Doshin on the Way: December 2011

Since we last checked in, Ms Smokey Rose has had some adventures. I'm not sure what she actually thought of them. I think if I had said in advance "how would you like to do this?" she would have answered, "No, thanks. I'm fine here," but, of course, I'm bigger than she is.

A Vist to the Cemetery

The first adventure was back in late October. On a bright sunny afternoon, I put on her old harness and lead, put her into her carrier box and took her for a little ride about a mile away to the City Cemetery. I found a quiet road and parked in the middle. Then I let her out to see what she thought about this grass thing.

At first she didn't know what to do. She sniffed around the car and the tires a lot. I picked her up and put her onto the grass a couple of times, but she kept coming back to the car. She got a little spooked by cars driving along other roads. (No one drove on the actual road where we were parked.) Then finally she set off very determined across the road to the other side and started up the little hill. Now I had a problem because I had left two of the car doors wide open with my purse and stuff right there. I didn't want to go very far away from the car, so I picked her up again and carried her back.

She just did NOT want to explore the south side where we were parked. Smokey Rose had decided the north side was where it was best. Finally she just gave up fighting with me and got into the car.

After that she was quite content to explore all over the inside of the car. She was especially fond of the place right by the pedals where my feet would be if I were driving.

My car is always filled up with stuff. She had plenty of places to explore and then hide in. Eventually I decided it was time to go home. I had bought one of those animal car seats, like you put a small do into, so I put her in there and fastened her in instead of using the carrier box. At first when we were driving, she was interested in looking out the window, but pretty quickly she jumped out of the seat. She was tethered to it, so she could not go far, just underneath the seat. There she had to stay until we got home because I couldn't pick her up and drive at the same time. I put her back in the carrier box and took here home.

I was encouraged because she did not protest about riding in the car in her carrier box. That bodes well for long distance travel next spring. We'll maybe practice again on another sunny afternoon with the grass. This time I'll park on the north side of the road.

A Visit to the Kitty Doctor

In early December, on a Sunday afternoon, I noticed Ms Smokey was doing a lot of licking under her tail. She was mad at me for doing so, but eventually I got a good look under her tail. I found she has licked away all the hair under the actual tail, and the skin there was bright red. The whole area did not look good really, but it was hard for me to see well.

I thought about it for awhile and decided to take her to the vet ER. A storm was coming in and I knew I would not have time during working hours to take her any place on either Monday or Tuesday, so I decided it was prudent to get her checked out rather than wait to see if she got better...or more likely worse.

So we went for another drive down to Cottonwood. She did quite well in the box in the car. We had to wait awhile because there were several animals there that day. The techs took her to the back and cleaned her butt off (I heard some yelling for a few seconds), and then we settled into a room to wait to see the doctor.

Ms Smokey explored the room and then settled down to wait. I had my kitting so I was fine. Eventually the nice doctor came to meet her. Together we had a real good look at her bottom which was indeed inflamed all over. The doctor decided to be aggressive in treating her, given her history. We went home with oral medication, prescription cream and the collar.

The collar did not make her happy. I made her wear it for two days. She got better quickly with the treatment and has been fine since. But I am keeping a really close eye on her bottom even if she doesn't like that. Too bad, so sad, must do, boo hoo.

A Visit From a Photographer

Our final adventure was a home visit from Miss Sarah, the photographer from Best Friends. Sarah is obviously very good with getting nice pictures of animals. Ms S. Rose was pretty leery for a long time. She was interested in Sarah, and couldn't help but play with the toys we offered her. But given the chance, Rosie tried to run away and hide. I had prudently locked her out of the bedroom before Sarah arrived. I think if Rosie had been able to get into the bedroom, she would have just gone under the bed and then no more pictures after that.

Eventually I more or less forced myself upon the little lady. I kind of held her down and petted her even if she did not seem to want it. But she had this look on her face that made Sarah say, "Oh you know you want to, you want it bad. Don't be so stubborn; just give in and relax."

Sarah stayed about an hour. She took stills and some video. She said she got some good pictures. Today I was interviewed by a writer from Best Friends. he said Smokey Rose's story will appear after the first of the year on the website and maybe even in the magazine or on a YouTube video. I'll let you all know. I don't think we'll be doing interviews or autographs though. I think Ms Rosie would not really enjoy a book tour.

I walked at Red Butte last weekend, checking out all my gardens. A lot was all torn up, not looking that good, ready for winter.

Here's part of the rose garden, for example. You can see there is some snow that has stayed because of the elevation that's higher than the city.

Right now you have to find the beauty in the shapes and textures.

Many grasses still look good.

The hardscapes and art are always lovely.

And the vistas are mighty fine, as usual.

I was fascinated by the look of the roses blossoms that had frozen on the plants. We did not cut off all the flowers because that encourages new growth which we did not want towards the end of October, so there were plenty of these really interesting rose flowers to check out.