PAgent’s Progress

We’ve had quite an interesting time lately. The Wife had another kidney stone, requiring a trip to urgent care, then the emergency room, and finally short-stay surgery. That made for a long day. She ended up spending the night in the hospital for observation, leaving yours truly to be single parent for a day or two. I’m really not cut out for it.

Then, as my partner’s health improved, our cat Shadow started collapsing in mid-stride. He’s had hip problems for years, which the vet blamed on hip dysplasia, but it had gotten progressively worse. He was having more and more trouble getting up onto furniture, and often didn’t climb into a cat box before peeing. But, he was enjoying the new kittens. They would pile on top of him and engage in a three-way groomfest with purring so loud you could hear it in the next room.

But now his hind end was just collapsing on him without warning. We decided it was time, and made the appointment to put him down. As you might expect, the children took it very badly, particularly as we lost Shadow’s brother not so long ago. So, more angst, more tears, more sadness.

The vet, after watching Shadow walk, opined that he didn’t have hip dysplasia at all, but it was more likely some degenerative neurological disease, probably affecting his spine. So, that made us feel a little better.

So, now we are down to three cats, a dog, and a snake. We’re still in the running for crazy animal family.

However, if you couple the stresses of the last couple of weeks with my getting a bit behind at work, I’m down to my last nerve. I found myself fantasizing happily about jumping in the car and driving away from the whole mess, just to get some peace and quiet, and time to myself.

“Well, why don’t you?” said The Wife.

We can’t afford it, for one thing. And there’s too much to do and too much going on.

“I think you should. Why not go out to the coast for a couple of nights?” And then she called and made the reservations for me.

It’s at times like these that I am reminded how very fortunate I am to have married this woman. Despite the occasional other times when I want to choke the life out of her, or the fact that she won’t eat half the food I would like to cook.

So this Friday, after Thanksgiving, I am piling the dog into the car and we are going to escape the madhouse, escape Portland, and head out to the Oregon coast for two whole nights. This is the first time that Gus and I have embarked on a road trip together, just the two of us, but I have high hopes. We’ll be staying at a cute little studio cottage overlooking the beach, and my intention is to run him on the beach until he pukes, and then camp out in front of the gas fireplace like a slug.

I can’t wait.