Thursday Ketchup

I thought that Ketchup would be an appropriate title because, among other things, I bought an industrial-sized container of ketchup at Sam's yesterday.  Also mustard.  And a case of Rotel!  And I haven't blogged much in the last few days.

Blogger is acting up again.  It's not telling me that there are comments until I log in, it's supposed to email me but it hasn't been.  I've checked my settings and it's still set up to email me.  I guess it's protesting or something.  So, if you leave me a comment and it doesn't appear for a while it might be a good thing to email me and let me know.

Froggy, I thought you'd like the Eeyore picture.  I thought it was adorable.

Frasier is both better and worse.  He's no longer barking at invisible intruders.  But he's still wanting company at night.  The benadryl did help for a little while but not long.  One of the things the vet suggested was that we leave a light on where he could see that there was nothing to be scared of.  We tried that last night.  Not only could he see that he wasn't in any danger, he could also see that Mom wasn't in the room!  So, I slept on the couch again last night.  First thing this morning, I called the vet and ordered the tranquilzers.  I picked them up today, 20 pills for $26.00.  The dosage is one to two pills, start with one and then work my way up if I need to.  About 45 minutes to an hour before bedtime.  They will make him groggy and hopefully, he'll sleep all night.  I can give him another pill or half pill after 4 to 6 hours, which might mean that they wear off in the middle of the night.  We're going to start them tonight, they don't have to be given around the clock and can be given just at night.

Then, if/when that doesn't work, we have one more thing to try:  allowing him back in our room at night.  He used to sleep at the foot of the bed and was never a problem, but Maggie was.  She would get under our bed, which was not a problem, but she has a habit of licking everything she comes in contact with until it is sodden wet (which makes it smell also).  At first, we thought she was having housebreaking issues, it was that bad.  She's the reason that they are blocked from the bedrooms.  But that's been the case for several years now, and is not a new thing.  Frasier can jump the block, he's tall enough and has done it on a few occasions.  What we're thinking is that we'll take the block down and take him to the bedroom with us (the block will be replaced) and he'll probably (hopefully!) go to sleep.  I might remind him about his ability to jump the block, stand on the other side and call him as an example.  I honestly think that we are going to get to that point, because his problem now is obviously that he wants to be where I am.  And it is me, he likes Otter and Bill, but there is a reason my local mother-in-law calls him a Mamma's Boy.

He does have some vision issues, but that are not as severe as we thought at first.  Of course, that was when nobody (dog included) had been getting any sleep for a period of several days.  We're pretty sure he has some hearing loss but I don't think it's bad.  He's an old man, it's to be expected!  His physical health is good, he does have the spots on his ribcage on one side that I think are cysts but they are fairly small and I think he's had them for a while so they are not an issue.  He's getting playful again, although probably not as bouncy as the beagle is - but then, Beagles are certifiably crazy!  If it takes letting him back into our room to get some sleep, then I'm willing.  He's one of the most special dogs we've ever had.  Even if he can be a pest at times!

We had no trick or treaters last night.  Not even the young ones we usually have before it gets dark.  And after it did get dark, we didn't see any sign at all of any kids on the street.  At all.  We're kind of in the lull - the time between the current crop of kids being too old and the next crop still being really little.  In a couple of years, I think that we'll have more and the houses behind us are probably going to be occupied with families.  We bought one small bad of peanut butter logs and each had one piece out of it.  Then Bill took about half of it to work with him this morning and Otter took the rest to college with her.  I'm not sure about Bill's candy jar, but Otter reported that what she took vanished almost immediately!

I'm going to put my crochet shawl project on hold for a while.  It's gotten to be very frustrating.  I work on it and do several rows, then it never seems to actually get any bigger.  I'm going to start back on my afghan this weekend, it does seem to grow as I add rows at least.  The shawl will eventually be finished - or I'll put the finishing ruffle row on it and call it done, and then I might donate it if I do that because it's not really big enough to fit an adult.

I can't believe that it's already November 1st!