jes the draggonlaady

It's been a crazy weekend. I will refrain from whining about work for once. That doesn't mean work was nice, just that I'm on a different topic.

I finally got one of the two dachshund mixes (Haze) adopted out. That leaves one dog (Snowflake) in foster.

Saturday afternoon, Bruce helped me help the sheriff's deputies round up a pot bellied pig that'd been abandoned about a month ago. He's large. He's now parked at Bruce's folks', since I have no pig-proof fence. (Hello, Notorious P.I.G.)

While there, we also scooped up a cat that'd been abandoned. VERY sweet calico, in very rough shape. She's been leukemia tested, de-flea'd, de-matted (ie, mostly shaved) and vaccinated. Now she just needs to gain 2 pounds to be the size of a real cat. We've dubbed her Caliope.

AND I now have a fawn. Cute little buck fawn, except for the part where he stinks of rotting flesh. Yay maggots and abscesses.

So.... does someone out there want a critter of any sort? I've got a variety pack and am happy to transport to the Seattle area this weekend. Please? PLEASE?!?!?

That'll fix it.

So woman today brings in her little Fluffy, who's been lethargic and had a low-grade fever for about a week and a half, after fighting with someone else's little Fluffy. After discussing why I think this is a bacterial infection, and not, say, rabies, I recommend starting Fluffy on an antibiotic. Woman declines... she prefers to treat the cat by application of "essential oils" to his feet. She does not specify essential oil of what, but since off the top of my head the only one I know of with direct medical application has nothing to do with fighting infections (clove oil for anesthetic induction of fish and amphibians), I think it probably doesn't matter.

But it reminds me of this lovely piece of work: Storm, by Tim Minchin. It's lovely, and you should go enjoy it.

They came in and made a payment today. I was fully expecting to call them late this afternoon and tell them the bill is due, and get screamed at for being a heartless, money-grubbing, incompetent, vile bitch. Instead, they stopped in over the noon hour and made a payment. Not the full amount, but they've now paid off half of it, and say they'll bring in another payment in a week.


http://draggonlaady.livejournal.com/201173.html
http://draggonlaady.livejournal.com/201468.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/29/US.beef.recall/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

More recalls.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55M6A420090623?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The federal agency identified the suspect brands late on Monday as California Prime Produce and Orange County Orchards, which were repacked by Orca Distribution West Inc of Anaheim, California.

The potentially tainted pistachios came from Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, California, which issued a nationwide recall of its products in late March after salmonella was found in some nuts.

It's not just a city in West Bohemia.

Get one. Make one. Use one.

Do not be like the woman from the local extension office. Spoke to her about 2 weeks ago about potentially giving a presentation tonight at a meeting for educating horse owners on West Nile Virus. Explained that I was on-call, and couldn't guarantee my time, or even my ability to show up at all. She said she would try to find someone who was not on-call, and if she couldn't, she'd call me back. That was the last I heard, until...

She called this morning, and asked if I had any fliers or anything that she should pick up and copy for tonight. Well, no. No I don't, because I was under the impression that I was not attending the meeting, let alone presenting anything. BAH. So I've agreed to attempt to make an appearance. I did NOT agree to make a presentation. I will try to field questions if anybody has any for me, but I'm not trying to whip up anything official today while I'm at work (notice how hard I'm working, yes? But that's beside the point--my point is that I'm the victim, pity me) to present tonight with no warning.

At least she admits that she "dropped the ball" and apologized for the confusion, and didn't try to blame me for it.

Apparently, I have some. And it's what prevents me from saying "You're quite welcome. Favorite part of my job, really. Feel free to bring all the rest of your animals in, we'll give you a bulk discount." in response to the fucking psycho (who cannot, of course, be blamed for the fact that the dog had been untreated so long it could barely lift its head before being brought to the clinic) who snipes "Thanks for killing my dog" as she's walking away.

if I had a dollar for every time someone threatened to sue me.

I mentioned a few days ago that I've been getting a lot of random and annoying calls about foster dogs... people that can't follow exceedingly simple directions like "for more information, call H and ***-****"

The other day, I got an email inquiry about Haze and Snowflake from someone in W-ville. Says she's looking for 2 small dogs to adopt together, because her old dog has died and she has "a hole in her heart" without dogs around.
Okay, great. I sent her an adoption application, and some more info on the dogs, said I'd be happy to meet her in the middle to introduce her to the dogs since she lives quite a ways away.
Today I get back an email saying "Thank you, but I'm not ready yet, just looking. I do hope you find a great home for these two. I am interested in 2 but it is too early, just lost mine last week. Thank you."
So what the Hell? If you're not ready, why are you looking and asking about them? Do you think I'm going to just hold them indefinitely until you feel like adopting new dogs? WHY ARE YOU WASTING MY TIME? Gah.

The dachshund twins did not work out in the trial home, so they're back at my house. Yay. Anybody need a little dog or 2?

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nestle's U.S. baking division said on Friday that it was voluntarily recalling its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of the risk of contamination with E. coli bacteria.

Nestle said the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were investigating reports of illnesses caused by E. coli O157:H7 in consumers who also reported having eaten raw cookie dough. E. coli can cause abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea, the FDA said.

Since March, the FDA said, there have been 66 reports of illness across 28 states. Twenty-five people were hospitalized, according to the FDA, and no one has died.

