A Story About a GIMP (Brody Dog)

Well, Friday night I watched a quirky little movie called "Employee of the Month." It was pretty good, with several twists at the end. A couple I was expecting and a couple I wasn't, so made for a great ending. Paul caught the end of it, and got to see the twists which makes him want to see it now. I also have "Phantom of the Opera" and "De-Lovely" still to watch. I've given up getting movies that Paul wants to see as his work schedule is so nutty that we get nothing watched.

We planned on cleaning the front deck yesterday, but morphed into remarkably lazy people and got nothing accomplished, except Paul got some laundry done and we went to Wal-Mart. Also, in the morning picked up poor Brody dog. She blew out her CCL and had to have it "fixed." We decided to try a new vet since our last one was a horrible lady who overcharged us. So, we randomly picked a vet that was close to the house. Our old vet always had to muzzle Brody because the dog hated her guts and felt she would be happier with less fingers. Which for those who know this dog, would be shocked at. She's the most loving and wonderful dog who loves nearly everyone. Made me wonder what this "great" vet did to her. So the new vet, Dr. Mark (er...something, names have been changed to protect the innocent, or just cause my memory has completely failed me), met us the day after Brody blew out her ligament. She immediately walked (well, hobbled) right up to him, tail wagging like mad. She never growled once. He then explained our options to help her out and we made an appointment for the surgery on Friday. By that time, she was again tentatively starting to put a little more weight on the offending leg, but we still wanted to do the surgery after reading on the internet info about this particular injury. So, we picked her up yesterday and she's shaved and has some massive stitches around the knee area. She's now the three-legged wonderdog. The leg just hangs there as dead-weight. She takes nearly a full minute when deciding how to lay down because normally she just flops down, but can't now. When the vet tech brought her out, she saw Paul and I, and then noticed the vet in a hallway near where she was. She immediately made a detour to the vet, hopping up to him, to ostensibly say goodbye. I was like, "what'd you do to my dog man?" He obviously bewitched her. But made Paul and I laugh and feel soooo much better about him. He's obviously a wonderful man, any friend of Brody's is a friend of ours.

Another interesting thing about this clinic. A woman and her daughter had brought a very sick puppy in, and they could do nothing for the tiny guy, so had to put him down. When the woman came up to the counter to pay, where we were waiting, the tech said, "Oh, honey, there's no charge." Fell in love with everyone of these people immediately. Also, the surgery ended up costing less than what he originally quoted us, still crazy expensive, but less is more as they say.

Today should be fun. We're meeting up with some friends at their mom's house who has an inground pool and having a little BBQ and some time in the sun. My entire goal today is to lose my flip-flop tan on my feet. I'm about to go get the dishes done right now since we're again out of glasses. This is generally my motivation to do dishes...we're out of something.

After this nutty week at work is over (grants, grants, grants) I'm going to start fund-raising for my friend Tracy. She's running a 26-mile marathon in October to benefit the Lymphoma Society and needs to raise $4000. The majority of it is going to a little 4-yr-old girl who has leukemia that cannot be cured. I'm going to do a mail email to all I know and include the website where you can make donations...it's 100% tax-deductible and every little bit helps. My cousin Chris got the okay to get some money at work, and we're hoping that she can help out a lot! (Thanks, Chris-you're a rock star!!) All she had to do was show her boss the picture of Allie (the little girl) and her boss, of course, melted. So all, be prepared, and remember $5 from a lot of people can go a long way...so watch for my email and get those credit cards out! It's a very worthy cause and I'm incredibly proud of Tracy for finding the fortitude to accomplish it!

Well, I guess I'd better stop stalling and get those $&*%&#$* dishes done!
Love, B