If it's not one thing...then it's another.

No...wait.  It's not one thing and then another. It really is the same dang thing over and over again!

So it goes.

It's been a crazy few days. On Saturday I saw Bear off to his new home with his new family, content that they have the perfect place for him.  Yes, I miss him and will continue to miss him for awhile. But it was worth it, and I learned a few lessons in the process, too; things I've taken to prayer and continue to ponder.

I've been scrambling to get my papers written for class, and as of this moment....none of them are finished. I still need to edit and clean up a few things, but hopefully I can stick a fork in them tomorrow evening and email them off to my professors.  Three months left until graduation!

More Dog Stuff

And just when I thought everything was under control....well...let's just say it wasn't.

Last night when I took my dog out for a brief walk, the neighbor had his dog out as well, but off-leash. His dog ran over, he yelled to warn us, but I wasn't worried; the dogs had met before and seemed fine. Before he arrived to grab her, though, the other dog snarled and snapped, both dogs rose on their hind legs in some kind of skirmish, and we pulled them apart. My neighbor was very apologetic, I told him not worry and we continued on our walk. Truly, I wasn't a bit worried as I've been present in many little dog battles and saw nothing out of the ordinary here.

I returned home shortly thereafter, took my dog's pinch collar and leash off and she ran upstairs to engage in her favorite hobby of bunny-watching through the window.  Sometime later I called her downstairs and as she ran up to me, I saw that her left cheek was bloody!

At first I thought, "What did you DO to yourself up there?" and began to mentally catalogue any possible cause of this injury. Then it dawned on me....the dog skirmish!  Inspecting the injury I saw that it was indeed a puncture wound, which became even scarier-looking as I wiped the blood away.  She let me keep some pressure on it for awhile, and let me  take some Bactine to a cotton swab to disinfect it.

This morning when we got up I noted some swelling and decided to take her to the vet. It wasn't that it looked that awful, but in looking at my impossible schedule for the next few days, well, if this thing was going to get infected, this would be the worst possible time!  It was better, I thought, to head things off at the pass! Besides, she was due for her yearly shots and it made sense to just take care of business.

The vet clinic had an opening for me in about an hour, so I quickly got ready and also knocked on the neighbor's door to inform them of the dog bite. I told them not to worry, and wanted to make sure their dog was ok and hadn't been bitten by mine!  They verified all shots were in order and apologized profusely.

The vet decided that because it is a puncture wound it's best to give antibiotics - it is quite likely to get infected if not treated, given the location and type of injury. I agreed, so $200.00 later (including office visit and annual shots plus antibiotics) I went home.

The neighbors came out immediately to see how things had gone, I showed them the bite wound, they felt terrible and offered to pay for the visit.  I explained what I'd done and that the entire bill was not theirs, but did agree to accept the $40.00 for the antibiotic itself.  If the roles were reversed, I'd offer to pay for that, too.

So...what irony. I bring a traumatized dog into my home and all goes very well. Not a problem. I walk my dog in my own complex and she's injured by a neighbor's pet.  *shrug*   Whaddaya gonna do?

That's life. In any case it's worked out just fine, I have even more respect for my neighbors than I did before, and I'm grateful it has turned out this way. No, it's not fun to have to deal with dog bites, but it sure is nice that when the dogs decide to be dogs, both we owners can assess the situation with reason and resolve it!

I made sure they realized I'm not angry or upset, I still think their dog is sweet and I still consider them to be good neighbors! Probably even MORE so now!

It's been a tough Lent, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, but thank God for the little things in life that make the tragedies bearable!

Well...the world belongs to God. I'm going to bed to hopefully get a good night's sleep so I can get up and do this all over again tomorrow (although hopefully not in exactly the same way....)