Tag Archives: home alone

Iceland, United States

Charlie’s first week as a Deutscher Dog…

As of today, our new rescue dog, Charlie, has been here for a week. Charlie has been spending his first week in Germany with Noyzi and me, because Bill had to go to the States on business. He was in Texas for a few days, and now he’s in Utah with his mom, visiting his daughter, son-in-law and their four children.

This is a pretty special visit for Bill and his mom, because they had little to do with Bill’s daughter or her older sister after Bill divorced their mother in 2000. His absence in their lives was not because Bill didn’t want to be their dad. It was because their mother decided to punish him by alienating the children and telling them multiple lies about him and the nature of their divorce. Through it all, Bill faithfully paid $2550 a month– $850 each for his daughters, and $850 for his ex stepson, who was also estranged from his father, who didn’t pay child support. Ex also has two more children with her third husband.

Maybe it seems wrong for me to mention this stuff on my travel blog, but I never miss the chance to have Bill’s back. People love to blame men when marriages fall apart. It pisses me off that his ex wife denied him access to his children, especially since I would have loved to have been able to have children with him. That couldn’t happen, though, for a few reasons. So here I sit… a dog mom to many and barely qualifying as a stepmom. I have only met Bill’s daughters in person once, and that was in 2003. The older one is still estranged, but the younger one came around a few years ago. Fortunately, she’s a lot like Bill. It’s a pleasure to know her, if only by courtesy of the Internet.

I decided I didn’t want to go to the States with Bill on this trip. I had a few reasons for not going. First, and foremost, I really felt like Bill needed more time to bond with his daughter without me around. He saw her last in March 2020, just as COVID-19 was messing up the world. That visit was just for two nights; it was the first time they’d seen each other in person since 2004. Just after he came home from that trip, everything shut down. Since then, she’s had two more children and moved to a new home.

I also wanted Bill’s mom to visit her. She lives in Texas, and hasn’t seen Bill’s kids since the late 1990s. Bill’s ex wife despises her, and cut her out of the girls’ lives in favor of Bill’s dad and stepmother. So this trip is the first time my mother-in-law is able to see her younger granddaughter in about 25 years. I thought it would be best, given that the trip would be pretty short, that they have some time together.

There’s also a much more selfish reason why I didn’t go. I didn’t want to sit on a plane for many hours just to sit in Killeen, Texas all week. I haven’t been to the USA since November 2014, and I want my first trip back there to be about seeing people I love. I don’t love Texas, even though I still vote there. My decision to stay in Germany turned out to be a good thing, given the recent computer SNAFUs in the US. Bill ended up being stuck in Detroit for hours after he landed in the United States. I’m glad I wasn’t involved with that.

My decision to stay home also means that I can be here with Noyzi and Charlie. It saves us money, and helps Charlie assimilate. However, Charlie really hasn’t needed any help assimilating. He’s fit right in and, aside from a few marking episodes, he’s even managed to be about 95 percent potty trained. He’s picked a spot to sleep in, and is now even using the expensive dog bed we bought in Jettingen for Zane and Arran that barely got used.

Charlie is quiet, cute, enthusiastic, and always super friendly. He was even adorable a few nights ago, when he slipped out the front door and started running down to my neighbors’ row houses. Fortunately, those houses are fused together, so I managed to corner him before he slipped through a crack in a fence near their garage. I wasn’t wearing shoes or street clothes when this happened, but luckily no one was any the wiser.

None of my neighbors have met Charlie yet, and he doesn’t yet have his Tasso tag. It could have been a real disaster if he’d gotten away. Somehow, I think he would have found his way back, though. He’s a street dog, and they are smart and resilient. He wasn’t scared or trying to escape. He was just curious and wanting to explore.

Every day, we’ve taken walks around the neighborhood. He’s getting to know his new environment, and he and Noyzi seem to get along fine. They aren’t total buddies, but they don’t fight or bother each other. Noyzi stays in his room, and Charlie hangs out in my office. I can’t believe he’s only been here a week. It feels like he’s been here a lot longer.

There have been a few very short play sessions. I think Noyzi’s getting a little arthritic, though. He’s been a little gimpy all week, although he does seem to be slightly better than he was a few days ago. We’re going to have him examined by the vet, probably at the same time we get Charlie checked in with a well visit.

