Thought for the day

Decisions, decisions

I am trying to decide whether it is time to get a dog again, or whether I just want to be a cat person. So I have decided to do a pros and cons list. I have been surfing the pet finder site until I almost feel like a voyeur (well, not quite). There are small decisions like big or small, male or female, mature dog or puppy, what breeds to consider, and on and on and on. It is a huge responsibility that lasts for 10-15 years. I am just so afraid that I will regret it, that I am afraid to commit. What should I do? I can't depend upon Leon to make this decision. He is way too much of a softie!!!

Pros
companionship
proven to relieve stress
more exercise and outside time for walking
fun
gives a dog a home


Cons
limits our ability to go away or travel
housetraining, letting out and how to confine to yard
cleaning up yard, dealing with hair
they are hard on carpet and furniture
cost - food, vet, etc.
will disrupt the cats

Turtles

One of the outstanding moments of our recent vacation for me was going to the Jekyll Island turtle center. It is a turtle hospital and they had approximately 6 to 7 patients when we were there. As we walked in the door, the lady that was taking tickets told us to hurry because they were doing an assessment on a new turtle that had just been brought in. So we hurried to the viewing window to watch the vet and the interns take care of this scraped up, cut up turtle. It's shell had been damaged and bleeding, although I am not sure how it happened. I didn't hear that part. I managed to get a couple of pictures as they attended to the wounds on the "carapace".






As we moved on to view some of the displays, one of the attendants told us that they were doing "rounds" in the hospital and would be talking about each patient, so we hurried into the next building where the rounds were in session. Each turtle is in a large tank, although we did see one tank with 2 turtles -they were separated by a barrier. I learned quite a bit about turtles from that session including some of the conditions that they are brought in with. A lot of them may be injured from boats or other animals. A larger number of them, however, are brought in with the debilitated turtle syndrome. Often they are found floating, because they have lost their ability to dive down, often because of air that is caught in their shell. Sometimes they are floating "crooked" and have barnacles or leeches on them .

This was our "intern"




I took a picture of one of the turtles, along with her information and am sharing it here with you. Her name is Erika and she has this floating syndrome. You may be able make out some of the diagnosis and treatmen plan in the following photo.

and here she is
After I got home from vacation, I went to the website to check to see how she was doing, but nothing was shown for her. I got pretty gutsy and emailed the vet to see why she wasn't on the web site. I received a reply back right away that they have been very busy and unable to update the patient portion of the web site. In addition he also updated me on Erika's condition and I thought I would share it. I was very impressed with the response and wanted to let everyone know what a wonderful and worthwhile venture this is. It is probably a tax deduction for donations, too (hint)

He wrote:
"Faye, We have been so busy, I just have not had time to update everyone. Erika is still floating. We did figure out that if we aspirate air to a certain level her tube feeding goes much better and she does not regurgitate. The air in her body cavity pushes on her GI tract and makes it difficult to pass the stomach tube. We are now able to increase the frequency and volume of her tube feeding and better able to meet her nutritional needs as her lung heals. I will try to get something up on her as soon as I can. Thanks so much for your interest. Terry Norton, DVM, Director and Veterinarian, GSTC "

A really weird coincidence is that I took a book along on vacation to read and it is about a sea turtle hospital. I think this may be my calling. Next step is a beach walk to check turtle nests. Wouldn't that be fun? By the way, the book is great - it is called Swimming Lessons, by Mary
Alice Monroe and is a sequel to the Beach House by Monroe. Unfortunately I couldn't get the first one, so I will be reading them out of order.

Check out the web site for the turtle center and watch for Erika. I hope he gets her on soon.

Island Time

I am sitting on the deck of my sister's condo in St. Simons Island, GA on the 5th day of my vacation. First of all, THANKS SIS!!! This is a beautiful place and we are having an absolutely wonderful time. We both needed this time away so much! The first couple of days that we were here were a bit in the "adapting" category. Trying to figure out what to see, where to go, what to eat and where, learning the directions, the lay of the land, where to put things, how to use the laundry room, etc. I was in the mind that I needed to be doing something, seeing something all the time, although I knew that this was physically impossible and really doesn't fit the definition of vacation.

Today, I am on island time. I have relaxed. I know where to go if I want to and how to get there and although our time is limited, I do still have tomorrow. I don't feel guilty reading a book, because after I do, I ride my bike down to the pier and wade in the ocean. It is wonderful. I feel settled.

Now no vacation is complete without an "injury" and there is a certain weird sort of 'pride' in a vacation injury, assuming it is minor with no real after effects or anything to slow you down. I think this pride comes from the fact that 1.) we are on vacation, so we are out of our routine and not in the day to day and 2.) at least we are doing something. So it was our second night here and we had walked down to the DQ (thank God for Dairy Queen); anyhow I digress. By the time we walked back, it was dark. I would like to say that I was skiing, skateboarding, or some other very exciting endeavor, but no; I was walking. All of a sudden I was on the ground, after having tripped over a bump in the sidewalk. I got skinned up a bit (as you can see, 2 hands, one knee). After having scrambled up onto my feet, I 'fessed up to Leon that I was being nosy and trying to figure out where some people talking was coming from (their own deck, by the way) and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. ......Orrrr I was skateboarding through the park, jumped over a tree branch trying to land back on the skateboard and fell?!? Anyhow, very minor scrapes and not a problem, but it seems to go with vacation time, right?

On vacation - St. Simons Island, GA

More to come!!! ------ having too much fun to write much!!!