Try, Try Again

Believe it or not, we still couldn't spay Bailey yesterday. Her "false pregnancy" has subsided considerably, but there's still some evidence of lactation. "It's almost gone," the vet said. She proposed that we wait one more week.

Apparently this really is a big deal, because dogs that are spayed in the midst of a false pregnancy can basically stay that way -- and that means not only that they're permanently awash in unnecessary hormones and wasting physical energy to make milk for puppies that don't exist, but that they're more cranky and aggressive. Lord knows we don't need a more aggressive Bailey. (In fact, some of her aggressiveness may be explained by this condition, I think -- perhaps this is why she's been calming down as the false pregnancy is subsiding.)

Anyway, if you're really interested, here's an article about it. I've Googled and read and it appears the vets are not making this up. (Not that I believed they were, but...well, being an ex-reporter, I like to verify.)

For those of you keeping count, this was actually the fourth time we tried to spay her. Next Monday, which God willing will be the final spaying appointment, will be the fifth.

After that little adventure we took a walk, since I gave her dog-walker Josh the day off. We walked up the Black Path beside the railroad tracks, where I found this curious sticker stuck to a lamppost. Another random face and apparently not a famous one, according to Google. I suspect people make little stickers like this of their friends' faces and slap them up around town for their birthday or some other celebration.

This is not a very encouraging sign, posted beneath a scaffold where building work is taking place! I've never seen a warning like this before. Seems to me if anything falls from that scaffold it's due to someone's negligence. It's probably a lawyer thing -- this way, if anything does fall and hit someone, the construction company can say in court, "Well, we warned them!"

Anyway, I spent the rest of the morning at home, mostly reading, and then in the afternoon took Bailey to the cemetery for her long walk of the day.

The butterfly area, which is full of tall wildflowers (mostly thistles) during the summer, has been shorn to the ground.

This morning I'm off to the dermatologist to have that spot on my lower lip evaluated. Hopefully I won't require a lip-ectomy.