THE PRAYER LIST

What is a post-deconstruction list of names of friends to remember that you would have previously called a prayer list called? Woo that’s a mouthful. Let’s call it a prayer list. And honest to goodness, I have been praying a bit this past week.

Dougie is doing just ok, slowing down a lot and eating ok. Kevin is put OUT that Doug is getting the best snacks. You are too fat puppy!

Lately the team members of Westgate Animal Clinic have been THROUGH IT.

Team members who are available have started meeting Fridays after work for snacks and drinks, including Sprite and ginger ale! So now Bringing Each Other Snacks has become a love language of sorts. As has Wearing Red to Support the Huskers on Fridays but Mostly to Support Izzy who Thought of It. Cheers to getting through!

So I started a new list of names of friends to remember.

EVERY TEAM MEMBER IS ON IT. Yeah, including you - twice, actually.

Joy and grief never show up seperately. We were able to celebrate our dear team member and friend’s baby to be! Thank you to Izzy for the photo <3

IN THE PAST WEEK, there have been deaths of loved ones, sicknesses, difficulties, medical emergencies and surgeries and, most recently, the flooding of the entire Westgate basement.

We were closed Friday for the team’s safety. Thank you Petersens and Westgate leadership <3 I was going to feel guilty for a surprise day off in the midst of such a terrible situation. But then I saw the tiniest Bananagrams EVER on the mantle - left for me as a surprise from the (grown up) kids! Thank you both! I love you so much! So Friday (on my end) was very fun. The tiles are so small that I need to use a pencil eraser to move them!

Keep the team and our leadership in your thoughts and if you pray them, your prayers.

A sweet client brought us tiny Jesuses. I believe all the trouble began when Tara yelled to the team, “Just so you know, the Jesuses are not erasers!”

You all are the best, and so is this team. Like, literally, the best I have ever worked with under one (no longer leaking) roof (over a now clean and dry basement. Yay :))

Sometimes your teammate needs to be off kibble for a bit so she needs you to bring her soft treats.

Love you all so much.

Things always get better.

THIS GREAT DOG

Favorite client. Favorite dog.

DAYS after diagnosis, we are gathered to say good bye. Dad had opted to treat with steroids, and the dog's poor body did not handle them well.

We loved this guy and his dog. Kelly has a Boxer dog. This was a seven (seven!) year old Boxer dog. I have a three year old dog with lymphoma. This dog had lymphoma. Some euthanasias are even harder than others.

Why have I been given eight good months so far and this guy two good days? Why are they both so young? Why do I have to be punched RIGHT in the heart? Why did this guy? He did adopt a tiny Boxer puppy, which is just asking for heartache. Who am I kidding? I adopted a goofy mutt puppy, and that too is just asking for heartache...eventually.

"I will be back with a puppy, but it won't be soon," he said. 

"I know," I said.

I walked Joy and Luna up to Beals Elementary. I walked until I was exhausted, then much to Luna's annoyance, picked her up for the walk home. She was exhausted too. Joy happily panted along next to us.

I have no more answers than I did when we started our walk, but I am tired enough that it is difficult to think, and that is good. I try to get into Joy's state of mind, and step back into the house. I need to call it a night early. Tomorrow is another busy day.

MISSING WHISKEY

Whiskey Dog passed away recently.

In the midst of their own grief, her Moms made the sweetest care packages for us. They were filled with things that reminded us...and them...of Whiskey, including...whiskey : ) ...and a lavender candle because that was Whiskey's favorite scent.

Thank you Pamela. Thank you Christian. You are among the best of the best, and we love you <3

THE LAST STONE

Kelly and I were finishing a cystotomy. This is a surgery in which the urinary bladder is opened to remove urinary stones. I must have removed 99 stones. The dog was only three years old, and she had impressively made more stones than I had ever seen at once.

After stone removal surgery, we always take an x-ray to assure all the stones have been removed. Almost a formality. I always fret a bit though between the surgery room and the x-ray table.

The x-ray appeared on the screen, and one lone stone remained in the trigone of the bladder. I was mortified. This happens in a reported 20% of stone removal surgeries in which x-rays are taken afterwards, but it had never happened to ME.

Back to surgery we went, Kelly reminding me, as she often does, to BREATHE. I sure love that friend. As basic as it sounds, I was NOT breathing, and needed to in order to complete surgery.

We reopened the surgery site, I removed the stone with a hemostat and returned to take another x-ray. The stone was out, and I was glad I had returned for the one last stone. 

Luke 15

or something

CRYING EYES

My eyes once went two years without crying. I would cry, but there would be no tears. It was at a time in my career when I was burned out, and I think my eyes just had nothing to give.

I only told Trey, a vet tech I worked with at the time, because I thought everyone else would think it was weird. “That’s not weird,” Trey said.

Now my eyes cry again, and they get carried away. When Huckleberry died, my eyes cried for a day. The day after Huckleberry died, as my eyes were recovering, a client came in to tell us thank you for taking care of her dog who had recently passed, and my eyes started crying again. They stopped long enough for another client to come in to show us her engagement ring, and my eyes started up again. It could have been the glare from the beautiful ring, but I am pretty sure they were real life tears.

