I know none of you have asked, but I know that secretly all of you have been just wondering what on earth is going on with Ginger and her recovery from her hip surgery.  She is doing great.  Didn’t walk on the leg for about a month (even with with some serious painkillers).  Towards the end of February, she started using that leg periodically during the day.  Once she ran out of painkillers from the vet, she let off that leg again.  We worked it and moved it around, but she still just wouldn’t use it.  So I found some of her leftover arthritis pills (from just before the surgery), and gave those to her…after finishing those off (about a week’s worth), she started tentatively walking on that leg again.

By mid-March, she was walking on it pretty well, but would be hobbling by the end of a long day (i.e. weekends).  Then we watched our friends’ dog, Khali, a 40-something pound shepherd mix who Ginger ADORES!  I cannot hardly explain the love and excitement Ginger exudes every time we host Khali for a week.  While our dogs sleep in bed with us, we have Khali sleep on the floor (there’s just NO room for her, too).  Each morning once Justin and I first start talking to each other while still in bed (”get up!”  “turn off your friggin’ alarm!”), Khali would put her nose and a big ole paw on the bed…and Ginger would react like “OMIGAWWWD!  IT’S KHALI!  SHE’S HERE AGAIN!  MOMMA, DID YOU SEE?  IT’S KHALI!  OH I LOVE HER!  I GIVE HER KISSES!  HOLY CRAP SHE’S HERE AGAIN TODAY!”  It’s as if she has no memory of the night before of watching Khali forlornly laying down on her comfy bed on the floor.

So after spending a week running amok with Khali (while Maggie just pouted), Ginger was walking perfectly on that not-so-bum leg.  And most of the hair that was shaved in preparation of the surgery has grown back…except for this triangular patch on the top of her back.  So she essentially has this friar (monk?) hair growth on her butt.  We’re wondering if it’s ever going to grow back, since it’s now 2-1/2 months after the fact.  You might be able to see it in this video below (warning, this dog is very excited for no reason whatsoever…I’m not kidding):

I called the vet this morning and Ginger is not allowed to be released into the wild my care until a little later today, due to her surgery getting post-poned.  Like I can’t get her until 5pm-ish.  Sure hope that “emergency” was worth it!  Oh, and I am joking there.  I really am.  I actually like animals more than people…sometimes more than my family (I LOVE YOU GUYS!!).

Meanwhile, I am sitting here trying to scrounge up some work with Maggie plastered to my side, stealing all my body heat, fully dressed with socks, slippers, a big blanket over the two of us, and can ALMOST see my breath.  I’m considering cranking up the heat to a blistering 70 degrees, but am kind of curious as to how long I can type with partially-frozen fingers.  And then there’s that silly surgery that needs to be paid.  Let’s see, pay the gas company or pay the vet.  I actually kind of like the vet better since they don’t charge me a higher rate during certain months of the year.

Also, I keep obsessing over wanting a silly pink Blackberry.  Found out that I’m not cool enough to have my company partially pick up the tab on my cell bill (read: my company doesn’t need to get ahold of me at all hours, no matter how important I convince them I am).  Right now I pay a measly $35/month for like 450 minutes on my pink RAZR.  For the Blackberry, I’d be paying twice that…partly because I’d want to add the data package so that I could actually USE the phone for emails, etc.  You know, for what it’s made to do.  Plus, if I get that data package, I get an additional $100 off the price of the phone…add in my trade-in discount (or whatever it’s called when you have your phone for 2 years)…and a mail-in rebate, and I’m looking at getting a $420 phone for like $100.  And while saving over $300 REALLY appeals to me…I mean, that’s over 75% off (my head is nearly exploding from all the savings and excitement…really!).  If I didn’t take advantage of that, the Sales Gods would spite me for sure and I’d never see a sale past 30% off again.  But the problem is doubling my monthly rate.  I don’t get any additional minutes, but I can email to my little heart’s content.  And obsessively watch even more for those emails letting me know that I have a comment on my site. 

Maybe I’ll grab another cup of coffee to thaw out my brain and consider this a little more.  If nothing else, all the uncontrollable twitching and the one-leg shaking should help keep me warm, right?

