Today we celebrate Elky's and Tassel's arrival into our lives. They have become my devoted "posse", as Joanna calls them, and are better for morale than my 400 daily miligrams of Welbutrin. Who would guess that scratching a smelly dog behind the ears would have such a beneficial effect on the one doing the scratching? But there it is...another miracle in the Big Mystery. Still, it ain't all roses:
The Buddhists call it annica, or change: the observation that nothing remains the same, not really, not even for a minute. Everything is in a state of flux, always. For us the big implication of this, of course, is that we are here on the earth only temporarily. The evidence of this truth is everywhere, and yet in our drowsy wishfulness we ignore it as best we can, preferring to dwell on other things. But reality has a way of persisting on its own course, and however pleasant and comforting they may be, the fact remains: our dreams are awry of the world.
On the left of this x-ray you can see a dog's laterally luxated patella. I snagged the photo off the web, but if it were from the several-hundred-dollar examination Tassel got back in January it would also show mineralization of one of the discs in her lower back (interestingly, the same one in my back that is herniated: L5-L6) and considerable arthritis in both legs and ankles.
This, our kindly vet explains, is why she now limps around the house after our walks. Several hundred dollars worth of x-rays revealed that her knees and back are as bad or worse than mine. So our forays are shorter and more to the point, potty-wise, unless I leave her behind and take Elky (and sometimes Jojo) to the park or woods for a good romp. Tass is on a combination of rimadyl (for pain), adequan (a wonder drug for arthritis), and a heated bed beside my reading chair. At the age of nine dog years (Tassel last January, Elky next month, Jim way back in 2004) I have discovered that our mortal coil has ceased to be so tightly wound, and I often remind myself that whatever it is that I want to leave behind post-shuffle is best moved to the front burner.
