eternally chaotic

Many weeks have passed since Uno was attacked and chewed up. He is now without bandages and stitches, done with the daily vet visits, sporting a slight limp that should go away in the weeks to come and mostly back to his old self chasing anything that moves in the back yard.

The owner of the other dog was never located. The vet tried many times but was never able to make contact. He provided an incorrect name, address and phone number. They found him once on Facebook but he deleted his account after they made contact. After a month of trying to do the right thing and get the dog back to its owner, a requirement in our county to receive assistance from the local animal authorities, the decision was made to have the other dog euthanized. Sadly, and probably avoidably, had the mutt had a proper and responsible owner, it was put to sleep last week by the county.

In all the animal hospital took exceptional care of Uno. They worked around our schedule to see him daily for bandage changes and stitch maintenance. Unfortunately they will have to eat a $3,000 bill for surgery and medications.

Thankfully Uno has recovered well and is no worse for the wear. He even has the cool scars to show off to the ladies – granted he is missing all the other bits to seal the deal at least he can strut his stuff and look cool.

Early Labor Day morning, one am to be precise, we received one of those late night, just fell asleep, phone cuts like a laser through your dreams, serious problem type of calls.  Turns out, the call was from the surgeon at the animal hospital where Uno was being boarded.  The details about what had happened were fuzzy at best and only Uno’s current condition was known. We were being informed that he was being rushed to surgery to sew up severe lacerations and bites as well as receive a series of x-rays to determine whether or not he had a broken leg. Good to know – still know answers but at least he was in good hands.  We were told we would receive another call after the surgery was complete, and we did, confirming he was doing well and that he was comfortable, but there were still no details as to what had happened.  To make it more frustrating the vet was closed due to the Labor Day holiday (granted later we found out that the vet left five voicemails but we didn’t see until Monday night).

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We have a new kind of clarity in the house now.  Jacob started wearing glasses this week at both home and school.  He was having trouble seeing more than a few feet in front of himself and was often found within inches of the television.  After a visit to the optometrist it was determined that he needed glasses.

Well the glasses arrived on Friday and he was able to wear them to school for the first time on Monday.  He was apprehensive about getting made fun of, or called names, but Carol and I have been reassuring him that the opinions of others don’t matter – take it in stride – tell them to mind their own business – etc.  The glasses actually look great on him.  Hopefully he will grow out of the farsightedness, but until that time the frames look good and are tough and flexible.  Now we just have to get him used to taking care of them – extra chores won’t pay for replacements.

You have to love shots.  I guess it is a good thing that kids, well at least young ones, don’t have the concept of what needles are.  They do learn quickly though that the syringe is the bringer of pain and doom.  Too bad as well that the dispenser for a shot looks needlessly similar to those suspension syringes that come with most liquid medicine for kids.  Coincidence…Sure.

Violet checked out and was given the stamp of good health, despite a raspy cough and runny nose, by the docs for her eighteen month checkup.  She was a good sport during the typical wait, having an ink pen and a few magazines kept her fully entertained – a wait without incident is worth so much more than worrying about whether the next parent or patient can read the six month old copy of “Parenting”.

It has been confirmed again that Violet will be tall, of average weight, with a properly portioned head.  Measuring in on the same curve as previous samples she is at 80% in height and 42% in weight with a circular noggin at 30%.  Although the way she squirms on the tape and scales I think there needs to be a standard deviation in there somewhere – or at minimum some margin of error at +/-5%.

Once the typical poking and prodding subsided I learned that V is quite the talker compared to others of the same age.  Certainly this came as no shock to those that rear her as we see her continuously make up for the conversation that her elder sister squelches.  After the pleasantries though came the needles and three sticks in the leg.  Admittedly we tricked her a bit.  I laid across her midsection securing her waist and arms all the while cooing and talking to her while the nurse prepped the needles out of site with full access to her legs.  Smiles abounded and maybe a giggle until her face erupted in that “daddy what the hell – you were just smiling and now my leg is on bloody fire” look and tears began to leak from her eyes before the entirety of her breath made it all the way into her lungs.  By the time she cried the shots were done and the tears lasted only as long as it took her to get distracted with her new bandages.