7/7/07

On July 7th, 2007, we adopted Beau.  Seven is my favourite number, so it seemed fitting that we found him at the animal shelter on a date full of sevens.  It doesn't seem believable that nine years have passed since that huge, four-month-old puppy joined our family, and it is even more difficult to accept that we will have to say goodbye to him soon.

Beau was diagnosed with cancer in April.  He'd been showing some symptoms for several months -- heavy, laboured breathing even when lying down after not having done anything energetic; coughing and choking a little when drinking water, even though the water bowl is raised; exhibiting a little less energy and playfulness -- but until I found a hard lump near his left armpit, I thought he was just behaving that way because of the hotter weather and old age.  Then I found the lump and knew it was something serious.

We took him to our vet, whom Beau adores, but X-rays weren't clear enough, so she recommended a specialist.  We were given a morning appointment on Thursday, April 21st.  Beau spent several hours there, being examined and tested.  In the afternoon, the specialist, who was very kind and gentle, delivered the diagnosis: Beau has cancer, and the mass is much bigger than the lump near his armpit suggested.  Further tests and imaging would have to be done if we wanted to know exactly what kind of cancer, but it's either bone or soft tissue cancer and the mass is pushing against his esophagus, which is why he was coughing and choking when drinking water.  The specialist told us that surgery was not an option because of the size of the mass, but he recommended radiation to shrink it.  And then probably chemo.  Unfortunately, that wouldn't be a cure, only a measure to give Beau another nine to 12 months of life.  He would have had to go for radiation every weekday for several weeks.  That seemed like a lot to put him through for just another few months of life, and the radiation would probably affect his quality of life.

Ever since Mummy told us about Grandma being in a coma for three months after a stroke, being kept alive by machines, and after all I have read since childhood about the subject, I have been a strong proponent of euthanasia over "extraordinary measures" if treatment yields no improvement, and of quality of life over quantity.  If radiation and chemo would have banished the tumour, giving Beau several more healthy, happy years of life, I would have said yes immediately.  But that wasn't the case here.

The specialist said Beau would probably only live another one to two months without treatment.  That was eleven weeks ago, so he doesn't have very much time left.  He is coughing and choking more often now, and sometimes it gets so bad that he throws up what he had just eaten.  That means I'm giving him less and less of the treats he loves so much, because those are what he chokes over.  Something that is fine for him to eat one day becomes a hazard the next day.  But still he begs, with those sweet brown eyes looking beseechingly at me, like he is starving.  At least he is able to keep his meals down.  But now I worry that soon, he will begin choking when eating his meals, as well.  That is the worst part of this -- fearing that he will die from choking over food and there will be nothing I can do.

He is still such a sweet, happy dog.  The painkillers are probably helping to keep him happy.  Every now and then, for a few seconds, he will play tug-of-war with Rusty or will chase after a dog toy or ball.  He acts like a puppy when he does that, bounding down the hallway.  The only time he growls is when Rusty jumps on him or gets too rough, trying to play.  He has had a very good life, going on camping trips, hikes and vacations with us, swimming in rivers and lakes, playing in the dog park and has been around people and dogs who love him.  I draw comfort from that.  He adored Belle and is adored by Rusty.  Even though it is so painful to have this long, slow goodbye with him, I smile when remembering all the good times he has had.  Even the times when, in his puppyhood, he ate part of the dining room wall, tore up the linoleum floor and put a big hole in the sofa ...  And I'm glad we still have time to love and cuddle him.  Belle died so suddenly, and I think that was worse.  With Beau, we know it's coming soon but for now, he still behaves as if all is well.  He still tries to hump Emma, Jonathan & Claire's dog, whenever she comes over.  He still loves eating, still smiles and is delighted when we return, whether from work or a short trip to the store, still spreads joy and laughter.  He has been and is a blessing.

Augustus Addendum

How could I have forgotten the tree-falling drama we had last week that I was going to write about yesterday?!  I'm going to blame it on the pain medication I had to take last night for the tooth pain - you know the pain is bad if I have to take something for it!

Last year, we paid to have a chain-link fence put up on either side of the back yard.  We have a wooden fence at the back and front of the yard, but there was a wire fence on either side that was getting more flimsy by the year, especially in one section where Beau had been jumping on the fence for years, barking at cats in the yard next door.  He would push it down a bit more each time, and when we got Rusty, the bratty pup took great joy in jumping over the fence at that section and romping around beyond our yard.

