Average Jane™

Average Jane Celebrates Toby's Gotcha Day!

Today marks one year since we brought our little doggers home. It took everyone a while to settle in, but I think we've developed a pretty good routine and he seems to love us a great deal.

We have lots of daily rituals. He and I usually go to bed around 10:00 p.m. and he paws at the blanket until I lift it up so he can go underneath and curl up against my ribs. 

Right now his inner alarm clock is set for exactly 6:35 a.m., and that's the time he crawls out from under the covers and gives himself a good tag-jingling shake. I grab my glasses and spend a few minutes talking to him and cuddling before we go outside for his morning constitutional.

He gets his breakfast when we go back in and I take him out one more time before I leave for work. He receives a Virbac chew stick as a reward for that piece of doggie business, which keeps him busy while I'm making my way out the door.

Barring long walks, which have fallen by the wayside a little due to a combination of overly hot weather and chronic foot pain on my part, we still have a lot of places to walk up and down our street and one street over. He likes to greet Dolly, the shih-tzu next door. I do my best to steer him away from another neighbor's giant pit bull because Toby doesn't have enough sense not to bark and carry on when we see bigger dogs.

I imagine he sleeps most of the day in his bed on the couch, but sometimes he plays chase with the cats (particularly Dr. Jones and Velvet) or chews his stuffed toys first. My husband gets up in the mid- to late-afternoon and takes him for his next potty break.

Suppertime is a little more complicated. Because my husband and I tend to stay pretty busy in the evenings, Toby gets double-fed more often than is good for him. I think we need something like this to keep track.

If the birth dates listed on his paperwork are correct, he's now nine years old. He's gotten a lot more white hairs in the past year, but I'm sure that the transition from the home he'd had all his life to our house must have been stressful. 

The new vet has given him a more or less clean bill of health, but we do need to have his teeth and ears cleaned soon and I'll probably have them remove a couple of small skin growths while he's already out. I hope he gets to keep his few remaining teeth. The poor little guy has so few that his tongue hangs out whenever he's relaxed or sleeping.

House training is still a constant struggle. Some days he's perfect and other days he's inexplicably bad (and sneaky about it, too). Things have gotten a lot better since we instituted a treat reward system, though. He's improved enough that I'm ready to do a good kitchen floor scrubbing and re-sealing of the slate this weekend.

Ultimately, the best thing about having Toby in our lives is the companionship. He loves to hang out with us. He has his own chair in the TV room (stolen from poor Trillian) where he lies so he can be with us while we're watching television. Wherever we are, that's where he wants to be. The cats are like that as well, but the dog takes it up a couple of notches.

I'm glad we're able to be Toby's family in his later years. He's cute, cuddly and a fun little buddy to have.

Happy First Gotcha Day Anniversary, Toby!

Average Jane and the Squirrels

The squirrels in my yard are not very good parents. Yesterday was the second time this year that I found a baby squirrel on the ground under the locust tree in my front yard.

The first time was on July 24th. I went online to find out what to do and multiple sources suggested making some kind of soft "nest" and putting the baby back up in the tree to give the mother a chance to retrieve it.

I also learned that the whole "the mother won't take the baby back if you've touched it" thing is a myth. However, it's obviously best not to handle baby wildlife any more than necessary.

The first squirrel was very young, hairless and pink. I put it in a makeshift nest and went to work. When I got home it was gone, which I like to think means the mother came and got it.

Yesterday's squirrel was slightly older and furrier, but still had his eyes closed. (If he were just a little bit older, I might suspect that he was the same one.) I followed the same protocol as before, made a cardboard box "nest," put him in it and placed it overhead in the tree.

Unfortunately, he was still there when I got home.

The local wildlife rehabilitation centers were already closed, so I brought the box inside, covered it with a washcloth for warmth, and placed it in a cat- and dog-free location for the night.

Another thing the wildlife rehab sites advise is to refrain from trying to feed a baby critter you find. It's too easy to do something wrong and harm them, so if it's only going to be a day, the baby is better off going unfed. You can try to give them a tiny bit of water, but I chose not to risk it since the baby was curled up sleeping most of the time anyway.

