MUNI | Dangerous Common Sense

Day 6 — Metro Keeps Hanging In and MUNI Gets Cute

By Galen|2018-09-29T13:16:26-07:00September 29, 2018|dachshunds|

The morning hospital report on Metro was okay, but not great. He is up to "the high 140 grams" based on the doctor's memory; the chart was not available. That's up from 139g yesterday morning. But, he's still weak on sucking so they are feeding him both by tube and bottle. Every hour, apparently. Last night's and this morning's doctors advised against a family visit. Yesterday morning's doctor and our regular vet said we should see him and bring his mother or at least a towel with her smells on it. We are trying to follow doctor's orders, but we [...]

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Day 5 – The Tale of Two Puppies Continues

By Galen|2018-09-28T09:16:28-07:00September 28, 2018|dachshunds|

Our puppies continue their divergent paths. Metro did only okay overnight, the hospital said. He started losing weight, so they put him back on tube feeding for a while. He is also being bottle fed. His weight went from 139g yesterday night, down to some unspecified level overnight, and back to 136g this morning. The doctor said that they might want us to bring Zenith and MUNI over to Metro sometime today to see if chewing on Mom will help him. The doctor said that all Metro's vitals... except for eating and weight... are fine. Heart, lungs, and a few [...]

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Day 4 — There’s Something to Be Said for Stability

By Galen|2018-09-28T09:44:22-07:00September 27, 2018|dachshunds|

The ER vets just called. Metro has drunk his last two meals from a bottle! But, he is still having trouble staying warm. So, he's staying there tonight. Next scheduled update, tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, MUNI (remember her) has been snacking, smacking, and sleeping all day. She looks good. MUNI on Day 4 By Herself Zenith had an actual full meal at lunch for the first time since the C-Section. She also pooped and peed to make me happy. Zenith has gotten agitated at times, nesting/digging at the towels on the whelping box floor. She also has walked oddly [...]

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Day 4 — Struggling to Thrive

By Galen|2018-10-01T18:56:32-07:00September 27, 2018|dachshunds|

Metro is in the incubator at the emergency room where we brought him at in the middle of the night. When we fed him yesterday afternoon, we hoped he had turned the corner. He sucked from the bottle, and the amount of fluid our vet calculated that he drank sounded good. Unfortunately, the feedings at 6:30, 10, and 1 am had him eating very little. He kept losing weight, getting down to 4.97 ounces at 3 am from 5.39 ounces at 9 in the morning. He was born at 6.31 ounces... losing weight the first day is normal, and he [...]

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Day 3 — Intervention

By Galen|2018-10-01T18:57:43-07:00September 26, 2018|dachshunds|

Geoffrey Blowing on Metro to Keep Him Warm Prior to Feeding At the instructions of our regular vet, we went out and bought puppy nipples and bottles from Petco after her 10:30 visit. The formula Dr. Cain recommends was fine, but the delivery mechanisms we'd acquired were too large for dachshund puppies! Our SF vet, Dr. Jill Chase, returned to our house at 2:30 to help us give Metro his first bottle feeding. One part formula, two parts warm water, stir, mix, put in the bottle and feed. Pretty straight forward... unless you've never done it before, the [...]

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Day 3 — Eat! Please!!

By Galen|2018-10-01T18:58:27-07:00September 26, 2018|dachshunds|

MUNI, the girl seen here on the left, is gaining weight. The boy is losing weight and not staying well latched on. The Midday Report today has to focus on getting nourishment to the boy. The first week of their lives puppies aren't very interesting, anyway. They eat and sleep. They crawl over mother to find a dining spot, but they don't play, open their eyes, or generally act much more than consumers of milk. That's ideally. The girl, who we are tentatively calling MUNI, is doing okay. She is constantly on a nipple and sucking. She's gained [...]

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Prop A Proponents Send Out Untrue Mailer

By Galen|2014-11-01T11:34:02-07:00November 1, 2014|Politics|

Gawd I am tired of the pile of slick sheets in my mailbox! These mailers are touchable evidence about how much money is being spent on elections. The local assembly candidates are spending enough money to fund a research initiative to end cancer. The real estate industry is pumping money into the No on G (25% transfer tax) campaign, and the soft drink manufacturers are sweetening printers income with a blizzard of No on E (the soda tax) four-color cards. The flier that caught my eye yesterday was the one that validates my opposition to Prop A, the "fix MUNI" bond issue. [...]

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$500 Million for Bike Lanes. $0 for MUNI

By Galen|2014-10-30T17:45:36-07:00October 30, 2014|Politics|

Prop A is being promoted as providing some of the money that MUNI desperately needs to recover from years of deferred maintenance and underfunding. It turns out that NO money in the bond issue is reserved for fixing MUNI. Instead, the ballot ordinance offers a laundry list of "transit and road improvements" but doesn't guarantee any money to any of them. (Check out the details in the official city ordinance). The legal language says "Projects to be funded under the proposed Bon may include but are not limited to the following:..." Then there's list of goodies which includes the opportunity to spend [...]

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Stop Robbing MUNI – Vote No on Prop A

By Galen|2014-11-01T11:56:03-07:00October 24, 2014|Politics|

Everyone MUNI rider knows that the system needs improved maintenance and more money for its stations, tracks, and cars. Politicians pay lip service to giving MUNI the money it needs, but continually siphon off money voters thought was going to MUNI to pay for the projects of politically powerful constituents. This election the Mayor and Supervisors are again asking the voters to increase taxes to fund a bond measure to save MUNI. Except that much of the money in the bond does not go to MUNI. They're robbing MUNI of the money it needs in order to pacify the insatiable bicycle [...]

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