About three weeks after the fence was erected, a tree fell on one section of it.  It was like the tree had been waiting until there was a new, shiny fence nearby before taking its swan dive.  The people I called to remove the fallen tree and check the other trees in case more were about to fall pushed the chain link fence back up but the rod at the top was bent and has been an eyesore for the last year.

Last Tuesday afternoon, the doggies and I heard a Very Loud Noise. We went out to the back yard to investigate and found that a tree from the back yard next door had come crashing down, yes, again on part of the chain link fence.  It was such a big, heavy tree that the portion of the fence it crashed on went right down to the ground.  Rusty could have jumped on the tree trunk and trotted off into the yard next door but surprisingly, he didn't!  The pup is growing up.

I called "our tree guy" and he came over that evening itself to look at the damage and give me a quote for removing the tree.  I asked him if his guys could fix the fence and he said yes!  He said they'd come to do the work the very next morning (I was working in the office that day so I left the gate to the back yard unlocked).  When I got home that afternoon, the fallen tree was gone and the fence had been repaired!  Both the newly damaged section and the portion that had been damaged last year were restored.  I'm so glad we've found someone who can do removal repair work like that, but I hope that's the last of the tree-falling for a while.

Augustus Dramatis

OK, logically and linguistically that subject line makes no sense, but it's only the 15th of August and so much has been going on that I wanted something dramatic and befitting of Augustus to start off this post.  Besides, a language is kept alive by the creation of words, usually hijacked from other languages or by combining existing words, so I'm doing my part.

Last night was fun.  It was Jonathan's birthday on Thursday and we usually take the kids out for a special dinner on their birthday, but I asked Jonathan if he'd prefer a home-cooked meal or going out to a restaurant and he chose home-cooked, because that's easier with Evelyn, who just turned one a couple of weeks ago.  We're all too busy and tired to get together on weekdays so we planned dinner here on Saturday night.  I invited Jason and Crystal to join us because it's nice when the whole family is together and I thought it would be good for Evelyn and Kaia to see each other.  We're all hoping they grow up to be close-knit cousins and want them to spend time together whenever possible.  Kaia turned nine months old on Saturday and is starting to crawl.  Evelyn has just started standing on her own and taking a few steps without assistance.  I love watching them grow!

They exchanged some hugs and kisses and I enjoyed watching them crawl around.  Evelyn got a little jealous when she saw me holding Kaia, so at one point I ended up holding one of them in each arm, like that photo I have of me carrying Meera and Jehanita (although Evelyn and Kaia are much smaller).  That was the highlight of the evening for me.  I love having two babies in our lives.  I just wish they would stop growing so quickly.

I also invited John Jackson, who Bruce has known since they were teenagers and who has known Jason and Jonathan since they were born. John's wife recently decided she no longer wants to be married to him (after over 30 years together!), so John has had to move into his own house.  I worry about him not eating properly and being lonely, so we include him in family get-togethers whenever possible.

There were seven adults and two babies altogether and we had a lovely night.  I made crab dip for an appetizer and shrimp scampi with angel hair pasta for the entrée.  Apart from a simple salad (I had meant to include apple slices and strawberries but got too busy with other things) and the pasta, we had a yummy casserole that Crystal cooked.  For dessert, I tried a new recipe that turned out well - no-bake mango cheesecake.  (The house gets too hot if I use the oven in the summer, so I'm boycotting it until Autumn.)  I bought mango puree for the cheesecake from an Indian grocery store and now have enough to make mango lassi - I'm looking forward to that.

After dinner, John had to leave but the kids stayed for a while.  Jason and Jonathan played their guitars while the rest of us played with the babies and listened.  Bruce had to work yesterday and was tired, but one of these days the three of them are going to play together.  Perhaps in October, when we have our next birthday dinner, this time for Bruce and Jason.

