Holding Pattern

I haven't posted here because the next post that I need to write is Bones' memorial. My last post announced that Bones was in the hospital awaiting a liver ultrasound. The results of that ultrasound were not good. Bones had a large, untreatable, inoperable cancerous tumor in his liver. We made the decision to euthanize after receiving this news. Needless to say, this was an emotionally devastating day, and I am still struggling to get through the days without him. I would like to write more about him when I can compose my thoughts without devolving into a hideous, sobbing mess. Until then, I'm maintaining blog silence.

Blah Blah Blah

What a weekend. Bones had his surgery to repair his torn cruciate ligament last Thursday, and came home on Friday. Here he is, plotting my demise for making him wear the dreaded cone.



Apparently, the vet no longer sends the dog home with a padded bandage on the leg. Bones' stapled incision is exposed. Woo boy, it's a doozy. On the positive side, he won't get the nasty pressure sore that Ollie got from his bandage. For the first night, as expected, he whined and cried from the discomfort. After that, he figured out how to get comfortable, how to walk around, how to lay down, how to demand a chin scratch, basically how to be a dog again. He's healing well (I think), and gets his sutures removed next week. I'll feel a lot better when that happens. I hate making him wear the cone. I think it really bums him out.

Since I was confined to the house for the weekend, caring for Bones, I got lots of domestic crap done. Primarily, I was psyched to try my new ice cream maker. Wow. Why didn't I get one of these before? I started with a recipe for coconut ice cream. Instead of saffron, as called for in the recipe, I simply added toasted coconut. Wow. Wow. Wow. Because I can't eat ice cream without something, I also whipped up a fruit crisp, using the abundance of plums and apricots that I had on hand. I ate only one bowl. CPM made it disappear little by little over the course of the next few days.



I also whipped up a quilt top.



I don't have a rotary cutter, so I decided to tear my fabric to make the pieces. That was actually fun. The pieces ended up coming out not exactly the same size, but I don't believe in perfect, so that was fine. I still need to make the quilt sandwich, make the binding, quilt the thing, and then bind it. Eh. Maybe before the year ends.

I will leave you with a post from another of my favorite blogs, Stuff White People Like. This one hits a little too close to home, I think. It's about Vespas. I have a Vespa...I am white. Oh god.

Weekend Plans

My analysis of Bones' injury was 100% correct...torn cruciate ligament. He also damaged his meniscus. He had his surgery yesterday morning at the Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center in Langhorne, PA. Dr. Popovitch performed the surgery. She's the same doctor who fixed Ollie's torn ligament. (She also removed a perianal growth from Ollie. Ollie wins hands down for dog with the most expensive and weird medical issues...he once had strange cauliflower like growths all over the inside of his mouth. The vet needed to get a text book to diagnose the problem because he had never seen them before. And now I'm completely blanking on what they were. It was some wart like/virusy thing.)

CPM and I are picking up the now repaired dog at 4:15 pm today. After that, I anticipate a weekend of hanging close to home. Poor Bones will be sporting a lovely soft bandage on his leg and may need to rock the e-collar to prevent him from chewing the bandage off. I plan to cook in all weeekend. CPM and I have been eating out a lot lately (hard not to when you live near such great restaurants). I need to get back on track with the cooking. I'm also thinking of starting a quilt top.

Sigh...

This is Bones.



Yesterday, Bones did his usual "I'm going to run down the neighbor's lawns and hit the ones that throw bread out for the birds" routine. He got halfway down his normal route and stopped, picked up his rear paw and limped home. He hasn't put weight on it since.

I've been through this before. Without even visiting the vet, I'm pretty sure he hurt his ACL, probably tearing it. When dogs of Bones' weight tear their ACL, surgery is the only remedy. Our other dog, Ollie, had this surgery 3 years ago. It is expensive and the recovery is no fun. On top of that, Bones has a recently diagnosed heart murmur. My vet is the fastidious type, and will recommend a cardiology work up before any surgery, which equals more money. We visit the vet at 4pm today to find out if I am right. I hope that I am wrong.

I love this dog.



He was the first dog that CPM and I adopted. He was six months old. We went to the PSPCA "just to look." We had no ID, and thus couldn't apply to adopt that night, but we saw Bones, with his stubby tail, and thought seriously about getting him. All through the next day, we thought about him. Immediately after work, we went to the PSPCA with the correct paperwork, Bones was still there, and we took him home.

Bones is really bummed that he can't run around. He's doing his best to get around on three feet, but it's not the ideal situation for him. I feel terribly for him. I want him to feel better. I was up all night thinking about him, totally stressed about possibly having to deal with this issue again. I slept (terribly) on the floor in an attempt to comfort him. At some point in the middle of the night, he hobbled back down to the first floor, where I think CPM was sleeping.

Sigh. I've been blaming myself since it happened. I had the audacity to think that this was the perfect weekend...perfect weather, perfect activity balance, and then blam, this. Sigh.