My Dog

My dog Bibi had to have emergency surgery on Wednesday. Well she stayed at the vet's Wednesday night and had the surgery on Thursday as they wanted to get her on fluids and antibiotics intravenously before they actually did the surgery. She was one sick little keeshond though as she had and infected uterus and needed to have it out! We had never gotten her spayed because we didn't need to; Ed is fixed and their yard is fenced in so it seemed safe to put it off. We talked sort of loosely about breeding her but never really had the gumption to do it. Well, that is taken care of now to the tune of $750.00 worth of emergency surgery.

She is feeling MUCH better and even though she isn't eating much, she IS eating. Thank God it all went as well as it did. Poor Eddie (our other dog) was lost around the house without her-me too!

It couldn't have come at a much worse time financially. Joe's car is making some unpleasant noises when he decelerates. My car needs new brake shoes. Patrick is getting new glasses-$165 for single vision lenses! Taxes are due in a couple of weeks. I don't think we can afford four cars with gas prices so high, and I think my car is going to have to go. Yes it is nice to have a van when you take friends along or haul something large but, Joe's car has removable seats too. I don't work outside the house and it doesn't make sense for me to keep a car for when I might go! We need to do some belt tightening and I think this is a way to do that.

This morning when I came home from church, I stopped to look at the flower bed in the front yard and there were about twenty butterflies eating nectar on the plants. Most of them looked like this:

It is called Red Admiral or Vanessa atalanta (Linnaeus, 1758). According to Butterflies and Moths of North America:

Red Admirals prefer sap flows on trees, fermenting fruit, and bird droppings; visiting flowers only when these are not available. Then they will nectar at common milkweed, red clover, aster, and alfalfa, among others. They are found in moist woods, yards, parks, marshes, seeps, moist fields. During migrations, the Red Admiral is found in almost any habitat from tundra to subtropics.

They really are lovely and it was nice to have them fluttering around the delphiniums.

I made Ed a window pillow today. He is a small enough dog that he fits in the window like a cat but I have never known a dog to groan as much as Eddie does. He is a young dog, just two years old, but sometimes he groans like an old man. He likes to sit in this window next to the computer while I work and he will just groan from how uncomfortable he is. So Now, he can rest his little bones more comfortably. I will post a picture when he isn't in the window.

Talk to you later,

Lynda

A dog owns nothing, yet is seldom dissatisfied.
Irish Proverb