It was a nice ending to what had been a somewhat stressful day and week. On Thursday night, Bruce was coming to bed when he heard a sound at our back door.  He found a kitten mewing on the patio.  We have some feral cats in the neighbourhood but this kitten did not behave like them.  It seemed to be a kitten that was used to being fed and living in a house.  It was very thin and I of course felt sorry for it, so I put a saucer of milk on the patio for it.  It was very skittish at first but hunger and thirst won out and it started lapping up the milk.  It kept running under the table and chairs on our patio when we tried to pet it but then would go back to the milk.  I was a little concerned about it being out there because Beau and Rusty were longing to go after it (and Beau has killed and injured cats before), but it seemed to be a sensible kitten and was no longer in the back yard when I let Beau and Rusty out a few hours later.  The next morning, however, it was back, mewing pitifully again for food.  I poured more milk in the saucer and this time it let me pet it while it was drinking the milk, so I lifted it and the saucer and took it to the front door.  I put it outside and put the saucer down near the front door.  The kitten proved to be smart - when it came back in the evening for its next meal on Friday, it showed up at the front door.  That was a relief, because it meant it was safe from Beau and Rusty (who stared at it intently through the window in our living room and whined often because they could not get to it).  The kitten kept trying to follow us into the house, though, and that made me suspect someone had abandoned it.

I didn't have a vehicle on Friday because the minivan had to be taken in for repair on Thursday (a problem with one of the tyres), so I couldn't do anything about the kitten until Saturday.  On Saturday morning, Bruce drove the kitten and me to our vet - I was hoping they'd be able to take it and find it a home.  Unfortunately, they said they couldn't because they had hospitalized animals there and couldn't risk taking in the kitten in case it had a disease.  They suggested we take it to PetSmart, a pet store near our house that holds adoption days every once in a while for people looking for cats or dogs.  Luckily, that very Saturday was cat adoption day and the person we spoke with at PetSmart told us to come back at 1:30, when the cat adoption people would be there.  Bruce had to be on a conference call for work so I drove back that afternoon without him.  I left the cat in the van while I went to talk to one of the people in charge of the cat adoptions.  She was very nice but said she couldn't take the kitten unless she knew it didn't have a disease.  There is a vet at each PetSmart and she asked if I'd be willing to pay for the test, which she said the vet could do right there and then.  It would only cost $35, which I was glad to pay if it meant the kitten would find a home.  It's a very sweet kitten.  When I was putting it in a box to take it to the vet and then PetSmart, it wasn't happy but it never once tried to scratch or bite me.

I went back to the van to get the kitten and found it had got out of the box and all the way to the front of the van.  I put it back in the box and went to the side of the store where the animal clinic is located.  The woman at the counter said the vet was out at lunch but would be back in ten minutes, so I decided to wait.  The kitten kept trying to jump out of the box but would calm down and start purring when I scratched it.  Finally, the woman at the counter called me over to get details about the kitten.  She then lifted him out of the box and put him on the weighing scale.  She let go of him for one second and the kitten raced away!  He rushed to a row of shelves and dived under.  He wouldn't come back out and when someone tried to reach for him, he raced to a different row of shelves and then managed to completely disappear.  I searched and searched for him with the help of a couple of other PetSmart staff and no one could find it.  After about 20 minutes, I had to give up and leave because I had to get things ready for Jonathan's birthday dinner.  I heard one of the PetSmart employees who had been helping with the search say to the woman at the animal clinic that she needed to get my name and address because it was illegal to dump an animal there.  That made me angry because if I had intended to dump the kitten, I wouldn't have bothered speaking with the woman from the adoption group and wouldn't have waited to have the kitten tested.  I told the woman from the adoption group that the kitten had disappeared somewhere in the store.  She said at least he was indoors and would eventually be found.  I left my name and phone number with the woman at the animal clinic and drove home.

This afternoon, the woman from the animal clinic called to tell me the kitten had been found (I figured he would eventually come out when he got hungry and sure enough, that's what happened).  She took my credit card details to pay for the test and told me that the kitten was fine and would be put up for adoption, so that drama had a good ending.  I hope he finds a good home soon - he really is a sweet cat.

While I was at home getting things ready for our little dinner party, Rusty was looking out the living room window and suddenly started whining.  I went over to see what he was making noise about and saw a deer two houses down!  At 4:00 in the afternoon!  That was unexpected!  I haven't seen one in our neighbourhood since the one that suddenly appeared in our back yard a couple of years ago. I didn't see any more of that deer after that one glimpse, and Rusty seemed disappointed.  What with trying to get to the kitten all morning and then seeing a deer in the afternoon, it was quite an exciting Saturday for Rusty and Beau, and the icing on the cake for them was having the kids and grandkids here.  They love the babies as much as we do!

