Sunday in the snow
It’s another lazy Sunday, this one unplanned. We are in Kansas City with Jeannee, Ali and Harley Brave. We were supposed to drive the last leg of our trip home to Chicago today, but we awoke to freezing rain, news of cars sliding off the roads all over the area, and a big pink and white blob on the weather map all the way from here to Chicago. Chicago is under a winter storm watch, with as much as a foot of snow possible. So we have decided to play it safe, and are enjoying a relaxing day with the Braves and will wait until tomorrow to travel. We are so glad to be here with good friends and not in a crummy motel somewhere for 24 hours!
We haven’t posted any entries for a few days. Our last few days in Taos were lovely. Sandy and I had wonderful skiing, continuing our race practice, trying out some longer skis, and trying to improve our speed in preparation for the Nastar National Championships in Winter Park at the end of March. The dogs enjoyed their usual two long walks a day; after our morning walk, the boys would have breakfast and then Bogart and Tarka would play outside for a while; every now and then Tarka would come to the door to check on me, dash in happily wagging his tail, covered in snow, sagebrush and burrs, then dash out again to romp with his friend. Baggins and Bogart stay outside during the day when Sandy’s out - they’re good boys and stay on the property; Tarka very much wanted to stay out with the grownup dogs, but I wasn’t quite ready to trust him that much, so we had quite a performance every morning trying to trick him into coming back into the house before we left for skiing. Willie liked relaxing in the sun for a while but generally was more comfortable in the house.
On the right, a photo of Baggins and Bogart watching the Olympics. Apparently there was a drop of red wine on my camera lens.
Mary Sue, who had been walking the dogs at midday while I was skiing, wasn’t available after Monday. Sandy and I took Tuesday off skiing, so the dogs were with us all day, but on Wednesday and Thursday, Willie and Tarka were in the house all day; they did well, didn’t do any damage, and seemed fine when we got home. By the end of the trip, Tarka had got quite used to Sandy and was taking treats from her, even jumping up and down in front of her one day on a walk, looking for treats, and was much more comfortable accepting petting from her.
Traveling home. On Friday we set out (relatively!) early at 7.30 am for our 9-1/2 hour drive to Oklahoma City where we would spend the night with Penny, Mark, Evelyn and Pearl George. We had a little snow driving on route 518 out of Taos, but otherwise had clear weather all the way. The drive was pretty, but slow, until Mora and we enjoyed the scenery. We did see a very large, dead elk on the road, and, pulled off the road not far away, a very battered pick-up. I thought of calling the Georges and asking if they wanted elk steaks for dinner, but I didn’t think my Swiss Army Knife would make a very good butcher’s knife.
Once on I-40 travel was fast and we made good time until we were about half-an-hour away from the Georges, when Willie started whining and getting restless. I stopped at the next exit and got him out for a pee, which he definitely needed. Unfortunately I wasn’t vigilant enough and he started to get out of the car with his safety harness on, and must have tweaked something in the process: he was limping a little in front as we walked around the back of the gas station where we stopped. At the time I just though he’d stiffened up from being in the car all day. But when we started driving again, he became very distressed, whining and crying, and moving around every couple of minutes. I tried to console him by talking to him and reaching into the back with my right arm, but he was clearly suffering, and by the time we arrived at the Georges, I was very worried about him. He could barely walk when he got out of the car; we thought walking slowly around the yard might help him loosen up, but after a short time he just wanted to lie down. Once in the house he continued crying, sometimes wailing, in pain, and seemed disoriented, walking around the house as if looking for somewhere to lie down, but just kept moving slowly around. It seemed to me that he had some kind of structural injury, so I gave him two Tramadol to ease the pain. He wasn’t very interested in dinner which is especially worrying in an eating machine like Willie. He did lie down eventually, but a couple of hours later was still showing some discomfort, so we decided to take him to the vet. The Georges have been in OK City such a short time since their move from Virginia that they don’t have a regular vet yet, but Penny had received a recommendation of a 24 hour clinic, and very kindly drove us there in Mark’s van, which has no back seats and was very comfortable for Willie, and Tarka, who came too; the three of us sat together in the back. Everyone at the clinic was very kind, but they were busy and we had to wait a while to see the vet. Everybody was very friendly, including the other customers, most of whom admired Willie and Tarka and wanted to know all about them. I commented to Penny that people there were very chatty, and she said “that’s Oklahoma!”. Eventually the vet examined Willie, watched him walk down the hall (whileTarka waited with Penny) and did some range-of-motion tests. Willie resisted turning his head to the right, and ROM in his left front leg and shoulder was also limited; the diagnosis was a probable pinched nerve. They gave him a cortisone shot (Penny and I were amused at their rather half-hearted attempt to find a vein in Willie’s front leg - they quickly decided to give the shot subcutaneously instead) and Metacam for the next few days. We were both stunned at the bill - $101 for examination, cortisone shot and medication to go - which would have been $300 in Chicago or Virginia! It was a great relief to know Willie had nothing life-threatening, and by the time we got home he was already feeling better, carrying his tail higher and even wagging it. He had some dinner and immediately went to sleep in our bedroom. We kept the poor Georges up rather late and it was well after midnight when we all went to bed. Willie, Tarka and I all had a great night’s sleep in the very comfortable guest room.
