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Best Petsitters in Durham

0 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , , , July 12th, 2010 @ 12:51 am

H, A, and Z don’t agree on much, but they are unanimous in praising Bull City Pet Sitting for providing the best, funnest, most loving care when daddy has to go somewhere. Heather and Jen treat them all like their own. H needs belly rubs, A needs lap sessions, and Z needs head-butts, and they all get plenty of TLC from Bull City Pet Sitting. A and Z have both had special medication and food needs over the years. H has special needs just in his social ineptness around other canines. Heather and Jen always do a tremendous job with my critters. I’ve been using them for nearly six years, and I recommend them whole-heartedly to the pet-owners of Durham!

H at the vet How many pictures of Z on her back do I need?

A atop bookcase (Nov 07) (9)

Ikea and the local progressives and metablogging

0 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , July 9th, 2010 @ 1:41 am

I blogged via iPhone Thursday night and didn’t post it. It’s probably just as well, but, at 2AM late Saturday night, it’s Ambien time again, and my self-censoring doesn’t work well right now.

I’ll block-quote this in case I have any observations 48 hours later.

New bed sheets! Rarest of occasions. From IKEA. I love IKEA. written by iPhone, got some ambien going on so there are my excused for a disjointed post.

Today, I assembled my big purchase from IKEA–a new chair. Maybe I’ll have a Pulitzer-winning post about that in the days to come. Here’s a spoiler: it’s a POÄNG. (For some reason, the website fails to list the combination that I actually got.)

Dialysis still a pain in the ass. No one left to blame. Garrulous patients, waking up to sweats, waking up to frigid air, being paralyzed in deep sleep after coming home, feelin feverish the entire time i am at work…no desire to do anything productive after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

No comfort to be told that my “numbers are great.”

I’m getting lots of advice regarding whether I should have my kidneys removed. It’s seeming like the doctors are going to leave this chilling decision up to me.

What good will having the surgery or the transplant do me?

A nephrectomy post is in order for someday soon. Nephrectomy…what a lovely word. Oh, and I’d be getting a double-nephrectomy.

Tonight, the Durham young progressives who go by that name that I will not explicitly address had what was probably a pretty neat confluence of the local progressive intelligensia (word?) I long ago decided I felt isolated from this group despite numerous attempts to assimilate.

Too many grad students and post-docs and artists and community organizers and bikers and tri-athletes and assorted hip people of the world…I feel like a NOTHING around these people and when I do go to something, I leave the gathering prematurely .

I have yet to find a way that would let me stay. I reached out a couple of times trying to get the magical answer from the wise oracle of community organizing. Too busy or my problem is too intimate for an answer to be provided.

These kinds of thoughts related to feelings of alienation occur whenever anything is happening around town that I think I’d be interested in if not for the feeling that I just don’t quite fit in. Unfortunately, this means I don’t go out and try new things. I become more and more isolated from people. I live, if I am to believe The Independent and Bull City Rising and Barry’s blog and other exceptional sources, in a progressive, smart, vibrant, fun city. But I stay in my house.

Tonight, I have found myself with writer’s block, obsessing over the point of this site. I am reminded of a post I made back in September 2008 called Block.

My WordPress admin page to Add New Post…I have a blog…what do I want to do with my blog…

I star dozens of Google Reader articles every week, ostensibly because I want to share them with people…but I usually don’t…because I don’t know if I’m preaching to the choir…or trying to grab the attention of people who might not otherwise care about something..and am I really making anyone care who didn’t before…or is it ok to just post something to make the point that I care about something…

I have more lousy experiences at dialysis than I chronicle in here…but everyone gets the point that dialysis sucks…what good does it do to chronicle it in detail…especially because I’d truly prefer not to think about it when I’m not actually there…

The occasional ramblings about feeling like a failure…Feelings along these lines bubble up far more than I choose to write about them in here…I don’t know what I am accomplishing when I publicly write about these feelings.

Pet photos…I keep taking ‘em, and I keep posting ‘em…the world must see my pets…

And why I’m reeling off thoughts about blogging tonight? I just noticed it’s been a week since I posted anything.

But I’m digging up what I had saved on my iPhone only, and you’ve read that. So this is sufficient for tonight.

It’s 2:35AM now. Sleep very soon…and likely sleep until I convince myself that it’s ridiculous to remain in bed any longer (likely 11 or 12:00).

Where’s the requisite pet pic?

Z-curl 2010.07.01

Happy Fourth

4 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , , July 4th, 2010 @ 10:47 pm

Fourth of July H
H was absolutely thrilled to spend a couple of hours at American Tobacco tonight for some music and people-watching. He just loves people. Other dogs, not so much, but there were only a couple of them. I don’t know how he feels about fireworks. I have a feeling that, unlike a lot of dogs, he wouldn’t mind them, but we left before they started. I’m content to watch A Capitol Fourth on PBS. This year: Jimmy Smits! Watching the D.C. Mall show and fireworks is one of those experiences that really looks great on a high-def TV. It’s all great in person, too, except for the waiting five or six hours in the shade-less Mall heat for everything to start.

Dog-out-in-snow blogging

3 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , , January 31st, 2010 @ 1:33 pm

H snow '10

H doesn’t like the snow so much.

