Hot dog

Today again the mercury reached 100 degrees, and Suki was rather overwhelmed by the heat. She spent the day indoors with the AC on, and only ventured out in the humid and torrid weather to take a few brief walks.

For dinner tonight, to continue the hot dog theme, 4 hot dogs and 3 doggie biscuits, polished off by the remainder of the cat's milk.

Friday news

Busy day today. I had to work all day. Suki just ate two pieces of turkey, 1/4 pound of hamburger crumbles, and 1/2 bowl dogfood (microwaved) for lunch after refusing anything for breakfast. We went to Baraboo after I got off and checked on the kitties (fine), plants (fine), and berries (winding down). Suki enjoyed spending a little time "at home". I took some more Nov 2005 sliced luncheon meat from Mom & Dad's freezer to feed Suki; I hope they weren't too attached to it. She snarfled down 4 or 5 pieces of roast beef and 3 hot dogs when we got home, after refusing more dogfood. Tonight she is firmly refusing to go for a final walk and is in the darkest, deepest corner of the basement. I think there are firecrackers going off again.

I don't have any good Suki photos today, but here is a recent picture of Avinash making "phulkas" (puffy rotis).

More gastronomic delights

I forgot to update today's Suki Menu. Today she started off with her usual refusal of dog food. I think I am going to throw it away; it's a week old and pretty yucky by now. Suki spent some time in the yard this morning after her walk. I had a breakfast sandwich in the fridge left over from my breakfast shop, and I shared that with her for breakfast. She ate both the sausage and the biscuit. She was still hungry after that, so I got out the bag of stuff Ani had raided from Mom and Dad's freezer to try and feed Suki. I fed her four elderly and freezerburnt cheap hotdogs (they were brown and shriveled) and she gamely gnawed them all down - taking them carefully to the Persian rug, of course. She then polished off two more weiners dating from March, also very tough and nasty looking. This has the added benefit of clearing out Mom and Dad's freezer while they are on vacation. This makes a total of three packages of hotdogs no longer hibernating in their freezer - not much, but it's a start.

Hot and Muggy Day

Wednesday I was off, so Suki and I got a lot done around the house. I started the morning with a breakfast shop at a local undisclosed location. Suki came along for the ride and was very good, as always. She had four pieces of turkey bacon for breakfast (which I had liberated from Mom and Dad's fridge; it outdated in February).

I vaccuumed around the house and cleaned the kitchen up. Make dosas and idlis creates a lot of dishes to wash. Suki came to the library with me in the afternoon when I returned a book. I picked up the DVD "Must Love Dogs" at the library. Suki and the gang can watch that tonight.

In the afternoon, I left to go check on the kitties before picking up Ani at work and heading to Madison for the Concert on the Square. The cats were fine and the houseplants also looked good. Fermi was talkative as usual. I brushed Darwin a little bit. Fermi was so happy to see the person responsible for the new food arrive that he was quite affectionate to Jenni, rubbing his head up against her many times.

It was a very hot and muggy evening for the concerts, but that is quite pleasant after our cold and dry winter. Ani and I walked to Monona Terrace afterwards and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before returning to our car on E. Mifflin St. It was still very sticky at 10 pm, so we picked up an ice cream cone from the McDonalds drive-through and shared that on the way home.

Here's a nice backlit photo of Suki which I took on our early morning walk. You can see that it was already hot and hazy at 6:30 am.

Suki ready for bed

Suki has gotten into the habit of sleeping in our bedroom at night. She feels secure there, we think.

Wet Dog Day

Today I left Suki outside when I went to work. I arrived to a memo which came out of the blue (as far as I was concerned), saying that all of the frequencies for medication administration were to be changed at 7 am that day to layman's terms. Nursing management was under the impression that was a simple process; just a pharmacy computer switch to be thrown. In actuality, it meant that after the frequency table was adjusted (a more complicated matter than nursing thought it would be because of space limitations), every single medication order for every inpatient and every standing order and every pre-defined order (there are about 3000) needed to be manually edited, as well. This quagmire took up my entire morning, and I had to stay late as well. I escaped at noon to quickly run home and bring the dog in, since it had been raining steadily all morning. Then I went back to work and got things stabilized there before returning home.

