Waiting To Exhale

I'll leave the Caption Contest from yesterday open till Monday night, 'kay?

Today was one of those days and I'm beat. One of the Old Sisters Mutant Poms plopped over last night and showed symptoms similar to her dear departed brother, so I spent most of today taking her to the emergency vet and sitting outside waiting for test results while she rested in an oxygen tank. It's worrisome but it's part of having pets growing old after many, many wonderful years, so I'm trying to learn to accept this.

Things are "okay" so far but she has to stay at the clinic one more night because the oxygen tank seems to help her breathing. I know I'm not supposed to think about the cost when things like this happen, but man, credit cards...thou art evil lifesavers.

Sitting in the waiting room was the hardest. There were so many sick pets during the weekends and all of us had the same worried looks on our faces. It didn't help that the TV was showing Saving Private Ryan. Not exactly cheerful. I struck up a quiet conversation with the woman who had been there on and off all day too, the kind of bonding that strangers tended to do when we feel sort of restlessly lost, with time on our hands, but unwilling to read or write or do something useful. Pet lovers would only understand the kind of loving exchanges we shared, how much we tried to understand our furbabies, and how helpless we felt when we couldn't will them back to health.

We know we can't run from moments like these, so I share them with readers here as an extension of my writing life because I write from emotion, mining my own personal experiences and projecting it into my characters and their "lives." My mutant poms stories are just as much a part of my blog as my roofing tales, and both give me experiences that enrich my writing life.

Don't worry if this post sounds a bit down. I'm not feeling that bad. I have hope that my furbaby will live for a while yet. After all, her name is Miracle. I'm just...hmm...in the middle of taking a long deep breath.

Okay, just got a call from the vet. Prayers, please, if you can.

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