescue. They don't really have a dog for us now, but we are in the queue. We also found a Doberman/Border Collie mix that looks very much like a Doberman. We also have the possibility of maybe adopting a Doberman puppy. A red Doberman had four puppies, one a black and tan looks just adorable. They all have ringworm and won't be eligible for adoption until that is cleared up. There seems to be some confusion on whether the shelter will adopt out the mother and her puppies or will they give them over to the Doberman Pinscher rescue. We will see.

We also applied to a couple other more general rescue organizations and the Northern California German Shepherd rescue. We have ruled out getting a Pitbull Terrier, a pit cross or Rottweiler. Liability issues are just to extreme even though some of the best dogs I've seen at various shelters are pit bulls and Rottweilers. I would prefer we stay away from hounds because they can be so loud. I am not a big fan of poodles or Chows. It's a prejudice on my part. I have no excuse. I'm sure that if the right Standard Poodle showed up we would take her or him. I doubt there is a Chow on the planet that I would adopt but who knows? Just so people know we are looking for a medium to large dog. Probably shorthaired, hopefully at least housebroken. Although the more training the dog has had the easier it will be for us. Along with Doberman Pinschers; German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, and Malinois are some of the breeds we've concidered.

Although, in principle, we would love to adopt an older unwanted dog. Losing Gilly has been a body blow and we just can't consider a dog that will die in the relatively near future. So we aren't really looking for a dog much over two years old. We think we worked things out so we can consider a puppy but that's not a particular preference. We anticipate some trouble housebreaking since I can't really handle a dog that hasn't had some training and neither can dbubley. That's what we are looking at so far

It's been quite a week for us. My morning attendant, Stacy has been suffering from some serious pain. She had it before and we thought it had been taken care of, but she ended up in the hospital last week. So we've been struggling without her. She returned home a couple days ago, but she just called and it looks like we'll have to go another week without her. She's sounding discouraged. We may have to find a new morning attendant. I really hope not.

Our dog, Gilly has been having some trouble with her hind legs and she's been in pain too. We were able to get a vet appointment today. We think we have a treatment that will work but we're not certain. Here's a report on Gilly from my partner loracs. In case you are not following her livejournal.

She was supposed to be home today, but she started bleeding. There is a blood clotting deficiency that runs in Doberman's. We did test for the problem before the operation but evidently that test sometimes isn't comprehensive. She will be in the hospital at least one more day. They're giving her a blood transfusion with extra clotting factor to control bleeding. I know many of you are reading loracs's Live journal as well as mine. She's a little quicker at posting than I am. She's better at keeping people informed. I think I'm doing OK except for today. Given other people's difficulties I feel a little stupid worrying about a dog. I still think she'll be fine, but I'm feeling like crap.

All the people directly caring for Gilly have been great. I know that I'm probably looking for something to be mad at rather than feel scared or sad. I know I'm overly sensitive today. But the people who take care of billing in vets offices I'm about ready to strangle. Again and again they lose paperwork or the paperwork never get sent or whatever. Yet they are very prompt in making sure we can pay the bills. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr No need to respond I know I'm being irrational and I will be better later, but damn!

It's awfully weird to be in the house by myself. A while ago someone knocked at the door and it scared the hell out of me.