Bad News

This morning, we took Dresden (the family dog) to the vet for his annual shots. While we were there, we pointed out that the hacking cough he'd had 6 months ago was getting worse. And thankfully, he even demonstrated for them, so they could hear it for themselves. They didn't hear any heart murmurs or anything like that, but they wanted to take an X-ray. Unfortunately, the X-ray revealed a large mass in his lungs. They couldn't say definitely what it was, so we had to pay extra to have the X-ray sent to a radiologist for interpretation. We got a call back this afternoon saying it looked like cancer, but a definitive diagnosis would require we either take him to Gainesville to the Florida University Vet school, or a big vet hospital in Tampa. But the radiologist had seen several smaller lumps as well as the large mass, so s/he was fairly certain it was cancer. There's no telling how long the poor guy might have left, but so far he's eating and drinking normally, and he hasn't lost any weight.

I knew it was bad when the vet said she'd give him some of his annual shots, but not the one for kennel cough (which he'll need when we put him in a local kennel to go on our Dr Who cruise. I had to explain to John that she (the vet) was saying he might not be around in 5 weeks to need that shot. If he's still doing okay by then, we can always take him in for it.

I did not handle the news very well, even before we got the radiologist's report. I mean, a big mass in the lungs can't be a good thing. I managed to hold it together for the ride home (I was driving, and probably shouldn't have been), but I've been having crying spells ever since. And I've gotten very little work done today.

Dresden just acts like he's getting old. He's uncertain about jumping up into his chair or onto the couch any more, and sometimes he's reluctant to jump back down. And he's got this old man hacking cough. But we'll enjoy his company while we still have him.

Excuse me. I need another tissue.

Dogs of the World

I like dogs. (I love cats, but that's another story.) Lately I've been reading a few articles having to do with the genealogy of dogs, particularly in the Americas.

When I was a kid, school described North American indian tribes as having horses and ponies. I was too young to question that at the time. Later, it was explained that the ponies originated with the Spanish explorers in Mexico, and that they quickly spread throughout North America. I assumed the indian dogs were a similar story.

But it turns out that dogs had already been here when the Spaniards, the Vikings, and other Europeans arrived. It had been assumed that when the indigenous people died out, their dogs died with them, having no one to take care of them.

These recent articles explained that the original 'American' dogs came over the land bridge from Asia and Siberia with the people who became indigenous indian tribes. Those dogs did not die out and were not supplanted by European dogs. They survived, interbred with the European dogs, and are still here.

This was discovered by comparing the DNA of American dogs with that of Asian and European dogs. The American DNA was much closer to the Asian DNA than the European DNA. This was true as far east as Greenland.

So the Mexican hairless, the Peruvian hairless, and any number of other breeds are about as American as they can get.

My family has a mutt. He's a great addition to our family, and I assume he's an 'American' mutt. How about you? Tell me about your dog.

More of Trudy's Universes

Last week, I listed 3 of my ‘uiverses’, the ones where I seem to spend most of my time these days. I thought I would introduce more of my universes today, some I hope to explore more fully … ‘someday’. Here are a few more of the ‘universe names’ that occupy my main ‘writing’ file on my computer.

D&D is for – no, not our Saturday night adventures written up as a story. This folder is for stories of a fantasy nature, set in a place that might resemble a D&D land, or a Tolkein-like setting. Probably this will be a home for shorts, because if I write an entire novel using a set of characters, I tend to give those characters their own universe, as shown in the next universe:

FG is for Fantasy Gumshoe. I’m still in the planning stages with this one. I see a world rather similar to Glen Cook’s Garrett series, perhaps with a splash of Jim Butcher’s Dresden for a little different flavor. There are no stories in this folder, yet, just some maps, character thoughts, possible history.

D is for Dohio. The Dohio are similar to the Atlans; a matriarchal society that does not think much of men. The differences are that the Dohio live on Earth after some holocaustic social & technological breakdown, and they do not have the mental abilities or Powers of the Atlans. As the holocaust hovered on the horizon, a collection of men in the Ohio Valley sent their wives and children to live in the caves that riddle the valley, along with all the supplies they could gather, including some livestock. The husbands were supposed to join the families, but they didn’t, and by the time the Dohio dare to venture out of the underground, the world is far different than the legends described.

Well, that’s another 3 of my universes. We aren’t quite half done yet. See you next week!