Monthly Archives: November 2006

So Nomad had surgery on her lower eyelids last week to correct her Entropion. PetPlace defines Entropion as “an inward rolling of the eyelid edges. It is an uncommon problem in the cat, but when it does occur it usually affects the lower eyelids.” This description is spot on in Nomad’s case (you can see the picture on the left, or a larger one in our album here.)

She had been taken to the vet’s office for her routine checkup and shots and the vet asked if she was blind. Samantha replied “Nah, she just always has her eyes closed, she’ll open them when she moves.”

The vet took a closer look and said “I’ve read about this before…”

We can stop right there for a second. When any sort of doctor begins his sentence with “I’ve read about this before…” you know you’ve either:

A) have a serious problem on your hands or
B) have an expensive problem on your hands.

“But I’ve never seen it in a cat before” he finished. “I can correct it with surgery fairly easily. She’s also got some really high cheekbones…you’ve got a weird cat.”

“Um…thanks?” Samantha stammered.

So we elected for the surgery, it is not too very expensive and as we are doing a favor for my sister by keeping Nomad for the year, we had a little help from the parental units. The only hurdle we had to overcome was convincing Sarah that Nomad would indeed be more comfortable after the surgery than before. Fortunately Sarah agreed without much fuss and so we scheduled it.

Nomad came back to us looking like a skinny feline version of a football linebacker. She had bruises on her back from the IV catheter (we ALWAYS pay the extra $30 for that) and her stitches and shaved cheeks give the impression that she’s got some sort of substance smeared under her eyes.

Too bad we didn’t get her back in time for Halloween, she would have had the perfect costume.

[tags] Entropion, Cat, Feline, Surgery, Nomad, Veterinarian, PetPlace[/tags]

We took Roxy to her first flyball tournament this past weekend (last weekend in October.) She didn’t get to race any as she is still too young, but it was a good experience for her to see how noisy and how many dogs and people there really are. The tournament was in Charlotte, and was hosted by Dogsmack.

Our saga begins on Friday, with the previous post…so I will pick up where I left off.

Samantha got home shortly after I did with our new German Shepherd mix, Tessa. We quickly packed the car, got the dogs situated, and pulled out. Before we even got out of the apartment complex we relized we forgot something, so we turned around and got it…nice catch right?

Hah, yeah, right. We did that 4 more times. We still forgot stuff *le sigh* We now have a checklist for future tournaments…well, in our heads. We’ve got to sit down and actually write it out before we leave for the next one. However, back to the story.

We finally got on the road after much frustration and headed off into the great blackness that is ‘night’ you see, although the time had not changed, we were now running a full hour late! Samantha called the team captain and let her know, and we cruised on through Columbia. A few miles outside the northwest portion of Columbia Tessa, the newbie, began whimpering. “Ok” We said “She just has to go to the bathroom.” We pulled off on the next exit, hoping to find a service station close by. No joy, so Tessa took her first pee on the road in a dimly lit gravel and grass church parking lot on I-77 in the middle of nowhere. In the rain. Did I mention that? It was pouring rain.

Fast forward an hour, we arrive in Charlotte. It’s still raining, theres a line to check in (at a Motel 6, imagine!), the dogs are restless. Tessa has been crammed in the back of the Xterra in her cage for the last hour since she went pee, Roxy is curled up in the back seat with the rest of the bags and equipment. I let Tessa out to stretch her legs when she started raising a ruckus and calmly waited on Samantha to get back with our room key. Eventually she did and we made our way to the room. It was tiny. I kid you not, when we put the two crates in the room, there was not enough room for me to get out of bed on my side. I had to climb over Samantha and then I could take the 1.5 steps to the bathroom.

We lived, we awoke at the ungodly hour of 5:30 Saturday morning and bundled the dogs back into the car for the short trip to the venue. It was quite nice, imagine a huge warehouse filled with over 100 barking dogs. Yeah, cacophony. After awhile you sort of get used to it, and then all of a sudden it stops, and undoubtedly right when you were in the middle of shouting “Yeah, I used Gold Bond on my toes this morning they were so nasty from the wat…”

The rest of Saturday passed in a blur of races, cat naps, hunger pains, and finally culminated with a Mexican fiesta at a shady little restaurant about 1/4 a mile from the hotel. Damn I shouldn’t have eaten those enchiladas.

Sunday was more of the same, and man were we glad when we got home. We passed out in our own bed, thankful that we were living a life were we could make ourselves miserable for a whole weekend and love every second of it.

Check back soon for a tale of woe, a tale of pain, a tale of a cat getting her eyelids cut off!

[tags]Flyball, Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd, Dogs, Charlotte[/tags]

So, Samantha and I came to the conclusion that one dog was not enough…or more accurately, Roxy was getting bored when we had to work in the evenings. This past Friday, I had a half day at the office and drove to the Scotland County, NC shelter where I had heard of a German Shepherd mix that was in dire need of a home. She was scheduled to be put down and if we didn’t make it in time then her life was basically forfeit.

The actual adoption was not that hard, went in, played with her for a bit, decided she would fit nicely with Roxy and the apartment, signed the paperwork. The vet gave me a voucher for a free rabies shot at a veterinary clinic down the road, so I took her there and then started home. The drive home was uneventful until about 30 minutes into it when she puked all over the crate she was in.

“No problem” I thought, I figured it was going to happen…the stress put on them going into the unknown is pretty severe. I pulled over on the side of the road to clean it up, however by the time I got out and got the back of the Xterra opened, she had eaten it all. “Oh boy” I muttered. “You’re one of those.”

She threw up 3 more times on the way home, the final time right as we were coming into the apartment complex. I flew into a parking spot and got her out before she could wolf it down again. She was disoriented, more than a little scared, and smelled like the pound. I cleaned up the crate, took her inside and gave her a bath, and let her explore the apartment for a bit before I introduced her to Roxy.

They got off to a rocky start with all sorts of growling and whatnot, but Roxy, being the cooler head, listened to my commands flawlessly. I got her on her back, covered her eyes, and kept her calm while Tessa gave her a good sniff. Then I did the same to Tessa for Roxy’s benefit. After that they got along flawlessly.

An hour later, we packed them both into the Xterra and headed off to Charlotte for our first Flyball tournament. But that’s a whole ‘nother post, coming up soon!

[tags]German Shepherd, Dogs, North Carolina, Rescues, Animal Shelter[/tags]