We brought our rescue dog to our vet and got some terrible news. She has heartworm, among many other treatable parasites. That explains her subdued energy levels.

So this morning she went in for the treatment - an injection today and another tomorrow to kill the worms in her heart, followed by a month of restricted activity while her body breaks down the dead worms and clears them from her heart chambers. Once this is over, she will be put on a preventative and hopefully be in good shape. We were upset that the rescue didn't tell us how ill she was, but they only go as far as the SPCA guidelines and apparently did not do anything wrong in not having her tested. I have learned that dogs coming up from the South often have heartworms though, as they are transmitted by mosquitoes and people don't tend to use preventative as often. I also learned that in PA, dogs are still considered an agricultural 'product' and so the regulation and enforcement of laws protecting them seem fairly pretty few. But the dogs were rescued from a high kill shelter and now have chances at good lives - so I suppose it is just a buyer beware issue when adopting a rescue. Fingers crossed she'll be OK.

Her name was listed as CoCo on the petfinder ad, but we saw it listed as Pitch on the NC papers, so we went with that (since she is black, not brown!). I like it - pitch black, pitch pipe, pitch a baseball - it is timely and poetic.

In keeping with the approach of Halloween, we had our annual pumpkin carving party yesterday. It is a great kid friendly get together with hay bales, food and fun. So on Thursday I stopped by the spooktacularly scary Walmart in Exton for a few party items. As I was leaving to let the dog out, I felt the bump, bump, of my bumper against another car. CRAP!!!
I get out, still shaking (I am a vehicular trauma wimp), and see, to my horror, a NUN getting out of her compact car, with a CANE.

The damage was minimal, she said she thought she ran over a rock. I figure we were both doing about 5mph.

So I have had several pre-Halloween scares already.
Way to get into the spirit huh?