It’s hard to be a dog.  Summer’s having a rough time, not emissions compliant, and most days, she can’t walk after sunset, some days, it’s earlier.  Yesterday we took her to the chiropractor again, Moe Body Works on Lyndale, Dr. Moses Smith.  I HIGHLY recommend her.  The problem is that Summer is getting older and losing it, she’s 13.5 and that’s an OLD shep. Hundreds of years old.  She was adjusted head to tail, and I heard some loud cracks.  She did trot out, which is good, but she’s just not doing well, and her body is not working and there’s just not much to do for her — she’s on pee pills, getting adjusted, her tumor is gone thanks to Summer herself, but her belly is rounded with fluid, her legs are working less and less, she’s pretty much deaf, and her eyes are going.  She still gets really worked up about her food and water, and yes, she is smiling almost all the time — that is a major criteria of dog happiness.  Lately she’s spending most nights in her jail, which she doesn’t like, but she can’t do stairs late in the day.  We’d gotten out the sling and are using that now and then, she needed it yesterday to get out and pee.  This morning she was able to get herself up, with some trouble and some help, and she got out the door, but left a trail of poops.  Today the baby gate gets installed at the bottom of the stairs so she stays downstairs, which she isn’t going to like because she spends her day at my feet under the desk.  And it’s worse for me than it is for her, it’s hard to see her decline.

And then Kady, the cruise control middle dog, had a mishap and yanked her toenail out, most but not all the way, and it hurt like hell, she was hopping around in the grass, anywhere where the toenail would touch (hard floors, cement, that was OK, just limping), and bleeding all over, little toe prints:

So after the chiro in Minneapolis, then we headed down to Kenyon Vet Clinic, where she got the Michael Jackson propofol treatment and got her toenail yanked.  She was out for a while, and had that cross-eyed smiley utterly wasted look for a while.  Kady Kate’s not moonwalking today, back to normal.

Dogs took all day yesterday!

And our Little Sadie is just fine, whew!

Summer is doing so well, she’s got the “going outside” thing down, has learned “sit” and “wait” and is working on “down” (on command, she spends a lot of time in “down” naturally), and is working things out with Kady.  Right now, all three are surrounding my chair, black and tan office rug, even Sadie, who usually spends the day upstairs with Alan.

Three dogs take a lot of time, especially if they’re not on the same schedule.  Here they are today, in sync!  Summer’s first walk on a Gentle Leader, she’s a lot peppier than we expected, and she’ll be doing some walking in her old age.  What a relief!!!

One of those days… the good news is that it wasn’t the van!

(cue the sighs)

I’ve had my Diamante for 5+ years, this brown one a replacement for the dark grey/almost black one that grenaded at 267k after nearly 6 years (colors to match the black & tan dog hair!).  This one only has 232k and though it’s got its minor problems, is going strong and I figured at least another 30, but maybe it could hit 300k!  Until this a.m. when Alan popped Kady in the jump seat and went down the bluff to get some parts for the boat he’s putting together:

… and this yahoo down the block backs out of his driveway without looking, and:

CRUNCH!

… and his response is to start bitching at Alan… Alan started walking back to the house to get his phone and the cops arrived before he even hit the top of the hill, the guy had called, and the cops have dealt with him before.  Kady supervised the scene, too bad there wasn’t a “K-9 Officer” for her to get acquainted with.  Suffice it to say “Parnelli” got a “Failure to Yield” out of it.

… and what did we get out of it?  Well, there’s the door …  it does open sort of, after a bit of a struggle, opens most of the way, with a several inch drop as it pops out of the frame, and it latches with a few serious slams, the bottom outer part is separated from the inside, the front bumper is a bit folded up, the mirror is all scraped up but not broken, but the worst of it is that there is a scary noise in the steering, turning, particularly to the right… sort of a scrapey rattley sound.

How much is this poor thing worth?  Kelley says $1,100-1,600, but fixing it would be SOOOOOO expensive that I don’t know that it’s worth it, a front bumper, fender and door and whatever is going on mechanically on an 18 year old car with 232k.  And I HATE dealing with insurance companies.  The insurance company would probably total it out (and we’re hoping there is an insurance company on the other end of this!).

I love having an old car that works, is paid for, dependable, and fun to drive.  These cars are the greatest for long and fast road trips, 150 MPH speedo and it just might do that comfortably, and great sound, flying along I-90 with the Meters blaring, getting decent mileage all the while, I was so thrilled to find another one of these just at the right time, but now… well, it’s looking grim.  I think it’s on the way to Freecycle.  We can get the police report Monday.

So now something smaller, only one dog now…  a Mazda or Geo — hatchback or wagon?  Sure can’t afford the depreciation to get a Prius off the lot!