Posts filed under 'Animals'
Lucy has been having a bit of a rough time this summer. First a bladder infection, now it appears she has ringworm and requires medicated baths twice a week AND a medication that will likely make her barf that I can’t even track down yet. But most of all, she has been dragging. Lucy has been running with us for the last two or three years. In fact, if it wasn’t for Lucy I probably wouldn’t even be running at all. Bored with walking her and getting my arm pulled out of the socket at the same time, I wondered what it would be like to run with her and that was that. Since then, she has been our faithful companion on many runs. We were always very careful-never taking her out when it was too hot, and never going more than 4-5 miles.
Lately, however, we cut that back significantly. In April, we started noticing that after her initial crazy burst of energy for the first quarter mile or so, she would ease off quite a bit, and by the last half mile she’d be trailing 2 or 3 feet behind. Since that started, we have only been taking her out for 3 miles maximum and cut down the number of times a week we run with her. Still, she drags. Maybe it’s just the summer heat? Maybe she’s not a spring chicken anymore (she turned 4 this spring)? So, this week we decided to bench her for a little while. No running for Lucy until the middle of September and in the meantime I’m going to try and give her some glucosamine just in case it is her joints bothering her. She had an x-ray at the vet recently and nothing showed up, so hopefully that’s not the case.
For now we’re back to walking which, quite frankly, she’s perfectly happy with and since we’re scheduling it around our running days, Brian and I will get a little bit of mild cross training that we usually don’t get. Hopefully, her spirits will pick up soon and maybe we can go back to running someday. All I know is, I love that dog like crazy, so whatever makes her feel better, that’s what we’ll do.
Hiding from the vet at one of many recent visits.
Feel better, pups!
August 14th, 2008
For the last couple of months while I have been training for my upcoming half marathon (omg! hills! fuck!), I haven’t really been focusing on speedwork or trying to run fast (or my version of “fast”) at all. It had been a really, really long time since I ran a mile under 9:00. But today:
1 - 9:08
2 - 9:16
3 - 8:35
Of course, I was practically hyperventilating by the end, but at least I know I can still do it. Had it not been for a couple of bathroom breaks courtesy of Lucy, those first couple of miles might have been a bit faster as well. Not that I’m blaming you, dog, you’re a very good girl. Oh, who am I kidding, she stopped reading this blog months ago.
Modeling the latest style from the pages of Dog Vogue
March 7th, 2008
This last week was brutal. Between the crazy, hectic work week and the non-stop rain (not complaining, we need it!) there was hardly any time for running or anything else. I only got two runs in but at least they were both good. Today I did 7.2 on the same course as last weekend’s seven. Total time was 1:11:12 and here are the splits:
1 - 10:41
2 - 9:56
3 - 9:39
4 - 9:59
5 - 9:51
6 - 9:37
7 - 9:29
.2 - 1:57
In general, today felt much better than last week. My overall pace was about 25 seconds faster which probably had a lot to do with finally getting a few good nights of sleep this past week. Ashok has taken to sleeping in until 7:15 again, god bless him! Even though we usually don’t take Lucy on long runs, she came with me today which probably helped too. She was so excited; after a rainy week of no running and only a few short walks here and there, she was still bouncing around the house like crazy even after a 7 mile run.
I still haven’t posted my food pictures yet-I’m hoping to figure it out this week when I get some much needed time off. Unfortunately, this break won’t last long. February had been looking nice and mellow for a while, but a bunch of work has come in and looks like it will be a crazy month.
But, before that all gets started I have something to look forward to: on Wednesday of this week, my sister turns 40 and we are going out to Osteria Mozza to celebrate. This restaurant is pretty new and has been the source of much buzz in L.A. so I am excited to check it out. If I can manage to take pictures of my meal without making a total ass of myself, I’ll post them here after. Those food pictures will probably be much more interesting than all that cereal and pasta I ate last week.
January 27th, 2008
Crazy busy day with lots of running around, trying to get things done before the holiday. Ashok and I got some good park time in though, he came home with pockets full of sand. And, I got in a great 5K run this morning at the above time. My best yet, so I was very excited. I have a turkey trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning so I’m hoping I can do that time or better at the race and then happily stuff my face the rest of the day.
We’re going to be a two dog household for most of this week-Lucy’s cousin Lola is coming to stay on Wednesday and tonight, her girlfriend Stella is visiting from Colorado. So surely, there will be many silly dog pictures to come…
November 19th, 2007
I was reading Courtney’s blog tonight and was reminded that not everyone is a dog person. That is totally ok with me, my own mother is not a dog person and yet both she and Courtney have developed a sort of no-touching love for Lucy. This says a lot about my dog and her larger than life personality. Since this blog is named after Lucy, I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you all a little bit about her.
Lucy, first day at home
We adopted Lucy from a shelter when she was 8 weeks old. She basically looked exactly the same then as she does now, except smaller. She was a bit malnourished and full of worms, as you can expect a shelter pup to be, but she cleaned up quickly and started packing on the pounds. Her breed is unknown, she is the ultimate mutt. We like to say she’s part deer, part kangaroo.
Lucy has always been, how you say….boisterous. That dog has a ton of energy, even now, at 3 years old. As a result, she makes a pretty good running partner-I am continually amazed that she can go out and run 5-6 miles with me or Brian and still come home and be bouncing off the walls. Unfortunately, that energy level has not translated into obedience. We took her to two different training classes, I have the doggie diplomas to prove it, but she still doesn’t listen. In fact, in the “final exam” at her last class, she not only failed one portion of the exam which required her to sit still for a minute, she also convinced another dog to fail along with her. At least they had fun.