For the last couple of nights, I've been in a lot of pain when I go to sleep.  I have an infected tooth and the pain comes and goes but has been really bad the last two nights.  I went to see an endodontist on July 29th to have an RCT (root canal treatment) - the pain had started several weeks before that but that was the earliest appointment I could get. However, the endodontist looked at X-rays of my infected tooth and told me that he didn't think an RCT would fix the problem, because I had already had one on that tooth some years ago.  Apparently the root for that particular tooth is difficult to completely clean out and there is therefore prone to reinfection.  The endodontist recommended surgery to get at the root a different way.  Unfortunately, the earliest opening they had is September 1st, so I have to put up with this another couple of weeks.  I'm hoping the pain goes away again soon as it did last week - I had a whole week with very little pain.

So happy Meerabelle is on this continent!  We are looking forward to seeing her some time in the next ten months, even if it means driving to Pennsylvania!

Atlanta makes national headlines

... and not for a good reason.

Tuesday, January 28th, was a somewhat dramatic day here.  Weather forecasters had been predicting snow for a few days, but until Monday evening, the predictions had been that most of the snow and ice would be south and east of Atlanta.  Early Tuesday morning (3:39 a.m.), the "winter storm advisory" changed to "winter storm warning" and Atlanta was said to be directly in the path of the snow storm.  Temperatures were not expected to get above freezing at all that day (or the next) and therein lay the problem - that would cause ice to form on the roads, and people in the South, rarely experiencing snow or ice, do not have vehicles equipped to deal with icy roads.

I have to go into the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I was on the road by about 4:15 that morning, completely unaware of the change in the weather prediction as I hadn't switched on the TV or checked the weather report online.  A few miles from my office, traffic slowed down suddenly.  Only one of the four lanes was open - the rest were blocked off by polices cars, all with their lights flashing.  It hadn't even started snowing and there was already a bad accident on the road.  That would turn out to be a sign of things to come later in the day.  Because it was so early in the morning, the lorries and cars on the road got past the accident quite quickly.  Everyone was very nice, letting others in ahead of them as we all got into the one open lane to drive past the blockade.  I got to the office without incident and started working.

Snow began falling at about 11:00 a.m.  It was light at first - bits of fluff floating in the air and not settling on the ground.  When I looked out the window about fifty minutes later, I was surprised by how much snow had fallen and settled on the ground in that short time.  While I had been in my cubicle working, the snowfall had gotten heavier.  Ally (the other person in my department) and I both finished working at 12:30 p.m. since we had started working early, so I decided to leave then and told her she should, as well.  One of our friends in the office had been checking weather and traffic conditions for the previous hour and saw traffic congestion already on the highways he used to get home.  It wasn't looking good and we all wanted to get home before conditions worsened, so we left even though the office hadn't officially closed yet.  (I had been in the office long enough to have worked a full day already, so that didn't really concern me.  An e-mail was sent about 25 minutes later, saying our office was closing at 1:00 p.m.)  Bruce's office closed at noon but he was in a meeting with his boss at that time, so he also left at 12:30 p.m.

As soon as I left our office parking lot, I was stuck in traffic.  The entrance ramp to the highway that I needed to get on in order to get home was about 3 k.m. away, so I'm usually on the highway in less than five minutes.  Not that day.  I needed to travel east on the highway but traffic in the opposite direction was already so bad that the road from my office, which feeds to both the east and west lanes, was filled with cars trying to get to the west lanes and thus blocking the exit to the east lanes, as well.  We later learned that everyone had tried leaving offices and schools at about the same time, hence the awful crush on the roads.  It took me over two hours to drive just a few kilometres.  Before I made it onto the highway, I thought several times about turning around and trying to get home a different way (there are a couple of other options), but as I sat unmoving in the traffic jam, I saw several cars slipping and sliding in the icy lanes going in the opposite direction.  So far, there was no ice on my side of the road, which made me think it would be safer to stay where I was.  Once I finally made it onto the highway, traffic conditions improved.  Most of the time, we were moving slowly but at least we kept moving.  I got home about an hour later.  The trip took about three hours in total, very different from the usual 25- to 30-minute commute I have in ordinary driving conditions.

