Ray the Blind Dog

I spent the day doing random things. I couldn't seem to concentrate, the refrigerator now has two shelves (of 4) that are clean, the kitchen has one clean window, the laundry room a clean sink , Gregg's office is (mostly) (somewhat) clean, two floorboards in my bedroom have been successfully de-squeaked, two spots on the stairwell have been spot-painted (where we removed the old pet gate), etc. etc. etc.

By 3:00 I couldn't take it anymore, I called the vet. "Hi, I'm calling to see if you have any updates on Ray." I said to the nice lady on the other end of the line. "Hold on," she replied, "I'll see if the Dr. has any news." I waited for a moment and my favorite vet was on the phone. "Well, he's up and around," said the doctor sounding chipper, "I'm going to take some X-rays and call you back in about an hour." "Great!," I replied feeling total relief that my dog wasn't dead yet, "Thanks." I hung up the phone and returned to my randomness. I shredded papers and emptied trash. 4:00 rolled by. I cleaned cat boxes and cleared stuff off the patio. 5:00. I wandered around the back yard looking at things that needed to be done. 6:00. Gregg came home from work. I called the vet again.

"The Dr. is with a patient. He said he'll call you as soon as he's done," the receptionist said.

At 6:50 we got a call from the vet tech. "You can come get Ray," he said "The Dr. has X-rays that he wants to show you when you get here."

On the way to the vet Gregg and I wondered if the doctor wanted to show us X-rays that would indicate how horribly ill our dog was or that would show a broken bone or something. We were nervous.

The door to the vet was locked when we got there. We knocked and the receptionist got up to let us in. "The Dr. is with a patient, he'll be with you in a minute or two," she said. Gregg and I paced and waited. After a minute or two one of the vet assistants came out with Ray on a leash looking perfectly fine. He sniffed interestedly at the bags of food around the reception area. Obviously his appetite had returned.

After the last patient had left, the vet tech came and led us into one of the rooms. The doctor showed us the X-rays and said that it looked like Ray had an inflammation of the knee and then had me run my hand over an area on his leg that was all knobbly. "It also looks like he might have been stung or bit by something right here," he said, "the combination of the two must have made him feel pretty bad. You can see that he is still favoring his leg. No more dogpark through the weekend. Give him this for the inflammation and Benedryl for the sting."

We took our dog and went home.