Lucy had been in pretty good spirits since her surgery last Monday, until today. She had been playful and very, very loving over the past week and was walking a bit on her cast, but today she was hopping around was hiding from me like a hurt dog (under the bushes in the back yard when I took her out to pee, under the dining table, etc). She wasn’t snapping at me or growling, but she was obviously not feeling well. I inspected the bandage/splint and noticed her toes had swelled up pretty large, so I called the surgical center and they told me to bring her down. A few hours later she has a new bandage and a new attitude, and hopefully I can keep her quiet enough to prevent the bandage from shifting again (which is what was constricting her toes today).

Lucy had surgery last Monday to help correct her “leg posture” so she would not continue to roll and slap the foot down which creates an ulcer on the bottom of the foot. The ulcer grew larger and consumed part of the large pad on the foot, and because she still cannot feel the bottom of the foot it only gets worse with every passing day. Once an infection set in we had to make a decision about how to move forward with her medical care: surgery or amputation.

Operation Expensive Dog is comprised of at least two steps:

1. Arthrodesis surgery (competed). This surgery fuses the bones of the ankle into a more upright posture, with a little bit of “pigeon toe” thrown in, to prevent the rolling and slapping of the foot when Lucy walks. There’s a titanium plate screwed to the bones to hold the leg in the correct posture and facilitate the fusion. Healing time is approximately six to eight weeks.

2. Skin graft. About two weeks after the first surgery is deemed successful, Lucy will go back for tissue grafting. The surgeon will take cartilage from the ancillary pads on each front leg (the pads that don’t touch the ground) and graft the tissue into the area where the large pad has worn away. Hopefully it will only take one surgery but if the ulcer has not healed enough there may be a second graft required.

Lucy will have an “altered gait” for the rest of her life, but she already had a funky gait anyway because of the way her leg moved. I’ve been told she will be able to run and jump and do all the things normal dogs do, but we’ll have to always take extra care of the foot since she won’t ever regrow the nerve endings that allow her to feel what’s under foot. Lucy definitely will wear her hiking booties when we’re out in the wilderness, and that’s okay with me.

The difficult thing about all this medical work (beyond the incredibly high costs) is that she needs to be “quiet” for the next three or four months. Try telling an 18-month-old Labrador Retriever mix to be quiet! We’ve already had some issue with her jumping on and off furniture and the bed, all of which is forbidden by the doctors. She could displace the plate or cause the bones to not properly fuse together, and I’m really not ready for the alternative.

Lucy has been in good spirits today and even has her appetite back. She wants to play! now! Oooh, look a squirrel! I’ve stacked objects on her favorite chairs and ottoman to keep her from perching on them to look out the windows, and closed the bedroom door to keep her off of the bed, but she still finds ways to get into trouble. Clearly this is going to be more difficult for me than for her.

Fabi is staying with Mike and Antoinette and Emily until tomorrow, but when she returns I know I will have to watch them both like a hawk to keep them from playing and wrestling in their normal fashion. Perhaps I can call our vet and see if she will prescribe some sedatives for both of them.

Lucy’s foot has not improved over the past few months. We had a follow-up appointment with the vet and the ulcer had become infected again, so it’s another round of antibiotics. We’re also going to see a specialist to see if they have any ideas for helping heal the tissue on the bottom of her foot. My vet is not very optimistic, however, and there is a high probability that we’ll have to amputate the leg to avoid a massive raging infection.

It’s not been a very happy day here.

They lied. My wait time was a little over 90 minutes, but the best was yet to come.


Colorado has a convoluted DMV/license plate system. Perhaps other states do, too, but ours is pretty messed up. Add to that system the current economic problems that result in reduced services and staff, and here is what you get:

When I sold my Audi (trade-in) somehow the new owner received a copy of my registration for the vehicle. This allowed the new owner/somebody to register my vehicle plates in their name. This is not supposed to be possible (as I was told repeatedly today) since vehicle plates are assigned to a person, not a specific vehicle. The really amazing part is how the plates were assigned to somebody else while they were in my possession. Everything I was told today says you can’t transfer them to another party without physical possession of the plates.

After about an hour of checking with supervisors, updating my records and phoning the other Denver DMV branch offices, the clerk “thinks” she has it all sorted out. Hopefully I won’t ever be stopped by the police and find out otherwise. The critical part of getting the plate snafu sorted was that I have a half-year of paid “credit” on those plates and I wanted to apply that amount to my new vehicle registration fee.

I felt a little badly that my turn at the window was taking so long. I could feel the eyes of the 100+ people waiting their turns burning a hole into my back. It would have helped if Denver DMV had more than 3 of the 10 windows running…

Two and a half hours and net $344 later, I walked out of the DMV with the same plates with which I entered. There’s no telling if they’re really “my” plates or not.

I recently came across this “vintage” footage of Fabi playing with a very young Emily at Mike’s house. (Also starring a younger Mike)

I took the doggies out o the North Platte river near Deckers, CO, for the first official swim of 2010. Lucy didn’t do any swimming last year due to her leg injury so I was curious to see how quickly she would take to the water.

After wading in a few times she finally got caught in the current and swam enough to get back to shore. After that she repeatedly waded out to the deeper water and drifted downstream with the current, and even went out in the river alone a few times.

Thirty minutes later it dawned on me I had not heard them barking at each other or running in and out of the doggy door so I went to check on them. They enjoy laying in the grass in the back yard on nice afternoons so I was a little surprised when I did not see either of them from the back windows. I went down the steps to the back door and I suddenly realized I left the gate open while doing yard work and it was wide open. The dogs had escaped!

I ran around to the front yard and expected to see the worst (Lucy hit by a car after chasing a squirrel across the street) or at least have to drive around the neighborhood looking for the girls. Instead, I found them laying in the grass in the front yard watching cars drive past the house and generally being awesome doggies. I guess they either decided they love me enough to stay or they didn’t feel like getting jobs to pay for food. Either way, I’m glad they stuck around.

I am forty years old and today was the first time I have ever dialed the emergency 911 number.

I was driving home from my office in Colorado Springs as the rain and snow were coming down. As I approached Monument from the south, a bright light suddenly lit the foggy, rainy gloom. At first I thought somebody was shining a spotlight directly at me but I slowly realized an electrical transformer on the side of the freeway had exploded. As I headed towards the slowly diminishing chemical glare I saw a power line that crossed the roadway drop in front of me as sparks began flying on the other side of the road. There was no time to slow down or stop since I was driving at least 75 MPH and the traffic was heavy — a sudden stop would have created a fifty-car pileup during rush hour. I sped up and drove over the power line and… nothing happened. At least, nothing happened until I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the power line burst into flames and shoot sparks onto the cars directly behind me. Whew!

I quickly called 911 and reported the issue. By the time I was driving through Monument I could see a fire engine crew heading out towards the scene of the issue. Hopefully no one else attempted to drive over the power line, although knowing how incredibly stupid people are these days I am sure many did.

So having performed my civic duty today I was interested to see if any of the local media had picked up the story and perhaps could shed some light on the cause of the explosion. CBS4 mentioned the road closure during their 6 PM newscast but had no details other than the “road is closed.” I checked the Colorado Springs Gazette and realized the reason that traditional print media is dying is because they don’t give a shit anymore. The Gazette didn’t even bother to cover the story themselves, instead handing it off to the Denver Post. Read the linked article and tell me if it is informational in any useful way. How did the power line fall on the roadway? Was it an accident or domestic terrorism? When did the roadway close, and were there any vehicle accidents or injuries?

I think it would be more reliable and accurate to get my news from a blind wombat.

UPDATE: I see the DP updated the story with a slight bit of info regarding accidents, but which “officials” did they ask for the cause of the issue? The officials I spoke to were the CSP 911 Dispatch officer and the El Paso county sheriff’s office when I called it in.

Looks like Conan’s back from vacation — on Twitter. He’s starting out with style by uploading an icon featuring a chimp.

@conanobrien