Yoda - The Cat With Four Ears

What a unique little creature. So glad he was taken in by a good family who loves him.

http://icepice.blogspot.com/2010/08/yoda-cat-with-four-ears.html

Mmmm weather

HUZZAH!  Amazing thunderstorm with lightning!

Baaaaad Robot!

Fellow geeks, WoW players, and people who love Fringe and Lost, might appreciate this.  Baaaaad Robot!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9447308/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=launcher&utm_campaign=wow&utm_content=news-textlink

Bionic Dog! Mutt Makes History As First Canine To Get Four Bionic Paws

This is just awesome. :) Thanks to all the people involved who gave him the chance.

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Article: http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/04/abandoned-dog-gets-bionic-paws


Bionic Dog! Mutt Makes History As First Canine To Get Four Bionic Paws

He was abandoned in a foreclosed house in the middle of a Nebraska winter as a puppy and when he was discovered, his feet and tail were frozen solid in a puddle of water.


Now Naki’o has a new leash on life and is making history as the first dog to receive four prosthetic paws.

PHOTOS:  Bionic Dog Has Four Prosthetic Paws

After being rescued, the mixed breed pup got medical attention and his feet healed to rounded stumps, but he couldn’t walk or play.
Fortunately veterinary assistant Christie Pace of Colorado Springs learned of the pup’s plight and took him in.

She organized a fundraiser, connected with a company called Ortho Pets and Naki’o was fitted with two prosthetic rear paws.  Company execs were so impressed, they kicked in the other two prosthetics and Naki’o is now believed to be the first canine ever to have all four of his limbs replaced.

“Naiki’o can now not only chase after a ball with other dogs but he can beat them to the catch!” says proud adoptive mom Christie.

Pain

Hurting so bad. Hard to concentrate and get anything done. The visible swelling has gone down, but still extremely inflamed and sore and getting deep bone throbbing pain from surgery area and sinuses. Sinus pressure is starting to feel like it wants to turn into a migraine, and the pain is radiating through my entire face on both sides and into eye sockets. It gets bad like this sometimes from the Fibro/TMJ, and worse when bad weather rolls through. But on top of the surgery pain and inflammation from them digging into my jaw bones... ughghgghg. The Vicoprofen helps somewhat, but only if I take a whole pill, and then it aggravates my autonomic stuff and I start having vertigo spells my other meds can't control. Just moving around about the house trying to do little things has been challenging and frustrating. The rest of my body is getting random throbbing pain and sore as well. And I'm supposed to go back to work tomorrow.

Art Spring Cleaning

I was supposed to participate in an art event this weekend, but surgery recovery and other things sort of killed that opportunity. I found some old prints I'll be selling off, and have some originals I'll be letting go of. Also sorting various art supplies and may be selling some of this stuff.

Nom

Questionable meat paste + cottage cheese + Ranch dressing = not bad.

Meat Paste

Mike has been extremely helpful since my surgery, driving me around since I can't drive myself yet, and going to the grocery store to scour the store shelves for anything I can actually *easily* eat.

When you have oral surgery like the kind I had, you end up with a lot of swelling, bleeding, and difficulty moving your mouth/jaw for several days. You are told to eat a soft, bland diet. Since you can't really open your mouth or chew, and are not allowed to sip or suck through a straw, it's a challenge to eat... anything.

Yogurt, pudding, Jello, ice cream, and similar near liquid or soft things get old real quick. Crushed ramen soup noodles were the next step up, swallowing everything whole.

We were brainstorming trying to figure what else I could eat, and in my medicated stupor I babbled "meat paste" as something he should hunt for on our latest shopping run, as more of a joke than anything else.

To our amusement, he actually did manage to find meat paste.

Upon presenting it to me he proudly proclaimed "It has devils on it, so it must be good."

I haven't tried it yet, and not so sure I want to.

Still Alive. Oral Surgery Completed.

Surgery went well. Insanely sore, can't talk and mind foggy from anesthesia and narco pain meds.  Took forever to coherently type this. I had a weird mild nosebleed, then pain response while trying to clear/clean nose from pressure on jaw. Pain triggered pre-syncope episode, full tunnel vision and hr/bp went crazy (hadn't had med that controls it for over 10hrs and that's what happens). This happened just before they were letting me leave, so they kept me an hour longer to monitor everything and be sure I was okay.

