You Decide: was this a Good Day or a Bad Day?

This has been a very thought provoking day.  It began when awoke with a sore throat and head ache and decided to call in sick.  I let the dogs outside, Adina said she’d feed them before she left, so after refilling their water bowls, I went back to bed where I remained for another three hours, dreaming that I was trying to impress my students with the knowledge that I was on the first season of American Idol.  I had gotten on the show accidentally, but actually made it to the second show of the season before getting voted off.  The dreams got progressively weirder, but I don’t remember them.

So I was laying on my stomach playing Plants vs. Zombies on my iPhone when I heard my dogs going nuts in the back yard.  That’s not that unusual, so I didn’t think much of it at first.  But then Tootsie starts going nuts, too.  She came running into my room, jumped on the bed, and just freaked out.

I turned around to look at her, and suddenly, I saw my bedroom door opening!  There was a little boy in a yellow shirt just standing there looking at me.

For a moment, my brain chased its tail around in my skull trying to figure out what the heck was going on.  Then I realized that the little boy wasn’t a zombie midget come to eat my brains, and that I actually recognized him as my neighbor’s 4-year-old, autistic son.  I also realized that Opie was right behind him, wagging his tail.

My next thought was, “Oh, crap!  My dogs must’ve gotten out and Rick (my neighbor) and his son have came over to let me know!”

So I jumped out of bed and went looking for Rick… or my dogs… or something that would make this situation a bit more logical.

Dogs were in the front room.  Ok.

Front door was closed.  Ok.

Gate was still locked.  Ok?

Still couldn’t find Rick.  Hmmm.

Oh!  But I could hear him!  He was screaming his terrified heart out in his back yard, trying to find his son.

I corralled his boy back over to him, where he couldn’t thank me or apologize enough to satisfy himself.  He was just about to call 911 when I showed up with the wayward child.

When I got back to my house, I looked around to see how the boy got into my house.  He’d come in through the garage (only God knows how he managed to find a path through it to the laundry room door).  He then came into the house through the kitchen door, giving all four dogs access to the house.

I realized then that my dogs could have really hurt this little boy by just trying to play with him.  I was so proud of them for being so gentle with the boy that I started to give them all treats.

That’s when I noticed Bizarre Item # 2 for the day:  Despereaux had a round bone like from a rib eye steak stuck on her lower jaw.  She was flailing like her head was in a trap.

I immediately ran back over to the neighbor’s house to see if he could help me pry it off of her.  We gave it a good try but had no luck.  Then I had to call another friend (also named Rick) to see if he could help me out.  The three of us tried multiple times, but Despereaux’s mouth was becoming more and more inflamed, and I was beginning to worry that she’d dehydrate, because she wasn’t able to drink water.

Ultimately, I had to take her to the Akaal Pet Hospital (my vet/heroes) to have it removed.  They love me there.  Between the hundreds of dollars per year that I spend there and the crazy stories I give them to tell, I’m like family to them.

They had to put her out, which was very difficult to watch, because it wasn’t much different from watching Magnum, the chow chow I lost in 2003, get put to sleep forever.  She just sort of melted immediately into unconsciousness.  Her little tongue lolled out and her eyes wouldn’t close.  But Dr. Bhullar was immediately able to saw the bone off of her at that point.  They had to keep her for a while for observation, but she’s home, now, and chasing Tootsie all around the back yard until she catches her and then they switch roles.

Now there are all kinds of ways one could look at the events of this morning.  I was sick and was hoping to have a nice, relaxing day of lying in bed, watching TV, drinking tea, and getting lots of rest.

It occurs to me, however, that had I not been sick, that little boy could have been locked in my house all day with no one knowing where he was.  My house is anything but childproof, so there is no telling what trouble he could have gotten into just in my garage!

In addition to that, if the boy had not come into my house, I probably wouldn’t have checked on my dogs again until 6:00, when I give them their dinner.  By that time Despereaux, who could not drink water with that bone stuck on her jaw, could have been in pretty bad shape.  Furthermore, my vet would have been closed and I’d have had to take her to a stranger who would have charged me far more for emergency services.

So I am thankful for being sick, today, and for the little autistic neighbor boy who decided to come over and play with my dogs.

This was a good day.