Category Archives: Dogs

Another Tale of Waffles

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Waffles the pug in our backyard in Palm Springs.

I recently wrote about a weird thing that happened with Facebook. Somebody commented on a five-year old photo of Waffles needing emergency surgery. Then the post got more comments and my 94-year-old dad even called to find out if Waffles was okay. I couldn’t figure out why that old post was making the rounds, because it didn’t come up as a memory to me and I didn’t share it with anyone.

I wrote about that HERE.

Well, wouldn’t you know it! Waffles had emergency surgery yesterday! My daughter wondered if there was a connection to the FB post and Waffles back in ER. Was there something with the vibes or was he jinxed because of that post?

He got sick shortly after that and wouldn’t eat and if he drank water it came right back up. My daughter had a sleepless week but through subcutaneous fluids and several trips to the ER, Waffles’ tummy finally settled down. During this process the vet took an X-ray to make sure there wasn’t a blockage.

Waffles, my daughter's pug, at the Utes pool.
Waffles, my daughter’s pug, made it on “We Rate Dogs” a popular pupper site. Eventually it had more than 75,000 views. This photo was taken at the University of Utah pool. Waffles became the swim team’s mascot and sports marketing posed Waffles for social media posts.

The X-ray revealed his bladder was filled with stones that could be life threatening. I was worried about a 10-year-old pug going through anesthesia and surgery. They don’t have the best noses for breathing and are at risk with anesthesia. But as the parent of a 30-year-old, I didn’t have any say so or monetary involvement.

Waffles is home today with my daughter in the Bay Area post surgery and it all went well.

Here are two more Utah Swim Team photos of Waffles:

A Fun Waffles Tale:

When our daughter graduated college, her first job was in Scottsdale, Arizona and she lived in Tempe. I was visiting her and Waffles (from Palm Springs where we lived then) and we took a walk across the Tempe Town Lake pedestrian bridge. We were halfway across when a woman we had never met stopped us and asked, “Is that Waffles?” We were stunned! It turned out the woman was married to a Utah swim coach who took a job with ASU’s swim team and is now the head coach. She definitely was familiar with Waffles!

Do you have a favorite of these Waffles photos? If so, which one?

Do you think it’s a weird coincidence with the old FB post showing up and Waffles having surgery again?

Funny Facebook

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pug face
Waffles and my daughter snuggling.

I’m not on Facebook that often. I used to be on it every day while my kids were growing up. But now I don’t think of it that often. I post my wildlife photos on Instagram and they automatically get posted to FB.

Anywho. I was surprised when my daughter texted me and asked why I had posted something about her pug Waffles on FB. I told her I didn’t. She said the post was getting comments including from my sister-in-law, moms from my kids’ grade school that I haven’t talked to since then. It was getting likes, hearts and hugs.

Next I got a phone call from my dad asking what in the heck was going on with Waffles.

“Nothing,” I said. “He turned 10 years old in August.”

My dad explained that he had seen a Facebook post and that Waffles was having emergency surgery.

Somehow this memory from 2021 was showing up in people’s feeds. I looked at my Facebook page and it wasn’t there.

Five years ago, Waffles had eaten a chunk of wood from a planter and it lodged in his small intestine. He had to have emergency surgery but is fine now except for getting older.

When Waffles was a pup.

Are you on Facebook and have you had an old memory pop up that people thought was current and commented on? If so, what was the post about?

How often do you use Facebook compared to years ago?

The November Reading List

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It’s that time of the month to post my son and DIL’s reading syllabus for the next month! My DIL teaches English at a private school for students who may struggle with school for various reasons, but are very intelligent. I’m posting the current reading assignments in case you’d like to follow along — or are looking for something good to read.

I will admit, I didn’t keep up with October’s reading list. I wondered how the month went by so quickly! I did read — plus listen to “Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates. I read Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” on the flight to and from Oakland. I’m currently reading “The Stranger” by Camus.

