Line of Duty

It was a beautiful day!

The sun was out, the birds were singing, and I was going to take my little old friend to the dog park. 

Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our standing mid-day date.

I called out and heard the jingle of tags, and a thump as she jumped to the floor from her place on the couch. 

I had let myself into the house with a key, said hello, and continued to the refrigerator to extract the miracle of “second breakfast.”

“What a lucky girl,” I said as I set the meal on the floor. 

I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary until she put her nose in the dish for only an instant before turning it up to the air.

A puggle equivalent to a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 

“Snubbing food? That’s not like you,” I thought as I followed her into the hallway and watched while she stumbled and tripped over her own back legs, which had suddenly and unnervingly stopped providing support. 

When she fell over sideways and started to convulse, my heart sank and I abandoned hope for a temporary lapse in balance and braced for something much worse. 

I held my hand on her flank as she shuddered, thinking if it did anything at all, it might remind her she wasn’t alone, 

It was over quickly, and a full recovery followed. I called her person and asked if a trip to the vet was in order.

I clipped on a leash and she danced out to my car. I felt sorry for her that our commute wouldn’t lead to the park.

Eleven minutes later the veterinary staff were waiting for us when we arrived and her person was leaving work early.

An afternoon no one expected. 

It’s hard to watch living beings struggle. It’s painful to anxiously await an end that may not be imminent but will arrive too soon whenever it comes. 

But that’s for later.

We would wait for tests to be performed and assessments to be made. I would talk too much trying to be comforting when her person arrived. The fur baby would ping-pong between us in the examination room. 

Had she ever seen us together before?

Two people she likes … having no idea we even knew each other .. and neither of us would take her to the parking lot let alone the park. 

Sheeesh!

She groaned I assumed because my waiting-room humor needs work. 

Luckily, the doctor interrupted the banter and we were all relieved to learn that soon our friend would be released with a new medication and instructions for follow-up care. 

After the hopeful news, I said goodbye to my friend and her person, and I slipped out of the exam room. I refused to look back to see her tail stop wagging or her face fall out of its impossibly cute smile. 

It was entirely unfair that SHE wasn’t the first to leave. 

I promise, though, I just went back to work. I didn’t have fun at any dog parks.