Updates

Kitties:

Hobbes is feeling much better. He was the first to be sick and about a week later Calvin got the Upper Respiratory Infection. I first took Hobbes to a local vet that was recommended to me by someone at Petsmart the night we adopted them. They gave me one type of antibiotic that had to be administered twice a day. We tried to shoot it into his mouth with the syringe, but that was hugely unsuccessful. So we just mixed it in with some wet food and he ate it all up. 

Then I took them both to the on base vet. Since our neighborhood is considered an “Air Force Installation”, the kitties had to be micro chipped and registered on base. That vet gave me some eye ointment for Hobbes that also had to be given twice a day. That didn’t happen. It took both of us to administer it which only happened in the evening and he absolutely hated it. 

Then Calvin started sneezing a lot and had watery eyes (which were the first symptoms we noticed with Hobbes). And Hobbes didn’t seem to be getting any better. So a few days later I took Hobbes back to the original vet. He gave me a stronger antibiotic and some other kind of medicine. The new antibiotic didn’t mix well with the food; Hobbes wouldn’t eat it, at least. So we had to go back to injecting it in his mouth. The first few days he absolutely hated it. But surprisingly after a few days he was very good about it. We got to use the first antibiotic for Calvin, so it wasn’t a big waste of money. 

As I said, they both seem to be feeling much better, so hopefully we’ve made it through our first test as pet owners. 

Missing Caterpillar:

We had a good suggestion to look either under the fridge or the dryer. However, the brown caterpillar was in neither spot. We found the caterpillar under the recliner. Charles had already looked there and didn't see it. But then he sat in the chair and reclined, so maybe it shifted or fell out of up inside the chair, so we're back to three caterpillars. But the kitties definitely prefer the gray caterpillar for some reason. And they don't play with the little mice toys at all. I don't know why.

Greyhound:

On Thursday, we met with the Dayton area representative of Greyhound Adoption of Greater Cincinnati. We met at her house and were introduced to her five Greyhounds. They immediately liked us (or at least Charles). They loved Charles! She said that was a very good sign and that she felt very comfortable going through the rest of the adoption process just because they liked us so much. We sat and chatted with her about Greyhounds. I learned some interesting things about them and dogs in general. For example, I learned that they can get an auto-immune disease that causes their toenails to fall off. One of her Greyhounds has it. It sounds very unpleasant. She put my training fears to rest. They are much easier to train than Retired Racing Greyhounds for Dummies makes it seem. 

So the next step for the process is to get a fence. Both of our neighbors have fences, so it’s just a matter of connecting the dots. But we have to submit a drawing to Maintenance and wait for them to approve it. It could take up to 3 weeks and then we have to get the fence installed. I’m not sure how to install a fence, so I’m probably going to try to convince Charles to have someone do it for us. It will cost more, but at least we’ll know it’s installed correctly. The reason the fence is necessary is because Greyhounds are sight-hounds. If they get loose they won’t be able to find their way home like other dogs can. And they can run up to 45mph, so they can get pretty far in a short amount of time. It would be impossible to run after them. 

The lady has a dog in mind for us; it is in a foster home with a cat and it apparently ignores the cat. So once the fence situation is all worked out, she is going to bring the dog to our house and see how we do together. And then it could be ours.