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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From purity rings to the shoe conversation

When I was about 16, my mother brought my twin sister and me into the kitchen and showed us the drawer in the counter that she had filled with condoms. We were to use them, to be safe and sensible, and to know that we knew we could come to her with any questions [...]

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Dating for 17 years

Seventeen years ago, Bob and I went out for Chinese food, came back to my parents’ house, watched the closing ceremonies of the summer olympics, and made out on the couch.
That was it. We were together.
It’s been a helluva ride.
In our time together, not necessarily in order or comprehensive, we got married in front of [...]

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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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Talking with my father

Yesterday, I phoned my mum and dad and my dad answered and immediately asked me if I wanted to speak with my mother.
Over the years, he has consistently done this, and frankly, it has always pissed me off. What, you can’t speak with me? Have something better to do?
In retaliation to this and other dismissive [...]

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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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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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Breaking the News to the Girls

Shem’s other two family members are in camp for the summer.
Since our dog got very sick, we’ve had various discussions about how to tell the girls, and came to recognize there wasn’t any good way, just that it had to be done, and before we saw them in Ottawa in two weeks’ time. Ruling out [...]

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Civility-Testing System

This is a test of the civility-testing system.
My inlaws arrive today in the late afternoon, in what has become – as they winter in Florida – a biannual visit.
Coincidentally, my blog posts ranting about them happen about as often and while I could have waited until their car was pulling OUT of my driveway to [...]

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