49ers Game and Ariel

It's been sort of a long week. Over the summer, we noticed that Ariel, our nine year old greyhound, was not as energetic as she used to be. Before the summer, she could take a make it up the stairs in two bounds and then leap onto her favorite forbidden spot, our bed. Starting this summer, some nights she would take that approach. Most often, she would take it a step at a time. She was winded at the top of the stairs.

Then, about three weeks ago, Ariel started running her nose against my leg (and everything and anything else), acting like she could not get the snot out of her nose. We thought, the girl might be having allergies. Overtime, it looked like she was getting better. But last weekend, she acted very sluggish. We took her to the vet, who thought she might have a strained neck. He gave Ariel some pills, saying that it might upset her stomach.

On Wednesday night, I came home and found that Ariel had defecated on the couch and in another spot. Further exploration revealed that she had left a couple of piles of saliva in the living room. We thought it was a bad reaction to the pills, and stop giving them to her. Our conversation with the vet the next day confirmed that we were right to stop giving her the pills. We thought that was it.

In fact, Ariel started coming back. Last night, we went to the 49ers-Raiders game. When we arrived home, we noticed that Ariel had left a stool in her bed. Ariel has always been a neat and clean girl, and she does not do this. We went to bed. At about 2:00 a.m., Dorey noticed that she had left another stool in the bedroom. Then at 5:00 a.m., Ariel had an violent seizure in which she lost bowel and blatter functions, and left a pile of saliva. After her three minute attack, she went downstairs and paced for a half an hour, completely in a panic. No amount of soothing words could calm her.

We went to church. I went home between meetings, and found evidence of another seizure. Dorey came home and again she observed a small seizure. Then Ariel had another small one. We then took her to the vet. No diagnosis yet, but she is staying overnight for observation. If she seizes, they can give her the anti-seizure medication immediately. Hang on, gal. We have a few more walks to do.

The 49ers-Raider game was a fun game. Even though we live in the East Bay, I am a Niner fan. I was more of a Raiders fan when I was a kid, but then they left the Bay Area. By the time they returned, I was a 49er fan. My passion for the Raiders was gone. I am, after all, not a battered woman, and you don't win my love back that easily. So while I will watch the Raiders, I am only passionate about the Niners.

Last night, the crowd in San Francisco was two-thirds Niners fans, one-third Raiders fans. I was concerned that the two camps were going to get a little out of control, but by and large, the rivalry remained good natured. It helped that many Niners fans came with Raider fans. I joked that the game, like any civil war, divided brother and brother, mother and son. It was not a lie, though. Two rows ahead of us, the son was a Raiders fan while his parents were 49ers fans.





As the game move on, third girls sat in the row ahead of us. Two were Niner fans, and one was a Raider fan. They were loud, obnoxious girls. At one point, they turned around and told us that they had been partying for a week to celebrate one of the girls' 25th birthday. Tonight, they were loud and foul-mouthed, but as one explained, they were not drunk. At one point, the Niners scored a touchdown. One of the Niner fan girls rubbed her butt in the face of the Raider fan girl. My father leaned over and asked if he could have these girls come to his next birthday party. I asked Dorey if we had somehow been transported to New Jersey, and these were our Jersey girls.

Ok, the stats: Yesterday, I walked 15,326 steps. Overall, as of this moment, 6:27 p.m. on Sunday, August 23, 2009, I have walked 716,025 steps in 59 days.