Lots to talk about

Some days we have to think of things to talk about, but not today. Nope, still no baby yet, although Lindsey thinks this evening that she may be getting some contractions, so maybe tomorrow will be the day!

First of all, we did take Whiskey to the vet this morning. Her breathing was not right when we went to bed last night, and she couldn’t seem to get comfortable. At one point, the raspy noise did stop, but both Ruth and I wondered if she had taken her last breath! But neither one of us wanted to get up and check because maybe she had finally fallen asleep. Eventually, we heard her move and that put our minds to rest enough that we fell asleep as well.

But this morning she wasn’t interested in food of any kind, and she almost didn’t have enough energy to get up the stairs to Lindsey and Justin’s apartment. So we called the vet that Lindsey uses for her cats, and she agreed to see us right away.

Whiskey has a heart murmur (leaking of one of the valves in the heart), and we have known about that for quite a while. Apparently what has happened now is that the medication that she has been taking for her incontinence has caused increased blood pressure which in turn has aggravated the heart murmur. The heart is now enlarged, and is causing fluid build up in her lungs. This is a similar condition to congestive heart failure.

Whiskey, resting comfortably with her doggy diaper on.

So, the vet confirmed her diagnosis with chest xrays and blood tests. We have to take her off the incontinence medication for now, so she is wearing doggy diapers. She has to take a diuretic to remove the fluid from her lungs and another pill that strengthens the heart muscle and reduces the blood pressure. She also has a minor urinary infection, so has an antibiotic for that. Poor Whiskey! Hard to believe she went on a five mile walk with us just a couple of weeks ago.

We have to return to the vet on Friday afternoon to see if things have improved, and if they have, we will put her on an estrogen treatment that is supposed to help with the incontinence problem without affecting the heart or blood pressure.

All this for only $495 (so far!)…that puts a dent in the March budget miscellaneous column. Oh well, we do what we need to do.

On to other things. We drove over to the spot Justin’s uncle said we could park at. It’s essentially at the edge of a farmers field at the end of a private dirt road. It’s actually a great spot for Sherman, nobody around and a nice view out one side. The other side faces a pile of scrap farm machinery, so not so nice. Unless we come across something better, we will be moving Sherman there when I return from Ottawa around April 14.

The view from our possible parking spot at Justin's uncle's farm.

Another option for parts of the summer, we found out that Nova Scotia provincial parks have a camp host program. We won’t stay at the provincial parks because they want $24.48 in Nova Scotia for an unserviced site. This is too rich for us, especially when there are so many boondocking opportunities here. The vast majority of these parks do not have hookups. There is only one of their provincial park that has electric and water hookups and it is $32.64 per night.

But the camp host program allows you to stay with full hookups in the host site in exchange for 4 hours per day of “hosting” activities, 5 days per week. We think that would be kind of fun. You have to commit to a minimum two week period.

But here’s the problem…as with just about everything in Canada, the government involvement is ridiculous. You have to apply to be a camp host, which  then includes a criminal record check, a child abuse registry check, an interview, and be available for training prior to the start of the season. It says “We are always looking for new campground host volunteers”. No wonder!

Then, they say that the application deadline is March 17^th, even though the season doesn’t start until May 20^th. In fact, some parks don’t open until June 17^th!

How can they possibly get enough people willing to go through all of that to fill all those positions? I don’t get it. Anyhow, we have sent an email asking if there is any way to get on for this season. I guess we’ll see what happens.

(Note, as I post this Thursday morning, Whiskey has had a better nights sleep. Her breathing is pretty much back to normal. Oh, and Lindsey thinks her labour has started. Maybe today will be the day…!)