Histopathology Report

The doctor called today with the histopathology report. Hooper's tumor was a benign sebaceous gland tumor. He feels he removed all of the affected tissue but wants us to come back in six weeks for a check. Ugh. Another trek to Seattle. The mild swelling under her eye is much better already. I think the dew claw hurts her more than the eye. We found the nail on the floor. The whole thing came off and looks like a tiny ram's horn.

We're eating lots of home grown greens now. Tomatoes are forming and I expect we'll be scrambling to find ways to preserve them.

Surgery for Hooper

We spent the day at the Woodland Park Zoo while Hooper's eyelid mass was removed. The procedure went as expected and Hooper is doing well, except she ripped a dew claw entirely off last night. I found blood on the floor this morning and feared it came from her eye until I saw the raw toe on her leg. Poor thing. Anyway, we're having the eyelid mass sent in for histology testing. If it is cancerous and the mass comes back as quickly as it was growing before we'll have to decide if we want her to undergo more radical treatment which would entail surgically removing part of the lower eyelid. 

Left eye just hours after procedure

The orangutans at the zoo were wrapping themselves in burlap bags or hiding in boxes. This guy looks pretty comfortable.

Gardens

Bob put my ceramic fish on the concrete greenhouse foundation on either side of the door. I like the gladiolus leaves growing in front of them. It looks a little like seaweed.

Blueberries! They're starting to ripen on the Chandler bush so I'm trying out a wrap of wedding fabric to keep birds off. A Towhee has been hanging out in the raspberries already but it looks like there will be plenty of those to share. I won't be so generous with the blueberries.

Hundreds of bumble bees have been pollinating the raspberries. The buzzing is impressively loud if you dare walk amongst them. While they seem docile enough now, the females are able to sting multiple times so I try to keep my distance. If anyone gets stung (by bees or mosquitoes or wasps) it will be me. 

I wanted pictures of the bumblers to help with identification of species but the wind and their flighty behavior is making it difficult. I took pictures at the Ceanothus on the protected side of the house but it looks like we have honey bees there. Oh well.

Neighbors

Tux finds a reason to hang out in the yard.

Dog Diaries: Hooper / The Gardens

Hoop's nasty eyelid tumor is bigger and is bleeding. She's going to an eye specialist in Seattle on the 28th and they will do the removal that day if needed. The procedure doesn't require a general anesthetic so she can come home in the afternoon and won't even need to wear an Elizabethan collar. Not that she'd wear it anyway. I just hope we can get through the next ten days. I wonder what we can do in Seattle all day?

Happenings in the garden

We took a trip down to the Whitney Rhododendron Gardens in Brinnon and picked up a few new rhodies for the space under the bedroom window. The gardens were amazing even though we were past the peak of the bloom period. I picked up a Trillium and creeping dogwood for the shade bed as well. I love my shade gardens and can't resist adding something new.

The tomatoes are moving right along and we're harvesting lettuce and carrots now. There are lots of salads being made. The peppers might grow soon if we have a good run of warm weather. This morning I was working up a sweat in the sun but by two o'clock clouds and fog rolled in to drive the temperature down a good ten degrees. We were shivering by the time we took the dogs for a walk. If it brings rain that will be good, but so far nothing.

Small Bonica continues to bloom

Clematis, filipendula and small New Dawn climbing rose

More rhodies, Unique and Unique Marmalade

Yellow rose showing off

Shade garden taking shape 

Trillium

Green tomatoes already 

Dog Diaries - Hoop Update

No parasites noted in the fecal test. No explanation for the slightly elevated white blood cells. Mosquito or insect bite possibly. Something on the skin. Nothing to worry about.

The thing in her eye is getting really gnarly though. It no longer tucks nicely into the lower eyelid, but hangs out, a dark red mass. For a while it looked massive. That was all I saw when I looked at her. I'm getting used to it now. Maybe it will dry out and fall off. Could we be so lucky? Poor old girl. I still love her, ugly red tumor and all.

U-Haul Sucks - Updated

May 15, 2015 Update:

After a flurry of letter writing and online complaints the unauthorized charges issue seems to be resolved. To their credit, U-Haul made good on their agreement with us, even reimbursing us for meals which we hadn't bothered to pursue after the move was completed. Several managers contacted us but the Vegas regional manager stands out for her efforts, keeping us informed and following up to make sure we were satisfied. U-Haul ended up dealing with LaQuinta over the charges, resolving whatever the issue there was, and the manager of LaQuinta reimbursed the charges to our card.

I'm very relieved this ended quickly and we can move on.