Saturday morning was foggy, drizzly and cool. Willie was a little sleepy from the drugs, and was holding his head a little to the left; but his tail was wagging and he was doing his usual “I’m happy it’s morning” woo-wooing. He not only ate his breakfast greedily, but closely supervised Mark as he prepared Pearl and Evelyn’s breakfast. Pearl tried her best to get Tarka to play with her, using every trick she knew - play-bowing, flirting, jumping around him, and barking at him, but he was too distracted by being in a strange place, and though they looked a few times as if they were on the verge of play, he couldn’t quite let himself relax enough to participate. Evelyn was supervising Willie peeing. Look at that huge fenced yard the girls have to run around in.
I really enjoyed our visit with the Georges: besides being terrifically kind, generous hosts, Penny and Mark are both delightful people: they are warm, smart, and funny, and we found plenty of wide-ranging topics to talk about; I’d been disappointed we didn’t have more opportunity to talk at Sammie Sue’s Pawty last year, and it was wonderful to get to know both of them better; having done so, I really hope we’ll have more opportunities to spend time together in future. Mark admitted he comes to Chicago quite often but never leaves O’Hare Airport; we are only 10-15 minutes from there so I hope we can talk him into coming for dinner or to spend the night next time he’s in town. Unfortunately I took very few photos due to the distraction of Willie’s troubles, and I don’t have a single one of Mark.
And those girls.....what precious dogs! Evelyn is the prettiest Sammie ever. She has a sweet little stuffed animal face, and a round compact little body. She’s very sociable and sweet, obviously loved having guests (especially when she found that one of our bags presented an opportunity for treat-stealing!), and she also seemed quite taken with Willie. Pearl is also gorgeous; she has a longer body, a terrific coat (which is wavy at the back end), and is a bouncy, kiss-you-all-over, flirty girl, and remarkably well-behaved for a one-year old pup.
On the left, Queen Evelyn on her throne, and on the right, both girls together.
In the pose on the left, Mark said Pearl had expired because he hadn't fed her breakfast; and below, she is definitely asking Dad "where's the beef?" as she lies across the back of the leather sofa.
Below, Penny and Pearl show Willie the toy selection.
Above, Tarka was quite comfortable sitting near Penny, but was eyeing Mark warily.
We had a leisurely morning, including breakfast cooked by Mark, which was very welcome after our rather hurried pizza the night before when we were all fretting about Willie. Tarka sat near the table between Penny and me, and readily took several pieces of bread and sausage from her.
The boys and I left soon after noon; Mark drew me a map to get onto I-35 and we found it easily. I left there with over a quarter tank of gas and thought I’d stop once I got onto the interstate; but if you’re ever traveling north on I-35 out of Oklahoma City, I’d suggest filling up before you leave, as there are not many fuel stops once you’re on the road. My tank got extremely low and at one point I called Jeannee to say “if I run out of gas, it’s not my bloody fault”. She remembered that Dottie had had a similar problem driving up from Dallas, and Dottie and I commiserated when we spoke later on that afternoon. Anyway, we made it to the next gas station and all was well. It drizzled most of the afternoon, but temperatures were hovering around 31-32 degrees so I was watching for ice and snow at any minute. When I stopped again for gas (and a McDonalds cheeseburger for Willie and Tarka, which made them VERY happy dogs), as I opened my door there was a crunching and crackling, and a lump of ice fell on my head. The front of my car was almost completely encased in ice. About 20 miles outside Kansas City, the drizzle turned to snow and visibility became quite bad. Especially my personal visibility: after we got onto I-435 (with only about 9-10 miles left to travel), my wipers had so much ice on them that they weren’t doing a very good job, and ice was also building up on the windshield. I drove slowly to the State Line Road exit, and immediately pulled over to bang the ice off the wipers, and then I could see and was at Jeannee’s about 5 minutes later. I was glad I’d brought some lock de-icer, as I needed it to get into the cargo box. Both Tarka and Willie seemed to remember being here before and were quite excited when we arrived. And, of course, we got an extremely loud and enthusiastic welcome from Harley and Ali.
