The Pup Pythagoras

Our dog Ellie stands in a snow-covered Irving Park in Portland, Oregon

The past couple of days Ellie has only wanted to go on 45 minute walks, still amazing for her age, but not quite the adventurous 60 to 90 minute walks of previous days. One thing I’ve noticed as she’s aged, in addition to the stiff legs and shortness of breath, is that at an intersection she tries to take the diagonal across instead of crossing each street in turn. She I suppose intrinsically understands the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and at her age wants and needs to minimize effort, but it always makes me think of the famous theorem that bears Pythagoras’ name. It made a big impression on my young self when I first learned of it and I realized the world of mathematics, and our world it describes, is both profound and beautiful.

Despite this I make Ellie take the long way round, crossing each street one at a time instead of taking the diagonal, as we live in the world of the automobile and it is their rules that govern our walks. She doesn’t understand, but then neither do I.

On to the Specialist

Our cat Sam rests on a scratching pad in the living room

Sam finished a round of antibiotics but is still showing no signs of improvement. He’s due to see a specialist on Monday as whatever is bothering him is a bit unusual and not responding to the normal treatments. On the plus side, while it takes multiple feedings to get him to eat all his food, he is digesting it well enough that he hasn’t lost any weight, and isn’t in any pain other than the discomfort in his GI tract. He is as snuggly as ever, our little medical mystery, but I’m not in the mood for mysteries.

Double Dragon

Our dog Ellie sits beside the dragon statue at Irvington School in Portland, Oregon on a sunny day in December 2017

These pictures may look the same but the top one is from Saturday, the bottom Sunday. We’ve had a spate of sunny and cold weather and Ellie was up for unusually long walks both days, slightly over an hour and a half on Saturday and slightly under on Sunday. She wanted to go past Irvington School on the way home, normally we don’t go that far south and east, she likes it because people walk their dogs in the grass field and I like it because I can photograph her beside the dragon statue. She wanted to go Friday as well, trying several times to get me to go past, but school was in session.

This pup is the best.

Our dog Ellie sits beside the dragon statue at Irvington School in Portland, Oregon on December 10, 2017. Original: _DSC7121.ARW

One Year Ago Today

Our dog Ellie stands in our backyard as snow falls around her

Exactly one year ago we were supposed to get a little bit of snow, a rarity for us, so I stayed home from work so I could take the pup out in whatever we got. We’d get quite a bit of snow a month later, not like the dusting here, but of course I had no way of knowing that. A biting wind made our outing less enjoyable than it might have been but I was still thankful for the chance to take Ellie out in the snow. Today was also a bit of a rarity weather-wise, cold but sunny, as it has been all week. No pictures from today, I had a meet-and-greet with a potential employer and was tied up all morning so we had to forego the long walks that have been a staple of our mornings since I got laid off a month ago.

Brothers at the Window

Our cats Sam and Boo look out the window from the top of the cat tree

Sam and Boo sitting side-by-side atop the cat tree, watching out my office window. Taken with perhaps my favorite camera/lens combination ever, the Sony A6500 and the Sony-Zeiss 24mm. There isn’t much room between the edge of the cat tree and the wall, I’m standing with the camera held at Sam’s eye level, I tilted the screen so I could see the image and tapped to set the focus on the fur above his eye. Not a particularly slow shutter speed but I wasn’t in the stablest of camera positions so the image stabilization was appreciated. Really glad I picked up this camera in the spring, it has finally my solved my desire for a small walk-around camera.

The Lap Cat

Our cat Sam snuggles in my lap

Sam has always been a lap cat, here snuggled into my lap as we curled up on my love seat. I’ll let you guess where he is as I type this. We started him on antibiotics today to see if it will improve the digestive issues that have haunted him the past month, here’s hoping.