Everything Sven

04/22/2026

A little bit more drama, but a long time coming.

Yesterday's Vet Dr. visit tanked. We scheduled an appointment Cyto-point shot to get Sven thru the worst of the pollen season. For those of you who are new followers Sven has about 20 blood tested allergies to environment and food by

Our normal Vet Dr. left the practice, and the remaining Vet/Owner has butted heads on just about everything with us. We considered leaving the practice but were in the midst of moving this time last year and with changing dog license, shots and paperwork we waited.

The Vet/Owner kept wanting to do more useless and/or risky tests. Chron's disease and Skin puncture would risk introducing infection unnecessarily and wouldn't really have more than 50% chance of any conclusive results and was super expensive. I said no, not when we have bloodwork and know that the cyto-point clears things up. Its allergy not disease. And they refuse to prescribe medications.

He uses staff to present a bill before we even start, claiming the new receptionist made a mistake and scheduled this as "annual exam, all annual vaccines and Cytopoint".... which was contrived.

His annual exam and vaccines are not due till July & Aug. The bill is close to $1500. I say no. And the staffer is prepared with a reply like automatically, bartering like a car dealership to remove the exam fee. I say no again. Staffer leaves and comes back with a bill for $967 for just the cyto-point injection, claiming prices have gone up since we last had it. Again, I said no, that the national average on google for a dog that size is about $200-300, not 3X's that. And even the urgent care clinic which is slighty higher, is still half the price they are demanding and that this is retaliation for declining the Vet Dr's exploratory tests.

I could have afforded the price, I had the cash for the bill, but it was the whole damn principle of it all. Scalping your customers for nothing when the money would and could be better applied to other health care needs or applications, like dental cleanings, eye exams, etc.

What galls me the most, the Vet Dr couldn't/wouldn't even face his own customers, he had to have a staffer do it, and because they claimed to have scheduled an exam, he had the time slot open to speak to us. Instead, the staffer has to talk to me from what was clearly a well-rehearsed scripted conversation where they think speaking louder to a person will help than understand their BS.

The Dr. doesn't have any care or concern for the dog and hasn't for the past few years, needless to say we left the practice. Something I should have done last year, but it is what it is. We are moving on to another local practice that we have been following online for a while now and have the greatest of confidence that Sven will be better off for it, They have years of experience with dog allergies.

Meanwhile there's a pic of Sven, eyes running, hives on ears and skin. He has Benadryl for now until we can set up new appointment at the new clinic.

04/22/2026

Happy 7th Gotcha Day my majestic boy... here's to another 7 years.

04/22/2026

Photo credit: Meme (not Sven)

04/21/2026

04/18/2026

"Aim fr success, not perfection."

Yesterday we had to do another return, I accidently hit Qty 2, instead of 1. We swung by Grammy & Grampy's to see what they were up to and ended up doing a few errands, then going out to lunch at with my so-called smelly dog. And I left the phones in the car. console. Oopps this is the only evidence, as we ate the rest of it. LOL

04/16/2026

Here's one big bonanza of a post, just too darn tired to break it all down right now.

Grampy is doing ok from his cardio test last week, albeit he needs to go in for surgery to have a heart valve replaced soon, very soon. But he should be ok. Except he makes a terrible passenger. LOL Fortunately, the seats in the rear of my car fold to the side, so I can leave one seat up for Grammy, fold on sideways and have a cargo area for Sven and put Grampy in the front to drive him home. It ought to be an adventure that day.

Over the weekend we went and did the rest of the laundry, my bed quilts, couch throws, car seat covers, and Sven's stuffed toys. One of them did not survive and good lord what a mess it left in the dryer as Sven watched nervously to make sure it wasn't his favorite stuffie. (honestly i haven't even had time to check yet)

We came home to another one of those "air quality" test notices on the door, they schedule a time for an independent person to come. We clean and do all the things expected, they even had the gallstones to demand I crate my service dog. Um, nope he's a mobility & medical alert, you can't ask me to do that, that's like demanding a wheelchair person put away their wheelchair for the duration of the visit. Not only that, but then they canceled 4 minutes before the appointment and send another letter to reschedule. Causing everyone in the building to clean and make arrangements yet again. Considering the temperature and mood of things going on, I opted to use my walker and had Sven go sit offsite with an independent, nonpartial person as well.

