Dakota Update

Dakota was taken to the vet last Saturday to get his staples taken out. Unfortunately, the vet couldn't remove them yet because the incision hasn't closed up completely in the lower area. On the bright side he no longer has to wear the E-collar, and he's gained almost ten pounds! He looks MUCH better! :D He's a handful at home but we've discovered that he doesn't like compressed air being sprayed near him. I thank dog trainer Victoria Stilwell for that one. Her show "It's Me or the Dog" has helped much.

Dakota doesn't know what to make of Angelo. Food? Friend? Toy? LOL! XD Luckily he figured out that she wasn't food or a toy.

Bringing Others Together: A Miracle Dog

Dakota is doing well though he's a bit tired and out of it. I had to go buy an E-collar for him because he was pulling the staples out of his leg. I then had to take him to the vet due to the incision leaking blood and pus. My vet told me that she didn't like it that the vet's near my college (about 4 hours away) used staples to close the incision up. She said that they should have used stitches or something more secure. She didn't put anymore staples in his leg. She said that it needed to drain. They also didn't give me any antibiotics for him at the clinic near my college, so my vet here gave me some. She didn't understand why the vets over there didn't give me antibiotics either. I can't complain though. Those vets did a wonderful thing for Dakota. Poor Dakota was exhausted afterwards. He didn't appreciate being taken to the vet clinic. The little guy slept most of yesterday.

Good news! He's been putting weight on his left hind leg. He has even been walking on it! Hopefully he'll get full use of it back. I start physical therapy on him next week. He also gained three pounds! He now weighs 58 pounds instead of 55!

The only problems we're having with him right now is him pushing Toboe-chan around. He growls and snarls at him when he comes over to be petted by me. I'm trying to teach him that he can't do that. I have two hands and I am quite capable of petting them both. He also tries to steal Toboe's food. He needs to learn that it's not allowed. Luckily, he doesn't try to take food away from people in the house. Dakota doesn't even seem to notice or care. When we take his food away from him he let's us and doesn't cause any problems. I was worried that he might since he's been starved. He also thinks that he's allowed on the couch. I've been working with him on that. LOL!

Yesterday Dakota and Toby got into a fight. I had to break it up. Dakota discovered how much fun toys were and decided that he wanted the ball Toby had. Toby didn't like that. No one was hurt but they can't continue to fight over toys.

We had to take him to the vet again today because his leg was leaking blood and pus REALLY bad. They put two more staples in his leg and cleaned his right ear because he still has a bit of an infection in it. They left room for it to leak out because again, it's good for it too. We are just trying to keep him from laying on the carpet and getting blood on it. He's been pretty good about staying on his blankets. There was a sweet lady that overheard Dakota's story at the vet clinic and when we went back to the exam room one of the vets came in and told us that the lady had paid for his visit to the vet. We didn't have to pay anything. I can't believe that she did that. I wish I could have told her thank you but at least my mom got to. I had to stay in the exam room with him. My mom said that when she thanked the lady that she had said that she'd hoped to escape before we realized what she'd done for us. The lady had tears in her eyes and said that she felt the need to help because no animal deserves what he went through. She told my mom Merry Christmas and my mom did likewise.

The vet fell in love with him as well and told us that he'd only charge us for the exam. Nothing else. Dakota is bringing strangers together and showing everyone what miracles are by surviving against all odds. He's received the name "Miracle Dog" by us and others. Along with "Christmas Puppy." Absolutely amazing! God has a plan for him, I can see it. There's a reason he was meant to live.

That's pretty much it right now. I'll keep everyone updated on his progress.

I can't wait for you guys to meet him!

Heh. ---------------->

He's being a dork in this pic! He was lying on his back. LOL! XD

Dakota

Alright, here's the pictures of the pup that I promised to post. We've named him Dakota which means 'friend, ally, forever smiling.' Suits him well I believe.

His surgery went well if not a little more difficult than the vets originally thought. There was a lot of scar tissue and muscle damage from the initial trauma. Right now he's doped up on a LOT of pain meds and sleeping. He can walk around but he refuses to use his left hind leg. It's sore and he doesn't realize that he can. I'm going to have to give him physical therapy for several months before he gains confidence in that leg again. My brother and mom will have to take over the physical therapy once I leave and head back to college. For now, I'll be doing it.

He's still REALLY underweight. He weighs 55.2 pounds. He should be at least 100 pounds. When he's full grown he'll weigh WAY more than that.

And even though I’m walkin’ through The valley of the shadow I will hold tight to the hand of Him Whose love will comfort me And when all hope is gone And I’ve been wounded in the battle He is all the strength that I will Ever need And He will carry me

Divine Appointment

Today I had a divine appointment. Yes, I really did. Only I didn't know about it until I was called into the office. Literally.

