Sunday, May 24, 2009

Spring, Saved a Dog, Getting a Puppy

I am so glad Spring is here and Summer is almost upon us. As we feel the heat descend - the rain to fall and create it's own hassles, I promise to look at this photo and say, Thank you to God for the flowers, the warmth on my skin and the safe drive. I love this drive though.

Winter Photo:

Friday, May 22nd, the drive on the highway was nuts - everyone trying to leave town for Memorial Day. I turned off the highway for my 25 minutes on rural roads to reach home and each time it is like taking a breath of relief. 2 lane rural roads - farms, horses, gentle rolling lands - it is absolutely gorgeous. Once I turn on Highway D, I pass through a small town - really small town America, cross a river, a stop sign and post office and then enter the curved areas where this picture was taken.

(Spring Photo)

Once I came out of the winding tree area, there in the middle of the road running toward me (45 mph zone) was a golden lab, wagging his tail. I hit my hazards and stopped - whereupon 4 other cars stopped behind me - rush hour in rural Wisconsin. I opened my door and in jumped Roscoe. Luckily Roscoe had tags and as luck would have it, he used the same vet we did. (Which is funny, when we lived in Illinois we drove 30 minutes North to Wisconsin to use this vet - then we moved an hour north into Wisconsin and now drive 30-45 minutes south to the vet still). Anyway, fifteen minutes later, Roscoe was reunited with his owners. I went on my way and felt good. It was a great start to the weekend.

We have known for months that Q's declining health meant he would not be with us too much longer. On March 5th, the three of us, Alan, the vet, and I hovered between the life/death decision - to put him to sleep. In tears I asked the vet, could we just make him comfortable - I can't lose him and my mom the same week. My spirit was too fragile to handle the double blow. The vet said he could go a little longer. And more rimadyl was prescribed. Now he takes Tramadol also - and some days are good and some days are not as good. On the good days, he barks at the fence and runs with Bella (the neighbor dog).

On his bad days, he just sleeps and groans a little. In any case, we have a puppy coming. We didn't expect him to be here. But I think he heard us and decided he needed to stick around. I fell in love with Berlina (Sharon and Alyssa's Doxie in England) and mine was born in early April.

We have a name picked, but have to make sure it fits her! I will release more details later. She arrives in mid June. Stay tuned for details!