April 2011 – Scary Yankee Chick

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January 11, 2013April 29, 2011 by Ruth

Apollo is teething. He’s got adult teeth coming in all over his mouth, so far no baby teeth lost either. And yes, he chews on all sorts of stuff in the process. He’s got the oddest sense of what to pick too. Yesterday he knocked the cat bed off its perch by the window (without a chew mark on it) so he could get at the no-skid mat underneath it. Twice. In about 5 minutes. Sigh. He’s going through rawhide like its icecream, and since there are limits to how much of that its safe to give a dog I had to go find something else.

The breeder suggested the smoked bones from the big petstores, she’s given them to her dogs for forever and they love them. Well that worked for a while….till he got bored with them. Nylabones held his attention briefly. Same for other rubber chews. Today I picked up a bone stuffed with cheese flavored stuff, and a generic copy of the Kong Wobbler. I’ve no problem paying the Kong price, but without a better idea of whether or not he’d go for it I liked the generic’s $8 price tag a bit better. So far so good. He’s been alternating between the two. He chews on the bone for a while, then goes and finds the wobbler, picks it up and shakes it till kibble falls out, eats, then goes back to chewing. Its a reprieve. At least a small one!

Oh, and it turns out hes not nearly so blase about going for a walk when the MALE psycotic German Shepherd is out in the yard. Sigh.

Nothing Much, Rants

Rain

January 11, 2013April 27, 2011 4 Comments by Ruth

Syracuse is barely .56 of an inch away from breaking the record for the wettest April. Now I’m far enough out of Syracuse I cant’ say for sure that those figures are an accurate represenatation of what fell at my house this month, but when you add in the fact that my property is very wet to begin with due to its location it might as well be. AND we’ve got more “strong to severe” thunderstorms moving through later today.

Really, what is it about trying to break records this year? First snow, now rain…..farmers can’t plant crops because the fields are so soaked, folks with sheep haven’t been able to shear because the sheep haven’t been able to dry out AND temps are due to hit upper 70’s today…..my yard NEEDS mowing, but I sink past my ankles in mud when I walk on it so I can’t. Arg!!

Cats, Dog, Links, Rants

A warning for all pet owners to please pass along

January 11, 2013April 24, 2011 by Ruth

I saw this in an article a couple days ago, made sure it wasn’t a med I was using, and went on with my day. I completely missed how the parent company has chosen to handle this.

Short form: the flea and tick medication named Promeris has been determined to cause severe heath issues in a signifigant percentage of cats and dogs. If you are using this medication you should stop and contact your vet for an alternative. Pfizer however has decided to NOT recall the medication already on the market. Instead they’ve simply halted production. They estimate there is enough already on the market to last through September, or basically the entire flea and tick season.

See here for more information including basic information on the symptoms of the afor mentioned health problems.

Thanks to K9 Solutions blog for the link.

Rants

Air traffic controllers and the night shift.

January 11, 2013April 23, 2011 by Ruth

There’s been a great big hubbub lately about air traffic controllers falling asleep, or otherwise not able to pay attention, while on the job. I suspected almost immediately what the problem was, and I found confirmation today here. They work swing shifts. That means that on a set schedule of days or weeks (and it looks like days here which is the worst) they rotate between a day shift and a night shift.

Look, its bad enough when this is done in an industry where lives aren’t on the line, but there are an awful lot of industries, and air traffic controller just topped my list, where this sort of schedule is done regularly. Apparently in this case the union is trying to keep it because it allows a 3 day weekend afterwards. Whoop-de-doo. So I risk fall asleep on my last shift of the week, potentially allowing hundreds of people to die in a plane crash, just so I can have a 3 day weekend. Urm, NO.

Very simple solution, eliminate swing shifts. Period. Oh, yes make sure theres always more than one person working, just in case, but eliminate swing shifts, or at least make the swing a matter of months rather than days or weeks. People’s bodies can’t adapt properly to a new shift in a matter of a few hrs or even a few days. Most people take several days to several weeks to switch over completely. But once they’re switched they’ll function better. Better yet, make the night shifts a permanent thing. There are people who prefer the night shift, or some variation there of, whether a late 2nd shift, or a very early 1st shift, or a true 3rd shift. Doesn’t matter, thats the shift they prefer. Would allowing them to take a nap while on lunch be ok too? Sure, but if you make sure people work the shift full time they’ll be adapted enough that the NEED for naps won’t be as great. Plus if you work the schedule right you could still have the occasional 3 day weekend.

Presto, problem solved. If I can see it, why can’t they??

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