Giving Thanks

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours went well, though we made too much food. We were grateful for our little feast and as happens at Thanksgiving we are still eating it.

The rest of the holiday weekend went so quickly. Friday half the house got picked up on jacks. I've seen houses up on jacks before but not while I was in them. The front part is level now but when you walk though the rooms, it feels crooked. It's amazing how sensitive your feet get.

Saturday was committed to house guests (one a stranger) so mad cleaning ensued and snack and cookie making. That night after they left I cast on for Provincial Waistcoat with some Reynolds Lopi from my friend Lynnette that I had in my stash. The folks on Ravelry weren't kidding. Holey moley, the first two rows of this pattern were definitely hellish. It's knitting along nicely now with tons of markers:



This morning Wee Winkie came down with horrific pain in his stomach. He was doubled over, shaking, high fever, pale gums, vomiting, diarrhea and generally a scary mess so we took him to a local emergency vet clinic. After an hour and half of bloodwork and x-rays, the vet came to us and asked us if he'd had anything "special" to eat and we told him no -- just his usual dry food with a little wet mixed in. He hung an x-ray up and there in Phoenix' lower intestine and stomach was a tremendous pile of small bones. I absolutely should have been more careful watching them because the neighbors have been known to throw bones and carcasses out before. (In my defense, I have been more focused on it currently being hunting season here.) Blessed sighs of relief and a bit of a joke about it being the Thanksgiving day parade at the clinic and I was off to the knitting/waiting room to wait for our (holy shit) $718 bill.

In the three hours that ensued, I witnessed:

A young couple who brought a mini poodle in who had eaten rat poison that they put down in their house to kill mice. The young man informed me he still intended to use the stuff, even though it will take more than a month for the dog's body to get the poison out of its system (with medical treatment).

A woman whose dog was not able to eliminate in 24 hours and in fact could not stand on his feet. She fed him twice anyway and then (another holy shit) gave him human Tylenol (though she was careful to measure out the teaspoons by body weight!). Her regular vet was driving home from NYC and informed her by cell phone that he did not think it a good idea that she catheterize the dog herself because dogs are "a little different than humans".

Three separate pet owners who brought their animals to the emergency clinic because they "would not" and/or "could not" take time off to go to their regular vet. These emergencies were things like "he's scratching his face a lot" and "she slept 6 hours straight". I could understand if they were worried about a big bill but believe me, in my humble experience the bill there is WAY more expensive than a regular office visit to the vet.

So my thanks went this weekend to vet techs and vets everywhere. That five and half hour day spent at the clinic was just a tiny window into what their world is really like. And I was able to work on Tom's Spey Valley socks (from Knitting on The Road):



Phoenix is sleeping comfortably. They gave him the dog equivalent of Pepto Bismal and Imodium and on the way home things definitely started to shake up. It was 30 degrees and freezing rain and we had to open the windows all the way home, eyes burning but giggling away.