Spike - February 19, 2008 to December 11, 2021
We said our final farewell late this morning to my darling little dog Spike. This morning it was clear that he was in pain as he wanted to bite us when we picked him up and was crying when he tried to walk around. The decision was clear although my vision was blurred with tears. I had to email the vet clinic because there was no way I’d be able to talk.
My heart is broken. Our hearts are broken.
Freezing rain greeted us this morning, in fact it was pouring so hard that Spike got soaked (bring an umbrella next time!). He still managed to get everything done outside so I consider that a win. He was actually running around a bit which sounds good but it left his affected leg in even worse shape. He bit me when I picked him up so he must be in some pain. I upped his meds a bit for today.
Our world is getting smaller and smaller as we cater to Spike’s infirm limitations. He had 2 bad days but yesterday seemed a bit better so the guillotine has been stayed for now, pending results of his day today. His symptoms seem to wax and wane over the days, leaving us confused and unsure of what to do. I’ve come to believe that taking special care of him (or anyone?) draws me closer and perhaps makes parting more painful.
Thursday night we did a bit of rearranging of furniture so that the futon mattress was right on the floor. With Spike in my arms and Adia at my feet we passed a restless night. Spike’s been wanting to sleep in my arms for several nights now - I’m not sure who is comforting who. Carm wasn’t much better off in our bed by himself, alone with his imagination.
Luckily for all of us we could get him to sleep soundly in our bed last night so we are all a bit more rested today..
We did have a nice supper with Pat Thursday night.It was our worst and saddest day to date so we needed a friendly face badly.
Yesterday we hit up the stores so I could get ingredients for 2 more kinds of cookies: Aperol spritz and Chinese Chews. Carm deeked into a local pharmacy and got us on a waiting list for the covid booster (edit: time slots on Dec 16th!). And we couldn’t pass up burgers at the newly opened A&W.
After our trip to the grocery store I bundled up in a blanket to watch a sappy Christmas movie. It was a salve to my soul, if only for a few hours. But the commercials!!! Oh yuck! They were constant. I’ve got 2 recorded on the PVR now for next time.
An interesting observation: at the grocery store everyone that I saw had their masks on soon after getting out of their cars (or put them on in their car), and kept them on until back at the car. At the Giant Tiger lots of people put the mask on as they were stepping over the threshold and whipped them off at the same place coming out. So if anyone was sick they were spreading to everyone who went in and came out.
I’m sorry that I’m oversharing but I feel the need to talk but can’t have an actual conversation as I just cry and can’t get my words out.
… oh boy… another post to follow
Awesome!
“Spike doing better”
“timeslots for our covid booster! Yay Carm”
“baking challenge: cream cheese sugar cookies”
“everyone wearing a mask at the store”
I’ve still got cold chills from dashing out to the garage freezer for the cookie tin. I had a batch of Scandinavian Cardamom cookies to add to the Christmas stash, but as it turns out I had to break out a new container as there were too many cookies to fit in with the butter pecan cookies. I suppose one kind per tin works out better when it’s time to distribute them to a plate.
Two down, five to go!
Blocks of room temperature butter are stacked on the window sill for the next batch of sugary treats.
Yesterday was a lazy day with not much done other than the essentials and a big pot of bone broth. I think I was exhausted from the week's lamentations about Spike… well that and the butter. He was doing well yesterday but today seems a bit down. He’s been limping on one leg all day… I’m hoping he just slept on it wrong.
Monday we prepared for special supper guests: Mom and Dad came over after getting their booster shot. Adia was a bit of a pain - she lost out on 18 months of key guest behaviour training time through Covid. It’s not relaxing to have to shoo her away from the table so I just popped her in the crate - a bit of a cheat and it certainly doesn’t help with training.
Access to the loveseat near the kitchen was blocked by Spike’s enclosure - I think this affected her behaviour as normally she’d settle there while I’m in the kitchen. She likes to be close (probably in case I drop something and need her help!).
I wanted to make a bit of a special meal so I cooked a short rib roast in the instant pot. We’ve never had this cut of beef and likely won't again. For one thing, the bone was huge which ate up any $ savings over a blade roast. The meat was good but not spectacular. I felt that a good blade roast would have been better.
It did stretch out to a few meals - 2 full dinners and 1 meal of meat & caramelised onion stuffed mashed potatoes. They were not pretty but when I couldn’t tear myself away from the leftovers I gave it an extra point.
I’ve been building a database for our beer tasting events in my Android app but unfortunately the software is not a true database product with add on reporting or one-to-many relationships that can be extracted for a report. So I’m having to kludge and I don’t like the first try. I’m trying to avoid double entry cause that goes against everything I based my career on but am going to have to lower my standards.
Have you been listening to Christmas music?
Awesome!
“tasting the first cardamom cookie of the year”
“light snow falling when we have nowhere to go”
“celebrating with Olaf and Stephanie”
“my new sweetlegs with the Christmas ball pattern”
“Michael Buble's Christmas music.”
“Spike is seeking out the crate for sleeping - it will be his safe space for sleeping at Mom’s on Christmas Day”
