The Beer Garden

Frank’s only had the first Mitaban dip and three doses of antibiotic so far, but it already seems to be helping … the scabs on his head are smaller, and his neck wasn’t raw and bloody this morning.  This is wonderful!  I wonder if a Pagan can nominate a veterinarian for sainthood …

I’d love to see him with all his hair again, but I’ll be quite happy if his skin just clears up — I can always make him a nice handspun wool sweater and cap for winter!

Of all the dogs we’ve had, I think our current two have the best personalities, and surprisingly enough, they’re both pit bull mixes — yes, I suppose I had been affected by media reports, even though I know the primary reason dogs "go bad" is due to bad owners, with the next reason being abuse by someone else, usually kids who may or may not know better.

May Frank continue to improve, and may whatever deity Dr. Lewis worships pour blessings upon him!

Yeah, I know I said this was turning into a LotGD blog instead of a personal one, but I simply have to share this good news!

Took the puppy to the vet today (the earliest we could get in) for a skin problem he’s had for a while, but only got us concerned about six weeks ago.  (We thought it was a simple allergy till then, and got rid of everything we thought it might be, starting with that [expletive deleted] Chinese melamine-contaminated food, then Chinese dog toys, then anything plastic].

I was very pleasantly impressed by both Dr. Lewis and how well Frank(furter) behaved. The problem turns out to be not all that uncommon with pit bulls, pit mixes, and bulldogs … demodectic mange, with secondary bacterial infection.

It sounds terrible, but he says it’s not difficult to cure; I came home with a dip and two antibiotics, plus a dog food recommendation that caused a special stop at the grocery store. According to him, I should see an improvement in less than two weeks, when I’m to give him a second dip. I’m really hoping so (please, Lord Anubis!), ‘cause the poor little guy looks awful, and it has to be both painful and itchy.

Military base vets are quite good, since their primary job is taking care of the base’s working dogs — the rest are to keep them in practice — and I’m just glad we have access to this one!

I want my version of LotGD to have a distinct Terran Empire feel, but the Empire isn’t a classical-fantasy world, which makes for some difficulties in translation.  Some are minor, such as the races, with a couple either direct equivalents (human/human, felyne/Irschchan) and at least one would only need minor tweaks (troll/Traiti).  

Even the Healers can be equated to doctors or med techs, given how advanced Imperial medicine is.  But in this vein comes a (even the!) major problem: time in the equivalents of Heaven and Limbo/Hell, with the respective deities, has an effect on game stats, plus the very common phenomenon of resurrection.  Divine intervention has happened in the Empire, very rarely, and there’s been one case of resurrection (briefly), but in the standard LotGD game, both are everyday matters.  That’s a big problem, and I’m not sure how to deal with it.

Some of the races/specialties use magic, or what acts like it; that could be equated to Talent.  That’s rare in all the TE races except Irschchans (and Sandemans, who don’t really like it), but it would make sense for warriors attracted to the world of the game to have a higher-than-average number of Talented.

Other fudges could be using high tech in at least some of the places that usually use magic, like the dragon’s eye in Ze Gypsy Tent becoming a remote camera or real-time satellite image.  Flying mounts could be null-grav vehicles, and so on.

This is going to be fun!  I have genetic engineering to play with — though it’s illegal in the Empire except for medically necessary purposes, there’ve been several groups that have gone out-Empire to play, like the Shapers of the Sandeman human-variant race.  So there are undoubtedly other worlds not discovered as of my last canonic story, or that weren’t relevant to mention.  Methinks I feel a story coming on … well, at least once the vet can solve Frank(furter)’s skin problem.  Poor kid!

Frank is our mini-Dachshund/pit bull puppy who is having a nasty rash with hair loss … I personally think it at least got started with the [expletive deleted] Chinese-tainted food, but it’s getting worse, not better, even though we’ve taken both dogs off everything on the recall list.  Yes, I am severely ticked! 

 

Since this has proved to be no more successful than my previous attempts at a diary/journal in any form, it’s undergoing a major change.

For now, at least, it’s going to be a place to discuss the setup and running of our version of the Legends of the Green Dragon text-based on-line game.  (For me to run or even play it, it has to be text-based; I’m stuck with a 24-K dial-up.)

Anyway, I’ll be giving She of Many Nics posting privileges as soon as she registers and I know which one she wants to use here.  Comments will remain open to registered users; in fact, if anyone’s interested in the game, we welcome comments, since that may well improve our version.