Poo-dle Update

The New Hotness seems to be fine. Tired, but fine. The Rickety Fat Dog is happy he's got his playmate back.

The vet said since he stopped throwing up and the diahrrea had mostly cleared up, he could go home Saturday morning. I figure he probably ate a pinecone or drank out of a puddle--he's bad about doing that--and got a tummy bug. Our vet is a pretty upfront guy and doesn't believe in making you spend more money than you should, while providing the proper care. He said if Hotness continued being ill, then he would run tests but that he wanted to try the antibiotic and anti-nausea stuff first and monitor his response.

When he diagnosed the Old Cranky Dog (may he rest in peace) with lymphoma, he told me that he was 99% sure that this was what was wrong with the dog, having had 2 dogs of his own die from the same thing. He prescribed some people cancer-type drugs and said if Cranky didn't respond to them, then he was 100% sure of the lymphoma diagnosis. He said that it would be less expensive to try these drugs, because the other option was a biopsy. But, more importantly, he said, that at Old Cranky's advanced age (16), he felt it would be cruel and unusual to put the dog through that. We were perfectly willing to shell out whatever it took, and he knew that, but it's not his philosophy. He was very upfront about Cranky's prognosis and eventual decline, and I appreciate his honesty and candor when it comes to dealing with Satan's poodles.

Last night, I attempted the Chicken Fricassee we made in class and I have to do for my practical final in a couple of weeks. It turned out pretty well--the sauce wasn't as thick as the one Chef made, but it had a good flavor. In the process of making it, I discovered that I have mislaid my knife kit...not good. The only thing I can think of is that I was in such a hurry to get out of class on Wednesday to not be late to the volunteer event, because the other chef had really stressed that we not be late, that I forgot to grab it off the shelf with my backpack. Chef had asked me to help him with packing up some stuff in the walk-in at the end of class, so I was doing that when the other class came in and piled all their stuff on the rack where we put our stuff, so it must have gotten lost in the confusion. I cannot believe I did that, and I 'm really hoping that someone noticed and put it in the Chef's office, or the rest of the shiny new paycheck and then some is definitely gone. Maybe the whack on my head from Tuesday affected me more than I thought--short-term memory is always the first to go, isn't it?