Guy comes, parks out front our window and I watch as he prepares and gets this big tool bag from his trunk. Mgt. meets him and they're in the lobby whispering, enough that I could hear them, they go next door, then come here. Mgt. is trying to ask how we've been and playing all sweet and innocent, yet all the while accusing of stuff and I've never been a fan of fakes or phony's - i wasn't having any of that today, no way.

Much to my dismay they're NOT even here 30 seconds. What air quality tests did you do. A freaking sniff test. Where's the proof. Still rather hearsay to me. They guy smells the air never walks past my tv or goes into bathroom or bedroom. Whispers to the mgt. smells like chemicals and then they leave.

What did they expect? Took trash out and I always Lysol the can after each time, toilet bowl cleaner, shower cleaner, sink cleaner, furniture/cabinets/dust polish, mopped floors. Sorry the lavender mop wipes offended you, they only come in two or three available scents. I'm not much of a fan of them either, but it is what it is. Can't afford a Roomba.

Talk about asinine. Don't even get me started...

That being over with for the time being, I went got Sven, went to gas up the tank, gas around here shot up to $4.19 a gallon for 87 octane. Off to food shop and it was like meet all your friend's day... an employee we've known since the pandemic, a former neighbor from Salem, friends of (box tops lady) Grampy calling... I'm on the phone and people are still asking what kind of dog is he, and it jus slays Grampy when I say "radio active chihuahua". We raced home in time to have some lunch with Grampy, while Grammy was with the respite nurse.

And here we are... I put together a countertop shelf, failed miserably trying to order fake plants, they looked so big online, but when they arrived they were desk top size. I killed the box trying to open them, so guess we're keeping them for a while. I also ordered some furniture risers to raise the couch up a few inches and also the futon help that last a bit longer until I can decide on a mattress to fit the bed frame still in the closet nearly a year later. Ugh.

Tomorrow or this weekend - depending on how I feel, I'll do paw pad pedicure and wax up Sven's pads for our spring walks and attempt to make Zucchini & Eggplant rollatini with lasagna noodles. Stowe tha away for when Grampy has his procedure, we can come home from Boston and have a dinner to just warm in the oven.

Sven has an appointment for his for his allergies next week. Hopefully that will get us over the worst part of pollen season, his eyes are really giving him fits this year already.

That's it for now. Time to figure out dinner and season finale of

Sven alerting to a migraine attack a night or two ago, his toys in the dryer... and whatever else.

04/11/2026

ah-yup!

Not everyone understands what a soul dog is… until they have one.

A soul dog is that once-in-a-lifetime dog
who feels less like a pet and more like part of your heart.

They follow you everywhere,
know when you need them most,
and love you in a way words can’t explain.

If you have a soul dog… you know.

04/10/2026

Yesterday we accompanied Grampy to Tufts for a diagnostic procedure. It was a long day.

Once in recovery and everything was done, Sven even got to meet the Doctor and Nurses that helped Grampy.

Let me just ask... would they let a "smelly dog" into the surgical recovery room if he was smelly and infection control is as it's upmost. Our apt. Mgt. is barking up the wrong tree that's for sure.

Below are some pictures from our day.

Sven handled the shiny floor / hallway challenge like a champ. He even pushed me towards the wall when I started to go over and a medical staffer walking past us was impressed.

On one of our trips outside for a potty break, Sven meet a Instagram fan in the lobby that recognized him. We stopped for pictures outside.

04/05/2026

Boy the look on his face... He wasn't turning or talking to me. He posed but gave me side-ground instead of background this year.

The left him an I owe you inside a plastic egg, that said "sorry all out of stock".

The inside joke is that Sven has food allergies and often times I get him Australian "Rabbit" Jerky from Chewy. They were out of both rabbit and kangaroo. Ah well, an I owe you is better than nothing.