Basically my room mate and me needed a vacuum to clean our dorm up. So, I called my Granny and asked if I could borrow hers. My room mate and I didn't want to go out and buy one. I told my Granny that I'd come get it after 1pm because I had an exam at that time. Suddenly I said, "No, I'll come get it now." As soon as I said it I was annoyed. I didn't understand why I had just blurted out that I would come get it immediately when I needed to be studying. What the heck? I'd just go get it. Normally when I go to their house I take a quick way that involves fewer lights. Well, as I was waiting to make a right onto the road, I suddenly found myself going straight. I was like, "What the? Why the HECK did I go straight?!" I sighed and decided that I'd just take the long way to their house. What did it matter?

When I turned down onto the street that lead to the main road I was complaining aloud to myself about taking the long rout and not understanding why I had done so. All of a sudden I saw a dog. He was lying in a church parking lot on the grass off to the side of the road. I drove by and saw that it looked like something was wrong with him. I made a U-turn and went back to him. As I pulled up and stepped out of my truck he stood up and stumbled/walked away from me, holding his left leg up. I gasped when I saw that he was REALLY skinny. I could see all of his ribs, his hip bones stuck out, and the vertebrae in his spine were easy to count. I cooed to him and talked sweetly. He stopped gave me this look that said, "You're not going to throw something at me?" wagged his tail a little, and laid down. He looked abandoned and I figured he'd been hit by a car.

I walked up to him and started petting him. When I touched his right ear he whimpered and moved away. I was scared when I saw dried blood and thought that when he'd been hit by the car he'd been hit in the head as well. I tried to put my necklace around his neck as a leash but he freaked and took off in his stumbling walk again. I calmed him down by talking softly again and he laid back down. I then began asking God what I was supposed to do when a guy working for Direct TV drove by. I flagged him down and he turned down the ally-way that I was on. I explained to him that I needed rope or something. He asked if cable would work and I said yes. He then pulled a whole bunch out and asked how long I wanted it. I told him and he gave it to me. I then put it around his neck and tied it. He began freaking out again when I tried to pull him to my truck. He was yelping because it hurt to walk. I asked the guy to hold him while I ran and got my truck.

I came back and tied my necklace around his muzzle so that he wouldn't bite me. Then I picked him up and put him in my truck. Dang was he heavy for a starved dog! My Granny and I rushed him to the vet clinic and they did X-rays to see what was wrong.

Apparently, his left hip bone had been knocked out of its normal place. They said it was an old wound from several months ago and were surprised that he had survived as long as he did with it that way. They are going to give him surgery to help him be able to walk without so much pain. They plan on going into him and shaving down the ball part of his femur. Then they're going to put it back in it's socket. Cartilage will build up and his muscles and ligaments will support it, and help him to walk again. He'll be able to walk eventually but he'll always have a strange limping gait.

The blood on his head was from an ear infection. They think he had been in a fight because he has a puncture hole on his ear. The wound became infected and swelled up.

He is also extremely malnourished so we will be working on getting weight put on him. Poor baby. He has no name yet but my mom said that we are going to be keeping him. I'm bringing him back with me Thursday.

The x-ray is of his left hip. You can see that the femur is trying to fuse with another bone. I'll post pictures of him Wednesday if I can. No promises. I will say that he appears to be a German Shepard mix. He's bigger than Toby if that helps. LOL! XD

Vul says that it sounds like my Guardian angle took the steering wheel from me. LOL! I can believe it. She says that my magnetism is growing and surpassed the level of animals being drawn to me. Now I'm being drawn to them when they're in need.

OH, and when I backed out of the allyway I hit a huge metal green dumpster and majorly dented the back end of my truck! Drat! My dad is gonna be SOOO angry when he sees that!

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach.

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

fourth day

Just a quick post today and then back to studying. Seems like my seven days to the wolves is going to be more like ten- I just don't have time during finals to color them and keep up. So this may be the last for a little while, Yahiko! *hugs*

In the show he's a cute street kid who believes that he doesn't need help, and winds up getting it anyway. He's brash and rude, but he's pretty sharp and a prodigy with his shinai. He's the descendent of a samurai family, but his dad died in the war and his mom died working for a yakuza gang.

For Yahiko as a canine, I thought that a dog would be a good choice, an Akita, specifically, because they were samurai dogs. He's scruffy from living on the streets, but still looks confident. I was a bit disapointed because I couldn't get him to look more puppy-ish, and he looks more like a cross between an akita and a husky than a pure akita. But that's okay too, he can be a mutt!