Here's something I learned today: Kansas and Missouri have separate wildlife centers and they'd really prefer that you keep any animal you find within its own state.

So for you Kansas City area folks, if you find an orphaned critter:

• In Missouri, take it to Lakeside Nature Center in Swope Park
• In Kansas, take it to Operation Wildlife (there's a drop-off in Shawnee and the main facility is in Linwood)

This morning I got up and took the squirrel to Lakeside Nature Center because I didn't know any better. They were very responsive and immediately checked him for any injuries and put him in an incubator. I'm sure he received his long-delayed Friday breakfast right away. The staffer estimated his age at 3-4 weeks and I saw her write down that he was a male.  

While she was attending to her new charge, I wrote a donation check. It seemed like the thing to do.

If you find yourself in a similar situation with squirrels or other wild animal babies, I highly recommend calling a wildlife rehab center to ask questions before you do anything else. There was one information sheet in particular at Lakeside about special handling for litters of bunnies that led me to think that a call would save a lot of time and effort on the part of the rescuer. 

I hope the little guy does okay. If I weren't already so committed to companion animal rescue, I'd enjoy volunteering for one of the wildlife centers. Perhaps when I retire...

Average Jane's First Place

Last weekend, my husband and I drove out to the town where I lived when we first met, to get our favorite Chinese fast food. While we were in the neighborhood, we decided to cruise by the horrible little duplex where I lived back then.

Surprisingly, it had been significantly improved since I lived there. There was new siding and a new roof and my guess is that the property had to have changed hands because I can't imagine my old landlord paying for those kinds of updates.

When I moved in I had just turned 23, so I was obviously a late bloomer in the "leaving the nest" department. I'd found the place in the newspaper and my first walk-through was enough to convince me that it was worth the $275 a month rent even though it was the only place I looked at. I guess I was really ready to move.

My first act as tenant was to convince the landlord to remove the horrible carpet, which covered perfectly acceptable hardwood floors, and to pay for paint so I could repaint the living room and bedroom. I also had him haul away the unspeakably hideous mattress that lurked in the living room closet behind a Murphy bed frame that I had no intention of using.

For a first apartment, it wasn't too bad once I'd made a few improvements. I spent my own money to buy a couple of boxes of sticky tiles to cover the ruined kitchen floor. The paint and some curtains and Wal-mart blinds did wonders. I covered the bathroom windows in frosted plastic film.

When I moved in, the inside of the oven was so dirty that I thought the enamel was brown. It turned out to be blue once I'd dissolved all the gunk away. I imagine the fridge was horrid as well, but I've blocked the details from memory.

I had minimal furniture, but I did my best to make things match with spray paint. Faux stone finishes were popular at the time and I went through several cans of a teal and black color to complete the early '90s style I was going for. My tiny bedroom had only a twin bed, a dresser, two PA speakers and a mixing board.

The only piece of wall decor I had was a print of Robert Rauschenberg's Rebus that was already there when I moved in. I left it for the next tenant when I moved out.

One of the worst things about the place was the water pressure. There was practically none. In fact, every time I needed to do dishes I would start filling the sink and just walk away because it took so long. I accidentally let it overflow more than once.

The place also lacked a shower, so I was forced to purchase a hose/shower head device that attached to the bathtub faucet. It wasn't really long enough for a proper shower, but it got me by. Of course, the water pressure was just as bad in the bathroom as in the kitchen...

When I moved in, I had one cat named Kato. I could tell he was lonely, so I got a kitten from my vet's office to keep him company. Friday was a pee cat, and her 16-year reign of stinky terror began with the destruction of a really cool mid-century sofa that a boyfriend's parents had given me. Sigh. Fortunately, she was otherwise a lovely kitty.

I liked hanging out in what passed for a yard and I even planted daffodil and tulip bulbs. It's possible that the daffodils remain today.

