The vacation, planned three months ago,
was to have been a post-Christmas visit to my daughter's.
All kinds of fun possibilities were considered in our plans:
painting, games, snowshoeing...
Instead, many of the waking hours
(for humans and grand-dogs) were
spent in horizontal or near-horizontal positions.
Back spasms, colds, digestive chaos, a traumatized dew claw...
It was largely a time of kindly accepting our physical limitations, of being
one with the couch and bed, of basking in the homeyness that Daughter
has created so many miles away.
But I was with my family - Michael, Son, Daughter -
and all was good.
Do you know the last time I spent a week with my whole family?
Me either.
And then we came home
to
a very sick Dharma.
Sicker than a dog.
(What the hell does THAT mean?)
At the emergency vet a couple of hours after
putting down our bags,
x-rays and meds would cost us
enough to pay for flying back to California
again to try for a healthier week.
Assured that Dharma would probably survive the night,
we instead paid enough to get 1/3 of the way to California and back,
and left with nothing other than the knowledge of Yes, she's sick.
In 45 minutes, we will have a trip to the doggie docs who are fast becoming
members of our family.
This morning, as I entertained the possibility of never
interrupting the quiet, warm, enveloping goodness of my bed
by actually getting out of it for any reason,
I had to laugh at the way we humans have opinions
about how things should be.
It can be a fun diversion sometimes,
but oftentimes, it's just painful.
Setting aside for just a moment
the way I think I would like it all to be,
I notice that the way Life does itself is not only very entertaining
in and of itself,
it's also strikingly precious.
Even if I could,
I wouldn't change a thing.
Tulip at Daughter's house. Daughter always adds beautiful touches to home and to life.
Dharma talk for today: It's okay to appreciate dog pees in the house and dog chews on the hands, because when they are replaced with a dog-tired dog coughing up a lung, you just might miss all of that energy.
Post-vet-visit update: After a visit to the vet - with no x-rays needed - Dharma is here, sleeping (and coughing away) on antibiotics. Her mom and dad will nurse her back to health with lots of love and ooohing and awwwing.
6 comments:
Sorry to hear this about Dharma ... and the human spasms, colds and digestive chaos.
But good to know you had a week with your whole family ... I enjoyed the touch of beauty - thank you Daughter!
xx
Sad to hear that your time away with family was so not fun, but happy to hear you were all together. Somehow everything just seems to be more okay when you're with family ... sick or not.
Did Dharma get kennel cough? A couple of my friends' dogs here had that. Sounds awful but they survive just fine.
And, because I've happily become a glass-half-full person over the past several years, if the new year started on a somewhat sour note, it can only improve ... right?!
Hugz!
Dancing, Thank you. We are all, including Dharma, through the worst of the physical icks now.
Daughter truly does "beautiful" well.
Hi Lisa! Even though there were some physically challenging times, we did have fun - but it was mostly the type of fun you find in nursing homes. ;-)
The vet went through a long spiel about kennel cough and all of the other varieties of maladies that Dharma might or might not have, and I ended up not having a name for her sickness, but I do know where in her body it's located. I think that "kennel cough" can be a catch-all phrase, even though it sounded like it's really something definitive (don't quote me on any of that). All I know is that Dharma had a tad more energy this morning for a short time, and it felt good to see her beginning to get back to her old (young) self.
Hugs back to ya!
I wondered if you hadn't gotten away. I'm glad to hear that. I loved what you said about your daughter's homeyness. What a n ice thing for a mother to say. Sorry that you and Dharma are sick. (I read your more recent post than this one, so I know it continues.) GG
G.G., I always feel very nurtured by my daughter and the beauty that she creates around her. I'm one lucky mama. Too bad I have to travel in order to experience that! :-(
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