Saving A Turtle

Yesterday evening hubby and I decided to get out of the house and go to Target. Just after we pulled out of our subdivision, we saw a large turtle in one lane of the road. It had a bright red spot on the top and we thought it must have been dead. We decided to turn around and go check anyway. As we got closer, we saw that he (or maybe it was a she) wasn't dead and was actually trying to get across the road. He was bleeding where one of the cars had clipped the top of his shell, but he was still very much alive. I pulled off of the road as much as possible and put my hazard lights on so the traffic whizzing by at 60+ mph would at least see me while hubby went to move the turtle off of the road.

As hubby bent down to pick him up, he realized this wasn't just any turtle, it was a big snapping turtle and he was not happy. I am watching from the car and hubby turns the turtle toward me; all I can see is his huge mouth open and he is looking for something to bite. As traffic clears, hubby runs him across the road and puts him in some tall grass near the pond. As they were running across the road, the turtle made one last effort at trying to get away and peed on my hubby.

With the turtle safely out of harms way we headed on to Target. Once there, hubby immediately went to the bathroom to clean off the turtle pee and I stayed outside for a few minutes cleaning it off of a few places in my car. It was worth having to clean up a little urine to save the turtle from getting killed.

Abbie Gets Gold Star

Abbie had her first post-op visit today. It is hard to believe it has only been 2 weeks since she broke her leg and had surgery. It seems so much longer. She is doing great and got a gold star; they didn't even have to change the wrap on her splint. She goes back in 2 more weeks and will get her splint off as long as she continues doing well.

I can't say enough good things about the vet who did her surgery, Dr. Bill Dudley. He has been absolutely fantastic. Abbie ended up with a sore on her side after surgery; we figured it was most likely from some type of monitoring pad. We showed it to him in today's visit and he seemed very concerned. About 4pm he had his vet tech call back and ask more questions because he was concerned she could get such a mark while in their care (it is about 1.5 inches long and the width of a dime). He says they would not have had any kind of pad in that area and wants to get to the bottom of what happened so it would not happen to anyone else. I would highly recommend him and his team to anyone needing orthopedic services for their pet.

Heat

This heat really sucks. It is currently 9:15pm and the temperature on my front porch is 96 degrees! The high for today was 106, but felt like 110. The radio was warning people to stay inside if you did not absolutely need to go outside. This is just the end of June and anyone who has spent any time in Texas knows it doesn't really get hot around here until August.

I am a little afraid to see what August brings our way.

Terrell Owens and Joanna Krupa

Last night I watched "The Superstars" which is very similar to "Battle of the Network Stars" that used to air many years ago. On this show an athlete and a model/actor/actress is paired together and they compete is various events; then the two bottom teams have to run an obstacle course to see who gets to stay and who gets eliminated. I have never been a T.O. fan because I think he is very overrated and a drama king. Well, last night, after losing the kayaking event, he threw a mini tantrum and did not want to speak to the cameras. Then his partner, Joanna Krupa started being a diva too. She was throwing f-bombs constantly and commenting on T.O.'s athletic ability.

During the obstacle course, T.O. got hung up on the cargo net which ultimately led to them losing. Again, Joanna started being a diva and throwing a tantrum. After losing, T.O. actually took a bit the high road and congratulated the winners, but Joanna was too self-absorbed to do anything but curse and through a tantrum.

They both behaved so badly, that I was actually cheering when they lost. Good riddance to the cry babies.

Tillie, Carl and the Pepito's

Tillie, Carl and the Pepito's are my plants. Yes, my plants have names. I know I am a little strange - that is nothing new.

Tillie is my tomato plant. She has three tomatoes that are growing nicely, but are not yet ready to be picked. I can't wait until they ripen and we can pick them.

Carl is my cucumber plant. He has lots of flowers, but no cucumbers yet. He is planted in a 2-3 foot long planter and he extends about 2 feet on each side of the planter making him about 6 feet long. He is trying to attach himself to everything - except the wire and posts I gave him to attach to.

The Pepito's are my pepper plants. There are hot peppers, an assortment of sweet peppers, and some bell peppers. The hot and sweet peppers are looking nice, but they don't have any peppers on them yet. The bell pepper has 3 little peppers on it that are growing nicely. Hopefully in a couple of weeks they will be big enough to pick.

This is my first attempt at having a garden in pots, so it will be cool to see how well they do this year.

