Update on Jasmine

Well it has been hectic the past week. Monday (10/18) we took Jasmine in to the vet because she had been drinking somewhere around 8 bowls of water a day. Which is quite a bit. We figured it was a liver problem that we were told about at the last vet visit, so we wanted to get the perscription from the vet. Sunday night I had noticed Jasmine hardly touched her food, which she usually inhales like a vacuum. That monday morning as I woke up for work there was still just as much food int he bowl which had me worried because she never skips a meal. She might be a dog but she's a little piggie! Later in the day I sent a text to my girlfriend to see if she had eaten her food yet and still nothing. Luckily I have a girlfriend that loves animals as much as I do and she called the vet and made the appointment for that day.

We get to the vet tell her about the amount of water she's been drinking and how the last couple days she's been eating less and less food. Put her on the scale and she went from 91lbs at her last visit to 80lbs this visit. There was no change in exercise or amount I was feeding her. They wanted to keep her overnight for testing. Jasmine was at the vet from Monday evening to Thursday evening, she was diagnosed with diabetes. She had a blood glucose level of 400 when we brought her in! You never would have guessed by looking at her that she wasn't doing well. I came home from work that monday before the vet visit and there she is with her favorite ball chewing it and throwing it at me and being quite playful. Hard to believe what we heard when the vet told us what the issue was.

Those few days without Jasmine around the house; not there wagging her tail when I got home from work, and not there crunching on her food while I was laying in bed got me pretty depressed. There are no words to describe the void that is filled by having her back. She is the sweetest most loving dog in the world. I mean, look at the face, how could you not love that?

She has to be givin insulin twice a day, once in the morning and once and night, right after a meal which is a special diet given to us by the vet. She seems to really like it. I thought giving her the insulin would be a pain in the butt and that she wouldn't like it at all, I was wrong. She sits right there nice and calm, lets you grab the scruff of her neck and give her the insulin. Such a well behaved dog, even the vets were amazed by how well behaved she is, and how easy it is to give her the injections. I don't think the vets wanted to give her back to me. Not that I can blame them.

So as of now she's back home, and happy, and acting more like her self. It's just great having the happy dog back. Here are some pictures I took with my phone since she's gotten back. Yeah I've gone a bit picture crazy with her. Click pictures for full sized images if the thumbnails aren't cute enough.

The Peace Sign

We all know the peace sign, we've all seen it, especially when there are wars going on. When you see a peace sign your first thought (well mine anyway) is 1960's, Vietnam War, Protests, people speaking out and actually caring for what's going on around them. I've always kind of considered myself a hippie born too late and taken over by today's current technological advances with an urge to try to make a difference but not having what it takes to start that kind of movement. If that makes any sense at all (haha.)

Now what you might not know, which I didn't until I came across this article today, is where the peace sign came from. Who made it, and why? I've always wondered if it was just created as a sign of peace or if there was a deeper meaning behind it. Of course I never really looked into it before or else I wouldn't just now be discovering this today.

The peace sign was designed in 1958 by a London textile designer, Gerald Holtom. He was trying to create a symbol he could put on banners that marchers were going to carry in a "ban the bomb" march which would be Britain's first major demonstration against nuclear weapons. The symbol is actually the letters "N" and "D" taken from flag semaphore signals, which is an alphabet signaling system that was once used for distant communication in the maritime world in the early 19th century. The letters "N" and "D" were used for the words Nuclear and Disarmament, and then put in a circle to create the peace sign we all know and use frequently still today. In 1960 the peace sign was imported into the U.S. via a peace sign button brought from the UK by Philip Altbach, reshman at the University of Chicago.. The symbol was around before but once the Student Peace Union was convinced by Philip Altbach to adopt the symbol it grew rapidly. By the late 1960's the symbol was adopted by anti-war protesters.