Bruce got home a few minutes before I did, with traffic conditions also improving for him after a very slow start.  We later found out that we had been extremely fortunate compared to a lot of other people.  Some spent between 12 and 14 hours on roads before making it to their homes; others didn't make it home at all that night, choosing instead to abandon their cars and walking to the closest shelter they could find (stores, restaurants, petrol stations); still others spent almost 24 hours in their cars before finally getting to move.  Several motels and hotels had to turn people away because they were filled with people needing a roof over their heads when they were unable to make it home.  Lorry drivers, who are only allowed to be on the road a certain number of hours each day, had to pull off to the side of the road and stop driving.  Some school buses were unable to get kids back to their houses and had to return to schools, where the children spent the night.  I read about one father of a kindergartner who walked six miles to get to his daughter so that he could spend the night with her at her kindergarten.  And several Atlantans started taking water and food to people stuck on roads in case they wanted to stay in their cars but had nothing to eat or drink with them.

With conditions so bad, you'd think that we must have had several feet of snow fall that day.  No, it was about five to seven millimetres in total.  That was enough to cripple the city and parts of the state.  This was shocking to states further north, used to dealing with actual snow storms that can bury whole cars, but it was the ice that caused such havoc.  Cars here don't have snow tyres or chains, so when the roads were slick with snow, people began sliding and crashing into each other.  Apparently, there were over 1,500 accidents that day.

The mayor of Atlanta and the governor of Georgia were heavily criticized for not handling things better (there weren't enough snow plows and sand/salt trucks on the road to remove the ice; the closing of schools and offices should have been staggered so that not everyone was on the roads at the same time; schools should have been closed that day when it became clear early that morning Atlanta was in the path of the snow storm ...).  All the major newspapers and national news broadcasts discussed how the city had come to a standstill.  Even our favourite comedy news show made fun of Atlanta.

Thankfully, schools and offices closed on Wednesday so people stayed off the roads.  Temperatures were below freezing most of Wednesday but the sun and a couple of hours of above-freezing temperatures started the melting of some of the snow and ice.  On Thursday, some offices (including mine) opened late but I telecommute on Thursdays and Bruce's office was closed again, so we both worked from home that day.  (We worked on Wednesday, too, even though our offices were closed - we are such hardworking, dedicated employees!)  A lot of the ice melted on Thursday, which meant those who had abandoned their cars on Tuesday could go collect them.  The police and national guard were on hand to give people rides to their cars and to help them jumpstart engines that had died or fill empty tanks with some petrol so the drivers could get going.  By Friday, things were almost back to normal.

Today, there is very little snow to be seen and the drama seems like something that was on TV, not something we experienced in real life.  But I think if there is another "snow event" heading this way anytime soon, most people are going to stay home and will refuse to go to school/work.  It was a traumatic event for many people.

After a couple of sunny days, today is a foggy one.  It reminds me of early mornings in Cameron Highlands, when everything was misty and cool, and is bringing back many happy memories.

Oh, deer!

Today began on a somewhat surreal note.  I woke up at about 2:45 a.m. and noticed that the spotlight in the backyard, which is activated by a motion sensor, was on.  That usually means we've had a nocturnal visitor, like a raccoon, or that a cat is skulking around, in which case I would have to be sure it was gone before letting Beau out.

I looked out the window to see if I could spot a critter and was startled to see a deer in the backyard!  A deer!  That was a first!  It wasn't very big and looked a little ghostly as it daintily walked around the undergrowth.  That was such an unexpected sight that I had to wake Bruce up, even though it was so early in the morning, so that he could see the deer, as well.  Also, if I hadn't, he would have spent the rest of the day, and probably the week, telling me I had imagined it.

I went into the backyard to see if there was any chance the deer would stay where it was, but it saw me and immediately jumped into the bushes.  I had a shower, fed the dogs and then went into the backyard again.  The deer was no longer in the rough area in which I had last seen it, so I thought it had disappeared and I let the dogs out.  I soon heard the deer crashing through bushes at the opposite end of the backyard, far in the right corner.  I called the dogs and Belle came to me immediately, but Beau must have smelled the deer and was hot on its trail.  Next thing I knew, the deer was sprinting past me, just a couple of feet away (boy, was it fast!), with Beau not far behind (and not nearly as fast) and Belle standing near me, looking bemused.  Beau stopped as soon as I called to him while the deer dashed away and jumped over the fence to safety.  The dogs were very excited and spent a lot of time sniffing various spots around the backyard, but unfortunately for Beau the deer was nowhere in sight.

Such an adventure!