Mike stayed with Ember in waiting area then they came back pre-op and after recovery post-op. They were both amazing and helpful. Ember sensed my pain after surgery and kept trying to alert because I was pre-syncope and had not had my meds, and had to wait till the hospital finished that last hour of monitoring to take them.

HUGE thank you to the kind generous wonderfully amazing people who donated, purchased my art and creative things, commissioned me for art, and helped spread the word to help with these medical expenses. You all made this possible and I can't thank you enough.

I will be reaching out to those who I have contact info for, to try and thank personally now that I *finally* had the surgery done and can share the good news. If for some reason anyone is accidentally missed ( going through old emails and posts to try and contact ), hoping everyone will see this post and know how thankful I am.

Link me to anything I missed that you might want me to read or see, or email me about it.

More later.

New medicine?

Doctor wants me to try Cymbalta to help manage my Fibromyalgia. It was that or Lyrica. I'm worried about the side effects and costs of both.

More drama with property management

More drama with the new property management over the bed bug issue we thought we were done with last year. They’re still trying to charge us “damages” and other fees related to the heat treatment and transferring units.  This is months after the last time they tried to give us an ‘invoice’ for the charges, and I got a voicemail with a friendly reminder that we had a balance and a note stuck in our door showing the balance and that we’ve been getting late charges on top of it, related to that money they want us to pay.

What adds insult to injury is back when they first told us we’d only have to pay part of it ( and before we knew the tenant rights laws which said we didn’t have to pay for any of it ), the CEO had stated that they understood we had financial issues they wouldn’t charge us late fees so it would be easier for us and we wouldn’t fall behind, but that’s beside the point.

I called and spoke with a woman at the corporate office, and explained how we'd mentioned to both the owner/CEO and the property manager guy that it was landlord responsibility, and she was like "Well I'll have to discuss it with Lisa ( CEO ) because we bill tenants for bed bug treatments all the time".

To which I responded saying "Yes, and I am trying to explain you shouldn't be doing so because per Minnesota state law and per the housing authority, it is landlord responsibility."

I then told her about the letter I had from the manager of the housing services department stating such, and offered her that woman's name and number, and she said she'd talk to Lisa about it and one of them would call back.

Should be amusing to see how this plays out. If they're smart at this point, they'll drop it and leave it alone. Because if they bill people for it all the time, it could bite them in the ass even more if we pursue it.

Lets not forget us being forced to pay out of pocket to fix the floor in the new unit before we could move in ( and before we had even been assigned the unit, we paid for this ), which was not to code and a housing violation in itself, because they dropped the ball and didn’t have their own people out to fix it like they were supposed to *before* our move in date, and we had no choice because we had to leave the old unit for the exterminators to treat it.

We also paid out of pocket to have the bed bug detection dog come twice to proactively ensure we did not bring any bugs with us. Unlike those nasty neighbors we had, who failed to even report they had problems 4+ times, and we had to suffer for it when the damned things came through the wall, and it only ever got fixed  and didn’t spread further because we reported it and had the treatment done correctly.

I really hope they just drop it, because I don’t want to have to deal with more legal issues on top of the other stuff I am dealing with.

Also concerned they might start nit picking at every possible thing they can ( fees and late charges if rent not paid on 1st even though we should have till 5th or later if we give notice because pay cycle doesn’t match up, didn’t clean up dog poop fast enough, etc ) to try and pressure us or start using it as an excuse to try and eventually evict us.

So once again, documenting in case we need it later.

Hard at work?

Here is Ember, hard at work at Fish & Pets the other day.

A Job

I got a job!!!  It's part time, working at a local private owned pet store.

Ember and I had our first day of work yesterday, and it was great. Everyone loves her to death, and all the customers have been very positive and curious about seeing an assistance dog in the store.

Spring rain

Beautiful thunderstorm with lightning gives way to gentle rain. Cool, crisp, soothing.

Oral surgery date

FINALLY!!!!  Oral surgery set for Wednesday April 24th!!

Finally Spring In Minnesota?

Wooo the weather is wonderful!  Some April showers that will bring May flowers!  Birds are singing, rain is drizzling, wind is blowing. Have the windows open to enjoy the breeze. I really need some windchimes.