Pretty Poison

Poppy had her visit to the vet this evening.

The news is not good.

The vet confirmed that the problem is her kneecap. It keeps popping out, which naturally causes her pain. It pops back in on its own, but if it goes on like this eventually it's not going to, just as it would for a person. The really bad news is that her other back leg is showing signs of the same problem. The vet thinks it's a congenital defect, and she's lucky it hasn't been a problem before now.

It is likely she will need surgery. In an attempt to avoid this, because it's dangerous for such a small dog, we've been ordered to make her rest for a full month. No walkies. No ball. As little running around as possible. Poppy's an excitable little thing - we'll never get her to sit still! But we have to try.

She goes back to the vet in a month, and if there's no improvement we'll have to talk about surgery for her.

The news could definitely be worse, but this is not good :(

...but unfortunately this time the crazy is in my own country.

Seriously.

What. The. Hell?

A few weeks ago, before the British snowpocalypse, Poppy came home from her walk limping. Mum gave her a little of Rocky's pain medication and the next day she was fine.

Post-snowpocalypse, the same thing happened again. Sis's Useless Fiance took the dogs out, as he often does (it's the only thing he's not useless at!) and when they returned Poppy wasn't just limping, she was walking on three legs. Again, after a night's rest, she was fine.

Poppy is the world's most loveable dog; I know all dog-owners say that about their pets, but she really is. She's half Jack Russel and half Chihuahua, cute as a button and she loves everyone. But that odd genetic heritage does give her some issues with running. She has a tendancy to drag the knuckles on her front paws when she runs fast, so she has little patches of fur missing and sometimes comes home bleeding a little. But this is something new. (That's Amber in my icon; I don't have a Poppy icon yet.)

Anyhow, last night Sis and Mum took her to the vet. They had the Useless Fiance take the dogs out again beforehand, in the hope (!) that she'd be showing symptoms for the vet's benefit. I get the logic, but wishing pain on the poor thing seems very wrong to me. And although she was once again limping, it didn't seem so bad this time.

The vet thinks she's somehow damaged her kneecap, and it's popping out of joint when she runs, then righting itself after some rest. He prescribed pain meds, and told us not to exercise her or throw the ball for her for a whole week. After which she's got to go back for a checkup.

This vet is asking the impossible. Not the no-walkies thing; we can not walk the dogs for a week. But Poppy is ball-crazy. She came to us attached to a ball (imagine a chihuahua puppy with a scarlet tennis ball bigger than its head in its mouth - that was puppy-Poppy) and she constantly plays ball. She'll bring a ball to anyone who sits still for a second. She'll drop one at your feet if you stand in what she considers a ball-throwing area. If you try to ignore her, she'll go get another ball and pile them up until you've got to throw them or risk a serious fall. And there's no way we can hide them all - she has too many. And boy is she good at finding them! Even if we did hide them, she'd find the hiding place and get all bouncy there, which I assume would defeat the no-exercise rule.

So I don't know what we're gonna do. Just make her miserable, I guess...

They're reporting another huge earthquake in Haiti. Can things out there get any worse?

I saw two movies on Saturday to make up for all the days I couldn't travel due to the snow.

The first was Up In The Air George Clooney's new rom-com. Now, y'all know that I think romantic comedies are usually neither romantic nor funny, and this is no exception. ( But I did kind of enjoy it. )

My second movie of Saturday was Daybreakers. This was...um. I want to say it was good, because I did enjoy it until the last 20 minutes or so. But really...not so good. ( For some reason reviewers have been comparing it to The Matrix... )

So. How was your weekend?

Last week's snow was just getting to the stage where it was dangerous for me to walk into work. Yesterday I had my first fall in the snow - nothing serious, I just bruised my knee. But certain parts of my usual route were very icy.

Last night it started snowing again. And as far as I can tell, it hasn't stopped. The snow is already much deeper than it was last week, though this time the snowploughs have been out so the main roads are open.

I am in work, regardless. Very few people have made it in, though, so I'm hoping they'll decide to close the office. For technical reasons, there isn't much I can do here anyway.

thanatos_kalos...we may need to give our sushi plans a miss. If I can make it I will 'cause I really want my sushi! But I'd rather not risk getting stranded in Cardiff. What's it like where you are?

We haz snow!

I always say that when it snows here, it means the rest of the country is buried in it. Which if the BBC is to be trusted, is once again true.

About 10cm of snow fell here overnight, and as of right now it's still falling. I am posting from work, as - yep - I still walked in. Mostly just to prove I'm more reliable than all these people whose ability to drive has deprived them of the ability to walk. It was a really easy walk this morning; the snow is all soft and unmarked, not icy at all. Yet.

My manager, G, told me yesterday that I shouldn't come in if we got heavy snow. So naturally I had to, because I need to be able to tell her off if she fails to take her own advice! G is much older than I am and fairly frail physically (though she totally makes up for that in personality!). I can take it if I fall over in the snow; she can't.

I have no piccies because it's still dark. Sis promised to take pics of Amber in the snow if she stays home - her workplace isn't within reasonable walking distance. Or, if the snow stays 'till I get home, I'll take some myself :)

Happy New Year to everyone!

Hope you all have a great time, however you ring in the new year. Personally, I'm planning to be asleep at midnight.

( My 2009 fic round-up under the cut )

On a more personal note...I treated myself to a new pair of shoes in the sales. This is them! Not quite as - er - bold as the crazy, insane shoes I bought last spring, but kinda close :-) I thought they'd take some breaking in but these are surprisingly comfortable. I mean, I've gotta be careful on the stairs, but I can walk in them. Super cool!

Title: Let It Snow
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: All Ages (Gen)
Characters: John Winchester, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jim Murphy.
Warnings: None
Notes: Happy holidays to everyone on my flist!

Summary: Pre-series/Weechesters. Trapped in Pastor Jim's home by the snow, John tries to give his boys a normal Christmas.

( Let It Snow )

I saw Dances with Smurfs Avatar on Saturday. It doesn't suck. I completely understand why so many folks are calling it racist, and I agree...but I don't believe it's racist in the hateful sense. Sure, the allegory is pretty blatant and clumsy, and with that in mind, there are things which irk, but overall I enjoyed the film. The plot is unoriginal but not bad, and the characters are well drawn. The animation is just beautiful, especially the night scenes.

I also came out with a splitting headache and spent Sunday in bed with the curtains firmly shut. I don't say the movie caused this - I was about due for a new migraine - but I don't think it helped.

What I will say is that Cameron seems to understand 3D better than any other 3D film I've seen so far. One of the biggest problems with 3D is where the eye tries to focus. On regular 2D film, the camera decides what you're looking at by how the scene is blocked, by blurring out the background and so on. With 3D, if the 3D image is done well enough that you "see" it as you usually see, there's a tendancy to try to focus, occasionally, on details the camera doesn't want you to be looking at. And because things stay blurry when you try to focus on the "wrong" part of the screen, it makes the 3D illusion very uncomfortable. With Avatar I didn't find that happening. Cameron uses lighting and colour to draw the viewer's focus to the "right" place, rather than relying on camera blur. Though the blur is still there, it didn't get in the way as it so often does in 3D.

I plan to see it again if I can find time...but in 2D next time.

I woke this morning to find what I thought was snow everywhere. ( Pics under the cut )