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home of the spindly hounds

@imalayla / imalayla.tumblr.com

• This blog is dedicated to Layla, forever entwined in my atoms • Stoli born 1.12.22 • Bubbles born 4.4.21 • I follow back from nochoramet, please respect my privacy and don't follow my main without asking me first •
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Life sucks and capitalism grips me sometimes.

Two new t shirts, a cute snuffle mat, and gifts from a friend.

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I couldn't resist these two t shirts. I try to not get new t shirts bc they accumulate so fast, but I also really want some subtle pride shirts to wear to dog events. Also the whippet one looks EXACTLY like stoli, hello????

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In other news, mystery lumps were found on B's leg and they're unsure wtf they could be. Fine needle aspiration told no tales. The "c" word was mentioned, but also could be an inflammatory response. Who knows. Not us! So probably doing an ultrasound tomorrow in addition to her surgery to remove hardware. At least her bones are healing fine. She's a little trooper. I'm fucking tired. We're not made of money.

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I always wondered wtf adults were going on about in regards to red wine, but like........

I get it now.

I'm not even super sensitive to the differences really, but a nice glass of Malbec with shepherds pie??? A Cabernet Sauvignon with lamb burgers? My gods! 🤤 Merlot is good too but I think I've become a big fan of Malbec. I'll try others too. I've always been a sweet white wine drinker so this is a whole new world. I stay away from sweet white wines now, bc they give me a monster headache and hangover 🥲

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Also I did wanna disclaimer, I know WHY the adoption group said that. Most newly adopted hounds won't like being squeezed or kissed or cuddled. It's a big life upheaval, and some never end up being super affectionate. Most adopters are pretty new to the breed and don't know the retiree quirks.

Me and my partner just chuckled at it since Bubbles from day one was like, "if you don't pet and kiss me, I'll explode." She's a very loving beast

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So my friend raises sheep and she had two of her lambs butchered and processed. She gave me a good amount of the meat and can I just say. Holy fuck. The taste is incredible, and it makes it so much better that I knew these lambs and they were raised lovingly and had fat happy warm lives. It makes such a difference. Idk. Something about raising sheep and the circle of life makes me feel Plugged In, if you understand. I understand why shepherds would defend their sheep to the end. I understand.

The Border Lancasters and Border Cheviots are gonna be sheared in the spring. I'm being gifted some of the fleeces to try and learn to possibly spin yarn and/or needle felt.

This is what life is about, I think.

I'm still depressed as fuck and I miss my dog every single day. it's extra bad in the winter, I'm finding out. But these sheep. Idk! I want to live close to my friend and help raise them. I feel trapped where I'm at.

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Sorry to complain again but my life has basically turned into a continuous sludge. Counting my time in days and weeks post operation. Counting forward to mid November. Time is sliding away from me, everything is the same. What do I have to look forward to. Anyway I probably need to go to bed.

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I've been barely holding it together. On top of Bubbles' having some complications with her skin not healing over her plate, Stoli has had some weird back issues, our chimney was been leaking, my car needing maintenance, and then on top of all this, my partner hit my car with his car coming home from work Friday.

I'm in panic mode trying to figure out how to prioritize expenses.

We got the chimney fixed this weekend (supposedly) and the trees trimmed so they wouldn't rub the roof and age it prematurely. That was a pretty penny.

Stoli's vet bills only go towards his deductible since he hasn't met it yet.

Bubbles may or may not need another surgery to fix the skin over her leg but that's a bit up in the air right now. Plus paying for her bandages changes 2x a week and gas to drive 2 hours round trip for those visits.

My car now not only needs an oil change and ball joints/Cushing arm replaced but now needs a whole ass new front bumper and side mirror cover. My partners car I think can be buffed out but idk yet.

Reinjured my knee too 👍 hurray.

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Vet thinks it's most likely a pinched nerve of some sort. She checked his prostate and anal glands and they are fine. We didn't do rads because she didn't think they'd tell us much. He's on rest/leash walk exercise restrictions and taking gabapentin (nerve pain reliever) + carprofen (NSAID) + methocarbamol (muscle relaxer) for 2 weeks and we'll see where that gets us. She also mentioned possibly focal seizures but due to the episodes being triggered by being touched there, it's most likely not that.

