An Unfortunate Series of Events, or I Need a Bushel of 4-Leaf Clovers Right About Now

I can't believe I've gone a whole month without blogging or visiting blogs. I've really missed everyone and I'm sorry for being such a bad blogger.

Does anyone else out there ever feel like their life is either too full or too empty but hardly ever in between? I know I do a lot of this to myself, by taking on yet another patient when my schedule is already completely full, or taking in fosters when no one else has room, or trying to keep up with maintaining my gardens when there's not even enough time to get basic house cleaning done, but without these things, I would have too much time on my hands. And then I would get bored, which leaves my brain wide open for anxious and depressing thoughts to sneak in and take over my life and then I don't want to do anything or go anywhere or talk to anyone I don't have to talk to and that's a recipe for crazy-making and I don't want to go there.

So I stay busy. Since that last blog in September, so many things have happened. The good: As I reported in my previous blog, Kona and Scout/Cordi have found themselves wonderful homes. With the alien critters all gone, the resident critters have all settled back into their normal routines. I had started getting on top of the cleaning again and managed to get my fall decorating done. Last Sunday, a glorious autumn blue-sky day was spent in the garden, doing some planting and getting the beds ready for winter. I've started some knitting projects and finished some knitting projects. I've been consistently busy at work and most of my patients are doing well. Life was good.

And then, this week, my luck changed. I don't know why - broken mirror? No, but I did lose my purse mirror last week. Black cat? Just Kona, who went to his new home 3 weeks ago. Spilled salt? No, but I've been spilling other things all over the place - a full cup of coffee all over my receipts and expense reports, a bottle of 500 aspirins all over the kitchen floor while trying to medicate a splitting headache, and a big glass of sticky pomegranate juice all over the island on my rush out the door to work. Walk under a ladder? No, but does falling down the stairs in the parking lot at work 2 nights ago because the parking lot lights have not been working and it's totally dark and I have wrenched something in my shoulder and hip- does that count? All this in the past 5 days.

But those were really NBD's - no big deals (well, except my shoulder may be hurt more than I want to admit) - just a string of daily hassles that are annoying and stressful. But we had a bad scare early Monday morning. Chloe has had several bouts of stomach and bathroom problems on and off over the past 2 months. Our vet has given her some medicine, we've had her on a gentler diet and most days are fine. But on Monday, she had a really bad problem and lets just say it involved a lot of scary bodily fluids and a very dazed and sick puppy. Our vet got her in first thing that morning. She was diagnosed with HGE and had to be hospitalized. Fortunately, we caught it at the beginning of the cycle, got her to the vet specialty clinic (translation=really, really expensive vet services). She had to spend 2 1/2 days there, on an IV drip, and Mr. C brought her home Wednesday afternoon. My poor, sweet girl lost a lot of weight and was acting like she had been punished and didn't know why. I just prayed that somehow she could understand, at some level, that she was being helped.

Mr. C's business partner is a veterinary pathologist. When he heard about Chloe's diagnosis, he was surprised that she survived. Apparently, this has a very high mortality rate. We caught it just in time. She's feeling much better now and is gradually being weaned back onto her regular diet. Her potty is normal again, she's getting her energy back and has been trotting around the house, barking at squirrels and people passing by out front. The problem with this illness is that it could be caused by a variety of things in the environment or even stress, but not controllable things like food, so it's not something you can take measures to prevent. It may or may not happen again. All we can do is carry on as usual, with lots of prayers that it doesn't come back. And lots of prayers that this week of "Friday the 13ths every day" is over and our luck turns once more.