A Good Vet is Hard to Lose
Jan. 8th, 2019 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseThe phone rang just now and it was our old vet, Dr. Holly.
We stopped going to All Paws some time ago for various reasons, including issues of money, but when the Lap of Love people asked us if we had vets that should be informed, we told them to let both Como *and* All Paws know, since it seemed right. All Paws had seen Ball for years before we switched.
I can't get over that she called, but Dr. Holly is just that good, just that caring. She was devastated by our loss and was desperate to know what had happened. It was hard to have to tell her that we ultimately had NO IDEA what killed Ms. Ball in the end. I could tell that she was trying very hard not to be incensed on our behalf that Como wasted time with a mistaken first diagnosis. I had to reassure her that this was a mystery that even Dr. Ralph had no clue about when he did the ultrasound, and, given that we were racing against time with Ball's weight loss, Como did the best they could.
Which I really do believe.
Even though she never pressured me to say anything about it, I told her that we absolutely would have brought Ball to her, but she's basically become unavailable. She works one day a week, starting at 3 pm, and then ONE Saturday a month. Otherwise she exclusively does animal surgery and dentistry. My problems were with the other main doctor there (and I couldn't tell Holly that, as the other doctor is not only her colleague, but her WIFE.) We needed someone who could see Ball ASAP, someone who wasn't half way across the metro area. St. Louis Park isn't the end of the world, but we were ALWAYS fighting highway traffic, even during the best of times. I feel badly about this, because everyone in this family secretly believes that Dr. Holly would have moved heaven and earth to find out what was wrong with Ms. Ball.
I need to remind myself that Dr. Holly saw all our previous cats, and none of them lived any longer than our current eldest cat, Ms. Piggy, who is easily closing on 18. Also, sometimes these things just hit like a storm and there's nothing to be done.
I'm glad she called, though. She's such a good person. Shawn and I did some calculations and we'd been seeing Dr. Holly exclusively for 29 years. Almost as long as we've been together, Shawn and I. (Shawn and I met in 1985; we started seeing Dr. Holly with our first cat, Artemis, in 1990.)
Other than that, it was a low-key Tuesday.naomikritzer came over for lunch and I fed her hot dish (as provided by the Randalls.) I'm always impressed by the range of conversation Naomi and I can have--everything from professional jealousy, mastectomies and reconstructive surgery, to Star Wars movies. I guess that's what it's like with a good friend.
The only other thing that's worth reporting is that Mason's PSAT scores (he took a practice practice test, as it were, in 10th grade) went public and now a bunch of colleges are emailing him, letting him know that, you know, when the time comes, they'd sure like to have him. That's fairly gratifying. I feel proud, even though the only thing I did was help prod Mason to prod his school into letting him take the test early.
So that's cool.
January 8, 2019.
Today's spell was another simple sort of meditative "spell." I was asked to go outside at night and look up at the sky and make a wish on a star using the old rhyme: Starlight, star bright/ First star I see tonight/I wish, I may, I wish, I might/ Have this wish I wish tonight. I went looking to see if I could find out much about the origins or this rhyme, but I didn't find anything of much value in a quick, cursory search. Apparently, people believe that wishing on a "falling star" (meteor) has been lucky since Ptolemy's time, but not a whole lot came up about where the rhyme came from--except possibly that it's an American nursery rhyme dating back only so far as the 19th century.
At any rate, I remember saying this as a kid, and because of that, it does have a kind of magical association.
When I went out, someone was warming up their car and so I didn't really want to do my "spell work" with an audience, so I hiked into the back yard. It'd been cloudy most of the day, but it cleared up as it got colder tonight. So, through the patches of clouds, I could see several stars.
Even so, I may have wished on a planet. I honestly can never tell the difference. Anyway, I wouldn't mind wishing on Mars. Mars is one of my favorite planets.
I don't know if you're a believer in the idea that wishes should stay secret, but I'm not. I wished for good health for our kitties and a happy home for them. It seemed right, given everything.
