Friday, February 24, 2012

meet Bernadette.

Amidst all of the drama with Vincent (update on that in just a sec), we got a new foster dog. I know, the timing is ridiculous, but she has actually been a great distraction. My best friend Kim heard through the grapevine that there was a little family of homeless dogs roaming in a neighborhood in South Austin. The photo showed what looked like a couple of adult Basset mixes and a baby Basset mix. Adorable. Kim immediately began trying to figure out how to get these three into a safe environment. After an unimaginable number of emails and phone calls between she and the well meaning e-mailer, Kim was able to go pick up the dogs. Sadly the puppy was gone. We hope that someone came along thinking he was adorable and took him into their home. But after many sign postings and looking high and low, there is still no trace of him. Heartbreaking. And just one more reason to spay and neuter your pets. But I won't jump on that soap box just now.
So, long story short, I am the lucky one who ended up with momma! We are calling her Bernadette. She looks like a Bernadette. She is darling. I'm not sure if she has ever been in a house before, maybe. But I am quite sure she had never been on a couch before. Tom lifted her up and she just shook like a leaf. But after about five minutes she began to relax and then she slipped into a deep, head to tail relaxed sleep. It was the definition of why we do this. To see a dog feel comfort, real and true comfort, possibly for the first time in its life, well, it's just the best. It's been less than 24 hours and her little personality is just shining through. When she wags her tail her whole long body wags with it. The great thing is that she is only a couple of years old, so she is going to have many more good years than she had bad ones. Happy day.

So, Vincent. We spent an agonizing five and half hours waiting for the call from the surgeon. We knew he was third on the surgery list, but it still was an excruciating wait. She called around 5:30 and I felt my heart shoot into my throat. But about 10 seconds in Tom gave me a thumbs up. I swear I felt like my body went limp. Relief literally flooded my body. Everything went really well. She did say that it was the largest gallbladder she had ever seen. And considering that she told us she does about 1-2 of these a week, that says a lot! But it went well. He is in recovery. He has to stay for a couple of days, but we get to visit him this afternoon. I'm so happy. So what if the plans to reupholster my Aunt Millie's two chairs went down the drain with the gallbladder, my boy is gonna be ok.