Sometimes I lie in my villa and stare at the ceiling. Sometimes the ceiling is so shiny it looks as if another set of cute little dogs looking right back.. As I lie there I take in all the smells and sounds around me. On Fridays there are lots of good food smells because my parents take turns bringing in muffins, or cakes, or fruit. I always watch out for the crumbs so I can beat Bea to them when we're supposed to be heading on our trips outside.
Sometimes I find myself focusing on things I can't have, like the freedom to jump right up on the counter and devour every last tasty morsel, or a super long tongue to get that last bit of ear wax out of Bea's ears that I've been trying to reach for weeks.
It never fails that when I start thinking like that, I meet a new friend who has less to wag their tail about than I do, and yet wag it they do. Her name was Stacy, and she was an American Eskimo. Now, I know what you're thinking, but Stacy was like no American Eskimo anyone at the clinic had ever met before; she was sweet, and super friendly. Not only was she sweet and super friendly, but she acted so in the face of what had to be agonizing pain. I could tell by the way she carried her paw. The smell of rotting meat wafted in with her and I've learned by now to know what was under the makeshift bandage wasn't going to be good. “She done got loose from the yard three days ago” Stacy's mom twanged “we noticed a gash on her leg and brought her over right quick!”
My mother and Vocal Vonnie went right to work. They removed the green smelly covering and both let out a quiet “ewww” so as not to alarm Stacy's mom. “That wound looks pretty old and there's skin missing down to the bone” mother stated. “Ohmigosh I see a maggot” Vonnie squealed. “And you say you just noticed it?” mother questioned again. “Well, she did up and disappear for 3 days, which is not unusual for her when she's in the 'heat'. But we knew something was wrong when we found her down in the yard so we tried fixin' her up ourselves with a bandage, but now the swelling's got worse. The thing is we just moved into a new house on 4 acres, and now our regular vet said he was through with us, and if we couldn't pay our bills we shouldn't own dogs. Can you imagine?”
Vocal Vonnie sat speechless and mother just gulped. I saw them go back and forth to the clickety-clack screen over and over, always showing Stacy's mom new pieces of paper. Unhappy with what she saw, Stacy's mom stood up, “I guess we're stuck fixing this ourselves” she concluded.
Patient Pam was in on the case too by now, and offered to take sweet Stacy home with her and fix her up if Stacy could be 'donated'. “Oh no, I could never do that. I love her too much to live without her. I'm sure we can figure something out on our own.” So sweet Stacy was carried out to the car with a fresh bandage and some donated medications. No sooner had they left that I overheard Vonnie talking to someone about 'control' and 'sending an officer'.
Like I said, sometimes I sit in my villa and think about what I don't have, but most of the time I'm just happy for what I've got.
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