Dog Daze

I know I haven’t been writing much lately. I had a good excuse.

Really.


No, I do.

Honest.

I never thought I could get busier. I was wrong. It seems that working my day job, going to school at night two nights a week, and then working in a pharmacy four nights a week makes me pretty cranky.

So a brief update on life:

I passed the national PTCB PTCE exam. (www.ptcb.org) I won’t brag about my scores, but they were decently high.

My last day of class is July 2.

Graduation is August 23.

I still maintain a 4.0 GPA after having earned 88 of my 97 credits.

I have been selected by my college to be the Graduate Speaker at graduation.
I’m flattered, honored, and nervous. I know what my speech will be about, I already have it half written in my head, I just have to put it down on paper so the dean can approve it.

Personal Canine Drama:

My poor dog is not doing well. He developed an abscess in his front left leg sometime Monday evening. By Tuesday mid day, his entire leg, paw, and shoulder were 4 times the size of his right leg and paw and shoulder. Vet saw him Tuesday, after I cancelled working at the pharmacy that night, and sent us home last night, after having drained his leg, and gave us 200 bucks worth of antibiotics. For those of you keeping tally, last night at the vet, $600. Couldn’t get Beau to eat or drink, and when he would swallow, he would puke things back up.

Today, I stayed home from work to watch him, since he had a draining wound. He continued to not eat or drink, except he’d puke when he’d try. This afternoon I had to take him back to the vet hospital. They are keeping him overnight. He required emergency surgery today, as his leg got swollen back up to the size it was yesterday before they drained it the first time. He’s got a drain put in his leg, he is now on IV fluids and IV antibiotics. Tally for Wednesday, $850.

I’m a nervous wreck. I didn’t sleep at all last night, and I spent most of today cleaning up dog barf and dog pus and blood, in between trying to answer questions on a conference call at work that I couldn’t miss. (Having a work laptop finally came in handy.)

I might get to bring Beau home tomorrow. The vet is going to call me after they evaluate his fluid levels and his response and draining. I would imagine he’s going to be pretty thrilled to be home. It hurts my soul to think of him locked up in the vet hospital without me, without being home. This is entirely why I could never have children. I’d go bat-*&$% crazy. Tune in to find out what tomorrow’s vet bill will be.

Personal Personal drama:

Derek and I have tentatively separated. We are still living together, and we will likely continue to share the house and bills so long as it is convenient for us and not snotty or snobby. We’ve had 7 years together. The combined stress of my school, and his increased responsibility at his own job, have really pulled us apart. While no one is really to blame, we have talked about it, and we both feel it unlikely to change between us. We still care, but neither of us really expects that “lifetime” together. Time will tell, I suppose.

I have admittedly grown close to Travis, but he was not the uncoupling of my relationship. My discontent, and the problems that drove Derek and I apart were present long before I knew Travis. I think maybe me being in school, and not around to tend to our relationship may have accelerated the decay between us. There could be a great deal of debate around who was at fault, and who did what, and if we could turn back the hands of time. All moot. We are ok with where we are at. We are not going to lie about it. We are going to try to be adults, and work through things. We will be civil, and we still love one another. If something changes, we’ll re-evaluate it at that point. Otherwise, we’ll just kind of work on things as they go.

When Travis moves to Portland, I look forward to sharing the city with him, and learning more about him and I. The future has not been written yet, and I look forward to the adventure.

For now, I have to go back to school. I’m not quite done yet.
July 2 approaches.

Take care, everyone.

And if you haven’t loved on your dog today, do it. They are precious and innocent, and you don’t realize how much they own your heart until you come home to an empty house that is silent of paws clicking against the floor.