Say hello… July 7, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in pets.Tags: fostering, Gigadog, newfoundlands, Rainier
1 comment so far
…to our foster dog Rainier. I considered calling him Teradog, but I think we’ll reserve that one for someone who will be a permanent member of the family.
Rainier is a Landseer Newfoundland who will be staying with us until we can find him a forever home. Poor guy has a lot to deal with, however. This is what he looked like when we got him:
Poor guy’s coat was a solid block of mats. There was nothing we could do but shave it all off. Once we did that, we discovered that he has an ear infection, an eye infection, a skin infection, maybe some dental problems, and tummy issues. Poor guy is a mess.
He seems to be adjusting very well and is an amazingly calm dog. Gigadog…not so much, but this is the first time she’s ever had dogs over for a long-term visit. Also, she’s now in her camping kennel, which I’m sure is not helping.
It’s amazing what I can get done when I’m not at work July 5, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in grad school, personal, research, writing, younger son.Tags: fostering, Gigadog, illness, reading, west nile, writing, younger son
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I never thought I’d be thankful for my child being sick. I suppose I should as it means he’s acquiring another immunity.
I’m guessing the younger son had West Nile. At least, the symptoms were consistent with West Nile, and it showed up a couple days after his daycare took the kids to a nearby state park to swim. Swimming hole = mosquitoes = contagion. The younger boy is usually pretty healthy, but it was obvious he was pretty sick this time. He spent two days solid watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, eating jello and yogurt, and sleeping.
I constantly had a thermometer in my hand. The worst was reading temps of 103.5°F, because then I had to convince myself that it was really better not to give him Tylenol. See, the kid wouldn’t sleep unless I let his fever run up, and I know from past experience that you’ve got to let them hit that spike or it just drags out for days. It seemed to work because less than 24 hours after we initially discovered he was sick, his fever dropped down in to the below 101°F range. Yesterday, which was 48 hours after we found out he was sick, he was going stir crazy and taking Mike and myself with him.
In the meantime, I was stuck at home, and it was the probably some of the best uninterrupted time I’ve had in months to work on my dissertation. This resulted in a big jump forward, at least from my perspective. In that time, I learned how to use the debugger and managed to fix a couple major issues with my code. On top of that, I managed to finish a fictional novel I’ve been reading for the last six months. (Yeah, I know…) I even spent some time doing some fun writing of my own (though obviously not the blog).
I also was asked to take care of a rescue dog for a couple days. He’s a very sweet boy, but he makes Gigadog look tiny. (Maybe we should call him Teradog?) I’ll probably be picking him up tomorrow, so I’ll try to get some pics up. (Depends on how busy he keeps me.) I think we’ve decided to call him Rainier, since he’s huge as a mountain. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he and Gigadog get along well.
I also blog at Engineer Blogs, home away from home to some of the best engineering blogs.