I had a mostly very lovely Christmas.
I received far too many gifts, from my very generous parents, sister, and brother-in-law. My father, in particular, seemed determined to deplete everyone’s Amazon wishlist in one fell swoop this year. I also, very unexpectedly, received a membership to the Online Writing Workshop from Heather and a knitted hat from Tammy. Truly, it was an embarrassment of riches.
We had a late start to the day but a very nice dinner, too much food but all of it good. All the snow from the night before had melted, and it was mostly just cold and, by the end of the day, kind of dreary, but it was a really nice day nonetheless.
The end of the evening, however, wasn’t exactly perfect. Tucker, our dog, has been getting over being sick for the past week or so, and while he seemed to lack much enthusiasm, or at least energy, for getting any new toys of his own for Christmas, he seemed a lot better by the end of the day. So we were really worried when he had difficulty standing up, and then fell when trying to go up the stairs. He could walk, but was definitely having trouble putting too much of his weight on his back legs, or getting any traction lying in the non-carpeted front hallway. We managed to get him to the living room couch, after getting him off the stairs, and my mother spent the night watching over him there. Then this morning, my father and I took him back to the vet, where they took some blood, prescribed a new antibiotic, and also gave him an anti-inflammatory to help. He’s still running a slight fever, and the blood work’s to check for things like Lyme disease. He’s a ten-year-old dog and probably does have arthritis, so this may just be the fever (and whatever its underlying cause is) making that worse. He does seem better on the pain reliever the vet prescribed, and tonight on the anti-inflammatory. He didn’t have any trouble getting up the stairs, for instance, whereas this morning, my father and I had to help lift him into the car. He does seem better, but I have been worried about him, and that’s not exactly how you want to spend Christmas night.
But, like I said, he does seem a lot better today. (That may be, in part, because Chloe, my sister’s somewhat hyperactive dog, has gone back home.)
Today was definitely a dreary day, turning to freezing rain and sleet by the evening, what I think is yet another in a string of noreasters. I spent it mostly watching movies, the quite disappointing V/H/S and the surprisingly quite enjoyable Ruby Sparks.
That and taking the dog to the vet. Beats going to the stores the day after Christmas, I guess.