Unpleasantness

Sick Animals: With so many of them, it shouldn't be a big surprise when several are sick at once. Lizzy had some sort of stomach thing and she made messes too disgusting to report. She'll put anything in her mouth, so who knows what caused it, but it is over now. Thank god.

Judy, bless her heart, developed an eye infection. I managed to corral her into a crate (with no injuries!) and got her up to our vet, only to find out I would have to put goo into her nasty, weepy, red, swollen eye. Which was awesome, since I happen to have a phobia about eyes (I don't wear contacts for a reason) and Judy has a phobia of humans. I was supposed to do this goo thing 2 - 3 times a day. I've managed to get it into her eye three times in the last week. Luckily that was enough and her eye is looking a lot better since I can't get near her anymore. Plus the dog ate the eye medicine (like I said, she'll eat anything).

And Gwen. On Christmas Eve, Len had taken her to the vet because she had lost a couple of pounds (at which time we found out she is blind, and don't think I haven't tried to poke her in the eye, "yep! Still blind!") I thought she was looking better and maybe had gained a little weight, or at least not lost more, but when I took her for a re-check on Saturday (between blizzards), it turned out she had lost 4 ounces. Also she has an ear infection (not unusual for her). So we were sent home with an appetite stimulant, ear goo and more eye goo for Judy. If she doesn't improve we will need to do a liver ultrasound, because she has had liver problems in the past.

At least Simon and Fred are healthy. For now.

Vanpool: I tried to do the right thing, I really did. In November I joined a van pool, on December 19 I dropped out. To make a long, gruesome story short, the driver is reckless and I got very tired of wondering what would happen next. Pulling out in traffic, merging before it was her turn (into the lane the semi in front of us would have merged into), she had some serious Right of Way issues. Two other people had already dropped out because of her driving, but used other excuses, and the remaining members of the pool don't seem to have a problem with her, I am the crazy bitch whose standards are beyond high. I was a bit, um, blunt when I told her why I was leaving. I'm not usually confrontational, but I thought she needed to know. We had a big e-mail argument about it, and I don't think it did much good for her driving, but I feel much better. And now I am back to being an evil, single driver, gas guzzling* American.

*Not really, my tiny Ford Escort still gets 31-34 miles per gallon.

Oh look, here is Lizzy:

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do gross things in my kennel!"