Happy Holidays!

I wanted to leave something seasonal here while I'm away for the holidays. I may attempt using Radio's mail-to-weblog utility. Or I may take the opportunity to break the blog habit for a few days and just visit with my family, do some off-line reading, maybe a bit of creative writing... And I'm sure I'll be checking in with all my blogging friends online.

I found this wonderful Advent calendar via Rebecca's Pocket. There's a great surprise under each day on the calendar. Have fun! And happy holidays to all.

9:26:56 AM      trackback [] 

Last Christmas

Last Christmas was rough. My dog Silke was dying. She’d been diagnosed in late November with congestive heart failure and had been doing reasonably well on medication, but she had a relapse Christmas Eve. It was snowing hard and we were going to be shut in – my parents were staying with me – so I couldn’t get her out to the vet’s even if they were open on the holiday. I was a wreck. I don’t think I took in one breath deeper than a quarter of an inch. All I could do was to try giving her more meds and keeping an eye on her. It was hard to concentrate on making Christmas Eve dinner, paying attention to my folks, then getting up and making breakfast, opening our presents, making dinner again Christmas day… Well, she made it through and so did I.

Silke turned 14 the day after Christmas and I got her to the vet’s and they adjusted her meds. After that, she had some good days, running around wagging her tail besides sleeping a lot, between coughing bouts. She also had many relapses and then I’d hate leaving the house for fear of how she’d be while I was gone and what I’d come back to. I’d rehearse in my mind making that decision to take her in to put her down. And then the next day she’d be following me around wagging her tail and looking chipper again.

In late February my parents came down and stayed with her so I could fly out to San Francisco for a few very welcome days. It had been a long winter with record snowfalls so it was good to see sunshine. I kept standing on the sidewalks with my face up to the sun. I didn’t worry about Silke. I’d decided that if she died while I was gone at least she’d be with people she knew and who loved her. She made it through.

We struggled on through more ups and downs until the morning of May 4th, when she died at home after a fainting spell. I was with her and it was a remarkably peaceful passing. She was a special dog and she had a good long life. She will be missed this Christmas.

8:21:09 AM      trackback []