Jeannee made a delicious dinner of salad, orange roughy and asparagus, which Harley very badly wanted to share. Tarka was a little uncertain about all the talking, or perhaps thought he was protecting me, and gave a few little low growls at Harley. We did have a little leftover fish, so the lucky dogs had a treat after dinner.
We had a fantastic night’s sleep and Willie decided it was time for me to get up at about 7.45, probably because he heard Harley and Ali having breakfast.
None of the dogs (not even outdoor-loving Ali) really want to be outside in the freezing rain. Tarka did chase a tennis ball a couple of times and has been selecting toys and carrying them around the house, so is clearly feeling more relaxed, but he and Harley have yet to chase each other around the yard. He’s been lazing on the couch beside me, and seemed quite content to let Jeannee pet him a little while ago. He’s definitely gained some confidence from his Taos travels, though he still has a long way to go before he learns to trust humans more.
The weather is still making me glad we stayed here today. News reports show cars slipping all over the place; Jeannee’s yard is a crunchy mess of snow and ice, the trees are encased in ice, and so is my car. I can open the doors but will probably have quite a bit of work to do tomorrow with the scraper before I can see to drive; Jeannee and I chipped a bit of the ice off it but it will probably build up again before morning so it’s a bit of a pointless task at this stage. Jeannee pointed out I won’t have any trouble getting out of her driveway, as it’s downhill. It started snowing a little while ago and everything is turning white again.
On the right, Jeannee's chipping ice off the wing mirrors
for our margaritas.
And below, the ice build-up on the cargo box and rails of my car.
We did have a funny incident over the dogs' breakfast this morning. Ali and Harley had already eaten theirs, but were keen to help Willie and Tarka with theirs. I decided to put Willie and Tarka in the bedroom. As I walked down the hall with the two bowls, Tarka was jumping in front of me and I put his bowl down in front of him, and then Willie's just beside it, without really looking at Willie. I left them to it in the bedroom and closed the door. Jeannee said "where's Ali?", and I looked down the hall and saw Willie still making his way to the bedroom. Oops! How could I not tell the difference between Willie and Ali! So Ali got most of Willie's breakfast and I had to give him some extra. Willie and Tarka have been eating Rawthentic Pet raw food which is only available in Colorado and New Mexico, and Ali definitely approves of the beef and salmon flavor!
We haven’t posted any entries for a few days. Our last few days in Taos were lovely. Sandy and I had wonderful skiing, continuing our race practice, trying out some longer skis, and trying to improve our speed in preparation for the Nastar National Championships in Winter Park at the end of March. The dogs enjoyed their usual two long walks a day; after our morning walk, the boys would have breakfast and then Bogart and Tarka would play outside for a while; every now and then Tarka would come to the door to check on me, dash in happily wagging his tail, covered in snow, sagebrush and burrs, then dash out again to romp with his friend. Baggins and Bogart stay outside during the day when Sandy’s out - they’re good boys and stay on the property; Tarka very much wanted to stay out with the grownup dogs, but I wasn’t quite ready to trust him that much, so we had quite a performance every morning trying to trick him into coming back into the house before we left for skiing. Willie liked relaxing in the sun for a while but generally was more comfortable in the house.
Mary Sue, who had been walking the dogs at midday while I was skiing, wasn’t available after Monday. Sandy and I took Tuesday off skiing, so the dogs were with us all day, but on Wednesday and Thursday, Willie and Tarka were in the house all day; they did well, didn’t do any damage, and seemed fine when we got home. By the end of the trip, Tarka had got quite used to Sandy and was taking treats from her, even jumping up and down in front of her one day on a walk, looking for treats, and was much more comfortable accepting petting from her.
