You Can't Pay Me To Swim In The Severn River.

I live on the upper part of the Severn River.

This morning at 5:30 am, I walked to my pier to see hundreds upon hundreds of spot fish, 3-4 inches long acting lethargic. The fish would poke their head out of the water, drift down a few inches and repeat poking their head out of the water.

Tonight when I got home from work, I walked again to the pier to find these same fish in the hundreds, floating dead on the surface of the water.

I hopped in the boat and took a spin up the river. I found dead white perch and yellow perch approximately 20-30.

I went further up the river and saw the algae. This algae has not been in my cove.

In the past two weeks, we have pulled our crab traps (as we do everyday, 1-3 times a day) we have found over a dozen dead crabs in our two traps. Also approximately 10 fish (catfish, white perch and sunny's) got in the traps and were dead.

How sad.

Also, I emailed some people this exact recap of what I found. These people to be exact:

pfurgurson@capitalgazette.com,
tmarquardt@capitalgazette.com,
customerservice@dnr.state.md.us,
blinton@dnr.state.md.us,
info@severnriverkeeper.org,
exleop00@aacounty.org,
chesapeake@cbf.org,
newsroom@wjz.com

I'll update this if I hear anything back.

Related article: http://www.severnriver.org/press/lowoxygen.htm

January 17, 2010

Two tid bits with this one.

Welp, the Ravens are out of the playoffs, upsetting. Football season is over for me but it was a much enjoyed run!

Quite a few months, like 5 or 6, Jerms got me a Ravens cash fantasy scratch off. Ya know, "Im flying with the Ravennnnnnns..." This thing.

Football season hadn't started and I didn't want to scratch it until the time felt, "right." Well needless to say the time never felt, "right." Over the months, it was "misplaced."

Almost weekly, I made the comment how we had the winner somewhere in the house. We found the ticket today. When I say we I mean BK found it. Since the post was not titled HOLY CRAP I WON A MILLION DOLLLLLLLLLLARS or HOLY CRAP, I'VE WON TICKETS FOR LIFE!!! Obviously, we didn't win. At All, zip, zero, nada!! I was kinda bummed because I sorta believed that we did have the winner :(

However, my cup is half full... actually overflowing. I have an amazing family, surrounded by one of a kind friends and the best puppy in the whole entire world! I already won the lottery! (FYI. Jerms was included in the family and friends section.)

Second part: Check out this video of two awesome people I call friends!

The End!!

Masocist???

Am I a masocist? (NO I don't do it for sexual gratification but I know I am going to just get all upset and do it anyways...) I am referring to reading this one blog.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/

It's about animals in Baltimore and sadly, the majority of the posts are sad. This in turn makes me cry, have nightmares and lose sleep. :(

I really need to just stop reading this blog.

PS. How can anyone hurt a defenseless animal?

My personal feeling is if you hurt or kill someone or something (something being an animal) BAM, you should get the same action done to you! Not in 6 months, not in 6 years NOW!

Lucy's Patellas don't Luxate no more!

As many know, Lucy had Luxating Patellas.

Definition: A luxating patella is a knee cap which moves out of the groove in the femur.

Here is a play by play of everything that has happened.

She got her surgery on December 3rd. I dropped her off at 7:30am and was to hear from the doctor after the surgery which was scheduled for 11am. She got both legs operated on because 1. instead of two separate surgeries and 12 weeks of recovery it's only 6. 2. It was 1K cheaper.

I was a nervous wreck all day, of course fearing the worst. I heard from the doctor around 1:30pm telling me everything went as planned and she was in recovery.

Originally, I was told she would be kept until Saturday morning but when I dropped her off I was informed that 50% of dogs go home the next day and 50% do stay two nights. On Thursday, when I talked to the vet he said to call back friday mid morning to find out when I could pick her up. I barely slept Thursday night because I missed my girl and kept imagining she was alone in a cage... I know, moving on.

On Friday, December 4th I called the CVRC (surgery place) at 10am and was told she was doing great and could pick her up today! I hadn't taken off at the gym but I told them I'd be there at 3!

