Standing Room Only

For Marydee Ojala, editor of ONLINE magazine.

Computers in Libraries Conference Keynote

This morning the charming, eloquent and hilarious Paul Holdengraber of NYPL spoke on making heavy organizations levitate. Simply sublime. He is fulfilling his role of making the lions that guard NYPL, Patience and Fortitude, roar. I can hear them now. It was the sort of madly inspiring talk that makes me proud to be a librarian. More, more...

Kite flying at the Washington Monument

Amazing City

I've been trying to Twitter but the wireless this morning has been just awful.
Last night I went on the Monuments by Moonlight tour and was struck by the majesty of the architecture and heritage of the city. Particularly poignant was the Vietnam Memorial at night - the names barely visible but the white carving standing out in the moonlight - and it was a beautiful, clear night. A few pics:

Jefferson Memorial across the water

Washington Monument at sunset

Vietnam Memorial Wall



Honest Abe



Cherry Blossoms by night at the Roosevelt Memorial, next to the Tidal Basin



Iwo Jima

My new boyfriend.

Move over, Michelle.

Library Thing

I got so excited about the possibilities with Library Thing and the
catalogue - many libraries have meshed with LT - the result is so
cool. Check Seattle PL's catalogue...

Always with the Jokes

Found: this note, which is eerily accurate. I should know, I'm staying
at the Courtyard :-)

Weather Change

Yesterday the forecast was for nasty rain. However the weather gods
smiled upon my trip and instead it was sunny and warm for my day of
walking. Here is a shot of the Washington Monument with the flag
flying in the breeze.

National Gallery of Art

Today I took the Metro out to Union Station and then walked past the
Capitol, down through the Mall to the Washington Monument. On the way
I stopped at the National Gallery and saw a lot of magnificent works
of art, many of which included dogs! Imagine my delight! Big man,
little dog.

Beauty at the Airport

Lucky me, I am attending a conference in Washington DC. On the way I
went through the Detroit airport where this amazing fountain was.

Treadmill Front View

Treadmill from the front complete with reflection.

Therapy part 2

The other major activity tonight was walking on the underwater
treadmill. Tonight Elliott did 8 minutes, a slight increase over last
week's 6 minutes. Tonight we also turned on the jets after the walk
and he got a bit of massage that way. He was quite calm tonight in the
water; last week he wasn't sure what was going on!

Therapy part 1

Tonight Elliott had his second visit to Dr. Leslie Woodcock's rehab
clinic in Aberfoyle. He worked on a few things -one was this wobble
board that has little bumps all over it. This helps to re-teach his
brain that it is ok to use his left leg again.

Teaser

The weather has been quite mild lately, and we've had some warm days.
The crocuses on our lawn have sprouted up and come into bloom. Has
spring arrived? I don't think so. Every year around this time, spring
teases us, usually just before a big snowstorm!

Friends

Recently we got some good news which as yet is unofficial and so I'm not going to post it here. I will definitely post when it is official. In the meantime I'll share this lovely card and flowers with you that a dear friend thought to give me to mark this unofficial good news. If nothing else, it might make you think of springtime.

Hanging Out

Life is a bit slower when recovery from cruciate surgery is the centre of your life. We walk 3 times a day, but we walk slowly. We do exercises on Elliott's leg, and we do them slowly. We spend more time just hanging out together. English Springer Spaniels are often caricatured as crazy, busy, insanely overactive dogs. While this can be one aspect of their personalities, it should never be the primary trait in a well-bred Springer. One of the things that English Springer Spaniels excel at is the art of just hanging out, sniffing the pathway and taking things slowly when appropriate. ESSes are cuddlers par excellence. Here is an example of our fast-paced life at the moment.

Walkies

Until Elliott heals, we have to control him very closely inside the
house as well as outside. When we walk him, he wears a Ruffwear
harness that has a handle on the back. We can attach a short lead to
the harness and control him with 2 leashes. He is adapting
wonderfully to the changes in his routine.

Leg Healing Nicely

We are surprised at how beautifully Elliott's incision is healing.
This is day 10 post surgery.

Morning Massage

Somewhere within this mass of feathers, Elliott is enjoying his
morning passive range of motion exercises and his massage and tummy
rubs!

An Excellent Weekend

This weekend Paul stayed home to look after Elliott and Sadie and I
attended the KW Kennel Club trials. This was Sadie's first outing in
Rally Excellent and she made us all proud, passing all 3 trials and
getting her title just like that, with nice scores and two
placements! She is now Darkover Come Dance With Me, CGN, PCD, CD,
RNCL, RN, RA, RE! What a good girl.

Elliott is Already Out of Surgery

It's only 4:15 and Elliott is already awake from his surgery. We delivered him to the vet, met the personable and knowledgeable Dr. Joe, and lectured him about how important Elliott is to us. We left the vet close to 3pm. Dr. Caron called us a few minutes ago to let us know that the surgery went very well. There was very little arthritic change in the joint. There is no damage to the meniscus. The tear was about 50 percent. The surgery went very smoothly, no problems, and Elliott woke up very smoothly and calmly with no complications from the anaethesia.
Now, if we can get through the next 2-3 months without a reinjury, it should all be good.

Paul has gone to the store to buy me a large industrial size package of M&Ms, comfort food of choice during times like this.

Will post more tomorrow. Thank you everyone who was busy thinking good thoughts today.

Pretty Feathers

The lovely feathers that will soon be shaved off! Poor boy.

Living on the Main

Our living room post-prep. One of us will be sleeping next to Elliott
as he will not be able to do any stairs for a while.

Preparations

My living room before surgery...

Too Much Information

About a year ago, Elliott and Sadie were flying at a thousand miles an hour in the dog park. It was a cold and icy day and Elliott slipped and fell at one point but got right back up again. Afterwards he had a little bit of lameness. We took him to the vet who thought it was a soft tissue injury. The mild lameness, that he would walk out within a minute, continued off and on during the year. We took him for chiropractic treatments which helped a lot. We also did warm up and cool down routines before and after exercise and training which helped a lot. We saw good improvement but not a disappearance of the problem. In the summer time I even asked our vet if it could be a cruciate injury but there was nothing to indicate that.

About 2 weeks ago, Elliott's cousins Libby and Tom were over to visit and the four of them were flying at a thousand miles an hour in our icy cold backyard. Elliott came in on 3 legs. After about 3 or 4 days he still was lame and would not bear weight on the sore leg. We went to the vet and this time there was ample evidence to suggest a cruciate injury. X-rays showed the beginning of arthritic changes and the vet did a test on his leg called a "drawer" test which shows if there is too much movement in the joint.

So, now we think that the injury a year ago was probably a very tiny tear to his ligament. These ligaments cannot heal themselves. They cannot regenerate or grow back together. In a very small dog the joint may stabilize to the point where the dog is not in too much pain and can function pretty much ok. In a dog Elliott's size, and in a dog who competes in some sort of sport like obedience, you have to repair the joint.

We have visited a canine rehabilitation specialist, and had a surgical consult with an expert in these repairs. We have chosen a method of repair and arranged surgery. Elliott will be having his operation tomorrow afternoon.

I would be so thankful to anyone who would keep a good thought for our boy during this time. The most challenging part of all this will be the recovery period of eight weeks during which time he cannot have any uncontrolled exercise in case he re-injures himself.