11.04.09

Not much

Posted in News at 03:43 by nikki

I talked to my Mom last night and well she was a bit shocked to see her brother and how his health has deteriorated, she is afraid he needs to be in a home soon. He apparently is having trouble with remembering the simplest things. I hate to think of my Uncle like that because I really wish I could visit him and tell him how much he meant to me as a kid. My Mom also said that she was really sad to get on the plane and just wanted to stay it is so beautiful out there she said and of course with Chris living there made it harder to leave.  She sounded pretty good, happy to have gone but exhausted at the same time and she had already had to take John to the doctor’s. I believe she said his cancer is back and that he is feeling pretty bad these days. Hopefully it was more missing her than actually his health. I know when Rúnar wasn’t home I didn’t eat well at all, some days I hardly ate a thing and lost a lot of weight so no doubt when John was alone he didn’t feel like cooking either. I’m hoping that he’ll get better soon.  I was so relieved to hear my Mom’s voice and that she had arrived safe and sound.

Not much else going on really. Rúnar got the new tires put on the car today so I don’t have to worry about him as much driving to work. We have had some frost and speaking of slippery, the deck at the back and sidewalk were a bit slippery and little Birta hurt her front leg (or shoulder not sure) when she was out playing the day before yesterday. Rúnar was throwing her toy for her and Klói decided to play too and so he chased Birta who somehow stepped badly and twisted her leg. Not the first time she’s done that, unfortunately our lawn is really “holey” and full of all kinds of uneven areas. She was so cute holding her leg up and pretending to be so hurt each time we looked at her but if you threw the toy there was nothing wrong with her. She is so silly sometimes, a bit like her mom was. However she is fine today and had a nice walk on lead around the neighbourhood without limping at all. We’ll see if she is all of a sudden limping again tomorrow.

Rúnar has decided after trying to walk around the neighbourhood with Skella (after walking with Birta in perfect heel position) to try to teach Skella how to walk properly on lead. He has tried to walk her on lead and given up before so the easiest is to just take her to run free (no doubt her former owners figured that out too) but that has to be changed, she needs more stimulating exercise and if we want to try tracking with her then she has to at least be able to walk on a lead. It appears she must have either always been loose when walked, allowed to pull like a maniac or was walked on a Flexi lead. She has a strange habit of going to the end of the lead (usually running to the end) until it tightens and then waiting for you to catch up and as soon as it is slack she takes off again, typical behaviour “taught” by a Flexi. Given her age and how long she’s had to build up that habit it might not be a quick fix to train her loose leash walking. Too bad we didn’t think of it when we had the course or I could have taken part with her. I guess we have to get our butt in gear and actually make time to train and see how well our own course instructions work with her. LOL  You know not a bad thing that we have to work with difficult dogs ourselves because it makes it so much more rewarding and easier to teach others with their “normal” dogs. It just is too embarrassing to have to admit that our students dogs are better trained than our own. We just have to decide to actually train regularly rather than putting it off all the time, with difficult dogs it tends to be a catch 22 situation. Our problem is that both Skella and Birta have some of the same tactics when they know it’s time to go for a walk or play outside and both think they are “Daddy’s girl” so when he takes one out and not the other the one inside goes hysterical at being left behind. Can drive me up the wall. We can’t forget though that we did have some similar problems with Birta when we got her back in terms of lunging on lead and barking so it can be fixed with a trusty clicker, the right attitude and patience, now mind you Birta had only had 2 years to build her habits and Skella has had 6. Gosh I’d forgotten she is that old already, and Birta is too! Maybe she is a lost cause…no just kidding.

My back has been killing me lately, I have terrible pain off and on which feels deep and more on the left side. I have trouble bending down or standing for more than a few minutes or so, I used to be able to stand for longer but it could be because I have been forcing myself to train kneeling on the floor lately and there is always the strain to the back of lifting Frigg onto the bed many times every night. She is heavy and I always twist my back while doing that because I have to be careful not to hold her in such a way that I put pressure on the lump. She luckily can hop onto the sofa herself, it’s just the bed is so high. I’m hoping it’s just muscle tension in my back, I was worried today that it might be my kidney (I only have the one) but the doctor’s are all too busy giving people flu shots these days and it’s impossible to see them for other things. So ridiculous, makes me a bit angry at the propaganda around the swine flu, false statements and scare tactics. I heard today a friend of mine who has heart problems is asking people if they know a good heart doctor that can help her because her’s isn’t answering her calls and she has been trying to get her heart medication since the end of September. She had some chest pains on the weekend, I hope she gets a hold of a doctor soon. There is a shortage of personnel to help the real patients at the hospitals because of the vaccinations. What is the world coming to? They think they are saving money by firing all the doctors and people working at the hospitals a few weeks ago but in the long run what will they have saved? I read so much from holistic doctors and about natural healing, they seem to be the ones that know what they are doing.   Here is one link I found today with some questions and answers, quite interesting. I had no idea that people with egg allergies for example should not take the flu vaccines (or any other type of vaccine that they use that type of protein in), who would have thought? Not that I have to worry about egg allergy but with all the other stuff they put in those concoctions. There is a really good interview with him on DrMercola.com but it is quite long and because of the amount of views it’s had just today it’s almost impossible to upload that page. Now I feel even worse for all the vaccines I’ve given my dogs through the years.  Glad I’ve lived in Iceland most the time though where we only have a fraction of the vaccinations needed. I have the sneaking suspicion that many of the poor dogs that are being told have “inherited diseases” and who people are black listing for this or that are actually sensitive to or are having reverse reactions to the vaccines. I mean if autism is very common in children because of vaccines what can these substances cause in terms of health problems in dogs? Why can’t we all just go holistic? Oh well, it would be worth a try anyway. Hehe I so sound like my Dad and my late Opa right now.

Tomorrow I’m going to turn on the “positive” conversation button…huh I think I’ve said that before. Or should I say, I will post wonderful uplifting news from now on. wink, wink.

Well I wasn’t going to talk about all that but you know how quickly I can get caught up and carried away and since I did get that newest interview in my inbox today about the swine flu I was thinking about it still. LOL  Anyway, that was my “not much” blog…

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