SocketCreep

I will be in the Outer Banks, North Carolina at that time. The last time I was there, the night sky was absolutely magnificant. I plan to take my telescope with me then. I just hope the sky is not too busy with stars to interfere with my ability to find Mars. (the telescope I have is very hard to even find the moon!) Y3K -- Start Early

How about sending in a cat to distact them both. Y3K -- Start Early

It wasn't her that was affected, it was her daughter who knew nothing of the burritos! LOL! Y3K -- Start Early

I have a friend at work who was sitting with her daughter's dog for a while. On the last day she had the dog, she fed it a leftover barrito from Taco Bell. Later that day when the daughter was taking the dog back home, the barritos wanted back out. And in the close quarters of the car, the daughter was just about to die. My friend was in tears from laughter when she was telling us this story. Y3K -- Start Early

Thanks Sudo. The meds I took initially was due to desparation and a pharmacy not being available that late. I don't know about the infection, just that he was trying to have the antibiotics there to fight it up front. The steroid is METHYLPREDNISOLONE DOSPA (MEDROL) which I took 6 the first day, five the next and so on till they are gone. It seems to be working for the pain so far. Can an antibiotic fight an infection if the infection has no place to drain? Y3K -- Start Early

Hey Sudo, I hope you can add some encouragement here. I got a root canal last Wed. No big deal, I've inherited bad teeth from both sides of my family, so, I had a few. Once the numbness wore off there was some residual pain. Again, no big deal. I've had the residual pain for as much as a couple days later. This time though, it got worse and worse till on Sat night, I was climbing the walls. Over the counter pain killers like Ora-Jel would not even touch the pain. My mouth would get all numb in that area but the pain screamed over the numbness. Finally after taking some Excedrine Migrane and rubbing a crushed asprin directly on the area, I was able to get some sleep. I went to the dentist again on Monday, and he looked at the X-ray he took post procedure last Wed, and said, "I think I see your problem" He said this doesn't happen often, but it does happen, where the fill material protrudes out past the end of the tooth into the upper gum area. I can see how this would happen occasionally. He gave me a prescription for some strong anti-inflamatory steroids, Tylenol 3 with codine, and Amoxicillan for any infection that may occur. He said that after a week, if everything does not calm down and heal the way it is, he may have to do minor surgery to shave off the end of the root to smoothe it back down. Please pray with me that the medicines work, and when the prescriptions run out, there is no pain left. I do not wish to go through that last alternative he gave me. He is a good dentist and have all the confidence in the world in his ability. Sh1t happens sometimes. But it's my mouth and it hurts. The only thing that I am questioning now is, he looked at an X-ray made the day of the root canal. He must have seen this as a possibility then, and just hoped it would not cause any problem. He did not take any new X-rays at all to see any change. My initial thought was that maybe the fill material was close to the end, and a bite into a hard substance pushed it all the way through the end. But it looks that it was through before I left the office. Y3K -- Start Early

Well, first you have to get a few good radar guided missiles and the radars to guide them. Then you shoot them at all the airplanes in the dogfight. what? Oh, sorry, wrong kind of dogfight....

Thank you very much. I have not been at GS for about a month and did not know this was here till just now! I had a great day, but it wasn't playing. I love yous guys too. Sorry I didn't see it sooner. You are all great. ps. Since I can't stand too much heat, I opted for no candles this year!

Thank you Dot.

Got back from the Vet today, after our cat's first checkup. Clean bill of health, with negative results for feline luekemia and distemper. We will schedule her to be spayed soon. The Vet said 'Oreo' is a calico, with only traces of the brown, and hardly no white at all. So she is a bit unusual for a calico. She is adjusting nicely to her new home. She has claimed the one end of the couch as her nap place. She didn't seem to sleep much the first couple of days, but slept a lot today. I guess she was excited by all the changes in her life, and was restless. Now she seems to be catching up. Thanks for all the input by all who contributed here on this thread. There is a lot of good advice that anyone reading will benefit from, not just me. Love to all.

Posting pictures Dot, You need to have a place that is available 24x7 like an ISP or a Personal Website from your ISP to copy your pictures to. Then you can link to them like you did with your successful attempts. Contact your ISP, most give you limited space for a personal site, and will have instructions on how to post your pictures to that site. Usually FTP, CuteFTP,... Now, I need a way to get digital pictures. I can go about it through the back door. I can make a short video tape with my camcorder, capture that into my computer, then take a digital still from a selected frame. I don't know yet what kind of quality that will yield, but it will work. We'll see how it works. It will be a while before I can try.

Name for the Cat... My daughter has not settled on one yet, but has thoughout the day called it Kitty, Tory, and now Oreo. I told her Oreo would be realy good for a black and white cat. But when I left for work today, the name was still Oreo. I told her to pick a name that will stay, so the cat would know who she was. But I don't really think cats listen to humans that much to notice. The tinge of orange is more tan/brown than actual orange. There is no pattern to it, just off-color hairs mixed in with the black.

Dot, your dogs are precious. Rottie, yours is very hansome.

