Well, I took Gracie to another vet today for a second opinion. I now have absolutely zero faith in my current vets. Second vet said I have to get the biopsies done, and they need to be surgical. The works, he said.

Since I’ve already spent an enormous amount of money at the vet who neglected to perform the biopsies during the exploratory surgery, my options are extremely limited. My original vets at least have the decency to do the surgery over again at no charge. So back Gracie goes to the original vet for surgery on Friday. I do not want this to happen, and I don’t want it to happen on the weekend, either. If she eats normally the rest of the week, I may wait until Monday, because there’s no one there on Sunday, and checking on her once during the day isn’t enough for me.

Unfortunately for Gracie, she seems to have the nausea back. She’s been eating somewhat. She eats a few minutes after I shove a Pepsid AC down her throat, leading me to believe that it is nausea that’s bothering her. I’ll be giving her one in the morning and one when I get home from work for the rest of the week.

We can’t do the surgery before Friday because Gracie got a steroid shot on Saturday, and second vet said that can interfere with the biopsy result. When I called my vet to tell her I wanted her to do the surgery, she said, “Fine, we can do it tomorrow if you like.” I asked “Won’t the steroids she got interfere with the biopsy?”

“Oh, yeah. We can schedule it for Friday.”

Zero confidence.

As soon as the surgery is done, Gracie is going to the new vet for all the aftercare. I’m switching vets. My new vet comes highly recommended by my manager at Large Company in Richmond.

We are so done with the old vet. And I am so tired of going to vets.

I’m trying to find another vet that performs endoscopies in the Richmond, VA area. I know of two clinics that will charge me well over $1,000. Can’t afford that.

Does anyone know how I can find out which vets in my area perform endoscopies?

Count the number of times that the words “hardliner” and “Avigdor Lieberman” will be used from now until he is no longer a part of the Olmert government.

I’ve never seen him described as anything but.

Israel Cabinet to integrate hardliners
JERUSALEM — The Israeli Cabinet voted overwhelmingly Monday to bring into the government a hawkish party that opposes ceding territory to the Palestinians and wants to redraw Israel’s borders to exclude many Israeli Arabs.

The vote, which still needs parliamentary approval, gives Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s coalition a commanding majority in parliament. But the inclusion of the hardline Yisrael Beiteinu party likely puts an end to Olmert’s election campaign promise to pull out of much of the West Bank.

By the way, that redrawing of borders? The offer is to trade some Israeli Arab towns to the palestinians in exchange for towns that Israel would like to keep. Love the way the AP puts it, eh?

And yet, the media will not call Hamas a terrorist organization directly. They will use the weasel words “called a terrorist organization by the U.S., the UN, and the EU” instead.

You see, everyone but Israelis get the benefit of the doubt, even though Hamas has claimed dozens of terrorist attacks that killed or wounded thousands of Israeli civilians. But that’s not enough to be known as a terrorist group by the AP.