Happy Birthday Val.

2? How is that possible??

Just saw this guy from some Catholic group say that gay marriage is
against the will of children, who all want one mother and one father.

Sorry pal, I'm pretty sure my kid doesn't give a rat's ass about that
and you sir, make me ashamed to be Catholic.

We can get married.

Married.

She's all Little Kid now. But, I assure you, she's funnier every damn day.

The thing on Zeus' toe was a warty mole (Molly Russel's wart, perhaps).
The nice vet who saved his life in 2004 sedated him, then hacked the
shit out of it. That was pleasant to watch.

It bled a fair bit but she got a sufficient amount of the Molly Russel's
wart off. He's now sporting a giant bandage on his leg and we're $224
poorer.

The mild sedative is apparently not mild enough to wear off quickly. We
had to carry his half-awake self out to the car.

The vet thinks this warty thing will grow back but like us, she's loathe
to put him under general anesthesia. So we'll have a repeat of
tonight's procedure if we have to in a few weeks or months.

At this point his care is such a balancing act. Happy life vs. Less
happy life with some pain vs. Life with a lot of pain interspersed with
treatments that grow harder to recover from, etc., etc., etc. We'll
walk this tightrope as long as it seems fair to the old man. Despite
his rather unique and (at times) challenging personality, he most
certainly deserves a good end of life.

I think the trick always becomes how exactly we define that on his
behalf. It's not like he'll stop eating, so the barometer rests in a
different place. I'm just not sure where that is.

In the meantime he's snoozing in the back of the car and we're headed
home so he can sleep with Patrick like he always does. That's enough
for now.

Zeus has had this little teeny tumor on his toe for quite some time.
I'd say a year or more. It's been looked at a number of times, not
grown or changed so there it stayed.

Until last week, when all of a sudden it got three times it's size and
red, red red. We almost took him in for an emergency visit but weighed
the cost/blood/trauma ratio and made an appointment instead.

We're waiting now. The waiting room is full of dogs with abcesses,
things that look like they're also about to pop open and ooze all over
the room while we all dodge the flow of blood and pus. I feel bad for
all of these poor dogs, all of whom should be at home right now.

Hell, all of us should be home right now.

At dinner, Val used her chopsticks to pick up, then eat carrots. Go,
kid, go!

Today I got a phone call from a woman who I'd adopted a dog to 6 years
ago. His name was Bailey and he was a middle-aged man when this lady
adopted him.

She called to tell me that he'd had 6 wonderful years with them and that
he'd passed away from cancer 2 weeks ago.

She cried as she told me, I understood. To this day I cannot talk about
Alice without tearing up.

It reminded me that 6 years, or 2 years with an animal you adore is a
lifetime. For all the heartache that went with doing rescue, hearing
that Bailey had a wonderful life reminds me why I did it.

It was so worth it. (But I'm in no hurry to do it again just yet). Rest
in peace sweet Bailey and of course MissAlice, who, even now I miss like
crazy.

On our recent trip to Disneyland, we learned a number of things, here
are the highlights:
-a hotel deal that's too good to be true probably is, even if the hotel
is a name brand.
-there's something seriously fucked up about an Anaheim hotel that
doesn't have cribs
-carseats can get cracked, likely from being checked on airplanes but
possibly from wheeling them through airports.
-installing cracked carseats is sometimes the best option when the other
choice is to rent one from the rental car place
-going to Disneyland with a 2 year old means riding a lot fewer rides
but it's fun in a whole new way
-saving money by flying into LAX, even if it's part of a really
great-seeming hotel/air package is not at all worth the money saved over
flying into Orange County

So, we spent a bit more money than we intended to on this trip but we
still had a great time.

The carseat people are replacing Val's seat, a new one is on the way.
We ended up putting the seat in forward-facing for the last day or so
since the crack was getting bigger. I felt a little ill but it was the
safest way to use the seat at the time so that's what we did.

At bedtime now, Val asks where Goofy is. Don't even try to tell me
she's too young for Disney parks!