Zoey Update

Thankfully, the vet seems very certain the lumps are not cancerous. However, the one is large enough to be of concern, and they do want to remove it before it gets any bigger. 

But the lumps aren't the immediate issue, apparently. Her neck is. Like people, dogs can hurt their necks and spines, and somehow, she has. When we touched her, she would turn her head to look at us, which hurt. They took the predicted x-rays, but thankfully there is nothing out of joint. The vet thinks the liquid inside the discs in her back (just like people, again), has escaped one of them and inflamed her spinal cord, or the area round it. In any case, she is on pain pills and muscle relaxer for three weeks to fix the problem. Once all of that is done, then we will talk about removing the large lump. 

The vet was the same one who operated on Julius. she was very nice and completely understanding of our situation. It turns out, her husband is also unemployed and unable to find a job. Our local area is very job poor right now, and the few jobs available are competed for by hundreds, if not thousands of applicants. I think this is why she offered to do the Julius follow up for free. Unfortunately, Zoey's visit and treatment weren't, but she agreed that we had to do something. Apparently, untreated sometimes dogs will actually rupture a disc, and this can lead to paralyzation. Better to treat it now and help her body fix itself. 

I am still running my donation raffle. The visit, x-rays and meds were $300 we no longer have for things like groceries. It is three weeks until Mark gets another paycheck, so the only money we have coming in right now is from jewelry sales. The $300 came out of what we had budgeted to buy food, gas, and pay bills during that three weeks. 

Thank you so much to those who have already boosted the signal, bought jewelry, or donated. We appreciate it so very much. 

Rice-a-roni...only better!

In non-dog related news, I have a recipe to share! Who loved rice-a-roni growing up? I did, and especially my husband did. But the boxes today don't seem to taste as good. Plus, they can be kind of expensive. Thus, I made homemade rice-a-roni the other night, and it was SO GOOD. My picky husband loved it. So I'm sharing:

1 C Rice (I use jasmine rice)
1/2 C thin spaghetti, cut into 1 inch pieces (I just used kitchen shears, and cut handfuls of the stuff into pieces into a measuring cup, until it was about the right amount)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T butter
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 quarter onion, diced small - I used my small food processor and diced the garlic and onion together
2 C water
2 tsp. better-than bullion chicken (or, you can replace this and the water with chicken broth. But Better Than Bullion is awesome stuff!)
salt and pepper

Cut up the thin spaghetti. Heat olive oil in a skillet and then brown the spaghetti pieces for a minute or two. Add the rice, and brown it with the spaghetti for another couple of minutes. Add butter, garlic and onion, brown together until onion is nice and translucent. Stir frequently to prevent garlic from burning. Heat water in microwave, add it and the bullion to the pan. Cover and simmer for twenty minutes. I stirred mine every once in awhile to make sure it wasn't sticking to the pan. I also ended up having to add just a little bit of water at the end, but I wasn't super scientific about my measurement of the spaghetti, so YMMV. 

Anyway, this stuff was the best rice-a-roni ever. My husband inhaled it, and he eats like a ten-year-old kid, so I'm guessing kids would love it, too. I diced the onion and garlic small enough, you don't even see it among the rice and spaghetti bits. 

It is so much cheaper to prepare this way than buying those boxes, and the procedure is pretty much exactly the same. Plus, you have the added benefit of knowing exactly what you are putting into it. No mysterious ingredients. Substitute some kind of gluten-free noodles if you want, use less salt, organic broth, whatever you want!