I’m behind, but the syllabus is expanding my reading to include poetry, novellas, plays and fiction that I normally wouldn’t read. I see that as a good thing, even though I’m not sticking to the schedule.

My son had his pre-op appointment for his surgery and wouldn’t you know it? It’s the day after my bunion surgery. I postponed my surgery until next year. I’m going up to take care of my son in November for his surgery, just like I did in October for my daughter. We are enjoying taking care of our grand-dog Waffles in between surgeries. We are on a pretty good schedule and I look forward to our walks together almost as much as Waffles does!

What a smile our snaggle-tooth Waffles has!

Have a great weekend! Happy Halloween!

What exciting plans do you have for the weekend?

Travels with Waffles

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I came home Saturday from helping my daughter post shoulder surgery. To help her more, I traveled home with her pug Waffles. This photo was taken at the airport.

A family who lives near her took care of Waffles while my daughter had surgery and for the week while I was helping out. That’s because my daughter was staying at our son and DIL’s apartment — and our son is deathly allergic to Waffles.

The family sent my daughter pictures and videos every day. One that made me laugh was the mom and two kids in bed with Waffles. The kids were fighting over who got to sleep with Waffles, so the mom had them all sleep together!

Waffles hangs out in the daytime in my husband’s office.

I was a little nervous about traveling with Waffles. I’ve never flown with an animal before. But he was a trooper. My daughter has flown with him lots of times since his puppyhood. Now he’s nine years old and a pro at air travel.

My daughter gave me the low down on traveling with Waffles. She said I had to have him in the carrier when I checked in. I was instructed to call the airlines to make a reservation for him and then pay $125 at the check in counter. He used to travel for free. The fee is a new add on along with $35 for a checked bag — which also used to be free.

She said once I checked in, I could walk him on a leash through the security line. I had to place the carrier in the luggage tub to be scanned along with my purse. Then I carried Waffles through the security check point. Once through security, Waffles was back on his feet and I walked him to the nearest pet relief station — of which my daughter knew the exact location.

While we were waiting for our flight, Waffles jumped back into his carrier and snored. I took him on one more trip to the pet relief station before our flight boarded. While I was walking with Waffles, a woman came up to me and said, “This is so unnecessary! You are adding to the chaos!”

“Whoah!” I thought. I was only walking a 20-pound, well-behaved dog on its leash! I turned to her and said, “I don’t have a choice. My daughter had surgery and I need to take her dog home. This is my chaos.”

I got a half grunted “Oh, I’m sorry,” in reply.

Once on the airplane with Waffles inside his carrier, it fit under the seat in front of me. He slept and snored the entire flight.

Waffles likes to sunbathe on the throw rug by the sliding glass doors. That’s where kitty Olive spent her mornings, too. The first thing we do in the morning is take Waffles for a walk around the neighborhood, to our little park, and back up to our home. He is ready to go! He seems to enjoy a strict routine. So do I!

Have you traveled with a pet? If so, did you find it easy?

What do you think of strangers voicing their opinion on what you’re doing?

Why Our Son Missed Summer Vacation

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My kids celebrating a birthday with Natasha our rottie years ago in the family home.

We were looking forward to our son staying with us in the Santa Barbara area during our vacation. His wife had the start of the school year as a teacher. My daughter also had a new year beginning at UC Berkeley where she works. It was just going to be our son joining us, which would have been unique, because we rarely if ever have time alone with him.

But it was not to be.

He was out for a walk in his neighborhood when he called to tell us a huge Rottweiler came up behind him and bit him in the thigh. He was pretty shaken up and his wife was driving him to urgent care.

At urgent care he asked about rabies vaccines while they tended to his bite.

The staff at urgent care said there hasn’t been a case of a dog with rabies in eight years in his county, so it wasn’t necessary. My son was reading about rabies online. It’s fatal so he was more than concerned. I told him to call his insurance or animal control. He couldn’t get through to animal control but did reach the County health department. They instructed him to go to an ER, not an urgent care, and get rabies vaccinations. They had a dog with rabies two weeks prior.