Traveling home. On Friday we set out (relatively!) early at 7.30 am for our 9-1/2 hour drive to Oklahoma City where we would spend the night with Penny, Mark, Evelyn and Pearl George. We had a little snow driving on route 518 out of Taos, but otherwise had clear weather all the way. The drive was pretty, but slow, until Mora and we enjoyed the scenery. We did see a very large, dead elk on the road, and, pulled off the road not far away, a very battered pick-up. I thought of calling the Georges and asking if they wanted elk steaks for dinner, but I didn’t think my Swiss Army Knife would make a very good butcher’s knife.
Once on I-40 travel was fast and we made good time until we were about half-an-hour away from the Georges, when Willie started whining and getting restless. I stopped at the next exit and got him out for a pee, which he definitely needed. Unfortunately I wasn’t vigilant enough and he started to get out of the car with his safety harness on, and must have tweaked something in the process: he was limping a little in front as we walked around the back of the gas station where we stopped. At the time I just though he’d stiffened up from being in the car all day. But when we started driving again, he became very distressed, whining and crying, and moving around every couple of minutes. I tried to console him by talking to him and reaching into the back with my right arm, but he was clearly suffering, and by the time we arrived at the Georges, I was very worried about him. He could barely walk when he got out of the car; we thought walking slowly around the yard might help him loosen up, but after a short time he just wanted to lie down. Once in the house he continued crying, sometimes wailing, in pain, and seemed disoriented, walking around the house as if looking for somewhere to lie down, but just kept moving slowly around. It seemed to me that he had some kind of structural injury, so I gave him two Tramadol to ease the pain. He wasn’t very interested in dinner which is especially worrying in an eating machine like Willie. He did lie down eventually, but a couple of hours later was still showing some discomfort, so we decided to take him to the vet. The Georges have been in OK City such a short time since their move from Virginia that they don’t have a regular vet yet, but Penny had received a recommendation of a 24 hour clinic, and very kindly drove us there in Mark’s van, which has no back seats and was very comfortable for Willie, and Tarka, who came too; the three of us sat together in the back. Everyone at the clinic was very kind, but they were busy and we had to wait a while to see the vet. Everybody was very friendly, including the other customers, most of whom admired Willie and Tarka and wanted to know all about them. I commented to Penny that people there were very chatty, and she said “that’s Oklahoma!”. Eventually the vet examined Willie, watched him walk down the hall (whileTarka waited with Penny) and did some range-of-motion tests. Willie resisted turning his head to the right, and ROM in his left front leg and shoulder was also limited; the diagnosis was a probable pinched nerve. They gave him a cortisone shot (Penny and I were amused at their rather half-hearted attempt to find a vein in Willie’s front leg - they quickly decided to give the shot subcutaneously instead) and Metacam for the next few days. We were both stunned at the bill - $101 for examination, cortisone shot and medication to go - which would have been $300 in Chicago or Virginia! It was a great relief to know Willie had nothing life-threatening, and by the time we got home he was already feeling better, carrying his tail higher and even wagging it. He had some dinner and immediately went to sleep in our bedroom. We kept the poor Georges up rather late and it was well after midnight when we all went to bed. Willie, Tarka and I all had a great night’s sleep in the very comfortable guest room.
Saturday morning was foggy, drizzly and cool. Willie was a little sleepy from the drugs, and was holding his head a little to the left; but his tail was wagging and he was doing his usual “I’m happy it’s morning” woo-wooing. He not only ate his breakfast greedily, but closely supervised Mark as he prepared Pearl and Evelyn’s breakfast. Pearl tried her best to get Tarka to play with her, using every trick she knew - play-bowing, flirting, jumping around him, and barking at him, but he was too distracted by being in a strange place, and though they looked a few times as if they were on the verge of play, he couldn’t quite let himself relax enough to participate. Evelyn was supervising Willie peeing. Look at that huge fenced yard the girls have to run around in.
I really enjoyed our visit with the Georges: besides being terrifically kind, generous hosts, Penny and Mark are both delightful people: they are warm, smart, and funny, and we found plenty of wide-ranging topics to talk about; I’d been disappointed we didn’t have more opportunity to talk at Sammie Sue’s Pawty last year, and it was wonderful to get to know both of them better; having done so, I really hope we’ll have more opportunities to spend time together in future. Mark admitted he comes to Chicago quite often but never leaves O’Hare Airport; we are only 10-15 minutes from there so I hope we can talk him into coming for dinner or to spend the night next time he’s in town. Unfortunately I took very few photos due to the distraction of Willie’s troubles, and I don’t have a single one of Mark.