Because I'd grown up away from the city, it didn't occur to me that it was a bad idea to simply leave my bicycle outside my kitchen door. I didn't notice that someone had stolen it until one day when the boyfriend I had at the time came over to pick me up to go bike riding and it was nowhere to be found.

Later on, after I met my husband-to-be, we decided to get a place closer to where we both worked. The rent at the new apartment was $375 a month. A huge increase! But I could afford it and not long after that, the company where I worked moved less than a mile away from the apartment, which made things even more convenient.

No one was more surprised than I when I received a check for my original deposit on the duplex shortly after I moved out. I hadn't known it at the time I moved in, but I later discovered that my landlord was the most notorious slumlord in the area. From what I could gather, I might have been the only tenant who ever got a deposit refund. I guess my improvements must have outweighed the cat pee smell!

Notes To Average Jane's Dog Regarding Our Workouts

Hi, Toby. Your Gotcha Day is coming up next month, so that means we've been walking and running together for nearly a year. As your coach, I thought this would be a good time to give you a few performance tips that will undoubtedly make things go more smoothly from now on for us both.

Let's start with etiquette, which could use a little refinement in your case. When we encounter a jogger, I know you find it very inspiring. However, you can take my word for it that it makes people uncomfortable when you strain at your leash and try to chase after them. I'm sure your bark is meant as a jaunty "Good morning!" but it usually only serves to startle them.

Then there are the other dogs. While I imagine that your episodes of leaping about and barking furiously are very aerobic, they are really not appropriate behavior in a residential area at the crack of dawn. Also, you weigh 20 pounds and almost every dog we see could eat you for breakfast, which is something you should really have realized on your own by now.

Jogging is something we both enjoy - at least until you abruptly stop to smell something. Our route is 3.4 miles at minimum, so I'd appreciate it if you would consider skipping just a few of the olfactory signatures along the way when we're going full speed. If you trip me and I fall on you, you'd better hope I have my cell phone on me and someone we know is awake to come and scrape us off the pavement. Either way, it would be bad on all counts.

Finally, there are your pit stops. I certainly don't begrudge you the opportunity to avail yourself of them; after all, that's one of the reasons we're out and about. However, it would be great if you could do a little advance planning and get your biological business taken care of when we're either in a neighborhood that has trash pickup that day or downtown where there are plenty of trash cans.

Otherwise, I think we're both getting a lot out of our walks. They're good bonding time, although I understand that as a sighthound you have other priorities while we're outdoors that take precedence over interacting with me. The exercise is great, though, and I think we both enjoy getting to know the neighborhood, the neighbors and their dogs.

Thanks for being my workout buddy and I look forward to traversing the area with you for years to come.

Average Jane Hits A Minor Lull

Things are slowing down a tad as the summer begins to wind down. I'm still just as busy with volunteer work as ever, but the weeks don't feel quite as hectic. Little tricks like squeezing in a quick haircut during my lunch break help make the evenings and weekends less crowded.

That's not to say that I've completely recovered from overscheduling myself. This Saturday alone has four calendar entries.

Still, I'm looking forward to my favorite season and anticipating more crock pot meals, festivals centered around apples and pumpkins, and cozy snuggles at home with the cats and dog and iPad.

I know that's still a month or so away, but I can be patient. In the meantime, I need to get with my sister to schedule a wine tasting that I impulse-purchased over the summer and I'll bet my niece would like to go horseback riding with me when I use the LivingSocial coupon I bought to do so.

Are you looking forward to fall? What's your favorite season?

Average Jane's Glowing Dog

I live on a dead-end street that is not big on infrastructure. There are no sidewalks and the streetlights are spaced far apart. Thus, when I need to walk Toby after dark, we can be pretty much invisible, especially since I generally wear dark colors. One of my neighbors even made a point to caution me that the dog and I were hard to see when we walked up the street at night.

When I saw a blogger outreach call for Safe Glow dog collars, I was immediately interested. The company sent me a free collar (a $29.95 value) in blue, and Toby and I have been using it for several weeks now.

