Good news

Heard from the vet today. Arrow's biopsy came back, and the bump on her neck turns out to be nothing bad, an epidermal inclusion cyst. Dr. S said all the walls came out clean, so it shouldn't recur. Of course, it cost about $300 and four stitches to find out! Arrow's been wearing daddy's old socks on her left hind foot (here she sports a casual tan), to prevent her scratching the stitches off. It's healing up a lot more nicely than the incision from her last surgery.

The day we brought her home from surgery, we found a new bump on her shoulder; go figure! It resembles the one just removed so I suspect it's the same or similar. We'll have it looked at on Monday when her stitches come out. Also, the fine needle aspirate of her foot showed nothing (vet was looking for bone cancer), which means her broken toe is just a broken toe! Another 3 miserable weeks of inactivity before she can be x-rayed again.

In other news, I spent the day serging up standards for the children's ministry's new Narnia set... Sylvia dropped off the last of the fabric a little while ago, so I'll finish up in the morning.

Tech Toys

Trying out a new piece of software: ecto. It's a blogging tool that allows me to compose offline and then publish. I found it while checking out Blogger's third-party apps page (in search of an answer to why Audioblogger is down, and a possible replacement). Ping-pong... I've been wondering how best to back-up the extensive amounts of info recorded in my sewing blog and insights published in my "deep thoughts" blog. Voila--ecto automatically retrieved all my past posts and they are now on the relative safety of my local drive. A nice bonus is that it works with both Blogger and LiveJournal, so I can do everything in one place (and even cross-post with the click of a drop-down menu!). The documentation leaves a little to be desired, but so far, so good! It will even insert my currently playing music from iTunes (Good Times from the album "11 Attempts - Roughs" by Ron Irizarry).

I've also added a "subscribe me" form (courtesy of Feedblitz), for folks who want to get an email notification when I add a new post, to my main blog, Sojourn. If I decide to keep it, I'll add it to all my Blogger blogs (LiveJournal already does something like this via "Friends").

The bottom line, really, is that I enjoy playing with new toys... ;)

Our dog, the contortionist

Our dog, the contortionist
Originally uploaded by audreytoo.

Poor Arrow is on several more weeks of crate rest for her broken toe. This was just too funny not to photograph. It's amazing the positions she finds comfortable!

The Rescue of Pattertwig

We found this baby squirrel (actually, Arrow found him) holed up in the carport between the trash cans and fence. It was pretty far from the nearest tree or bushes, so we figured he must have got away from his nest and gotten lost. Funny thing is, Scott pointed out that he hasn't seen any nests since Hurricane Charlie stripped our four big oak trees. In fact, once I started paying attention, I didn't see another squirrel all day.

When we moved the trash cans, he scrambled so frantically that he twisted with two feet on the ground and two in the air! He wouldn't run off, just kept trying to find cover without going anywhere. He was pretty frightened and let out quite a squeal when we picked him up. He didn't look injured, so we decided to relocate him to a more squirrel-friendly spot.

(I'm reading Prince Caspian right now, so I called him Pattertwig.)

We moved Pattertwig into the bushes near the big oak by the canal. He'd be in the shade and could set out in any direction if he chose. He clung to a branch and didn't leave that spot for several hours. Once when I checked on him he stuck his head out of hiding to peer at me; but the next time when I pushed a little food in his direction, he ducked and growled a tiny, feisty little growl. I hoped that meant he was feeling more active. Scott was sure he would stay there and die, but by 7PM he was gone. I hope he's found some family and not been carried off by a predator!

In other news, we had a very productive day finishing the bottle blue paint job in our office...