Well, We now have a pet!! And you'll never quess what breed of dog it is. The reason you will never quess what breed of dog it is, is that the fact is, it isn't a dog! It is a CAT!!! We took our daughter to look at the dogs in the shelter (Link Above) and she did not like any one particular dog enough to see it one-on-one. So we then took a look at the cats and she fell in love with a 4-5 month old Domestic Short Hair, Mostly black with a tinge of orangish brown mixed in. On a dog I think they call it brindle. Anyway we let the cat explore her new home all day, keeping close tabs on her. She was very curious and looked into everything, and tried to run as we got too close. We gave her the space she needed, and occasionally approached her and petted her. After an hour or so, she started to really warm up to us. When our daughter first saw the cat, there was a first choice on the cat, so we signed up as second choice. I took my wife to see the cat today, while our daughter was at the grandparents, and the first choice had not claimed the cat yet. A call was made to the first choice, but no one was home, so we got the cat! Our daughter won't she it till tomorrow when she gets back home and will be very surprised, because we haven't told her yet that we were able to get the cat. I can't wait.

Happy Anniversary!!!

I was talking to one of the third-shift people that was relieving us about good dogs for children. He said he actually has a few pure bred Beagles for sale. About 1 year old. I understand they are great with kids, but tend to be outdoor dogs and these are not house broken yet. I think it is too cold here in upstate NY to have a dog outside, so I wonder if a dog that is 1 year old is too old to house train, and if they can adapt to the indoors. I just got back from the Saratoga County Animal Shelter and looked at what they have to offer. They were all fired up when I went in to look at them. They must have been feeding off each other's energy. I would hope they would be calmer in individual settings. I think my daughter would be overwhelmed by all the excitement and barking. Here is the link to their site. They had a cute Beagle there, but the caretaker said it snaps a bit. Saratoga Count Animal Shelter Their fees for adoptions were VERY nice. About $15-20. There is a $35 spay/nueter fee that is reimbursed upon proof that you had it done. They had a lot of Pitbulls and Pitbull mixes. There has been a lot of press up here lately about Pitbulls attacking people and children. I don't even consider one of them an option. They had some really cute cats there also.

I went to breedselector and this is what came up for me...

FireBee, That is great news about your prospective pet. I hope this topic to some degree helped in that goal. Watered Garden, We are considering adult dogs, which is generally what you would find at a shelter. The only thing is, there is no way of knowing with a 100% surety, what to expect of the animal. There may have been some trauma in its past that will surface unexpectedly. With a puppy at least we would be in control of its experience. I did not know about the ailments of the larger breeds, and that is good to know. The other thing is the cost of feeding. Larger breeds will eat more, and we don't want to bite off more than we can chew. :D--> That chocolate was sure a cutie. Hope, your dog is a cutie also. I looked at that breed on the akc site and saw there are two type, with and without hair. How weird. I have noticed that on the akc site, there is a lot of political correctness in discriptions of the dogs. I think I am starting to understand what each is saying. for example: 1) Thinks for itself---Is hard to train 2) very curious---gets into everything 3) high enery---very active 4) wary of strangers---will bark alot 5) very protective---might be a danger to other children/adults in play situations Am I right on these? Now I am off to check out those links posted earlier.

TheHighway, You are correct, the Boston Terrier is not in the Terrier Group. I did not doubt you, just have been looking at so many dogs lately, I didn't remember correctly. Thanks.

A lot of activity on this topic! Glad to see it sparked some good natured idea exchanges. Thanks to all. I will check out the links maybe tomorrow. It is busier than normal at work tonight, and I have my priorities... Just another quick question, What kind of costs are involved with adopting a pet from a rescue or shelter? As far as purebreds go, I believe they have a higher consistency for temperment. Mutts could have a lot of unknown attitude input. I know that training can overcome a lot, but I believe their natural instinct can override training at times. Is this correct? I was just trying to pull up that akc.org site to see for sure, but I thought the Boston Terrier is in the terrier family, but it seems to be down at the moment. I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks again for all the responses. It is nice to have a fun topic.

Dot, The English Spaniel and Bishon were also my choices. Vey cute OUr daughter is soon to be 8 years old. Old enough to not rough-house with them. She had an incident several years ago where a playful dog came up to her from behind and jumped on her back, knocking her down. This frightened her quite a bit, but she is almost over that. At the Pet store, she did not want to get down on the floor with it, but enjoyed watching it play with me. I think having a puppy that she can grow accustomed to as it grows will help here to completely overcome that other playful dog.

Rottie, I got most of my research info from www.akc.org and they said the same thing about pet stores. We just went it to see the dogs and play with them a bit. I look forward to your test. Thanks BTW, once we decide for sure, I will look into animal shelters for a pet also. I think it would be good for our daughter to see the dog in an adult version too, just to get a different perspective. They don't stay puppies for long!

Our daughter has expressed the desire to have a pet dog, and I think we are ready also. She seems to really like the Golden Retriever or a Yellow Lab. We stopped into a pet store at the mall and saw a Chocolate Lab puppy. We all fell in love with it and decided to name it Hershey if we got it. I started doing some research on the Golden Retriever, and the Labs. I found that either would make an excellant pet, and companion for our daughter. The only serious drawback are the sizes these dogs grow to be. Our first home has a large fenced-in back yard, but the house itself is on the small size. Probably too small for one of these dogs. I then looked at smaller breeds and found several. The one that I seem to gravitate toward is the Boston Terrier. It is small so it can cuddle in your lap, won't eat as much, has an easy care coat, and most importantly, does great with children. It is not quite as cute as other breeds, but is very dignified and neat looking. Do any of you dog owners have any advice to give us as we search?

Well, Sorry for blowing my own horn here, but I just wanted everyone to know that I have been extremely blessed to have shared the last 11 years with my wonderful helpmeet. She is the stability for my whimsical ways. She is the filler of my dreams. I don't know where I would be without her. This is a public announcement of my undying love for my "Sweet Potato".

Mike, If what VPW spoke was "God Breathed", then what was the wind that came out his other end?