Missyisms

Reggie and the Cardinal and His Family

For a larger version of the image (and slightly better view of the cardinal), click here. Reggie usually ignores birds, but this time he charged. The cardinal wasn't too scared, he jumped the fence and showed us his superior profile.

For all his bravery at simply clearing the fence, Reggie lost interest and set off to tour his kingdom yard. Since Reggie had moved on, the cardinal took to being a daddy and came back into my yard and feed one of his babes up in the tree.

Mommy figured her work was finished and watched from the fence. No word on the other babies. (Click for larger views at Flickr.)

I sure wish I had a camera with a better zoom.

Spring Flowers

From a local nature center.

Reggie and Pancreatitis

Late last week Reggie got sick again with another bout of pancreatitis. It's probably my fault...I was thinking he was doing great! Silly me for thinking that way. Luckily we caught it earlier and he didn't get as sick as last time, which is great. However, the vets decided he needed to be on an IV again. Since Reg wasn't as sick, Reg didn't want to just lie around and Reg wouldn't calm down when the vets put him in a crate. After listening to him whine, cry, pace, dig, and howl for a little while, the vets decided I should take Reggie home and keep him on the IV here. Since Reggie wasn't as sick as last time, Reggie didn't want to lay in the crate here either, so keeping him still was a big challenge and at one point when I was taking him out he charged away from me yanking his IV so hard it bleed. It was not an easy time.

Thankfully, since he wasn't as sick, the IV stayed on for less than 24 hours and he was switched to oral anti-biotics. The vets are hoping that these frequent bouts of pancreatitis are because of the prednisone, which we hope to lower his dosage again late next week.

Oh, when they decide to hook Reg to an IV, they really wrap him up. Here he is in the car on our way back to the vets to have the catheter removed. They practically put his leg in a cast...a good thing I guess since he yanked it so hard.

Cardinal

A cardinal enjoying the morning in my backyard pine tree. Unfortunately, I was taking the pictures through plexiglass and a screen, so the images are a little off.



Isn't he beautiful? I wish the image below wasn't so distorted from the screen.




You can actually see the screen in the image below. Sigh, to be so close, yet so separated.

Travels with Reggie, Update

Reggie and I both are wiped out exhausted, but he's the only one smart enough to be in bed sleeping. Sigh.

A quick update. Reggie was not well this morning, so the vets changed his anti-biotic. This seemed to help. His temperature has dropped some...very good...and he looks better. His ultra sound showed an enlarged liver and pancreas, but the other organs, including the kidneys and spleen, looked good. No sign of leukemia or cancer...excellent news.

Right now the vets think Reggie has severe pancreatitis and an infection. And though he's better, he's not out of danger yet; the kidneys need to start working properly. He drank some water when we got home, which I think is a good sign. He's been sleeping ever since we got home, but I'll need to get him to go out soon.

Reggie will spend tomorrow at the vets again. This is good because tomorrow my new furnace and a/c are being installed and the house is going to get cold. My good buddy CP is coming over in the morning so I can leave the workers in the house and take Reggie to the vets. God bless her!!! Hopefully they'll be finished with the install by 5:00 PM so I can return to the vets and get Reggie before they close. I don't know what the weekend will hold for us.

Thanks for your prayers and well-wishes. Keep 'em going. (The IV bag is under a black bag because there is B12 in the fluid. Although why that means it has to be under a bag, I don't know!)

Feeding Time

Since you couldn't really get the full effect of Reggie's haircut in yesterday's picture, here's another photo. In this Reggie demonstrates his eating style: snarfing, not savoring.

Don't you wish you had a Reggie too?

Before and After

Reggie finally got groomed today. It was desperately needed, but kept getting delayed because of his health. Here's how shaggy he looked right before we left.

And here's how he looks now:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but I think they over scalped him; however, he's feeling better and it will grow. He looks nicer than the picture suggests.

Frozen Bubbles

How's this for fun: freezing bubbles and taking pictures of them. Check out these images, they're great. Thanks to Kazza for sharing this on her blog. 

A week ago I could of have frozen some bubbles...phooey, I could have done this any day this winter, except this week and two or three additional days. I'd say we're having a heat wave with temperatures in the 40s and 50s, but Australia, where Kazza lives, is having a real heat wave. We're having one of the coldest winters in years and they're having an equally hot summer. 

Enjoy the images!

Trump Glare

We had a shockingly beautiful, sunny, and warm day here in Chicagoland. It got up into the high 40s/low 50s. For the second time this winter season, over a foot of snow melted in about 24 hours. This time the temperature jump was not accompanied by rain and I haven't heard about any flooding. However, rain is in the forecast. Hopefully the ground will dry up some before the rain hits. We're tired of moisture and flooding! (Snow is forecast for late next week, so winter is not over yet.)

I went into Chicago to have lunch with a friend. We had brunch at Heaven on Seven...the original, pay-cash-only restaurant on Wabash. When we left, the sun was glaring off a building and reflecting right in our faces. It was very uncomfortable. Here's the shot...

Look at that glare and look at how far away we were! I suspect this will really bother people with windows facing that direction. Didn't the city planning committee think of that before giving permission for Trump to trump in people's faces? Yes, that's the new Trump Tower. (Click image for a bigger view, more building details, and more glare.) 

Snow Elephant

My parents took me to see an elephant today.

This is about 1.5 blocks from my parent's home. It's apparently been on the local news, but I never saw it. I wish I had seen it before it started to melt; nevertheless, it's still very impressive! I'm afraid it will be completely gone in a few days as the snow is now rapidly melting.