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Better yesterday. Still one page shy of minimum, but I felt better doing it.
I also don’t want to give you guys the idea that Phouka is like on her death bed or anything. In fact, if the vet hadn’t said they’d found cancer cells in the growth we wouldn’t know much was wrong. I mean she’s not a young dog so she’s blind, and she’s got some arthritis setting in, and an ear infection (pugs are prone to them), and a urinary tract infection (Phouka seems prone to them), but other than that she’s a very healthy dog. She doesn’t seem to be in pain. She’s still wagging tail, or wagging her whole butt, at any attention. It was interesting, after she went completely blind she started wagging her tail more when we talked to her. I think it was her way of letting us know she heard us, and appreciated the attention. She also started patting, or scratching gently, at our feet or legs when she wanted pet. I thought it was pretty smart. She could no longer see if we were looking at her, but she knew we were standing there, so she started to pat us and make sure we knew what she wanted. She also started patting ahead of her on stairs, or in any unfamiliar place, so her paw would find the problem first. I thought that was excellent reasoning on her part. For the first few weeks she also would set on our feet, actually put her little butt right on us. I think it was to make certain we were there. She’s stopped doing that as much. I guess she’s getting used to her new way of moving about the world.
She’s still our happy little fuzzy princess. Who just happens to have some mysteries illness that the doctors can’t quite figure out, and a cancerous growth on her leg, that they can’t operate on until her blood work comes back better. Why? Or rather why not? Because they’re afraid that until they track down the cause of the blood work she might not make it through the anesthesia. We’re not going to argue that we need to make sure, but the thought of them waiting when they’ve found bad cells in the growth makes us all very nervous. But, Phouka seems unfazed by all of it, and just keeps trucking along.
I brought out the heavy guns for music yesterday. The H.P.Lovecraft Christmas album, A VERY SCARY SOLSTICE. I love this album. All the songs are almost too fun to be allowed, but some particular favorites are “Have Yourself a Scary Little Solstice”, “It’s the Most Horrible Time of the Year”, “Away in a Madhouse”, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men”, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog-Sothoth”, “Little Rare Book Room”, “Demon Sultan Azathoth”, “Tentacles”, and there’s more.
Though, a caution. I find that you need to listen to this album on head phones. Why? It’s fine for a time, or even two, (though I recommend against even two) but don’t play it over and over in a room out loud. The atmosphere starts getting a little thick. On headsets you can listen to it all day long, but out loud . . . Well, it is H. P. Lovecraft, after all.