Merry Christmas 2007/Happy New Year 2008

We spent Christmas in the Ozarks. Grady and CornyT and I rented a cabin and spent four days getting away from it all. The trip was ideal. When we weren't snuggled down by the fire sipping hot chocolate with Irish cream, we were taking the dog for hikes in the mountains. Rarely do things turn out as well as you hope but this little retreat in our charming mountain cabin could not have gone better. I also was pleasantly surprised by the book I brought. At first, I wasn't so sure about the book club choice, Suite Francaise, but two chapters in I was completely hooked. I finished soon after we got back from Arkansas and it was my 16th book 2007 and I think it might have been my favorite. All and all I really loved her keen sense of character and her ability to shows all sides of a very complicated historical event.

Itchy but not mangy

I read recently that Austin was ranked as one of the worst cities for allergies. I never new what a scratchy throat and watery eyes felt like until I spent a couple of years in the Texas capital. In fact, the first year I was afflicted I was convinced I had a bad cold. It wasn't until the following year when I had the exact same symptoms that it occurred to me that it was the infamous "cedar fever". Well turns out that our canine pals also suffer more acutely in Austin and as I learned today my breed of choice, Golden Retrievers are even more at risk for skin allergies. Poor Grady. Looks like we are going to have to take him to a doggie allergist and have his skin tested. We did get some good news from the vet: the mange that the puppy had was Demodectic mange, the non-contagious type. Yay. I also decided that I am definitely switching to this vet full time now and will take Grady and Livia to him for now on. He was personable, seemed knowledgeable, and didn't charge me for the visit because he just referred us to a specialist. He did give me some FREE prednisone and a little topical spray for the red patches. Wish I had found this guy 7 months ago. While we were waiting in seclusion (you say mange and you get your private waiting area) I read a chart explaining the age rate in cats. It's not quite the even 7 human years like it is for dogs, and according to this chart Livia's 7 years is actually 51 cat years old. Oh and I found it amusing when I told the vet that we were the first foster parents for the puppy now known as Xena he said " that puppy is quite a handfull isn't she". ha ha it was nice to hear someone agree with us and we weren't just being hard on her.