912 —— (People who leave their pets out in the cold [repost])

1 comment By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , March 1st, 2009 @ 11:34 pm

Original post from 01-03-2008


jade-bw-1-12-08

Since Jade is still out there in the extreme cold and the extreme heat, 24/7/365, after nearly two years, I feel compelled to publish the address where this poor mastiff lives in her pen. A spring thaw will be here any day now, but, for one more night, her water will probably freeze over. Animal control has been over there a few times; the owners apparently aren’t doing anything cruel enough to warrant having to surrender the dog. I think the actual owner, the guy who owns the dog but doesn’t live there (while his mother and grandmother “care” for the dog) takes Jade out for a walk perhaps once a month. Otherwise, her life has been that 8×8 pen for nearly two years.

Not only is it cruel to treat an animal like this, but it makes for a really inconsiderate neighbor to allow for what amounts to the sound of sawing wood to emanate from your backyard at all hours of the day and night for close to two years.

912 —– Street. Durham, NC. Any mastiff rescue groups out there who want to try to coax the owners to give up the dog? Anyone have any ideas? I have nothing to say to the people who live there; they’re not nice people. I haven’t contacted the owner of the house. Property records point to Libra Properties with a mailing address in Carrboro. I can’t imagine that landlord is unaware that the tenants have kept a mastiff in a pen non-stop for two years.

UPDATE 3/2/09 5:36AM It’s officially a snow day here. I’d like to go back to sleep but can’t, because Jade has been barking for the past 45 minutes non-stop. She does truly sound like someone is sawing wood. I could call the policy non-emergency number, but I don’t think the police care about a barking dog in the middle of a snowstorm. “Do you want an officer to call you?” they’ll ask me. No, I don’t…I want to go back to sleep…and I don’t want to hear about how you can’t do anything productive about this dog.

I really hate these people at 912 ——. Jade won’t shut up, and I can’t stand her 50-minutes-plus of barking this morning, but this is certainly not her fault.

UPDATE 3/2/09 1:22PM I don’t hate these people. I hate how they’ve treated their dog.

UPDATE 4/30/10 12:33AM Removed street name, because I should not vilify people without knowing all information.

herman’s d-day

0 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , August 4th, 2008 @ 8:46 pm

‘d’ as in dental-cleaning-and-surgery day. I knew he’d need at least one tooth extracted, and that he showed signs of some periodontal disease. Unfortunately, Dr. Hoover, the good Dr. Hoover of Westside Animal Hospital, whom I highly recommend, had to remove nine teeth. Dr. Hoover was A’s first veterinarian back in 1996, and he came highly recommended to me in 2008 for his expertise in doggy dentistry. H would’ve lost ten teeth, but Dr. Hoover was able to put in some sort of dental implant to try to save one tooth.

H’s mouth has been in pretty bad shape. He’s probably been in pain for who-knows-how-long. Now, he’s a got a Frankenstein mouth, all bloodied and stitched up everywhere, and he’s moaning in pain. I’m not suppose to open his mouth, yet I was supposed to give him a pain pill; I’m not sure if H actually swallowed the one I just gave him. Poor guy.

But his mouth should be good-as-new in a couple of weeks. The good news is that dogs usually have 42 teeth, so losing 9 isn’t the end of the world.


H - Contentment Closeup
(September 2006)

Coalition to Unchain Dogs: One year, 70 dogs unchained!

0 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , March 23rd, 2008 @ 6:44 pm

This brilliant video captures the triumph of the work of Amanda Arrington, Lori Hensley, and dozens of other volunteers over the past year. They have transformed the lives of dozens of dogs, and in doing so, have been transforming Durham’s neighborhoods.

Two ways you can help the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in the coming weeks:
- Help them raise $10,000 in the Great Human Race, which is next Saturday. As of now, they are 93% towards their goal
- Come to their 2nd annual garage sale, on Saturday, April 12 (see flyer)

On the main website, there are also links for making a regular donation, buying Cafe Press gear, and signing up for their list-serv if you are interested in helping build a fence or just following the progress of the organization.

Another stolen dog

4 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with March 4th, 2008 @ 12:31 pm

Not sure what good this will do. Perhaps someone with a wider-reaching site could post? If there were a missing child, would I post about it? Probably not Maybe. But don’t hold that against Gizmo.

[click for larger image]
APS Foster Dog Gizmo Stolen

Last weekend’s unchained dogs

0 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , August 21st, 2007 @ 11:26 pm

Meet Lobo and Speedy, last weekend’s recipients of new fences to replace their chains, courtesy of the Coalition to Unchain Dogs.
LoboSpeedy

Why I Like Where I Live #7: The Coalition to Unchain Dogs

0 comments By Toast Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with , , August 12th, 2007 @ 2:51 pm

I just spent a morning helping (well, mostly observing) the Coalition to Unchain Dogs build a fence for two Durham dogs who had previously been chained up. I love what this group does, and I hope to be more involved in the future.

There were plenty of pictures taken of today’s lucky pooches Rocky and Ali, and I’ll post a link to them as soon as the photographer has them up.

UPDATE
And here they are!
Rocky

In the meantime, here are links to a couple of albums showing the results of the work of the Coalition on a couple of other recent occasions.

Bullet

Attila

And there was an article in the N&O last month about The Coalition to Unchain Dogs.

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