Suki was in the mood to snack when I got home. She started off with an appetizer of several dog biscuits. After that, I tried to feed her her dog food with a torn-up hot dog decorating the top. She ate the hot dog, but not the dog food. Since she's had so little to eat, I hand-fed her another two hot dogs and two pieces of toast. She was still feeling snacky, so I gave her a few pieces of bacon, which she wolfed down in true dog fashion.

Avinash checked on the kitties and fed them. He said that Fermi was quite vocal and affectionate until the food appeared.

The evening meal was refused by Suki, as usual. I gave her some more bacon. Rowena hungrily watched the proceedings with great jealousy, wondering why she never gets a) wet food; and b) no special treats, either. Ned avoided the jealousy problem by eating Suki's dog food and polishing that off with a long drink from the bathtub.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Concerts on the Square in Madison. We haven't decided what to do with Suki yet.

Suki's Monday Blues

Suki was very subdued this morning when I got up. She had spent the night in the corner of the bedroom, panting loudly. Avinash gave up trying to sleep in the same room and went to the guest bedroom to sleep. Her panting didn't bother me at all, since I can lay on my "good ear" and not hear it at all out of my deaf ear.

I took her meal out to her in the yard, and she did sniff it. When I went back into the house, I saw her dragging out the pieces of bacon from the dish. I think she will probably eat them, but it didn't look good for the rest of the dog food. I left her there in the yard with her dish, to ponder for a while.

When I came home at lunchtime, all of her water was gone, but the dog food was untouched. I hand-fed her two hotdogs, with the arthritis pill tucked in one of them. She's been getting creakier and creakier without the medicine.

After (my) supper, I brought her out onto the front steps. It was a beautiful evening and Avinash was enjoying the balmy temperatures and a magazine on the steps. I brought out the package of hotdogs, to try again, but Suki started shaking like a leaf and hid behind Avinash's legs. I eventually gave up and took her down to the basement.

At bedtime, I asked Suki if she wanted a walk. She was laying very low on the floor in the corner of the basement. She did not show any evidence of wanting a walk, despite the licking encouragement of Rowena and lots of pats from me. Avinash reported that he could hear crackers outside when he was reading on the front stairs, so that must account for her fright. I gave up for the evening and will try again tomorrow. Fortunately, I only work half a day tomorrow, so I won't have to leave her outside alone all day like I did today.

Fine dining in Reedsburg

Suki continued her dogfood boycott yesterday. She started the day off by refusing her proper food, as usual. She did accept half of a fresh hot pancake with butter and real maple syrup. In the evening we went to the drive-in theater in the Dells to see "Superman Returns". The special at the concession is a HUGE hamburger called the "Big Mamaburger". Suki and I split one of those for supper. The movie was not particularly interesting, but it was a fun atmosphere. It was the first time either Avinash or Suki had been to a drive-in. Suki met one tiny puppy who was quite scared of her, but she enchanted her customary entourage of small boys.

Bath

Suki just her aforementioned annual bath. By the time we got her wet, we could not see the bottom of the bathtub. The water was black and smelly. She is definitely a frontrunner in the dirty dog competition. Linda is drying and combing her right now.

More later.

Suki Visits Fermi

Linda and I went to Baraboo yesterday to feed Fermi, Darwin and Jenny. We took Suki along because we thought she would like to see her cat friends. All three cats were very glad to see us. Ned, still in Reedsburg, was very glad to get a few hours of dog-less time. He must have thought that the dog had gone back to Baraboo for good. To his dismay, Suki returned in the evening.

Linda and I hiked along the west bluff at Devil's Lake. Suki had to be left behind on her couch since she has such a hard time walking these days. I think she was glad to spend a few hours on her favourite couch and with her favourite cats in her favourite house. I'm sure she thought she was home for good, too.

