{"id":2799,"date":"2008-10-30T10:49:47","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T14:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2008-10-30T10:49:47","modified_gmt":"2008-10-30T14:49:47","slug":"fatty-elbow-and-the-end-of-dog-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/fatty-elbow-and-the-end-of-dog-days","title":{"rendered":"Fatty elbow and the end of dog-days"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a sad experience on Monday night. Rufus has a hygroma or fatty tumor on the “elbow” of his left foreleg. Never having finished (or, in fact, started<\/em>) veterinary school, I decided to take him down to the vet to get it checked out. Also, I wanted to get him weighed, because I think<\/em> he’s put on a bit of weight, but I can’t really tell. (To cut to the chase: the vet thinks the “elbow bump” is nothing serious, Roo is 81.4 lbs., up 3 from May, and the assistant found a tick behind his ear.)<\/em><\/p>\n

So we drove down for our 7:45 appointment. Rufus got to meet a couple of dogs in the lobby, and also got to sniff at the cardboard Pet Taxi box that was holding a foul-tempered 13-lb. cat. When the cat hissed and jumped inside the box, Roo almost had a heart attack. The rest of us laughed.<\/p>\n

The offices were pretty warm so, since we had to wait for a while, I took Rufus out to parking lot to walk around. He was happy that they had a fake fire hydrant in their doggie-area. Back in the lobby, he was pretty well-behaved, although I think he wants to get a day job in reception, since he kept trying to get behind the desk.<\/p>\n

[You may find the rest of this post pretty sad or depressing, so feel free to punt on it. If you want to read on, just click “more”.]<\/em><\/p>\n

A few other dogs came and went. Eventually, a woman and her two late-teenaged sons entered the lobby with their old, grizzled, very furry mutt. He and Rufus exchanged sniffs, and the cat owner asked about the dog. The woman was pretty quiet, but her kids were interested in Rufus, who tangled around them with his leash until they’d pet him.<\/p>\n

I missed part of the conversation with the cat owner, but eventually the mom said, “Some days, you think she’s just fine. . .”<\/p>\n

Then they were called in for their appointment. The mother started crying uncontrollably. The kids walked in with their heads down. Once the door closed, I could hear her sobbing in the room. I turned to Amy and asked, “Did she say what they’re bringing the dog in for?”<\/p>\n

“They’re putting her to sleep, I think,” she said.<\/p>\n

For some reason, this just didn’t occur to me. See, my experience of putting my dog to sleep (c. 1987) was the culmination of her weeklong stay in an animal hospital. The vets tried to fix her intestinal blockage, but when they determined it was impossible, we gave the word, and they put her to sleep. Because my mom was away, my brother was at college, my dad was working, and I was 16 with no access to a car, Jolie died all alone, (at the young age of 7 or 8). I was pretty wrecked by the experience; for 20 years, I swore I wouldn’t get another pet.<\/p>\n

Listening to this woman crying in the next room brought all that back for me. But then I thought about how difficult her experience would be on me. It’s one thing for a medical emergency to lead to this end, but another when it arises from old age. I can’t imagine having to schedule the event, to load your dog into the car, to wait in the lobby patiently. I can’t imagine that state of knowing that it’s all for the last time. Maybe it’s silly or immature to get worked up like that over a pet, but it’s in my nature.<\/p>\n

During our walks in the neighborhood these past few months, I’ve met two dogs of pretty advanced age and decrepitude. Their owners both told me that their dogs “aren’t in pain,” so they’re not putting them to sleep. After one of these encounters, I said to Amy, “If Rufus ever gets that bad, we’re going to put him down. Actually, if I<\/em> ever get that bad, we’re going to put me<\/em> down.”<\/p>\n

Eventually, the two sons returned to the lobby. One said to the receptionist, “Our mom’s still in there.” She nodded and went back to her paperwork. She didn’t come out before we were called in for our consultation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a sad experience on Monday night. Rufus has a hygroma or fatty tumor on the “elbow” of his left foreleg. Never having finished (or, in fact, started) veterinary school, I decided to take him down to the vet to get it checked out. Also, I wanted to get him weighed, because I think … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Fatty elbow and the end of dog-days”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-J9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2762,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-102708","url_meta":{"origin":2799,"position":0},"title":"What It Is: 10\/27\/08","author":"Gil","date":"October 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: A whole ton of magazines that have piled up, including the recent issues of Monocle, New York, Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and Fantastic Man. Not Montaigne, which is why there's no Monday Morning Montaigne this week. Sorry. I know you were looking forward to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Fergus Henderson\"","block_context":{"text":"Fergus Henderson","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/fergus-henderson"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001GDTYL6","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4067,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rufus-unzipped","url_meta":{"origin":2799,"position":1},"title":"Rufus Unzipped!","author":"Gil","date":"June 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One more vet appointment, one step closer on the Rufus Road To Recovery! I took Ru down to the animal hospital this afternoon to see what they think of his recovery from surgery 10 days ago. I thought the wounds were both healing well, but I'm no vet, so I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3965,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rufus-update-2","url_meta":{"origin":2799,"position":2},"title":"Rufus Update","author":"Gil","date":"May 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just back from the vet! At least half the staff of the office came in to see Rufus, since he'd made such an impression on everyone last week. He held up well for this exam, although they decided to pre-emptively put a stylish muzzle on him. I have a picture\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3961,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rufus-recovery-update","url_meta":{"origin":2799,"position":3},"title":"Rufus recovery update","author":"Gil","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No real news over the rest of the day. He rests in his crate, tries to lick his wounds, gets talked down, and goes out to pee every so often. We go to the vet tomorrow to see if it's okay for him to start using the stairs. Here's our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3611\/3555368012_274e9eb85d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3954,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rufus-recovery","url_meta":{"origin":2799,"position":4},"title":"Rufus recovery","author":"Gil","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My dad picked up Rufus from the vet yesterday, brought him to our house, and stayed with him all day until Amy got home. After Wednesday's surgery on his back right leg, during which he had two drains attached to his wounds, Rufus has to stay in his crate till\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3963,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/he-doesnt-even-have-doggie-sudoku","url_meta":{"origin":2799,"position":5},"title":"He doesn’t even have doggie sudoku","author":"Gil","date":"May 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Amy posted a set of her (much better) photos of Rufus recovering in his crate. We're off to the vet in a couple of hours, to find out our next step in his recovery\/rehab. Here's hoping they let him out of his crate.","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3656\/3555581320_6d5de69311_d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2814,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}