Now for some good news :)

[la_belle_laide]

Directly after school today I went down to emergency vets to see if Sano's platelets were up enough to take him home. Last night they had gone from 6 to 50 (that's thousand BTW) so it was a good improvement. Today, by the time I had gotten there there wasn't a huge rise--only up to 57--but enough so that he could come home. I still have to treat him like he's made of glass, at least until he's into the hundreds and maybe two hundreds.

But the good news! His test for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever came back as an extremely high positive! I know it seems odd to think of a disease as good news, but the truth is that while it doesn't preclude cancer, it definitely significantly lowers the chances that it is anything but RMSF. Also it is easy to treat and a full recovery is the usual outcome. ^_^

And, this is totally my fault, too. I have two tubes of Frontline lying around from last month when I just never got around to putting it on either dog. With Gran being sick, and then with losing her and all of this other stuff that was going on, putting Frontline on my dogs was so utterly the furthest thing from my mind. About two weeks ago, I pulled a bloated tick off of Sano. I know that was the sumbitch that gave it to him. >_<

Anyway, I'm happy about this news, Sano is happy to be home and Haku is really glad to have his bestie back too.

Currently I have five starlings and one grackle. I don't think I mentioned the other two starlings or the grackle yet, but that's what I've got so far. The grackle was rescued from a bluejay attack; half his face is missing. His beak is all crooked. But I think he's got a pretty good chance. I don't want to jinx him but I like this little sucker.

Things you don't hear from every professor in every college: "By midterms we'll all be naked." That was in Swedish tech, where you have to pretty much give up those ideas of shame and modesty. We learn draping and stuff (we have to, obviously,) but you're pretty much taking your clothes off underneath a sheet and just dealing with it. I'm okay with it, because oddly enough--when you consider my issues about people looking at my face--I have very little shame when it comes to the rest of me. You want me to throw my clothes off under a sheet in front of the whole class? That's just fine! My biggest issue is people looking at my face when I can't hide behind my hair or turn a certain angle or something. If I could put my face under the sheet, that'd be much more comfy for me. ;)

So I just took the dogs out and probably about 60-70 seagulls came flying overhead, from the northern bay about 1/4 mile down the road, towards either the ocean or the inlet a few miles south of here. I sea seagulls all the damn time every single day of my life, but I've never seen this many all at once all going the same place. Unless it was, say, the same twenty or so seagulls and they just kept going around and around. I wonder if there's a huge storm coming or something. If there is, Sano will let me know in advance by hiding in the bathroom.

I'm so glad he's home, because who else would warn me of coming storms, and protect me from evil people like the mailman or the very dangerous "tinkle tinkle!" sound of the Blackberry? NO ONE, that's who.

Well, I'm gonna feed the birds and then veg playing Twilight Princess for a while. ^_^

Everyone, thank you for the good wishes and thoughts!