South central Montana has been having August weather since May.
Global warming or not?
There have been fires all around us. I’ve been irrigating, with little time for the computer.
My friend, Linda is here - all the way from New Brunswick.
We have taken some time to do the tourist thing. It’s been wonderful. I live in such an incredible place, and I’ve been happy to share its beauty.
I’m happy to report that Maggie is home and seems to be doing okay. I took Lucky to the vet yesterday and he was pleased with the way her foot is healing. Which was a relief - since the vet was talking about amputating her toe on Thursday. He also gave me a different medication for Ty to calm him. It’s wait and see all around.
These girls were moved yesterday.
Maggie is a dog that was rescued from the pound by my friend. This pretty girl was bitten by a rattlesnake on the Rims today. She is at the vet and they’re doing what they can for her.
If you’ve been visiting here for a while, you know that I share my life with three dogs. In case I didn’t have enough to deal with, they have been keeping me occupied with their health concerns.
Almost eleven years ago the Sugar Beet Baron picked out a puppy and named him Ty. About eight years ago, Ty had a run in with a sickle mower. Thanks to our vet, Ty and his leg were saved. If he gets nervous Ty has a tendency to bite on that leg. When my husband was sick, all of the dogs sensed that something was wrong. Our friends took good care of them while we lived at the hospital. I would come home to do laundry and pick up the mail. The dogs would be thrilled to see me. When when they realized that I was leaving again - they’d get upset. Right after my husband’s funeral, Ty began limping badly on his front legs. The vet started him on an arthritis medicine. Within days he stopped limping, and seemed to be less stiff. But he continues gnawing on his back leg. Nothing stops him. He has grown accustomed to wearing his Elizabethan collar.
I took the collar off him for a bit the other night. While I was talking to him and scratching his neck I noticed that he had an ear infection. I cleaned his ears and by the time I put the collar back on - he had chewed his leg bloody. I packed some gauze with ointment and taped it up. The next morning the bandage was still on. I gave him his arthritis medicine and his anti-anxiety pill. Then I saw that Lucky’s toe was bloody and swollen. I soaked her foot in an Epsom salt bath and fooled her into taking her daily incontinence medicine. It was too early to call the vet. When I came back in from irrigating, Ty had the tape on his leg, but he had eaten most of the gauze. I called the vet and managed to get an appointment for both of them. After putting leashes on them, and sheets on the car seats - we were ready to roll. I don’t like to take Ty for rides because he barks constantly. Lucky is quiet and polite, so she sat up front. Ty was in the back - swinging his head wildly, slapping plastic into the headrests, barking through his megaphone. I drove the twelve miles as fast as I could. Not out of a medical urgency - I was afraid that I might wreck the car due to eighty-eight pounds of maniac dogflesh in the back seat. At the vet’s office his behaviour didn’t improve.
Lucky went first. She has an infection in the nailbed. We’re hoping that it responds to the antibiotics. Ty’s ear isn’t serious, but I do have some ointment for that. He had some x-rays, which showed that there’s nothing new (or bad) going on. The combination of scar tissue and anxiety are more than he can resist. We drove home with more medications and the same amount of noise.
Since the Old Faithful Webcam is temporarily out of service, you can view these old postcards instead. Click on the postcards to view them larger. The above card is an unused Haynes postcard. The back reads:
Old Faithful Geyser, 150 Ft., Yellowstone Park, is not the highest geyser, but it is by far the favorite one. Its eruptions occuring every hour last about four minutes.
This unused “Phostint” card was published by Detroit Publishing Co.
This unused HHT Co. card reads:
In plain sight from Old Faithful Inn, and every 63 minutes without variation, winter and summer, day and night, gives its exhibition. Eruptions by moonlight, sunrise or sunset are most brilliant.
An unused Haynes card of the Old Faithful Inn Office. Here’s an article about the renovation of the Old Faithful Inn
by Ruffin Prevost of the Billings Gazette.
Here’s Ruffin’s blog - Basin Beat Blues
An unused HHT Co Card. The back reads:
BEARS NEAR OLD FAITHFUL
The animals of the Park are objects of peculiar interest. No sounds of growl or bark of dog is ever heard, and the animals, though wild, roam at wil through the Park. Almost any evening or morning one may see from one to twenty bears eating in the vicinity of the hotel.
Here’s an article about those bears and their feeding grounds.