As described by the company, the collar is made from "wear-resistant nylon and it houses a flexible, light-transmitting polymer core that illuminates when the collar is turned on. A reflective stripe adds additional safety by providing passive reflectivity. Powered by a super-efficient (100,000 hour) LED bulb."

It has three "on" settings, two of which make the lights flash, which I don't personally like. However, the regular non-flashing setting is impressively bright and provides enough light to illuminate the ground in the front of the dog. I don't know what it looks like from a distance, but I imagine that between the light and the reflective strip, it would make an oncoming driver at least pause to see what was up.

The collar is rather wide, so when I put it on Toby above his other collars (thin leather collar with tags and Sentry Calming collar), it rides pretty high on his little neck. Thus, I only have him wear it for outdoor excursions. The clasp is nice and solid yet easy to release, so that hasn't been a problem.

I happen to have a lighted leash as well, but I like the collar a lot more because unlike the leash, the light glows uniformly in a wide strip around the circumference of the collar. The leash has LEDs spaced several inches apart and I wonder if that's ideal for visibility.

Now that sunrise is coming later, I think I'm going to start having Toby wear the collar for our early morning walks. I'm always concerned that a sleepy driver might not see us crossing the street, but it feels as though are odds are better if the dog is sporting a bright blue glow.

I was quite impressed with the quality and operation of these collars and I'd recommend them for anyone who walks a dog on the street. Visit the dog training collars site to check them out!

Standard disclaimer: Although I received this product at no charge, the opinions noted here are my own.

Average Jane Has Her Work Cut Out for Her

My husband has been running his recording studio for quite a few years now and his persistence has finally started to pay off. He's had a busy year and he's starting to look around the studio and figure out how to optimize it for more steady business.

One of his hobbies is trading music gear. That makes sense in this economy because no one is really buying much musical equipment. Trades allow musicians to get new (to them) gear to play with without any exchange of cash. However, he's done a few too many trades of small things (snare drums, guitars) for large things (drum sets). So now the studio is almost literally wall to wall drum kits. They're stacked up, but they still take up a ton of room and they need to be moved somewhere else.

This morning, my husband announced that he was going to get a storage unit for his drums. Now I've seen enough episodes of Storage Wars to have a strong negative opinion of the idea of taking a bunch of your valuable stuff and leaving it in someone else's possession. Not only does the expense add up, but the risk and sheer hassle factor are high.

Seriously, if you're going to spend $840 a year to store drum kits, you might as well just give one away every year until they're gone.

I countered that he should store his excess gear in our basement instead. That's where all my music gear resides. It's secure behind two sets of locked doors, a consistent temperature year 'round, and we have a dehumidifier running 24/7.

The only problem is that the shelves are currently occupied with a bunch of my dad's old business records and outdated printed materials. The majority of it can be discarded now, but it will need to be shredded, preferably on-site or in some other secure fashion.

I'm sure you can see where this is going. We've netted out with me agreeing to get the shelves cleared off within the next month or so. 

I really do think that the basement is the best option for this. It may need a little visit from the exterminator first, just to keep the spider levels to a minimum, but otherwise it's perfect. Or it will be.

Average Jane Switches Veterinarians

We've been going to the same veterinary office for our various generations of cats and now the dog since 1995. I can't say we ever really liked them, but they were close to home and that's a plus when you have assorted critters who hate riding in the car.

Over the years, the things I didn't appreciate about them started to add up:

• The time my cat, Friday, got shot with a pellet gun and was still limping long after it healed. The vet told me they could give her muscle relaxants but, "She'll probably always be like this." I ended up seeking out the only veterinary chiropractor in the area at the time (40 miles away) and getting her treated there. She was good as new after one adjustment.
• Then there was Xena's spaying ordeal. She wouldn't leave her stitches alone and had to go to the vet repeatedly for a month before she could have her E-collar removed. My husband handled all of that and I recall that he wasn't thrilled with how the vet reacted to his difficult kitteh wife.
• There were little things, too, like the fact that they never acknowledged the email that I sent to let them know that our cat Velcro had died at home.

