Poorly Puppy

Poorly puppy.

After nearly a year of trips to the vet, anti inflammatories and a regime of low exercise on vet's instructions it turns out that Diezel's occasional limp is not his leg and 'growing pains' as first diagnosed, but rather his shoulders. Bad shoulders. Bad tendons, unstable shoulder joints. Not good in a big, heavyweight, galumphing, energetic puppydog.

I've been a bit worried about his development for a while. He looks great from the side, but he's narrow across the chest and his front legs are quite close together at the top when you look directly from the front. We've kept saying 'He'll fill out yet,' but it may be the shoulder problem and just plain bad conformation. (Good breeder, good parents, just uinlucky I guess. He looked fine as a pup.) Once Arnie the vet had him knocked out for the X-ray today he was able to manipulate both shoulder joints. The left one is a bit clicky, but the right one's a LOT clicky.

Arnie has x-rayed the leg before, when Diezel was about 8 months old, but not the shoulders. He thought it was just the cartilege/bone fusing thing that dogs go through, particularly as he sometimes holds himself as if the trouble is in the knee/paw area. Diezel's so oversized that we all just thought he was outgrowing himself and he'd get over it. Can't really blame Arnie. Diezel's getting much better with accepting new people politely, but he's a monster at the vet's. Doesn't have any truck with the man who sticks needles in him and shows his displeasure mightily. For everyone's peace of mind he has a muzzle for vet visits.

Next step. Referral to a specialist, but it may be a condition that can only be managed not cured. He's feeling sorry for himself this evening, wobbly from the x-ray and has shaved patches on his front legs. Good job we got the full deal on the pet insurance. This could cost thousands. £4k if surgery is needed. But it could lead to an early onset of arthritis as he gets older. He's only 18 months and it doesn't seem to seriously inconvenience him at the moment, though he does limp from time to time. Anti-inflammatories help. More reason to be thankful for pet insurance. That stuff's £35 a bottle and might be a permanent feature.

You can see how narrow he is across the chest (the dog not the man!) in this pic taken last autumn with our friend Thandanani (one of the Zulu dancers). Diezel was about a year old then. He's a pretty boy (again the dog, not Thanda) and he's doing really well with his training classes, though while he's been on light work BB's been doing a lot of down and stay type training and scent work and keeping his brain active by expanding his vocabulary. No he doesn't talk, but he knows the difference between 'red ball' and 'rubber ring' and he's just grasped, 'Speak,' as well as all the usual sit, stay, down, come, leave, yours, away, wait etc. And he can even do sit, down comeand stay in Zulu, thanks to Thanda,

 

Poorly Puppy

Poorly puppy.

After nearly a year of trips to the vet, anti inflammatories and a regime of low exercise on vet's instructions it turns out that Diezel's occasional limp is not his leg and 'growing pains' as first diagnosed, but rather his shoulders. Bad shoulders. Bad tendons, unstable shoulder joints. Not good in a big, heavyweight, galumphing, energetic puppydog.

I've been a bit worried about his development for a while. He looks great from the side, but he's narrow across the chest and his front legs are quite close together at the top when you look directly from the front. We've kept saying 'He'll fill out yet,' but it may be the shoulder problem and just plain bad conformation. (Good breeder, good parents, just uinlucky I guess. He looked fine as a pup.) Once Arnie the vet had him knocked out for the X-ray today he was able to manipulate both shoulder joints. The left one is a bit clicky, but the right one's a LOT clicky.

Arnie has x-rayed the leg before, when Diezel was about 8 months old, but not the shoulders. He thought it was just the cartilege/bone fusing thing that dogs go through, particularly as he sometimes holds himself as if the trouble is in the knee/paw area. Diezel's so oversized that we all just thought he was outgrowing himself and he'd get over it. Can't really blame Arnie. Diezel's getting much better with accepting new people politely, but he's a monster at the vet's. Doesn't have any truck with the man who sticks needles in him and shows his displeasure mightily. For everyone's peace of mind he has a muzzle for vet visits.

Next step. Referral to a specialist, but it may be a condition that can only be managed not cured. He's feeling sorry for himself this evening, wobbly from the x-ray and has shaved patches on his front legs. Good job we got the full deal on the pet insurance. This could cost thousands. £4k if surgery is needed. But it could lead to an early onset of arthritis as he gets older. He's only 18 months and it doesn't seem to seriously inconvenience him at the moment, though he does limp from time to time. Anti-inflammatories help. More reason to be thankful for pet insurance. That stuff's £35 a bottle and might be a permanent feature.