And those girls.....what precious dogs! Evelyn is the prettiest Sammie ever. She has a sweet little stuffed animal face, and a round compact little body. She’s very sociable and sweet, obviously loved having guests (especially when she found that one of our bags presented an opportunity for treat-stealing!), and she also seemed quite taken with Willie. Pearl is also gorgeous; she has a longer body, a terrific coat (which is wavy at the back end), and is a bouncy, kiss-you-all-over, flirty girl, and remarkably well-behaved for a one-year old pup.
On the left, Queen Evelyn on her throne, and on the right, both girls together.
In the pose on the left, Mark said Pearl had expired because he hadn't fed her breakfast; and below, she is definitely asking Dad "where's the beef?" as she lies across the back of the leather sofa.
Below, Penny and Pearl show Willie the toy selection.
Above, Tarka was quite comfortable sitting near Penny, but was eyeing Mark warily.
We had a leisurely morning, including breakfast cooked by Mark, which was very welcome after our rather hurried pizza the night before when we were all fretting about Willie. Tarka sat near the table between Penny and me, and readily took several pieces of bread and sausage from her.
The boys and I left soon after noon; Mark drew me a map to get onto I-35 and we found it easily. I left there with over a quarter tank of gas and thought I’d stop once I got onto the interstate; but if you’re ever traveling north on I-35 out of Oklahoma City, I’d suggest filling up before you leave, as there are not many fuel stops once you’re on the road. My tank got extremely low and at one point I called Jeannee to say “if I run out of gas, it’s not my bloody fault”. She remembered that Dottie had had a similar problem driving up from Dallas, and Dottie and I commiserated when we spoke later on that afternoon. Anyway, we made it to the next gas station and all was well. It drizzled most of the afternoon, but temperatures were hovering around 31-32 degrees so I was watching for ice and snow at any minute. When I stopped again for gas (and a McDonalds cheeseburger for Willie and Tarka, which made them VERY happy dogs), as I opened my door there was a crunching and crackling, and a lump of ice fell on my head. The front of my car was almost completely encased in ice. About 20 miles outside Kansas City, the drizzle turned to snow and visibility became quite bad. Especially my personal visibility: after we got onto I-435 (with only about 9-10 miles left to travel), my wipers had so much ice on them that they weren’t doing a very good job, and ice was also building up on the windshield. I drove slowly to the State Line Road exit, and immediately pulled over to bang the ice off the wipers, and then I could see and was at Jeannee’s about 5 minutes later. I was glad I’d brought some lock de-icer, as I needed it to get into the cargo box. Both Tarka and Willie seemed to remember being here before and were quite excited when we arrived. And, of course, we got an extremely loud and enthusiastic welcome from Harley and Ali.
Jeannee made a delicious dinner of salad, orange roughy and asparagus, which Harley very badly wanted to share. Tarka was a little uncertain about all the talking, or perhaps thought he was protecting me, and gave a few little low growls at Harley. We did have a little leftover fish, so the lucky dogs had a treat after dinner.
We had a fantastic night’s sleep and Willie decided it was time for me to get up at about 7.45, probably because he heard Harley and Ali having breakfast.
The weather is still making me glad we stayed here today. News reports show cars slipping all over the place; Jeannee’s yard is a crunchy mess of snow and ice, the trees are encased in ice, and so is my car. I can open the doors but will probably have quite a bit of work to do tomorrow with the scraper before I can see to drive; Jeannee and I chipped a bit of the ice off it but it will probably build up again before morning so it’s a bit of a pointless task at this stage. Jeannee pointed out I won’t have any trouble getting out of her driveway, as it’s downhill. It started snowing a little while ago and everything is turning white again.
On the right, Jeannee's chipping ice off the wing mirrors
for our margaritas.
And below, the ice build-up on the cargo box and rails of my car.
We did have a funny incident over the dogs' breakfast this morning. Ali and Harley had already eaten theirs, but were keen to help Willie and Tarka with theirs. I decided to put Willie and Tarka in the bedroom. As I walked down the hall with the two bowls, Tarka was jumping in front of me and I put his bowl down in front of him, and then Willie's just beside it, without really looking at Willie. I left them to it in the bedroom and closed the door. Jeannee said "where's Ali?", and I looked down the hall and saw Willie still making his way to the bedroom. Oops! How could I not tell the difference between Willie and Ali! So Ali got most of Willie's breakfast and I had to give him some extra. Willie and Tarka have been eating Rawthentic Pet raw food which is only available in Colorado and New Mexico, and Ali definitely approves of the beef and salmon flavor!
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