Monday, January 4, 2010

DECEMBER 26: I see Lily and her owner standing in the rain — a quiet man and his companion are side-by-side on a drizzling morning. Awkward handshakes. I am glad he will let Lily go. I am relieved to help. She is damp and eager. She jumps up onto the passenger seat and her owner lets the leash fall: goodbye, I love you Lily. She has a huge appetite, he said. She is literally a bottomless pit, I soon discover — everything that goes in promptly comes out. Her owner and I talk. It rains. I leave.
Lily smells as though she dragged her feet and tail through her own mess that morning. In the car and home and up to the outdoor pen where my lab Hershey and husky mix Bandit jump up, stare, and express their aggravation. Another dog in their space. From upstairs in the house I hear a tinny, rasping bark coming from Ozzy the pug who wants to know what's going on outside.
Around back and up the steps to the front door, Lily and I look in through a window. No one, including my boyfriend Jerry, is happy to see us. Downstairs and into the shower to wash the grime away, Lily and I make a mess with soap and towels
First, second, and at last a third try found me a vet who could see me the day after Christmas. Back in the car. Lily sat in the seat behind me, rigid. I saw her ears perked as I glanced in the rearview. So far she hadn’t made a sound.
The vet’s office is thick with lingering smells of perpetually cleaned messes on the tile. Lily tugs at her lead, sets her back feet slightly apart and adds a gift of her own. I need paper towels, I tell one of the girls.
After almost $400 dollars, another accident in the exam room while we waited, Lily and I soon found our starting point: cooked chop meat and rice would be the menu, along with antibiotics for Lyme and one other tick-borne disease. Pills to bind her insides and stop the diarrhea — I really really hope. Ointment for an ear infection. Luck, please. Luck.
A thermometer in the rear end and a needle for blood in her arm and a few minutes later we're back in the truck. Good girl Lily.

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