Devil's Lake was teeming with people. Teeming is a relative term, of course. Teeming takes on an entirely different meaning in Old Delhi, for example. I still remember that walk a few years back near Chandni Chowk. Now, that was teeming with people. Anyway, there were a lot of people enjoying the excellent weather.

After our walk, we picked up Suki and were back in Reedsburg at around 6.

Friday Morning

It's a beautiful morning today. Linda's still sleeping upstairs while I'm updating the blog. Ned, Fatty and I are in the sun room watching and listening to the birds outside going about their daily morning rituals. They seem to be a very busy lot. Ned, of course, is desperate to go out. He tried to convince me that it was imperetive that he got out, by meowing six (yes, 6) times in a row. He wouldn't say that much even if he won an election.

Suki and I took an early morning walk. The walk was productive for Suki. Now, all dog owners know that a productive walk for a dog has an entirely different meaning. In other words, I carried a plastic bag back. Suki seems to be doing very well with her new medicines for arthritis. After the walk she did not want to stay outside, as she usually does, so we headed back into the house. She's now on her couch panting away. I made myself some garam chai and sat down in the sun room with Ned and Fatty.

I just saw a bird taking a bath in Suki's water bowl in the backyard. By the time I got my camera out, the bird had flown away. I missed a nice shot. The bird landed straight inside the water bowl. She dipped her head in the water, spread her wings out and fluttered them with great vigour. Then she looked around to ensure total privacy, and repeated the whole process all over again.

Speaking of bathing, Suki needs a bath really badly. She hasn't yet had her annual bath at our house (which is the only bath she ever gets). This weekend sometime Linda and I will give her a nice bath. Ned has colonized the rocking chair and, having given up hopes of going outside, tucked himself for a nice morning nap. Fatty has decided to snooze right next to me, in the white wicker chair. She has covered her eyes and gone to sleep.

Everyone in the house is sleeping. I guess I'll go and have an authentic south Indian breakfast of idli and chutney. The coconut chutney that I made turned out really well. There's nothing like using fresh coconut. More later.

Suki arrives again for a visit

Suki keeps us company while we prepare dinner.

Mom, Dad, and Jasio are headed for "points west". They want
to go to drive through Minnesota and the the Dakotas to the Badlands
by this evening, Yellowstone Park in Wyoming the next day, probably
staying in Idaho, then through Oregon to the Pacific Ocean and drive
down the coast of California to San Francisco. Then they want to go
inland to Yosemite Park, possibly the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Las
Vegas, and then back east through Wyoming and Colorado to the midwest
again. It's about 3000 miles and a really long trip with a lot of
traveling. I don't think Jasio has much idea how big the USA is.
They will probably end up cutting some of the journey out, unless they
drive all day and all night. Jasio can't drive, and my mom gets
sleepy, so it will all fall on my dad. He loves driving, so he
wouldn't mind, but he's getting older and he's diabetic, so that's a
problem. I hope they manage safely.

Suki spend most of the day indoors. It was sunny and hot today and she watched me water the garden plants a bit. We also took a small jaunt to the library, where Suki checked out three romance novels and a DVD named Chain Reaction. I think she will enjoy the movie more than the novels.

Suki's diet today:
One bite polish sausage
One bite toast
1/2 of yesterday's very smelly leftover dog food (about 1/4 bowl)

I was just getting her in the mood to try a bit more dog food when Avinash arrived home, so with all the distraction that was the end of the preprandial ambiance. I may try again one more time before bed, but I'm pretty satisfied for the day.

Suki enjoys a cookout

Suki was in the mood to snack when I came home from work. I fed her 1 slice of buttered toast, from some nice Clasen's bakery rosemary bread. She liked this so well that we next progressed to dog biscuits. She accepted each one, from the relatively dangerous position of coming close to the hissing and crouching Ned, and retreated two rooms away to the firplace rug to eat each one. Ned scared Suki a couple of times by hissing, and she held the dog biscuit in her mouth until he darted outside. She then balanced the doggie bisbuit between her paws and ate it very daintily. She kept returning, smiling and wagging and following me around, until I had fed her 6 biscuits!

