A Dog's Life in New Immigrant

When you turn seventy be certain to shake things up by taking home a dog.

That’s what I did recently. You know Jack, the dog who walked me for
the last year. One day his urine turned blood red. I whisked him off to the vet who gave him antibiotics and said he probably had bladder stones. He didn’t want to work on Jack because I didn’t own
him.

After a night of tossing, I took him to our vet an hour away. Jack rode
in his carrier like he was on a vacation. Not a peep. Whew! That vet found no stones (another whew!) and changed medications. Yesterday Jack took the last dose and all looks good.

The surprise came when I returned with Jack to his home the second day.
His owners asked very kindly if I would like to take have Jack. Now you
know I would have paid to get him out of that environment, but still, I
was dumbfounded at their unexpected querie! Of course it wasn’t up
to me alone. I called Tom, rattled off all my reservations, ending that if
this didn’t work out we would find Jack a good home. Tom laughed that
each concern I had matched his and agreed to these conditions. (In case
I haven’t mentioned it, the last time Tom saw Jack the dog had jumped on him and was about to bite his face when I pulled him away! Tom has not forgotten that. No warm and fuzzy feelings on his part.)

You can imagine the changes this old gal is having to make. However, that is the part I enjoy most about our new adventure. So far, it’s good.

The four cats I have here aren’t freaking out. Jack has been easy to handle but has bitten my hand twice (didn’t break the skin) so there is that to work on.

Willow came down with a bladder infection this week which meant more long trips to the vet but Jack rode along and likes stopping at many different places for his walks. Nose to the ground, sniff, sniff and he’s
dragging me off.

Phase I at the river will evolve into Phase II in town. Not a dull moment.
I hope this explains a little about why I keep bopping in and out.

Heartfelt thanks to many of you who have already celebrated and/or
advised me on Facebook.

The question I keep pondering is whether I’ve left the realm of “Crazy Cat Lady” to simply “Crazy”?