A Sick Puppy and Gremlins

So, let's talk about Murphy. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong – and usually at the most inopportune time. Please note that we'd just spent over two weeks with family in major metropolitan areas with no hint of a problem. Get out into the hinterland with no cell service and things just start falling apart. Arrrrrrrrgh. Most critical was our sick puppy. Let me back up to Sunday, 4/8. Before we left Danville that morning, we noticed that Riley had a few quarter-sized hot spots on his head. We clipped the hair, cleaned and medicated the area.  He was also favoring his front leg, but we figured that was just a result of too much fun with cousin Rowdy. He didn't seem too bothered and slept most of the way to Pinnacles.  

We expected Riley to perk up by dinnertime, but by then he was so out of it he would barely lift his head.  He wasn't eating or drinking much either. This was not our happy puppy. The hot spots had quadrupled in size, spreading across the top of his head and on both sides of his face. I've never seen them spread that fast!  With no cell service we couldn't even find a vet or research symptoms. I was having horrific flashbacks to the start of our year-long trip when Callie got sick and passed away. We loaded Riley up in the CRV and headed back the way we'd come, figuring there had to be an emergency vet somewhere.    

Riley is not his happy self and Mom & Dad are worried.

As soon as I got a cell signal, I started searching and found an emergency clinic about an hour and a half away in San Jose. I called and described Riley's symptoms and they agreed he should see the vet. When we arrived the waiting room was full, including a mouthy Husky who was barking and lunging at Riley and generally acting a fool. The receptionist was very apologetic, but between our phone call and arrival they had six emergencies come in, including two surgeries. She suggested we go to another clinic or wait a really long time to be seen. While we were debating, some guy sticks his head in the front door and says, "Do you know your building's on fire?" Cue the stampede from the waiting room to the parking lot. Sure enough, there was ash and embers flying everywhere. I really could not make this stuff up! 

Fire behind the vet clinic. Really?? I do not need this!

Luckily the fire was behind the building, not the clinic itself. But we opted to get out before we were blocked in by the Fire Department. In the meantime, Riley had started to look a little livelier, but we had no intentions of leaving without seeing a vet. We located the other clinic and were happy to find an empty waiting room. While I filled out the new patient paperwork, Riley charmed the nurse. After a thorough exam, we opted to have the hot spots treated and start antibiotics immediately. The vet said Riley had a fever and that would account for his lethargy. Treatment started with shaving most of our handsome boy's head. With the hair gone, we saw the hot spots had spread even further than we thought. He wasn't happy with the process, but Mommy and Daddy held him and loved him up while the nurse shaved, scrubbed, and medicated all his owies. He got a shot to jump start the meds and a 7-day course of oral and topical antibiotics along with Benadryl for itching. The vet also put him on house arrest until his limp was gone. We pulled back into our campsite around 1am, tired but very glad we'd made the trip.  

My poor baby. The top of his and both sides of his face are a mess.

Nearly a week has passed and I'm thrilled to report that Riley is feeling much better. His hot spots are healing and we hardly ever call him Hamburger Head or Krusty Pup or Zombie Dog anymore.  Lol. His limp is gone and he is driving us nuts wanting to play nonstop to make up for lost time. In the meantime, however, other things haven't gone as smoothly. 

Looking and feeling so much better now.

Helping Mommy pick up the patio mat.

Apparently some gremlins have raccoon-like paws.
This guy tried every single window hoping to gorge himself on the 40 lb bag of dog food inside. 

Now, about those gremlins. I'm beginning to think all my electronics are jinxed. After our hike on Monday, I noticed my laptop charge was low so I plugged in and started uploading pictures. About half way through I went outside to take Riley for a short walk. When I returned my computer was off. Odd. I hit the power – nothing. Uh oh. I tried all the reset button combos to no avail. Before we left for our long trip, I splurged and bought a high-end Microsoft Surface Book. It's less than two years old, so I was pretty sure it was just a faulty charger. I was using a replacement since a certain puppy who would prefer to remain anonymous (RILEY) had chewed up the original.  I'm sure I've mentioned there is no cell service at Pinnacles, so without access to any other troubleshooting info, I was dead in the water.  

The pictures were piling up and I'm getting way behind on the blog. But there's not much that can be done about it, so I take a deep breath and read a lot. From Pinnacles, we'd planned to head to the desert, but I wanted to replace my charger before getting even further from civilization. Rog suggests spending a night at the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA.   We arrive on Thursday, 4/12, unhook the toad and head into town. I take my laptop and we hit Best Buy. The Geek Squad is pretty much useless, but it doesn't appear that the charger is the problem. Double uh-oh. I call several repair places and hear pretty much the same thing – it has to be shipped back to Microsoft for repair. Not happening when we're on the road.  

I make good use of the campground wifi, call my tech support (love you, bro) and try everything and anything to resurrect my very expensive, laptop-shaped paperweight. No love and it's now Friday the 13th. Arrrrrrrgh. Two months without a computer is not working for me. I have bills to pay and a blog to write! (Would you miss me?) So we pay for another night at Orange Grove and head back into town. We hit Costco and I am the proud, if reluctant, owner of a new HP Envy 360 laptop. Now the fun begins.  

I unbox the new baby and stay up until nearly midnight trying to get the system updates installed. I finally give up and go to bed. Hopefully it'll finish during the night. Thank heavens the RV park has half-way decent wifi! With a little more help from sibling tech support, we get email set up and start the arduous process of downloading all my files. Ahem, that is 94GB of data, over 21,000 files – on a campground wifi. This is going to take a while. We pay for a third night.  

I download all day long and at midnight I still have 16,387 files to go. Even half-way decent campground wifi doesn't cut it. I'll get as much downloaded as I can before we leave and do the rest as time and bandwidth allow. Sigh. The good news is Orange Grove is a great RV park. It really is an orange grove with orange trees between every space and all along the perimeter. In season, you can pick as much fruit as you want. Right now most of the fruit has dropped, but the trees are in bloom and it smells heavenly. 

Orange trees everywhere, it smells heavenly!

Rog trying out a date shake. Yep, that's a thing here. :) 

But wait, that's not all. Less critical, but no less annoying, on our second hike at Pinnacles, my camera froze twice. Both times I managed to get it working, but it is making some really creaky noises. I've already been researching replacements, but the model I'm most interested in was just released this month. I was hoping mine would hold out a little longer so I could see what the reviews look like before deciding. Fingers crossed.  

 

Oh, and let's not forget to mention that the RV has a dash alarm that buzzes intermittently as we go down the road at 60mph telling us to "set the parking brake". Yeah, that sounds like a plan.  

I hope all the gremlins will pack it in now that Friday the 13th is over, but I'm not going to put any money on it. Our plan is to leave Bakersfield, Sunday, 4/15, and find a spot in or near Death Valley. Rog has been checking the weather and so far the forecast is for temps in the 80's. That should be doable. We'll keep you posted (with my new HP laptop - grrrrrrr).