My big plan for today involves going to the grocery store. I don’t often go, as Bill usually picks up stuff on his way home from work. So, even though I can walk to the store from our house, going there still manages to be kind of a production. I’ve really fallen into a pretty boring lifestyle lately… It’s kind of stormy and rainy today, anyway.

The good news is, we now have firm plans for Iceland. Bill has already wired the money for our bespoke tour with Iceland Luxury Tours. I booked business class seats on Icelandair a few days ago. So, from August 29-September 7, we’ll be visiting a place I’ve never seen, and Bill only got to see on a very short business trip in 2008. The trip is paid for, and we’re just waiting for the big day to arrive!

I thought about flying on Lufthansa, so we could score more frequent flyer points, but the flights available were significantly more expensive and operated at a less optimal time. Icelandair isn’t in the same rewards system Lufthansa is… but the good news is, it is in Air France’s program. And although I’m in Air France’s reward program, I don’t have any points! It’s been ten years since I last flew on Air France– and that was to go home to Virginia for my dad’s memorial service. So here’s a chance to try a new airline to me, and to score some Flying Blue points.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Iceland. I’m sure it will be enchanting! I can’t wait to take and share the photos. I also have a feeling I’m going to enjoy the people. This tour is costing a bundle, but so far, it’s not as expensive as last year’s Scandinavian extravaganza… That was a longer trip with more people, but less personal attention than what we’ll be getting in Iceland. The tour company gets really outstanding reviews, so I’m sure we’ll be in good hands!

Well… that about does it for today’s post. I look forward to later in the day, when Bill wakes up and tells me about his first day seeing his family. I look forward to hearing from his mom, too. I’m sure she is absolutely delighted!

Edited to add: After I went to the store, I took the boys for a walk, and they met Isabel, our very young and pretty neighbor. Noyzi absolutely ADORES Isabel, and Charlie was happy to meet her, too.

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Arran update…

Arran went in for another Vincristine chemo treatment yesterday. I think we might be at week #16, but I’m not positive. I told the vet about his swollen lymph nodes, which have gotten bigger since I first noticed their enlarged sizes on Saturday. She looked dismayed and we made plans to come in after a week, rather than in two weeks. When we got home, there was a small traffic jam in our cul-de-sac. Our neighbor’s daughter had left her car running next to her parking spot. The car and a trash can prevented me from getting to our house. Someone else was behind me, too.

I put Arran in the house, then came out to move the car to the driveway, only to be confronted by our neighbor, who was trying to park her car in the spot next to ours. I finally just turned the car around and parked in front of the house. Maybe I’ll move the car later today, while no one is home.

Aside from the larger lymph nodes, Arran has mostly been his usual, bright, colorful, spotted self. He happily took a walk yesterday and woke me at 3:00 AM for his breakfast. Then, he wanted his dinner twelve hours later. He got it at 4:00 PM, as that was an hour before our appointment. He wolfed it down.

All was fine after the chemo, until sometime around 9:00, when I suddenly smelled the familiar stench of dog shit. It was a rather messy pile he’d left for me in the living room. This isn’t actually that unusual for Arran. He’s never been 100 percent perfect at housetraining, in spite of my best efforts to teach him the right way.

I cleaned up the mess and went back upstairs to chat with Bill. At about 11:30 PM, Arran woke me up with a concerned look on his face. He was trembling a bit. I asked him if he wanted to go out. He eagerly jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. I let him go outside and he immediately pooped again. Then, he acted like he still needed to go, but nothing was coming out. He ran back inside and tried to go again in the living room. I shooed him outside, where he tried a couple more times for a moment. Finally, the compulsion seemed to have passed. We went back to bed.

Of course, by that point, I was freaked out and wide awake. I was wondering if I’d need to load Arran into the car and take him to the Tierklinik Hofheim, a high speed veterinary facility nearby that we’ve used a few times over the past four years. The funny thing is, when we still lived near Stuttgart and our dog, Zane, was the one with health issues, our vet down there suggested the Tierklinik Hofheim as one of the best vet hospitals in Germany. At that time, it was over two hours away by car. Now, it’s maybe 20 minutes away.