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Guess I get to add my voice to the zillions of complaints about U-Haul after all, and here I was feeling pretty good about the company after our disastrous cross country move.
Greater detail of the events of this ill-fated trip is here in a different post, but to recap: The 17 foot truck we rented at a dealer in Arizona broke down in the middle of nowhere in northern Nevada and it took two days for the U-Haul-hired mechanic to determine it couldn't be repaired.
U-Haul arranged for us to stay at LaQuinta in Twin Falls, Idaho, for two nights and finally found another truck and movers to transload our stuff to get us back on the road. Despite having been given a dangerously poorly maintained vehicle for a long journey we were happy to finally make it safely to our destination, return their equipment and close the door on this episode.
Almost two months later, all that forgotten and in the past, we get charges for almost $200 from LaQuinta for those two nights U-Haul set us up. Apparently U-Haul hasn't paid the bill and LaQuinta wants to collect from us and, I suppose, let us deal with the hassle of collecting from U-Haul.
U-Haul has some kind of agreement with LaQuinta for these situations so we didn't have any option on where we could stay. U-Haul called the hotel, acquired the room on through their business arrangement, assured us they were covering expenses for the room, then didn't pay the bill. Now their business partner, La Quinta, is saying we're responsible for the bill. How screwed up is that?
Now we're faced with hours, days, weeks and possibly months of dealing with unresponsive people in the U-Haul organization. The corporate office referred us to the Idaho office and Idaho referred us to Arizona, where the wreck-of-a rental-truck originated, as apparently they are responsible for paying the bill, and Arizona hasn't returned our calls. We'll have to dispute LaQuinta's charges with our bank, possibly initiate arbitration or a lawsuit. Life is too short to deal with this bullshit and none of it was our fault.
U-Haul truly sucks!

Correction on Hooper

I talked to the vet myself today to clarify Hooper's blood work. This is another doctor in the office since the treating doctor is on vacation this week.There was a good deal of staph and white blood cells in her urine so we're starting a week of Simplicef (antibiotic). It probably explains why she's been sort of "off" recently. I can never tell if it's age and arthritis or something else bothering her. The WBC in her blood was mild, or what is commonly associated with parasites or allergies. I'll get the parasite results later today. Her kidneys, or what's left of them at this point, are functioning well and that is probably attributable to the K/D food she's been eating the last year or two. This doctor suggested the mass in her eye might even be left alone as long as it isn't bothering her. He's going to check it out when she comes in for a needle-aspiration urine check next week. I'm feeling a lot better about things now.

Dog Diaries - Hoop

Results of blood work in. Bob took the call from the doctor so I can only hope he got the information correct. High white cell count in blood, and dilute urine with WBCs indicating a urinary tract infection. Next up is testing for parasites as a cause of the elevated WBCs in blood. (My first thoughts go to that eyelid tumor being cancerous or even Valley Fever. Ugh. Parasites would be better.) She needs a round of antibiotics for the urinary tract thing for now. Kidney enzymes were perfect so I guess we eliminate kidney failure. More to come after the poop gets scooped.

Dog Diaries

It's Hooper's turn for medical problems. She has a tumorous mass growing inside her lower eyelid. It doesn't look too bad until you pull the eyelid down and expose it. We're expecting results of blood work tomorrow to see if she is able to have surgery to remove it. I'd leave it except it's growing pretty quickly and it will be easier to deal with at this size than later if it begins to cause pain or problems for the eye. Her age and previous kidney damage is a complication for surgery. It's always something. I'm visiting the vet at least once a month now.

Garden Lessons

No two gardens are the same and I am once again learning how plants respond in a new environment. Here are two of the Heirloom own-root roses I planted last week. They are little more than twigs and already putting on a show. I am delighted with them.

Bonica

Darlow's Enigma

I was looking forward to gardening in Sequim's famous climate, but alas, I am not actually in Sequim. McDonnell Creek Ranch is a whole ten degrees cooler. The advice I've been getting at Sequim nurseries as far as timing my plantings and what grows here really doesn't apply. I have the salt air, ocean breezes, fog and cooler temperatures and it makes a world of difference.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing well but the peppers have literally stopped growing. They need a soil temperature of seventy degrees and that's no joke. I'm also getting insect damage, mostly on the basil, so I've laid traps to collect the pincher type bugs. The traps are just rolled newspaper left on the ground. The insects hide in them after a night of raiding and I shake them into a canister of water. Some of the insects anyway. There is no way to eliminate them without poisons so I'm trying to live with them even if I have to plant a lot of basil to keep them off the other stuff.

A sacrificial basil

Tomatoes, etc with paper trap

Unwelcome dinner guests

Beans have been challenging. I put them outside, Sequim time, which is much too early for this area as I've learned. They pretty much stopped growing and the leaves began turning yellow, a sign of nitrogen deficiency. I found some discussions of the issue online, the suggestion being made was beans go through a period when the food stores within the seed are used up and the transition to producing food through photosynthesis is slow so the leaves begin to lose their color. Advice was to just wait it out and they would pull through. I think this is what is going on with mine, the cool weather extending that period a bit much. Most of my beans appear to be recovering now, but next year I'll wait a little longer before putting them out.

Beans with yellow and green leaves

The berries are doing well. Can't wait to start collecting!

Blueberries

Raspberries

Clematis are a pleasant surprise. Grown in protected sunny locations they're doing well, and so pretty. 

A gorgeous Polish clematis

Unknown clematis

The Japanese maple we planted last fall is doing OK. I hope it survives the windy location. New leaves are lime green with red seedpods. Very pretty.

My shop takes shape

We're finally getting around to organizing the garage and setting up my pottery area. Bob made this magnificent heavy-weight rolling bench with a big GluLam we brought down from AK. There is a second one for another table but he needs some time to recover from making this one before starting the next project. 

This is half of my shop, the other half behind me. A few electrical outlets need to be put into the wall next the kiln and the kiln vent installed before it's ready for setting up the wheel and firing the kiln. It's a compact shop but has lots of shelving and table space, giant windows for light and double doors opening to the back yard that will be nice when summer weather comes. I don't like the black widow look-alikes that get into the garage though. Yikes.

Tag, still with us