Sandy and Mikey, my two little buddies.

Austin Veterinary Diagnostic Hospital Logo

I was awake off and on a couple of times in the night worried about waking up on time as I had to take both dogs to the vets for an 8:00 am appointment. I had set two different alarms to go off at 6:00 am, an unheard-of time these past several years and they were both beeping away at the designated time. The problem is that I do not sleep with my hearing aids in and have no way of turning up the volume of the alarms, but I just managed to hear them enough to wake up. 

I got up and hastily did my usual morning routine and then we went out walking the park. Sandy was very reluctant to get up as it was way earlier than she was used to. I told her,” I know how you feel, girl, I do not like it either”. We walked long enough for the dogs to do their thing and then went back to The Caboose where I got out the bird feeders and rehung them. 

With the usual morning chores taken care of, we jumped in the car with both dogs squeezing onto my lap and made the journey to the Vets Office. I had left an hour for the journey figuring that the rush hour traffic would hold us up, but we made good time and arrived at 7:30 am, a full 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. Incidentally, there was no rush hour traffic. 

We sat in the car for a good 10 minutes before I plucked up the nerve to take them inside as some of my earlier visits to this same Veterinary Clinic which I have been going to for over 40 years, have not always had happy endings. After doing the usual paperwork and putting down a $2500.00 deposit, I turned the dogs, who were very reluctant to leave me, over to the vet staff and walked out the door back to the car. If I was a praying man, I would have been saying a prayer for their quick recovery and a safe return to me. But, as I am not, all I could do is to rely on the skills of the Veterinary staff to bring them through. As I see it, we are in the hands of fate, predesigned or otherwise regardless of any religious belief’s.

I drove from there to the PostNet office to pick up my mail and I sat in the car and searched through it to make sure but there was nothing that I needed to worry about apart from another delivery of medication. 

From there, I drove back down Mopac to Walmart’s on the south end of Austin which is on the way to the vet’s clinic. I had over four hours to kill before I could pick up my two little friends. I wandered around Walmart’s and backtracked a couple of times for things I had missed the first time around. Normally, I would be mad at myself for not planning better but as I had so much time to kill, I almost welcomed the errors. 

I found everything I needed and got out of there after spending another $150.00 odd dollars. It seems that every time I go in that store, it is $150.00 minimum and usually, a lot more. 

I still had a lot of time to kill and stopped at Starbucks and bought an iced latte and then, made my way to the closest park and sat in the shade listening to the same Audiobook story as before. I stayed there for an hour and decided that as it was almost 3:00 pm, it was time to pick up my two little friends. 

I drove to the Vet’s clinic and paid the bill which, incidentally, was almost $4000.00. Luckily, I have pet insurance that should cover most of it but if it doesn’t, then it is money well spent. After all, they are my best friends. Incidentally, both of them had teeth removed, Mikey 7 and Sandy 11. I have never had such extensive teeth surgery in any of my 28 dogs before so I do not know what may have changed. Maybe, because of my changed lifestyle, I have not kept up with the necessary checkups? 

I was given a whole list of instructions and some medication, and then they let the dogs in. Mikey was overjoyed to see me and was jumping and making a big fuss. Sandy, not so much but she had more extensive surgery than Mikey and probably did not feel that great. Still, it was a great welcome back for all of us and I had a hard time stopping from bursting into tears as it was not the manly thing to do. Mostly because I was so grateful that I got them both back and nothing had gone wrong through the surgery.

We walked out with a thousand instructions wringing in my ears that I would do well to remember and jumped in the car for the drive home. Both dogs insisted in sitting on my lap for the trip which made it a bit crowded, but we worked it out, somehow… 

We finally arrived back at Henly, and I did not even suggest a walk about but let them into the RV where they both settled down, exhausted by their experiences. I unloaded the few groceries and put them away and then turned my attention to the blog. 

Peggy knocked on my door bearing gifts of food and I invited her in to sit and chat for a while. She is a fun person to be around. 

I wrote for a couple of hours and then decided to go out walking. The dogs were all too happy to get out and about although I made sure we did not go very far. When we returned, we sat outside for a while trying out the new cushion, I had bought to make the folding deck chair more comfortable. It obviously worked as we sat for a long time listening to an Audiobook before bringing in the bird feeders for the night. As that is generally, the last outside thing we do, we adjourned inside for the usual evening meal and television. 

Written 06/13/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com