I don’t really know exactly how to get to the Tierklinik Hofheim, because Bill always takes the dogs there without me. And although the car has a GPS, I never use it. I don’t even know how I’d turn it on. I do know kind of where it is, and I have an excellent knack for finding things. But that doesn’t mean I want to go hunting for it in the middle of the night during an emergency. Looking at their Web site, I see that face masks are now optional at the Tierklinik Hofheim. The same isn’t true at our regular vet’s office.

I laid next to Arran and stroked him. He sighed and relaxed, and soon he was sleeping peacefully. It took me a bit longer to drop off, so I read more of my latest book before finally falling asleep.

I woke up at about 4:15 AM. Arran woke up a few minutes later, and was keen to eat breakfast. I fed him and Noyzi, then went back to bed to try to sleep a bit more. I ended up dry heaving, for some reason. I didn’t drink a lot of alcohol last night. I suspect it was an attack of GERD, which tends to strike when I don’t eat right, drink too much, and experience stress. I have to admit, it was pretty stressful dealing with Arran last night.

At about 6:30 AM, I finally turned on Alexa Thunderstorm, which worked surprisingly well… I dozed for about an hour before I finally got up to make some coffee. I probably would have actually slept, if Arran hadn’t repeatedly been licking his asshole.

He’s now lying in my office, just like he usually does when I’m writing… Noyzi has started doing that, too. At least I’ll always have a doggy buddy when I blog.

The vet said she would look to see if there were other drugs we could try, how expensive they would be, and how onerous administering them would be. I told her that we are not in a hurry to lose Arran, but we’re also not expecting miracles. Zane had lymphoma, too. We know how this will end.

But, amazingly enough, Arran still seems very interested in living. His eyes are bright; his ears perk up; and he’s still got his indomitable personality. The vet tested his blood yesterday, and aside from having slightly low platelets, the results weren’t too alarming. He got a dose of Endoxan this morning, which seems to make him sleepy.

Arran is a very special dog, and we don’t want to lose him. I know we will, and it likely won’t be too much longer. He needs to stick around until tomorrow, when Bill comes home.

My computer is in a death spiral and won’t play music without hanging up repeatedly. Since I make music on my computer, this is a fireable offense. It also freezes up randomly, even after I quit unnecessary processes and dump large files. I ordered a new computer a couple of days ago. Hopefully, very soon, I’ll have my snazzy new machine.

He’s still such a scrapper.

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The waiting is the hardest part…

Today’s featured photo was taken at our neighborhood Rewe, which appears to be very gay friendly… The Rewe could use an Apoteke.

A week from now, barring any disasters, Bill will be home from his latest TDY. For some reason, this one has been harder for me than the previous ones have been. I think it’s a combination of the many months we’ve been locked down, bored, and the many weeks he’s had to travel on business. This time, he’s half vaccinated. At the end of the month, he’ll get his second injection. I’ll get mine on June 9th. Then, maybe we can start doing some normal stuff again. As Tom Petty used to sing, “the waiting is the hardest part”…

One of many great singers from my youth who have died since I’ve lived in Germany. I always seem to be in Europe when icons die. I was even in Europe when Princess Diana was killed, back in 1997. It seems to be my destiny to spend time here.

I had a bit of unexpected drama last night. On Friday, we got some new toys for the dogs. Arran had recently destroyed a little blue gorilla that he loved. It was a Kong toy, so it had lasted awhile, though not as long as some of the others we’ve had. I try to cycle the really damaged toys out, even if they are much beloved. I don’t want the boys chewing on toys that are raggedy because they can end up swallowing things they shouldn’t. That seems to be especially true in Noyzi’s case. A few months ago, he swallowed part of an old toy that had been three pieces. Arran had long ago shredded the other parts of the monkey– the toy part had come from– but there was still a leg with squeakers in it. Arran would play with it.

At the time that happened, Bill was at home. He took Noyzi to our vet; they gave him a shot to make him vomit; and he puked up the part of the toy he’d swallowed. It was an old toy, though, so I have been careful to get rid of the ones that get too torn up. Friday, I gave the boys four brand new Kong toys. Kong toys are known for being very tough. But the raccoon toy I got the other day was not as sturdy as the other rope toys I’ve been giving them.

Last night, I came downstairs at about 6:00pm to find that Noyzi had “skinned” the toy raccoon, leaving the head and tail, and the rope innards. I was glad he hadn’t destroyed the head, since that was where the squeaker was. But he had apparently swallowed the “fur”. Fortunately, this particular toy, by design, didn’t have a lot of polyester batting in it.

