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.