No Surgery!

Rowdy and Grover jumped tandem through the tire on Sunday!

Rowdy and I had our appointment last week at Ohio State's Veterinary Hospital where we met with an orthopedic specialist.  It was a long day, especially for Rowdy, who is not a very social dog.  He was taken into the depths of the clinic around 11:30 and I did not see him again until 5 pm.  X-rays were taken, joint fluid was extracted and analyzed, and he was thoroughly examined.  While there is significant damage to the hock joint from osteoarthritis, likely resulting from trauma (car incident 6 years ago), surgery is not indicated at this time.  We are trying him on meloxicam, another NSAID which supposedly has less incidence of liver side effects, for 2 weeks.  Then we take him off for a week and see how he does.  Let me tell you, I noticed a difference within 24 hours.  He is like his old self.  He plays with Grover and no longer moves from place to place and lays down.  I will have bloodwork done after he has been on it a while and see how it looks.  There are other options yet before surgery, so my fingers are crossed and double crossed!

Grover's and my first agility trial is coming up so quickly!  It is less than 2 weeks away now.  We are doing 2 runs on Friday and staying home Saturday and doing 1 run on Sunday.  I have since sent in my entry for the December trial, which is also in Zanesville on Dec 27 and 28, and we will be doing 2 runs each day at that trial.  I am excited, but also very nervous.  I made a new tire  for the tire jump yesterday and have moved the home course (again) to a larger space, which was the maternity pasture this summer.  I just have to watch for tree stumps.  I now have the tunnel, tire, teeter, 4 jumps and 8 weave poles.  I think this year's Christmas list will be mostly agility equipment.  Grover and I even did a demo for my mother's book club on Sunday.  So we had 8 women standing in the field with us applauding and Grover did just fine.  Good practice for the trial.  I just know he will go over and greet the judge in true Grover fashion. 

The dogs and I went and checked out the beaver pond again yesterday.  It has really expanded.  Everywhere there are tree stumps that have been gnawed and cleaned of bark.  

And where it is not pond-like, it is very swampy.  Unfortunately our exploring was cut short by the dogs' discovery of a deer carcass, so I didn't find the dam which is obviously downstream of the first dam they built.  

As for fiber-y stuff, my knitting has been limited lately to Christmas gift-knitting, so I have no photos.  But I have finished off the hems on the 2 rugs I posted last time:

The hems are hand sewn instead of machine sewn and I am much happier with the result.  This white rug is 28"  X  42" 










and this black rug is  28"  X 35"

The loom is re-warped for 2 more rugs.  I am using a striped warp in gradiant colors and solid color weft.  The first one is a fawn weft and I am debating what color the second one will be.  It will be a shade of brown, I am just not sure if it will be a dark brown or a shade between the fawn and dark brown.  I will have to decide soon since the fawn one is almost finished.


Our weather has been typical of early November : warm and lovely one day and cold and damp the next.  We have enjoyed the 60's and plenty of sun the last 2 days and our highs are supposed to drop into the 30's by Thursday.  The dogs and I have been making the most of the nice weather when we can.  I just love fall.  

Check out this awesome fungi I noticed growing on the end of a cut log on our walk yesterday.  I do not think I have seen fungus in such a lovely blue and tan pallet before.  Love it!