Scary Story!

 

This little weasel (aka Robin the (sometimes) Good) gave us quite the scare yesterday and we're not entirely out of the woods yet. As is typical, Robin ate, I fed Neko (with Robin's help) and then we retire upstairs to join Bob and look at the news on the Internet. Robin always get a Kong (*1). So we're drinking coffee and looking at the idiotic things that rethuglicans are puling on about when I turn to Bob and say, "Where's Robin?" She had obviously finished the Kong and had debarked to other parts.

I walked downstairs and Lo!! The muffins I had placed on the counter to thaw for breakfast has mysteriously disappeared. Robin was looking guilty and sort of slunk off into the living room, I took three more muffins out of the freezer. (In all fairness, she had left us one muffin) 

About twenty minutes later, it occurred to me that these were bran muffins... with RAISINS which we all know are poisonous to dogs. I took out my phone and gooogled just how toxic are they... turns out VERY!! Like 1 raisin for ten pounds of dog! Like I know Robin consumed more than 6 raisins!!

So I call our vet and they advise to give her a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide 3% every 15 minutes until she throws up. Anyone want to guess how hard that is? I think I managed to get like a drop of peroxide in her mouth and a bunch all over my face and hands (She wasn't having it). So off to the vet's we went; me hoping that Robin would simply puke in the car as she hates car rides anyway but no go.

I wind up waiting at the vet's for over two hours as they try (unsucessfully) induce vomiting. (*2) I sat with Robin, thinking maybe seeing me would help her hurl in unfamiliar surroundings. Still nothing. So the vet then takes Robin back into an exam room and they stuff her full of charcoal, which apparently helps absorb any toxins, which she will then throw up. They instruct me that when she throws up, it will be a big, fat, nasty, gooey, black mess.

Which it was because three minutes after returning home, Robin hurled copiously all over the living room rug. Personally? I was simply glad she had expelled the offending food (*3). I examined it (yes, that's what dog owners do!) and it looked pretty undigested so I'm at least mostly sure she got rid of everything in her.

Today, she seems fine. She ate with gusto (nothing off our counter), ran around outside, pooped an "interesting" black turd (more charcoal!) and seems fine. She is due to return for a follow-up exam on Saturday to check her blood for abnormal readings. I told her today that those were the world's most expensive muffins: $300 for three muffins!!!

(*1) A large-ish rubber thing that looks like some sort of sex toy that you fill with broken up dog biscuits and peanut butter. Robin is a serious fan of her morning Kong!! Keeps her "busy" for about three minutes...

(*2) Interesting fact: I noticed Robin's eyes were really red and the vet explained the vomit-inducing medication is administered through eye drops! Who would think this?!!?!? It apparently gets absorbed really quickly through the conjunctiva! Weird!

(*3) Lots of it! Breakfast! A Kong! Three muffins!! The dog is NOT starving!!

The Life of PIE

 

In celebration (yes! another holiday!) of "Pi Day"(that is March 14th or 3/14) Bob suggested that pie was indeed called for. I had recently scored a bag of limes and the urge to concoct hit, so I made a Key Lime Pie. And as it's (kinda) green, it will double for a St. Patrick's Day dessert as well. It is delicious.

On other green notes, Spring does seem like it's here as the grass is greening and perennials are poking their heads above ground. Hooray. I actually have several primroses (the Stop and Shop/Shop Rite variety) blooming outside. Those are hardy little buggers! And peepers! Our vast estate is full of emergent sounds. Welcome back to all the birds and bugs.

This post is brief as it's another truly lovely day outside and I'm eager to get out there and do a bit of gardening. So byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Everything's Comin' Up Roses

 

So Bob and I went to the Flower and Garden Show at The Hartford Convention Center. We got slightly "lost" (more like turned around)and had to back track and wound up accidentally on the right street, right in front of the Convention Center. I must say (*1) that who ever designed this concrete monstrosity of a parking garage and convention center was lacking just a bit in the ease/aesthetics department. After parking your car, you wander in an endless frigid expanse of cement and crosswalks, searching for an elusive elevator. One nice consideration was the above sign which helped us recall exactly where our car was located in the cement wilderness. For this we can be grateful!

We had pre-purchased tickest and thought we'd be whisked straight into the exhibit, but seems everyone else pre-purchased tickets so we stood cheek-by-jowl with hundreds of other plant nerds, inching our way forward all the while serenaded by a young woman folk singer with and oddly tiny guitar. Not quite sure what she had to do with horticulture... I guess it was to keep us calm as we shambled forward.

Here's Bob pretending to be a giant as he impishly pranked holding what was in reality a giant watering can turned fountain. There were several impressive displays featuring large flowering trees and giant pieces of equipment (also turned into fountains) and lots and lots of forced bulbs and shrubs and primroses and hellebores. Yes, there were plants for sale but it struck us as a hard time of year to purchase plants because you'd have to hold them unitl it was warm enough to dig and plant them outside. But there was a stellar flower arrangement area where we were asked to vote on our favorites. Some pretty far-out arrangements, many incorporating odd materials and crazy color combos.

The sheer number of non-garden related tchoctchkes available was also impressive and inexplicable. Wind up dogs and cats (!?), clothes (and not garden related), jewelry... although I admit the only things we purchased were a bottle of an interesting Hibiscus liquer and a pair of alpaca socks. We ran into the nice people at The Connecticut Gardener magazine (Hello Anne and Will!) for whom I write entertaining garden humor. Also, we encountered a woman with whom I used to work at the auction house, lo these many years ago. Unexpected!

And speaking of flowers and roses, I recently made the above bed for our beloved princess Robin the Good. Poor Robin was sleeping on a bed that Mommy made for Frank the Dog (*2) and it was getting thin and probably not all that comfortable. She seems to really like it and nothing is too good for our little angel!

(*1) Sounding altogether like Ed Grimley if you remember him!

(*2) Both long gone! Frank the Dog was resident canine way back in Bridgewater; that's like 20 years ago! He's still missed. A quirky fellow, but brave and true! Although an amusing aside is that Mommy embroidered his initials (for Frank Valley Keating) in such a way that it reads like FUK. I always appreciated that detail!