Grazer, yep that's me!

Food. The essential need to survive, aside from water. I don't eat much food according to most. Okay, actually, most people say that I starve myself because when I eat meals with them I barely eat anything. Not my fault. I don't like eating huge amounts of food in one setting. I can't. I mean I could if I wanted to but that would result in being extremely ill later. Why do I get ill from eating large amounts of food in one setting? IBS, better known as Irritable Bowl Syndrome.

Basically, my intestines don't like food. Yes, weird, I know. The acids in my stomach and intestines react crazily to the food, and the peristalsis (muscle contractions) of my intestines is irregular which causes extreme cramping. This cramping can become so unbearable that I can be reduced to tears in a matter of minutes. This is one reason why I went vegetarian. Not the main reason but one of them. Ever since I went vegetarian I haven't cried from pain. That's because the pain has dropped tremendously due to cutting murdered animals out of my diet. This is due to the fact that meat is harder to digest than anything else. Unless you fancy metal. Then that would be the hardest. XD

On a side note, I prefer to graze, like a horse. In other words, I eat a small breakfast, then eat a snack, have a small meal for lunch, eat another snack, and have a small meal for dinner. I DO eat. You people just aren't around when I do. Ask my family, or Jaki or Tom. They've been around me enough to know that I EAT FOOD on a regular basis. When eating meals my stomach, intestines, and my whole body gives me a warning that says "Hey, no more food! You'll be sick!" I can't even explain the feeling. It's sorta like when there's a bad storm coming and you're instincts freak out and try to tell you. Thanks to my IBS I prefer to drink fluids, water mainly, more than anything else. A lot of people like to tell me that I'm going to give myself water poisoning, but my doctor told me that it is normal especially since I also have kidney problems. It's my body's way of caring for it's needs without causing more pain and annoyance for me. If I could live off of apples and water, I'd gladly do so, but unfortunately I cannot.

Why am I posting on this? I'm sick and tired of people saying that I don't eat and that I starve myself. Okay, first off if I WAS starving myself, which I'm not, then would I still weigh the same amount since last year? No. I'd weigh less. Not to mention that I work out and I still haven't lost or gained weight. According to http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/assets/UVAHealth/ssi/includes/hbwcalc.html#results

I actually weigh the ideal and healthy weight of someone my age and height.

Thus ends my rant. Now, back to studying for my freakin' exams.

~Fruit Bat

revalation

I worked at a community christmas event this morning- volunteered some of my time, just to get checked off on a list I don't really care about. And I had fun, I was a door-greeter at a cabin, and there was someone with me that I was able to talk with, and he was very nice.
But ever since then, I've been in a bad mood- and now I think I know why.
I'm homesick, stronger than it's been ever since the first week.
There's only eighteen days till Christmas and every minute of them not filled with my family feels like a waste.
I can't focus- even with finals looming tomorrow, I can't settle, and I'm horrible company. (Sorry about that, Fruit Bat)
I want to go home and wear my santa hat and the bells that drive evil glare insane. I want to INSIST that we watch all of our christmas classics, The Santa Clause, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snow Man, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Winnie the Pooh and Christmas too, while playing our family card games. I want to sit in the rocking chair and just stare at the tree, and try to keep the cat from opening the gifts. I want to walk in the Wal-mart parking lot singing Silver Bells, and greet people with "Merry Christmas!" I want to watch my little brother and sister try to convince mom and dad that they really ought to be allowed to open one gift on christmas eve, and I want all of us kids to sleep in one room on christmas eve night, too excited to really sleep, and daring each other to guess what we gave them. I want to lie awake at four in the morning on Christmas day, knowing that I still have at least four hours, and probably five, before we're even allowed to go downstairs. I want to argue over which of us gets to wear the santa hat this year and pass out the presents, and I want to go to Candlelight Communion and sing in a darkly illuminated mass of believers. I want to sneak red and green m&m's out of the glass christmas tree dish at home, and act suprised when they're all gone. I want to bug my mom to get apple cider so that we can have hot apple cider- I want to sit in the back of the pickup on christmas eve night, bundled up warm and burning my tongue on hot chocolate while we drive around looking at christmas lights, with Squirt and I singing whatever christmas carols pop into our heads. I want to go to bed at night with the glow of christmas lights stealing through my window, and I want to try getting a note- any note- out of the christmas horn that so far only three of us have been able to play. I want to try and convince my family that the Second Santa Clause was not as good as the first, and I want to wrap up in my red blanket and stalk around the house as though it is a cape. I want to sit at the table for dinner and just listen.
All this, and so much more- like listening to our favorite christmas songs all day.
Right now, I can't listen to one of my favorites.
If I hear "I'll be home for Christmas," I'll start crying.

