Then the call an hour later with the bad news.  Jon didn’t even get home when one of the techs called to say her breathing was very labored.  He turned around, by the time he got back they had intubated her and were doing CPR,  she did not make it.

There is no known reason tonight.  It feels raw and wrong.  At least I was trying, I opted for the surgery to give her more time and what I thought would be quality life.  I didn’t know when I dropped her off this morning that I wouldn’t be bringing her home.

Her vet received two pit bulls last Friday from a crack house.  They were there to be put down and had no owners.  He was able to “practice” this surgery twice on the cadavers over the last three days and he was feeling more confident than ever.  He is sure he can cut the surgery time down simply because of the practice.

He is taking the whole scapula and she will look quite Frankensteiny for a bit.  I have decided to not send the limb off to pathology to confirm the cancer.  It is not like I would do chemo anyway so we will just go with the amputaion and hope that its curative and that we get lots more time together.

I woke up this morning to tons of birthday texts and emails.  I had received a bunch of cards already.  Dale gave me a yoga gift certificate.  Katherine and I finalized Hawaii plans for April, and when I got to work my cube was decorated….  Streamers, cards, notes all over my white board, chocolate.

Turning 47 wasn’t so bad, I am going to dinner with friends tonight.  Life is blessed, sometimes very hard, but still blessed.

Needless to say she was pretty low-key all weekend and stuck to me like glue, often running into me with the damn cone.  Also running into the wall or the side of the door (had to start opening up the slider the entire way) as she is not used to the cone being on her head.

There was hand feeding and such just to get her to eat.  Very sad, very frustrating.  Katherine brought an inflatable donut that Sophie uses, softer sides not as over the face but Missy can still kind of get to the wound.  I ended up using both, one for during the day and the donut at night so she can sleep.

Tuesday she goes in early for the fentanyl patch, at least then the pain will be addressed before the amputation on Wednesday.

Riblet gets dropped off tomorrow, so I headed out to plug holes in the fence from the last storm.  Put in another metal post along side the current failing fence posts and cemented it in.  Screwed a new board over the spot she got out at Christmas.

Then with a little light left I thought I would start on the pool.  There are so many pine needles in the bottom from the recent wind storm, I worked for a bit until I realized the hose was plugged.  That is now fixed and I’ll have to pick that project back up another day.

I am surprised at the amount of weeds and bulbs starting to come up.  I am getting excited for spring and my garden.  So much work is needed but it is nice to see life emerging, in and out of the garden.

 

I have an order in the morning, dropping it off on my way to work.  The rest of the cupcakes and all of the Red Velvet hearts are going to the office for a fund raising bake sale.

Weekend:
Saturday was game night, the only difference is it was scheduled at my house for the first time.  Not that my house is small by any means and although my table is always sufficient even for the full family at Thanksgiving, having 13 people around it for dinner and games was kinda crowded.  I made enchiladas and cleaned the house during the day.  Dale was a dear and I came home mid-week to him shampooing the living room carpet!  Gotta love that!  Tons of food, Tons of fun, although technically only one game was played.

Sunday I went to breakfast with Katherine and then off to spend six hours in front of a home restructuring seminar and applying for mortgage modification.  It was a frustrating, tiring and often humiliating experience.  However, the application has been submitted.  Now just the follow-up and hopefully a resolution.  I had to justify every one of my expenses and bills on my credit report.  Although I have no late payments on anything ever the best advise they could give me was if I couldn’t afford the mortgage, I shouldn’t pay it……  I do not have that in me.  I will continue to sell things, work odd jobs and borrow to pay my bills.  I realize a lot of if is out of my control, that I was laid off in 2008 and had already been in the house for 5 years, taking a mortgage that I could easily afford and had no indication when I signed it that it would change. 

Baking:
There was some early morning baking on Sunday.  Carrot and Red Velvet cupcakes along with a mini red velvet cake.  The cake was so fresh and soft I had a lot of trouble getting the frosting to stick to it.  But it was the best red velvet I have made.  I switched the cocoa in it and because the batter was so thick and I needed to pour it into a sheet pan along with just scooping it out for cupcakes I also added some buttermilk.  It was yummy.
Tonight is more baking for an order tomorrow morning at Highline and the extras from that are going to work as there is a fund-raiser bake sale tomorrow.  I think since its “Valentines” day as well I may make and box up more little heart cakes to sell at the bake sale, I bet they will sell.

So last night I heat up two cups of the “cream,” melt 12 ounces of chocolate chips (which should be two cups so that would be 16 ounces – more distraction).  After it chilled, I started to whip it into frosting but it just wouldn’t whip.  I was getting chocolate milk spray everywhere.  I put a towel over the mixer and let it go, only to find just very frothy, very chocolate-y half & half.  I poured it out and started over.  By now realized I had half & half, I also realized I didn’t use enough chocolate.  Of course I have wasted 12 ounces on the first batch.  I have used another 12 ounces in the cake and I only have 12 ounces more. 

I heated up the half & half, I melted the 12 ounces of chocolate, plus another 4 of semi sweet baking chocolate and then set those off to chill.  When it was time to mix it I crossed my fingers, held my breath, set the chocolatel-y dish towel over the mixer and made more frothy chocolate half & half.

Being that it was now 10 pm.  I poured the chocolate into a pitcher, pulled out the cream cheese and confectioners sugar and used the chocolate milk and some cocoa to make chocolate cream cheese frosting and got it all done, frosted, boxed and cleaned up in 30 minutes.

Today Dale is using the chocolate 1/2 and 1/2 in his coffee……

Well 1 plumber, 4 hours and nearly 1,100 bucks later and it hopefully is “fixed.”  This is of course only if I did in fact, get the diagnostic correct.

He had to cut a pretty good-sized hole in the back of the shower to access and change the pipes.  Dude has serious tools including a cool blow torch that. um, I want one…..

He had to put in large plate behind the faucet to cover the damn hole.  However it is better than going in from the dining room wall……that was not going to happen.

So there you have it.  Shower can be used by morning.  Lets hope there is not an updated post regarding still water on the floor and that I have set fire to the room…(to dry it out of course.)

I am getting a new splint.

I will also be subjected to an aspiration of something called a lymph node….whatever.

They are nice here and give me treats.

I keep whacking the door, or Spyder, or the humans at home with my splint just to prove to them I am fine and they need to knock off all this morose talk…….

I mean really, look at this face.  There is life here folks, and a fun one.

OK, back to scamming pets off of all these techs, they like the way I talk all the time. 

You would be amazed what these big brown eyes can do to a tech!!!