"We want to strongly advise consumers that raw cookie dough should not be eaten," Nestle said in a statement. "This message also appears prominently on our packaging."

Nestle said the products involved in the recall included all varieties of Nestle Toll House refrigerated Cookie Bar Dough, Cookie Dough Tub, Cookie Dough Tube, Limited Edition Cookie Dough items, Seasonal Cookie Dough and Ultimates Cookie Bar Dough.

The FDA advised consumers to throw the products away. It said cooking the dough was not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and cooking surfaces.

So a while back, when I had Rascal the broken-legged (stress on the ed there, of course), I was whinging about expensive fosters and trying to find him a home, as is my wont. I actually managed to get a few hundred dollars donated towards his cause from some folks here, and some folks on another website, and ran raffle to get about a hundred more. The rest of his bills came out of my pocket of course (this is so commonly the case that it is the reason I got the non-profit status; I do enough of this that it's worth it to do itemized deductions). And I thought that one was taken care of and done.
Until the other day, when I got a check in the mail, from a beautiful, wonderful, unbelievable person that I play word games with online. For $250. And a note that they intend to send another, not so puny check, at the end of the year. PUNY? Besides what I donate, that's the largest single donation I've gotten!
So I'm actually not only caught up on the bills for the dachshunds, but actually ahead for once! whee!

welch loth.
farm boob boob tusk!
dance nitre dicer nitre?
genet peter cad die?
scop nitre arc burl!
hawse tiff actor baize!
ahoy skua fanny nitre.
ahull dwell ahoy ahull?
spore peter.
binge die.
depth brier plus grand?
scop ilex trow slum!
fix coach slum munch!
pise slum.
sever prose lumpy hawse.
zed chum skua prose?
cob baize burl adopt!
jenny suit.
apart hear griff.
spiky pest griff cask.
hump arc apart dicer?
weak brier check.
hypo dicer.
wrest coast.

Bruce can probably tell this story better than I can, because he's the one that actually heard the end of it... I stopped listening to the other people after "blank stare".

We stopped by a Bruchi's for lunch this weekend. It seems Bruchi's has added a few items to their menu, including a "BruCheese Burger". Bruce decided to try one. Brave Bruce!

While the young woman was making his sandwich, he asked her if they used Bleu cheese on the BruCheese burger. She looked puzzled, and asked "why would we do that?"
Bruce says "I was just wondering how many puns they decided to layer on."
"I.. What? Pun?"
So I (helpfully, I thought) clarified..."The play on words, Bruchi's and BruCheese. It's a pun."
Young woman gives me a totally blank stare. Seriously---slack jaw, dead eyes, a good 2 seconds. I think I just broke her brain. So I shake my head and wander off to find a table. Bruce remains long enough to hear the young man next to her lean over and say "Just smile and finish the sandwich."
To which the young woman replies "I don't understand why people have to use all these stupid big words."


---------------
May dc 32

Hurrah!

Both fosters are off to a trial home for the weekend! And if the kids' excitement is any indicator, they won't be coming back next week. This makes me much happy, as I was getting really tired of the 3am puppy walks.

courtesy jenndolari, by way of interactiveleaf:

"No, Moslems don't believe that Jesus was the messiah.

Think of it like a movie. The Torah is the first one, the New Testament is the sequel. Then the Qu'uran comes out, and it retcons the last one like it never happened. There's still Jesus, but he's not the main character anymore, and the messiah hasn't shown up yet.

Jews like the first movie, but ignored the sequels. Christians think you need to watch the first two, but the third one doesn't count. Moslems think the third one was the best, and Mormons liked the second one so much they started writing fanfic that doesn't fit with ANY of the series canon."

I have 2 foster dogs currently. Sister/brother pair of dachshund mixes, born last October. They each have a bad hip due to a lovely genetic abnormality.

I've done surgery on sister's hip and spayed her already. Brother still needs done. Then they both need homes (together, separately, I don't care, as long as they aren't at my house long-term).

Anybody out there need a small dog or 2? They are generally friendly (a little shy at first but not snapping or peeing on themselves), get along with other dogs, don't eat cats.


Also, Petfinder.com is running a "pick your favorite rescue and we'll give them money" contest. So feel free (or pressured, or ordered) to go to http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com and click on the donate dog food thing, then the next page brings up a vote for your favorite shelter page (down towards the bottom. keep scrolling.) Wayward Creatures Relief Agency, in WA of course. Thanks! (I doubt I can out-compete bigger shelters with more supporters, but hey, what's it hurt to try?) Everyone can vote daily, and while you're there, hit the other sites along the top to send rice to hungry people and books to inner city kids and mammograms to womens.

Banana bread. it's pretty good, right? nice, easy breakfast food. Unless Bruce makes it, and then it's full of wonderful. Yummy things like blueberries and coconut and chocolate chips. You should all be jealous.

Nutro Products Announces Voluntary Recall of Limited Range of Dry Cat Food Products

May 21, 2009

Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with "Best If Used By Dates" between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST, or visit www.nutroproducts.com.

AveQ is coming to Spokane next February. Tickets have just gone on sale, but not on an individual basis--they're selling only to groups of 10 or more! Aaargh! So here's the deal. Bruce and I wanna go. We need 8 more people to make it worth buying 10 tickets, or wait until they go on sale for individuals and hope they aren't sold out. Any of you lovelies wanna come visit and go to the show? You know you wanna!!!

Looks like $750 - $1200 for ten people in decent seats.