Dog Day Afternoon

My birthday was last week. 43, big whoop. It was actually on Monday, but we celebrated it on Sunday because that's when everyone could come by. And by everyone I mean my Mom, my sister, her boyfriend, and his daughter.

It was a nice afternoon. Alexandra (the boyfriend's 3 year-old daughter) entertained us by singing "Wheels on the Bus" and the chorus of "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" from the movie "Annie", while strumming (beating on) my guitar. It's OK - it's an old guitar. My Mom (who lives over 100 miles away) also brought her two Cairn Terriers, Riley and Katey. Alexandra later got the toys from her Happy Meal and some stuffed animals and put on a puppet show for the dogs. They seemed entertained as well.

After they left, my friend Terri came over and she, my Mom, and I went to Bennigan's for dinner. We had fun, and when we got back we found that the crazy lady across the street had backed into Terri's car, crushing in the door. So instead of spending the evening eating cake and ice cream we spent it standing in the street, giving a report to the police and getting bit by mosquitoes. We finished things up right about when Terri would have been leaving anyway.

Bedtime. I took the couch, and Mom slept in my bed. The plan was to get up Monday morning, have breakfast, then cut and hem the curtains I bought for the living room. Since I don't know the first thing about sewing, it was actually going to be Mom doing the curtains while I watch or play with the cats or something. She brought down her sewing machine so it wouldn't take long. Afterward we were going to take the dogs to the dog park.

That was the plan. At 2:30 in the morning Riley woke up choking. His tongue was turning blue so we jumped in the car rushed him to an emergency vet about 7 miles away. I was doing 95mph where the speed limit is 50, but it was 2:30 on a Monday morning, so the cop risk was low. Riley actually died on the way, but my Mom gave him mouth-to-snout resuscitation and revived him long enough to get to the vet. We were relieved when the vet told us she had him stabilized, but that was just the good news. She found that there had been a tumor in his throat that had hemorrhaged and swollen, which was why he was choking. They couldn't remove the tumor there, they would have to do a tracheotomy, then he would have to go to St. Petersburg (about 35 miles away) for the surgery. Assuming that went well we would then have to deal with whatever extent the tumor had affected the rest of him. This would all be very stressfull for the dog, and he's 12 twelve years old, so my mother made the decision to have him euthanized. It was hard, but I was glad I was there to support my mother. It was a long ride home.

Obviously, the plan of doing curtains and going to the dog park was off the table. I followed Mom to her house and buried Riley for her. I stayed the night and left the next morning. I've had better birthdays.