Also, since the dog was a stray, there was no way they could track the dog to see if it had rabies or not. It might have escaped a yard. Or it could truly be a stray dog with no home.

The other thing that was scary besides getting attacked and bitten by a dog, was my son discovered online that if insurance doesn’t cover rabies vaccines, they are ridiculously expensive.

He got the first rabies vaccine which was extremely painful. He said the needle was like a needle on a sewing machine and the diameter of the syringe was the size of a nickel. They stabbed him five or six times in the wound to fill the area with human rabies immune globulin. Then he got a shot in the arm with the rabies vaccine. He had to go back for more vaccines — which just happened to be during the time he took off work to join us at the beach.

The good news is he received treatment. At first I suggested that he follow the urgent care’s advice and not to worry about rabies vaccines. That was first of all, because I trusted their advice, and second, that the costs my son found online were around $36,000 for the shots!

He called the other day to say he got the bill from the ER. His bill was about $2,000. His health insurance covered $85,000. Yes, that’s $85,000 for two shots! He hasn’t received the bill yet for the rest of the shots.

What are your thoughts about shots to save your life costing more than $85,000?

It’s a dog’s life

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A new friend at the beach bringing a ball to my husband.

After our evening beach walk and swim, we were relaxing in beach chairs watching the waves. Suddenly, a small dog ran to my husband and dropped a ball at his feet. We looked around for his owners, but there was nobody close by.

My husband threw the ball. The speedy little pup raced after the ball and ran back to us, dropping the ball at my feet. It was my turn.

The pup alternated between the two of us for 30 minutes, never tiring of chasing the ball.

The dog is waiting in anticipation for the ball to be thrown. If you look in the ocean there is a couple out there.

Eventually the couple who were body surfing in the waves came onshore.

“Is this your dog?” my husband called out to them.

“No, he’s yours now,” the man replied. We all laughed. The dog trotted over excitedly to his rightful owners.

The dogs on the beach are so entertaining to watch. There’s a man who lives a few houses away from Kevin Costner, who walks his black lab every morning with a tennis ball launcher. That dog is so excited and jumps and circles, crying for the ball to be thrown. He runs back and forth chasing and retrieving the ball for an entire hour walk. We watched a pair of Vizlas chasing balls from their owner’s tennis ball launcher, leaping to catch the balls in the air before they hit the sand. Then there are dogs who pick up sticks two to three times the size of their bodies and proudly trot them down the beach.

Here’s a video of our new friend racing after the ball:

If you have a dog, do they like to swim, chase after balls or carry sticks?

What other creatures are as happy as a dog at the beach?

The dog days of summer…

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I was curious what I was up to four years ago — during the COVID shutdown. I was reading a Julia Cameron book called “It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again” trying to find motivation. I’m feeling lackadaisical just like I did then. Maybe it’s the prospect hobbling around on broken toes, or maybe it’s the heat.

Here’s what I discovered about the Dog Days of Summer:

pug staring out the car window
Waffles in the car with me at my son’s place in Berkeley.

What are the dog days of summer? I found this on Wikipedia:

The dog days or dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius (known colloquially as the “Dog Star”), which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck.

It is hot, humid, we’re predicted to have thunderstorms. I’m lethargic. I don’t have a fever, I don’t see any mad dogs and I’m not buying into the bad luck. But otherwise the phrase “dog days of summer” fits.

Okay. About that bad luck. My daughter just called me and said she fell in the dark on her stairs last night trying to get Waffles back in the house. She broke her foot. Now she’s on crutches and trying to get in for an MRI appointment without missing any work. This means she can’t exercise, walk Waffles and will be struggling for weeks to come. I feel like I should be up there to help her.

pug selfies
Selfies with Waffles while he’s intent on watching my daughter outside the car.

Fast forward four years, and I’m the one hobbling around, not my daughter. Maybe I have to reconsider that luck thing in the dog days of summer.

Are you feeling the dog days of summer? Are you seeing any mad dogs?
What are you doing to stay motivated?