How I spent my day off

Hunter didn't make it home last night - I got caught in a traffic snarl as I headed out of town. People were bailing off the highway and there was gridlock as far as I could see up the road. I knew I could never get all the way out to Palmer before the clinic closed. So I got off the road at my last-chance exit, called them and they kept him overnight.

By early this morning, however, several inches of snow had fallen, more was coming down, roads had not been cleared, and a winter storm advisory was in effect. This was my view for the over four hours' round trip to get the 50 miles to the clinic and back. Very glad I was headed the opposite direction from the morning commuters but still it was unnerving. I have a lot of experience driving in crummy conditions but I never take that for granted. Slow and careful got me there. If I hadn't made it I could have called George and Becky and had them retrieve him but I really wanted him home with me. Had I gone later in the day, I wouldn't have made it at all - an accident with injuries closed the road for three hours. These are the disadvantages to having only one road out of town - what a drag for anyone trying to go north from Anchorage today for the holidays too.

And maybe Hunter is fixed now, and maybe he isn't. (If you are put off by a description of my dog's lower intestinal tract, go away.) Dr. Ron said that he got out all of the sutures that he could find, but there was a track leading to what he is sure were more buried stitches. He also said that the tissue itself - sort of that productive lining at the back end of the operation - was friable and just kind of fell apart. He began to remove that tissue and said he just pursued things as far as he felt he would with his own dog, stopping short of turning it into another more serious operation. Enough may have been removed that with time and meds, Hunter may be able to tolerate whatever is still in there. If he doesn't, it's another surgery and it would begin to compromise the actual structures too. Ron and I were both discouraged.

Got him bundled into the car and back into the nasty weather. Back to Anchorage and ran some errands. Here's a diversion: This is where Hunter tucks himself whenever he's waiting in the car. A 60-lb dog should not be able to fit under the steering column of my tiny car, but he does. Once there, however, he is unable to get out. (PS: May I just point out that this is the most adorable dog ever???) So when I return and open the door, I have to help him get extricated out onto the ground, turn around and get back in the car. This is repeated at every stop, so on a day's outing we go through this perhaps 6-10 times. People look at us funny but I'm used to it. He started doing this about 8-10 months after I first got him. Initially I thought it was because it was a warm summer and he was trying to get out of the heat. I have no idea why he does it really, though I'm sure he feels safe and out of sight from people. But why he doesn't just do it on the passenger's side where there's room, I have no guess.

Not that there was much room on the passenger's side today, and let me hasten to say that under normal conditions my dog is also not surrounded by that many cases of booze. This was my part of the preparations for an expedition northward to the Campbell family cabin at Lake Louise from this Friday through Sunday. I can't wait to get up to that breathtaking spot in the mountains - there'll be a ton of snow up there and just all that winter beauty plus a beautifully built place to stay (with heat! power! satellite TV! propane fridge! everything except plumbing!) will make remote camping awfully luxurious. We'll park at the lodge and snowmachine back to the cabin.

Anyway - back to the day's wrapup. Hunter was feeling punky and climbed onto my bed. He looks pretty pitiful here. I think he was hurting because he didn't protest when I got in bed too, curled up around him and we both slept - I conked out for about three hours and felt a little ill on waking, think I've just been pushing hard for a long time and also the day's tension had rather knocked the stuffin out of me too. It's snowing again and there's no place I need to be until Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, and that's even within two miles walking distance if the roads were bad. So I am content and just glad to be safely back at home with my little boy.