A Potential Apocalypse is Coming...

Sorry for the overdue absence in posts. I was actually in the middle of drafting a post about our current apartment and the trials and tribulations of getting settled into our new apartment and then last week happened.

Last week, a 93 year old 30" water main pipe off of Sunset Blvd ruptured and punctured a huge hole in the pavement and poured out between 8-10 million gallons of water... (for the record, we're in a serious drought for, I think, the 3rd year... I can't stress how not good this was in that respect) straight onto UCLA's campus. Here's the official report. So, the big problem was that the break was uphill and campus was downhill and all the water flowed into Drake Stadium, the athletic fields, Pauley Pavilion (where the basketball court is housed), into the athletics building, parts of some neighboring buildings, and worst of all, into the underground parking structures 4 & 7.

The big take aways from the water main break are:

1. Anyone parked in lots 4 or 7 essentially had to leave their vehicles in the lots unless they managed to get them out before the water rose too high.
2. Anyone parked in lots 4 or 7 on the lower level most likely lost their vehicle to water intrusion as water levels reached over 5 feet high on the bottom levels of the structures.
3. Almost 1000 vehicles were in lots 4 & 7.
4. Pauley Pavilion had 8-10" of water on the basketball court.

So, this happened last week. The weekend before (July 26/27), Venice Beach had a rare lightning storm that left 1 dead. What is happening in Los Angeles?! I joked with Cameron before we moved out here that moving to LA may be a bad idea because any time there's the end of the world coming in movies, they are always set in LA or NYC... maybe I jinxed us. So, hence, the title of this post.

There have been no more thunderstorms, and UCLA has been moving towards getting vehicles released and cleaning up the campus. My work is rather fluid, so when staffing issues arise, I'm fairly mobile. Since Thursday I've been helping out with the flooding relief efforts, which has only now started to die down. That means people are getting their cars back, which is the best news! Thank goodness my parking permit was changed at the beginning of the summer to a completely different structure closer to my office. I used to park in Lot 4 as a student and sometimes it was on the lower level. I drive a Mini Cooper, so it's fair to say my car probably would have floated away if it was on the bottom level, so I'm very grateful to have dodged that bullet!

On a happier note, here is Gambit with his new ball a friend gave me (I was actually visiting her when the lightning strike happened, very, very far away from the coast). This was actually her dog's, but the wrong size was purchased so her pooch was actually afraid of the ball. But it suits Gambit just fine! Good thing we live on the first floor because that thing is LOUD when we toss it around the apartment for him to chase. (That's right, we have space to through things for the doggie!)

Gambit & Manners

Ever since Cameron and I relocated, it has been an on-going battle with Gambit and walks. He has bad habits to say the least; he pulls, lunges at both people and other dogs, and sometimes acts out aggressively to dogs, which worried us quite a bit. For a few weeks, he was getting better with these behaviors, but that was short lived and actually got worse. My theory is he has become comfortable with our area and is getting a bit territorial. In the past few weeks, it's been rather difficult controlling him on walks, especially when another dog comes our way. Cameron and I talked about maybe getting a trainer involved, but ultimately decided trying out a gentle leader leash/collar before we went that route. When I had to order some books off Amazon, we decided to go ahead and get it one and also purchased a pheromone spray that helps deter bad behaviors.

We got the gentle leader and the spray yesterday, and holy crap, do they work well! After about four sprays, Gambit just has to see the bottle and he stops that behavior. In case you're worried, the spray isn't harmful to him (it smells like hairspray to me). You simply spray near him and it makes him stop dead in his tracks. The first time I sprayed it at him, he immediately stopped and gave me a look of "what was that? I don't like that at all." Cameron used it on his walk today and said that after he barked at a dog and was sprayed, he didn't bark again. On my walk with him this evening, he sat quietly while other dogs passed him on the sidewalk.

I can't express how night/day this change in behavior is, and I'm so grateful that it was a simple and relatively inexpensive solution. We're really hoping that the leader and spray will work and that Gamby's behavior will improve for the long haul. Maybe we'll start feeling more comfortable introducing him to other dogs and he can start making friends!

Since he had a very good walk, Gambit got a doggie ice cream treat (which he's a fan of, cardboard cup and all).

To continue the Gambit post, here are some other fun photos.

This is how I see him in the morning before I go to campus if he's in his chair: 

 

But, if he's not, this is usually how he looks: 

 He's a fan when I do this (foot bellyrubs):

We need to buy more Gambit-proof toys. I picked this football/raccoon thing up for him and an hour later...

It's like he know's he did that too quickly.

And even when we're just watching TV, he's got to be in the action too.

What a cutie!