If this doesn't help, she suggested potentially an MRI since that would tell us the most about his spine or whatever.

It's going to be an extremely boring fall 😩

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Going to the vet today because Stoli is having concerning episodes with his lower back/tail. Maybe it's just anal glands or at worst, a pinched nerve that rest and some meds can fix. My dogs are trying my will to live this fall.

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Before it eats my brain up I will type out weird interaction with the neighbor diagonal from me. I'm walking Stol, he pees on a tree on the side of the street opposite from my house. It's not a yard, it's an empty spanse of grass, weeds, and trees that are between the parking pad of the apartment building, and the street.

Guy (tall, large, older man maybe 50s-60s) pulls up into his driveway and gets out. At first I don't even register that he's talking to me. But I finally realize he's asking me "is that your yard?"

I said "sorry?" Not sure if I heard him right.

"is that your yard??" (He sounds slurred , perhaps drunk?)

"No that's not my yard."

"don't let your dog go in other people's yards."

At this point I'm ?? Not sure how to process this but my alarm bells are going off due to this man's body language and tone of voice. So I just say "my dog peed on the tree." cuz I don't know what else to say.

He says even louder "don't matter, that's not your yard."

I wanted to say well is it YOUR yard?! But I just said "big deal, he peed on a tree, it's fine."

I continue walking Stoli, trying to ignore the guy but I can tell he's following me a little down the street which makes me even more nervous. I hear him saying something but I dont catch the whole thing.

Stoli stops to poop (and again I must stress this is NOT a yard. It's essentially a no-mans land, unkempt side of a residential street with overgrown weeds, invasive plants, bare dirt, etc.)

I am getting poop bags out when I hear the guy about "AND NOW HES TAKIN A SHIT? HES SHITTING?"

I don't say anything at this point but NGL my temper is spiking. I pick up the poop and debate on yelling back that if he doesn't shut up I'll throw the shit bag in his face. I keep walking though. I don't know why but it got my blood pressure up SO much.

I hear him say one more time "THAT DOG IS SHITTING!" But I continue walking around the loop and the guy stops following me after I ignored him over the shit comment.

This is the first time I've ever seen this man or even interacted with people in that house.

The place Stoli peed isn't his house or yard or land. What a bizarre thing to get angry about, my dog hiking his leg on a tree that's by the street. I picked up his poop as I always do. It makes me nervous bc no matter where I go for walks I have to walk past this guy's house because it's RIGHT there, corner lot diagonal from ours. Low key was afraid of being assaulted or shot, but it may just be my PTSD hyper vigilance. He was giving off some rancid vibes.

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Anyone ever know of jobs that require sorting or some other repetitive mindless task that has flexible hours or work from home 😂

I love repetitive tasks that let me listen to podcasts or whatever. I will go out in the yard and sort rocks for my own mental enrichment. Sorting and organizing my photos and files is another pasttime. I loved my data entry job but I hated the hours and dress code. (I am NOT built for coming into work at 6:30am).

Data entry work from home would be the dream but I can't seem to find any.

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Also the contractor fucked up our back porch and caused the flagstones foundation (which to be fair were hanging on by a thread(you can see how they're coming off in the earlier pics)) to start completely disintegrating. So I have been slowly pulling them off and setting them aside to figure out what to do with them. I think that I'm going to use the smaller ones stacked on each other as garden/landscaping borders, and the huge ones as stepping stones like so:

The layout isn't permanent yet and I'll need to level them and such but I am liking it so far :D

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Since the back side of the French drain will be visible to us in the back yard, I decided to use the river rocks that the contractor bought to lay over the crushed limestone that we actually had to use for proper drainage. It looks more natural than the stark grey. It also is getting rid of the piles of rocks that's killing our grass 😭😭😭 slowly but surely it's coming along... Not much left to go.

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I leave for 3 weeks and come back to find the lawn absolutely destroyed. Wtf happened. Spouse says it's been raining off and on while I was gone. Cry.....

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