Tough day on the homestead

Today I found myself writing life details into my pattern notes on Ravelry and it occurred to me it would be more appropriate to (finally) get myself this blog and do my rambling here.

Our little dog Daisy, smooth fox terrier pictured on the left, has had a cough for a few weeks, had some treatments that seemed to help for awhile and gradually relapsed. In the past couple of days she took a turn for the worse, suffering along with the persistent hacking, some gastro-intestinal distress of which I will spare you the gory details. Last evening I spent a less than pleasant four hours waiting at our local pet hospital (it's the weekend and her regular vet is sensibly unavailable) for her to be seen.

The place was hopping, every chair in the waiting room full, receptionists rushing about dealing with new arrivals, triaging the serious cases. A weeping teenager in tight jeans and ear glued to a pink iPhone tottered in on four inch heels carrying a fluffy black cat yowling in distress from its carrier. A rangy older woman limping behind a walker brought in a tiny sick kitten she had gotten the day before at the SPCA. A middle-aged couple with a cute, waggy-tailed maltese waited and waited. A man and teenager (his daughter perhaps) arrive with takeout, eat it hurriedly on the bench outside the door and are handed what can only be the remains of their dead pet in a cardboard box. Everyone in the waiting room watched avidly until the penny dropped and then all looked studiously away. Vets cruised through, godlike, flipping through charts, delivering treatment options, professionally kind.

This I observed in the final hour of waiting, the first three hours having been passed in the car since coughing dogs aren't allowed inside until kennel cough has been ruled out. Daisy got a carside assessment and then was admitted to the building. I kicked myself for not bringing along my knitting - I could have finished my current project in all those hours of sitting. Although I remembered my iPod, worrying made it difficult to concentrate on listening to anything.

After being x-rayed, Daisy stayed for a sleepover and further diagnostic work and to have fluids and meds pumped into her intravenously. She's still there but I'm told I'll be getting a call soon to come and pick her up and get instructions on her care over the next few days. I've had to cancel a trip to Quebec, planned for months. Disappointing but I can't go away in the morning with our little buddy in this uncertain state, needing more than routine care. Not something you can ask a house sitter to take on, even if I could bring myself to leave.

I've been steeling myself for the worst, considering the horrible possibilities and narrow options, and weeping buckets. I've consoled myself by spinning alpaca and listening to podcasts of only the gentlest and most soothing variety...CraftLit, Knitwit, Manic Purl...you get the picture. I must write and thank those lovely women for helping get me through this.