Happy news

Jamie was able to lower his prednisone dosage again. Since the middle of January, he's gone from 25 mg twice a day to 25 mg once a day to 25 mg every other day to 20 mg every other day. This might not seem like a big deal but it is. He's been able to step down without any symptoms recurring. Since he is doing so well the vet feels he might eventually be able to get off the pred totally and manage his IBD with diet alone.

I am cautiously optimistic. Since the IBD diagnosis and starting treatment, he has been awesome. No more vomiting, no refusing to eat, no diarrhea, no blood where it shouldn't be. He's happy, sparkly and has re-gained the weight he lost. It's like last November, December and January never happened.

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This morning I went to our local Chevy dealer and looked at an Equinox. This translates to "crawled around and measured the cargo area." Funny, the sales woman (who sold us C3P0) automatically put the back seats down without having to be asked. I think I have her trained!

I'm thinking strongly about trading vehicles (3P0 has some issues) but not sure when it's going to happen. I really like the Equinox (32 mpg, what's not to like!) but to be honest, I'm not sure it has enough room. Sue said I could take it home and "try it on." Is that generous or what! I told her I'd take her up on that offer but not until the weather warmed up a little bit. I hope she realizes it will be mud-coated when I bring it back, since our gravel road is missing most of its gravel.

The Equinox has a lot of nice features but the back seats do not fold as flat as they do in 3P0. I would have to come up with a way to level the crates. Plus the crates would take up pretty much all available room, no space left over for "junk." Which begs the question, how much of my "junk" is necessary and could I downsize?

I can say without reservation it would be an excellent vehicle for a person with one malinois- or Tervuren-sized dog or anything smaller.

*****

I'm on furlough (again) next week and I'm looking forward to it! Not the whole filing for unemployment and only getting a fraction of my regular income for that week part but definitely the having a week to myself part. Personally, I think Gannett has gotten a little too fond of furloughing workers, but, repeat after me, I still have my job.

The weekend weather sounds a bit dicey but maybe that will make me stay home for at least a day and clean out the basement. Ugh. How can two people get a basement so dirty? And where's that house elf! He is such a slacker.