Leslie and David's Wanderings: 23 April – 17 May 2024 Preparing for the rest of 2024

After recovering from our three-month tour of the South Pacific, we turned our attention to getting ready to hit the road for the northern hemisphere summer travel season. David made a trip up to Fort Worth for work and see his dentist about the crown that came off during the cruise (the tooth will have to be pulled). We got maintenance done to the Behemoth. In addition to the usual annual items, we put new heavy-duty bumpers on both front and back (the factory bumpers had been beat to hell by people in parking lots) and a new set of tires. We had Detail Dr. come out and wash and wax both the Wanderer and Behemoth so they both are nice and shiny. As well as protected for the year. But the biggest thing we did was add a new member to our family. David had promised Leslie that when we got back from the cruise, we could get a new dog. So, on 8 May, we went down to the Montgomery County SPCA to see what dogs they had available for adoption. They had dozens of large breed dogs (Pit Bulls, German Shepards, Malamutes, and mixes) but no small or medium size breeds, until we asked a worker. She took us into the puppy area and there, in a cage by herself was a medium sized English Pointer/Jack Russell Terrier mix. She was a little bit larger than we were looking for, but very shy and sweet. They were treating her for Heart Worms, which made us very concerned. Leslie asked if we could get her out and interact with her. So, we went to an outside cage and got to know her. And so we found our new family member, Keira. We took her home with 25 days of antibiotics (150MG of Doxycycline) to kill the symbiotic bacteria that the heart worms depend on (known as the slow kill method) and for some reason a case of CBD treats to calm her. When we put her in the back seat of the truck, she sniffed around and curled up and was calm and quiet all the way home. The antibiotic pills were huge, and getting them down her twice a day no fun. They also upset her stomach and made her lethargic. So, we took her to our local vet in Spring and had her gone over from Nose to Tip of Tail. Our vet looked her over, did full blood tests and xrays ($890) and said other than the heart worms, she was just fine. But she did reduce the antibiotics (100MG of Doxycycline) since the dosage the SPCA gave us was too high for her weight, gave us some anti-nausea medicine and doggy Prilosec. That really helped Keira feel better and she is eating better and is much more herself. We are all getting used to each other. Keira is very well behaved, house broken and listens to our commands. We’re all happy with our (her?) choice!