I really figured that would be enough, since it was more than she often eats for days at a time, but Suki was really in the mood to eat by that time. I decided that since we had no dog food, and she never eats dog food at our house anyway because it's not just like home and not the way that Mom does it, to cook her a proper dinner.

It was a fine evening. The termperature was 82 degrees, after a rather rainy and muggy day, and I set up the Weber grill on the patio and made a hamburger. Suki came outside with me, and continued her wagging / smiling / chop licking routine while the burger was being cooked. When it was ready, I ate half and Suki ate half, the bun this time! She was still very interested in food, so I cooked a hotdog and fed it to her the same way. I think she would have eaten still more, but I decided she had had enough at that point.

With Suki, it's feast of famine - literally!

We then took a small trip to the car wash and the grocery store, coming home via Ski Hill road to give Suki a chance to hang her head out the window.

Here's a photo from when Avinash was vacuuming out the car at the car wash. Suki and I took a small walk on the clover lawn at the bank.

Nice day for the parade

Suki Celebrates Butterfest in Reedsburg

Suki is staying with us for three days. We picked her up from Baraboo yesterday, on our way back from Madison. Linda and I had been to Madison to buy my regular desi food.

Linda and I hadn't realised that today was Butterfest, the annual Reedsburg festival that showcases the local industries and institutions here. I can't think of an equivalent Indian festival off hand, but the Republic Day celebrations come close.

The Butterfest started off on a bad note for Suki. There were some loud noises made by small kids amongst the crowd that had gathered to watch the parade. Even though the sounds weren't particularly loud, they were enough to make Suki shake and shiver. Linda and I tried to calm her down but nothing helped, as usual. There were more bada bings and bada bangs later on in the festival, which made the situation worse.

On a more positive note, Suki got a biscuit from the mayor of Reedsburg. The mayor was riding some kind of electric vehicle. Linda said that he got off the vehicle, came to Suki, and handed her a dog biscuit. Of course, Suki didn't even so much as sniff the biscuit. I'm sure she appreciated the gesture.

There's not much else going on right now. Suki and I are watching the USA versus Italy football match right now. The score's 1-1 right now, but the US team has two players red-carded, both not such great decisions by the referee.

Suki goes to Mountain

Suki made her first ever trip in the van this weekend, when we all went to Mountain for Jim and Diane's 65th birthday / retirement shindig. This was due to a comedy of errors - we had planned on taking her in the Vibe, and Dad was planning on going with Gregg and Katya - but that all fell through so we went as one big, happy, white furry family.

Here's Suki at Rib Mountain getting ready for the family photo. :)


Dinner report:
Suki ate two bites of a Mc Donald's cheeseburger the entire weekend.

Back Home

Suki went back home today. Her parents came back from their spring break tour earlier than expected. In fact, they drove the whole day yesterday to make it back home as soon as possible. They called us at around eight last night to let us know that they would be taking Suki back today.

Suki was very excited to see her mom. Linda and I are hoping that she will starting eating more normally once she gets back to her regular routine. If nothing else works, Fermi should be able to persuade Suki to eat properly.

Suki on the terrace

She May Not Like Dog Food But...

Today Suki discovered that she liked chewing gum. Linda told me that Suki was gnawing on a packet of chewing gum this afternoon. She had not yet sunk her teeth into the gum itself, but was getting close. I can't think of a reasonable explanation for this behaviour, except to say that she has always liked junk food. Linda's food report summarizes Suki's nutrition for today.

This evening Suki, Linda and I watched TV Today's Hindi channel Aaj Tak, a free view we're getting through Dish Network. Aaj Tak made as much sense to Suki as it did to Linda. Suki knows 60 words in ENGLISH, not in Hindi, for those that don't know Suki's educational background. (Hoaarrk and hrrmmmffff are her favourite English words).

