RATTLESNAKE!

Garrett was cleaning up part of the property next to us that Stewart recently bought when he found this rattlesnake under a piece of plywood. He walked over here to get a shovel, and saw Reagan in his yard, so called for him to come bring a gun.
Pictured here without the head and rattles, it still measured close to 4 feet long.

FACEBOOK

I have finally started using Facebook after registering for it last March. I'm still not sure how useful it is, but I am enjoying trying to figure it out, lately. If anyone wants to friend me there, that would be nice. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo

HOME FROM THE VETERINARY HOSPITAL

Coconut is so glad to be home, and we are so glad that she is back here with us. She won't let me out of her sight. She is so thin we can see her ribs, and she keeps a sad, serious expression on her face. She is on a 'dog baby food' diet, two kinds of medications, and goes back in 2 weeks to get her stitches out. I'll be glad when all of this is behind her and we can all get back to normal.

WENT OUT TO THE STUDIO...BRIEFLY

I braved the dozens of boxes of 'miscellaneous' and walked across the yard to my studio this afternoon. I tentatively poked around in a few of the boxes and found 'Woodrow' who had been buried in that particular box since Andrew burned through the living and dining room several years ago, a couple of hours before Thanksgiving dinner, in a spate of guerilla decluttering. I also unearthed a few old art journals, some from 2004, even, plus a couple of newer ones that had gone missing. On the table is the background I had started painting a few days ago.
I also found 4 of my bottles of fingernail polish and painted my nails lavendar while I was at it. I added some grayish diamond shapes to my background too, although the plan I had for the painting I was going to do doesn't interest me any more. I don't know...maybe I'll still do it in a day or two. Or maybe I'll just change horses in the middle of the stream.

POOR COCONUT

Coconut is in the veterinary hospital. She had been droopy for a couple of days, so I took her in to see what the problem was. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with her, but gave her an anti-nausea shot and an antibiotic shot just in case. Two days later she still wasn't any better, so I took her back and this time got our usual vet who found the problem immediately. She had a bowel obstruction. This was on New Year's Eve, and luckily, I got her there before they closed at noon, which I didn't know they were going to do. They gave her an enema, but that didn't help, so kept her over the holidays to give her stool softeners and more enemas to see if they could dislodge it. I called them this morning as soon as they opened to ask how it went, and since nothing had changed, they had to do surgery to remove it. I called afterwards and they said they got it, but it had done quite a bit of damage to her large intestine, so that had had to be repaired too. Coconut was coming around from the anesthetic, but would have to be very still and try to heal well for the next few days. So. I am still very worried and sad about this, but really hope that things will go well for her from here on out.
I typed this draft a couple of days ago intending to get a photo to go with it, but forgot to take one when I visited her Saturday. She was looking great - bouncing around like crazy trying to get out of the kennel when she saw me. I would have stayed longer than I did, but with the IV still in her and her incision fresh, I was afraid she'd pull something loose. I am very hopeful that I will be able to bring her home tomorrow.