You can see how narrow he is across the chest (the dog not the man!) in this pic taken last autumn with our friend Thandanani (one of the Zulu dancers). Diezel was about a year old then. He's a pretty boy (again the dog, not Thanda) and he's doing really well with his training classes, though while he's been on light work BB's been doing a lot of down and stay type training and scent work and keeping his brain active by expanding his vocabulary. No he doesn't talk, but he knows the difference between 'red ball' and 'rubber ring' and he's just grasped, 'Speak,' as well as all the usual sit, stay, down, come, leave, yours, away, wait etc. And he can even do sit, down comeand stay in Zulu, thanks to Thanda,

 

Book Log 16/2011 - Lisa Shearin: The Trouble with Demons

10/4/11
Lisa Shearin: The Trouble with Demons

The third Raine Benares book which follows on immediately from the other two, picking up where 'Armed and Magical' left off with Raine on the Island on Mid having escaped from the clutches of the Elvan Embassy and various Goblin hoards, having discovered that an earlier keeper of the Saghred (soul-sucking stone of unimaginable power) is alive after all and Wants It Back. Rain is caught between two gorgeous men, Goblin dark mage Tamnais Nathrach and brighter-than-white leader of the guardians, Mychael Eiliesor. She's powerfully attracted to both of them - and them to her, though she doesn't quite believe Mychael, since a lawman is not generally after her, but more likel.y after her larcenous family.

So in this book there's an attack of demons. Someone is opening a hellgate and trouble is pouring through. It's all about the Saghred, of course. Everyone wants it and Raine together with her few friends - Mychael, Tam, Piaras, the young spellsinger and pirate Cousin Phaelan and Uncle Ryn - have to keep it away from all the many factions who would use it for bad purposes - and that even includes some of the mages who are supposed to be on their side. There's a key that will unlock the Saghred and release some of the trapped souls, but when those souls include the Demon King and Sarad Nukpana, the Big Bad from book one, Raine would rather keep it all locked up tight. Please.

Hijinks ensue. Raine's wonderfully wisecracking voice is infectious, her larcenous family is delightful and the two love interests... err... interesting (and sexy). Magic, action and a touch of romance. This series just keeps getting better. What's not to like?

Book Log 16/2011 - Lisa Shearin: The Trouble with Demons

10/4/11
Lisa Shearin: The Trouble with Demons

The third Raine Benares book which follows on immediately from the other two, picking up where 'Armed and Magical' left off with Raine on the Island on Mid having escaped from the clutches of the Elvan Embassy and various Goblin hoards, having discovered that an earlier keeper of the Saghred (soul-sucking stone of unimaginable power) is alive after all and Wants It Back. Rain is caught between two gorgeous men, Goblin dark mage Tamnais Nathrach and brighter-than-white leader of the guardians, Mychael Eiliesor. She's powerfully attracted to both of them - and them to her, though she doesn't quite believe Mychael, since a lawman is not generally after her, but more likel.y after her larcenous family.

So in this book there's an attack of demons. Someone is opening a hellgate and trouble is pouring through. It's all about the Saghred, of course. Everyone wants it and Raine together with her few friends - Mychael, Tam, Piaras, the young spellsinger and pirate Cousin Phaelan and Uncle Ryn - have to keep it away from all the many factions who would use it for bad purposes - and that even includes some of the mages who are supposed to be on their side. There's a key that will unlock the Saghred and release some of the trapped souls, but when those souls include the Demon King and Sarad Nukpana, the Big Bad from book one, Raine would rather keep it all locked up tight. Please.

Hijinks ensue. Raine's wonderfully wisecracking voice is infectious, her larcenous family is delightful and the two love interests... err... interesting (and sexy). Magic, action and a touch of romance. This series just keeps getting better. What's not to like?

Book Log 17/2011 - Ilona Andrews: Bayou Moon

13/3/11
Ilona Andrews: Bayou Moon – The Edge #2

Not quite fantasy, not quite paranormal romance, this is a heady mixture of both genres, dropping down on the side of fantasy, I'd say. Loosely connected to 'On the Edge' in that William, a supporting character in the first Edge book, is now the one of the main characters of this one. It's not until the very end that the two books join up and it becomes obvious that there will be (at least) a third book. (Four according to the website.)

The edge is a dirt-poor borderland between the Weird (magic) and the Broken (our world with no magic but plenty of technology). The two nations in the Weird, the Dukedom of Louisiana and Adrianglia currently hold to an uneasy peace. Those with too much magic can't cross into the Broken from the Edge, but some of the Edgers can and do cross and trade there. Some even work there, under the radar, of course.

William is a changeling, a wolf shapechanger, brought up in a cruel Adrianglian orphanage and mercilessly trained to be a top-notch black ops soldier and a superstrong, superfast natural born killer in both human and wolf form. Physically perfect he's still a bundle of hangups. He's been court-martialled out of the military and has left the Weird and now, having failed to succeed with his first choice of mate (Rose from the first Edge book) lives in the Edge whilst working in the Broken, laying floors for cash. He can cross over because he doesn't technically have magic, he is magic.

He's lonely but just about getting by until he's co-opted by the Adrianglians for a mission to find the Spider, the Louisianan spymaster, magic abuser and cruel killer of changeling children. William has a personal score to settle with the Spider, and besides, he's not given much choice, so he agrees. The Spider is in the Mire searching for something that will give Louisiana a winning ticket in the almost inevitable war to come.