On the Third day...

We step out of the Oniwabanshuu and into the Kenshin-gumi, starting with Megumi, the fox lady.

Seriously, the series tells us (repeatedly) that she is a "fox".

Here's Megumi Takani, she's actually the one that I've worked the hardest on- because I'm not happy with her color. I went from brown to gold to darker gold- and I'm still not happy, but I don't have time to waste on her.

In the show, Megumi is a smart and flirty doctor (hence the name "fox") who is also very beautiful. It just sort of made sense that the Kenshin group would eventually get a doctor- heaven knows they need one on call all the time.

As always, I only colored and tweaked the picture, which belongs to Kay Fedewa of the Black Blood Alliance.

On the second day...

On the second day of the wolves, we have a not-wolf. Meet Misao Makimachi, the Jackal.

Again, I don't want a lot of grief- I know that her tail is too fluffy, but if I'm ignoring the fact that Jackals live in Africa and would probably never meet a wolf outside of a zoo...

Misao, like Aoshi is a ninja- but she's a very exuberant one... I thought about making her a coyote, but it just didn't seem right.

As with Aoshi, if anyone has a better idea for what she should have been, please, let me know.

Also, should I be putting up pictures of the actual characters so that you guys can compare? Or am I overthinking this?

Anyway, there she is- again the design is not by me, I just tweaked and colored it.

Seven days to the Wolves

Yeah! Seven days to the Wolves, thus, Seven wolves, and a bonus wolf on the seventh day.

I had this crazy idea a while back of taking the characters from Rurouni Kenshin and making them animals- I even have a sort-of plotline, though I don't know that I'll ever get around to writing it- it's sorta pointless to write a story on something that isn't yours... >.<

But, anyway, I've been taking some wolf drawings (NOT BY ME. CREDIT GOES COMPLETELY TO KAY FEDEWA OF THE BLACKBLOOD ALLIANCE. I DID THESE PICTURES FOR MY OWN PERSONAL AMUSEMENT, I DON'T WANT ANY MONEY FROM THEM, BUT STILL, I APOLOGIZE TO THE ARTIST!) and recoloring them to fit with the RK cast members that I've chosen. I'll be trying to post a wolf a day.

First up is Aoshi Shinomori, since he's a tall human, he'd probably be a tall wolf. He's a timberwolf, the silvery parts are scars (yes, Aoshi has scars. A lot, actually, if you look at his second fight with Kenshin.) That thing on his leg is an armwarmer/armor thing... it's mostly there because he's a ninja... ninja wolf! >.>;

He may not be mine but I worked hard on him gosh darn it! And I think he's pretty!

For the purposes of this story, I'm ignoring some basic facts of nature, so I don't want any grief about some of the animals that I picked for the characters. If you think you can do better, please, show me.

sserts

Wait... strike that, reverse it.

I've got a paper due Thursday. 6 pages at least.

Right now I have about 3- and serious writers block.

Just complaining really quick.

Have to stare at the blinking cursor some more now.

EDIT: Okay! Now I'm done!

Hikari Toya Commited Suicide

The title says it all. My Betta fish, Hikari Toya, he jumped out of the fish tank while I was on vacation for Thanksgiving.

Vul and I walked into my dorm, and I ran over to see how Hikari Toya did over the break. The thing was, there was no Hikari Toya present. We looked around the tank but still couldn't find him. I helped Vul take her stuff to her dorm and then began pulling my desk out from the wall. I was convinced that he somehow had managed to jump out of the tank. Nope, no fish behind the desk. I then gave up, took a shower, contemplating if someone was playing a cruel joke on me. Then I started to clear off my desk when BAM! There he was! Dead, stiff, and shriveled up behind my books, sitting on my test. I freaked and didn't know what to do at first. My fish HAD jumped out of the tank, and killed himself.

I'm not sure why he did it or if he'd been practicing but there is only one way out of the tank; a little hole meant for feeding the fish. Yes, he some how managed to jumped just right and get out of the tank. Successfully killing himself. It was pretty traumatizing, finding him dead like that. Poor Hikari Toya. I wish I knew why he did it. Now there's this joke going around that he wanted to come with me so he tried following. *sigh* I feel terrible. I knew I should have just brought him with me. Something had been telling me to but I ignored The Voice. NEVER ignore The Voice. Your instincts are usually correct. I really need to learn this.

Anyways, back to practicing my speech. Ttyl, peace! *does the peace sign* Wow...I'm lame...