Oh, and since I’m all over the place with this post anyways, I’m having a little sale on my jewelry (well, it’s not mine…I mean, I didn’t design it).  I’m not allowed to advertise here, but it’s a Valentine’s Day sale.  So leave a comment asking about it or click on that little “contact me” link and I’ll give you the details.

Yep, I am a silly nervous Nelly today.  My puppy baby is getting her hip surgery today, and as usual whenever any of my pets go under the knife, I am like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  Or a one-legged girl in a butt-kicking contest.  Oh wait.  That just means I’m busy.  Okay.  I’m not busy.  I’m nervous.  Skittish.  When I’m nervous I can’t shut-up and babble and suffer from diarrhea of the mouth.  Like I am right now.  Except maybe this is diarrhea of the fingers since I’m typing?  Maybe I should spray Lysol on my keyboard with this whole diarrhea of the fingers?

Okay.  I’m going to take a breath.

And maybe sneak a little Bailey’s in my coffee.

Ginger is getting her FHO performed and a polyp removed. 

UPDATE:

(are you listening Burgh Baby’s Mom?…no need to defect to that other site supposedly touting to love and cherish Ginger)

I got a call from the vet at about 5pm.  After 2-1/2 hours of surgery, she is minus one itty-bitty rectal polyp and one femoral head.  She is doing fine and was resting.  I will be picking her up tomorrow, probably late morning or early afternoon, along with sixty-hundred dollars worth of pain and antibiotic pills.  Oh, and heartworm pills, too, since we’re due.  And probably some more tetracycline opthalmic ointment for my nasty-eyed cat, Ollie.  I literally owe my entire net-worth to the vet.  Good thing my net-worth is only about $25.

I was also told I would have copious amounts of going-home instructions for Ginger, which would include some basic physical therapy.  So we’re looking at investing in a small doggy-pool.  Or just putting her in our big soaking tub, possibly with one of the kids because after the cost of that surgery, we’re going to need to share baths in this house for a while!  And I guess this means that even though I’m up for a new phone, I won’t be getting anything fancy like this one (although, SALE…it’s on SALE!).  Does anyone have one?  Is it worth it?  Is the keyboard weird?  I mean, it’s a QWERTY keyboard but two letters on each key–that flips my lid.  But I digress.

I will be sure to update folks after I bring home Frankenpuppy.

After I spent way too long reading and commenting on blogs last night (darn you, you prolific blog writers…can hardly keep up with my uncontrollable urge to comment), I got to bed a little later than I wanted.  As I’m trying to doze off, I hear Ginger snoring softly…slightly annoying, but her snores are very quiet for a Boston Terrier and are easy to block out.

About two minutes later, Maggie starts snoring.  Now her snores are much louder and I have never been able to fall asleep to her snoring…in fact, I’d swear she was 30lbs larger because of how loud she can snore.  I’m annoyed because I can’t reach her with my foot to give her a good nudge.  And I’m annoyed because her snores are alternating with Ginger’s…

SNOOOOOORRREEE GURGLE SNORT

snooooorrreeee grumbly snort

SNOOOOOORRREEE GURGLE SNORT

snooooorrreeee grumbly snort

Then, for lots of fun and my utter enjoyment, Justin* starts in.  But his snore is a weird syncopated rhythm, presumably due to his allergies, or his innate and uncontrollable desire to drive me crazy, even while he’s unconscious.  And I can’t sleep through his snores either, since they’re RIGHT IN MY EAR!

