update-o-rama

For your reading pleasure, tonight I give you follow-ups to previous posts.
In chapters no less ;-)
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Mommy Demerits (aka Let's Leave The Diagnosing To The Professionals)

So, MyFavoriteKid's recent outbreak of poison oak? Wrong!! It aint poison oak at all! It's a HEAT RASH. Not a bad thing, really. Much easier to contend with than poison oak. Except for the fact that the treatment for poison oak is exactly the way you do NOT treat a heat rash.

Let's see. I've been applying topical ointments, MyFK has been taking long warm to hot showers, and I've even gone so far as recommending long sleeves just to keep him from scratching. Heat Rash treatment? Cool water, cool clothing, and no smothering of the pores with ointments.
Lovely.
Well, at least we are on track.
I think MyFK and his buddies had actually spent more time in the hot tub than any of us were aware of that night at the potluck party. Oops.
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Riley Actually DOES Need The Dog Whisperer

So after I posted the dog factoids, a couple of folks commented on Riley needing the Dog Whisperer. Dudes, if you only knew.

I don't think I wrote about this event when it actually took place, but I think it was in April or May.

TheMostImportantGuy and I took Riley to the local dog park one weekend afternoon. While we were there, we were attacked by another dog. It was a female pit bull who I'd seen there before and not had trouble with. TheMIG and I were standing in the middle of the park (having just entered but a few minutes earlier), but the pit came over to say hello and was really getting up under my crutches. Not a good sign.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next, but TheMIG was lightly bitten (no puncture) on the hand (hmmm...a theme?), and myself and Riley were jumped on, pretty hard. The owner came and pulled his dog off, and being that it is an enormous park, we all separated to opposite sides of the park. We watched the pit in the distance playing and whatnot, but then the pit finally spotted us and she came right on over and attacked again. I got some pretty deep bruises scratches on my arm. Meanwhile, the poor dog. Well, Riley just went nutzo trying to protect us. Very protective/agressive, but fearful, with the teeth bared and Cujo sort of growling. We left the park, as this guy clearly was not going to leave himself. As we were exiting, some other regulars checked in with us and told us the pit had attacked someone else earlier, too....and from the parking lot, as we were getting into our car, his dog was at it again attacking someone else!

For the record: I have not a thing against pit bulls. I have been the owner of pit mixes, and I love them. I'm not even against this pitbull. I'd met her before and she seemed like a sweetie, and she might even be a sweetie the next time I see her. Personally, I think she was just having a really bad day. That, and I think the owner is friggin' putz for not getting his dog out of there after her first episode that day.

Anyhow. Dog Whisperer. So my dog Riley? He's not been the same since. Every time I take him to the dog park, he spends all his energy making sure he gets between me and any other dog that wants to come by and just say hello. He doesn't play much with other dogs anymore, and although he will go off sniffing around, he is always looking back to see if there are any dogs near me (and if they are, he dashes back to my side). In other words, he no longer has much fun at the park. It is sad.

So between the dog getting mopey over the SPCA commercials on television, and this dogpark crap, y'all actually had me thumbing through two of the Dog Whisperer Guy's books the other day while I was at the bookstore. I have some ideas I will try to apply ;-)
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Off The Back (A Tour de Fleece/Le Tour Update)

I've been meaning to cop to this for days, but I blew off the Tour de Fleece just after the first week. What a rookie.

We went on our little trip to Monterey. I brought along spinning tools and fiber, but it never made it out of the bag. Fell "off the back," so to speak. Then I got home and tried to get back into the swing of things but "crashed" with an injury to my right arm. It's feeling fine now, but I couldn't even knit for a couple of days there, it hurst so badly.

One really neat aside to this Tour de Fleece business, though. This is the first year for me that I have actually watched every single stage of the actual tour! Even when we were on our mini-vacation, I recorded the day we missed and caught right back up when I got home. I am loving it. I usually only catch a stage or two, but this year I have been committed to it, I have watched every day, and I am having a blast.

So much so, that when the Tour of California comes around next year? I might just follow it around a little bit in my van. Park on the side of the road, have a picnic, and wait for them to whiz by. Whee!
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Alrighty, that caught me up.

As usual, my comments back to your comments are IN the comments. ;-)