To find the Spider he must travel into the Mire – a vast tract of swamplands in the Edge – and there he crosses paths with warrior-trained and spiky-as-hell Cerise Mar, de facto leader of the unruly magic wielding Mar clan since her parents have disappeared mysteriously. He steps right into the middle of a bitter and violent family feud, Mars against Sheeriles, but since it seems that Cerise and William are ultimately hunting the same bad guy, he sticks close and pitches in. Together they have more chance to get the Spider and find Cerise's missing parents.

William's a moody, sexy, engaging hero, but as a changeling he has impulsive wolf characteristics that sometimes screw up his human reasoning, especially where relationships are concerned. That makes for an interesting courtship and a not very straightforward romance. Cerise is an edgy, hair-trigger spitfire with all the insecurities of someone thrown into a job she doesn't feel cut out for. 'When the two families go to war, she's the one ordering her loved ones into battle.

Her relatives alternately encourage the romance, get in the way, or just plain annoy the hell out of William and the romantic tension is stretched about as far as it will go without snapping, but it works. Even the minor characters ahve plenty of depth to them and the world-building is excellent. The Mire becomes a character in itself, harsh, fetid, full of peat-mud, rotting vegetation and strange things that slither, mostly deadly.

This is an excellent book that suffers just a little at the end from going too far beyond the climax and setting up the situation for the next one. The aftermath of the Big Finish is maybe just a little too tell not show, either that or it maybe should have ended a little before it did, since it incorporates some of the political stuff that by rights you feel should be in the next book. I may not say that when I read the next book, of course. And I will be reading it. Highly recommended.

Book Log 17/2011 - Ilona Andrews: Bayou Moon

13/3/11
Ilona Andrews: Bayou Moon – The Edge #2

Not quite fantasy, not quite paranormal romance, this is a heady mixture of both genres, dropping down on the side of fantasy, I'd say. Loosely connected to 'On the Edge' in that William, a supporting character in the first Edge book, is now the one of the main characters of this one. It's not until the very end that the two books join up and it becomes obvious that there will be (at least) a third book. (Four according to the website.)

The edge is a dirt-poor borderland between the Weird (magic) and the Broken (our world with no magic but plenty of technology). The two nations in the Weird, the Dukedom of Louisiana and Adrianglia currently hold to an uneasy peace. Those with too much magic can't cross into the Broken from the Edge, but some of the Edgers can and do cross and trade there. Some even work there, under the radar, of course.

William is a changeling, a wolf shapechanger, brought up in a cruel Adrianglian orphanage and mercilessly trained to be a top-notch black ops soldier and a superstrong, superfast natural born killer in both human and wolf form. Physically perfect he's still a bundle of hangups. He's been court-martialled out of the military and has left the Weird and now, having failed to succeed with his first choice of mate (Rose from the first Edge book) lives in the Edge whilst working in the Broken, laying floors for cash. He can cross over because he doesn't technically have magic, he is magic.

He's lonely but just about getting by until he's co-opted by the Adrianglians for a mission to find the Spider, the Louisianan spymaster, magic abuser and cruel killer of changeling children. William has a personal score to settle with the Spider, and besides, he's not given much choice, so he agrees. The Spider is in the Mire searching for something that will give Louisiana a winning ticket in the almost inevitable war to come.

To find the Spider he must travel into the Mire – a vast tract of swamplands in the Edge – and there he crosses paths with warrior-trained and spiky-as-hell Cerise Mar, de facto leader of the unruly magic wielding Mar clan since her parents have disappeared mysteriously. He steps right into the middle of a bitter and violent family feud, Mars against Sheeriles, but since it seems that Cerise and William are ultimately hunting the same bad guy, he sticks close and pitches in. Together they have more chance to get the Spider and find Cerise's missing parents.

William's a moody, sexy, engaging hero, but as a changeling he has impulsive wolf characteristics that sometimes screw up his human reasoning, especially where relationships are concerned. That makes for an interesting courtship and a not very straightforward romance. Cerise is an edgy, hair-trigger spitfire with all the insecurities of someone thrown into a job she doesn't feel cut out for. 'When the two families go to war, she's the one ordering her loved ones into battle.

Her relatives alternately encourage the romance, get in the way, or just plain annoy the hell out of William and the romantic tension is stretched about as far as it will go without snapping, but it works. Even the minor characters ahve plenty of depth to them and the world-building is excellent. The Mire becomes a character in itself, harsh, fetid, full of peat-mud, rotting vegetation and strange things that slither, mostly deadly.

This is an excellent book that suffers just a little at the end from going too far beyond the climax and setting up the situation for the next one. The aftermath of the Big Finish is maybe just a little too tell not show, either that or it maybe should have ended a little before it did, since it incorporates some of the political stuff that by rights you feel should be in the next book. I may not say that when I read the next book, of course. And I will be reading it. Highly recommended.