My World - It Sucks

Wow, I hadn’t realized that I haven’t blogged since the end of January.  Life has been getting me down even more than usual lately.  The visits to the hospital for wound care slowed down to once a week.  I had about 11 derma grafts, to stimulate skin growth on the wound.  Then, surprise!  I got another infection and was back on antibiotics and the derma grafts stopped.  Once the antibiotics were done, we’ve been in slow motion, allowing the skin to grow at its own pace.  This fun stuff has been going on since August……………nearly 8 months.  At least now, I can get into the shower instead of giving myself sponge baths at the sink.  Showers are a wonderful thing!

On the critter front, life hasn’t been any kinder.  I found Chase dead about a week before Christmas.  I haven’t blogged about it because it simply hurt too much to think about it.  Several years ago I nearly lost her due to plasma cell stomatitis.  After vet bills of nearly $2000, which put me deeply into credit card debt, she pulled through.  She remained terribly thin, but a real pistol.  She had been a feisty girl since she was a tiny kitten.  She got her name because she would make me Chase her every night when I tried to corral her and keep her in the bedroom.  I started loving on her for an extended period of time once I caught her in hopes of conditioning her to come more willingly to me.  Ever since that time she would so love to be held and petted.  I told people she was the cream cheese and I was the bagel – she would smear her entire body over my arms and chest, ecstatic with the petting/rubbing/loving.  She also liked to eat with her paws, scooping food from the bowls and plates and eating what she had “caught” off her paw.  Sloppy, messy eater but darling, none the less.

When I returned home from the hospital last September, both Chaz and Charlie (littermates) were sickly.  Charlie is still hanging in, with numerous ups and downs in his weight.  The vet can’t tell me exactly what’s wrong with him.  We go through periods where I have to give him sub-cu fluids frequently and he’ll only eat baby food.  Chaz developed an inoperable tumor in his left ear.  It had a major growth spurt in February and I finally euthanized him.  He was such a mellow, sweet and unassuming cat.  He was just a well mannered gentleman cat.  Then Colin and Claudia both got sick around the same time.  Colin succumbed to kidney disease and I euthanized him in March.  Claudia has hyperthyroidism and is on daily medication.  My friend Barb treks across the street twice a day to hold her so that I can pill her.  She managed to bite me last Monday and I ended up at my doctor’s office and on antibiotics.  Thumb is healing nicely.

 Sorry, no picture of Charlie or Claudia.  This was Colin in much better days, several years ago.

Last Friday, Barb called to say that Caleb, my eldest dog, wasn’t able to stand.  Although he’s had bouts of spinal problems for the past several years, this was something different.  She feared that he had a stroke.  I came home from work and we took him to the vet.  Even with injections of steroids, muscle relaxants and pain meds, he remained throughout the night in bad shape.  Around 4:30 Saturday morning he tried to stand unsuccessfully and was obviously in pain.  I gave him a pain shot, which didn’t help much.  Barb went with me to the vet when the office opened on Saturday.  The vet felt that he had most likely had a stroke and I chose to euthanize him since it was highly unlikely that he would recover from this.  I had written about him earlier this year and his recovery from his previous spinal problem.  I think he was about 15 or 16 years old, which is remarkable based on his early life and his size.  It’s unusual for medium sized dogs (shepherd mix) to live quite that long.  He was a sweet old boy and is sorely missed.  

With all of this going on, I haven’t been able to muster my regular outrage over the political climate.  Suffice it to say that what is going on in our nation’s capital, Wisconsin, my dear Florida, my birth state of Ohio, Japan and the Middle East qualifies as CRAZY.  The only bright spot on the political front?  JON STEWART!  He never fails to make me laugh at the lunacy.  If you don’t get Comedy Central, check out the videos on their website.  His recent imitation of Glenn Beck had me in stitches.  At least I’m still able to laugh…………………………………occasionally.