We stopped going to All Paws some time ago for various reasons, including issues of money, but when the Lap of Love people asked us if we had vets that should be informed, we told them to let both Como *and* All Paws know, since it seemed right. All Paws had seen Ball for years before we switched.
I can't get over that she called, but Dr. Holly is just that good, just that caring. She was devastated by our loss and was desperate to know what had happened. It was hard to have to tell her that we ultimately had NO IDEA what killed Ms. Ball in the end. I could tell that she was trying very hard not to be incensed on our behalf that Como wasted time with a mistaken first diagnosis. I had to reassure her that this was a mystery that even Dr. Ralph had no clue about when he did the ultrasound, and, given that we were racing against time with Ball's weight loss, Como did the best they could.
Which I really do believe.
Even though she never pressured me to say anything about it, I told her that we absolutely would have brought Ball to her, but she's basically become unavailable. She works one day a week, starting at 3 pm, and then ONE Saturday a month. Otherwise she exclusively does animal surgery and dentistry. My problems were with the other main doctor there (and I couldn't tell Holly that, as the other doctor is not only her colleague, but her WIFE.) We needed someone who could see Ball ASAP, someone who wasn't half way across the metro area. St. Louis Park isn't the end of the world, but we were ALWAYS fighting highway traffic, even during the best of times. I feel badly about this, because everyone in this family secretly believes that Dr. Holly would have moved heaven and earth to find out what was wrong with Ms. Ball.
I need to remind myself that Dr. Holly saw all our previous cats, and none of them lived any longer than our current eldest cat, Ms. Piggy, who is easily closing on 18. Also, sometimes these things just hit like a storm and there's nothing to be done.
I'm glad she called, though. She's such a good person. Shawn and I did some calculations and we'd been seeing Dr. Holly exclusively for 29 years. Almost as long as we've been together, Shawn and I. (Shawn and I met in 1985; we started seeing Dr. Holly with our first cat, Artemis, in 1990.)
Other than that, it was a low-key Tuesday.
naomikritzer came over for lunch and I fed her hot dish (as provided by the Randalls.) I'm always impressed by the range of conversation Naomi and I can have--everything from professional jealousy, mastectomies and reconstructive surgery, to Star Wars movies. I guess that's what it's like with a good friend.The only other thing that's worth reporting is that Mason's PSAT scores (he took a practice practice test, as it were, in 10th grade) went public and now a bunch of colleges are emailing him, letting him know that, you know, when the time comes, they'd sure like to have him. That's fairly gratifying. I feel proud, even though the only thing I did was help prod Mason to prod his school into letting him take the test early.
So that's cool.
January 8, 2019.
Today's spell was another simple sort of meditative "spell." I was asked to go outside at night and look up at the sky and make a wish on a star using the old rhyme: Starlight, star bright/ First star I see tonight/I wish, I may, I wish, I might/ Have this wish I wish tonight. I went looking to see if I could find out much about the origins or this rhyme, but I didn't find anything of much value in a quick, cursory search. Apparently, people believe that wishing on a "falling star" (meteor) has been lucky since Ptolemy's time, but not a whole lot came up about where the rhyme came from--except possibly that it's an American nursery rhyme dating back only so far as the 19th century.
At any rate, I remember saying this as a kid, and because of that, it does have a kind of magical association.
When I went out, someone was warming up their car and so I didn't really want to do my "spell work" with an audience, so I hiked into the back yard. It'd been cloudy most of the day, but it cleared up as it got colder tonight. So, through the patches of clouds, I could see several stars.
Even so, I may have wished on a planet. I honestly can never tell the difference. Anyway, I wouldn't mind wishing on Mars. Mars is one of my favorite planets.
I don't know if you're a believer in the idea that wishes should stay secret, but I'm not. I wished for good health for our kitties and a happy home for them. It seemed right, given everything.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-09 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-09 02:24 pm (UTC)Alas.