Hello everyone!
These last couple
months have been busy for us.
The
last update I sent out ended on a pretty sad note with the loss of
our sweet foster pug Rosie. It didn’t take us long to decide to get
another and we took on a female bug (boston terrier-pug mix) named
Rugby. Rugby was sweet but more than a little neurotic. She did
not get along with Satchel and Tweetie at all and after a few weeks we gave her
back to foster home she came from. From this same home we then got
two pugs that had originally come from a Missouri puppy mill, Bailey and
Sophie. Despite having what is generally a female dog name Bailey is
a male. He is blind and has to take medicine for a collapsed
trachea. Sophie is very small but pretty sausage-like in her shape
when she came into our home. She is essentially deaf and doesn’t see
very well. Their ages are estimated to be between eight and eleven
years old. They are very sweet and seem to have acclimated well to
our home and schedule. We’ve been closely controlling Sophie’s diet
and, while I wouldn’t call her svelte, she has obtained a discernible
waist. As you might imagine Bailey runs into things a lot. Like
almost constantly. He has learned the layout of the house somewhat
but must have a very tough snout. He loves to cuddle and always
wants to be close by. I think it’s safe to say that he’s my little
buddy. Sophie is in love with Susan. She tolerates me but
cries and is almost inconsolable when Susan leaves the room. We did
have a scare with Bailey this last weekend.
I went to let the
fosters out of their kennel on Friday morning and Bailey didn’t want to step
outside. He was shaking and taking very shallow
breaths. He wouldn’t eat and his back was very
arched. Obviously he was in a lot of pain. Susan took him
to the vet as soon as they opened and Bailey was diagnosed with pneumonia
caused from aspirating something. They didn’t know what this
something was but it was mostly likely either a piece of dinner from the night
before or stomach acid. He was in very bad shape and the vet
recommended he be put down. Susan went to work as she waited to hear
back from people that run the pug rescue program. At around the same
time Susan got a call back from pug rescue the vet called to tell her that
Bailey was making a fantastic recovery and would be fine. He is a
very tough little dog and made a dramatic turnaround during the
day. Susan and I both met at the vet after work to bring him
home. He’s coughed and hacked a lot for the first few days
afterwards and is now mostly back to normal. The incident really
shocked us as he was completely fine the night before and gave us no indication
something was wrong before he was gravely ill the next morning. We
are very glad he pulled through and have decided to give him treats on a daily
basis from now on.
At the end of
September we replaced the furniture in our living room (thanks
Mom!). The old set was a wedding present from Mom and Dad and, while
providing comfortable seating for nine years, was getting ragged around the
edges. Because of the layout in the living room and after much
debate we decided to get a sofa and modular sectionals. The new
furniture has really opened up the room while providing more seating than
before.
The 2012 Rallycross
National Championships were held from October 5-7 in Tulsa and Susan and I made
an appearance. We were very busy during our trip but had time to see
a few relatives for dinner the night before the event started. We
saw Billy, Janie, Charlie, Dina, Alice, Amanda (Kevin’s wife), and Kevin’s baby
(whose name eludes me right now). We had a good time visiting over
burgers at a local restaurant chain and at Billy and Janie’s house.
The event itself felt
like it went very quickly. The first day was registration and tech
where we all line up our cars and check to make sure everyone is following the
rules. We also got to drive on a test course to get a feel for the
conditions. On day two we got to race. There were two
heats that day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our
WRX was acting funny and would randomly stall when idling. It turns
out the blow off valve and the tune we’re running doesn’t work as efficiently
at lower altitudes. Luckily for us there isn’t any idling when we’re
driving the course so the issues didn’t adversely affect our
performance. I was in second place at the end of the day but was
knocked down to third when the first run was thrown out. A course
change was made and none of the drivers in our class heard about it (the rules
say that every driver should know about course changes). One driver
was really upset and appealed that the run be thrown out. His argument was
convincing enough that the run was excluded from the results.
Day three consisted of
racing in the morning and trophies in the afternoon. The car held
together great and we were fast. I wasn’t quick enough to make up
all the time I was behind the competitor ahead of me and got third place (yes,
I would have gotten second place if the first run wasn’t thrown out… I’m still
trying not to be bitter). Susan had some really fast runs and landed
in eleventh place against some fierce competition. A lot of people
from our region came out and Susan and I had a great time.
For the past month and
a half or so my band has been working on a new CD. This has entailed
me being downstairs in the studio for many hours recording the other band
members but mostly by myself. I was hoping to have it finished by
the end of the year but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. At
this point all of the songs going on the CD were written by me and I’m hoping
Ryan can add a couple of his own.
I hope this finds
everyone happy and well!
Love,
Max and Susan
