THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

And it’s not even over yet.  Spoiler alert:  so far, everything has turned out OK.  But as the old Jim Reeves song goes, “I’ve enjoyed as much of this as I can stand.”

On Tuesday, we woke up to find our dog Charlie, a 14-year-old Lhasa Apso, could barely walk.  The vet couldn’t see us until late afternoon, so I hung out with him all day, carrying him outside a few times to give him an opportunity to poop and pee.  He had a couple of old pain pills left, so we gave him some of that, and it helped a lot.  By the time we got to the vet, he’d pretty much returned to normal.  The vet concluded that it was just an arthritis flare-up, and 48 hours later, all is well.

Charlie’s Tuesday travails, however, were just a prelude to Wednesday evening.  We went on our evening dog walk with two friends and their dog.  It was about 9:00 p.m., a bit later than usual, and we were remarking on how peaceful it was.  Famous last words. 

Then, all of a sudden, a couple of dogs came charging out of the open door of a nearby house, barking and growling.  Of course, the three dogs in our party replied in kind.  It was dark, we were trying to pull our dogs away from the loose dogs, and in the confusion, one of our friends backed into Vicki.  She was also backing up, but not as fast, and there was a collision.  Vicki fell over backwards and hit her head on the pavement.  Hard.

She never lost consciousness, and it soon became clear that she had no broken bones and could wiggle her fingers and toes, but she was bleeding and in quite a bit of pain.  She decided to stay down, and we called an ambulance to have her checked out.  While we were waiting, a couple of neighbors who were medical professionals saw us and came out to help.  I don’t know their names, but their calm professionalism was so helpful, and they also brought a blanket to help ward off the chill.  (For former Tucsonans out there, it was chilly in Tucson last night, despite it being late May.) 

Long story short, Vicki spent the next three hours in the emergency room.  Her vital signs were stable, the CT scan was negative, and we got to go home around midnight.  She’s already resumed her normal activities.  We got lucky.

But it’s only Thursday.  Fingers crossed that Marigold and I make it through the week without incident.