I visited Suki's cat friends, Fermi, Darwin and Jenny, in Baraboo on my way back from work. They were all quite glad to see somebody arriving to serve them food. Darwin took the lead in serving himself. Fermi was not sure if the food quality met his standards. Jenny was happy to get her dry kibble. Winston, "the other pet," was nowhere to be seen. I gave them enough food for a couple of days. I plan on visiting them again on Thursday.

Linda will be home tomorrow. Suki will surely like Linda's company.

Meal updates

So far Suki has performed her usual "guest dog" fast. Since arrival, her intake includes:
1. Three bites of dinner roll (Sunday night)
2. 1 bagel, toasted, with butter (Monday morning) (she declined dog food)
3. large serving of baked chicken nuggets (Monday evening) (she declined dog food again)
4. She declined bagel and dog food this morning (Tue am)

Suki's Spring Break

Suki arrived yesterday. Her parents have "gone south" for about a week. Suki's going to stay with us until next Saturday or Sunday. Her mother dropped her off early in the morning on Sunday. Suki was waiting for me in the drawing room when I woke up and went downstairs.

Of course, she didn't think she was going to stay for more than half a day here. However, as it always happens, hope faded as the day wore on. Linda, Suki and I watched Spider Man 2 in the evening. Suki was not very interested because I think she was thinking about going back home. Ned was also thinking about Suki going back home. Both Suki and Ned take a long time, each time Suki stays with us, to figure out that the visit would be longer. It must be like going to boarding school. Some of my friends behaved like Suki when they got back to Westcott after the winter and summer vacations. Actually, I used to get that Suki-in-Reedsburg feeling going back to Westcott after any holiday longer than one week.

Today Suki is feeling a little better. She stayed outside almost the entire day. It was the most beautiful day of 2006 so far. More later.

Big White

Suki had a busy evening last night. She first had to undergo the annual bath experience, which involves lifting her outright into the tub. Avinash and I soaped her down and rinsed her and dried her with three regular-size towels and a beach towel. After combing her out, she looked much whiter. Then we finished the evening by watching Jerry Macguire on tv.

The next morning, Suki seemed in the mood to eat. She indulged in 1/4" of seasoned hamburger crumbles from the freezer. She begged for something else, so I gave her three elderly slices of sliced turkey. After that, several dog biscuits. To top it off, she polished of all the cat food in the dish. She was still exhibiting the lip-smacking and golden-retriever pawing of hunger after that, but she had already eaten everything in the house that I considered to be dog-edible.

We went to visit Pam in Watertown to celebrate her birthday, and took Suki along in the backseat. She accepted several curly fries from Arby's at a pit stop on the way down and was a good passenger without any nervous shoulder-chewing. Suki indicated in no uncertain terms that she wanted to sit on the couch at Pam's, which doesn't leave a lot of room for other occupants since it's grandma's old small hide-a-bed couch.

Colleen was up from her nap and rather tired and grumpy. After about an hour, she warmed up to us and came to share the couch with Suki and me. She has picked up a lot of words and especially likes to look at photo albums and name those pictured inside. She has gotten the knack of patting hair rather than yanking hair and seemed to find Suki's thick flank hair especially interesting to bury her hands in.

We dropped Suki off at Mom and Dad's on the way back home. Suki seemed very happy to be home and was greeted lovingly by Fermi as usual.

Springtime in Wisconsin

I got up at 6 this morning to walk the dog. We were supposed to have 4-7 inches of snow overnight, but there was nothing but some freezing mist at 6. Suki very happily went on a protracted sniffing adventure all the way to the library and back. She finds that it takes several days to get caught up with the "Reedsburg Paper".

It did start to snow soon afterwards. Avinash was happy that he didn't have to scrape or brush his car off before he went to work.

I had a LONG snuggling session with Ned this morning. He always becomes extremely affectionate when Suki comes to visit. He rubbed his nose all over my face, licked my face, nibbled on my face, and did the same to my arm. Then he went and licked the computer monitor very tenderly as well. He is a very strange cat.

