My pup is having knee surgery today

… Take a picture of 9 stuffed animals

This is my dog. Candy.

If you’d like to skip the perhaps anxious post about me worried as she is in surgery right now, that super ok. I don’t know what I’m going to write. You can see the cute stuffed animal pictures I took of my youngest’s second tier creatures. He took a photo of his favourites, his stuffie crew from when he was little and I’ll share that too. The daily processing, in the moment storytelling is after the 🐾🐾🐾 the prompt writing and pictures after the 🧸🧸🧸

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This morning Candy woke up at 4am making that terrible retching noise that she makes just before she vomits. I woke up and got her to a place that isn’t our bed.

She was fine, but I was already anxious because today is her knee surgery.

When she was little and I got her, our vet let me know she had luxating patellas. Bad knees. Knees that would likely require surgery as she got older, and grew into her size. As a human with bad knees, I totally identified.

Her knees have been pretty good up until we moved. Maybe it’s the weather. Or the fact that there are more hills here. But she started limping earlier this year. I thought maybe she’d got lime disease. (She’s been on tick prevention medication her whole life and never had a tick that I’ve found, but anxiety…)

I took her in, got her checked out. No lime. But the vet let me know her knees would likely get worse. That is was time for her surgery.

It took me six months to gather the monies for her surgery. I can only afford the one knee. Thankfully the surgeon assured me that she isn’t actually in pain. Unlike my knees, her just make it hard to walk but they don’t hurt. Which eased my heart.

She’s been fine the past few months. Not limping at all. And it was tempting to just not do the surgery. The healing time, the anesthetic, the uncertainty, the money…were all concerns.

But when I accepted this pup into our family I knew that I’d do anything for her.

She is such a kind and loving dog. She loves everyone. She’s a snuggle bear, and a whimsical gremlin when she’s playing with her toys.

This morning there was a man at the vet who seemed worried about his dog and she immediately went to him and gave him some snuggles. She made him laugh, and seemed to momentarily distract him from his worrying. She has such an ability to create calm wherever she is. She’s a goof too. She makes me laugh all the time. She gets me outside walking, she helps me make friends at the dog park. She reminds me to spend less time on my phone and more time present.

She loves our kids and they love her.

I went back to sleep and slept fitfully until 7am. I wasn’t allowed to feed her or give her water this morning and the surgeon was an hour drive away. My neighbour came outside with her pup, who just went through surgery at the same vet, and they reassured me and wished us well (I have such wondrous neighbours).

Now I’m sitting in a new to me breakfast restaurant, writing this. The server I had was so warm and I didn’t talk about my dog, out of fear I would cry. Instead I just told her how much I appreciated her genuine kindness.

After I wrote this I’ll go to my former husband’s house. He lives in the city, and let me know I could nap in my youngest’s room while he’s at school so I don’t have to drive the hour home.

I am hoping everything goes easily. That after this Candy will have one knee that works and helps her to keep running around joyfully.

Sorting done.

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Take a picture of 9 stuffed animals

Stuffies

They all have names. Stories. The group shot is of “The Guys”, the group of accumulated stuffies that kept my youngest company through moving to Canada, through the pandemic lockdowns, and they sit on his bedside table still. They are quieter now (he used to do voices for them all, and they are a raucous bunch and I often miss their chatter, and wild ideas).

Their names are:

Nelson (the dog)

Bobby & Dobot (the robot brothers)

Slothicorn (a stoic vegetarian)

Snowman (the original stuffy, made from a sock when my youngest was six. He’s the OG stuffy)

Snowy (a small stuffed snowman with an accidental Bostonian accent and a real attitude)

Snak-o (won at a carnival on a very hard day)

Minecraft pig…I’m not sure how he got in this shot. We bought him at the gas station at Christmas this past year. I guess the main group is still welcoming newcomers.

The other photos are of a bunch of plush creatures that are important but never got voices or characters. They are comfort objects.

Plus my ET in the corner. He sits on my window sill behind my bed and just yesterday I woke up to him leaning over the bed staring at me. It made me laugh.

I’m sending you some sweet comfort magic.

Heart,

Wake