[Dailydrool] Bad parking & heartworm Horton

[Pamela McQuade]

Thanks, Dawn, for the legal advice.
 
Only problem is I think I misled people. Our neighbors don't park across 
our driveway. They park across the street from it. But try to get a van 
out of our driveway when there is no wiggle room and it's icy--it's a 
real thrill. Even Drew's Marine driving training barely got us out once 
the friend had moved his car.
 
Our street is evidently one of the narrowest one in our town. The fire 
department uses it when they are training new drivers. If you can drive 
down it, dodging the cars habitually parked on both sides of the street, 
you pass, and they let you drive on the other, much wider streets in our 
town.
 
Usually I just grumble to myself about the parking. The only reason I 
went ballistic was that we could not get out because of the ice on the 
hill (many people going up our hill get stuck just below our driveway, 
so we are in a particularly nasty spot). I'm usually not quite so 
ballistic, but when one of my animals is at risk, you're pouring flames 
on the fire, and since I daily have to deal with barely squeaking out 
our driveway, the fire was already burning hot.
 
I know I asked for drool a few weeks ago, when I expected to take Horton 
in for his heartworm checkup. But weather or health kept me from making 
that appointment, so we went yesterday--the earliest appointment we 
could get. It is not a day I would ever want to relive.
 
Horton came up clearly heartworm positive, even though he has no 
microfilaria, the larval HW form, in his blood. After talking to the 
vet, I decided to have the awful shots done on him. By doing this, at 
least we will be certain we've gotten the ugly critters out of his 
system. But it ain't gonna be a picnic for poor Horton, who is hanging 
out at the vet's office today. Last night I got a call from the vet to 
say he was experiencing some swelling at the site of the shot. This is 
evidently fairly common, and they treat it with prednisone. As if I were 
not feeling guilty enough about my fearful boy having to live in a vet's 
office overnight, that really got me. I know Horton is well cared for, 
and everyone loves him, even though he's so scared, but he's such a 
mama's boy, it will be hard for him.
 
Good news is that the wrap Horton had on his paw from the postal-scale 
accident has come off, and it seems to be healing up nicely.
 
I am certain Horton will find some excruciating way to repay me for the 
second pain he's suffered in a week. When I drove him to the vet's--a 
two-hour trip that we made to one of Tri-State's vets because my vet is 
not very experienced at heartworm treatment--he whined most of the way. 
It's not unusual for him to be noisy for the first few minutes of a 
trip, but usually he settles down after a while and sleeps. This time he 
made noise until he wore himself out completely; then he took a short 
nap and, refreshed, began verbally objecting again as soon as I got off 
the highway. On the way back without him, I missed my boy, but not his 
noise! My ears will be ringing for days. And I can only imagine how 
awful he's going to be when we have to go for two more shots in a couple 
of months!
 
Tomorrow, when I go to pick up Horton, I hope things will be a lot 
quieter. He's only nervous when he doesn't know where he's going, and 
home will be a happy destination for him.
 
Still, I'm sure that once he's home, I will be paying the price all over 
again, Dawn. I just hope he doesn't have to stay on the prednisone, 
since that would mean mopping up the floors constantly. With a senior 
whose pottying habits are less than perfect, I don't need any more wet 
floors, but Horton is sure to add to them.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets