east asheville pet care

east asheville may not have the bustle, buskers, award winning dining, and hippie vibe of downtown, or the creative grit and cat head biscuits of west asheville, or the gingerbread craftsmen and prestige of north asheville, but it DOES have a fantastic vet and a wonderful petsitter!  don't call it least asheville!

having had a string terrible, awful, no good experiences at the crystal palace of doggy dental care in north asheville, we were thrilled to try a new vet when we moved the the east side 2.5 years ago.

redwood animal hospital is a freakin godsend. it's like stepping back in time 30 years - picture the anti-banfield - they even have a counter cat - big fluffy black cat named Buddha. the vets are smart and kind-hearted and get on the floor with the dogs and really, really seem to like them. the vet techs are so friendly and knowledgeable and just sweet and kind with the animals. the prices are unbelievably low. i mean like half what they charged in north asheville. for better, more personalized attention. they are not open past 5 or on weekends, but we have had a few emergencies and they had no trouble fitting us in during the day. when nacho's kidneys failed they were so patient and kind and compassionate, walking us through the terrible process with the minimum of stress. the vet tech hugged me.  they always consider cost and do not make you feel like a heartless ogre for doing so. dr. elledge and dr. reason are both smart and have huge hearts. we love going to this vet!

here's a link to redwood animal hospital.

the BEST dogsitter we have ever had is rhonda turpin at sit, stay, bark & play. she is also a dog behavior expert and trainer, so unlike previous dogsitters, she really can handle the energy of 3 big dogs at once. she posts videos of the pups playing while we are gone!  she leaves detailed funny notes about what they were doing. she is extremely flexible and even came over 3 times a day when we had to leave sugarhoney in her crate overnight. she has completely relieved us of worry about the dogs when we travel. she covers the east asheville - black mountain area, and is just wonderful to work with.

here's a link to sit, stay, bark & play.

here's a video rhonda took of sugarhoney stealing the tennis ball.

so, you see, there may not be a music venue or an arts district, but east asheville is not a bad place to raise some dogs. 

sugarhoney agrees.

daily sugarhoney: sugarheadrest

the love affair between sugarhoney and pouncey seems to get stronger every day.

 

we're pretty sure she came home with kennel cough, and has passed it on to pouncey via all their making out. kind of like doggie mono.

the internet says it's very common, not dangerous, and can last 3 weeks. they are acting fine, but pouncey is coughing. 

the price of love.

daily sugarhoney: sugarshots

sugarhoney passed her first checkup this morning with flying colors.

she got two big shots in her scruff and did not even flinch.

she weighs 16 lbs.

she met two giant pit bulls who really wanted to play with her in the waiting room and was calm and cool as a cucumber.

she is the mellowest, laziest puppy i could ever imagine.

nachos on steroids

took nacho for a rabies shot and asked about some supposedly miraculous allergy medicine for dogs that would cost more than groceries and the good doctor gave us some info and gave nacho a steroid shot and he is 98% better.  it should last a month.

the only problem is now he looks like this 

nachodoggy!

where my oil pullers at?

just kidding, i don't think that anybody who reads here is an oil puller. but you never know!

i first heard of this practice - oil pulling - a few years ago on a facebook for hippies site called "tribe," where a lot of alternative thinkers would post questions and solutions, most with a decidedly natural bent.  i was looking for carcinogen-free toothpaste recommendations and saw a post about oil pulling. it was interesting but i did not try it.

fast forward to last fall when i was becoming aware of the wonders of coconut oil. i was fighting a cold and there was a recommendation i saw online for mixing coconut oil with eucalyptus oil and putting it on the bottom of your feet to clear sinuses. it seemed like a better (less malodorous) idea than the bowls of chopped onions i put around the house last year. the same thread mentioned oil pulling. several commenters chimed in with anecdotes of oil pulling easing everything from tooth decay to rheumatoid arthritis - head colds, blood sugar stability, cramps, asthma, back pain, skin problems, the works.

i bought a jar of unrefined cold pressed virgin coconut oil and was happy with how it plus eucalyptus helped my cold. 

i figured the ancient Ayurvedic practice of oil pulling might be worth a shot.

basically you put a tablespoonful of oil (unrefined coconut or sesame seem to be the most popular) in your mouth and swish it around for 10-20 minutes, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.  i floss my teeth beforehand so the space between my teeth is bigger. after swishing through your teeth, you spit it out in a jar or trash can *NOT DOWN THE DRAIN* and rinse with warm salt water and then brush your teeth as usual.

it supposedly works like an intense mouth wash - the coconut oil is anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and it collects all your mouth germs and then you spit them out.

bonus is the lovely trippy layered tiers of half solidified - half liquid coconut oil collected in the jar!

i have been doing this for 2 months now. i can report my mouth feels terrific! i cannot attest to any other health improvements at this point, though i usually have a sore throat/ear pain at least every other week in the winter, and i have not had a hint of either since starting.  considering i spend many hours per week in the germ nest of thrift stores, and we went on a floating petri dish carnival cruise, i am pretty happy.

it seems that western science has proven oil pulling to have a positive effect on oral health, though the other hundreds of benefits have not yet been verified scientifically. i have a baby tooth - a molar that doesn't have an adult molar to push it out - and i would like to keep this baby tooth as long as possible before i need an implant. i am hoping oil pulling will at least help in this endeavor.

i will keep you all updated on this riveting oil pulling journey. i have my 6 month dentist appointment in april and i am interested to see if the hygienist can tell a difference.

at the bare minimum, it serves as a kind of meditation. for 20 minutes every day i am not talking.


as an aside: how great is talenti gelato and sorbetto? the mango is out of this world!

fly foot blood foot

it's been an eventful time for the doggies over here.



last week, pouncey was caught like a striped bass by a fly fishing hook in the ankle. he pounced across the river at the wrong time. the hook went through in two spots and i held him down while kevin removed it with pliers. pouncey did not growl or snarl for even one second. he squirmed and whimpered a little but for the most part laid still.



a couple days later the dogs came up from the river and there were bloody pawprints all over the house and deck. (which came right up with white vinegar). pouncey had somehow sliced his back paw open and was gushing profusely, every step he took. we gave him a rawhide chewy and some pain medicine/sedative and kept him in his crate for a day until it scabbed over. 

his spirits were not diminished by either of these events.

in great news, nacho has stopped chewing, scratching, and licking! it's like a switch turned off this week. it also coincides with the grass mold level dipping from 'extreme' down to 'moderate' for the first time in months. here he is on his first hike since spring. he galloped and pranced around the fields like a puppy!

*****

behold a new video from guadalajara joe - in which he impersonates freddie mercury. this is *NOT [edit] somehow an attempt to prevent borat from playing mercury in a movie. so yeah!

* Borat is already not playing mercury, this is an attempt to have guadalajara joe play mercury, as queen searches for the right actor.  so yeah!


 

nachos has issues

poor little nachodoggy.

he has allergies.

he has had allergies off and on since we moved from california to north carolina. for a few weeks in the spring, summer, and fall, he licks at his legs to the point that he bites the fur off and he's left with open sores. the vet calls them 'hotspots.'

after reading "some of my best friends are germs" in the new york times last month, i am wondering if he just does not have the microbes needed to deal with southeastern allergens, since he was born and raised in the desert of southern california.

last year the vet prescribed antihistamines which i gave him 2x/day for 2 weeks and did nothing at all whatsoever to relieve his itching.

allergies are the single greatest cause of vet visits in the US. he could be allergic anything - though grass is what i suspect. it could be cleaning products, leather, plastic, wool, carpets, corn, wheat, anything. 

it was so bad last week, he was scratching and licking and biting himself 23 hours a day. he wasn't sleeping. nobody in the house was sleeping. he is not quiet when he is scratching. he slams his feet into the floor. he whimpers. he pants. it's really sad. i tried to empathize and i imagine it feels like poison ivy, but worse, because he doesn't know that itching it spreads it. it got to the point i was thinking his misery was so great the kind thing would be to put him to sleep.

but instead of euthanasia, nacho has been getting oatmeal baths! for humans. the same oatmeal baths that helped my poison ivy. i mix the oatmeal and hot water in a bowl and then dump the bowl into a kiddie pool outside full of cold water. every day, nacho takes an oatmeal bath in a kiddie pool in the driveway.  he loves it.

kevin found this stuff online called dermapaw and figured it's worth a shot. it's all natural and soothing - it looks like a little jar of vaseline. i put it all over nacho's legs and belly at bedtime. and then - the best part - nacho wears socks!

every morning the socks are off, but still - it's pretty cute while it lasts!

i would say his itching has been relieved drastically by these two treatments. after 3 days, it was down about 50%. Today (5 days) it is down about 75%, if not more.  he seems so much more comfortable.

thank you aveeno oatmeal baths and dermapaw!

side note: the title of this is "nachos has issues." this is what kevin's 4 year old niece told us when we were talking about how nacho used to be afraid of small children. she obviously was repeating what somebody had told her, and it was hilarious. the same niece also looked at pouncey and said 'pouncey has a penis.' to which her father responded, 'pouncey DOES have a penis.' kevin & i have adopted both of these phrases - nachos has issues, and pouncey has a penis - into the vernacular. thank you unintentionally hilarious toddlers!

having a stroke? call 911!

kevin's parents came for memorial day and among the great discussions that we had, they shared some advice they'd recently heard from a prominent neurosurgeon in tallahassee.

if you think you (or somebody else) are having a stroke, call 911! do not try to drive yourself to the emergency room.

it will take hours for you to be processed correctly through the system, for the neurologist to arrive, for help.

'time is brain' - the longer it takes, the less recovery.

if you call 911, an ambulance will be set up to help you and you'll be whisked right in once you get to the hospital.

call 911!

the warning signs for a stroke are: F.A.S.T.

• FACE: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop? 
• ARMS: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward? 
• SPEECH: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange? 
• TIME: If you observe any of these signs, call 9-1-1 immediately.

they also said that an absurd percentage of people who have a stroke/heart attack reports 'steak' as a meal in the previous day.

time flies...

...when you're taking oatmeal baths every 3 hours! 

my case of poison ivy is definitely on its way out the door.

as somebody who doesn't like to take baths, this whole oatmeal bath thing has been a real eye-opener. they work!  i feel like a blueberry floating in a bowl of cream of wheat, but they work!

they have me in good enough shape to avoid steriods and still enjoy today! the weather is lovely, i plan on working this morning, going for an afternoon hike with pounceters, going to dinner downtown, and then going to see dawes and bob dylan at the civic center tonight with calvin my love, and my two best girlfriends lindsay and michelle!

if you're lucky and you know it, clap your hands! (clap clap)

poison ivy

i am covered in poison ivy. all over my torso. ALL OVER my torso. itchy blisters. increasing intensity. appeared on monday, they are still getting worse 4 days later.

spent a half hour pulling weeds last weekend and will now spend the next 2 weeks in pure unadulterated urushiol hell.

the first time in my life i got poison ivy was last year after doing yard work. i've hiked and camped all over in and out of the woods for 36 years in shorts and short sleeves and never got poison ivy a single time. as soon as yard work entered the picture last year i've been plagued to some degree.

 i am politely recusing myself from doing any yardwork for the rest of my life.

i will plant food in the garden, and tend to the plants, but i am never pulling weeds again. chopping down unspecified jungle growth is not happening again. absolutely is not worth it.

i love doing yard work. i love making the yard look nice. i love watching the progress. i love how immediate the gratification is.

i cannot live 6 months of every year in itchy pain.

i have a friend tyler in california who told me a few years ago he could not move to asheville because of the poison ivy. at the time i thought he was kind of nutty. now i understand. all this beautiful bountiful natural wonder with hidden shiny red blistering biting side effects.

kevin is calling me 'bubble boy' and i feel like a whining, complaining wuss, but god DAMN this shit is terrible.

any poison ivy cures, natural or unnatural, lay em on me. i would much rather the rash hurt than itch. i can handle pain, it's the itchiness that is waking me up at night and generally driving me batty. 2+ weeks is a long harsh payment for 30 minutes of yard work.

this is fuzzy

i was cleaning my only pair of glasses yesterday and they snapped in half. 

no combination of pipe cleaners, twist ties, scotch tape, and/or medical tape could get them back together again.

i called the eye doctor where i had been only one time in september of 2010 for these glasses, and they had no open appointments all week, but were so kind as to come in and open the store 15 minutes early for me this morning. how nice is that!?

they did the whole eye exam at 815AM, everything is fine, and i picked out new glasses, and also prescription sunglasses for the first time.  they put a rush on the glasses which should be ready tomorrow. 

until then, everything's slightly hazy, computing is giving me a headache, and i can't see the wrinkles on faces.

i recommend envision eyecare on charlotte street. flexible friendly people, great choice of frames!

pouncey's darkest hour

this is the last photo of pouncey's gonads.

i called the vet to check on him an 2 hours after he got out of surgery and the receptionist was like "oh yeah he's doin fine, he's back there jumpin all over the place..." so that's good?

they used some kind of medical super glue instead of stitches because he is so bouncy the stitches would not have lasted 1 day. 

he should make a full recovery.  sorry little buddy.

he is also missing 3/4 of his baby seal whiskers. we had a yard fire going this weekend to get rid of dead branches and pouncey chased a tennis ball face first into a fire. i googled it and his whiskers will grow back.