Anyways, my mom and I picked her up (Jerms was driving home from Virginia.) We got a huge list of things to do and not do as well as three different medicines to give her at three different times of the day. She has staples in her legs and stitches down her head. (I got a mass removed from the crown of her head) The poor pup has the worst haircut ever! She looks like she has male pattern baldness and her entire back end is bald.

Insert sad dog pic here:

Anyways, that night was horrible! Absolutely no weight on her legs which meant holding the entire night. This gets kinda gross but she couldn't really hold her bowels. Nothing explosive but she'd start whimpering and moving around because she knew she wasn't supposed to go in the house. Momma had a playpen that she slept in, right next to my side of the bed. I'm a really light sleeper, meaning I woke up every time she took a deep breath. It was a very long night.

Saturday, December 5th was rough. She was still having bowel issues but I did get her to go pee on a puppy pad. For me this was a huge accomplishment because she had been whimpering, struggling and moving around for 10 minutes, trying to get me to take her outside. I never liked the idea of puppy pads and she wasn't trained with them but I am so thankful for them now! After this she started showing really good signs of feeling better, eating, drinking and being alert; unlike the night before. I started her leg exercises with her which I absolutely hate! I have to bend her leg in until she reacts and back out. Saturday night was no fun. The medicine must have constipated her and but she did end up going outside. I used a sling to hold up her back legs. This part is really gross but it happened... anyways, her rear end got reallllly chapped and almost diaper-rashy. If this happens to anyone I suggest using vaseline on the area and not vitamin E. We used vitamin E first and it didn't help. The area kept getting redder and more tender. Overnight we switched to vaseline and woke the next morning with the area looking 75% better and she showed no sensitivity back there.

That brings us to Sunday, December 6th. Lucy woke up around 8am which means I woke up as well. I took her outside still using the towel as a sling. She went outside and peed and pooped, just like her normal routine!! She has really showed great progress and good signs of healing! This is good news but all the while, means I have to watch her and really restrict her for the next 6 weeks. No jumping, running over exerting herself or else the pins could slip and she would need the surgery all over again! I'll keep updating.

*I wrote this mostly because the blogs on Luxating Patellas and forums on it don't explain what really goes down in the first couple days after surgery, just that it is very demanding on the owner and rough on the dog. I had no idea. I really don't know how people who full time jobs, kids, no help handle this type of surgery!

Thankful for so much

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am currently watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, BK is in the kitchen chopping celery for the (amazing) oyster stuffing, DK is in his chair reading the newspaper and Jerms is downstairs watching the parade on his TV.

I have the prettiest little dog looking up at me.

I have some updates:

My car. What a pain! Let's see, a bunch of stuff was done wrong. My insurance adjuster said go get your car from the auto-body shop, I did. I found some serious things that were wrong (bare metal showing, window grinding, dirt in the paint, clear coat runs etc.) I call my adjuster, he said to take it to another body shop and get an estimate to fix the damage; I did. The new body shop found things that I didn't see and ended up giving me an estimate of $1,500 just to fix the other places mistakes. I called my adjuster, he said I had to take it up with the original shop! I was shocked! I called my insurance company, they went over my adjusters head. This part makes me mad though; I have to take my car back to the original body shop and give them a chance to fix the mistakes. I really, really, really, don't want to do that! I don't trust them with my car! They had it for 2 months (only supposed to have it for 10 days.) and caused more damage then did any good!

Frustrating right?

My Lucy. I scheduled her follow-up exam for her knees on December 2nd and her surgery will be on December 3rd. I'm am very nervous and scared for my girl. I hate the fact that I have to leave her at the vet hospital for 2 days. They said I can go visit on the second day.

Anyways, I got her groomed because the surgery will put her out of commission for 6 weeks. She looks really silly, her ears are cut sooo short and choppy. She smells really good though and is super soft!

I'm looking forward to see my fam today! We are going down Mawmaw's for dinner which is always delicious!! I am VERY excited for Sunday! 1. Dinner & visiting Jerms fam. and 2. Ravens/ Steelers game, I hope everybody heals! (Ray, Suggs, Reed, Palomino, Roethlisberger) I want to win against their aces using our aces! I am pretty excited because I got a shirt like 6 months ago to wear on Sunday! I'll just say "You bet your sweet ass I hate the Steelers!"