Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
pets

ripley, part 2

No news would’ve been better than the news I got today. The vet called and Ripley’s white blood count was low (rather than high, which would be seen in an infection). Additionally, one of her kidney tests came back high, which means things aren’t working correctly there either. Due to the kidney numbers, I had to take her off the diuretic for now. She’s going to remain on the antibiotics because those won’t hurt anything, though it’s starting to look like she doesn’t have an infection. Really, the problem is that there are so many conflicting things going on, it’s hard to diagnose. The latest thing to rule out is a lymphosarcoma. The vet thinks it is quite possible that she has cancer in one of her organs and it spread to another. Great.

We had to run to the vet’s office again this afternoon, as she wanted to give Ripley some fluids to make her more comfortable over the weekend (since her kidneys aren’t functioning properly).

Ripley’s going to need to go to Monroeville for an ultrasound of the kidneys and chest. They will also do a chest tap so that the fluid in her chest can be tested. This has not been scheduled yet. I have to call the vet’s office on Monday with an update on her condition and then we’ll talk about scheduling it. I keep getting the idea that the vet thinks she’s going to go downhill fast and that’s why it was not scheduled today. Really, though, if you didn’t know Ripley, you wouldn’t even know anything was wrong with her. Not that that’s doing any of us any good right now.

pets

ripley’s latest malady

Our Doberman, Ripley, has not been acting like herself for about the past week. I finally called the vet yesterday and made an appointment. They took an xray of her chest and it showed fluid in the lungs. This could be caused by numerous things, but the diagnosis is pneumonia for now. Her blood test results will be in tomorrow and those will either confirm or rule out the diagnosis. I’m rooting for the pneumonia at this point because it seems treatable. She was put on antibiotics and a diuretic and will remain on them for a few weeks unless the diagnosis changes.

While researching her symptoms yesterday, I came across dilated cardiomyopathy and thought for sure that was going to be it (damn the internet!). After describing Ripley’s symptoms to the vet, that was her first guess, too, but that’s why she ordered the xrays. Luckily, Ripley’s heart was not enlarged, so this doesn’t appear to be the problem.

We all love Ripley and showed it again today when I paid the vet bill. For that kind of money, I could’ve bought a new Doberman (but she’s well worth the money). Dobermans are great dogs, but they have so many health problems. One guy who works at the vets used to have one and says he’ll never get one again because of all of the health issues he had with his. I can kind of understand his attitude, but I do really like the breed.

More on this subject tomorrow…

out and about

big dogz

I’ve been wanting to check out this place since it opened. We finally made it there this evening. The food was fine (Brian and I both had sandwiches). We ordered mac & cheese for Jake and it turned out to be deep-fried macaroni and cheese wedges, so they obviously serve a lot of health food there. Healthy or not, he ate it. If we go there again, I’ll have to remember to order a mixed drink. Our waitress’s answer to my question “what kind of white wine do you have?” was “Chardonnay”. They don’t exactly have a large wine list is what I’m trying to say.

do-it-yourself

bathroom remodel: days 35 & 36

Between yesterday and today, I finished painting the bathroom! It’s so nice to be done with that. Brian spent a lot of time on the vanity over the weekend and is making good progress with it. I guess my work here is done until the vanity is ready. Besides it, we have to put in the new ceiling (no small task) and install all of the fixtures. Still a lot of work left to be done, but at least the bathroom almost looks complete.

food & drink

beef & wine

Yesterday was a busy one. After I got off work at 2:30, my mom and I ran to Somerset to pick up a side of beef. After splitting the meat between the two of us, I crammed ours into our little chest freezer (I really need to get an upright freezer soon) and then loaded Jake into the car to run for wine supplies. Someone told me that Oak Spring Winery moved from the Galleria to the Westwood Plaza, but I’ll be damned if I could find it. I really needed supplies, though, so I took a chance that the new Thomas Feed Mill wine store (can’t remember the name) would still be open and ran to Windber. Luckily, they were open till 6:00 (it was 5:45 when I arrived), so I was able to buy some bottle sanitizer.

I spent the evening washing bottles and then we bottled my last two batches of wine for the year. We did a Petit Verdot wine kit which was quite tasty already and a batch of Strawberry-Zinfandel that I made from a recipe. I used red zinfandel rather than white zinfandel this time so it’s a little drier than usual, but still quite good. Anyway, that gives me over four cases to put in my wine racks come Monday night. Good thing–they were starting to look a little sparse.

On Friday, I also reserved the five Selection Limited Edition wine kits for 2006. Cheers!