1. The corgis are slowing down. Maggie might be nearing the end stage of her life. I took them in for dental cleaning today and the vet discovered that mass cell tumors had returned to Maggie's hind area. She just had such growths surgically removed in September. We decided not to put Maggie through another surgery. Maggie has been losing weight -- a pound since February 16th. She spends a lot of time these days, as does Charly, lying down, resting and sleeping. Maggie eats regularly, drinks water, and has been good about going outside to relieve herself with a few exceptions during the night. She can still jump up on the bed and she continues to lick and clean Charly. If I leave the house, I can hear her barking in protest as I start the Sube in the garage. The life force is alive in her, but it's fading. I'll do all I can to keep her comfortable and provide hospice care.
I will also go out and buy more small area rugs or runners for Charly. Her rear legs and hip area are slowly giving out. She cannot get traction on bare floors. The rugs I've already bought have helped, as have the towels I put down, but I need to put more rugs where the towels are. The towels slide around too much.
2. I have another appointment next week with my kidney doctor, so I got to visit Tracy, my favorite phlebotomist again and have blood drawn. Afterward, I stopped in at the Bean for a bagel and cream cheese and a cup of half Americano and half steamed milk. When I returned home, I continued my house cleaning project. With the dogs at the vet, I could freely run vacuum cleaner and took care of all kinds of surfaces. I laundered a couple of the rugs that were still not very clean after I vacuumed them. I moved the dining room table and cleaned the floor underneath it.
Listening to the most recent podcast episode of This American Life made my cleaning go easier. I teared up and had to sit down while listening to sports writer, columnist, and editor, Mike Wise, tell the story of the January night his dog fell through the ice covering the C & O Canal near Georgetown in Washington, D. C. and the way he risked his life to rescue his dog. If you'd like to hear this story, it's the prologue to Episode 669 and is right here. (If you'd like to listen to all of Episode 669, Scrambling to Get Off the Ice, it's here.)
3. This afternoon, I saw Dr. Brian Miller, the optometrist at the Kellogg Vision Center. After a series of vision tests and after Dr. Miller peered with bright lights deep into each of my eyes, Dr. Miller declared my surgeries as successful. He likes how things look, will see me again in a month, and confirmed that I am faithfully following my eye drop regimen.
After this appointment and some more cleaning, I went to the vet's office and talked with the vet and one of his staff about Charly and Maggie, with special attention to what the options are for Maggie's treatment. I drove the dogs home and helped them get comfortable by feeding them, putting out new towels on the top of the bed, and getting Charly's new medicine regimen underway.
I don't know if Charly and Maggie were further comforted by the documentary film, Bill Evans: Time Remembered, but I loved hearing Bill Evans play with numerous remarkable jazz musicians over the years such as Miles Davis, Tony Bennett, Scott LeFaro, Chuck Israels, Eddie Gomez, Paul Motian, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and many others. I did not love learning more about Bill Evans' painful life story, a chronicle of inward pain, grief, broken relationships, the death of loved ones, and drug addiction, rehabilitation, and relapse. He died in 1980, only 51 years old.
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