5 1/2 Weeks

I apologize if any of you were eating when you opened this. (Eww! Gross old lady legs!)

I use Bitey Dog as sort of a personal journal. This post is for myself so later I can look back and remember what this stupid tick bite was like.

What does it feel like? It is like having a deep tissue bruise on top of a giant mosquito bite. When I’m reclining it feels better. Standing makes it ache. It nearly always itches. Heat makes everything much worse. (Hard to avoid heat in the summer! 😆)

Why don’t I take antihistamines? There are very few antihistamines I can take. When I’ve tried them in the past, they made me sleepy and gave me dry mouth, but they didn’t really affect the allergic reaction.

What about steroids? Topical ones make things worse (increased itching). I don’t know about oral steroids. There are none that I can take because they all contain corn.

Would you get that thing out of my face already?!? I told you how we dogs feel about ticks.

Years ago I was bitten by several spiders. If I remember correctly, it took around eight weeks for the symptoms to fade. It looks like I have close to three weeks more of this to go. ☹️.

I wish I could use my experience to pressure pharma companies to diversify the bases for products. I know I’m not the only person in a situation where we would likely benefit from medication but can’t take it.

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Of Clowns and Purslane

Picture of clown

Ecch! What happened to you? I think I'm allergic to purslane.

Little dog sits on chair and writes in his diary.

Dear Diary, It would appear that purslane turns humans into clowns. Perhaps a more aggressive program of weed eradication may have saved the children of Derry from being pulled into the sewers.

Dear Diary,

It would appear that purslane turns humans into clowns. Perhaps a more aggressive program of weed eradication might have saved the children of Derry from being pulled into the sewers…

See the source image

Purslane. (Not my image.)

An innocent afternoon of pulling weeds has left me with eyes itchy and swollen shut. This weed is still a mystery to me. It doesn’t flower, so pollen isn’t the problem. It seems that if it touches my skin, my face swells. I wear gloves to weed, but the coating on the gloves cracked, and I guess I got a dose of plant ichor.

For the next few days I had best not carry balloons lest the children of the neighborhood run in terror from me.

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Memory quilt near window

close up of memory quilt

Speaking of quilts…

After my grandmother passed away, I asked for her nightgowns. I used them to make the hearts on a series of Memory Quilts that I shared with various family members.

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If you would like to have a quilt that I have made – this one perhaps? – I now have checkout at my website!

This Madison House Quilt is 41″ square. It is made of three layers of 100% cotton with the quilting and binding done by hand. You can see more by clicking here.

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Remembering the Muumuu

I’m feeling nostalgic, so I am going to remember last year…

Whoa, what's with the get up? My knees are so swollen that my pants won't fit.

Plus i am so slow getting to the bathrom that I don't have time to unfasted my pants. And somewhere the Kanaka Maoli are missing a princess...

Photo of swollen and bruised legs.

There was surprisingly little discoloration

for the amount of swelling.

Pair of boots sitting on grass.

And yellow is the reason why.

I mean, these are the culprit homicidal boots.

(They look so innocent, don’t they?)

As an act of kindness and self-sacrifice – because you know that’s how my boy is – Toby decided to help me with tilling this year. He says he wants to save me wear and tear on my boots. (You can’t tell from the photos, but some of those holes are big enough to hide a 20+ pound terrier.)

Pea plant sprouting

Toby was disappointed when he found out we are growing “peas”.

Cairn terrier peeing.

That’s not the “P” word I was hoping for.

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If you know a bookstore or shop where Dream Our World might fit, please let me know! I would love to introduce Bitey and The Usurper to even more humans.

In Dream Our World, Bitey and Toby visit the Museum of the Imagination and view the world of art from a canine perspective. And how is that? – With themselves front and center, of course!

Dream Our World is available from Amazon.

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I Did It Again

Honey bee climbing on clover.

It seems that I am a dog who should take my own advice. What did I say at the end of my last blog? Something about watching out for the bees?

After being stung on Friday, I finally started to feel better by Monday. I was cheerful, and my appetite was back. I was greeting neighbors and being my normal bouncy self. Then two steps from the front door I did it again; I stepped on a bee.

This time Mom didn’t hesitate, and she rushed me to the vet. They didn’t seem as worried as she was about me. They checked my paw for stingers. (That hurt like heck). The checked me for a fever. (Despite what the vet said about “bigger things that ‘this’ coming out of ‘there’ all the time” I did not care for it…therefore it hurt like heck.) Then they gave me the nastiest shot I’ve ever had in my life. (That hurt like heck.) My poor paw swelled like an elephant’s foot, and I couldn’t stop panting and pacing. When we got home, I had to take the worst tasting antibiotic invented by man. It was definitely not my day.

To make things worse Toby was feeling neglected, so he got all the attention once I was settled in at home. He got to go out in the yard and play Frisbee with Mom (the bees were asleep by then), and I had to sit in the house with a nasty aftertaste in my mouth while my paw throbbed.

I would warn you to be careful about the bees again, but I can see it won’t help. After watching the movie Swarm, it seems that once bees are riled up there is no stopping them. Just try to make sure that when you’re stung you don’t fall on the train throttle or the self destruct button on the nuclear power plant. The earth’s survivors will thank you.

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