Hi, Glad to find an Upstate forum - I was addicted to my NYCity forum before I moved last fall. I went to Gardenscape with all the money I would allow myself to spend in one pocket and NO credit cards. It was my strategy to keep myself from spending too much. Sorry to say there was very nearly nothing to buy plants-wise. I used to go the the Philadelphia Garden Show every year and would always come back with way too many interesting houseplants as well as an amazing array of bulbs, corms, and tubers; granted that's a much larger show. Other than that, the displays were nice but just short of truly inspired. I can't believe how many designers used the same coleus. Is our plants palette really that limited? I still can't appreciate a designer that puts delphiniums and tulips in the same bed! It's like filming a civil war movie with the general text messaging his orders to the troops. I don't mean to sound crabby - in fact I had the same complaints about the larger shows. All in all I spent 2-3 pleasant hours wandering around. It definitely worked at giving me back my gardening bug after a long cold winter.

Your Eskie stays off the furniture??!! Even when you aren't there? My Eskie is almost 5 and weighs 23 lbs. - I refer to him as a large mini or a small standard. Personally, I would try to find a way to see the ortho and determine the damage. The MRI will be expensive (we used to have mini Dachshunds and my 2 special soulmate pups had worst case back/neck disc disease and the horrible surgeries - and they were very expensive (we are in Canada). I am sure you will understand that absolutely nothing scares me more than a dog who appears to have a problem walking. Hence we now have an Eskimo. Two years ago he suddenly became reluctant to jump up on the bed and I was very worried as I had just read on Eskie specific board of 2 Eskies that had disc related problems and their vets had suggested surgery - so within half an hour I was at the vets - they understood since they had lived through the Dachshund years and have many Dachshund patients. Fortunately, he had just pulled a muscle in his back. But as I look at his long legs I worry about Patellar Luxation and Cruciate Ligament injuries (not to mention blockages as he is a Hoover) with the jaws, teeth and claws of death. I he were to develop ACL or Patellar I would have the surgery done by an ortho. Some regular vets still do the procedures but due to the current trend towards specialization most regular vets have decided to defer to specialists. Our vet now calls in a specialist re "regular" ACL surgeries - performed in her clinic and if the more specialized procedure is called for, they are referred to the specialist licensed to perform that procedure. Often if one leg is affected, the other will follow. I fully understand the financial problems such a surgery would cause, particularly with the health problems in your family and the economy in general, but perhaps you could check out payment options/pet "credit cards" etc. that are offered in U.S. Eskies tend to live a long time and are puppies to the end so your pup has a good chance to live to be 17 and while arthritis is likely to develop, it will be much worse without the surgery. It is true that some dogs do not have the surgery and cope, but not all are so lucky. I really hope that everything works out okay for your fluffbutt.

We had Tightrope surgery done on our 90 lb Akita 4 years ago. She was only 4 years old at the time, but I thought the TPLO was way too invasive. A week after surgery, the cast came off & we started 10 min walks 3-4 times a day, Never left the yard. we did put a ramp up the steps - they didn't want her doing any steps for 3-4 months. also had to keep her off the couch (no jumping) - so I had garbage bags of empty soda bottles that we would put on the couch to keep her off. Got quite a few comments & looks fromvisitors :) We gave her Tramadol for the pain - which worked just fine. The vet also suggested water therapy. I couldn't find anywhere in my area for this - so we went to the lake 3-4 times per week & she swam. Now - 4 years later, she doesn't seem to have any problems. Walks fine, runs & jumps -but on cold mornings, she is a little stiff until she gets moving. All of the food & treats I give her are loaded with glucosamine & omega 3, which I believe has contributed to her recovery & maintenance. We still swim as often as we can. Kita is pure white & is still my lovable polar bear.

>> The most important thing for me was that our contractor (Jeff) was in daily contact with me letting me know who would be in next, or where we were at with things. He returned my calls promptly. He had everything lined up so that someone was at our house everyday working. >> We too just had an unusually good contractor experience, and these were the hallmarks: - Good communication: frequent and consistent email contact. - Much work done by direct employees, all of whom had blackberries, bluetooth headsets and email. - Office support: regular billing, scheduling, take deliveries, answer questions, convey urgent messages, central source of information, and a really good Web site! We never had our GC's cell number and never needed it. - Feedback requested: we were asked to fill out a mid-project survey! - Regular meetings. Some GCs blanched at the suggestion of weekly meetings, ours practically insisted on it. LOTS of problems prevented that way. - We asked GCs if they could get their bids in by a certain date, they all said yes, only two actually did, including ours. - Scheduling: our GC blows out a complete schedule, with dates for every trade to start, in writing. Never a down day in 9.5 months. - Resources: Every GC has to deal with trucks breaking down, injured workers, flaky subs, delayed materials. We never saw it and never heard excuses. (a previous GC's main guy got injured, delaying an entire upstairs remodel by weeks, and we had a baby coming!) - Can manage agencies: Our instructed all his workers never to B.S. during inspections, admit the problem and don't argue with the inspector. As a result, trust was built and we sailed through final city inspection despite a few minor code issues. - Punchlist-avoidant: they're inevitable, but he encouraged us to bring up the sticking-out-nail here, missing trim piece there, immediately. Goal was for no punchlist to build up. Meantime, a friend had a very difficult experience with a carpenter-turned-GC. Good carpenter, bad manager. Didn't know how to read plans, didn't interact well with the architect, ran out of money and refinished floors himself and made a huge mess, forcing our friends into a hotel for a few weeks, hired a painter who messed up the sheen levels and had to repaint the entire house, then the painter went broke. Without my friend's engineer husband on the job every day it'd have been a nightmare. Our awesome G.C. really cared about his reputation and told us in the first interview that his goal is for us to move in to a complete house and be thrilled. I think that sort of philosophy is what made our project work so well.