Lina's been doing much better the past couple of days. She's less groggy & also less whiny, resting more comfortably. The crate continues to be a problem (know how hard it is to get a cat into a carrier? Imagine trying to shove a 55 pound cat into a crate, while taking utmost care not to jar one of its legs), but now that she's calmed down we're not needing the crate as much as I had feared.

The first few days her leg was really red. I know that lines of red around a wound are a really bad sign, but this was solid color all over the leg. It looked like a bruise except red, not purple. I was going to call the doctor and ask his advice on it, but when I checked this morning it wasn't red anymore. So it must have been normal inflammation.

Here's another photo of her leg that shows how long the stitches are. It's pretty impressive, running almost the whole way down the leg.

I had been worried about Lina's doctor assigning her a "body condition" of 5/9, because I thought that referred to general health, and the scale was 1=death's door, 9=perfect health. So I thought 5 must be pretty bad for a dog I thought was basically healthy. But my friend Judith wrote to say that the scale is actually body size, with 1=emaciated, and 9=extreme obesity. So 5 is just about right: not thin, but healthy. Just like me. Aw!

I've been indulging in a little shopping therapy to relieve the stress of the past few days. Continued my endless quest to find another pair of jeans I like, with the same lack of success as always. It's weird how hard it is to find decent jeans that actually fit. Also went to Sears to check out their Lands End selection, but alas, they didn't have the things I wanted in my size. I specifically wanted this cute little hat in green & red striped polartec, but they only had it in large/x-large. Well I've got polartec (just not cute striped polartec); I can make my own hat.

On the bright side I did get a couple pairs of shoes (brown Hush Puppies and cute black mary janes) and a purse at Ross. Also bought some of those shelves that hang underneath cabinets, to put our spices in. When the new dryer was installed, we lost the shelf where we used to keep the spices and still haven't found a new permanent home for them. But alas, the under-cabinet shelves I bought are too narrow.

Had my radio show this morning. The first hour or so was a mess: I had a really cool request -- "Cantaloop" by Us 3 -- that I couldn't fill, because the CD is missing. Or possibly the station never had it, and I was just confused because I have that album at home. So I thought I'd play "Cantaloupe Island" by Herbie Hancock, but I couldn't find that either, even though I thought for sure we used to have it. So instead I pulled another Hancock album, "New Standards," only to find an empty case! I so love when that happens.

After that I accidently ejected the CD that was playing at the time, and then a little while later a track ended a minute before it was supposed to, but I didn't have anything else cued up yet. So I was feeling pretty frazzled. But I finally hit my stride about half way through, and the show ended a lot better than it began if I do say so myself.

In other news, the tree guy showed up! He came yesterday with another guy and cut up the fallen tree. Unfortunately he hasn't hauled the brush away yet, which he said he would have done by today. Oh well, maybe he'll get it done by the end of the week. Even with the piles of brush all over the place, the yard still looks so much bigger.