"ADay"

Gypsy and I awoke early Thursday morning. I had been worried about the way she was favoring her right rear leg, and had made an appointment for her with our new Spring Branch vet Robert. She is getting older and needed what the vets call a wellness check. She was not happy when I put her in the back of the Prius on her soft, beige dog pad. She doesn't particularly like car travel, so I don't often take her. As soon as it clicked in her head that car rides mean veternarians, she started to shake. This always makes me feel bad for her, but there is really nothing I can do about it. As we approached the door of the clinic she applied her power brakes. No amount of coaxing or sweet talk could get her to budge. A hard pull on her special leash got her inside the door where she again applied her power brakes. Once there, I had help from the experts at the clinic to get her to relax alittle. Now, she was really shaking. We entered the examination room and two women came in to take her temperature and weigh her. There is a look in a dogs eyes that comes over them when a thermometer is inserted into their rectum that you do not see at any other time. She had this look. The thought crossed my mind that I might be in for some trouble when we get home. She weighs 49 pounds. Robert the vet came in and did her wellness check. I aired my concerns. To start with, she was 5 pound over weight. Girls don't want to hear this. She gave him one of her disgusted looks. Now, I must admit we both put on a few pounds this Winter and are feverishly trying to get rid of them. Less food and more walking should do it.
However, with her bad leg I wasn't sure how much to exercise her. I had no excuse. I left the clinic to run some errands at Bulverde while the vet and the gals at the clinic x-rayed her, did her blood work and finished her check up. When I returned to the clinic, Robert and I looked at her x-rays on his computer. She appeared to have alittle arthritis in the knee of her right rear leg. I didn't realize dogs have knees. Missed that all these years. It hurt her. She showed signs of this by holding her leg in the air and not wanting to put weight on it. Vitamins and a disk of her x-rays in hand we left the clinic for the cabin. We would be hearing from Robert in a few days about the results of her blood work. If they were good, and now we know they are, we will start her on an anti-inflammitory to ease the pain in her leg. I saw her head pop up in the back of the car as we approached the cabin. She started sniffing the air. She knew we were almost home. She was relieved the poking and probing were already part of her past. She began to stir inside and felt an urgent need to get to her back forty and check on the squirrels, rabbits, birds and deer. Had they been there during her absence? Had the vultures flown over her territory looking for prey? She was reieived to discover the lizards were still hiding in her two wood piles near our "Angel Patch" and the smell of squirrel was fresh. Gypsy was tired after her ordeal at the vet clinic, so she came inside the cabin out of our hot, dry weather to snuggle down on her blue plaid summer bed on her two cushion, navy blue leather sofa. The air conditioning blows gently over this area. She was thinking how good it was to be back in her bed, with the cool air caressing her soft white fur, relaxing her at last as her eyes went shut and sleep found her.
That evening, Nick my oldest son and his wife came for a visit. He is a doctor and does something called rapid recovery. We ate dinner and looked at her x-rays on my computer, then he started to work on Gypsys painful leg. Usually Nick works on people, but he also works on royalty, that being his mothers dog. He spent along time using his red laser on her leg. Then he used his skilled fingers to adjust her leg. While he was doing this she raised her leg in the air to help him and her eyes slowly lost their ability to remain open, She was enjoying every moment of this wonderful attention. Nick and Sheri stayed the night. There was not a sound to be heard as darkness fell over the woods and cabin. Gypsy was dreaming of her trip to the red laser, massage spa and how good it felt. I was fast asleep on my "Sleeping Earthed Sheets", and Nick and Sheri were sleeping in the cabin loft in total quiet and darkness. We all got up early. Nick and Sheri drove back to San Antonio where he had human patients to see. Gypsy was out at the first light of the day checking for fresh scent. She thought her leg was feeling much better. I was on the cabin porch watching her as I absorbed my espresso. The breeze was blowing and the air was cool, another beautiful morning not to be missed. Later, I went to the other porch where the feral cats hang out and checked to see if Luckys four baby kittens were eating. They were. Lucky was born last year, one of two kittens born to Bobtail. I accidently killed her sister as I slowly moved my already cat inspected car. The kitten had crawled up inside the car and did not respond when I made my anti cat noise. The four new kittens have made their home in a large pile of rocks I was moving to outline my flower beds, driveway and alien self parking area. Needless to say my rock moving has been cur-tailed. There is an all black kitten, a calico kitten, a gray stripped kitten resembling its mother Lucky and a kitten that is gray with half white legs resembling its father Half and Half. Things are ever changing here at the cabin. Gypsy and I do our best not to miss any of it. We hope and pray the hot weather will cool and that the rains will come. Our lives are like sand through the hour glass. We are grateful for every grain. We stay in the present and rejoice with the dawn of each new days adventures.
Gypsy is a nine year old English Pointer, a superb hunting dog and friend. She is truely a Princess. She probaby has more miles on than most. Together we grow old here in our cabin in the woods, acknowledging each others aches and pains. We listen each days to the song of the woods and watch to see what creatures it will send across our paths. We know how lucky we are to be here, and how lucky we are to have each other. After all it not everyone that has the opportunity to live with royalty. I know my place.