Song of the day: “Yellow taxi” by Joni Mitchel. It’s been a while since I had this one, and the last one I did have it in my mind, I think it was the Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton instead.
I wish I had some good news, but regretfully I don’t. In fact, I’m not really in the mood to talk about it, let alone write about it, but since I have made a pact with myself to just tell of my life here on the blog, I figure I better get it over with. It is an important aspect of my life here in Spain, and since it is bound to come up at some point anyway, there is no point in avoiding the inevitable.
Mosha:
It was 2001 or 2002 that I first met her. Mom was carrying her on her arm, and Mosha was this teeny weenie puppy of six weeks old at most. She was black and white (dots all over) with one brown and one blue eye. It was love at first sight, even though Cockers aren’t by any means my favorite breed. Mosha was different, though. I guess part of the reason for this was because at eight weeks I came home from grocery shopping and had her walking beside me. Back and forth we went, and I was on the way inside when I heard a sudden squeal.
Behind me, in the doorway, Drisha (a Husky, Pyrenean mountain dog mix) had Mosha flat against the floor, his teeth sunk into the top of her shoulders. I dropped the groceries and went running. Drisha was of course already gone by the time I got there and Mosha was writhing on the floor like the tiny little girl she was, whimpering miserably, looking pale. (I know that sounds weird to say about a dog, but they do turn pale-ish when they hurt. Their gums will turn white, so does the skin around their eyes) I picked her up and cradled her against my chest as I ran inside. She was barely responding, even though she wasn’t actually bleeding, or anything. There were a few puncture marks on her shoulder, and I finally managed to lure her out by feeding her a couple of lady-fingers. She perked slowly, started whimpering again, and we could establish the damage.
There was quite a bit of damage, but back then we didn’t have a good vet yet, so there really was no place to go with her. All I could do was keep her comfortable and keep the wounds clean.
For the next two weeks Mosha couldn’t walk, and basically hung on my arm with her front paw hanging limply down and her just cuddling against my chest day and night for that time.
No one was happier than I when about two weeks later I was able to wrap a scarf around her upper body and help her walk with the full support of it. Gradually she got better, living of freshly cooked chicken meat, yogurt (she refused to eat a lot in those two weeks) and ladyfingers.
It created a bond between us, I guess. She was the only dog I ever owned who would blindly jump off a high elevation into my arms without hesitation. She freaked me out for months in that regard, seeing as I often didn’t expect her to do so. Mosha Sweet-pea. She was a special little darling for sure.
So she kept her limp for the rest of her life, considering she barely had a shoulder joint, I think that due to the swelling, fracture and whatever else was damaged, the shoulder blade never really matured. But it didn’t bother her. There was one incident about three months after the incident where she jumped off my bed and squealed like mad. Her limp became even more pronounced for a few days, but then gradually got better, even going as far as developing some muscle tone. I think she went through the cartilaginous bone that had formed after which she could finally start using it proper.
Mosha kept her attachment intact in the years that followed. She was never more than a few feet away from me, and she more than any of my other dogs hated it when I was gone for extended amounts of time.
As it turned out her cancer was malign and considering it was located on three sides of her anus there was absolutely nothing the vet could do about it.
When I got the results, I wasn’t really surprised, really, just sadder than I’d imagined. She had refused to eat the evening before and that very morning, and pain was affecting her mood as I took her with me on some errands. She wasn’t as attentive as usual, and would lay uncomfortably on the back seat. Once I got to the vet I had already made my decision, but it was still hard.
The vet did say that it was the best thing, and even though I could wait, there was no point to it. It was a downward slope, and having her go through it would have been for me, and only me. I was seriously tempted to be that selfish, really, to have her just a few more days, to not miss her for that amount of time, but I couldn’t, she was my Sweet-pea and I wanted her last days to not be so bad that they were miserable.
So the dreaded decision was made, and I was an effing wreck for two days.
And I’m choking up again, so let’s talk about something else, shall we?
What’s been up? Well, the usual shaite, really. Stuff going on, in particular since we are now in the midst of spring and planting like fiends. Another field of tomatoes had to be planted, reed constellations built to support them, and lettuces to be put out into the wild, so to speak. Everything is looking rather nice, and yes, I have taken pictures. I will see if I can fit them into the blog within the next week or so. Don’t hold your breath though; such things have a way of taking longer when I’m concerned.
I got sunburned a lot yesterday, by the way. I was wearing a sleeveless, and what with the cool breeze, I didn’t notice until it was too late that the sun was pounding on my shoulders. I ended up picking out a cotton blouse this morning, keeping the damaged area protected. The fresh Aloe Vera last night really did help last night, though.
Tenant had her birthday yesterday, so I started the day making a cheese cake, which was her choice. Considering mom and Sally took her out on a trip to town she had a wonderful day.
Edits had to be done, of course, and seeing as I really couldn’t handle thinking in general I gladly threw myself into physical activities. We did a couple of sand hauling trips, and built on the new all under the house. We’ve got a solid two layers going now, and it’s starting to look like a wall already, not just a string of rocks. Also took pictures of that, no worries, but you won’t see them until the wall is finished. I’ll post a string of them of the whole process.
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