Ten Things Wednesday

1. I’ve been missing this space, and Jules’ space, and Dingo’s and Louise’s and Kizz’s and Gerry’s and K8’s and… and frankly, am looking forward to hauling myself through this semester to regain some of my time away from reading and grading 40+ essays per week.  Thing is, because of some things that aren’t yet [...]

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If this helps save ONE pet, this letter must be read

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be sending out the following letter to the local veterinary board. We’ve written and rewritten it, and come to this extremely factual, to-the-point description of what happened, and of the blame we believe rests on our local vet.
It’s been three weeks now since Shem died, and we really miss him.
Dear State Board [...]

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Ten Things Random Tuesday

1. Do you have a sick book? You know, the book that unflaggingly buoys your fevered mind or achey body as you lie there, feeling pathetic in bed? I have several, but this time, I reached for one of my all time favorites, Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, because its witty and inventive conversational style completely [...]

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Brief and lovely family reunion

After a long drive from Ottawa yesterday, we’re home.  Seeing the kids was incredible and I’m happy to report that despite the constantly psychotic sunny/rainy/windy/cloudy weather extravaganza they are also experiencing 9 hours away, they have been having a great summer. And, they’ve grown in the three weeks it had been since they’d stood next [...]

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Rest in Peace, my friend

(image credit)
Shem is at peace.
Last night when my husband came home from work earlier than he was supposed to, Shem gathered strength and managed, despite being incapable of walking,  to get off his pillows and out of his crate to greet him. Bob gathered Shem onto his lap and then sat stroking him for about [...]

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Sad Things Tuesday

Last evening, it became increasingly apparent that Shem had reached the point where any further efforts to bring him back from the brink were moot. The decline we’ve seen in the last 24 hours is dramatic.  Aside from refusing to drink, or eat, he avoids the bathroom where Bob had been force feeding him, and [...]

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Fighting for Shem

So we spoke to a holistic vet (she isn’t taking new patients) around here – she only called Bob back this morning ( after receiving the detailed medical file yesterday and a request for a consultation) because a colleague of Bob’s just happened to have brought her dog to this DVM at 8, who asked [...]

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Thursday, and all is wellish

This is what the sky looked like when we brought Shem home from the hospital last Friday, turbulent and dramatic, intense and colorful, menacing and real.  When the sun shines, Shem prefers to be outside. He is, after all, a desert dog, a Kelev C’Naani, or Canaan, and his nature is to crave the heat [...]

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Ten Things Tuesday: life with dogs

This post is a reprint from the early days of my blog, just after now 2 1/2 year-old Sephira came into our lives. With the filter of the almost pathos I have been writing through, I’ve been locked in the sad and melancholy.   I’d like to remember this, the joy of my dogs, our [...]

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It is what it is: taking it a day at a time

Shem’s been living the high life: he gets to be hand fed raw liver and ground buffalo, he gets to drink out of the toilet, he gets to hang out under Boo’s desk and sleep on the floor of the bathroom. He wandered outside in the shade this morning, and then soaked up some sun [...]

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