Day 52 - Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Hard to believe we've had the wooly mammoth for almost 2 months now!
She's filled out quite a bit and she's at an ideal weight. Any more gain and she won't fit through the cat door.
Speaking of which, she's still annoyed by the cats (and don't even ask them how they feel about her), but doing much better.

This, of course, has all to do with a shamanic healing seminar I attended last weekend. I learned some energy healing techniques, and if you now think I'm crazy then that has a whole lot to do with the fact that I am crazy.
Thank you for the great genes, mom and dad :).
Anyways, I also attended some animal communication classes (yes, pet psychic) previously and to make a long story short, I tried some of the stuff I learned and am actually seeing progress.
Josephine is less grouchy too so now I have to try it on Tom. Maybe we could say good-bye to those cancer sticks and happy pills!

The cats have been hanging out in the kitchen the past few days, and Lana still yaps at them occassionally, but is dealing with the situation quite well.
Outside, she'll still run after them, but won't do her obnoxious barking routine. Sometimes we can actually all co-exist in the back yard without having to wear earplugs.

What we're learning now is climbing the main stairs. I couldn't figure out if it was a physical or mental thing, but since Lana has shown no signs of arthritis, I'm thinking she's just never encountered a staircase.
We haven't tackled the problem yet, because it had never been a problem before, and we wanted to give the chihuahuas a place to retreat to since Lana and Josephine were a little on edge around each other.
Well, the past few nights Lana has been waking me up several times a night, having to go out and me having to carry her down the stairs. This had the result that I could now compete at work with my students in the lets-see-who-can-go-to-sleep-first-during-class contest.

I thought that Lana had temporary diarrhea and the problem would be over in a few days, but now I don't know if she really still has diarrhea or thinks going out at night to patrol is a poodle's version of hanging out at the local bar.
I've become so sleep-deprived that I just left her downstairs for the night, along with about 5 cozy dogbeds to choose from, but that just doesn't quite cut it for her.
Of course she wants to be with the rest of the pack and starts barking up the stairs about 3x per night. She never barks for long, just enough to wake me up and give me time to invent a few new curse words.
Anyways, I started the training today and whereas Lana's very cautious she's mastered 3 stairs today. I've read online that that's very good progress in one day so hopefully she can use the stairs by the time we go on vacation and grandpa has to come and take care of the brood.

Grandpa, if I were you, I'd be hoping real hard right now!