So if I seem overwhelmed with emotion by the sight of your beautiful, healthy dog...I am...but my eyes may also be still crying over a sad (or happy) thing. Give me a minute...or a day. I always pull it together eventually.

WHISKEY

She was a gorgeous grey Standard Poodle who was anything but standard.

She didn't board with us. Rather, she sat in the front area with Hannah or Stephanie or Nicole and greeted everyone who came in. If it was Russ, she barked at him. If it was a client she didn't know, she held back. Everyone else was a friend.

Her hair was crazy, the good and wild kind. She often had it up in clips or a scrunchy, and other times had it out in curls and waves all over the place.

She was living well with an impressive list of conditions. Until she wasn't. Then she was just done.

Whiskey is survived by her Moms, her Standard Poodle friend and her kitty. And she leaves behind a heartbroken veterinary team.

We sure loved you Whiskey Girl. Rest well sweet friend. Until we meet again.

HUCKLEBERRY

Have you ever loved a patient so much that you know his last day will be your last day in medicine? So you decide that day just can't come. You know if it does, you will set your stethoscope down and walk out the door, never looking back.

But then that day comes, and it crushes you. It crushes the team, it crushes his family and it even crushes his sweet neighbor. The little guy had a huge reach.

And you hold your dear broken client tight, and you vow to be there for her the next time and you put your stethoscope back around your neck, talks a deep breath and step into the next room, never looking back.

Later, in a happier time, you wonder, “could one little dog really have been that extraordinary?”

And you remember Huckleberry and smile. He sure was.

OSCAR AND FELIX UNWISELY SAY "YES" TO DRUGS, PART 2

Rercently, Mom and Dad's little Poodles, Felix and Oscar, got into Mom's medicine. I rushed to the house to treat them.

Photo by Liz Middleton/Photos by Liz

Felix and Oscar were super happy to see me. They jumped around my knees and laughed.

Photo by Liz Middleton/Photos by Liz

I gave them both apomorphine, a medication that causes vomiting. Despite the injections, they were still having great fun. Until...

They both suddenly stopped dancing and hung their heads. Remember the story about the pie eating contest in Stand By Me? The next ten minutes were full of a parallel sort of story, only instead of people and pie, it was puppies and pills.

I called ASPCA Poison Control. THANK YOU kind team for your excellent help.* Mom cleaned up barf. THANK YOU Mom! We accounted for all the lost medication and determined, with the ASPCA Poison Control doctor that they had not had a toxic dose of any medication.

I gave both boys Cerenia, an anti-vomiting medication. They quickly returned to their happy, non-barfy selves. Dad came home and we all sat for a while holding the Poodles and enjoying, with great relief, how perfectly things had turned out.

Felix (black) and Oscar (white) Photo by Liz Middleton/Photos by Liz

*DID YOU KNOW? If your pet has a HomeAgain microchip, a consult call to ASPCA Poison Control is free!

OSCAR AND FELIX UNWISELY SAY "YES" TO DRUGS, PART 1

Before Cotton died but after we learned how sick he was, Mom called me at work, frantic. Mom and Dad’s little bonded pair of Poodles, Oscar and Felix, had gotten into Mom’s vitamins and medicines and eaten some.

On the way over to meet Mom and treat the Poodles, I alternated between knowing everything would be fine to knowing that truly one or both of the pups may not be fine.

Bailey and Cotton were heavy on my heart. Bonded pairs get split up. Pets die young. Sad things happen. I pulled into the driveway and went inside.

Felix (black) and Oscar (white) Photo by Liz Middleton/Photos by Liz

COTTON AND BAILEY

Cotton and Bailey were best friends.

The two dogs boarded at the 120th and Blondo Gentle Doctor location, and we got to know them and their family well.

Cotton was blind. Bailey would walk next to Cotton’s shoulder and guide him, never letting him hit a wall or bonk a doorway (which is more than you can say for me - Sorry Cotton!)

Bailey himself recently went blind. They were both dealing with managable, age related issues, and handling them well. Then Cotton became fatally ill and had to be euthanized. It was that sudden. Cotton's family, his friends and his little partner, we were all devastated.

We humans knew we would survive the heartache, as much as it hurt, but none of us were sure if Bailey would.

He comes in to board. He sleeps with Cotton’s toys and his blanket. He is hanging in there.

We miss him too buddy. And we sure love you.
 

JOY AND THE WIND

Joy has developed a fear of the wind. It took us a while to figure out what was scaring her, because she would be antsy on nice days and stormy days, then we realized it was only on windy days.

Joy staying safe on the side of our bed!

She hides on the side of our bed or on her bed next to Russ's desk or - if it is really bad - under my desk. Abby has built her forts before, and that seems to help.

Remember the beautiful light breeze this past Sunday? Joy had me close ALL the windows so we would all be safe.

We will start antianxiety medication if it worsens. Right now it seems like hiding and being comforted until the wind subsides is enough.

What fears do your pets have?