A Rough Week

As you know, if you’ve been a faithful reader, I had surgery about eleven weeks ago on both of my feet. I’ve been staying off them and elevating them to encourage healing. And dealing with two infections, which I’m prone to getting in my feet. But a little over a week ago, I was allowed to start wearing regular wide-toed tennis shoes and just use Betadine and Band-Aids on my feet! Oh, Happy Day! Today, I was able to stop wearing any Band-Aids on my right foot. Yay! The left foot had the infection, so it still needs Betadine and coverage. The infection causes healing delays. Still, that’s huge progress! I’m starting to walk more and pick up my exercise.

The rough part is that in the last several weeks, our little Sophie stopped wanting to eat. We were coaxing her with treats and begging her to eat her wet food, mostly to no avail. She was struggling to walk, even though she’s been on medication for that for over a year. It was devastating to watch her fall over from her back legs weakening. On Thursday, we had to say goodbye to our precious, happy little girl. She had done what she could to tell us it was time. We stayed with her, I held her, and we said goodbye. We have both been grieving the loss of “the baby” who filled this house with so much joy. I’ve never had such a happy dog. She will always have a place in our hearts, right where she left the hole. She’s with her brother, Mr. Tibbs, and the mama who owned them both before she passed away and we took them in. Mr. Tibbs was in hospice from day one. Deaf, nearly blind, and suffering from doggie dementia, I carried him around in a baby wrap all the time, and we had to keep him in a diaper. I learned to sign “go pee,” “go poop,” and ‘Mama’s here” to him for direction and comfort. He left us after seven or eight months. Sophie made it for about two years. She was just shy of seventeen years old. We will always hold them both in our hearts.

Sophie and Mr. Tibbs – He’s the tall one:

Here’s a close-up of Mr. Tibbs:

He was such a sweetie. You can see he’s in a diaper here, and that’s before we moved out of our house into the RV.

This is right after they were groomed with a Bichon Frisé cut. They were both purebred Bichons:

Here is a close-up of our Sophie:

And when she wanted to be held or was excited to see me, she did this little dance, her paws going up and down as she stood on her back legs. It’s blurry because she was moving, of course:

We still have our Tristan:

And our adult child and their cat, Cinnamon, are still staying with us until early March, when they move to Oregon:

Next Up: I’ll be sharing another published story, my first-ever published story in a now-defunct magazine called Dastaan World. Until then, Dear Readers, may peace and kindness surround you.