Happy Easter Y'all. 🐇

04/05/2026

Photo credit: Marmaduke (not Sven)

04/01/2026

ROUGH WEEKEND HERE. Using speak to text apps, bear with us trying to copy and paste from MS documents to social media. (I'm old school)

We were out with Grammy, driving around headed to Trader Joe's for some holiday dinner shopping. When I experienced a strange episode with my eyes again. The left one suddenly had an ink blot, it shot up like a snake, then spread and fanned out. I could see, but barely, We're at a red light and I shut one eye, then the other trying to figure out what the frig is going on now. Where to pull over, what to do. Am I stroking out? Did my eye just rupture? Bleeder vs. Floater? We make it to the parking lot and I get a space to park. I call Grampy just in case. I look in the mirror, I don't see blood, things look ok, but everything is hazy, like dirty lenses. Sigh. The black inkiness keeps changing, maybe it's draining? Trying to decide if I need EMS or not. I don't have a migraine or even a headache. DO I DARE leave Grammy & Sven in the car together? Nope, that's a bad idea.*&! Figures right. We quickly grab what we came for and get in line to pay so I can leave and hand Grammy off to Grampy and go get my eye checked out. When this woman starts hammering away 5+ times wanting to know what kind of dog Sven is, She's got no clue what my illness is or what's wrong with me or why I have a service dog and doesn't seem to care, just demanding to get her questions answered. I can barely see what I'm doing or what bank card and PIN I'm using and making sure I don't blind Sven with the peg board at check out and not lose Grammy in the crowd and still his woman is hammering me... it came to a point where self-preservation supersedes any form of politeness when someone is interfering and verbally assaulting or barraging as disabled person - I lost my s**t in front of god and everybody on a Blue Blood Church Lady type. Grammy with her dementia switches sides... and now she's calling me names too. Ugh. I hand off Grammy and made it to the ER still in once piece. Scans, Checks, bloodwork and hours later I look like death warmed over but I'm released to go home, follow up with specialists.

Grampy needs a few heart procedures and tests of his own right now, we're trying not to stress him out, I'm his driver and person for these procedures, and a friend is going to take Grammy to lunch, so she's none the wiser. My siblings don't do a whole lot for my folks these days. One of them kept telling Grampy he's not fit for the procedure and ought to get his affairs in order and just carrying on. As if any of that is helpful to him by stressing him out more. But after all that, shopping and prep, today my sibling invites my folks to dinner... they seldom get invited, so I told them to go, we'd have our holiday on another weekend. Easter is scrubbed for me at least. Probably just as well, I need to rest my head/eyes/nerves.

And then ... as if I don't have enough stress, property mgt. has been harassing us about fictious dog smells. The city/town folk gave a rather famous service dog organization a very hard time and tried to drive them out and well... because my service dog is also a Great Dane, albeit not from this organization, they are now giving me a hard time. Any excuse they can think of. So much so, we're going to have to get the attorneys and maybe the news channels involved. People wear depends adult diapers, they have kitty litter boxes, and babies wear diapers, there's enough other smells to go around far and wide. Sven's clothing is all in totes and so are his blankets, dirty laundry, etc. We have no rugs or things to smell, he gets baths regularly, and we have creams, powders, shampoos galore. Sven is in the public eye all the time, we go to stores, restaurants, medical appointments, hospitals, blood labs, vaccine booths, etc. I'm highly offended at the pettiness. We're not even allowed to wash our laundry here on the premise under the excuse other people might have allergies and they don't want dog fur in the machines. Yet people with cats get to do laundry when people can be allergic to cats. My dog is clean, my car his clean and our unit doesn't smell. Shampoo the lobby carpets if you're so concerned. We have rights and I'm not putting up with these BS shakedowns, its landlord retaliations for calling them out on no following laws, charging fees, not repairing things they're supposed to and unlawful entry.

Below is a few pics, that's Sven's belongings, gear, bedding all in totes, downy bead boxes in all the totes. Nothing smells, save for maybe the lavender swiffer mop wipes. I even Lysol my trash barrel after every change. Unreal.