She has her quirks-an intense love of crotch sniffing (sometimes bordering on violent), a deathly fear of basketballs (unexplained), and a deep hatred of dancing. Seriously, do not dance around her-she will try to bite your crotch. I have no idea how she developed this, perhaps her original owners were retired Solid Gold Dancers?
This last year has been a bit of an adjustment for Lucy. Now that she is no longer the baby of the house and the center of our universe, she’s had to deal with slightly less exercise and attention. We do our best to correct this, and now that we’re both running again, she gets more of a chance to blow off steam. Luckily, she loves Ashok, and he certainly loves her-his first word was “doggie” after all. It’s really sweet, although lately Ashok has gone into a phase of hitting her with toys that she doesn’t enjoy so much. I’m working on getting him to stop and Lucy has been very patient. Thank goodness, I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t been good with him. I’m so glad we haven’t had to worry about any of that.
So, this post’s for you, Lucy. As my sister often says about you, “She’s not a good dog, but she’s a very nice dog.”
November 15th, 2007
Not much to report today-my mom is in town and we’ve been hanging out with Ashok all day. After dinner at the restaurant down the street (we have a restaurant down the street!) we came home and ate pie. It finally feels like fall here, which is nice.
Please enjoy this Glamour Shot of my dog.
Night Night.
November 9th, 2007
Alrighty, here we go! Today marks the beginning of NaBloPoMo, meaning I will be attempting to post every day for the month of November. My biggest concern isn’t coming up with material (although it probably will become a problem)-I’m more worried that I will just flat out forget to post one of these days. Maybe I can just write about blog related anxiety every day-surely there’s tons of raw material there…
Anyway, today is sort of a gimme since it is the day after Halloween. I feel morally obligated to post pictures of my child and pets in costume. Ashok was Eeyore:
With his doppelganger
The dog finally got to use that Princess Leia costume from last year:
And even the cat got involved:
Oh, you will pay dearly for this humiliation, humans…
It was our first Halloween in the new house and we were excited to get some trick-or-treaters. At the Pink House, living on a street with a 7% grade incline sort of hindered the children from coming to get candy, but now in the flats, we had lots of customers. I think my favorite costume was the 1 year old boy dressed up in an insanely detailed matador outfit, complete with little hat. We had a great dinner with friends so the night was a lot of fun, even though Ashok got pretty cranky in that Eeyore getup after a while.
Let’s see, who looks the least excited about Halloween in this picture?
November 1st, 2007
Holy Crap! After many valiant attempts, Lucy finally made it onto Cute Overload! I’m having trouble finding a link to the exact post, so scroll down and look for this fine pic:
We made it! Movie deals are sure to follow.
UPDATE: Here’s the link!
August 20th, 2007
Lucy and I ran a great 4.5 miles this morning. We were on a nearby trail where she can (illegally) go off leash as long as there are no horses around and she managed to get in every mud puddle she could find (see Exhibit A). The dog has been getting a lot of activity these days as I am gearing up for a 10K at the end of September and Brian is starting his training program for the LA Marathon this week. It feels great to have a concrete goal to work towards and it is also working well to distract me from the recital I have coming up this Sunday.
Last year, in April, I gave a recital while 4 months pregnant with Ashok. It went great and I was thrilled with myself for having done it while pregnant, because that seemed really hard. Oh, that poor, naive girl. When asked to return for another concert this August I thought, “Sure! Why not?” I’ll tell you why not, because it’s much effing harder to try and practice with a child crawling around your ankles than it is with him inside your cute little potbelly where he sits nice and still. Whatever, it’ll be what it will be and chances are it will go better than I expect since I am setting my expectations so very low. So, if you’re in the Los Angeles area this Sunday and want to see me play without a potbelly but with serious bags under my eyes come on over.
Ashok is nearing his first word, I believe. Not surprisingly, it is shaping up to be “doggie” although at times it comes out sounding more like dada, deggy, doggie-ah, dougie, baby, or Debby. He and Lucy are pretty tight these days-he grabs her tail, she licks his face, he pats her back, she sniffs his diaper, it goes on like that for most of the day-so it’s no shock that he has chosen her as the subject for his first oration. We’re working on “kitty” next, although that seems to sound a lot like doggie now too. And quite frankly, the cat could care less. No “mama” on the horizon, not even close, but that’s okay. He can just call me Debby.
August 12th, 2007
I think its fair to say that Kitty and I are obsessed with Knut. Why?
Do I really need to explain? Oh, and he has his own theme song, blog and podcast, just in case you need more Knut. And really, who doesn’t need more Knut? Knut, Knut, Knut…I just like to say it.
An adorable baby polar bear was just about the only thing that could get me through a day like today. At about 6:30 this evening, right at the peak of Ashok’s Super Cranky Hour, one of the trees in our backyard fell on our neighbor’s house. It was unbelievably windy here today, and I guess that’s all it took for an enormous Pittisporum tree to land on the roof next door. Luckily, no one was hurt and the damage wasn’t too extensive. Unfortunately, my husband was at a Lakers game and I was left to deal with the situation with my only helper being a tired, whiny baby (actually, he wasn’t much help). I’m proud to say that I managed to handle the situation without cursing in front of my child too much and without turning to drink. Thankfully, looking at baby polar bears can help you forget your troubles, not unlike heroin addiction. Thanks, Knut.
March 27th, 2007
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