Summer is Officially Here

Although we have been having summer weather for a while, summer was officially here as of yesterday. At least the weatherman has changed the forecast and we are only expected to hit 100+ a few days this week and not all week long.

I have really got to work on getting some type of shade in my back yard. Right now there is no shading, so you absolutely burn to death when you try to go in the back between 1pm and 7pm.

Ahhh, the joys of summer in Texas.

The Egg Genie

Have you seen the commercial for The Egg Genie? It can cook up to 7 eggs at the same time and make them either hard boiled, medium boiled, or soft boiled. It can even do poached eggs. The commercial does a good job of making it sound simple, but it leaves out a few details.

Does it magically know what type of egg you want (hard boiled, soft boiled, or poached)? It never shows you how to make the selection.

How does the thing get its power? It doesn't mention anything about putting it in the microwave, there is no mention of batteries, and they never show a power cord.

All they tell you to do is put water in, poke the eggs with the little tool, put them in the Egg Genie (up to 7 eggs at one time), and then you take them out when the time goes off.

This made me so curious that I decided to look at the infomercial on the Internet, and it never answers the questions either.

Check out The Egg Genie infomercial and let me know you what you think.

The Escape Artist

Abbie had surgery on Sunday and we brought her home on Monday (with a serious chunk taken out of our wallet). She has restrictions for at least 8 weeks - no running, jumping, playing, etc. Have you ever tried to keep a hyper rat terrier still? To keep an eye on her, we are essentially taking shifts, with the hubby taking the bulk of the baby sitting duties. She has been doing okay, but last night she decided to escape from her kennel.

We are using a soft travel kennel to make sure she doesn't snag her leg on the side of the kennel. At night when we are not able to watch her she has to wear the e-collar; which she does pretty well. Last night she apparently decided she didn't want to stay in her kennel and used her good leg to unzip the zipper. I found out she was loose because her sister started barking about 5am. Apparently, Riley was jealous that Abbie was out and she was still in a kennel. She didn't appear to do any damage to her bandage and actually seemed quite happy with herself. I put her back in the kennel and used a zip tie to keep the zipper closed until the hubby was ready to get up. There was no sense in me going back to bed because the alarm was going to go off any minute now.

Three days behind us and only 7 and 1/2 weeks to go. Here is a picture of my little escape artist. As you can see, the pain meds are working well.

A Birthday, A Dentist, A Busted Lip, and A Broken Leg

A birthday, a dentist, a busted lip, and a broken leg. What do all of these things have in common? They are all events that have preoccupied my time for the last 2 weeks.

A birthday: Riley turned 1 year old on June 1st. We made her a Peanut Butter Carrot Cake and she loved every bite of it. It is amazing that the little 6 pound fluff ball that we brought home is now a 50 pound fur machine. She has become a really good dog and gets better every day.

A dentist: On my last routine cleaning, the dentist discovered that what we thought was a stain was actually a cavity and had to do a filling. I don't handle dental work well, but this had to be done so I put on my big girl pants and scheduled the appointment. It really hurt the remainder of that day and part of the next, but it is all better now.

A busted lip & a broken leg: This past Friday (6/12), Riley and Abbie were playing in the yard while I watered plants. All of a sudden I hear a really loud snap, and then one of the dogs yelping. When I turned to look, little Abbie was holding her left leg up and I could see her little foot was dangling. Her leg was broken. I ran over to her to scoop her up and in her panic, she bit me on the lip and gave me a busted lip. As I was heading to the front yard, hubby was coming to the back yard to see what the commotion was and then he saw her little leg. We grabbed the bare essentials and rushed her to the emergency vet. They confirmed her leg was indeed broken. Both bones just above her little wrist were broken all the way through. They were able to put a splint on her and give her pain meds, but they were not able to fix it. On Saturday, we took her to our regular vet who also was not able to fix it and gave us the names of some surgeons that could possibly assist. We were able to get in touch with one of them and he was willing to take a look and see what he could do; he even asked us to come in today (Sunday) even though his office was closed. Based on what I had told him over the phone, he had two of his vet techs come in as well and they actually did the surgery today. She had to have a metal plate and several screws put in her leg and will have a 9-12 month recovery period. She is not going to be happy because she will have to have limited activity for at least the next 8 weeks. She stays in the ICU at the hospital tonight and we should be able to pick her up in the morning.

I know some people will think I am nuts because of the expense of the emergency visit and the surgery; but this is my baby and I would do the same thing over and over again.