General Fear Ramblings

General Fear Ramblings

This is Loki, the mutatoe puppy.

Loki drinks gallons of water in one sitting, so a few weeks ago we took him to the vet for his shots and had some blood work and urinalysis done on him. Our vet was concerned because his urine was diluted (probably from drinking gallons of water), but she wanted to make sure there wasn't anything bad going on, and asked for us to bring him back in two weeks to retest.

We did... it was even more diluted. She started talking about kidney failure (nothing you can do for that in dogs), and I started freaking out, picturing the worst (of course). She suggested we go have him ultrasounded (is that a verb?) to make sure he had two kidneys, and all of his other organs, because he's a mutant paw puppy... what else is mutant?

So, today we took him to get his ultrasound. Really nice vet, great clinic. We got to stay in the room with him and hold him while they did it. The vet was pointing out things on the screen... like we'd know what we were looking at. "And here we have the gallbladder, and a pair of needlenose pliers". A friend was actually hoping for a mutant looking organ, perhaps in the shape of the blessed Virgin Mary that I could sell on e-bay and become rich.

Turns out that mutatoe has all his organs, and they appear to be functioning properly, and look normal (no Virgin Mary... crap, there goes dreams of being a millionaire) so we suspect he's just neurotic about drinking. He was found running down a busy street when he was only a few months old. We're pretty sure whoever bred him just let him go once they saw the deformed paw and figured they couldn't get bloated "papered" dog prices for him. Although that's a crappy way to get rid of a puppy, it's much better than other ways to "get rid" of a deformed puppy.

Water Main Break
I wake up sunday... ok, Meeshka woke me up at 6am on Sunday, I took the herd out and went to the bathroom. Flushed the toilet downstairs and it started making this gawd-awful noise. Great, I thought, another toilet dying on a weekend. Lifted the tank to see if the problem could be fixed with duct tape and a bent coat hanger, and discovered all sorts of muck burbling in there. Odd.

Went upstairs, and turned on the kitchen faucet to give the dogs some water, and it began spewing forth all sorts of muck in an explosive manner. Hmmm... went back to bed because these things just can't be noodled through at 6am on a sunday morning.

Got up, and sure enough, dirt and muck from the faucets. Turns out (after a call to the water department, who was actually there, and a real live person answered the phone on the 2nd ring), that a water main broke in our area. It was already fixed and the water should be clearing, he informed me. It's safe to drink, but don't do laundry. Um... ok. I didn't ask how long I couldn't do laundry, I'm actually seeing just how long I can go before hubby starts to complain.