Immediately, I started thinking I’d need to get him to the emergency vet– Tierklinik Hofheim, specifically, since our vet wasn’t open. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get him into Bill’s Volvo. He’s too big and cumbersome for me to get him into the car by myself. I don’t think he’s too heavy… he’s about 63 pounds, and I can lift that. But he’s long and tall and not very cooperative. After a few minutes of trying to wrestle with him, I gave up.

Then I went looking for hydrogen peroxide, which can be used as an emetic in dogs. I thought we had some on hand, but it turned out we didn’t have any. And Germany, unlike the United States, doesn’t dispense things like hydrogen peroxide at the grocery store. You have to get it at the Apotheke. It also costs a lot more there than it does at US stores. So I went looking to see if any nearby drug stores were open. The one at the nearby Globus was open, but when I tried to get there, I got turned around and wound up in a strange neighborhood. I’m not used to driving Bill’s car… I would have driven mine, but it’s in the garage, and the Volvo was in the driveway. Then, when I got back, I couldn’t get the car parked in the driveway again. I know I should have been able. The Volvo has cameras and park assist, and of course, GPS… I can’t get used to using those things. I don’t trust them.

So I worried all night, although Noyzi was pretty much normal. I came down in the middle of the night to check on him, and he greeted me sweetly each time. I obsessively read a bunch of articles on the signs of a blockage, and finally got ahold of Bill, who said if I needed help with Noyzi, someone from the office could come over. This morning, I found Noyzi lying on his back with his legs in the air. When he saw me, he rolled onto his side and wagged his tail. I kept hoping he’d poop… because again, “the waiting is the hardest part.” A good poop is a good start on the way to recovery from something like this.

I just took the boys for a short walk. It was a short walk because it’s raining. Just afterwards, I let Noyzi in the backyard. For some reason, he doesn’t like to go potty when he’s taking a walk. Arran is just the opposite. Anyway, after a few minutes, he came out, took a whiz, then took a fairly normal looking poop with bits of toy in it. I suspect there might be more bits in his next constitutional, but at this point, I’m not too worried about him needing emergency vet care. He seems to feel better, too, even though he wasn’t that distressed in the first place.

I guess I’ve learned a few things from this experience. The first thing is that we need to train Noyzi to get in the car by himself. If it had been Arran (or the late Zane), it wouldn’t have been a problem getting the dog loaded. Both Zane and Arran fit in the Mini, too. But Noyzi needs the Volvo and has to ride in the cargo area. He needs to learn to get in by himself, because I’m not getting any younger or stronger.

Next– I need to buy some hydrogen peroxide to keep around for these kinds of emergencies. Noyzi has proven that he likes to eat toys. All of the new ones are out of reach, for now.

Next– I need to stop being such a luddite. I have yet to embrace GPS technology because I find the voice prompts distracting and annoying. But the GPS could have gotten me to Globus last night. And the park assist could have gotten the Volvo into the driveway. I have been able to park in the driveway before, by the way, but I was not in the right frame of mind for it last night.

I need to drive more, too… I just don’t enjoy driving if I have nowhere specific to be. Hopefully, with the availability of the vaccines, that won’t be so much of a problem for too much longer.

I was feeling pretty frustrated, though. I’ve been in Germany for years and I know how most things work here. But I’m still getting to know this area where we live, mainly due to the COVID-19 nightmare. I don’t know a lot of people up here, so being here alone is pretty stressful. I have fewer people to call in case of emergency. And I’m really tired of Bill’s constant business trips. The good news is, he thinks they’ll be done after this one… at least for the time being. I hope he’s right.

He’s perfectly happy. This was what he looked like last night, as I was fretting.

Anyway, I think Noyzi is going to be just fine. I guess I need to watch him more closely when there are toys around. At least until he learns that toys are for playing with, not eating. Sometimes, though, I do miss how things are in the United States… not that I’m hankering to move yet. I just want Bill to come home and fix me a martini and tell me it’s all gonna be okay. Just a few more days to go.

Edited to add: Two more dumps littered with toy debris have appeared… and they were both perfect. After each one, Noyzi seemed even happier and more energetic.

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