For breakfast, I had a sesame bagel (Suki accepted two bites) and two pieces of whole-wheat toast (Suki accepted four bites). Rowena was quite jealous of this hand-feeding but she certainly doesn't need carbohydrates.

Mail call today:
e-week magazine
paper survey to complete with $1 cash inside
money order for $13 for e-bay

Suki and I went for another walk a bit later and then we took a short drive to the post office to send my e-bay packages and books. Suki enjoyed the car trip, even though it was very short.

When we got back, Suki very firmly led me to the back yard, where she insisted on sitting on the snow, rolling in the snow, diving in the snow, and eating snow. I tied her out there and will go and rescue her from the cold in a little bit.

Back in Reedsburg with Suki

Once again Suki has joined our household for a few days. Dad has gone to Florida for a week or so and Mom is at work full-time, so I volunteered to dog-sit while Dad was away, so Mom didn't have to worry about the dog while she was at work.

I went to Baraboo yesterday to pick up Suki. I was greeted with pleasure by Jenny and Darwin, and Fermi made an appearance as well. Suki heard me coming and scratched at the porch door, and when I let her in she squeaked and twirled and pranced for a little while in greeting. Mom had left some dog treats by the door for Suki snacking. Since this visit is only going to be for three days, there is no real point in sending dog food since Suki always fasts for 4 or 5 days when going on a visit.

Suki was greeted at the door by Rowena, who rubbed up against her legs and they nosed each other and licked faces. Rowena is a very licky cat and tends to lick everything, so that's not a real surprise. Ned retreated to the upper level of the couch and then upstairs for several hours. He is not a big Suki fan.

Mail call for the day was one e-bay check for $10.

I made a large hamburger for lunch in hopes that I would be able to share it with Suki. Mom said that Suki had declined breakfast in the morning. She's been eating once every 2 or 3 days lately, so I figured I'd just try to get her to nibble on something so she has some kind of nourishment. Suki liked that idea, and ate almost a 1/4# hamburger (cooked). Rowena was jealous and so I fed her a few tidbits of raw hamburger. I gave Suki a biscuit, which she took to eat on the Persian carpet in front of the fireplace, as usual.

Later in the afternoon, I planted the vegetable seeds I had purchased for the garden in seedling trays I put in front of the South windows in the TV room. I was a bit dismayed that Ned showed great interest in these trays, and since I know that in the past he has become a small lawnmower as soon as the seedlings sprout I exiled him from the room until I could get the trays covered up. He also seemed to think the trays could perhaps be a large cat box of some type, which I certainly didn't want to encourage.

Ned snuck into the room later in the afternoon, and I pulled him out from his hidey-hole behind the couch by one foot. He protested this treatment vehemently, and Suki and Rowena came to find out what all the kerfufle was. Ned is normally such a silent cat that it is a great event when he has something to say. Ned became noisier when he saw those two, since he doesn't like either one, so I tossed him out into the sunroom to regain some karma points in the cold. That experience normally makes him very mellow after three or four minutes. Meanwhile, Rowena had become concerned that Suki must be the one bothering Ned, and she growled and took a swipe at Suki. Suki was quite taken aback by this treasonous act by one of her old friends, and she ended up with a bleeding sore on her ear. I yelled at the cat and swatted her on the rear, and she retreated upstairs with a big tail. (Pictured above is the miniature terrorist in her "sleeper cell").

I then took Suki for a walk to help her forget this inhospitable treatment. Suki is very forgiving and when we came back in Rowena and Suki enjoyed their normal friendly interaction. However, I am still miffed at Rowena for such offensive behavior towards a guest.

I made some soup for supper. Suki was smacking her lips and showing interest in food again, and I offered her some seasoned ground beef crumbles from the freezer. She ate a couple of tablespoonfuls of that before losing interest in food entirely.

We took another walk to the library in the evening before bed. With Suki in the house, my library books get returned twice a day!