drew’s news

Our dog Uma is always on the lookout for anything that might be edible. Not unusual I suppose. Well, her apetite almost did her in this weekend - she ingested some bits of vegetation from an oleander bush and wound up spending the night at the emergency pet clinic.

We had just returned from a walk, and Daph was brushing Uma out front and noticed that she was quietly munching on something. She tried to get whatever it was out of Uma’s mouth, but Uma stubbornly swallowed it. Daph got a bad feeling as she noticed the leaves and dried flowers on the sidewalk - droppings from the oleander bushes that line the walkway. Within minutes Uma’s demeanor drooped, and she proceeded to puke several times. She shuffled inside with her head hanging low, lay down in the corner (clearly very uncomfortable), and didn’t move. She’s usually tired after a long walk, but not like this.

We did a quick internet search and got a consistent message: If you suspect your pet has ingested oleander, take it to the vet immediately! Yikes. Uma was barely able to make it out to the car, and as I drove to the vet she just burrowed her face in my shoulder. The vet quickly took her in and said to call in a couple hours if we didn’t hear from him - and we didn’t want to hear from him.

So we waited.

Thankfully we didn’t receive any calls, and when we called in later we were reassured that Uma was stable. It was a close call, said the vet. When we brought her in, Uma’s heart rate was nearly double what it should have been, and her gums “looked like crap”. They induced vomiting again, gave her lidocaine to try to get her heart under control, and charcoal to soak up the toxins. It worked. They monitored her for the rest of the day, and advised us to take her to the after-hours clinic for continued observation overnight since her pulse was still high when the vet’s office closed.

So we changed venue, and picked her up again yesterday morning. She was exhausted, but today she is starting to perk up again. I guess we’ll try to get the oleander bushes along our walkway removed. After learning more about the extremely toxic nature of this plant, I’m surprised it is so commonly used in landscaping. Apparently small children can die from ingesting just one leaf, and it has been used by adults to commit suicide. Knowing this, I don’t think oleander would be my first choice for shrubery to line the path to our front gate…

Leo has really started to take an interest in our dog Uma. He smiles and laughs sometimes when he sees her, and tries to pet her whenever she is within reach. So far she has been very gentle with him, tentatively creeping up to him and trying to get her licks in here & there, or otherwise just ignoring him.

I was initially worried that she might accidentally scratch him - she’s part boxer and likes to swat with her paws when we play, not to mention gnaw on your arm (I’ve got scratches and teeth marks up and down my forearms) - but so far we’ve been fortunate. I guess she’s able to recognize that he isn’t up to the challenge yet. Hopefully by the time he’s running around in a couple years Uma will have mellowed out a bit…

We of course keep an eye on Uma when Leo’s on the floor, and usually we all wind up on the floor…

I always look forward to autumn in San Francisco. The weather is perfect - really what summer should be if it weren’t for the pesky fog that keeps July cold and misty. But by September and October the fog is scarce, possibly bothering other coastal cities further up the coast. And here in the bay area we get these amazing warm, clear October mornings that I just cling to, trying to wring out the best of the passing year before it’s over. We’ve been taking family trips up to Chrissy Field on Saturday mornings, at the foot of the golden gate, so our puppy Uma can run in the water. It’s dog heaven up there - everyone’s got a dog and they’re all out for a walk on any given sunny morning. We just went yesterday, and had a great time watching Uma splash around. Daph carries Leo around like a kangaroo in our little ergo-baby carrier, and he is content to take in the scenery or crash out…

Closer to home, the afternoon family walk has become a weekend favorite. Last weekend we brought some wine & cheese and had a little picnic. Today we took the frisbee and played catch with Uma in an open grassy area where luckily there weren’t any people to scold us when we let her off leash.

We got a little “snap & go” stroller for Leo that we snap his carseat into. He enjoys the family walks too, looking around for a while and then eventually falling asleep as the stroll lulls him. His first autumn is passing by quickly - he’s almost 4 months old, and pretty smiley these days. Here’s a couple gratuitous baby pictures.

Happy Easter! We thought spring had arrived a couple weeks ago, when we had a stretch of absolutely wonderful weather. But it proved just a teaser - this past week has been chilly and overcast, with rain even. Luckily today was just beautiful, so we made the most of it. Busted out the barbecue, strolled around downtown San Carlos (of course 90% of the shops were closed), took the dog for a long walk, etc.

At one of the neighborhood parks we passed, an army of parents was busy hiding what appeared to be hundreds of easter eggs. Looked like preparation for The Easter Egg Hunt To End All Easter Egg Hunts. I wonder how they can possibly find all the eggs? How would they know whether the kids had collected every last one? The geek half of my brain had a vision of tagging each egg with a little RFID transmitter, and then having a tracking device to provide a real-time map all of the hidden eggs. Far fetched? I wonder what this says about my parenting skills. “Sorry kids, I know it’s getting dark, but according to this there are 3 more eggs in the bushes near that tree over there…” Plus some of the kids would probably wind up eating the transmitters. That probably wouldn’t be good…

Anyway, the afternoon light was nice for pictures, so I wanted to post a couple. Daph’s at 6 months now, and she’s starting to walk a bit slower.

We’ve been reading about how a fetus can hear during the later months of pregnancy. I bet our baby will be familiar with our puppy’s barking and whining sounds when he’s born - maybe we should bring Uma into the delivery room too! I suppose the hospital staff would frown on that - although they did let Daph bring her into the emergency room where I was awaiting surgery for my appendix last fall. It was a slow day at the hospital.

I think we’re off the deep end. Today we had a birthday party for our dog. Uma was born in March last year, so we figured we had to do something to celebrate. Uma’s best playmate Chuffleigh lives just down the block, and Chuffleigh’s mom Karen was very enthusiastic about the our party plans! So we strolled over with a bag of goodies.
First event: get them to wear hats. Yes, dogs in little paper birthday hats. I had to distract them with the promise of snacks in order to stop them from tearing the hats off their heads and ripping them to shreds. It was actually pretty cute…

Next event: cake. Yes, doggie cake - with frosting! Daph made it with peanut butter and carrots, and the frosting was actually whipped cottage cheese. Topped off with jerky sticks for “candles”. It was like a jump ball in a basketball game as Karen put the cake down on the table, and it lasted all of 30 seconds. I guess they liked it!

We relaxed with our own cake and some drinks while the puppies proceeded to sprint around the yard for about 2 hours playing with some new presents from Karen. They’re gonna sleep good tonight!