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     These socks seem like a career project.  In truth, I haven’t been knitting much with puppy walks and gardening, but it seems like I have been working on them forever.  The pattern is After Thought Heel Socks by Laura Linneman.  I thought maybe if I made them and used a contrasting heel and toe, that when they wear out there as they seem to do way too quickly on my handknit socks, I can rip the heel and toe and redo them, making them last longer.  The yarn is Turtlepurl Striped Turtle Toes, The origins of purple colorway.  Maybe I will finish them before the weather cools off again for sock wear.

Morning. damp, gray, warm.
No view, low blanket
Clouds hide sun and mountain tops.

Things I love about this morning:
Sun skipping in and out of the gathering clouds.
Temperatures warm enough to sit in porch rocker with my coffee.
Cool enough to need a sweater to do it.
Creek sounds from all the recent rains.
Bird sounds surrounding me from the woods.
Puppy playing in the recently mowed grass, that smells so good.
Garden weeded, awaiting the last of the first seed planting.
The beautiful views from our home in the mountains.
The leaves on the trees blocking the sketchy views of our only two neighbors’ houses a quarter of a mile away.
This is indeed an idyllic place and I feel loved and blessed that my love made it happen for us.

Today her pains meds just couldn’t keep up with Meeko’s pain which had radiated throughout her spine and all four limbs. We returned to the vet who was unable to do anymore for her and the terribly difficult decision was made.

She died in our arms, with our tears soaking her coat. At least she is no longer suffering and we still have puppy Ranger to love and provide care.

Some research last night revealed that the breeder’s father and brother were convicted of maltreatment and were forced to shut down a puppy mill. We had no idea when we bought her, but have learned a very tough lesson.

On Wednesday, Meeko, our 17 week old German Shepherd, that we purchased 3 weeks ago as a companion puppy to our 15 week old English Mastiff puppy,  suddenly developed a serious medical issue.  Yesterday, she was lethargic, would not eat or drink, yelped if we touched her collar or sometimes other parts of her body and layed around all day in the utility room.  Last night she would not even come upstairs and kennelled downstairs for the night.
This morning when I went down to let her out, she had fouled her cage and was laying in it, unable to rise.  I helped her up to go outside and she staggered and fell several times going only a couple dozen feet.  She fell again outside and couldn’t get up. She yelped when I tried to pick her up and help her back inside.  As we already had an appointment for Ranger to get his rabies shot, we called the vet to see if she could be seen as well. 

After exam and xrays, we were referred to the Virginia Tech teaching hospital for a neurological exam.  We spent nearly 4 hours there and left with no diagnosis except that she was having neurological problems.  We could drive to Vienna, VA for an MRI that would not diagnose the problem, but would rule out a congenital vertebral issue at a cost of more than $2000.  That test would require we have her anthesized and as she has a heart murmur and we would have to have an echo cardiogram before they would do that.  None of these tests would be conclusive.  They also discussed drawing spinal fluid also under anesthesia to see if maybe it was an infection or inflammation, but the bottom line is that there is no treatment that would cure her, only possible put her into a remissive state with strong chance of repeat episodes.  She will likely always be ataxic, may have respiratory failure or other organ failure and probably in pain.

We left with a round of antibiotics, prednisone, and pain meds to try to relieve her symptoms.
Ranger is confused, not understanding why she is having to be kennelled, can’t play and is not responsive to him.  My hubby is sad and confused also.

I didn’t want to get attached to another dog after we had to put down our Old English Sheepdog a few years back, and tried not to get emotionally attached to the two puppies, however, I cried and will likely have to cry some more when we are probably faced with the decision in a week or two of having to do the same with her.  It hurts to have such a sick puppy whose outlook is deterioration not improvement.    She is a beautiful, sweet little dog, but so very ill.

Spring’s Emerald grass
Squirrel ear sized leaves
Freeze warnings this night and next.

     Today we joined the contemporary technology age.  A couple of years ago we purchased a flat screen HD TV, but the DVD and DVD/VCR players were 6 years old and older, so watching videos was iffy.  In December as we had the basement project well under way, we replaced the TV with a larger flat screen Plasma TV for the main part of the house planning on moving the slightly smaller HD TV to the basement.  This move ended all use of movie watching unless the movie was on cable TV as we could get picture but no sound.  Yesterday, we hung the TV in the basement and today we purchased 2 DVD/blue ray players that connect via HDMI cables instead on the old school triple cable system connections and a 6 bin bookcase to go under the basement  TV to hold one of the players, movies and board games for the kids.
     After assembling the ping pong table yesterday, the bookcase today, and setting up the players, we can watch TV and movies upstairs, and movies in the rec room.  Tomorrow, a double recliner to join the couch  will be delivered to finish the basic seating for the rec room.  We are still seeking a couple of bar stools made by a craftsman in Floyd, VA, but so far, we haven’t found his information at home and won’t see him at a craft show until July if we can’t turn up his contact information.
     Someday, we plan to buy a pool table to join the ping pong table.  We still need to install the roman shades, purchase the quilt for the bed, remat a painting and hang it and then we will be ready to enjoy this project that has been  in the works since early November.
     As far as puppy progress, we have had two good walks on a populated trail with our reluctant shepherd pup this week, including a meet and greet with an adult Golden that went well.  Hopefully we have turned the corner on her fear and stubbornness.  Now we need to teach both of them to come when called with consistency, not just when they are ready.

     This was the last day of basement finishing, half day actually.  They also planed down a bathroom door that was difficult to close, refinished the edge and rehung the door.  While they were finishing up, we tripped down to the local garbage drop off, the post office and the local hardware store and bought 50 lbs of contractor mix and 25 lbs of white clover to seed the area that our friendly contractor neighbor plowed and harrowed to make it mowable eventually.

     After delivering the seed and a dozen 6 foot T posts back to the house, we picked up the pups and the solar electric fence charger that we bought yesterday for a return as it was too wussy to keep deer out of the garden.  The charger ended up being returned as they didn’t have the one we needed and off we went up the road to Southern States where we were able to get the correct charger, a ground rod and clamp.

     The pups then got about a 30 minute playtime at a park before Meeko had her individual training session.  This was a 70 minute waste of time.  She walked around the store a few times, then went into balk mode, flopped down on her side and refused to move.  This is the behavior that caused my meltdown yesterday.  The trainer’s assessment was that she was fearful, we already knew that, that she is still trying to assert dominance over us, we knew that also, but gave us no real suggestions about what to do. 

     After getting home, preparing and eating dinner, we went out to  sow the grass seed and clover, pick up rocks again,  and the puppies played, chasing each other, tossing grass clods, rooting their noses through the freshly plowed earth. By dark, there are still many many rocks, the seeding is done, the puppy is no closer to being trained and we are exhausted.  Now it is time for a milk stout, some TV and maybe some chocolate.