SNOOOOOORRREEE GURGLE SNORT

snoooorrrreee                             sNOOOOORRRrrrtt 

snooooorrreeee grumbly snort

snoooorrrreee                             sNOOOOORRRrrrtt  snoooorrrreee

SNOOOOOORRREEE GURGLE SNORT

snooooorrreeee grumbly snort

snoooorrrreee                             sNOOOOORRRrrrtt 

And just when I thought I finally dozed off, Cooper squawks in his sleep, which jars me awake.  Dogs and Justin?  Still snoring.  And I should’ve known that just because Cooper has been sleeping through the night for about a week (now that he’s mostly over his cold), that he feels compelled to shake things up and starts fussing at 5am.  I stumble in there, sneak around the head of his crib so he can’t see me and sliiide that binky in his mouth.  He quiets down and I go back to bed, where Maggie has stolen my spot.  I shove her over and climb back into bed.  Forty minutes later that child is up crying again.  I wait…but when he starts shrieking I get up and go back in there.  I rock him in the chair and he gets MAD!…screams louder, and I’m sure if he could speak, it would be something along the lines of “DEAR GOD, WOMAN!  I’M STARVING!  GIMME FOOD!!!!!!!”  Not wanting to wake up Gavin, I give in and feed him (don’t care if Justin wakes up, since he’s gotten up with Cooper TWICE in his life.  Okay…maybe three times).  Once he’s fed and passed out, I stumble back to bed, see that it’s already 6:15am and jump in the shower.  I haven’t been up and showering that early in the morning in a while…figure I might actually get out of the house early for a change.

 Yeah, I was wrong.

*to be fair, Justin doesn’t have a smooshed face like my dogs, well, except when it’s smooshed in the pillow

Sorry about that folks. Did you miss me? Well, according to my IT department (er, uh, Justin),

“Our web hosting provider has notified us that we are moving to a “bigger better” server, but in order to do that this website will be down. When you ask? sometime between Dec 20 and 22 and the duration will be unknown. So here is your notice and I am crossing my fingers that I don’t loose any pictures!”

I was slow on the draw (and didn’t know what the date was…I thought yesterday was only the 19th), and never got a note out to y’all. But I’m back.

Meanwhile, we got a larger crate for Ginger from some friends of ours, hoping we could help her leg. She’s been favoring her left back leg for a few weeks and we were starting to think it was because we were stuffing her into a crate a little too small for her. Gavin has decided that it is his crate. Wednesday morning he climbed in it instead of putting on his coat to leave in the morning, and stated “I’m going to stay in here” to his father. I was all for leaving him in there with a juice box and his Thomas trains, but Justin coaxed him out and took him to daycare. Later Wednesday night, Justin recorded Gavin singing his own rendition of “Jingle Bells” (with the tag of his pajamas hanging WAY out and Ginger sniffing him) and when Gavin was trying to watch himself sing “Jingle Bells”.

Cooper has been fighting another nasty cough and has almost completely stopped nursing and drinking from bottles and wasn’t sleeping again. Thankfully he’s been still eating his cereal and vegetables (peas, carrots, squash, and now green beans), but it’s a bit troubling that he’s only drinking 1/2 of his bottles all day, and sometimes refuses the bottles outright. So Thursday I called and made an appointment with the pediatrician to rule out ears (sometimes drinking/sucking can hurt if you have an ear infection). Well, that was just a crazy day. Got to work late; ran to the chiropractor during lunch and got there late; got back to work after my appointment late; left the office to pick up Cooper and due to crappy mid-day traffic, got to the pediatrician’s office late, and then Cooper had the audacity to NOT be really sick. Well, he’s sick…he’s got a cold with a nasty gooey cough…but no ear infection or bronchitis. All we can figure now is that maybe it’s teeth. Which is kind of frustrating. You’d think I’d be happy that there’s no infection, but I was actually a little annoyed that it wasn’t anything specific that could be treated. Instead, I got the ambiguous diagnosis that probably drives every mom crazy. So I’ve pulled out the infant tylenol and the teething tablets (which have been like MAGIC!) and we’ll see how he does this weekend…see if I can coax him into taking a bottle better than what he was doing with his teachers all week.

Today Justin brought Ginger into the vet since the bigger crate didn’t help her leg (well, it sort of did, she only hobbled for a few minutes instead of an hour). Turns out the poor puppy has hip dysplasia!!! Check out her x-ray here since I can’t just embed the picture in this article…or put it on my album on Justin’s site and link to it. Obviously I need to consult IT, eh? Well, anyways, Ginger will need surgery…on both hips (since the “good” hip isn’t all that good…just better than the bad hip). Meanwhile she’s on pain killers to help her use her leg again and build up some of the muscle she lost while hobbling around the house (she obviously hid it well for longer than we thought). Seriously. The bake sale is on. I will bake my almost famous apple pies to raise money, and I promise that Ginger won’t lick them too much before I sell them.