Turn it up

I love the beginning of “Sweet Home Alabama,” with that distinctive guitar riff and the lead singer saying, “Turn it up!” I almost always heed his command and blast the radio when that song comes on.

I mean, how can you not blast “Sweet Home Alabama”?? I think it’s a requirement of all red-blooded Americans. Of course, there is the controversy surrounding the song, so it’s not entirely politically correct. But you know, it was the 1970s. It was a different time back then.

There’s a song playing on the radio lately (and yes, I still listen to the radio, even though I have both XM and an mp3 player) that uses the melody from “Werewolves of London.” It really freaks me out because every single time I hear it, I think that song is coming on, so I wait for the refrain of “Ahhh woooo, werewolves of London…” but I don’t get it.

Today I found out what song it is. Kid Rock, oh he of the southern rock and rap mix, has released a new song called “All Summer Long” which uses the melody from “Werewolves of London” and also references “Sweet Home Alabama,” even utilizing the famous riff. I’ve heard it several times, and I have to say, each time I hear it, I love it more and more.

I have to confess to being a Kid Rock fan, ever since he came out with “Bawitaba” when I was in college. That’s another song I absolutely must crank whenever it comes on. And I do own a Kid Rock CD. Mock me all you want; I know what I like, and I’m not ashamed of it.

So! Updates from yesterday:

First off, the sound Kurt went outside to investigate is still unknown. We are surmising that it was a cat fight, as Kurt heard rustling in the bushes out back when he went to investigate. It also sounded like it was cats going at one another, or at least making threatening noises at each other. We do have many outdoor cats in the area, two of whom live next door to us. Hama-San is one, a black and white kitty with a stump of a tail. He’s frequently mistaken for my own black and white cat, Storm, by people who don’t realize that there are two neighbor kitties that look very much alike. We took care of Hama-San and his “brother” last week, and once I got close to him, I realized he looks nothing like my Storm at all. Hama-San is a lot larger and a lot more angular in the face. Storm looks like a puny kitty next to him.

Basically, the mystery is unsolved, but it doesn’t worry me. There are cats around, there are rabbits, there are all kinds of animals. It could have been anything.

Secondly, the update on Koolit. The veterinarian called me right as I was rolling out of bed to give me the news. And let me tell you, I was not entirely thrilled to be answering the phone as soon as I gained consciousness. It didn’t help that the vet is a man who is incredibly perky. I felt like I was talking to a male version of a high-school cheerleader hopped up on Starbucks.

But we’ll forgive him his perkiness, as he had some relatively excellent news. He was able to collect a urine sample from Koolit yesterday by pouncing on him with a cup as soon as he began to pee outside. He analyzed the urine and determined that Koolit has, and I quote, a “raging urinary tract infection.” This is excellent news because now Koolit is on antibiotics, two pills twice a day for seven days. The vet is confident that he will feel loads better in just a few days, and that this could be all that is wrong with the dog. He felt Koolit is in good health otherwise, especially considering that he is twelve years old already.

I feel horribly about this, actually. I don’t really know when the excessive drinking thing became an issue, but I do know he’s been wetting almost every night on our bathroom rug (we’ve substituted towels for the last month or so) for months. He wakes us up in the middle of the night with his drinking because we’ve put a water bowl in our bathroom, and his tags bang against the bowl quite loudly as he laps. We mainly chalked up his irritability and his wetting to being in a new place, and the stress of moving across country yet again.

The vet mentioned that Koolit is probably pretty miserable with this “raging” UTI going on, which could be why he freaked out at the groomer’s last month. He bit the groomer three times while she was trying to shave him, which is totally out of character for him. But if he has been so miserable, then it wouldn’t be surprising.

The vet was also pretty confident that this could very well be his only issue, that diabetes and kidney failure (and even Cushing’s disease, YankeeChick) will most likely be ruled out. He’ll go in for a follow-up once his antibiotics are gone, and I guess they’ll draw blood again just to make sure.

It’s hard to know that Koolit’s been feeling so miserable. He’s normally very much like a cat, sleeping most of the day. But now that I think back, he has been a lot less loving and a lot less mobile. He used to jump up on my bed as soon as Kurt went to work, but he hasn’t done that since we moved here. I was just chalking that up to his advancing age. Maybe he’ll start sleeping with me again once this UTI is all cleared up.

I am glad it’s something as simple as a UTI. Poor little guy.