Toby's ongoing ear problem proved to be the last straw for us. He was obviously suffering and yet the vet dismissed his yipes as him being "dramatic." Last weekend I made an appointment at a clinic a few miles further away and brought the dog to see what more could be done.

I took two things into consideration on my clinic choice. One was that I'd won a $250 credit for any AAHA-certified vet clinic while I was at BlogPaws this year. I also did some crowdsourcing among my pet-loving friends to see which clinics they recommended.

I ended up choosing one that came highly recommended and was AAHA accredited. 

Everything about my visit was top-notch. The office staff were all very friendly and interested in Toby. The facility is new, modern and spotlessly clean. The vet tech and vet immediately began taking samples and running tests, which was a far cry from the other vet's "let's try this medicine and see what happens" approach.

The new medications seem to be doing the trick and I'll be interested in seeing how his ears are looking when we go back for our follow-up visit. Toby is no longer shaking his head and scratching his ears incessantly and it's clear that the new ear drops don't hurt him the way the old ones did.

After just one visit I'm ready to transfer my cats' records over as well. I'm very glad that circumstances conspired to get me to make the change. I think it will benefit my whole family of critters and make me much happier as well!

Average Jane Is Indisposed

Remember when I predicted that my busy schedule would inevitably lead to a crash? Well, yesterday was the day.

On Saturday I spent the morning and early afternoon ferrying cats from store to store for my animal rescue group. Then I did my usual cleaning shift at the pet store, went to dinner, drank some coffee and stayed up late watching Being Human episodes with my husband.

I woke up at my usual time on Sunday (which is to say, way too early considering when I'd gone to bed), took the dog out, fed him, and went straight back to bed for another two hours.

When I got up the second time and made myself a breakfast shake, I had brief thoughts of doing something outdoors to take advantage of the lovely weather. Instead, I goofed around on my iPad until I got sleepy again and then went back to bed for another two hours or so.

The next time I woke up, I managed to at least drag myself up to my office, but I didn't get much accomplished. I stayed up until my husband woke up, thinking that we'd get some food, but forgetting that he was going over to a friend's house. Once he left, I went back to bed again for a third long nap.

Here's what my activity level looked like for the entire day:

The spike you see was when I finally woke up for the day and went outside to clean off the a/c units with the hose. That was followed by dinner and more TV watching which, as you can see, is more activity than pretty much the rest of the day combined. By the way, this is the lowest score I've ever gotten with my Nike+ Fuelband. And yes, I was wearing it all day long.

Fortunately I feel much more energetic today. I wasn't up for a long walk with the dog, but otherwise I'm feeling more or less back to normal. But I think some coffee is called for. Soon.

Morning Coffee With Average Jane

Just felt like stopping in for a quick update on things before I start the day's activities. 

• As predicted, I'm feeling rather sad about not being at BlogHer. I really miss my friends who are there and those who were also unable to make the trip this year. However, the $457 electric bill I just paid tells me that I made the right choice. Boo.
• The band thing may or may not be happening. I'm just going with the flow and waiting it out. 
• The good news is that every time a practice gets canceled, that gives me another evening to stay home and watch Being Human with my husband. We started season three yesterday and it just keeps getting better and better.
• The heat has been murder on my exercise routine, but I'm still trying to get at least three or four walks in each week. 
• I did a bunch of baking last weekend, which was fun. The Lemon Chiffon Pie was a huge hit with my husband and I'll have to make another one soon. I also made a Vinegar Pie for a book club (mostly to find out what they were like). Eh. I doubt I'll make that again. And this reminds me that I have some Molasses Cookie dough left in the fridge from another book club last week. If it rains this weekend and cools down, I'll make them as well.
• Toby's ears are still bothering him, so I'm taking a chance and switching to another vet to see if a new perspective might help. I crowdsourced recommendations from my Facebook friends and went with an AAHA-certified clinic that's not too far away.

That's it for now. I need to go make my breakfast shake and get Toby ready to go. Have a lovely weekend!